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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024892709 
 
ANNUAL REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 iAmerican Historical Association 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE YEAR 1918 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 
 VOL. II 
 
 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN B UREN 
 
 EDITED BY JOHN C. FITZPATRICK 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 
 1920 
 
/^^JZ^f^ 
 
 Washington, D. C, Jwne 9, 1919. 
 To the Executive Council of the American Historical Association. 
 
 Gentlemen : In recommending to you for publication the Auto- 
 biography of Martin Van Buren, the Historical Manuscripts Com- 
 mission begs leave to acknowledge the public spirit of Mrs. Smith 
 Thompson Van Buren, of Fishkill, N. Y., who placed this valuable 
 document in the Library of Congress, and the courteous assistance 
 of the Library, which offers a typewritten copy of it supplemented 
 with an introduction and notes prepared by a member of the staff. 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Justin H. Smith, Chairman 
 2 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 The autobiography of Martin Van Buren was presented to the 
 Library of Congress by Mrs. Smith Thompson Van Buren, of Fish- 
 kill, New York, in 1905. At the same time the Van Buren Papers 
 were presented to the Library by Mrs. Smith Thompson Van Buren 
 and Dr. and Mrs. Stuy vesant' Fish Morris, of New York City. A 
 Calendar of the Papers was published by the Library in 1910. 
 
 The Autobiography is the manuscript copy, in seven folio vol- 
 umes (1247 pages), made by Smith Thompson Van Buren, the son 
 and literary executor of the President, from Van Buren's original 
 draft. Portions of Volumes VI and VII are in another hand, and 
 the last fifteen pages of the manuscript have many changes and 
 corrections by Van Buren himself. 
 
 The first two hundred and fifty-nine pages of this copy were 
 edited by Mr. Worthington C. Ford, formerly Chief of the Manu- 
 script Division, Library of Congress. The lettered footnotes are 
 Van Buren's own; the chapter divisions and numbered notes are 
 the editor's. 
 
 The Autobiography is written with engaging frankness, and the 
 insight it affords to the mental processes of a master politician is 
 deeply interesting. Van Buren's desire to be scrupulously fair in 
 his estimates is evident, and, if he did not always succeed, his fail- 
 ures are not discreditable. Though the Autobiography does not 
 compel the revision of established historical' judgments, it yet pre- 
 sents authority for much in our political history hitherto somewhat- 
 conjectural and records political motives and activities of the period 
 in an illuminating and suggestive manner. 
 
 In analyzing men and measures. Van Buren all unconsciously 
 paints a picture of himself and it is a truthful and worthy portrait. 
 It is impossible to read the Autobiography through without greatly 
 regretting that it was not carried beyond the point it reaches^. 
 
 As a contribution to the political history of the United States, its 
 presentation of facts is too valuable to be ignored safely by the 
 conscientious investigator. 
 
 J. C. FiTZPATRICK, 
 
 Assistant Chief, Manuscript Division, 
 
 Library of Congress. 
 3 
 
FOURTEENTH REPORT OF THE HISTOJIICAL MANUSCRIPTS 
 
 COMMISSION 
 
 JuNB 4, 1919 
 
 JUSTIN H. SMITH, Chairman 
 DICE R. ANDERSON GAILLARD HUNT 
 
 Mrs. AMOS G. DRAPER CHARLES H. LINCOLN 
 
 LOGAN ESAREY MILO M* QUAIFE 
 
 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 Edited by JOHN C. FITZPATRICK 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 Villa Falangola 
 
 Sorrento, Jwne 21, 1864- 
 ° At the age of seventy one, and in a foreign land, I commence a sketch 
 of the principal events of my life. I enter upon this work in the hope 
 of being yet able to redeem promises exacted from me by friends on 
 whose judgments and sagacity I have been accustomed to rely. I 
 need not now speak of the extent to which an earlier compliance 
 with their wishes has been prevented by an unaffected diffidence to 
 assume that the scenes, of which they desire to perpetuate the mem- 
 ory, will be found to possess sufficient interest to justify such a no- 
 tice. That their opinions in regard to that question have not been 
 biased by the partiality of their ardent friendship is hardly to be 
 supposed, yet it ought not, perhaps, to surprise any that they should 
 have thought that not a few of our contemporaries and successors 
 would be interested, and, possibly, the young men of the country 
 benefited, by a true and frank account of the rise and progress of 
 one, who, without the aid of powerful family conmextions, and with 
 but few of the adventitious facilities for the acquisition of political 
 power had been elevated by his Countrymen to ar succession of official 
 trusts, not exceeded, perhaps, either in number, in dignity or in re- 
 sponsibility by any that have ever been committed to the hands of 
 one man — consisting of the respective offices of Surrogate of his 
 County, State Senator, Attorney General of the State of New Yock, 
 Eegent of the University, Member of a Convention to revise the 
 Constitution of the State, Governor of the State, Senator in Con- 
 gress for two terms. Secretary of State of the United States, Minis- 
 ter to England, Vice President, and President of the United States. 
 
 As it is not improbable that much of the solicitude manifested 
 by my friends, in connection with this work, has grown out of 
 their feelings and opinions in regard to transactions of 1840 and 
 1844, in which my interests were supposed to be deeply involved, 
 it may not be amiss that I should say a few words on those sub- 
 jects in advance. 
 
 ° AIS. l^ook I, p. 1. 
 
8 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The Presidential Canvass of 1840, and its attending occurrences, 
 are at this moment, without reasonable doubt, subjects of regret 
 with ninety-nine hundredths of the sober minded and well in- 
 formed people of the United States. No one of that number can 
 now hesitate in believing that the scenes thro' which the Country 
 passed in that great political whirlwind were discreditable to our 
 Institutions and could not fail, if often repeated, to lead to their 
 subversion. Indeed nothing could have better served to justify 
 and strengthen our reliance upon the sober ^econd-thought of our 
 People, than the sense so widely entertained of those transactions 
 as soon as the passions that produced them had subsided, and the 
 fact that no attempt has been since made to revive them. It is the 
 duty of every sincere friend to those Institutions to regard with 
 forbearance whatever took place at a period & under circumstances 
 to so great a degree unfavorable to the diffusion of truth & to a 
 correct appreciation of public measures. 
 
 The defeat of my nomination for re-election in 1844, after it 
 
 had been demanded by Constituencies represented by out of 
 
 (the whole number of Electors of President and Vice Presi- 
 dent) was the result of an intrigue that had its origin exclusively 
 in the Presidential aspirations of individuals, aided at its inception 
 by prejudices, unjust I hope, but such as the long continued exercise 
 of political power seldom, if ever, fails to generate, and only 
 finally made successful by the co-operation of the slave power, 
 subsequently & adroitly brought to the assistance of designs al- 
 ready matured. 
 
 Upon both of these topicks I shall of course have more to say 
 hereafter. For the present, it is sufficient to declare, as I do with 
 entire sincerity that'I have never entertained the thought that a 
 majority of the People designed to deal unjustly with me on either 
 occasion. Errors were doubtless committed on all sides, delusions 
 set on foot which there was not time to dissipate and means, de- 
 signed for good ends, perverted to bad purposes. But neither of 
 these events, important as tl\ey were have ever planted in my breast 
 a single root of bitterness against the People at large, and it affords 
 me equal satisfaction to say that the reconciling influence of Time, 
 with the consciousness that I had already enjoyed a larger share 
 of popular favor than I could think myself entitled to, have brought 
 me to look with complacency, at least, upon the conduct of the in- 
 dividual actors in those stirring scenes. 
 
 My feelings towards a People, with whom I have had so many 
 and such interesting relations are consequently, now, & I trust will 
 continue to be thosei of gratitude and respect. What I may write 
 will not therefore proceed, as is often the case with those whose 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 9 
 
 public career has been abruptly closed, from a wounded spirit, seek- 
 ing' self -vindication, but will, on the contrary be under the control 
 of a judgment which satisfies me that I ought to be, as my feelings 
 lead me to be, at peace with all the world. I have besides imbibed a 
 large share of Mr. Jefferson's repugnance to " provings & f endings 
 of personal character." So strong has this feeling been that it has 
 induced me, over and over again, to wait for the tardy but certain 
 effects of time to vindicate me from unjust censure, when I had 
 the means at my command for the prompt & effectual refutation. 
 
 After abandoning a direct attempt to go on with this work, 
 commenced more than a year ago, I employed some of my leisure 
 moments in the collection of materials. These from the irresolu- 
 tion under which I laboured did not seem to promise results of 
 much value, beyond a temporary relief from the self reproach which 
 was caused by past neglect. Hoping to arrive at a better mood on 
 the course of my travels, I have brought these with me & to them 
 has fortunately been added a complete analysis of the Political 
 History of New York by Judge Hammond, made for me by my 
 much, beloved & lamented son Martin, who had, as I find from his 
 papers, with the affectionate forethought that characterized him, 
 devoted much of °his time to similar occupations in anticipation of 
 my possible wants & wishes. This supplies me with the chrono- 
 logical order of early events, which I have found to be, at this 
 distance from my papers, an indispensable requisite. 
 
 With these scanty preparations, but under the stimulus imparted 
 by high health, the exhilaration of this beautiful situation and 
 salubrious climate in the mountains of Sorrento, and the thought- 
 stirring vicinage of Vesuvius, the promontory of Misenum, the 
 classic Bay of Baiae, the island of Capri, and the exhumed cities 
 of Pompeii and Herculaneum, I have once more determined to 
 overcome that disinclination to mental efforts which has thro' life 
 been miy besetting infirmity, and to enter with spirit upon the ac- 
 complishment of a task, the performance of which I have hitherto 
 had too much reason to regard with feelings of despair. 
 
 My family was from Holland, without a single intermarriage 
 with one of different extraction from the time of the arrival of the 
 first emigrant to that of the marriage of my eldest son, embracing a 
 period of over two centuries and including six generations.^ I spent 
 a few weeks in Holland, after the abrupt close of my brief mission 
 to England in 1832, and was very kindly received by the King, 
 William I. He informed me that a gentleman of my name was at 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 5. 
 
 1 The record of the family of Martin Van Buren has been traced by Frank .T. Conkllng, 
 who published it in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. xxviii, pp. 
 121 and 207. — W. C. F. 
 
10 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 one time Minister of Foreign Affairs under one of his ancestors; 
 that the name was derived from the town of Buren, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Utrecht,^ which was formerly an Earldom, and from 
 which by the marriage of one of his forefathers, he derived one of 
 his present titles — ^that of Count Buren. Of the fact which he sug- 
 gested that my family was from the same stock I have neither knowl- 
 edge or belief, or, I may add concern, nor do I feel any temptation 
 to claim family relationship with a branch of the Van Burens of 
 Holland as the family is literally extinct, even though its head had 
 the honor of connecting her name with that of Nassau.* 
 
 All I know of my ancestors commences with the first emigrant 
 from Holland who came over in 1633, and settled in what is now 
 called Rensselaer County in the State of New York. His son, 
 [Marten], my great Grandfather, moved to Kinderhook and set- 
 tled on lands conveyed to him in 1669, by a Deed in my possession, 
 given pursuant to his father's will by Derick Wessels, of Albany, 
 a distinguished man in his day, as his father's part of a patent 
 granted nominally to Wessels, but for the benefit of his co-pro- 
 prietors.^ He and his son Martin and grand-son Abraham . (my 
 father) lived and died — ^the latter at the advanced age of 82 — on 
 the lands thus acquired. They were all farmers, cultivating the 
 soil themselves for a livelihood, holding respectable positions in 
 society and sustaining throughout unblemished characters. My 
 mother's maiden name was Goes,' a name also favorably known in 
 Dutch annals, and she was regarded by all who knew her as liber- 
 ally endowed with the qualities & virtues that adorn the female 
 character. My father was an unassumdng amiable man who was 
 never known to have an enemy. Utterly devoid of the spirit of 
 
 ' The village of Buren is in the Province of Gelderland. — W. C. F. 
 
 " Finding it in my way on my second visit to Holland in 1854, I paid a visit to the 
 ancient town of Buren. I found it a pleasant little place containing a population of 
 about seven hundred souls. On inquiry I found that there were yet three of the name 
 left & I sent for the eldest. He took me to the place where Castle Buren, as represented 
 on the map, had stood, and showed the ground yet bearing traces of a fortified place & of 
 its appropriate environs. He pointed out ,the lands & houses which had belonged to 
 the Earldom, but which had all been sold by the French during their dominion in Hol- 
 land, and were now occupied, doubtless to their great Improvement, by the owners of 
 the soil. The grounds belonging to the Castle were purchased & are now owned by the 
 Corporation. The family had become extinct & their bones had been within a year, 
 for reasons he assigned, removed from a previous place of interment and reburied within 
 a small yard near the spot where the Castle stood, surrounded by an evergreen hedge, 
 and shaded by a weeping willow In the centre, to the expense of which, he said, the King 
 had contrlbhted liberally. A spot had been reserved for my guide, not he said, as a 
 relation, but as the oldest of the name in the town. 
 
 2 Cornells Maessen, the first of the line, sailed for America in the vessel RertssOf 
 laerswyck In the summer of 1631, bringing his wife, Catalyntje Martense, and a son. 
 Marten. They settled on the Van Renssalaer property at a place called Papsknee, on the 
 east side of the Hudson River, near Greenbush. A generation appears to have been 
 omitted in this account, for the son of Maessen, Marten, did not remove to Kinderhook. 
 The son of Marten, Pieter Martense, removed to that place, and his son. Marten, was 
 the grandfather of the President. — W. C. F. 
 
 " Maria Goes [Hoes] widow of Johannes Van Alen. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIlT VAN BUREN. 11 
 
 accumulation, his property, originally moderate, was gradually re- 
 duced until he could but illy afford to bestow the necessary means 
 upon the education of his children. My advantages, in that re- 
 spect, were therefore limited to those afforded by the village academy 
 & I was at a very early age (I believe not more than fifteen or 
 sixteen), placed in a lawyers office where I remained for several 
 years. It has thro' life been to me a source of regret that I had not 
 pursued the course so often successfully adopted by our New Eng- 
 land young men under like circumstances, — ^that is to spend a por- 
 tion of their time in teaching the lower branches of learning, and, 
 with the 'means thus obtained, to acquire access for themselves to 
 the highest. 
 
 My mind might have lost a portion of its vivacity, in the plodding 
 habits formed by such a course, but it could not have failed to acquire 
 in the elements of strength supplied by a good education much 
 more than it lost. In place of the studies by which I would thus 
 have given employment to an uncommonly active mind I adopted 
 at a very early age the practice of appearing as Counsel before 
 Arbitrators and inferior tribunals and my success was such as 
 to give rise to exaggerated inrpressions that were brought before 
 the public in the course of my after political career. Altho' my 
 mind was in this way severely and usefully disciplined for the 
 examination and discussion of facts, & the practice in that respect 
 was eminently useful, yet the tendency of the course of training was 
 adverse to deep study, and gave an early direction and character 
 to my reading that I was never able to change. Instead of laying 
 up stores of useful knowledge, I read for amusement and trusted 
 to my facility for acquiring necessary information when occasions 
 for its use presented themselves. I was born with a sanguine tem- 
 perament, the mental features of which as described by Dr. Mayo 
 (the well known English Surgeon and author) "are a disposition 
 ardent, hasty and impetuous; the spirits hi^gh and buoyant, a ca- 
 pacity for intellectual exertions of the strongest kind or highest 
 flight, but often capricious and ill sustained," in contradistinction 
 from those of the "mixed or equal temperament" which is, he says, 
 "well disposed towards great and continually renewed exertions." 
 I feel free to say that I have never been able to overcome the tend- 
 encies ascribed to the former. 
 
 How often have I felt the necessity of a regular course of reading 
 to enable me to maintain the reputation I had acquired and to sus- 
 tain me in my conflicts with able and better educated men, and re- 
 solved to enter upon it without further delay ! But ever in a whirl 
 of excitement, and absorbed by the cares attached to the new public 
 stations to which I was successively elevated I was sure to fall back, 
 
12 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 after a few spasmodic efforts, to my old habit of reading light 
 mattfers° to relieve the mind and to raise it out of the ruts in which 
 long thinking on one class of subjects is so apt to sink it, leaving the 
 weightier matters of the law, as well as those that appertained to 
 public affairs to the period when it became indispensable to grapple 
 with them. I am now amazed that with such disadvantages I should 
 have been able to pass through such contests as it has been my lot to 
 encounter with so few discomfitures. Much adroitness was often 
 necessary to avoid appearing in debate until I had been able to 
 make myself master of the subject under discussion. That remark- 
 able man John Randolph, in one of his morbid moods, wrote a series 
 of letters to General Jackson in which he assailed Mr. Calhoun with 
 great severity and at the same time laboured to divert the Greneral 
 from a purpose he attributed to him — that of making me his suc- 
 cessor. These General Jackson, as was his habit in regard to all 
 private letters designed to sow tares between us, sent to me for my 
 perusal : Among many curious and characteristic observations in re- 
 gard to myself he said that in his long experience in public life he 
 had scarcely ever met with a single prominent man less informed 
 than myself upon great questions when they were first pre- 
 sented, or who understood them better when I came to their 
 discussion. I remember well the General's hearty laugh when he 
 heard me subscribe to the justice of the description. Few can have 
 been more entirely indebted for whatever success may at any time 
 have crowned intellectual efforts to uncultivated nature than myself, 
 yet I do not remember the occasion when I succeeded in satisfying 
 my friends that I did not feel that I could have done much better 
 if I had possessed better advantages of Education and study. Hence 
 my resolutions revived at almost every period of my life to become a 
 severe student — resolutions which were frustrated, if not, as the 
 Apostle says of sin, by a war in my members, certainly by one in 
 my unconquerable mental habits. 
 
 I cannot pass from the subject of my early professional career 
 in inferior tribunals without a caution to my young friends, the 
 circumstances of whose start in life may resemble my own, against 
 the adoption of a similar course. The temptation to anticipate pro- 
 fessional fame is a strong one, and my success, humble as it has been, 
 is well calculated to mislead young men of genius and ambition. 
 Whaltever the degree of that success may have been they may be 
 assured that it would have been much greater and more substantial 
 if like many others, who may not have succeeded as well, I had first 
 acquired a sound education and stored my mind with useful knowl- 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 10. 
 
AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MAKTIH VAN BUREN. 13 
 
 edge. After those invaluable objects are substantially accomplished, 
 many advantages may be derived from the practice I pursued; but 
 if those acquisitions do not precede its adoption they will in all 
 probability never be made, 
 
 I was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court in the Fall of 
 1803, and gave my first vote in the ensuing spring in the celeibrated 
 Gubernatorial election between Aaron Burr, and Morgan Lewis. 
 Altho' I had for some time before been entrusted with professional 
 business, and, as a zealous politician, represented my county at the 
 age of nineteen in a District Convention held at Troy, which nom- 
 inated John P. Van Ness for Congress, yet both my professional 
 and political career can only be considered as commenced at this 
 period. The families which had hitherto taken the lead in the 
 politics of my native town were the Van Ness on the Eepublican, 
 and the Van Schaack and the Silvester on the Federal side. They 
 had been opposed to each other, as Whigs and Tories in the Revolu- 
 tion, and they imbibed the prejudices and resentments engendered by 
 Civil War; they had also been arrayed in adverse ranks in all the 
 political divisions that had subsequently arisen, but 'by a remark- 
 able combination of circumstances I was, at my first appearance on 
 the political stage, placed in direct opposition to those influential 
 families and their friends as a united body, and experienced a full 
 share in the intolerance that characterized the times. 
 
 Mr. Silvester,^ in whose office I had been placed as a student, 
 was a just and honorable man. Such was also the character of 
 his venerable father, and indeed of all the members of his family. 
 ° His Uncles, the Van Schaacks, and their numerous connexions, 
 including the widely known and justly respected Peter Van Schaack. 
 were persons of much reputation and distinction. But they were 
 all ardent politicians, and some of them very violent in their feelings. 
 Efforts to divert me from my determined course were not wanting. 
 I will refer to but one of them. After the election of 1798 or '9, 
 when I was between sixteen and seventeen years of age, Elisha 
 Williams, who in the sequel became my principal professional com- 
 petitor, arrived in the village, and announced the success of the fed- 
 eral candidates, of whom Peter Silvester, the father of my instructor 
 and one of the purest men I ever knew, was one. There followed, 
 of course, a gathering of the faithful — ^a firing of cannon and all 
 the usual methods of rejoicing over political success, continuing 
 until night. It was noticed that I did not participate in these 
 expressions, and whilst a collection of choice spirits, (of whom 
 an elder half-brother of mine was one) were drinking their wine 
 and singing "Hail Columbia!" and other patriotic songs in an 
 
 1 Francis Silvester. ° MS. I, p. 15. 
 
14 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 upper room, Cornelius Silvester, a brother of my instructor, a 
 merchant, and a generous, noble hearted man, having observed the 
 state of my feelings, came out and pressed me earnestly to join them. 
 Having declined his invitation, which was given with delicacy and 
 kindness, I retired to his store, where I slept in the absence of his 
 clerk. Some time after midnight I heard a knocking at the door, 
 and on opening it, admitted Mr. Silvester himself. At his instance 
 I returned to my bed, and he placed himself by its side, and for 
 more than an hour occupied himself in presenting the reasons 
 which ought to induce me to adopt the politicks of the Federal 
 party, and solicited me to do so with a degree of earnestness and 
 obvious concern for my welfare which I could not but respect. 
 
 After hearing him out, I replied calmly that I appreciated thor- 
 oughly the kindness of his feelings, and was well satisfied of the 
 purity of his motives, but that my course had been settled after much 
 reflection, and could not be changed. He paused a moment, and then 
 took my hand and said he would never trouble me again on the sub- 
 ject, and would always remain my friend. As was quite natural my 
 insensibility to repeated remonstrances and solicitations and the ac- 
 tive part which I thus early took against them in party politics en- 
 gendered heart burning with all and occasional tho' slight bickerings 
 between Mr. Silvester and myself which rendered my situation dis- 
 agreeable, and determined me to seek another place to complete my 
 studies. Mr. Van Ness succeeded in his election to Congress, married 
 an heiress at Washington, and returned to Kinderhook in high 
 feather. His father, altho' a man of wealth had been disappointed 
 in his son's first progress in life and, being withal a very severe man, 
 had withheld from him all advances not indispensable to his support. 
 So poor were both of us, that When I went to Troy to sustain his 
 nomination, I had to borrow the amount necessary to defray my ex- 
 pences. Being now in very affluent circumstances, and conscious of 
 the increasing embarrassment of my situation in Mr. Silvester's of- 
 fice, he pressed me to enter one of the prominent law offices in the 
 city of New York, and offered to loan me the necessary funds, to be 
 repaid when I was able. I accepted the offer, went to New York, 
 and entered temporarily, the office of his brother William P. Van 
 Ness, intending to look about me before seleicting an office of the 
 character we contemplated. Mr. W. P. Van Ness treated me kindly, 
 and altho' he had but little business, as I found so much the more 
 opportunity for study I remained with.him to the end of my Clerk- 
 ship. It becoming necessary for Mr. Van Ness to advance large sums 
 to relieve estates on which his wife owned mortgages from prior in- 
 cumbrances he was only able to fulfill his promise to m© to the trifling 
 extent of Forty dollars, but tendered his pledge to re-imburse any 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 15 
 
 temporary accommodation I might obtain from other sources; but 
 at this juncture my half brother stepped forward and loaned me all 
 I wanted. The prompt return of the forty dollars to Mr. Van Ness 
 closed our pecuniary relations in advance of the change that soon 
 after took place in those of a personal and political character. 
 
 The war between Colonel Burr, and the Clintonians was, then 
 raging with its greatest severity, and the contest which closed the 
 political career of the former took place in the ensuing spring. 
 Mr. William P. Van Ness carried me occasionally to visit Ck)lonel 
 Burr at Eichmond Hill, and I met him sometimes at Mr. Van 
 Ness's house. He treated me with much attention, and my sym- 
 pathies were excited by his subsequent position. Having entered 
 upon the practice of my profession in my native town, under very 
 favorable circumstances and already acquired the reputation of an 
 active politician, the course I would take in the election became a 
 question of considerable local interest. The relation in which I 
 had stood to the Van Ness family, with my known personal par- 
 tiality for Colonel Burr, created so strong an impression that I 
 would support him, that my friends have often in later years been 
 called upon to defend me agiainst the charge of having been a Burr- 
 ite. In reply to a friendly and very proper letter from -William P. 
 Van Ness I stated to him the grounds upon which I had decided to 
 support the Republican candidate Morgan Lewis. These letters are 
 still among my papers.^ Notwithstanding this, Mr. John P. Van 
 Ness came from Washington to attend the election, and re-opened 
 the matter to me. I explained to him at our first interview the 
 stand I had taken, and the grounds of it. He however continued 
 the discussion for several days, until not finding me disposed to yield, 
 he stopped abruptly in the street, and said, with emphasis, "I see, 
 Sir, that you are determined upon your course." I replied, "Yes, 
 Sir ! I told you so at the beginning." He immediately said " Good 
 morning, Sir ! " with a very grave look and tone, turned on his heel, 
 and walked off. From that moment our friendship terminated, and 
 our social relations even were suspended for nearly twenty years. 
 We encountered each other in the newspapers and at the polls, and 
 when I offered my vote, the first I ever gave, his father, Peter Van 
 Ness, and Peter Van Schaack, who had been, as I have already said, 
 at variance since the Revolution, but were now both ardent sup- 
 porters of Col. Burr, came forward, arm in arm, accompanied by 
 the son of the latter, who, with their approbation, challenged my 
 vote. Altho' the inspectors declared themselves satisfied, I was com- 
 pelled to take the oath prescribed by law — an indignity which at the 
 
 1 WaUam p. Van }iess to Van Buren, 22 Fetruary, 1804, and Van Buren's reply, 13 
 March, 1804. 
 
16 AMEEICAH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 next election I retaliated upon young Van Schaack in a way as 
 technically lawful as his own, but which stung him and his friends 
 too deeply to be soon forgotten. 
 
 Peter Van Ness and Peter Van Schaack, whose combined influence 
 frowned so harshly upon the commencement of my political career 
 were men of no common mark. Judge Van Ness commenced life 
 in the humble but respectable trade of a wheelwright, with very 
 little education, and yet by the force of a strong intellect and an 
 indomitable spirit, h'e raised himself to high positions as well in 
 the government as in the society in which he lived. As early as 
 the French War in 1756, and at the age of nineteen, he commanded 
 a company, by their own choice, and served with them in Canada. 
 He afterwards commanded a Kegiment at the capture of Burgoyne 
 in 1777. He was a prominent member, perhaps the most so, of the 
 Committee of Public Safety for his County, during the Revolu- 
 tionary War, State Senator, Member of the Council of Appoint- 
 ment, Member of the Convention for the Adoption of the Consti- 
 tution, and First Judge of his County, which office he held at the 
 time of his death. He was intolerant in his political opinion and 
 arbitrary in his disposition. The traditions of the neighbourhood, 
 in which he lived and died, abound with anecdotes of his fiery temper 
 and personal courage, and in the epitaph on his tombstone, erected 
 at Lindenwald, forty years after his death, and after the place had 
 been some time mine, he is described by his eldest son. General John 
 P. Van Ness, as " an honest brave man, who feared nothing but his 
 God." My opposition to° his views, which he regarded as a species 
 of treason in a stripling and a member of a family with whom he 
 had been connected at marriage and had been always intimate, pro- 
 duced during the canvass unpleasant collisions between us that made 
 it difficult to treat him with the respect due to his years and posi- 
 tion, and his death occurred too soon after those exciting scenes to 
 give his anger time to subside. In that interval I had but one meet- 
 ing with him, and that under circumstances that I had reason to 
 believe did not aggravate his prejudice. His son William, having 
 been the second of Col. Burr in his duel with Gen. Hamilton, which 
 took place soon after the election-, finding it prudent to leave the 
 city of New York after the result was known came to his father's 
 house at Kinderhook. 
 
 He informed me by a friendly note, of his desire to go to Albany, 
 and to consult with me, before going, in regard to his right to be 
 bailed if he should be arrested there, and for that purpose asked me 
 to call on him at his father's house. Happy in the opportunity thus 
 afforded to shew him that our differences in regard to the election 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 20. 
 
ATJTdBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIW VAN BUREN. 17 
 
 had made none in my friendly feelings towards him I started at 
 once for his father's residence without a thought of the existing rela- 
 tions between the old gentleman and myself. As I approached the 
 porch of the house built and then owned and occupied by Judg'e Van 
 Ness, I perceived that the lower half of the old-fashioned front door 
 which was divided through the middle (a style greatly favored by 
 our Dutch ancestors) was closed, and the upper open, at which the 
 Judge was seated close to and with his back against the lower door, 
 for the benefit of the light, reading a newspaper. Hearing my steps 
 he looked around and perceiving me, instantly resumed his reading 
 in a manner that precluded me from addressing him. The door for 
 esplanatiori, as well as that for entrance, being thus closed upon me, 
 and not feeling disposed to retreat, I seized the knocker which was 
 hanging near his head, and gave it a somewhat emphasized rap, and 
 as I did so I saw a smile upon his countenance of which my position 
 afforded me a profile view. His son answered the summons imme- 
 diately, spoke to his father, (who passed into the drawing room 
 without looking behind him) and opened the door for me. He pro- 
 posed a walk to the neighboring bank of the creek to prevent inter- 
 ruption from visitors. We passed thro' the Hall, and, as we left 
 the house by the back door, he apologized to me for having forgot- 
 ten the relations -between his father and myself, which would have 
 made it more proper for him to come to me. I told him he was not 
 to blame, for, in the pre-occuption of the moment, I had forgotten 
 them myself, but thought the circumstances bid fair to improve our 
 intercourse, and then described the old gentleman's irrepressible 
 amusement at the free use I had made of the knocker. He laughed 
 and said that he had no doubt his father was pleased with the way, 
 so much in character with his own decisive temper, in which I had 
 extricated myself from the embarrassment in which he had placed 
 me. The Judge died in the succeeding month of December, pos- 
 sessed of considerable wealth. The estate on which he had long 
 resided, and on which he was buried, was originally settled by a 
 family who were relations of my father. It was sold at the close 
 of the Eevolutionary War to pay the debts of the then head of -the 
 family, and purchased by the Judge. He devised it to his son 
 William, in whose hands it went thro' a similar process, and was 
 purchased by one of his creditors who sold it to me. In the many 
 alterations and improvements I have made in the house I have pre- 
 served the old double-door, and its knocker, as interesting memorials 
 of my last interview with its orignal owner. 
 
 During my long official , residence at Washington, very courteous 
 relations were maintained with my old friend Gen. John P. Van 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 2 
 
18 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Ness, but he by no means liked my political principles. My course 
 in regard to the currency and particularly in respect to the Banks 
 of the District of Columbia, in one of which he was deeply interested, 
 displeased him so^inuch, as to induce him to come to our county in 
 1840, to speak and electioneer against my re-election. Having, at an 
 early day, obtained my permission to erect a monument over his 
 father's ^ave, he came up for that purpose, not a great while before 
 his death, but with an e\adent resolution that our intercourse should 
 be of the most reserved character. Altho' the business he had in 
 hand would detain him some days, he declined my iuAdtation to stay 
 with me, and, at first, every other advance on my part to facilitate 
 his operations. I notwithstanding directed my people to give him 
 all the assistance he needed, and on the second day he consented to 
 dine with me. He did the same on each succeeding day, and left me 
 when his work was finished with feelings as kind as those which 
 existed at the commencement of our acquaintance. We visited the 
 tomb together on the last day of his stay and he read aloud the 
 inscription on the monument, and when he came to the words com- 
 memorating his father's bravery, wliich I have elsewhere quoted, he 
 turned to me and said emphatically " You, Sir, know that this is 
 true ; " to which I very heartily and sincerely assented. The Gen- 
 eral died shortly afterwards. I did not see him again. I have 
 thought this brief notice due to a gentleman with whom I was at the 
 commencement of my career so closely connected, and who was in 
 every sense a remarkable man. 
 
 Peter Van Schaack was a native of Kinderhook. His family was 
 among its first settlers, and generally independent in their circum- 
 stances. He was a graduate of Columbia College and had every fa- 
 cility afforded him for improvement. Of these he did not fail to 
 avail himself and came to be extensively and justly regarded as a 
 finished scholar as well as a learned Counsellor. Having studied the 
 Common law thoroughly as a science and made himself master of its 
 general principles, their application to particular cases was to him 
 always a matter of pleasant entertainment rather than of labour. A 
 diffidence which he could not overcome prevented him from becoming 
 a successful advocate, but his legal opinions were generally respected. 
 He was through life, excepting the period of the War of the Revolu- 
 tion, the friend and close companion of Jay, Benson, and Sedgwick, 
 but those ties wer« suspended by the course he took in that great 
 struggle. They became prominent and efficient Whigs, while his 
 principles made him a Tory. The correspondence between Mr. Jay 
 and himself, while they stood in that position of antagonism, which 
 is published in a very creditable life of Mr. Van Schaack, written by 
 his son, does high and enduring honor to both parties. He was ban- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 19 
 
 ished, and resided in England until the close of the War. Wlien he 
 returned Mr. Jay met him at the wharf and gave him a cordial and 
 generous reception. He resumed the practice of his profession and 
 in the progress of time became once more united in political principle 
 ■with Gov. Jay and the other friends I have named in the ranks of 
 the federal party. Altho' he occupied an eminent position at the Bar 
 and in Society for half a century following he was never elected to 
 any public office, nor was he to my knowledge ever a candidate for 
 one. He lived in times and in locations which would have been fa- 
 vorable to his election, if he had desired it, but his sight became grad- 
 ually impaired, ending in total blindness. That circumstance and 
 feelings of delicacy connected with his course in the Eevolution kept 
 him out of the Arena, as a candidate, but did not prevent him from 
 being a thorough partisan. 
 
 His prejudices against me in early life were of the rankest kind, 
 but being frequently associated as counsel in important professional 
 business, in which our feelings were deeply enlisted, we came to 
 understand and to like each other bfetter. For a series of years 
 before his death our relations were of a friendly character — politics 
 always excepted. In respect to the latter we never made an ap- 
 proach toward accord, and but a few years before his death, he 
 went, old and blind as he was, to the Polls to vote against me, in 
 my canvass for the office of Governor of. New York, and in favor 
 of a gentleman whom I knew he did not like, personally, half as 
 well as he liked me.^ My faith in the capacity of the miasses of the 
 People of our Country to govern themselves, and in their general 
 integrity in the exercise of that function, was very decided and 
 was more and more strengthened as my intercourse with them ex- 
 tended." Of this he had, to use the mildest term, very little. The 
 limited extent to which his nature would allow him to entertain it 
 was, at an early and critical period, overthrown, and the severe 
 penalties inflicted upon his unbelief, doubtless gave to his feelings 
 in this regard a character of harshness. Differing so widely at the 
 starting point, our views became more divergent at every step we 
 took in politics, as well in regard to men as to measures. On my 
 first return from England I visited Kinderhook, and hearing that 
 he was lying hopelessly ill, I was on the point of starting to see 
 him, when his son came with an invitation from him that I should 
 do so; and I was deeply impressed with the solenmity of the inter- 
 view. I found him lying on a temporary bed in his library, where 
 he desired to die, and where I had so often seen him in the full 
 possession and exercise of hia powerful mental faculties. As soon 
 
 ^Van Buren's opponents were Smith Thompf3on and Solomon Southwick, the latter 
 running on the anti-Masonic ticket. — W. C. F. 
 " MS. I, p. 25. 
 
20 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 as I entered he had himself raised in his bed, extended his hand to 
 me and expressed his satisfaction at seeing me. He said that he 
 was going through his last change, and on my expressing a hope 
 that such might not prove to be the case, he stopped me, and said 
 " No !" he had lived out the full measure of his days, and could not 
 be too thankful that his mental faculties had been preserved till his 
 last moments. It so happened that I had made myself familiar 
 with the place of his residence during his exile in London, and he 
 listened with interest to my description 'of its present condition. 
 He spoke kindly and considerately of the relations that had existed 
 between us, and I was struck with his evident desire to make the 
 civil things his gentlemanly disposition induced him to say con- 
 form strictly to the fact, without reviving unpleasant recollections. 
 In bidding me farewell forever he said " I am happy. Sir, to think 
 that we have always been" — friends he seemed about to add, but, 
 pausing a moment, he continued — " that you always came to see me 
 when you visited KinderhoohP In a day or two I heard that this 
 distinguished man had ceased to live. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 I remained in the practice of the law twenty five years, and until 
 I entered upon the duties of the office of Governor, since which I 
 have never appeared in a professional capacity before any judicial 
 tribunal, comprising from my admission to the present time a 
 period of fifty one years. For my business I was to a marked extent 
 indebted to the publick at large, having received but little from the 
 Mercantile interest or from Corporations, and none from the great 
 landed aristocracies of the country. It was notwithstanding fully 
 equal to my desires and far beyond my most sanguine expectations. 
 I was not worth a shilling when I commenced my professional career. 
 I have never since owed a debt that I could not pay on demand nor 
 known what it is to want money, and I retired from the practice 
 of my profession with me.ans adequate to my own support, and to 
 leave to my children, not large estates, but as much as I think it for 
 their advantage to receive. The cases in which I was employed em- 
 braced not only the ordinary subjects of litigation between man 
 and man in communities like that in which I resided but extended 
 to the most intricate and important causes that arose during the last 
 fifteen or twenty years of my practice. ' In the management of these 
 I was repeatedly associated with and opposed to such men as Richard 
 Harrison, Aaron Burr, Thomas Addis Emmett, Daniel Webster, 
 John Wells, John V. Henry, Peter Van Schaack, Abraham Van 
 Vechten, David B. Ogden, Samuel A. Talcott and Elisha Williams — 
 a galaxy of great lawyers scarcely equalled in the professional ranks 
 of any country. 
 
 Elisha Williams, altho' ten years my senior was my professional 
 antagonist thro' the whole of my professional career. We were for 
 a long succession of years employed in almost every cause that was 
 tried at the Bar of Columbia County, where we both resided, and 
 almost always on opposite sides. We were at the same time promi- 
 nent leaders in our respective political parties, and both warm par- 
 tisans. To the danger of imbibing personal prejudice from these 
 prolific sources was added that which threatened the discharge of 
 adverse duties in cases embittered by the strong personal antipathies 
 of the parties to the litigation ; and yet, with a constant indulgence 
 in what is called loose, and means liberal practice, we never had, to 
 my recollection, a motion before the Court for relief against techni- 
 cal or formal advantages taken on either side. I invariably en- 
 countered him with more apprehension at the Circuits than any of 
 
 21 
 
22 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the great men I have named, and I am sure I speak but the opinion 
 of his professional contemporaries when I say that he was the great- 
 est nisi-privis lawyer of the New York Bar. It seemed scarcely pos- 
 sible to excel his skill in the examination of witnesses or his ad- 
 dresses to the Jury, but with these his ambition seemed satisfied ; for 
 arguments at the Term he was seldom well prepared and far less 
 successful. On closing our last professional concern after my re- 
 tirement he expressed to me by letter his great satisfaction that in 
 a practice so peculiarly exciting as ours had been we had never any 
 cause for personal complaint in our professional proceedings and 
 tendered me assurances of his respect and esteem, feelings which 
 were very cordially reciprocated on my part. 
 
 The briefest sketch of the incidents of such a professional career 
 as mine has been would yet be too long for insertion here, assuming 
 that they would be of suflScient interest so long after their occurence, 
 to justify it. They must therefore, with one or two exceptions, be 
 left to the judicial reports, and to the traditions of the times. The 
 exceptions, as will be seen, have more than, professional relations. 
 
 My emplojnnent as Counsel to contest the title of the Livingston 
 family to the Manor which bears their name, has been a fruitful 
 scource of misrepresentation of both my professional and political 
 conduct, and I will therefore be excused for placing that matter 
 upon its true ground. Did the subject possess no other interest than 
 my own vindication from unmerited aspersions I would, on the prin- 
 ciple by which I am governed in the preparation of this Memoir, 
 pass it by. But a brief and true statement of a matter which has, at 
 intervals for nearly a century produced bitter litigation and violence, 
 making repeated appeals to military aid necessary to the preserva- 
 tion of the public order, and in regard to which the acts of dis- 
 tinguished individuals have been brought in question, cannot be with- 
 out interest. 
 
 Eobert Livingston, in the year 1684, obtained a Patent from 
 the Crown for a strip of Land on the Eastern shore of the 
 North (or Hudson) Eiver, stretching from the Northern to the 
 Southern Boundary of the Manor, as it is now held, and extending 
 into the woods so far as to contain Eighteen Hundred acres, with 
 a reference to monuments at each end of the strip, which are now 
 the North and South bounds of the Patent. A short time after- 
 wards he obtained another Patent for what was then and has ever 
 since been known as Tackkanic (Taghkanie?) Flats lying East of the 
 first Tract, and supposed to contain eight hundred Morghens of 
 land. Both grants contained definite bounds and distinct quantities. 
 In 1686 he obtained a Patent of Confirmation, which recites the two 
 previous Patents, and states that the tracts described in them lie 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 23 
 
 adjacent to each other. This Patent contains apt words granting 
 and confirming to him and to his heirs the. said Tracts of land, 
 therein represented to have been previously granted and now de- 
 scribed by exterior bounds, referring to natural objects, which bounds 
 included the present Manor. In point of fact the lands embraced 
 in the two first Patents lay from eighteen to twenty miles apart 
 from each other, and the intermediate lands constitute the principal 
 part of the present Manor, amounting to some acres, 
 
 whilst the tracts contained in the original Patents amoimt to be- 
 tween three and four thousand. That this representation was the 
 act of the applicant for the Patent and that it was grossly untrue 
 are undeniable facts. They have never been controverted becatise 
 they could not be denied, and there is not the slightest doubt that if 
 the Government at " Home had become apprised of the glaring 
 falsity upon which the Patent of Confirmation was granted, and 
 ' had, within a proper time, instituted proceedings to vacate it, the 
 Patent would have been declared void. Why it was not done, and 
 why this indirect course was originally pursued by Mr. Livingston, 
 and why he did not afterwards apply for and obtain an original 
 Patent not referring to and wholly independent of those which were 
 tainted with the fraud, are questions which will probably never be 
 solved. The regulations in force in regard to the quantity for 
 which grants to individuals were authorized when the first Patents 
 were granted, the footing on which he stood with the Government 
 at the different periods when they were issued, and a natural re- 
 pugnance to an acknowledgment of the original Error may each 
 have had their influence in controlling his course, and there may 
 have been inducements of which we have no knowledge or suspicion. 
 But instead of adopting the course I have referred to, Mr. Liv- 
 ingston made it the business of his life, as it has been that of his 
 heirs, to uphold the tainted title by a succession of acts on the part 
 of the Crown, by its Colonial Government, and on the part of the 
 State Authority after the Eevolution, to strengthen the Patent of 
 Confirmation, and his claim under it. 
 
 The fact of the misrepresentation and the fraud involved in it 
 was open to the tenants, and the ground readily taken that no after 
 acts, bottomed on that original fraud could render the title valid. 
 This state of things gave rise to periodical agitations and repeated 
 outbreaMngs among the tenants from about the year 1760 to the 
 present tilhe; one or more arose before I was bom, one whilst I 
 was a student at law, one whilst I was at the Bar, and one after 
 1 left it. When I was retained by the Committee who represented 
 the Tenants, I gave the main opinion in writing in which I held, 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 30. 
 
24 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 First, that the Patent of 1686 (the first which covered the Manor) 
 was void on account of the fraudulent misrepresentation it con- 
 tained and on which it was founded, and was not made valid by 
 the subsequent Patents which recited it, and- were, in that respect, 
 avowedly designed as Patents of Confirmation only; and Secondly, 
 That the effect of the possession of the claimants under it and of 
 the statutes of limitation in barring the rights of the State was 
 a question of greater difficulty, in regard to which I must not be 
 understood as encouraging them with a prospect of a favorable 
 result. A suit to try titles was brought by Thomas Addis Emmett 
 as Attorney General on behalf of the State, but before it oould 
 be brought to trial, he was displaced from office by a political 
 change, and succeeded by Abraham Van Vechten. The Committee 
 not believing that they could be properly prepared at the first 
 Circuit for which the cause was noticed for trial, in which opinion 
 their counsel, including Mr. Enimett, (whom they had retained 
 after his removal) concurred, and assuming that their wishes for 
 a postponement' until the next Circuit would, under the circum- 
 stances, be respected, took no preparatory steps. These views and 
 wishes were communicated to Mr. Van Vechten, on his arrival at 
 Hudson, who declined to comply with them, and decided to pro- 
 ceed in the trial. The Committee protested against this decision, 
 and refused ta take any part in the investigation. The trial, vir- 
 tually an ex-parte proceeding, resulted in a verdict for the defend- 
 ants. JMo farther steps were taken whilst I was at the Bar, but the 
 matter was, as is well known, subsequently revived and bitterly 
 contested. 
 
 Whilst the proceedings first referred to were going on, I was 
 called upon by Gen. Jacob E. Van Eensselaer, accompanied by Mr. 
 Williams, and informed that a report was in circulation on the 
 Manor, that he had said on the floor of the House of Assembly, in 
 a debate on a petition of the tenants, "that the tenants were not 
 fit to govern themselves, and deserved to have a Master" — ^that 
 this report was/ doing him great injury in the matter of his re- 
 election, and that, as I could not believe that he had said so, he 
 wished me to authorize the Newspaper to contradict the report in 
 my name as the most effectual way of putting it down. I asked 
 him whether he had any suspicion that the report had been in any 
 degree countenanced by me. He replied,—" not the slightest "—that 
 he had fully satisfied himself upon that point. I then told him 
 that he had done me but justice in that regard, that I had never 
 heard of the report before, and had no hesitation in saying to him 
 and to Mr. Williams that I believed him to be a man of too much 
 good sense to make such a remark, and this I thought would be 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREK. 25 
 
 the general opinion. But I added that their press had been for a. 
 long time and was at that, very moment teeming with the most 
 outrageous calumnies against me on tljie same general subject charg- 
 ing me with things which he could not but be satisfied were false, 
 but that I heard of no attempts on his part or that of his friends to 
 check their course; that I would point out the libels to which I 
 alluded, shew him their falsity, if that were necessary, and that the 
 moment I found him interfering in my behalf, as he wished me to 
 do for him, I would with pleasure comply with his wishes; — ^until 
 then I must decline to do so. He refused to connect other matters 
 with his request and was as persistent in making it as I was in de- 
 clining it. He then gave me notice that he would call a meet- 
 ing of, the People of the Manor towns,*on a day and at a place 
 he named, at which meeting he wQuld charge me with writing a 
 letter during the preceding winter (as he had been credibly in- 
 formed was the case) , to a member of the Legislature — Mr. Whal- 
 lon advising him to stave off action on the Tenant's petition until 
 after the Spring elections, with a view to securing the favourable 
 effect on those elections of the pendency of the matter. I assured 
 him that his information was entirely false, and offered to give 
 him a letter, authorizing Mr. Whallon to furnish him with copies 
 of any letters I had written to him, or to obtain copies for him 
 myself. He declined the offer and called his meeting. I sent a 
 messenger to the place with a letter, addressed to the Chairman 
 of the meeting narrating what had taken place between the Gen- 
 eral and myself — giving the fullest contradiction to the revelation 
 he proposed to make, and requesting to have my letter read to the 
 meeting. The Chairman put my communication in his pocket, and 
 allowed Gen. Van Rensselaer to make his statement — without say- 
 ing one word to the meeeting about its receipt or contents. 
 
 When informed of this I published a card in the Newspapers and 
 in Hand bills, denouncing in the strongest terms the falsity of the 
 General's accusations, and called a meeting at the same place for 
 the purpose of making the same denial in person. I gave the Gen- 
 eral notice of the time, place, and object of the meeting with an invi- 
 tation to attend. When my friend Mr. Morell, and myself arrived 
 at the place of meeting we found a very large assemblage of people, 
 and among them General Van Rensselaer, Mr. Williams and several 
 memlbers of the Livingston family and their Agents. As soon as the 
 meeting was organized I rose and stated my object in calling it — 
 submitted to it certified copies of the only letters I had written to 
 Mr. Whallon — denied the charge upon which the General had ar- 
 raigned me before them and called upon him to maintain it if he 
 cpuld. He stood in a remote part of the room, but did not then 
 speak or shew any disposition to do so. After a pause I rose again, 
 
26 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and, repeating what had transpired, claimed that his continued 
 silence must under the circumstances be regarded by the meeting as 
 a confession that his charge was untrue. He then came forward, 
 greatly agitated, and made an earnest appeal to the meeting, which 
 he concluded by pledging himself that if I would commence a suit 
 against him, he would, as the words were not actionable, deposit in 
 Court five hundred dollars, as stipulated damages, to be forfeited if 
 he did not prove the charge. I promised to comply with the sug- 
 gestion, and contented myself with asking the meeting to remember 
 my prediction that the Deposit would never be made. After the 
 close of the Election I called upon him to redeem his promise, when 
 he replied that he had, at the time, limited the period within which 
 the call was to be made, and as that had expired he now declined to 
 make the Deposit; a declaration which the whole assembly before 
 whom his pledge had been given knew to be unfounded. The-pub- 
 lication of our correspondence closed the affair between the General 
 and myself. I also brought a libel suit against the Editor^ of Ihe 
 federal newspaper for a still broader ° and libelous impeachment of 
 my conduct and motives in the Manor controversy. This I ceased 
 to prosecute on the application of Mr. Williams made by a letter in 
 which he disclaimed for the Editor a design to accuse me of any- 
 thing beyond or inconsistent with my professional rights and duties, 
 claiming only that my opinions were wrong and led to injurious 
 results. 
 
 I make these explanations in view of the extent to which these 
 questions between Landlord and Tenant have in later times been 
 made the subject of political agitation — leading to such debauchery 
 of the publick mind as to enable it to hear without apparent shock, 
 of the extension of Executive pardon to persons convicted of the 
 darkest crimes growing out of such agitations, under circumstances 
 justifying deep suspicion of being designed to operate upon their 
 suffrages and the suffrages of their friends. The time has I hope 
 never been when my mind would not have revolted at the mere con- 
 templation of such dealings with such subjects, and I am quite 
 unwilling to have any acts of mine confounded with those we have 
 witnessed in more recent times. 
 
 I am induced to speak of another matter connected with my pro- 
 fessional life because it relates to the only personal dispute I ever 
 had which led to the extremity to which it was pursued. At the 
 Columbia Circuit in the year 181 [?] we brought to a final and 
 favorable decision, so far as i;elat6d to the Courts of law, the long 
 existing controversy in regarfl to the effect of a Patent, in which 
 many of the Dutch families (and mine among them) were inter- 
 
 > Francis Stebblns, editor ot the Northern Whig, published In Hudson. — W. C. P. 
 ° MS. I, p. 35. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 27 
 
 ested, and which Mr. Van Schaack had had under his professional 
 care and management since the year 1772. Being very much dis- 
 satisfied with the testimony of a surveyor, who had formerly been 
 on our side but was now against us, I thought it but fair, as I was 
 entitled to the closing speech, to give him notice of the attack I in- 
 tended to make upon his credibility and the grounds of it, to aiford 
 the opposing Counsel an opportunity of sustaining him. Among 
 the latter was John Suydam, a young gentleman from another 
 county and then rapidly rising in professional fame, and also high 
 in the confidence and esteem of the federal party. When I came to 
 that part of the case he interrupted me and used offensive expres- 
 sions, to which I replied hastily and still more offensively. No 
 farther notice was taken of the matter on that or the next day, but on 
 the third a dinner was given by General Van Eensselaer, at 
 Claverack, to a large party of distinguished gentlemen of the federal 
 party, including Mr. Suydam and also General Harry Livingston, a 
 valorous old gentleman, who owed me much ill will and acknowledged 
 the debt with no more reserve than that with which he strove to pay 
 it. I am far from saying or even believing that the affair between 
 Mr. Suydam and myself was made the subject of particular action 
 at that dinner; but it gave Mr. Suydam a better opportunity than 
 he had yet had to see to what extent I was an eye-sore to the Mag- 
 nates of the County, and exposed him to the temptation of raising 
 himself in their estimation by becoming the instrument of my 
 humiliation. On the succeeding morning I was called from my seat 
 in Court by Thomas P. Grosvenor (who had been one of the guests 
 at the entertainment referred to) and by him presented with a chal- 
 lenge from Mr. Suydam. Mr. Grosvenor was the brother-in-law 
 of Mr. Williams and a man of decided talent and distinction in- pub- 
 lick life: he became afterwards a prominent member of Congress, 
 had a personal affair with Mr. Calhoun, and died at Baltimore. He 
 expressed his desire to accommodate the matter in which I believe 
 he was sincere, as, altho' a man of extreme violence in politics, he was 
 not wanting in generous impulses, and proceeded to state how he 
 thought the affair might be arranged without discredit on either side. 
 T thanked him for his good disposition, but had no difficulty in 
 showing him that the reciprocal declarations he suggested would 
 be directly inconsistent with what I had said of Mr. Suydam, and 
 concluded by telling him that I had no course but to accept the invi- 
 tation, and would give him a formal answer, through my friend Mr. 
 Morell, after the adjournment of the Court. No one entertains a 
 more contemptuous opinion of the bravery of the Duel- field than 
 myself, or holds the practice in less respect, but I deemed it indis- 
 pensable to the maintenance of my position to follow the bad ex- 
 amples which publick opinion had sanctioned if not required. I 
 
28 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 therefore delivered my acceptance to Mr. Morell on my returning 
 from Court. He reported to me the next morning that Mr. Grosve- 
 nor irritated by the incessant remonstrances of his friends against 
 his agency in the affair, had refused to have any intercourse with 
 him upon the subject, and had tendered to him any responsibility 
 that he chose to demand ; that he had then called on Mr. Suydam 
 and offered him my reply which he refused to receive unless it came 
 thro' Mr. Grosvenor. I requested him to see Mr. Suydam imme- 
 diately and to propose to him, in my name, that we should agree 
 to dispense with the farther action of both of our friends and appoint 
 others as the only way in which the difficulty that had arisen could 
 be obviated. He executed the commission and returned with a verbal 
 answer from Mr. Suydam that he could not, under the circumstances, 
 consent to dispense with Mr. Grosvenor's services. I went imme- 
 diately to his hotel and posted him, and the affair finally evaporated 
 in newspaper publications and recognizances to keep the peace.^ For 
 some years there was no intercourse between us, tho' a disposition 
 to restore friendly relations was quite apparent on his part, and at 
 length meeting at dinner, while attending Court in a neighbouring 
 county, and sitting opposite to each other, he asked me to pass the 
 wine which stood before me, and I met the overture with an invita- 
 tion to take a glass with me which he accepted " with pleasure ", and 
 we walked arm-in-arm to the Court house to our mutual gratifica- 
 tion and the astonishment of our friends. He soon after joined our 
 side in politicks, was elected to the [State] Senate as a Democrat, 
 became my zealous friend and supporter and remained so till he 
 died, sincerely lamented by all who knew him, and by none more 
 than myself, as a man of noble impulses, honorable character and 
 decided talent. 
 
 Earnestly engaged in a successful and lucrative practice, I had 
 no desire to be a candidate for an elective office, nor did I become one 
 until the Spring of 1812, when I was forced into that position by 
 circumstances with which I could not deal differently. But from 
 my boyhood I had been a zealous partisan, supporting with all my 
 power the administrations of Jefferson and Madison — ^including the 
 Embargo and other restrictive measures, — ^had acted with the great 
 body of the Republican party in supporting the election of Morgan 
 Lewis against Aaron Burr for Governor, and subsequently that of 
 Daniel D. Tompkins against Governor Lewis ^ for the same office, 
 sustained the prorogation of the Legislature by Governor Tomp- 
 kins on the ground of the use of corrupt means to obtain the charter 
 of the bank of America, and had exerted myself, as far as I could, 
 
 ^ Two notes of this affair are In the Van Buren Papers, November 25, 1811, and 
 February 17, 1812.— W. C. P. 
 a In 1807.— W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN'bURBN. 29 
 
 to arrest the bank mania of the times by which the State was dis- 
 honored and its best interests impaired. It is a curious coincidence 
 in my publick career that notwitlistanding my devotion to politicks, 
 my first nomination for an elective office as well as that for the last 
 I held, should both have been brought about by the unfriendly acts 
 of those who chose to regard themselves as rivals without being, at 
 the moment, anticipated by myself. There were several highly 
 respectable citizens who aspired to the nomination to fill the va- 
 cancy in the office of State Senator which occurred in my District 
 in 1812, but I was not of the number. I was unwilling to permit 
 the possession of such an office or any other cause to interfere with 
 the prosecution of my profession, to which I was warmly attached, 
 and the circumstance that there had not then been so young a man 
 as myself elected to the Senate prevented me from even thinking 
 of it. William P. Van Ness, in whose office I had studied law, was 
 one of the aspirants. He had succeeded to the title and possession 
 of his father's place at Kinderhook Eind Mr. John C. Hogeboom and 
 myself had prevailed upon Governor Tompkins to relieve him, by 
 pardon, from the disfranchisement to which he had become liable 
 as a second of Colonel Burr in the .duel with General Hamilton. 
 He had solicited my support but received for answer that I consid- 
 ered Mr. ° Hogeboom best entitled to the place. To this he assented 
 and assured me that he should do nothing to prevent his selection. 
 Not long afterwards and while Mr. Hogeboom and myself were 
 spending a few days at Albany, we accidentally discovered that Mr. 
 Van Ness (who had accompanied us to the city) was at that mo- 
 ment prosecuting a complicated intrigue to defeat our wishes in the 
 matter — whatever they might be. Indignant at the information we 
 had received, and mortified that in a matter in regard to which, as 
 it proved, neither of us had any personal desires, we should have 
 been thus treated, we immediately started for home determined to 
 defeat the machinations that had been set on foot with so much 
 secrecy and had already been in part executed. On our way from 
 Albany Mr. Hogeboom, for the first time, informed me that the 
 state of his private business would not admit of his being a can- 
 didate, — ^that he had consulted with our friends at Albany, — ^that 
 they all thought it important that I should be in the Senate, and 
 that Mr. De Witt Clinton was particularly desirous that I should 
 be sent. I objected to the proposition for reasons already referred 
 to, with sincerity and earnestness. He entreated me not to come 
 to a final conclusion until'^he could have a full opportunity to place 
 the subject in all its bearings before me, and prevailed upon me 
 to stop at his house for the night that we might talk the matter 
 
 -MS. I, p. 40. 
 
30 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 over more fully. In the course of the evening he informed me more 
 particularly of the views taken of the matter by Mr. Clinton, and 
 remonstrated earnestly against a refusal to comply with the wishes 
 of my frieiids. I agreed to give him a final answer in the morning 
 when, satisfied that there was but one ground on which I could 
 with propriety decline, I informed him that altho' I had not heard 
 so I thought it very probable that Mr. Eobert Jenkins, a highly 
 respected citizen of Hudson, might, if the nomination was to come 
 from that city, desire to have it; that if he did so desire, as I had but 
 recently become a resident of Hudson I could not think of entering 
 into competition with him; that I should on reaching home com- 
 municate to Mr. Jenkins' friends without reserve all that had passed 
 between us, and that if they did not desire the nomination for Mr. 
 Jenkins I would not oppose the wises of my friends, but if they did 
 I must insist on being excused. To this he consented and we parted. 
 On my arrival I found that there also the city delegates had already 
 been chosen and that I had been placed at their head, with three other 
 gentlemen, the particular friends of Mr. E. Jenkins, of whom his 
 brother, Mr. Seth Jenkins, was one. I unmediately asked an in- 
 terview with those gentlemen at my own house, in which I stated 
 to them all that had passed between Mr. Hogeboom and myself — 
 my own disinclination to be a candidate — and my determination to ' 
 refuse the nomination if they desired to bring Mr. Jenkins forward, 
 and I begged them to inform me frankly of their wishes. From their 
 conversation I inferred that I was mistaken in supposing they en- 
 tertained the views I had anticipated, and that they concurred in 
 the opinion of Mr. Hogeboom that I could not refuse to run. Find- 
 ing myself thus committed as I supposed to a contest with Mr. Va^ 
 Ness only for the nomination, I thought it important in view of 
 the transaction at Kinderhook to have the attention of the Party 
 immediately directed to the subject by a call of the Convention. 
 
 Some days after the publication of the Call, Judge Wager, a po- 
 litical friend from the country called at my office and said, " I learn 
 that you intend to have the Senator taken from Hudson " — ^to which 
 I replied, in a tone which under such circumstances gentlemen who 
 suppose themselves referred to usually employ. He responded that I 
 need not speak so modestly as it was not to me but to Robert Jenkins 
 that he referred. I told him that he was mistaken upon that point, 
 as Mr. Jenkins did not wish the nomination, on hearing which he 
 informed me, to my amazement, that my co-delegate Seth Jenkins 
 had within the hour applied to him to support his brother, and 
 had, in reply to a suggestion from him about me, referred to my 
 youth and recent settlement in the city as reasons why I ought 
 not to be selected. Satisfied from the character of my informant 
 
AXTTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BUEEN. 31 
 
 that there could be no mistake on his part I immediately addressed 
 notes to the three gentlemen of the Committee inviting them to 
 meet me in the evening. They came to my house at the time ap- 
 pointed and I repeated to them what had passed at our previous 
 interview, as I have stated it here, and then asked whether my 
 statement was correct. Mr. Seth Jenkins (who was the spokes- 
 man throughout) answered affirmatively, but added that they had 
 not at any time expressed themselves to the effect I had inferred, 
 altho' he freely admitted that my inference from what had been 
 said was, under the circumstances, as right and fair as if they had ex- 
 pressed themselves to that effect in terms. I then mentioned his con- 
 versation on that'day with Judge Wager, my account of which he 
 admitted to be correct. I then asked him with much feeling on 
 what possible ground he could justify himself in treating me in 
 so ungenerous a manner. He replied promptly that he would not 
 attempt to deny that their course had in appearance been both dis- 
 ingenuous and unkind, but he affirmed solemly that it had not 
 proceeded from unfriendly motives, but that they had been con- 
 trolled by circumstances which he might some day explain to me, 
 and placed in a situation that put it out of their power to act 
 otherwise and that they would have no reason to complain of 
 any course I thought proper to take. I replied that they had 
 left me no other choice than to obtain the nomination if in my 
 power, which I should assuredly do, and we parted. The remain- 
 ing members of the Committee were both honorable and upright 
 men, incapable of an unworthy design. Mr. Jenkins had many 
 of the good qualities of his race, but had besides an innate passion 
 for political intrigue, and as I have almost always found to be 
 the case with men subject to that infirmity, was neither skillful 
 in his schemes or successful in their execution. His subsequent ex- 
 planation was that he had entered into an arrangement with Mr. 
 Van Ness that they would combine their strength against me, as- 
 suming that I would, be a candidate, and leave it to the convention 
 to decide between his brother and Van Ness, and that he had been 
 obliged to promise the latter that he would hold no communication 
 with me upon the subject until they met again. But why such 
 an understanding precluded him from saying what would cer- 
 tainly exclude me from the canvass he could never explain without 
 conceding that they were certain of their game, and that they had 
 a farther object, viz; to break down my influence in the county, 
 which he was not willing to admit. 
 
 The contest excited great interest, and the Convention was the 
 most imposing in numbers and character that had ever been held in 
 the county. The republican portion of the Livingston family sup- 
 
32 AMEEICASr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ported Edward [P.] Livingston, and combined their opposition to 
 me with the supporters of Jenkins and Van Ness, each willing that 
 the convention should nominate either of them so that I should be 
 excluded. I was chosen by a majority over all of them on the first 
 ballot. The election was severely contested. The federalists sup- 
 ported Mr. Livingston, who had also a spurious republican nomina- 
 tion. Against me were arrayed the entire federal party, the Lewis- 
 ites, the Burrites, and the supporters of the Bank of America, who 
 had obtained its charter at a previous session of the Legislature, but 
 designed to procure from the next a reduction of the ionus they had 
 been obliged to promise to the State — a project they were well satis- 
 fied would be opposed by me. OujjSenatorial district then embraced 
 a quarter of the State. Mr. Livingston and myself were the only 
 candidates in the field, and I was successful by a majority of less 
 than two hundred, the whole number of votes given being about 
 Forty thousand. Altho' this was the actual result, much delay and 
 many unfavorable reports and contradictions preceded the final an- 
 nunciafion of my political birth and baptism. 
 
 The annual election under the old Constitution took place in the 
 last week of April, and the Sjipreme Court of the State commenced 
 its spring session at the city of New York in the first week of May. 
 Thither flocked' all the leading lawyers of the State, who were, in those 
 days more even than now, also its prominent politicians, bringing 
 with them the results of the elections in their several counties; we 
 had then neither railroads, nor electric telegraphs, and the first week 
 or two of the Term was generally spent in anxious expectation and 
 digestion of election reports. My district was mainly" composed 
 of River Counties, lying on both sides of the North River, and there- 
 fore among the first to be heard from ; still, when I left Hudson to 
 attend the, Term, it was generally conceded that I had been defeated. 
 Wliilst I was arranging my luggage and my papers, my opponents, 
 headed by the leading men of my county, were icelebrating their 
 supposed victory at the Hotel on the opposite side of the street, 
 and when I left my door the most jubilant among them appeared 
 on the piazza and shed upon me, at parting, the light of their beam- 
 ing countenances. On the steamboat I met the well known Ebenezer 
 Foot, an able lawyer and remarkable man of the day, always before 
 that time a Democrat, but then seduced from my side thro' the in- 
 fluence of the Bank, who professed to sympathize with me in my 
 defeat. While passing Catskill I perceived the tall figure of my 
 brother-in-law. Judge Cantine,^ towering above the crowd, and point- 
 ing his finger at a small boat that was maldng towards us. When it 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 45. ' Moses J. Cantine. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 33 
 
 reached us a letter was brought to me containing a canvass of the 
 old republican county of Delaware which shewed that my majority 
 in that county had been understated, and was in fact sufficient to 
 render my election certain. I handed the letter to my sympathizing 
 friend Counsellor Foot, whose countenance, notoriously not hand- 
 some, supplied an amusing commentary upon his recent fondolences. 
 When the steamer arrived, at New York, early on Sunday morning. 
 Judge William W. Van Ness of the Supreme Court, a very distin- 
 guished man, of whom I will have to speak hereafter, and Barent 
 Gardinier, a famous federal member of Congress during the War of 
 1812, were standing arm in arm, on the wharf, and recognizing 
 Thomas J. Oakley on the boat, they hailed him, and demanded to 
 know the result of .the election for Senator in the Middle District. 
 His characteristic reply was that "Van Buren was on board, and 
 they should ask him." The Judge only said " Come Gardinier, let 
 us go," and they walked off withoiit farther question, but meeting 
 afterwards with a citizen of Rockland County, who gave him a can- 
 vass of its election different from the one theretofore conceded to 
 be correct, he came to my lodgings, and asked me what would be 
 the result if Rockland had given the vote he named, to which I re- 
 plied that in that case Mr. Livingston was certainly elected. He 
 gave me the name of his informant and kindly assured me that the 
 information might be relied on. Having received the official Can- 
 vass from the county of Rockland, tlie next morning, I reciprocated 
 Judge Van Ness' polite attention, by enclosing it in a note which 
 was delivered to him, whilst seated on the Bench, by thait great man, 
 in his way. High Constable Hays, and this ended all question on 
 the subject. 
 
 From this period to the expiration of my Presidential Term I 
 occupied, without the intermission of a year, responsible official po- 
 sitions either in the state or federal governments, two thirds of the 
 time in the latter, — positions which made it my duty to take active 
 part in the discussion and settlement of almost every public ques- 
 tion, in conjunction with or in opposition to many of the distin- 
 guished public men of the day. 
 
 It is of those questions, a,nd of the measures produced by them, — 
 of the parts taken in regard to them by myself and by my con- 
 temporaries, with my views of their characters and dispositions, that 
 I propose to speak. I design to state as well how those subjects 
 presented themselves to me at the time, as how far my first impres- 
 sions have been changed or modified by subsequent experience or re- 
 flection. 
 
 I would shew myself unfit for the performance of this task if I 
 were not deeply sensible of the obstacles to its satisfactory execu- 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 3 
 
34 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 tion. To check the indulgence in egotism, to which human nature 
 is so prone, especially when it has the temptation and the excuse 
 of an auto-laiography, so far as to make what is said endurable; to 
 pronounce justly and impartially on matters in which we have been 
 ourselves implicated and to speak with equal truth and candour of 
 contemporaries, whether they have been bound to us by political 
 agreement and personal ties, or separated from us by the lines and 
 perhaps by the asperities of party — are difficult things. My best' 
 efforts will however not be wanting to accomplish these objects, and 
 my confidence in my ability to do so is founded on qualifications 
 of the heart rather than of the mind. My political opponents, at 
 every stage of my public life, have with great unanimity, and with 
 no more than justice, conceded to me a rare exemption from that 
 personal ill will which party differences are apt to engender, nor is 
 my breast now the abiding place of those morbid feelings and ad- 
 hesive prejudices so often cherished by public men who have been 
 thwarted in their career. I feel that I have made efforts in sup- 
 port of right principles which have failed, at times, either of being 
 rightly understood or justly appreciated : a thing that has happened 
 to every man who has aspired to an influence in the State. Yet it 
 would be unjust in me not to admit, as I have elsewhere and always 
 done, that my share of public honors has been greater than I could 
 think myself entitled to by public services. The excess must be 
 credited to the generosity of political friends, seldom very accu- 
 rately proportioned to the merits of their favorites. 
 
 My confidence in the integrity o'f public opinion is at this moment 
 as strong as it ever was, and my heart assures me that there lives not 
 now and has not lived in our country a public man to whom I am 
 not disposed to do justice. I may be mistaken as to facts and con- 
 clusions and I may overrate my ability to be impartial, but no 
 ingenuous mind shall read what I write without acknowledging the 
 purity of my intentions. I claim to be tolerably well acquainted 
 with the workings of the human heart,- and if I am not satisfied at 
 the conclusion that the fruits of my present labours will bear this 
 test, I will destroy them. 
 
 Accounts of personal transactions with delineations of individual 
 peculiarities of mind and manners constitute the usual staple of 
 works of this description. It might seem on first view that in regard 
 to political Memoirs it would afford more interest to explain the 
 nature of the great questions that occupied the public mind, and to 
 re-examine the discussions that grew out of them, during the period 
 embraced by the writer. But such an impression must I think lose 
 its force when it is considered that at the time when such memoirs 
 are usually prepared those questions have generally been finally 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 35 
 
 settled in public opinion, have lost their importance or have been 
 exhausted of their interest by re-iterated argumentation. The apathy 
 and indifference which in such cases succeed to great interest, almost 
 in proportion to its previous intensity, must be familiar to all observ- 
 ing minds. But whilst our concern in public questions is thus, in 
 the nature of things, doomed to die away, it is very different in 
 regard to the conduct and motives of distinguished individuals who 
 took part in them. These seem never to lose their fascination, ajad 
 hence our curiosity is seldom wearied by recitals of events of even 
 little importance, before unknown, in the lives of men who acquired 
 notoriety in their day. Hence also a great part of our interest in 
 accounts of stirring scenes which we know to be fictitious. The most 
 attractive as well as the proper study of mankind is man — ^not only 
 to gratify our curiosity but by instructing us in the nature and dis- 
 positions of our fellow men, to increase our ability to perform well 
 and successfully our own parts in the great drama of life. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 My Senatorial term commenced at a most critical period both of 
 the State and Nation. War had been declared against Great Britain 
 shortly after my election, arid New York, as a frontier State, was 
 destined to bear the brunt of the contest. Her extended frontier, as 
 well by land as by sea, and the defenceless condition of both, cast 
 a heavy responsibility on her Legislature. The Presidential elec- 
 tion was close at hand, and the State had, with great unanimity 
 put one of her most distinguished citizens in nomination for that 
 high office. In addition to these grave matter's, the Bank mania was 
 at its highest point, and the State violently excited by the employ- 
 ment of the most profligate means for its gratification. ■ 
 
 Neither the first nor the last of these subjects could cause me the 
 slightest embarrassment. I had, as a citizen, given my ardent sup- 
 port to the preventive measures recommended by Jefferson and Madi- 
 son, and regarded the declaration of war as a step indispensable to 
 the maintenance of our National honor. No consideration, personal 
 or political, could therefore withhold me from giving my aid to its 
 vigorous prosecution. I was always opposed to the multiplication 
 of banks, and throughout my eight years' service in the State Senate, 
 voted against every application for a bank charter, save one at Buf- 
 falo, the object of which was to aid in repairing the losses sustained 
 by the destruction of that town by the enemy, and justified as being 
 in some sense a war measure. 
 
 Still more hostile to the bank corruptions so prevalent at the time, 
 and against which I had successfully struggled in my election, 
 nothing could be more congenial to my feelings and opinions than a 
 cordial co-operation with all efforts to arrest the increase of banks, 
 and to expose the guilty authors of those corruptions to the execra- 
 tion of the People. 
 
 My course in respect to the Presidential Question was, on the 
 other hand, beset with serious difficulties. Mr. Madison had been 
 nominated for re-election by a majority of the members of Congress 
 — ^(then the usual method of making such nominations) and he was 
 admitted by the Eepublicans, of every sort, to be an honest man and 
 an accomplished Statesman. The Republican members of 'the New 
 York Legislature had, however, before I became a member of that 
 body, as I have already said, with great unanimity, presented Mr. 
 Clinton as the opposing candidate, and had asked and obtained his 
 36 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY of MARflif VAN BtfEEl^r. 3*7 
 
 assent to the proceeding. The impending danger of War,° and a 
 supposed superior capacity on the part of Mr. Clinton to meet such 
 a Crisis were among the reasons assigned for his nomination. To 
 New Yorkers it was urged that the Legislature having placed him 
 in his then position, and no change having taken place save the 
 actual declaration of War, the anticipation of which was one of the 
 main reasons for his nomination, they owed it to their own and his 
 honor to give him the vote of the State. I took my seat in the Senate 
 for the first time at the Extra-session of the Legislature, held for 
 the choice of Presidential Electors, and it was claimed that I stood 
 in a position to which these considerations applied. I yielded to 
 their influence, but did so with undisguised reluctance,^ and with a 
 determination, understood by all, that nothing should prevent me 
 from giving my votes and influence in favor of a vigorous prosecu- 
 tion of the War. Judge Hammond, in his Political History of New 
 York, places my motives upon the true ground.^ That I acted in 
 strict conformity to the wishes o| my immediate constituents there 
 was no doubt, and it is equally true that I conscientiously believed 
 that I was acting in the line of my duty. But now, when the excite- 
 ments of the day have passed away, and personal predilections have 
 lost their influence upon the question, I am free to say that we all 
 committed a great error. The rejection by the People of the Presi- 
 dent who had recommended the War, in the absence of any act to 
 show his incompetency, would have done more injury to the public 
 service than could have been counter-balanced by the alleged supe- 
 rior qualifications of Mr. Clinton for the crisis. This consideration 
 should have induced Governor Clinton to decline the State nomina- 
 tion, after the declaration of War, notwithstanding the ground upon 
 which he had been put forward, and to unite with his friends in the 
 support of Mr. Madison. His failure to do so was fatal to his na- 
 tional aspirations, and many of his friends destroyed their political 
 influence by adding disparagements of the War to their opposition 
 to the candidate by whom its declaration had' been recommended. 
 But I reasoned differently then, or I might perhaps say more cor- 
 rectly, felt differently, for my personal attachment to Mr. Clinton was 
 strong and probably too much influenced my judgment. My course 
 however, although wrong, was thus far entitled to the merit of dis- 
 interestedness of motive, that I embarked in his support without a 
 hope of success. Having heard of some remarks of mine indicative 
 of this state of mind, addressed to a mutual and ardent friend at 
 that very session, he called on me and said : " I hear that you de- 
 spair of the election." I admitted that I had m!ade the observation 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 50. 1 Volume I, 321. — W. C. F. 
 
u 
 
 AMEEICAN HiSTOfelCAL ASSOClAflON. 
 
 to which he alluded, and proceeded to explain my views upon the 
 subject, which were in substance, that after what had taken place in 
 the spring, we had no other course to pursue than to give the vote of 
 the State to him, but that I fully believed it would be unavailing. 
 He then shewed me a calculation very favorable to his election, made 
 by a noted politician, that did not change my opinion though it had 
 evidently produced a strong impression on him. . 
 
 Mr. Clinton had not on account of particular circumstances 
 expected my support. These I will briefly state as they afford an 
 illustration of the danger of acting upon inferences be they ever so 
 p]ausible and the propriety of prompt explanations between political 
 friends. 
 
 Whilst Judge Ambrose Spencer and myself were sitting together, 
 one evening, in the porch of Judge Richardson's house, in Auburn, 
 Cayuga County, (at which place the former was holding a Circuit 
 Court which I was attending as Counsel), our letters Avere brought 
 to us containing news of the death of Attorney General Hildreth.^ 
 The Judge after a moments reflection, turned to me and said — ■" You 
 ought to be Hildreth's successor " — and at once tendered me his sup- 
 port. I thanked him cordially, but expressed an apprehension that 
 there were older members of the profession among our political 
 friends who would think themselves slighted' by the appointment of 
 so young a man. He controverted the supposition with his usual 
 earnestness, and I promised to think of the matter. The Judge and 
 myself were at the time upon very good terms, but in the then 
 scarcely perceptible but still existing division in our party, between 
 himself and the friends of Clinton I ranked among the latter, and 
 I did not like to take a step in the matter suggested by Judge 
 Spencer without consulting Mr. Clinton. On my return home I 
 wrote to Mr. Richard Riker, then a confidential friend of Mr. Clin- 
 ton, informing him of what had passed between the Judge j.nd 
 myself, and requesting him to converse with 'Mr. Clinton and to let 
 me know his opinion upon the subject. I also asked him to say to 
 Mr. Clinton that if he thought I was too young or if he desired the 
 appointment of some other friend he should have no embarrassment 
 about saying so, and might rest assured that I would be perfectly 
 satisfied. Mr. Riker informed me at once that Mr. Clinton was 
 anxiously desirous of my appointment, and asked me to make no 
 objections to having my name placed before the Council of Appoint- 
 ment. An Extra-meeting of that body was called to fill the vacancy 
 in the summer of 1812, and a friend, [Richard Riker] with my con- 
 sent, called on and broached the subject to Alderman Gilbert, a 
 leading member of the Council, and a particular friend of Mr. Clin- 
 
 1 Matthias B. Hildreth, of Johnstown. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BTJREN. 39 
 
 ton.^ My friend found him reserved and indisposed to converse 
 farther on the subject than courtesy required. Inferring from the 
 report of this conversation -that Mr. Clinton had changed his views, 
 I requested my :?riend to return at once and inform Mr. Gilbert that 
 I wished my name to be considered as withdrawn. 
 
 When I saw the appointment of Thomas Addis Enmiet an- 
 Taounced I was confirmed in the correctness of my inference, and 
 from that moment to the meeting of the Legislature for the choice 
 of Electors I received no explanation either from Mr. Clinton or 
 Mr. Eiker. Knowing the friendly relations existing between Mr. 
 Clinton and Mr. Emmet, and sensible of the partiality for him on 
 the part of our Irish citizens, I would at the latest moment have 
 consented to the appointment of Mr. Emmet if Mr. Clinton had 
 informed me of his wishes, but I felt injured by his silence. 
 
 After thei Electors were, chosen, in a manner and with a result 
 very gratifying to him, Mr. Clinton asked me to spend the evening 
 with him. Other visitors were denied admission, and whilst we 
 were at tea he introduced the subject of the appointment to the 
 office of Attorney General, and said he feared that I had thought 
 hardly of him in regard to it. I explained my feelings to him as 
 I have done above, and he then assured me in a very solemn man- 
 ner that he had no agency, direct or indirect, in causing the ap- 
 pointment of Mr. Emmet. He admitted that from Mr. Gilbert's 
 conduct and from the fact that the Council were all his particular 
 friends, I had a right to draw the inferences I had drawn, but 
 that they were nevertheless entirely unfounded. Although bound 
 to believe from this explanation that Mr. Clinton had not himself 
 taken any part in the matter, I could not yet dismiss from my mind 
 the impression that the affair had been so managed by some of 
 his friends as to produce the result without connecting him with it. 
 This subject will again be noticed by me. 
 
 A brief relation of the interior history of a contest which ex- 
 cited great attention and effort at the time, and has never been 
 forgotten in the States may even now, not be without interest. The 
 friends of Mr. Clinton, in whom I confided and with whom I con- 
 sulted, decided at the beginning to avoid throughout any inter- 
 course or arrangement with the federalists in regard to their 
 course. If we could get the vote of the state for him, without 
 entering into or sanctioning a concerted coalition with them he 
 
 1 The members of the Council of Appointment were William W. Gilbert, of the southern ; 
 Johannes Bruyn, of the middle ; Henry Yates, Jun, of the eastern ; and Francis A. Blood- 
 good, of the western districts. " This council was decidedly Clintonian ; but the party 
 decrees having been carried into effect by the preceding council, little remained to be 
 done by this. Such appointments, however as were made, were made in accordance with 
 the wishes and views of Mr. Clinton." Hammond History of Political Parties in the 
 State of New Yorls, I, 304.— W. C. F. 
 
40 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 should have it. If not, the matter should be allowed to shape its 
 own course. All we desired therefore "was to place a ticket of 
 Electors before the joint Convention of the two houses of the Legis- 
 lature, in whole or in part (according" to the action of the Madi- 
 sonians) favorable to Mr. Clinton, and to leave it to the option of 
 the Federalists, without explanation or solicitation, either to vote 
 for it, or to elect their own, if they could, by the aid of the Madi- 
 sonians, or to make themselves a Madisonian ticket and elect that 
 by combining their votes with those of the friends of Mr. Madison. 
 One "of these courses they would be obliged to pursue. We had a 
 majority in the Senate over both Federalists and Madisonians, and 
 of course the power of forming as we pleased one of the tickets to 
 be submitted to the joint convention. The Federalists had a simi- 
 lar preponderance in the lower house, with, of course, like power. 
 
 The. question between us and the Madisonians in regard to the 
 composition of the Republican Ticket could only be settled in Cau- 
 cus, where we had a decided majority over them. The venerable 
 Judge Taylor, always before and soon after again a Clintonian, 
 though now warmly opposed to him, was, on my motion, made 
 Chairman of the Caucus. We offered at once to give them a portion 
 of the ticket equal to their proportion of representatives in the 
 Legislature compared with ours, and to elect the Ticket by our 
 joint vote. This offer was peremptorily and perseveringly refused, 
 and no proposition made in lieu of it that had even a shew of 
 fairness to support it. After a very protracted discussion, and 
 when it had become evident that no equitable compromise could 
 be effected, I moved that an entire Clintonian ticket should be 
 nominated. The Chairman called me to him and asked under 
 great excitement whether I intended to persist in that motion. I 
 replied " Certainly ! unless the Madisonians will accept of a rea- 
 sonable portion of the ticket." Upon this the Veteran put his 
 large brimmed hat that was lying by his side, on his head', rose from 
 the chair without another word to the meeting, called out " Lew ! 
 Boy ! " to his servant, and in a few moments the jingling of his 
 sleigh bells notified us that 'he was on his way home. Judge Hum- 
 phreys, "of Onandaga, was, after a brief pause, called to the chair, 
 and my motion was adopted by a decided majority — after which 
 matters proceeded quietly to their consummation. Two tickets 
 only were before the joint meeting of the two houses, to wit, the 
 Clintonian from the Senate, and the Federal from the House of 
 Assembly; the Madisonian being driven to a choice between them. 
 Many of them voted blank ballots, and some thirty six out of sixty 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 55. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 41 
 
 one (the whole number of their memibers) voted for our ticket and 
 elected it.^ 
 
 Whatever objection may have existed against our support of 
 Mr. Clinton, none can, I think, be made against the manner in which 
 our determined course was carried out. "We acted upon a principle 
 that we believed to be sound, avowed it openly and sustained it 
 firmly. So free were we from intriguing with the Federalists, that 
 no charge or insinuation to that effect has ever been made even 
 against me, whose whole life has been since so closely canvassed 
 for matters of accusation by an untiring throng of opponents. 
 
 The session having been called for the purpose of appointing 
 Electors only, no other business was. done. Altho' the youngest 
 man, and one of the youngest members of the body, I was placed 
 at the head of the Committee to report the answer of the Senate 
 to the Grovemor's Speech, which having been adopted and presented, 
 the Legislature adjourned to the 1st day of January 1813. 
 
 There were occurrences prior in date, but connected with these 
 transactions, which from their relation to distinguished individ- 
 uals and the light they shed upon the private history of the times, 
 are not without interest. A short time before the Extra session, 
 William King, of Maine, an enterprising and not over-scrupulous 
 politician, visited Albany to prevail upon the friends of Mr. Clinton, 
 to withdraw his name from the Canvass. He very naturally ad- 
 dressed himself to Judge Ambrose Spencer, the brother-in-law of Mr. 
 Clinton, and to Jifdge Taylor, an ancient friend and adherent of his 
 family. These gentlemen addressed a letter to Mr. Eiker, advising a 
 compliance with the suggestion of Mr. King. The advice was good 
 but badly received by Mr. Clinton who regarded King as an emissary 
 of the Administration at Washington, sent to tamper with his 
 friends, and became indignant at this evidence of his success. It is 
 quite certain that Mr. Madison knew nothing of the affair, and the 
 mission, most probably, had its origin in Mr. King's passion for in- 
 trigue, stimulated by the hope of increasing his influence with the 
 Administration. 
 
 The "American Citizen" a newspaper then edited by William 
 Lucius Rose, and previously bjr the more famous James Cheetham, 
 after the letter to Riker, commenced a series of pungent and well 
 written attacks upon Judge Spencer, entitled the " Ambrosiad." In 
 these the Judge's early life on ]^is father's farm at Ancram, was, 
 with other matters, lampooned in Mr. Clinton's happiest style. I 
 
 happened to be at the time attending a Term of the Supreme Court 
 
 I ■ — — 
 
 • See Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 321. 
 
 W. C. F. 
 
42 AMERICAN' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 at New York, and lodged at the same house" with the Judge and 
 General John Armstrong, then Secretary of "War under -Madison, 
 who had been Judge Spencer's early and constant friend, and was 
 supposed to have been instrumental in inducing him to secede from ^ 
 the Federal ranks. The General had been quite as constant m his 
 enmity to Mr. Clinton, and was the conceded author of a pamphlet 
 attacking his private character," in which he referred to the " rubric 
 of his countenance " as " indicating the Deity he adored ! " and to his 
 friends as the "Brotherhood of hope"—; a pamphlet that shewed 
 by its talent and bitterness that the pen that had indited the " New- 
 burgh letters " at the close of the Eevolutionary War, had lost none 
 of its pungency or venom. His disposition was eminently pugna- 
 cious, and he did not attempt to conceal either his satisfaction at 
 the rupture between the distinguished brothers-in-law, or his indis- 
 position to appease the quarrel. 
 
 The fourth number of the "Ambrosiad" was announced for the 
 next day. Seeing the extent to which the Judge was annoyed by 
 these provoking Articles, and regretting, in common with most of 
 our political friends, the schism that had arisen between two of our 
 strongest men, I visited Mr. Clinton in the evening in the hope of 
 being able to prevent its appearance. He received me kindly, but 
 was at first very reserved in his conversation. I found no diffi- 
 culty in attributing this unusual circumstance to an apprehension 
 that he had offended me in the affair of the Attorney Generalship, 
 and a consequent belief that I was no longer his friend — an impres- 
 sion doubtless greatly strengthened by the fact of my intimacy with 
 Spencer and Armstrong. I introduced the subject of the Presi- 
 dential election first ; assigned the reasons by which I was influenced, 
 as I have done here, expressed my regret that the Eepublican mem- 
 bers had placed him in the position he occupied, but closed with an 
 avowal of my determination to sustain him in the contest, and to vote 
 for Electors favourable to him. He was evidently both disappointed 
 and gratified by my communication, listened readily to what I had 
 to say upon the subject that occasioned my visit and spoke of it with- 
 out reserve, save only that he professed entire ignorance of the Au- 
 thor of the "Ambrosiad." This I was satisfied he did not expect 
 me to believe. He assured me that I was mistaken as to Judge 
 Spencer's regret at the separation, — ^that he had with his eye open 
 and to subserve his own personal qnds gone into the support of Mr. 
 Madison, and had it not in his power to return. I did not concur 
 in that opinion, but urged strongly the inutility of these attacks upon 
 either supposition, and earnestly invoked his interference for their 
 
 " A popular boarding house kept by Mrs. Keese, on the north corner of Broadway and 
 Wall Streets. 
 
AtTTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 43 
 
 suppression. At this stage of our conversation his friend Preserved 
 Fish, entered, remained a short time, and left us under the impres- 
 sion that we desired to be alone; Mr. Clinton followed him out of 
 the room, and remained out some minutes. On his return I rose 
 to depart when he referred again to the subject, repeating much of 
 what he had said in regard to the state of Judge Spencer's mind, but 
 expressed a hope that Mr. Rose might be induced to suspend the 
 publication of the "Ambrosiad " at least long enough to satisfy me 
 that there was no use in forbearance. He said this in a way that 
 convinced me that he had commissioned Mr. Fish to procure such 
 a suspension. On the following morning there was of course much 
 curiosity to see the "Citizen," and Mr. Ross^ of Newburgh, a State 
 Senator, and a friend toi both Clinton and Spencer went to the 
 Barber's shop — ^that immemorial news market — for that purpose. 
 We were all assembled at breakfast When he returned ° and he was 
 immediately interrogated as to the contents of the "Citizen." He 
 replied that the promised number was not in it, or alluded to. Arm- 
 strong promptly demanded " What is in it ? " and on being told that 
 the paper contained Riker's answer to Judges Spencer and Tay- 
 lor, which was very severe, exclaimed "Ah ! only a change of dish ! 
 Good policy that! Tomorrow we shall have the "Ambrosiad" 
 again!" Upon this Judge Spencer said with emphasis and con- 
 siderable formality that it was quite immaterial whether the abusive 
 article did or did not appear, as Mr. Clinton had already gone too 
 far to make his future course of any consequence in regard to their 
 personal relations. It jiever occurred to me to speak to Mr. Clinton 
 upon the subject during the short period of our subsequent intimacy 
 but I never doubted that some one of the company at the table, which 
 was nmnerous, informed him of Judge Spencer's observation. The 
 suspended number appeared a few days afterwards and was fol- 
 lowed by articles from the same pen, published at Albany as well 
 as New York, in which the Judge's feelings were cruelly lacerated. 
 These were in turn resented by him in verbal denunciations of un- 
 equaled harshness. In this way a furious warfare between them 
 was kept up for about three years disgraceful to their personal re- 
 lations and in the highest degree discreditable to political contro- 
 versy. 
 
 Mr. Madison was elected to the Presidency by a large majority ; a 
 result well calculated to call into vigorous action the energies of the 
 country and to show to the enemy that the War was national. The 
 dispositions of nearly all the Republican members of the Legisla- 
 ture were in favor of aiding the Federal Government in support of 
 the War by all the means in their power. The course of the federal 
 
 1 WiUiam Eosss. "' MS. I, p. 60. 
 
44 AMERICAN- HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOH. 
 
 majority in the House of Asseinbly was, on the other hand, one of 
 uncompromising, and, it isliot too much to say, of reckless opposition. 
 All hopes of peace had disappeared, and the ISTational Government 
 ■was in want of means. State co-operation was the readiest aid that 
 presented itself, and a resolution was offered in the Senate, propos- 
 ing a loan by the State to the JSTational Treasury of half a million of 
 Dollars, which I supported. After a violent debate, in which Morgan 
 Lewis and Erastiis Root took active and honorable parts, it passed 
 the Senate by a party vote, but was rejected by a similar division 
 in the lower House. The same course was pursued by the latter body 
 in respect to every measure of the Senate designed for the support 
 of the War. These differences led to repeated public conferences 
 between the two Houses, in which their respective views were pre- 
 sented by Committees, chosen by the majorities in each, in the pres- 
 ence of multitudes of the People. I was on every occasion a member 
 of the Committee on the part of the Senate ; and although these de-' 
 bates in no instance produced the change of a vote in either House, 
 they exerted a very salutary influence upon the public mind. The 
 feelings of the members, as also of the audience, frequently became 
 highly excited. On one occasion Judge Hager,^ an honest German 
 and Republican Senator from Schoharie, stepped forward, at the 
 close of my speech, and carried away by his feelings, embraced and 
 kissed me, and thanked me in the presence of the two Houses. A 
 Committee of the Republicans of Albany called on me, by appoint- 
 ment the same evening for a copy of my speech for publication, 
 which I could not give them as I had spoken from a few hasty 
 notes and had not time to write it out. 
 
 The Bank of America, which had obtained its charter at the 
 previous session, now applied for a reduction of the ionus it had 
 stipulated to pay to the State. This had purposely been made larger 
 than they could afford to pay to screen the members who voted 
 for the Charter, from the resentments of their constituents. The 
 subject produced a violent debate, and .the failure of the project 
 in the Senate was, for a time, probable. Whilst I was speaking on 
 a motion I had made for its rejection, the Chairman, Mr. Parris,^ 
 fell back on his seat from an attack of vertigo, and the Senate wte 
 forced to adjourn. On the following morning the Senate received 
 information of the death of Chancellor Livingston, with an invita- 
 tion to attend his funeral. This caused an adjournment for two 
 clays, during which time the lobby succeeded in securing votes 
 enough to make the passage of the bill certain.' 
 
 1 Henry I-Iager. — W. C. F. 
 
 2 Daniel Parris. — W. C. F. 
 
 " See Hammond, History of PoUtical Parties in the State of New York, I, S06. — 
 W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIH" VAN BUEEN". 45 
 
 The election of United States Senator, which caused a final 
 political separation between Mr. Clinton and myself was made at 
 this session. I was alarmed by the confidence shewn by the Federal- 
 ists in the election of Kufus King, notwithstanding the Eepublican 
 majority in the Legislature, and was induced to suspect an intrigue 
 between them and a portion of Mr. Clinton's friends to secure the 
 votes of the latter for Mr. King. These gentlemen had voted for 
 the Bank of America, and, to divert public attention from their de- 
 linquency in that regard, were, on all occasions, the loudest in their 
 devotion to Mr. Clinton. Finding them reserved in conversation 
 on the Senatorial question, I called on Mr. Clinton, apprised him 
 of my suspicions and remonstrated earnestly against what I feared 
 would be their course. I urged that the election of Mr. King by 
 their votes would expose his (Mr. C's) friends to the suspicion of 
 having intrigued with the Federalists, and having promised them 
 the Senatorship as a consideration for their votes in his favor for 
 the Presidency, and insisted that we had a right to ask his active 
 interference to protect us against such a result. He concurred with 
 me entirely as to the great impropriety of such a step on the part 
 of any of his friends, assured me in so earnest a manner that my 
 suspicions were unfounded, and promised his attention to the sub- 
 ject so readily, that I returned to my room not only satisfied of 
 my error, but under no small degree of self reproach. To increase 
 the certainty of our getting the votes of all his friends, I made my- 
 self instrumental in securing the nomination of James W. Wilkin 
 as our Candidate, an old friend of Mr. Clinton and the Chairman 
 of the Legislative Convention by which he had been nominated for 
 the Presidency. At the viva-voce nomination in each House every 
 Republican member then acting with the party named Mr. Wilkin, 
 and he received a majority of the entire Legislature. The House 
 having a majority of Federalists nominated Mr. King and the 
 Senate Mr. Wilkin. When the balloting commenced in joint-meet- 
 ing, Euggles Hubbard a Senator, and always an enthusiastic friend 
 of Mr. Clinton, asked me to write his ballot and to accompany him 
 to the Chair to see him deposit it in the box. Supposing him to be 
 influenced by the suspicions entertained by myself, I assured him 
 that they were groundless, and that all would be right. He shook 
 his head, and said " I ask you but a small favor and I hope you 
 will not refuse to grant it." 
 
 Moved by the earnestness of his manner I wrote his ballot and 
 saw him put it in the box. When the ballots were counted it ap- 
 peared that Gen. Wilkin was defeated. There was immediately a 
 report put in circulation that the few Lewisites in the Legislature 
 (who put in blank ballots) had voted for King. Knowing the in- 
 
46 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 timacy that had existed between Mr. Hiibbard and the men I origi- 
 nally suspected I was morally certain that they had acted as I 
 feared they would act. When we returned to the Senate chamber, 
 Mr. Clinton approached me and said " I hope you no longer enter- 
 tain the suspicion you spoke of." My reply was " No ! " at which 
 he expressed his satisfaction. I then said gravely, "Mr. Clinton, 
 you must not misunderstand me. My suspicions have become con- 
 victions. I know that the men I pointed out to you have done this 
 deed." He replied, imder evident excitement, that he believed I did 
 them great injustice; and at that moment the Secretary apprised 
 him that they were waiting for him to organize the Senate- He took 
 the chair, inade his Eeport, and adjourned the body.^ 
 
 Nothing further passed between us until the day the evening of 
 which had been appointed for holding the Eepublican caucus for 
 the nomination of candidates for the offices of Governor and Lieu- 
 tenant Governor, when at a brief interview, held at my request, I 
 referred to the business of the evening. He asked what I supposed 
 would be done. I told him an attempt would be made to nominate 
 Judge Taylor in his place as Lieut. Governor. In reply to his en- 
 quiry as to my opinion of the result of such an attempt, I told him 
 that it was my intention, if he did not object, to propose his name 
 for a re-nomination, but that I thought there was reason to fear, 
 from the prevalent feeling in the party, that it would be rejected, 
 upon which he asked quickly whether I would submit to the nomina- 
 tion of Taylor. I answered, as promptly, " Certainly ! ° if it is 
 fairly made." After a moment's pause he bowed respectfully, left 
 me, and resumed the Chair, From that day we never met as polit- 
 ical friends, altho' our personal relations afterwards became familiar 
 and kind and continued so till his death. In the caucus there was a 
 great deal of feeling exhibited; an apparent determination on the 
 part of the majority to vote against his nomination, but, so far as 
 I could see, a general disposition to bring the question to that result 
 without giving unnecessary offense. For some time no one seemed 
 inclined to move in the matter. At length a motion was made for 
 the joint nomination of Tompkins and Taylor, the first for Gov- 
 ernor ajid the last for Lieut-Governor. As the motion was not ac- 
 companied by any remarks I was obliged to introduce the subject 
 myself, which I did in a speech of considerable length which .was 
 listened to with interest and received with kindness. I referred to 
 the dissatisfaction that prevailed in our ranks in consequence of the 
 recent appointment of Senator, admitted that from all I knew on 
 the subject I felt obliged to concur in that sentimept; that I had 
 notwithstanding brought my own mind to the conclusion that it 
 
 > Bee Jjife and Correspondence of Rufus King, V, 291, — W, C. F, ° MS. I, p. 65. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN" VAN BUREN. 47 
 
 would be expedient in view of the condition of the country and of 
 the honorable position that Mr. Clinton had long occupied in the 
 party to tender him a renoniination ; that I would do this under 
 a full conviction that Mr. Clinton would not accept the nomination 
 unless he was sincerely desirous to act with us in the future; that 
 our party was powerful and had always been magnanimous; that 
 I would be gratified if a majority of the meeting should concur with 
 me in these sentiments, but that if I was so unfortunate as to fail 
 in this, I would support cheerfully and heartily the candidate of 
 their choice. I then moved to substitute the name of Mr. Clinton 
 for- that of Judge Taylor. I was followed by the gallant Gen. 
 Leavenworth, of the Assembly, who, tho' a law-partner and warm 
 friend of Gen. Root, who was at that time a leader of the opposi- 
 tion to Clinton, supported my motion in a very impressive speech. 
 He appreciated and applauded the grounds on which I had proposed 
 the re-nomination, and sustained them with a zeal and earnestness 
 that obtained for him credit and a kind reception from all present. 
 My recollection is very distinct of the favorable impression made 
 upon me by the absence of anything like violent attack upon Mr. 
 Clinton. Upon the ballot Mr. Clinton received sixteen votes, and 
 Taylor thirty two. Tompkins and Taylor were then nominated, and 
 a Committee having been appointed to prepare an Address to the 
 People, I was made Chairman and wrote the Address.^ It contained 
 a full review of the matters in controversy between Great Britain 
 and ourselves, and was extensively published at the time and after- 
 wards and very well received by .the public. Judge' Spencer in the 
 warmth and I should add in the excess of his admiration called it 
 a second Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The Federalists nominated Stephen Van Eensselaer for Governor 
 and James Huntington for Lieut. Governor. A number of Mr. 
 Clinton's prominent friends, including such names as those of Gen- 
 erals German and Van Courtlandt came out with an address in 
 which they severely censured the administration of Mr. ^Madison, 
 and protested against the support. of Tompkins. My course on the 
 occasion caused^ a final political separation between my early friend 
 John C. Hogeboom and myself. He was a clear headed and strong 
 minded man, and always an ardent friend of Mr. Clinton, who cor- 
 dially reciprocated his regard. He had taken an early interest in 
 my success, and I fortunately had it in my power to make him ample 
 returns for his friendly offices before his death. We had a warm 
 correspondence upon the subject of supporting Tompkins which 
 ended in a settled difference of opinion. When he saw that I was 
 designated to write the Address, he came to Albany to dissuade me 
 
 iThe autograph draft of this Address Is in the Van Buren Papers in tbe Library of 
 Congress under data of 1813, March. 
 
48 AMEKICAW HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION'. 
 
 from doing so. He insisted that the prominent part I was taking 
 in favor of Tompkins was inconsistent with the friendly relations 
 that had so long existed between Mr. Clinton, himself and myself, 
 and that a proper respect for those relations demanded that my posi- 
 tion, if not that of a Neutral, should at least be one of great reserve. 
 I assured him that neither Mr. Clinton nor himself could feel more 
 strongly than myself in regard to those relations but that I could 
 not allow them to control my action in the way he proposed; that 
 the support of Tompkins was the support of the War — in which 
 cause I was engaged with all my -heart and all my mind, and to which 
 all my energies should be applied regardless of personal conse- 
 quences. Seeing that he could not divert me from the course I had 
 determined to pursue, he left me under great excitement and forth- 
 with commenced a warfare embracing affairs of business as well as 
 politics, that lasted for several years. Family connexion — ^my 
 brother having married his daughter — and his advancing years ulti- 
 mately brought him to a better state of feeling, which I eagerly 
 reciprocated and our personal relations continued thence forward 
 friendly during his life. 
 
 I was well aware of the inconsistency of my offer to support Mr. 
 Clinton for re-election to the office of Lieut. Governor with the con- 
 clusive opinions I then entertained of his course in relation to the 
 appointment of Senator, and with the bad treatment I believed 
 myself to have received from him individually. But lingering at- 
 tachments and the dread of being supposed capable of abandoning 
 an old friend, and a great man in the then depressed state of his 
 political fortunes had, I am free to confess, more influence upon 
 my course than political justice or perhaps, to some extent at least, 
 than a proper self respect. This disinclination to abandon a politi- 
 cal friend in adversity has been with me a prevailing sentiment, and 
 has been strengthened instead of weakened by the prevalence of a 
 contrary disposition on the part of many from whom I had ex- 
 pected better things. I cannot bring my mind to the conclusion that 
 Mr. Clinton himself entered into, or directly sanctioned such an 
 understanding with the Federalists as that I have referred to, but I 
 had at the time no doubt that, in the state of mind to which the 
 loss of the Presidential election had brought him, aggravated by the 
 apparent hopelessness of his ever regaining the confidence of the Re- 
 publican Party, he suffered, by not attempting to prevent it, a suffi- 
 cient number of his friends to deceive the' party with which they 
 professed to act, and to turn the election in favor of Mr. King. Judge 
 Hammond^ thinks that the Clintonian votes for Mr. King were 
 promised to the Federalists by Thomas and Southwick, the agents of 
 
 > Politlcai I-Iistoi-y of New York. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREK. 49 
 
 the Bank of America, to promote the passage of its charter. It is 
 very possible that the Federalists, altho' they would have supported 
 that bill in anyevent, imposed this tribute upon the agents. Thomas 
 was a man of great address, and very unscrupulous. He may have 
 managed the whole affair without letting Mr. Clinton know any- 
 thing about it. The supposition is not in harmony with cotempo- 
 raneous and following events — ^but may notwithstanding be true. In- 
 structed by a subsequent disclosure (applicable also to Mr. Clinton) 
 how easy it is to be mistaken in similar matters, I pass from the 
 subject without expressing or even entertaining a decided opinion 
 in regard to it.'^ 
 
 The election of 1813 fortunately continued in- his place the patri- 
 otic Tompkins but the federalists again succeeded in obtaining a 
 majority in the House of Assembly. We were therefore doomed to 
 struggle thro' another session without the ability to render any essen- 
 tial aid to the public cause. The indecorous violence of their answer 
 to the Governor's speech (then the authentic exponent of party 
 feelings) and of their speeches in support of it, exceeded those of the 
 last session. They perse veringly refused 'to concur in any measure 
 designed to support the war, and the session wore away in unavailing 
 efforts on our part to strengthen the national arm, and in public 
 conferences, in which the People took an increased interest, and 
 which, tho' still fruitless in the Legislature, had a happy effect in 
 preparing the public mind for the election of 1814. The spirit that 
 actuated, our opponents in the Assembly governed also the action of 
 the same party in Congress, and in most if not all the State Legis- 
 latures, but most violently in the Eastern States. There matters 
 were apparently in rapid progress which would tender to the Fed- 
 eral Government the alternative of a discreditable peace or a separa- 
 tion of the Union. It is believed that the subsequent peace alone, 
 the news of which met the agents of the Hartford Convention on 
 their way to Washington, saved that section 'from the full develop- 
 ment of a treasonable design. 
 
 This humiliating state of things was discouraging to the sup- 
 porters of the War, but they did not despair. To remove as far as 
 possible the general gloom, a meeting was called of the members of the 
 Legislature," the Eepublicans of Albany, and those from the country 
 who might then be at the seat of Government. It convened at the 
 Capitol on the evening of April lith 1814, and was well attended, 
 altho' I can never forget the painful anxiety and apparent despond- 
 
 ' Clinton however, did conduct an intrigue with the Federalists in New York and in 
 other states. The story Is told In the memorandum printed in Life and Correspond- 
 ence of Eufus King, V, 264 and subsequent pages. Some additional facts are given in 
 Hammond, History of Political Parties In the State of New York, I, 315. — W. C. F. 
 
 ° MS. I, p. TO. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 4 
 
50 AMEEICAN HISTOEIOAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 ency visible on the countenances of those who composed it. I en- 
 deavoured to revive their spirits and rekindle their confidence in a 
 speech of considerable length. Whilst speaking I was struck with 
 the excited countenance of a stranger to me, wearing a fur cap and 
 not distant from me in the crowd. When I closed, he took off his 
 cap and without moving from his position, made a speech which by 
 the remarkable sweetness of his voice, the grace and ease of his elo- 
 cution, and the sanguine and inspiriting character of his remarks 
 produced a thrilling effect upon the meeting. I soon ascertained 
 that this was Peter E. Livingston, the son-in-law of Chancellor Liv- 
 ingston, who had that evening arrived in Albany as the Chancellor's 
 agent to oppose Governor Ogden's petition to the Legislature. 
 I thanked him heartily for his opportune and effective speech, and 
 have not suffered the favorable impression he made upon me that 
 night to be effaced by his subsequent unfriendly dispositions. As 
 soon as he closed I offered a series of Resolutions, which were passed 
 by acclamation, and the meeting broke up in excellent spirits. 
 
 I give a few brief extracts from the Resolutions to shew the 
 temper of the time, and the plainness of speech by, which it was 
 characterized : 
 
 At this interesting period of our National Affairs, when our government is 
 combating with a wily, vindictive, and sanguinary foe ; when domestic disaffec- 
 tion and foreign partialities present their callous fronts at evei-y corner and 
 when the present hopes and future prospects of the people of New York arc 
 to be tested by the exercise of the elective franchise, — at a period of such 
 anxiety and solicitude this meeting composed of citizens from almost every 
 section of the State take the liberty of publicly expressing their sentiments on 
 the subject. 
 
 That " every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle " — that on 
 the various operations of government with which the public welfare are 
 connected an honest difference of opinion may exist — that when those differ- 
 ences are discussed and the principles of contending parties [sought to be] are 
 supported with candor, fairness and moderation, the very discord which is 
 thus produced, may in a government like ours, be conducive to the public 
 good — we cheerfully admit. 
 
 But that when on the other hand, the opposition clearly evince, that all their 
 clamors are the result of predetermined and immutable hostility that, as 
 between their own government and the open enemies of the land, they dare, 
 as circumstances may require, unblu^ingly justify excuse or x>alliate the 
 conduct of the latter and falsify, calumniate and condemn that of the 
 former; when too in the means which are used to effect siich unhallowed 
 purposes, they are alike indifferent to the sialutary provisions of the Constitu- 
 tion, to the requisitions of national interest, or the obvious dictates of national 
 honor — ^that at such a time it is the duty of every sound patriot, to do his 
 utmost to arrest their guilty career, and to rescue from their aspiring grasp 
 his bleeding country — no good man will deny. 
 . To prove that such has been the conduct, and that such are and have been the 
 views of the party in this country which styles itself Federal— that thei? 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VA'S BUREN. 51 
 
 " history is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations all having for 
 their [direct] object," either the subjection of the rights and interests of their 
 country to her ancient and unceasing foe, or a base prostitution of its fair 
 fame for selfish and ambitious purposes " let facts be submitted to an in- 
 telligent and patriotic people." 
 
 Their opposition for the last thirteen years, has been universal, malignant 
 and unceasing: their opposition was equally virulent when our country was 
 basking in the sunshine of unparalleled prosperity, as it has been while her 
 political horizon has been obscured by the clouds of adversity : 
 
 They opposed the abolition of [direct and] internal taxes when those taxes 
 were rendered unnecessary by the general prosperity of the country : they 
 opposed the imposition of the same taxes when their imposition became 
 necessary to the maintenance of our National honor : 
 
 They opposed -the reduction of the National debt, when the means of its 
 reduction were in the power of the government : they opposed the increase of 
 the national debt, when its increase, or an abandonment of every attribute of 
 a frie people, had become our only alternative: they clamored much on 
 account of the aggressions on our commerce by the belligerents, and their 
 Merchants presented petition after petition, and memorial after memorial, to 
 Congress, that they should vindicate our commercial rights: they have uni- 
 formly calumniated and opposed every measure of the government adopted 
 for their vindication or support: they opposed [and evaded] all commercial 
 restrictions on the ground of their inefficacy, and that war, and war alone 
 was the proper course for government to pursue, and on this subject they 
 triumphantly declared " that the Administration could not be kicked into a 
 war " : they opposed the war when it was declared on the ground that it was 
 impolitic, unjust, and unnecessary: 
 
 They have always claimed to be the friends of order and the constitution, 
 and as such friends of order and the constitution, their opposition to govern- 
 ment, in the prosecution of the present just and necessary war, has been 
 characterized by acts of violence, degeneracy and depravity without a parallel 
 in the history of any civilized government on earth. 
 
 To enumerate the various acts with which the feelings of the American 
 people have been wounded and Insulted, the occasion m'-IU not admit of: Let 
 their most prominent acts therefore, be alone considered. While the [un- 
 divided] combined power of the enemy and his savage allies has been directed 
 against us, and our frontiers drenched with blood of unofCending women and 
 children, the undivided powers of the opposition have been exerted 
 
 To destroy all confidence between the people and their government. 
 
 To misrepresent the latter, and to deceive, distract and cajole the former. 
 
 To deprive the government of the two great sinews of war — men and money : — 
 preventing enlistments by discountenancing and calumniating both officers and 
 soldiers — 
 
 Defeating the necessary loans, by attempting to shake the confidence of the 
 people In the stability of the government : 
 
 To render the war odious and unpopular — 
 
 By the most flagrant perversions of the matters in controversy, and the 
 pretensions of our government ; 
 
 By the most criminal justification of the conduct of the enemy and the 
 vilest extenuation of all their enormities; 
 
 To paralize the arm of the government and frighten the weak and timid 
 from its support — 
 
 By exciting insurrection and rebellion in the east ; 
 
52 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 By openly threatening a dissolution of the union, and laboring incessantly 
 to sow the seeds of Jealousy and disunion between the northern, and southern 
 states ; and 
 
 By exercising in each state the same unworthy means as are practised by 
 them throughout the union. 
 
 For while in this State they profess great solicitude for the sufferings of our 
 citizens on the frontiers ; they have inveterately opposed the raising a volunteer 
 corps for their defence unless under the disgraceful stipulation, — that they 
 shall not annoy the enemy — while also they seek to hide the deformity of their 
 conduct in relation to our army, by professing attachment to the naval service ; 
 we find them opposing, with disgusting violence, a bill to encourage privateer- 
 ing, which passed the Senate of this State, but was negatived by the Assembly, 
 because it had for its object to harass the enemy. 
 
 But we forbear the disgusting enumeration of acts so evincive of a deplorable 
 degeneracy of a great portion of the American people, so well- calculated to 
 continue the war into which our country has been driven — ^to tarnish our 
 national character and (unless successfully resisted) to drive our government 
 to an injurious and disgraceful peace. 
 
 Therefore Resolved, That while we congratulate our fellow citizens on the 
 happy revival of the feelings, sentiments, and spirit of the revolution which is 
 every where manifesting itself; and our republican brethren in particular, on 
 the heart cheering zeal and unanimity which pervades their ranks, which prom- 
 ises the total overthrow of that Antl American spirit which disguised under the 
 specious garb of Federalism, has too long preyed upon the vitals of the nation — 
 which excites a lively hope that the councils of this great and powerful state 
 will speedily be wholly rescued from the hands of those who have disgraced 
 them — 
 
 We warmly and earnestly conjure our Republican brethren, by the regard 
 they have for their own rights; by the love they bear their country, and by the 
 names of the departed worthies of the revolution, to be up and doing, and so to 
 act that at the termination of the contest, each of them may triumphantly 
 exclaim — " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course — I have kept 
 the faith." i 
 
 Daniel Wabneb Cha'n 
 
 P G Childs Sec'ry. 
 
 ' A copy of the Notes and Resolutions of this meeting, together with Van Buren's auto- 
 graph draft of the Resolutions, are In the Van Buren Papers, 1814, April 14. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The election of 1814 which followed in a few weeks was the most 
 important of any ever held in the State, and resulted in the complete 
 humiliation of our opponents by a triumph that gladdened the 
 heart of every patriot in the land. We, for the first time since 
 the declaration of War elected not only a large majority of our 
 Members of Congress, but majorities also in both Houses of the 
 Legislature, and thus secured our ascendancy in every branch of 
 the Government. In the succeeding month of August the enemy 
 captured the city of Washington, burned the Capitol and other 
 public buildings, and drove the President and his Cabinet* from the 
 Seat of Government. The regret occasioned by this event — this 
 desecration of our most consecrated spot by the ruthless tread of 
 hostile steps — was in no small degree relieved by the knowledge 
 that New York had been rescued from the hands of an unrelenting 
 faction, and might now be relied on to furnish efficient aid to the 
 general Cause. 
 
 The attention of the friends of the Country in all directions was 
 therefore turned to Tompkins and the great State over which he 
 presided. He did not disappoint their expectations but called an 
 Extra-Session of the Legislature in the month of August,' and 
 spread before it in an eloquent and patriotic Speech the actual 
 condition of the Country — invoking its aid to support the National 
 Arm. Never did a Legislative body assemble under circumstances 
 of deeper interest, never one more solemnly impressed with a sense 
 of the responsibilities resting upon it, never one more firmly and 
 disinterestedly resolved to discharge all its duties. I was again 
 appointed Chairman of the Conunittee on the Governor's Speech, 
 and reported an answer which was adopted in the senate by acclama- 
 tion and which I insert here. 
 
 The Answer of the Senate to the Speech of His Excellency the Govebnoe. 
 
 Snt, 
 
 The Senate at the close of their last session indulged with your Excellency 
 in the pleasing expectation, that before this period the blessings of peace would 
 have been restored to their country on terms consistent with its honor & 
 IiJterest. They are however by subsequent events reluctantly compelled to bear 
 testimony to the Insincerity of the professions on which those reasonable ex- 
 pectations were founded. 
 
 They have seen the enemy, while indulging in the vain hope that those pro- 
 fessions would lead us into fancied but fatal impressions of security, applying 
 
 » The legislature met September 26, 1814. — W. C. F. 
 
 53 
 
54 AMEKICAW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 his energies to a vigorous prosecution of the war, and they have seen too with 
 regret although not with dismay, that after having thus added duplicity to 
 outrage, he has conducted the contest in a manner in the last degree disgrace- 
 ful to a civilized nation & totally repugnant to the established rules of legiti- 
 mate warfare. 
 
 That he is actuated by the most malignant hostility — that during the present 
 season he contemplated the most extensive injury to the future welfare of oui- 
 beloved country, if not the destruction of its constitution & the consequent 
 prostration of our excellent political institutions — that intoxicated by the re- 
 cent events in Europe which have given to the political complexion of the world 
 a new character, and seduced by his unlimited confidence in the invincibility 
 of his Legions, he fondly, hoped to carry victory into the very heart of the 
 country & by the wide spread desolation which should mark his course to 
 compel the American people if not to acknowledge the legitimacy of his 
 authority at least to recognize & admit the supremacy of his power — must 
 be obvious to all. 
 
 The Senate therefore in common with your excellency and as they hope the 
 whole American people " cannot but exult that thus far we have sustained the 
 shock with firmness & gathered laurels from the strife "■ — that although he 
 has succeeded in penetrating to the Capital & in the conflagrations of the 
 monuments of art with which by the enterprise & public spirit of the nation 
 it had been adorned, his success has before this time been embittered with the 
 reflection that by their blaze he has kindled a flame of patriotism, which 
 prevades every section of the union, by which he has been seriously scorched 
 at Baltimore, & which threatens his compleat annihilation at every assailable 
 point of the union to which his ambition or his resentment may lead him. 
 
 The Senate have witnessed with the same emotions, with the same enthusi- 
 astic admiration evinced by your excellency the brilliant exploits achieved by 
 our army & navy during the present campaign — achievements, which in their 
 consequences have been so immediately & extensively beneficial to our frontier 
 citizens, achievements which will not lose In the comparison with the most 
 gallant efforts of the veterans of the old world— exploits that have pierced the 
 gloom which for a season obscured our political horizon & dispelled the fearful 
 forebodings which past disasters had excited — exploits which have fully main- 
 tained if not enhanced the proud & enviable fame of our gallant tars — ^which 
 • have covered the actors in those bright scenes with never fading laurels and 
 which will until public gratitude ceases to be a public virtue ensure the -highest 
 testimonials which a free people can yield to freemen — ^unceasing reverence for 
 the' memory of those who have died on the field of honor & acts of unceasing 
 gratitude & esteem towards their noble survivors. 
 
 The Senate have seen with great satisfaction the prompt & efficacious meas- 
 ures adopted by your excellency to avert the dangers which impended [?] the 
 State, and believing as they do that whatever excess of executive authority may 
 have been indulged in, it has been not only exclusively intended for the promo- 
 tion of the general good but was moreover rendered indispensible by the im- 
 perious nature of existing circumstances — they cannot doubt but that the acts 
 to which your excellency has referred will be such as to command their appro/ 
 bation & support. 
 
 The Senate cannot forego this opportunity afforded them of uniting with your 
 excellency, in an expression of the high satisfaction with which they have 
 observed the increasing unanimity & noble ardour in our countries cause which 
 pervades almost the whole community. 
 
 That on questions of local policy and the fitness of men for public stations 
 we should ever be exempt from dlfEerences of opinion was not to be expected, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIlsr VAN BTJEEBT. 55 
 
 divisions liketliose are inseparable from tlie blessings of our free constitution 
 and althougli sometimes carryed to excess & made to produce a virulence & 
 malignity which all good men must deplore, they are notwithstanding productive 
 of much national good. But to have supposed that a people jealous of their 
 rights & proud of their national character could, on the question of resisting the 
 aggressions of the open enemies of the land — aggressions which have polluted 
 the soil & which threaten the demolition of those fair fabrics which have been 
 ■consecrated to freedom by the Blood & sufferihgs of their fathers — that on a 
 question of such vital moment, so well calculated to excite all the patriotism, 
 to arouse all the Spirit & to call into vigorous action all the latent energies of 
 the nation — they would long continue to waste their strength in criminal and 
 unprofitable collisions would have been a base libel on their character. 
 
 While therefore the Senate will at. all times do all that in them lies to 
 frustrate the efEorts, to defeat the projects & to expose to public obloquy & 
 reproach the conduct of all those who destitute of that noble love of country 
 which should characterize Americans at this perilous crisis of our affairs, who 
 preferring the Interests of party to those of their country, or actuated by 
 motives more deeply criminal, shall attempt to aid tlie foe by heaping un- 
 founded calumnies on the constituted authorities of the Country, or shall 
 seek to excite distraction & alarm in the councils of the nation or in any 
 other way attempt to paralize the arm of government, yet freely sensible 
 that " every difference of opinion is not a difference in principle " they will 
 on all occasions feel it to be their duty as it is their wish to afford to the 
 meritorious soldier his due reward, without regard to sect or party. 
 
 The great Interest which the State of New York has in the prosecution & 
 termination of the controversy in which our country is involved, the high 
 destiny to which her local situation, the extent of her resources, the liberality 
 of her legislature & the ardor of her sons may lead her, have been duly 
 appreciated by your excellency. The Senate pledge their best exertion to 
 realize those great & well founded expectations and relying on the Justice of 
 our cause for the approvement of a Just God they cannot but flatter them- 
 selves, that in due season the American arms will be crowned with compleat 
 success & the mild reign of peace be restored to our now oppressed & bleeding 
 country.' 
 
 Among the first proceedings was nij introduction of the "Classi- 
 fication Bill" — prepared by myself after full consultation with our 
 friends in both Houses, and let me add, in justice to one who, with 
 a capacity scarcely inferior to any, failed so sadly in the estimation 
 of his Countrymen, after availing myself also of the military expe- 
 rience of Aaron Burr who was then at Albany. This Bill author- 
 ized the Governor to call into actual service Twelve Thousand of the 
 State Militia, to be taken from or recruited by Classes to be formed 
 out of the free white male inhabitants of the State, over the age 
 of 18 years, according to their respective estates, abilities and cir- 
 cumstances. If any Class failed to produce an able bodied man, any 
 member of the class might furnish him, and thereby entitle himself 
 to the sum of Two Hundred Dollars, to be raised by assessment from 
 the whole class, according to the appraisement or valuation ap- 
 
 1 From the autograpli draft by Van Buren In the Van Buren Papers, Library of Con- 
 gress. The speech is printed in the Journal of the New York Senate under date of 
 October 4, 1814, and was presented to the Governor October 5. 
 
56 _ AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 pended to the Enrolment, and if a man was not thus produced the 
 Bill contained other stringent provisions to enable the proper offi- 
 cer to procure him, at the expense of the class in default, upon the 
 same principle. The troops thus raised were to supply to that extent 
 calls by the Federal Government upon the State Militia. The object 
 was not only to improve the character of the aid rendered to the 
 service, under calls for MiHtia, by the superior efficiency of troops 
 thus raised over undisciplined recruits, but also to render the con- 
 tributions of the People to Militia Service more proportionate to 
 their interests and Means that was the case under the then existing 
 law. The Bill proceeded upon the principle that all expenses in- 
 curred, or burdens imposed to preserve domestic order or to 
 repel invasion should be borne as nearly as possible by each 
 citizen proportionately to his interests, pecuniary as well as "per- 
 sonal, in the benefits to be thus secured : in other words to apply to 
 the Militia Service the principle that has always prevailed in regard 
 to the support of the Army and Navy. The Bill excited the indigna- 
 tion of the wealthy classes generally, and particularly of those 
 among them who were opposed to the War, and I was of course 
 grossly abused by their mouth-pieces — so much so that in my own 
 County the federal press advised its readers to withhold the courte- 
 sies of life from so bad a man. On one occasion I was accosted in 
 the street by my great professional antagonist, Elisha Williams, 
 (then a member of the House of Assembly) with this character- 
 istic remark, — "Van Buren, my federal friends are such fools 
 
 as to believe that you are in earnest with your Conscription Bill, 
 and mean to carry it through, and I cannot convince them to the 
 contrary." I told him that his frieTids were right, and that I was 
 surprised to find that they understood me better than he, who ought 
 to know me best. He raised both hands in amazement and replied 
 that he had always regarded me as a man of too much sense to get 
 into such a scrape. 
 
 We fought the Bill through against the violent opposition of the 
 Federalists aided by General Root, who denounced it with great bit- 
 terness.'' His opposition was, however, much more than counterbal- 
 anced by the manly and vigorous support of several of the [Federal- 
 ist?] Senators. General Scott sent a copy of the BUI to Mr. Monroe, 
 then Secretary of War, and it w;as believed to have entered into the 
 composition of a somewhat similar plan that he recommended to 
 Congress.^ Governor Tompkins waited till the regular Winter ses- 
 sion to obtain some amendments necessary to facilitate its execution, 
 
 iThe bill became a law October 24, 1814. — W. C. F. 
 
 ' Monroe's measure may be studied from his " Explanatory observations " and other 
 papers in the State Papers, Military Affairs, I, 515, and In Henry Adams, History of 
 the United States, VIII, 264.— W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY Or MARTIN VAN BUREN. 57 
 
 upon points which, had been overlooked in our anxiety to establish 
 the principle ; I applied at the opening of the session for a Commit- 
 tee, and we were engaged upon the subject when the Express, ar- 
 rived bringing the news of peace. The original draft of the Bill, in 
 my handwriting, is filed among the archives of the Senate, with the 
 following endorsement : — 
 
 The original classification Bill — to be preserved as a Memento of the Patriot- 
 ism, Intelligence and Firmness of the Legislature of 1814^15. 
 
 M. V. Btjeen. 
 Filed, Feb'^ 21" 1815 
 
 The additional results of the active patriotism of the Republican 
 members were Bills to raise the pay of the Militia while in the 
 service of the United States, — to Encourage Privateering — to raise a 
 Corps of Sea fencibles, — and to raise two Eegiments of colored men. 
 These laws were highly approved at Washington, and President 
 Madison, to testify the sense of the national administration of the 
 high stand taken by New York, offered to Governor Tompkins the 
 office of Secretary of State,^ made vacant by [the transfer of James 
 Monroe to the War Department.] 
 
 Although surrounded by difficulties which were calculated to dis- 
 turb the strongest nerves and constantly obliged to jeopard his 
 private fortune by personal responsibilities, indispensably assumed 
 for the public service, and thereby laying the foundation for the de- 
 struction of his future peace of mind, he [Tompkins] declined an 
 appointment which was then regarded as the stepping stone to the 
 Presidency. The reason assigned for his declension was his convic- 
 tion that he could, during the continuance of the War, be of more 
 service to the country in the position of Governor of New York, than 
 in that of Secretary of State. There is no doubt that this was the 
 only consideration that determined his conduct, and it presented an 
 instance of pure and self sacrificing patriotism, rarely equalled and 
 certainly not surpassed by any single act during the War. 
 
 Chancellor Kent objected, in the Council of Revision, to the 
 Classification Bill, the Bill to raise a ° corps of sea-f encibles, and the 
 Bill to encourage Privateering, and delivered an Opinion, which 
 savoured more than was deemed suitable to the occasion of an ap- 
 peal to popular prejudices. My friend Col. Samuel Young, who had 
 commenced his legislative career at the previous session, with much 
 promise, and was now Speaker of the Assembly, answered and suc- 
 cessfully refuted the Chancellor's objections to the Classification 
 Act in one or two able numbers published in the Albany Argus, over 
 the signature of " Jvms consuUus.^' The Chancellor replied over 
 
 1 Offer made September 29, 1814.— W. C. F. " MS. I, p. 75. 
 
58 AMEEICABT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 that of '•'■AndGm iJurimP Col. Young, having confined himself 
 principally to the Classification Bill, I took up the subject of the 
 Chancellor's objections to the Bill to encourage Privateering, over 
 the signature of "Andcm Juris considtus." Finding that he had in- 
 volved himself in a controversy uncongenial with his amiable and 
 generally pacific disposition, the Chancellor retired with a Card, 
 indicative of a sense of discomfiture. This was replied to by Amicus 
 Juris Consuitm, in the same form, and the discussion was closed. 
 
 The Chancellor's second and last number in reply to Juris Oon- 
 sultus appeared on the 28th of November 1814, and concluded with 
 the following sentence; — ^"The public attention appears) now to 
 be properly awakened to the all important merits of our Conscription 
 Policy. I am a great friend to the freedom and utility of public 
 discussion, and I have no doubt it will be found now, as it has in 
 all former times, that a free press is the great guardian of civil 
 Liberty. So fully do I believe in its efiiciency that if the Consti- 
 tuition was subverted and tyranny seated on the throne, 
 surrounded by her sycophants, her parasites, her informers, her 
 guards, her assassins and her executioners, a free press would restore 
 the one and overturn the other." 
 
 The first number of Amiaus Juris Consultus appeared on the next 
 day, and the Chancellors card (which will be found with it), on 
 the second day following. 
 
 1 have deemed the portion of these papers in my possession worthy 
 of preservation, and they accompany this Memoir,^ not on account 
 of their merits, but from higher considerations. The spirit with 
 which the publick mind influenced and supported the legislation 
 referred to, when regarded in connection with the actual position 
 and pretensions of the enemy, afford, I cannot but think, a most 
 gratifying exhibition of the jjharacter of our People under circum- 
 stances more trying than any to which our Country has been ex- 
 posfed since the War of the Revolution. The sacking of Washing- 
 ton — ^that wanton act of barbarity — and the temporary dispersion 
 of the Government, have already been spoken of. These had been 
 followed up by a formal announcement to the President by the 
 British naval Commander on our coast upon pretences of the most 
 unfounded character, that he intended to employ the forces under 
 his direction " in destroying and laying waste such towns and dis- 
 tricts on our coast as might be found assailable."^ By despatches 
 received from our Ministers at Ghent (during the brief Extra-ses- 
 sion at which these laws were-^passed, and this objection interposed) 
 it appears that the demands of the Enemy were as follows : 
 
 ' In the Van Buren Papers under dates of Nov. and Dec. 1814. 
 
 2 Cochrane to Monroe, August 18, 1814 — before the sacking of Washington. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BTJEEN. 59 
 
 , 1st. That their Indian Allies should be embraced in the treaty, and 
 a boundary line between them and us permanently settled, beyond 
 which we should not be permitted to purchase any land, or exercise 
 jurisdiction; and a line was proposed by which the United States 
 would have deprived themselves of the jurisdiction of at least one 
 third of their original territory, including large portions of the 
 population of Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois Territories, and which 
 would also have annulled several Treaties we had made with the 
 Indian Tribes by which the Indian Title to several millions of acres 
 of land had been extinguished ; and this article was declared to be a 
 sine qua non to a Treaty of Peace : 
 
 2d. That the entire military command of the Lakes, from Ontario 
 to Erie, inclusive, in the form of an exclusive right to maintain naval 
 armaments upon them and military Posts on their shores should be 
 secured to Great Britain; the British Commissioners declining to 
 answer, for the present, the question whether this was also to be 
 regarded as a sine qua non for the reason that they had already 
 proposed one article of that character : 
 
 3d. That there should be a cession of as much of the territory of 
 Maine as might be necessary for a direct communication between 
 Halifax and Quebeck : 
 
 4th. That our Fishermen should no longer have the right to dry 
 their fish on the coast of New Foundland ; and 
 
 5th. That a new Boundary should be run between them and us 
 from Lake Superior to the Mississippi.^ 
 
 The indignation excited by these atrocious acts and insolent de- 
 mands was intense, and soon satisfied the enemy that their crimes 
 were also great blunders. It was at this crisis that Rufus King 
 and other distinguished federalists withdrew their opposition 
 to the War, and cast the weight of their influence on the side of 
 their own Country,^ and in our Legislature— hitherto, and still to a 
 great extent, the hot-bed of faction — ^there were not wanting symp- 
 toms of relaxatioSi. 
 
 Col. Benton, in his recent able work, places the subject of the 
 conclusion of peace, without any stipulation of the subject of Im- 
 pressment, upon its true grounds. That question wa^ better dis- 
 posed of than it would have been by any stipulation. We would 
 now regard it as inconsistent with our national honor to ask or 
 receive any promise on that point as the price of peace. The world 
 laiows that any action based upon such pretension in respect to our 
 sailors would be tantamount to a declaration of War. During her 
 recent war with Russia Great Britain has wisely taken a step in 
 
 1 See Henry Adams, History of tbe United States, ix, 17. — W. C. F. 
 
 2 See a memorandum, dated October, 1814, on the policy of the Federalists In the L.ife 
 and Correspondence of Rufus King, V, 422. — W. C. F. 
 
60 AMEKICAN HISTOEICAIi ASSOCIATION'. ~ 
 
 advance upon the general subject of maritime rights,^ and there 
 is no reason to apprehend that any similar questions will ever again 
 be the cause of War between two Nations which have such strong 
 inducements to be at peace. 
 
 Our exemption from further molestation in these respects is one 
 of the results of the War of 1812 and one of the many reasons why 
 that event should be regarded as having been of more advantage 
 to us than any that has occurred since the adoption of the Federal 
 Constitution. 
 
 I cannot allow myself to pass from the subject of the demands of 
 the British Government without congratulating my countrymen on 
 the dignity and immense power that the United States have ac- 
 quired since that day. What nation in the world would now deem 
 it either wise or safe to propose to us such terms as indispensable 
 conditions to a treaty of peace ? Not one. 
 
 The laws to which the Chancellor objected were passed in the 
 Assembly by a vote of nearly three fourths, and, in the Senate, 
 of about two thirds. In addition to this a Resolution passed the 
 Assembly unanimously and was concurred in by the Senate, with 
 equal cordiality, declaring "that the House of Assembly of the 
 State of New York view with mingled emotions of surprise and 
 indignation-^ the extravagant and disgraceful terms proposed by 
 the British Commissioners at Ghent; that however ardently they 
 might desire the restoration of peace to their country, they would 
 never consent to receive it at the sacrifice of National honor and 
 dignity." But it was seen with pain and regret that a very slight 
 portion, if any, of these feelings had reached the breast of the 
 Chancellor, or it would perhaps be nearer the truth to -say, of those 
 by whose counsels his political course was greatly influenced. Ob- 
 jections founded on exclusively constitutional grounds, expressed 
 with moderation, and accompanied by circumstances indicative of 
 regret that official duty prevented a different conclusion, would 
 doubtless have been received in a liberal and indulgent spirit, but 
 the construction and temper of his Opinion closed the door against 
 any such inferences, and the fact, charged at the time and never 
 denied that he furnished a copy for the newspapers, shewed that it 
 originated in a partizan spitit. It was under these circumstances 
 that Col. Young and myself, both young men, then only in the second 
 year of our public service, stepped forward and arraigned the con- 
 duct of the Chancellor at the bar of publick opinion in terms that 
 we would, in a different state of things, have never thought of em- 
 ploying. If anything were wanting besides what appears in the 
 
 'This refers to the declaration adopted in April, 1856, by a congress of several marl- 
 time Powers assembled at Paris. The position of the United States is given in Wharton, 
 Digest of the International Law of the United States, X, 342. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 61 
 
 articles written by me to shew the absence of any personal ill will on 
 my part, it will be abundantly furnished by the following circum- 
 stances. The Chancellor, shortly afterwards, determined to abstain 
 from all participation in party politics, and wrote a letter to that 
 effect to his friend Josiah Ogden Hoffman, which was published. 
 As soon as it appeared I wrote an article for the Argus, the original 
 draft of which is still among my papers,^ and the portion of which 
 relating to this subject was as follows: — 
 
 Mr. BtiEL. — 1 hope you will not fail to lay before your readers the 
 very interesting letter from Chancellor Kent to Mr. Hoffman. It 
 cannot fail to be gratifying to every real friend to the Judiciary. 
 They have witnessed with regret the unceasing attempts which have 
 been for some time making by his Judicial friends to draw him, 
 with them, into all the petty intrigues of a Cabal which keeps the 
 state in commotion, in the hope that if they could not derive a full 
 excuse from his participation, they would at least divide the odium 
 by his community. The determination to withdraw himself from 
 the party dissensions of the day, and to devote his time and atten- 
 tion to the studies and duties of his office, expressed in this letter, is 
 as it should be. His distinguished merits have been a subject of 
 general admiration, and not unfrequently, it is feared, of sinister 
 commendation. It is however but bare justice to him to say that 
 among the list of worthies who have at periods filled our highest 
 Judicial Offices, many of whom have descended to the tomb, accom- 
 panied by the benedictions of their fellow citizens, there has not been 
 one who for spotless purity and exemplary industry in the discharge 
 of his Judicial duties, has excelled the present Chancellor. There is 
 no Equity Tribunal in this Country organized like our Court of 
 Chancery ; not one in which a single Judge ° possesses such extensive 
 powers, and it is a source of just pride and satisfaction, that without 
 subjecting ourselves to the charge of arrogance we can safely chal- 
 lenge a comparison in point of learning, industry and all the quali- 
 ties requisite for a Judge, between the present incumbent and the 
 brightest luminaries of the law throughout the Union. As such his 
 character is the property of the State, and should be guarded against 
 encroachments with the utmost jealousy, and as such too it is doubly 
 important that by his total exclusion from the angry conflicts of 
 party (with which this State is yet, for a season, doomed to be 
 afflicted,) all obstacles to yielding him our united and cheerful ap- 
 plause should be removed ; so that when Virginians, without regard 
 to party, expatiate on the distinguished talents of their Marshall, — 
 when our Eastern brethren dwell with enthusiasm on the memory 
 of their justly celebrated Parsons and boast of the erudition of 
 
 1 Not found among the Van Buren Papers. ° MS. I, p. 80. 
 
62 AMERICAN" HISTORICAl, ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 their Stoet, we too may be able to point to a Judicial character, on 
 which New York reposes her claims to a fair equality with the 
 proudest of her sister States. 
 
 A steady adherence to the resolution contained in this letter is all 
 that is necessary to secure this great End — every thing but that is 
 already done. The Eepublicans of the State do not desire, nor would 
 they approve the active co-operation of the Judges of our superior 
 Courts in those party strifes which our free political institutions 
 must and will produce. The utmost of their wish is to see them 
 " devote their time and attention to the studies and duties of their 
 o-fflcey Let Chancellor Kent therefore persevere in his praise- 
 worthy determination, and at the appointed day when, by the im- 
 perious provision of our Constitution, the high powers which have 
 been delegated to him must be surrendered, he will find that that 
 Party which can neither be intimidated by oppression, seduced by 
 corruption, nor circumvented by artifice, is not wanting in liberality 
 even to political opponents, — ^but there is no class of men who take 
 more pleasure than they in bestowing the unbought and freewill oflFer- 
 ing of their approbation and support upon official merit. 
 
 While passing down the river on the morning after the appear- 
 ance of my Card I met on the steamboat with a very clever lady and 
 devoted friend of the Chancellor, who charged me with cruelty in 
 exciting him to the extent she had herself witnessed that morning; 
 and, which made it worse, she said, he was very far from being my 
 enemy. I replied that she could not herself have seen the Card, 
 she referred to, or a person of her good sense would have perceived 
 that the writer, whoever he might be, was none other than a true 
 friend of the Chancellor. This profession in respect to my own 
 feelings was entirely sincere. From my first acquaintance with him, 
 until his death, I entertained for him sentiments of true esteem and 
 great respect. If it is not a compliment too broad to be paid to any 
 man, considering the frailty of human nature, and the bad influences 
 to which the best are exposed at times, through their passions, I 
 would say that I do not believe that he ever, in his long and honor- 
 able career, did an act, whatever may have been its error, that he at 
 least did not conscientiously think to be right. I was first pre- 
 sented to him on my return home from the city of New York, where 
 I had been studying law, at the Columbian Circuit which he was 
 holding. He was sitting in the shade after the labours of the sum- 
 mer's day surrounded by a group composed of William P. Van 
 Ness, Elisha Williams, Thomas P. Grosvenor, and others, who were 
 greatly excited in consequence of some political occurrence, and 
 were giving vent to their feelings in the severest terms. They retired 
 one after another, and when he and myself were about the only 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUKEN. 63 
 
 persons present he rose from his seat and exclaimed, " Oh ! these poli- 
 ticians ! What trouble and vexation do they not cause ! for myself 
 I have been content to eat my cake in peace," and, tapping me on 
 the shoulder, added — " don't you think that is the wisest course, 
 young man ! " Almost, if not quite the last time I had the pleasure 
 of meeting him, was nearly forty years afterwards in New York 
 and in the street, on my way home from Washington, after the ex- 
 piration of my Presidential Term. He. took both my hands, ex- 
 pressed his great satisfaction in having met me, and insisted on my 
 accompanying him to his house which was near at hand; and on 
 my consenting to do so, he said at once, " I have to ask your pardon, 
 Sir, for the part I have taken in assisting to turn you out, and put- 
 ting a man in your place, who is wholly unfit for it. I pledge you 
 my honor. Sir, that I was then wholly ignorant of the fact, but now 
 I know all about it! You made a very good President; I did not 
 approve of all you did — ^but you did nothing of which either of us 
 has reason to be ashamed ; and we ought not to have turned you out, 
 without placing a more competent man in your place, and in that 
 matter I ^as sadly deceived, and I have, ever since I understood 
 it, desired an opportunity to say to you what I now say ! " I found 
 it impossible to stop him until we had reached his house, when he 
 introduced me to Mrs. Kent, and repeated to her what he had said 
 to me. I spent an agreeable hour with him and parted with a 
 promise on his part that he would paj'' me a visit in the country. 
 
 In my experience of men I have never known three men who 
 received so nearly the same stamp from the hand of Nature as James 
 Madison, Bushrod Washington and James Kent. In the simplicity, 
 sincerity and inoffensiveness of their dispositions they were identi- 
 cal; each owned a delightful cheerfulness of temperament and an 
 unvarying desire to develop that heaven-born quality in others. 
 With a buoyancy of spirits and manners sometimes bordering on 
 levity, they never for a moment hazarded the respect of their friends 
 or of those about them. Mr. Madison's life having been devoted to 
 politicks he was more reserved in regard to public affairs, but upon 
 all other subjects they spoke their sentiments with the simplicity 
 and directness of children. Kent possessed more genius and learning 
 than his brother Judge, but Washington's mind was of a highly 
 respectable order. Mr. Emmet, in speaking to me of Kent, said that 
 he was a learned and able Judge— but a poor Jury-man. The justice 
 of this distinction frequently occurred to me. Elevated to the Bench 
 at an early age, and ardently devoted to domestic life, he had 
 mixed but little with the world and was proportionally disqualified 
 to sift and weigh testimony. This was strikingly exhibited at the 
 commencement of his official duties as Chancellor. .Being obliged in 
 
64 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 most cases to decide both law and fact, and too liable to be led into 
 extremes, by his detestation of fraud, several of his first decrees 
 failed to stand the test of review in the Court for the Correction of 
 Errors. At the first or second Term of that Court, not fewer than 
 six of his Decrees (speaking from memory) were reversed with the 
 concurrence of his former brethren of the Supreme Court. Having 
 occasion to call at his office the next morning on professional busi- 
 ness, he displayed, in my presence, what, in almost any 'other man, 
 would have been regarded as undignified violence of temper and 
 manner, but would not, to one who knew him well, bear any such 
 construction. The reversals of the preceding day having been re- 
 ferred to, he broke out into a mock tirade against the Judges, to the 
 following effect; — ^" They are -unfit for their places, Mr. Van Buren; 
 You know that they are ! Spencer and Van Ness are able enough, 
 but instead of studying their cases they devote their time to poli- 
 ticks! You know that, as well as I do! As to Judge Yates" — 
 raising his hands — ^" I need say nothing ! You should roll Mm back 
 to Schenectady!" (an allusion to Judge Y's personal appearance, 
 borrowed from Mr. Clinton,) — ^"And as to my cousin Platt! He is 
 only fit to be Head Deacon to a Presbyterian Church, and for nothing 
 e1se!"i 
 
 The memories of the older members of the Bar must abound in 
 the recollection of similar ebullitions. On one occasion when I was 
 present at his Chambers, a young attorney was applying for admis- 
 sion as Solicitor in Chancery. Finding (as was very evideriJ;) that 
 he could not bring his case within the rules, he referred to the ad- 
 mission under similar circumstances of an attorney from a neigh- 
 bouring city whose rough manners were notorious. Before he had 
 finished his statement His Honor interrupted him in the following 
 strain — " I deny it ! Sir ! It is not true ! I did not admit him. ! 
 He broke in! How would you keep such a fellow out? — But you 
 are a gentleman, and must not try to imitate such a bad example. 
 Wait till " the proper time and I will admit you with pleasure." At 
 an earlier period he had been holding a tedious Circuit in Columbia, 
 and, on the last day, tried an action for an assault and battery on a 
 
 ' " To tell you the truth, I am discouraged and heartbroken. The judges have pre- 
 vailed on the Court of. Errors to reverse all my best decisions. They have reversed Frost 
 V. Beekman, the Methodist Episcopal Church v, Jacques, Anderson i'. Boyd, and others. 
 After such devastation, what courage ought I to have to study and write elaborate opin- 
 ions? There are but two sides to every case, and I am so unfortunate as always to take 
 the wrong side. I never felt more disgusted with the judges in all my life, and I ex- 
 pressed myself to Judge Platt in a way to mortify and offend him. According to my 
 present feelings and sentiments, I will never consent to publish another opinion, and I 
 have taken and removed out of sight and out of my office into another room my three 
 volumes of Chancery Reports. They were too fearful when standing before my eyes." 
 James Kent to WilUam Johnson, April, 1820. Kent, Memoirs and Letters of James Kent, 
 p. 186.— W. C. F. 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 85. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 65 
 
 negro. It appeared that the negro's conduct had been improper, and 
 the Jury gave him only six cents damages. He had brought an- 
 other suit against another defendant for the same assault that was 
 also on the Calendar, but had been passed. The Plaintiff wished to 
 have it tried at the close of the circuit and the Judge refused, saying 
 that he had had his chance, but on the representation of Plaintiff's 
 counsel that his client was poor and would be liable to heavy costs, the 
 Judge consented, with an admonition to the Counsel that if he did 
 not recover more than six cents in the other cause he would not give 
 him a certificate to entitle him to costs. The Clerk commenced call- 
 ing the Jury, when the Judge looked at his watch and exclaimed, 
 " Stop, Clerk ! I'll be hanged if I will try the other Cause ! The 
 Negro was saucy and deserved to he whiffed! Crier ! adjourn the 
 Court!" 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 5 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The return of peace naturally revived rival aspirations for political 
 distinction which had been in some degree suspended, on the Re- 
 publican side, by the engrossing cares and responsibilities of the War. 
 
 The question in regard to Gen. [Obadiah] German's successor in 
 the Senate of the United States took the lead in our State affairs. 
 The personal and political relations between Judge Spencer and 
 myself had been harmonious during the War; more so than ever 
 before, and, I regret to be obliged to add, than they ever were 
 afterwards. He was exceedingly anxious for the appointment of 
 his old friend Gen. Armstrong, and pressed me with his accus- 
 tomed earnestness to unite in his support. I could not consent to 
 this proposal, but offered at once and with entire sincerity to sup- 
 port the Judge himself. He expressed his gratification at this offer, 
 but declined becoming a Candidate, on the ground that his pur- 
 suits had not been of a character to qualify him for the place; and 
 he did not discontinue his efforts to induce me to go for his friend. At 
 our last interview that took place at his own house and by appoint- 
 ment, he submitted to me a great number of letters received by him 
 from different parts of the state in favor of Gen. Armstrong to re- 
 fute the opinion I had expressed that his efforts in favor of the 
 General might prove a failure. I had, before this interview, come 
 to the conclusion to support Nathan Sanford, of which fact I then 
 apprised the Judge. He was somewhat excited, but received the 
 communication in a much better spirit than was usual with him 
 when his wishes were opposed, repeated his entire confidence in 
 Gen. Armstrong's success, and expressed a hope that our difference 
 would be an amiable one. Understanding his disposition and satis- 
 fied that when he found that he might fail in his design he would 
 not be able to persevere in the liberal feelings he then professed, I 
 deemed it an act of prudence to look out in season for the means 
 of self defense. The Council of Appointment was in those days 
 the only secure citadel of political strength to its possessors, and to 
 that my attention was directed. In regular course Mr. Sanford 
 would be selected for that Council from the Southern District; 
 Ruggles Hubbard was the only Republican Senator from the Eastern 
 District, and must therefore be chosen; with them and my friend 
 Lucas Elmendorff from my own — ^the Middle District — we would 
 have three out of the four members, and might feel ourselves safe 
 from persecution for the act of rebellion we meditated against 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 67 
 
 Judge Spencer's long acknowledged supremacy. These we had 
 the power, to elect, but at the Meeting of the Legislature Mr. San- 
 ford declined a place in the Council, and recommended the selec- 
 tion of Judge [Jonathan] Dayton. By this act Col. Young, one of 
 the most efficient of his supporters, was sacrificed to Spencer's re- 
 sentment, as would have been the case with myself if I had had no 
 other reliance than on Mr. Sanf ord's support. ' Dayton, Elmendorff , 
 Hubbard and Col. [Farrand] Stranahan (a friend of the Judge) 
 were chosen for the Council.^ Judge Spencer continued for a sea- 
 son to support General Armstrong with great spirit but was finally 
 compelled to abandon his easel as hopeless. He then brought for- 
 ward the name of his friend Elisha Jenkins but with no better 
 success. Finally his own name was introduced into the Canvass, 
 and! the matter treated by his friends as if the only question was 
 whether he would consent to take the office. When he was proposed 
 in the Caucus, gentlemen who had dined in company with him but 
 a few hours before made conflicting statements in regard to his 
 willingness to take the place.^ This produced a motion on the part 
 of one of his friends that a committee should wait on him to ascer- 
 tain whether he would serve if appointed. I opposed this motion, 
 and cautioned his friends to reflect that the appointment of such a 
 Committee would be tantamount to a declaration that a majority 
 were in his favor — which I was very confident was not the case — and 
 that if they should prove to be mistaken on this point they would 
 practice a cruel deception upon their friend if they should obtain 
 his consent. The motion was however persisted in and lost. I then 
 moved for a recess of one hour, to give the Judge's friends an op- 
 portunity to consult him if they were so disposed. They availed 
 themselves of it, reported his declension to stand as a Candidate,^ 
 and Mr. Sanford was nominated without an organized opposition. 
 
 Whilst we were proceeding in the election, on the following day, 
 Judge Woodworth came into the Senate Chamber, and directing 
 Sanford's attention to him I said "There is the man who will be 
 used by Judge Spencer to punish me for what we are now doing." 
 When the Senate adjourned Woodworth stepped towards Sanford 
 and myself, and invited us to drive to our lodgings in his sleigh, 
 and on our way proposed a visit at his house. While there he was 
 vociferous in his exultation at the triumph we had obtained over an 
 "influence" (referring to Spencer) which had, he said, ruled the 
 State too long. After we parted from him, Mr. Sanford asked me 
 whether I did not regret the injustice I had done a friend. I an- 
 
 iThe election occurred February 1, 1815. — ^W. C. F^ '' ' "">-. 
 
 2 Hammond says (I, 393, note) that It was Van miren wl-. " ".-fed that he did not 
 believe Judge Spencer would consent to be a candidatt.' — W. ■fiT^i'.' 
 
 ' " Because he would not put himself in competitiSt with so young a man as San- 
 ford." — (Hammond, I, 393 note), — ^W. C. F. 
 
68 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 swered in. the negative, and told him that Wood"worth lme"w nothing 
 of the matter yet, but that the Judge would send for him in the 
 evening and obtain Ms consent to be a candidate against me for the 
 office of Attorney General. The desire of the party that I should 
 be appointed to that office was so general that until that time no 
 other name had been spoken of. The movement, as I told Sanford, 
 would be founded on 'the assumption that Stranahan would certainly 
 go with the Judge ; that Hubbard who was a near relative of Wood- 
 worth, and had been to some extent brought up by him, could be 
 easily induced to vote for him, and that Spencer's influence with 
 the Governor, aided by the fact that considerable uneasiness had 
 arisen between the latter and myself in respect to local appointments 
 in my county, would be sufficient to induce him. to give the casting 
 vote against me. 
 
 A few days afterwards the Governor gave his first State dinner 
 at which were present most of the parties to the political broil then 
 in embryo, except myself — confined to my own quarters by a severe 
 cold. In the evening Sanford and Ruggles [Hubbard] called at my 
 room, in much excitement, and informed me that the Governor had 
 shown them before they left him, Woodworth's application for the 
 office of Attorney General, and had also told them that when the 
 application was presented Woodworth had given him to understand 
 that his friends contemplated the passage of a law for the appoint- 
 ment of two additional Judges of the Supreme Court, and that if 
 my friends would sustain that measure and allow the appointment of 
 Judges and Attorney General to proceed foxi passu he would accept 
 the office of Judge and withdraw his application for the Attorney 
 Generalship. Mr. Hubbard knowing that he was to be in the Coun- 
 cil and apprehending ° that he might be embarrassed by an applica- 
 tion from Woodworth had written me a letter expressing his prefer- 
 ence for me for the office in question and pledging himself to vote 
 in my favor. This he thought would furnish him with a satisfactory 
 answer to all importunities. I took this letter from my desk, and 
 after reminding Mr. Sanford of my anticipations, explained its con- 
 tents and pointing out to Mr. Hubbard the impropriety of writing 
 it offered to return it to him with a declaration that I should insist 
 on his voting for Woodworth, and on his refusing to receive it, I 
 threw it into the fire. I then told him that I was opposed to the 
 proposed increase on the Bench upon principle, and that if I were 
 not I could never consent to support the measure after so profligate 
 a proposition had been attached to it, and requested Mr. Hubbard 
 to inform Woodsrorth ^jat if a movement in that direction was made 
 
 in the Senate NPt "^«y of 'his friends, I would repeat from my place 
 
 : r \r 4> . 
 
 » MS. I, th 90. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAETIIT VAN BUREK. 69 
 
 his declarations to the Governor, and denounce the proposed arrange- 
 ment as corrupt. Ruggles Hubbard was a noble hearted, enthusiastic 
 and confiding young man and through these qualities he was liable 
 sometimes to be misled by designing persons, whilst his motives were 
 always honest and generous.^ He was a zealous friend of mine, and 
 as I have already said he was nearly connected with Woodworth 
 (his sister having been Woodworth's first wife, I believe) and I was 
 unwilling that he should gratify his feelings at the expense of a 
 rupture with his relative. I therefore in the presence of Mr. San- 
 ford, repeated my desire that he would take the course 1 had at first 
 recommended. He answered that he was desirous to preserve the 
 ■friendship of Mr. Woodworth, and could not at the moment say how 
 far he might be induced to go to serve him, but that nothing on earth 
 couLd induce him to give a vote that would defeat my appointment. 
 After urging him farther on the point we parted. A few days later 
 he called at my room in high spirits and told me that he had un- 
 bosomed himself to Governor Tompkins who had readily relieved 
 him by the assurance that if there was a tie in the Council he would 
 be glad of the opportunity to give the casting vote in my favor be- 
 cause he thought me entitled to the place and because he knew that 
 the People desired that I should have it. 
 
 The practice of the Council had always been to meet at the Gov- 
 ernor's Room, and to commence and finish their proceedings there. 
 It was now proposed and agreed to that they should first meet at 
 their own rooms in the city, and agree upon what they were to do, 
 and then go to the Governor's office to record their decisions. The 
 design doubtless was to lessen the influence of the Governor, but 
 this was not suspected by Elmendorff and Dayton. A more active 
 or a more indomitable spirit than Judge Spencer's never- existed. 
 Deeply offended by the choice of Senator, and seeing in the result, 
 as he thought, a design on the part of the young men of the party 
 to cast off his control over its action, he had determined not to con- 
 tent himself with my defeat, but had carefully prepared a blow with 
 which to assail us in an unexpected quarter. 
 
 I was engaged to dine with my old friend Matthew Gregory on 
 the day appointed for the first meeting of the Council, and on my 
 way to his house I met Hubbard. Seeing in his speaking counten- 
 ance indications of distress I enquired after the cause, and, in reply, 
 he gave me a history of the proceedings of the Council at their in- 
 formal meeting, which had just broken up. On my nomination there 
 had been a tie; Elmendorff and Dayton voting for me, and Stran- 
 ahan and himself for Woodworth, but Col. Young's nomination, as 
 Secretary of State, in respect to which no question had been raised 
 
 » A different character is given by Hammond, I, 399, note. — W. C. F. 
 
70 AMEEICAl>r HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 or was expected, had been defeated, and Elisha Jenkins had been 
 agreed upon. I begged him to go at once to Mr. Sanford and to 
 ask his interference. He answered that it would be useless, as Mr. 
 Dayton's pride had been assailed and his mind prejudiced by insinua- 
 tions that he was Sanford's representative in the Council, and any 
 appeal from that quarter would therefore do more harm than good ; 
 and any attempt to arrest the appointment in the afternoon, at the 
 regular meeting of the Council, he thought would be unavailing — 
 so that all he had to do was to apprise Col. Young of what had been 
 done. Judge Spencer had furthermore quietly -operated upon Mr. 
 Elmendorff, who had acted with him so, long that he could not refuse 
 to gratify him in regard to the appointment of his friend Jenkins, 
 as a sort of peace offering for the Judge's disappointment on the 
 question of Senator. Wounded by this result I was sufficiently rest- 
 less at the dinner table to attract the attention of the Company, who 
 very naturally attributed my anxiety to my own affair. While seek- 
 ing relief, as men often do under such circumstances, by looking out 
 of the window, I saw Hubbard on his way to the Council. The 
 sight of him suggested an idea which I put into instant execution. 
 Calling Judge Atwater (a brother Senator) from the table to the 
 hall, I informed him of the condition of things, and begged him to 
 follow Hubbard, who was still in view, and to ask him from me to 
 nominate Peter B. Porter for Secretary of State,' the moment the 
 Council was organized^ and to persist in his nomination until he 
 had a vote upon it. Atwater returned and reported that he had over- 
 taken Hubbard at the Governor's door, and that he had promised to 
 do what was requested. I then asked the Judge to go to the Eagle 
 Tavern, where Porter had only arrived the evening before, to inform 
 him of what had been done, to ask him to accept, and, if he did not, 
 as we supposed, desire the place, to hold the office until we could re- 
 cover our ground, and obtain the appointment of Young. He did 
 so, and Porter readily consented. The Council remained in session 
 until midnight, occupied almost every moment of the time with so- 
 licitations and remonstrances, addressed to Hubbard by his col- 
 leagues, to induce him to withdraw his nomination. When they 
 found every attempt of that character unavailing Porter was ap- 
 pointed by a unanimous vote. The General had fought gallantly 
 in the War, and on his arrival at Albany became the lion of the day. 
 Jenlfins, on the other hand, had held a lucrative appointment in the 
 Commissary Department, without personal exposure to danger. 
 
 I was right in supposing that, the Council would not venture 
 to reject Porter, under such circumstances, in favor of Jenlrins. 
 The appointment was, of course, a surprise upon every body, and 
 
 ' In place of Jacob Rutseu Van Rensselaer, removed. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUEEN. 71 
 
 a source of deep mortification to Judge Spencer. The appointment 
 of Jenkins under existing circumstances was an affair he had an- 
 ticipated with delight and exultation, the expression of which would 
 have speedily followed the action of the Council. Governor Tomp- 
 kins was in favor of Young, and told me afterwards that he had 
 heard from one of the members what had been agreed upon at the 
 informal meeting and was much mortified by it. He said that at 
 that moment he was called out to receive Gen. Strong, of Vermont, 
 who had served with distinction in the War, and that he detained 
 his visitor longer than he would otherwise have done to gain time 
 for reflection, in the hope of being able to devise some scheme to 
 save Young; but he returned to the Council without a plan, when 
 Hubbard's motion presented him with a way to escape. Porter 
 held the office for a year, and resigned it whilst I was detained at 
 Hudson by sickness in my family, when Young was again dis- 
 appointed thro' influences of which I need not speak. 
 
 The Governor deferred giving his casting vote upon the appoint- 
 ment of Attorney General until another day, when he promised to 
 give it at his office in the Capitol. When that day arrived, Judge 
 Woodworth and myself were invited to dine with his brother-in- 
 law, the Patroon ; and Woodworth came late to dinner, having waited 
 to ascertain the result of the Governor's action. When he came in 
 Gen. Van Rensselaer, who knew in advance, asked him provokingly 
 who was Attorney General; a question that he was obviously not 
 happy to answer.^ 
 
 Peter B. Porter was a man of prepossessing personal appearance, 
 good address and fine mind. He was fortunate and, in no inconsider- 
 able degree, successful as well in the field as in our national Coun- 
 cils during the War, and yet he was at no time popular with the 
 masses. The reason was a general conviction that the acquisition 
 of wealth was his master- passion, to which every other was made 
 
 1 Mr. Van Vechten was, of course, remoTed from the office of attorney general, and 
 Mr. Van Buren was appointed his successor. This appointment _was made by the casting 
 vote of the governor. Mr. Elmendortf and Mr. Dayton voted for Mr. Van Buren, and 
 Messrs. Stranahan and Hubbard for Mr. John Woodworth. The circumstance is too 
 trifling to deserve notice, except as an evidence of a jealous feeling which then began to 
 
 . exist between Judge Spencer and Mr. Van Buren. I do not impute the Vote of Hubbard 
 to the Influence of Judge Spencer. Mr. H. was from Troy, and Judge Woodworth had 
 
 ' many and powerful friends In that place, and in Mr. Hubbard's district. This accounts 
 well enough for the vote of Mr. Hubbard. But Stranahan had no personal partialities 
 nor any influential friends, in his district, in favor of Woodworth ; on the contrary, they 
 were for Van Buren. The truth is, Stranahan, at that period of his political life, was 
 much if not entirely, devoted to the views of Judge Spencer. I apprehend that Judge 
 Spencer perceived that Mr. Van Buren was acquiring a greater influence in the State 
 than the judge desired he should possess, and, therefore, persuaded Mr. Stranahan to 
 endeavor to defeat his appointment. From this period, down to 1817, when Mr. Clinton 
 was nominated for governor, Mr. Van Buren and Judge Spencer, though both of them 
 acting with the Republican party, and in good faith too, were very much inclined to 
 thwart the individual views of each other." Hammond, History of Political Parties in 
 the State of New York, I, 392.— W. C. F. 
 
72 AMBRICAET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 subsidiary. A partial illustration of this trait was exhibited in a 
 transaction with which I was connected. Whilst we were holding 
 the respective offices of Secretary of State and Attorney General, he 
 proposed to me to unite with him in the purchase of an outstanding 
 Class Right with a view to its location on Goat Island, at the head 
 of the Niagara falls. I assented, and advanced him half the con- 
 sideration money. The location was made, and no opposition or 
 objection was raised to the completion of the title. But when it was 
 found necessary to have the proceedings confirmed by the Commis- 
 sioners of the Land Office, of which Board we were members, the 
 objection to our being parties h) any speculation that required such 
 a step presented itself to my mind. I stated it to him and he laughed 
 at ° what he called my fastidiousness, at the same time saying that 
 if I persisted in it he would be too happy to return me my money — ■ 
 about a thousand dollars — and to take the whole purchase himself. 
 I did persist, and he made a very considerable fortune out of the 
 transaction. 
 
 Judge Spencer's feelings were somewhat soothed by his success in 
 obtaining the removal of DeWitt Clinton from the office of Mayor of 
 New York. Mr. Hammond ^ is right in assuming that I took no part 
 in that matter. My friend Mr. Elmendorff could not have been in- 
 duced to vote for it by any other consideration than his desire to save 
 the Governor from the necessity of giving the casting vote — other- 
 wise unavoidable, as Hubbard could not be brought to vote for the 
 removal. 
 
 Mr. Clinton retired to his place at Flushing, to which he had often 
 been sentenced in advance by Judge Spencer during their quarrel. 
 Here he rusticated for two years, when strange to say he was recalled 
 to public life mainly thro' the instrumentality of his imperious 
 brother-in-law. 
 
 Mr. Elmendorff was always, an anti-Federal politician without 
 variableness or the shadow of turning, and an old school Dutchman, 
 immoA'^able, obstinate and imperturbably good natured. He was a 
 member of Congress as far back as the days of William Cobbet in the 
 United States, and received from that caustic censor the sobriquet of 
 " The bird of wisdom." 
 
 The opening of the session of 1816 was marked by one of those 
 occurrences that shew the f d,cility with which men acting as a body, 
 are led to confound power with right, and to do things that in their 
 individual capacity they would regard as disgraceful. Experience 
 has demonstrated that whenever distiijterested justice is obtained 
 from one Community — rwhether a great nation or a petty municipal- 
 ity — in behalf of another, it is due to the individuality and conso- 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 95. '■ Political History of New York, I, 397. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 73 
 
 quent responsibility of those who act for it; the substitution of mo- 
 tives of selfish advantage for those of fairness and right is the char- 
 acteristic of souless corporations of all kinds, and political parties 
 are very liable to become similarly demoralized. 
 
 At the election for members of the House of Assembly in Ontario 
 County, Henry Fellows, the federal, was clearly chosen over Peter 
 Allen, the republican candidate, if a few votes, in returning which the 
 proper officer had abbreviated his name and written " Hen. Fellows ", 
 were allowed to him. The Clerk of the County, being a mere ministerial 
 officer, gave the certificate of election to Allen, who appeared and 
 was qualified, as there was no proper tribunal for the decision of the 
 question until the House was organized. The moment that wag 
 done, Fellows applied to be admitted. That his right would be ulti- 
 mately established no one doubted, but the question was whether 
 the investigation should take place before or after the choice of the 
 Council of Appointment. With Allen's vote we could get the 
 Council — if Fellows was first admitted, it would be against us. It 
 is difficult to realize the idea that a great party would allow itself 
 to take advantage of an accidental circumstance such as I have 
 described, to secure to itself a patronage then supposed to amount 
 to a million of dollars. But we did it, and there was not the slightest 
 doulbt that the other side would have done the same thing if the 
 circumstances had been reversed. Fellows was admitted to his seat 
 immediately after the choice of the Council, with only one dissenting 
 voice. Although not a member of that house I was quite -as much to 
 blame in the matter as if I had aided the step directly, as I was 
 pressed forward by my political associates to take a more active 
 part in that body than was proper ; so much so that Peter A. Jay, a 
 federal leader in the Assembly, of fine talents and great personal 
 worth, having occasion in debate to refer to a democratic member 
 with whom I happened at the moment to be conversing, and affecting 
 to forget his parliamentary designation, exclaimed, "I mean the 
 gentleman who always spealts with the Attorney General at his 
 elbow !" My then recent insurrection against him would prevent my 
 attempting to screen my own delinquency, under the sanction and, 
 of course, hearty co-operation of my quondam friend Judge Spencer, 
 in the whole affair. The case was in truth one of those abuses of 
 power to which parties are subject, but which I am sure I could never 
 again be induced to countenance.^ 
 
 I was at this time [1816] re-elected to the State Senate by a large 
 majority, notwithstanding a factious opposition in our ranks by 
 Judge Spencer's connections — acting however without his approba- 
 tion. No one sooner perceived than himself that the political sceptre 
 
 1 This political incident is fully (Jeserlbed in Hammond, I, 412. See also Life and 
 Correspondence of Eufus King, V, 501. — W. C. P. 
 
74 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 that he had swayed so long in State affairs was dropping from his 
 hand, and finding his power threatened by a body of spirited young 
 men on whom his arts of seduction and intimidation had been equally 
 tried in vain, he looked about for assistance. With this object he 
 turned his attention, as no man but himself would have thought of 
 doing, to Mr. Clinton. It was said, and I believe truly, that he con- 
 sulted Gen. Armstrong on the point and that the latter remon- 
 strated earnestly against the proposed step. I met him on the steamer 
 on our way to attend the Term of the Supreme Court at New York, 
 shortly after my re-election, when he took me aside, immediately 
 and assured me that so far from having countenanced the opposition 
 of his friends to my election he had done all he could to prevent it. 
 I begged him to give himself no uneasiness on the point as my friend 
 Chief Justice Thompson had informed me to the same effect during 
 the canvass, and I was very certain besides that he was wholly in- 
 capable of such conduct. He then proceeded to remark upon the 
 happy results of the election throughout the State, and the uses we 
 ought to make of our success ; spoke of healing wounds and the im- 
 portance and advantage of an harmonious party. Having had an 
 inkling of what was in the wind I could, without difficulty, place 
 the true construction on such unusual observations from him. I 
 replied therefore that no one knew better than himself how well such 
 sentiments corresponded with my own, and that he might safely 
 count on my co-operation in air measures directed to that end, pro- 
 vided that they did not lead to such abrupt changes in our conduct 
 and opinions, without a corresponding change in circumstances, as 
 might impair the confidence of the People in our sincerity and cause 
 them to believe that we were making a game of politicks, and play- 
 ing it to serve our personal purposes. He said, certainly! that 
 should be borne in mind, and the subject was dropped, but without 
 the slightest idea on his part of abandoning his purpose; that he 
 never did, when his mind was once set on a favorite object. We 
 lodged at the same house in New York, and the matter alluded to on 
 the steamboat furnished the occasion of many early walks together 
 on the Battery. Finding that he could not prevail on me to become 
 a party to the Movement he contemplated, he one morning halted 
 suddenly in our promenade and facing me, exclaimed, with some 
 feeling, "Why, You are a strange man! When I wanted to have 
 Mr. Clinton removed, you were, in point of fact, opposed to it, and 
 now that I want to bring him back you are opposed to that also ! " 
 I replied that I was not opposed to Mr. Clinton's restoration to the 
 confidence of the party if it was brought about naturally, and facili- 
 tated by his own conduct, but that I could neither approve nor co- 
 operate in the sudden and unwise way in which he proposed to bring 
 it about, which could not fail, I thought, to have the effect I had 
 
ATTTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. Y5 
 
 alluded to in our first conversation. "We were invited a few days 
 after this to dine with Jacob Barker, then a great banker in New 
 York, afterwards a lawyer in New Orleans, and everywhere and in 
 every situation an extraordinary man, and always my personal friend 
 altho' never my co-adjutor. 
 
 From his habitual devotion to Judge Spencer and his ambition to 
 take part in such affairs, I was quite sure that this was a movement 
 in furtherance of the Judge's project, and that we should meet 
 Mr. Clinton at the dinner. On my way to the residence of Mr. 
 Barker, in Beekman street, accompanied by Chief Justice Thompson 
 and Judge Yates, I asked them whom they expected to meet. They 
 mentioned several names, to which I added that of De Witt Clinton. 
 " Why, Spencer is to be there ! " exclaimed they, and " that is the 
 very reason ! " I responded. I then explained to them what was 
 going on, which surprised them gi-eatly. Mr. Clinton was the only 
 guest present when we arrived. He had come in from the country, 
 and I observed was plainly and rather carelessly dressed. We met 
 him and were received by him very kindly. After a few moments 
 Judge Spencer made his appearance, which caused some embarrass- 
 ment on the part of all present. Although there was no direct 
 recognition between him and Mr. Clinton, neither " any conversa- 
 tion at the table between them, addressed to each other, they talked 
 at each other through the rest of us in subdued and conciliatory 
 terms. They had an interview in the evening of the same day, as I 
 have always understood, at the residence of Dr. John A. Graham, 
 and were formally reconciled. On the Friday following the Chief 
 Justice called on me and informed me that, as the Covirt were to 
 adjourn on Saturday, Judge Spencer had taken leave of his brethren 
 and was going to Albany that afternoon. As the Legislature were 
 to meet on the succeeding Monday for the choice of Presidential 
 Electors we conceived his object and sending my papers to a friend 
 by the hand of the Chief Justice, I packed my trunk and met the 
 Judge and Mr. Clinton on the steamboat. Their familiar intercourse 
 was matter of amazement to the uninitiated. Mr. Clinton left the 
 boat at Newburgh, and I believe only made his appearance on it as 
 an expedient demonstration preparatory to what was contemplated 
 further. Very soon after he had left us Judge Spencer invited me 
 to an interview in the small after cabin, when he opened his budget. 
 He proposed that Chief . Justice Thompson and Mr. Clinton should 
 be placed on the Electoral Ticket as Electors for the state at large; 
 that I. might say which should stand first, and that he would pledge 
 himself that Mr. Clinton should vote for Monroe for President and 
 for Tompkins for Vice President. When I declined to come into 
 
 ~~ "MS, I, p. 100. 
 
'76 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the arrangement he became much excited, and said that my unwill- 
 ingness to corifer a mere formal distinction of that character on 
 -Mr. Clinton betrayed a violence of party feeling that he could not 
 have expected from me. I replied, without recriminations, that he 
 misunderstood my motives ; that if there were no ulterior purpose, 
 ^ I would not object to the choice of Mr. Clinton as he proposed, but 
 ^at I believed it was his intention to bring Mr. Clinton forward as 
 the candidate for Governor, to supply the vacancy that was expected 
 to arise from the election of Gov, Tompkins to the Vice Presidency ; 
 and that as I would be opposed to that step he would think me 
 weak indeed if I were to consent to a preliminary arrangement 
 designed to promote it.^ 
 
 Of course, if he had no such intention my course would be different. 
 He was too truthful to deny this, and immediately turned the con- 
 versation upon the main question. He asked me, with his peculiarly 
 emphatic manner, why I opposed the nomination of Mr. Clinton, 
 
 1 " I understand that our Mr. Clinton has failed in the project, which he had formed of 
 being one of the Electors of this State. He was at Albany, and with a yiew of reconciling 
 himself to his old Friends and Party, as well as to advance a step in the accomplishment 
 of his desire to succeed Tompkins as Governor, he made exertions to be put at the head 
 of the Electoral Ticket ; but on a vote in caucus failed by a large majority against him." 
 Rufus King to Christopher Gore, 22 November, 1816. Life and Correspondence oJ Rufus 
 King, vi, 36. 
 
 The short session of the Legislature In the fall of 1816 had shown the Republicans to 
 be divided between the Clintonians, of whom Judge Spencer was the recognized leader, and 
 the followers of Tompkins and Van Buren, of whom James Emott said that they were 
 " professing to be the true republican party, willing to support caucus nominations and to 
 do all the things necessary to promote the views of the holy father [Monroe] at Washing- 
 ton, but in fact led by Van Buren and a few young men who mean to make the adminis- 
 tration at Washington as well as the good people of this State, subservient to their 
 particular views, which are in part ambitious but in main Interested." It was with the 
 idea of breaking the growing influence of Tompkins and Van Buren that Judge Spencer 
 favored the advancement of Clinton and became reconciled to him. It was said that 
 Clinton had given a pledge to vote for Monroe and Tompkins if his name were placed first 
 on the electoral ticket. Seeing that such a concession would give the impression that 
 Clinton had become firmly reconciled to the party and was pledged to support all its 
 views and principles. Van Buren_ opposed it, and succeeded in defeating it. The Clin- 
 tonians cried out that they had been " outmanaged," while their opponents boasted their 
 superior strength and talent. 
 
 By removing Tompkins to the Vice Presidency the chair of the governor must be filled. 
 Hammond describes the three distinct schemes entertained by Van Buren for defeating the 
 project of making Clinton governor : 1. That Tompkins should hold both offices and be 
 Governor of New York as well as Vice President ; 2, that the Lieutenant Governor should 
 act until the regular gubernatorial election of 1819, a plan opposed by the Clintonians, 
 who claimed that the Lieutenant Governor could act only until the next " annual " elec- 
 tion ; and 3, to obtain a majority in the legislative caucus and nominate an opponent to 
 Clinton. After the resignation of Tompkins, which occurred a few days before March 4, 
 1817, a measure passed the Legislature providing for the election of a successor, and Van 
 'Buren voted in its favor. It was thought to have been adopted "not so much to satisfy 
 the terms and intent of the Constitution as the whims and expectations of the people." 
 The question of succession was practically determined when the Clinton men obtained con- 
 trol of the Council, February 13, 1817. Walter Bowne, John Noyes, John I. Prendergast 
 and Henry Bloom formed the new Council, and only" Bowne was opposed to Clinton. 
 Hammond says " This was a great point gained, and it seems to me Mr. Van Buren and 
 Gov. Tompkins, if they possessed the power, should have prevented this. Whether (hey 
 made any systematic effort to do so, I am not advised." Van Buren attributes the loss of 
 the Council to the " inaction " of Governor Tompkins. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREW. 77 
 
 and, after several earnest and impressive remarks, said he would be 
 responsible for Mr. Clinton's good conduct towards me and my 
 friends. I replied with a like proffer of responsibility in favor of 
 Chief Justice Thompson, whom we then thought of nominating, on 
 which Judge Spencer contracted his brow, rapped his snuff-box, as 
 he was wont to do when highly excited, and exclaimed " There, Sir, 
 you have touched a cord that vibrates to my heart! I was not 
 ignorant that I expose my conduct to unfavorable criticism by my 
 sudden reconciliation with Mr. Clinton, so soon after our violent 
 quarrel and the many severe things I have said of him, and I am 
 not sure that I could have brought my mind to that point had I not 
 known that it was your intention to bring that man forward, against 
 whom I have cause for resentment that neither time nor circum- 
 stances can appease ! " I knew very well, without farther explana- 
 tion, what he referred to. 
 
 The discussion between the Judge and myself terminated amicably 
 but fruitlessly. On our approach to Albany he resumed the sub- 
 ject, spoke of his certain success with the Legislature, of the sure 
 restoration of Mr. Clinton to power, ultimately, of his kind feelings 
 towards me, of my age and prospects, and of the influence upon my 
 future success of my course on this occasion. He continued these 
 remarks until the moment of parting. 
 
 We met several times at the rooms of the Members, but had too 
 much self respect to indulge in disputations on the subject in their 
 presence. One or the other always retired, and left the field to his 
 opponent, and we never had any difficulty in deciding whose turn 
 it was to do so. A few hours before the Caucus he told me that they 
 would certainly have a majority of twenty; and I asked him whether 
 he would do us the honor to visit the Senate Chamber when we ap- 
 pointed the Electors, which was to be done on the next day. He 
 1 eplied " Certainly ! " I had no doubt that he had received promises 
 -from several, who, tho' in their hearts for Mr. Clinton, were not yet 
 prepared to support him openly. 
 
 As soon as the Caucus was organized I submitted two propositions : 
 one, that the Members from each Congressional District should name 
 the Elector for their district, and another that the two Electors for 
 the State at large should be selected — one from the Southern and the 
 other from the Western District. The first was the usual mode, and 
 to the second there was no objection, as both Mr. Clinton and our 
 candidate, Col. Rutgers, resided in the Southern District. They 
 therefore both passed with perfect unanimity. As soon as the mem- 
 bers had made and reported their district selections, I moved 
 promptly that the two Electors from the State at large should be 
 designated in the same way — ^the one by the members from the South- 
 
78 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOW. 
 
 ern District, and the other by the members from the West. As the 
 members from the Southern district were nearly unanimous against 
 Mr. Clinton, this proposition produced a perfect ferment in the 
 meeting. The Clintonian leaders sprang to their feet, and contended 
 with each other for precedence in denouncing the proposition, which 
 they characterized by all sorts of hard names. They said that it was 
 aimed at Mr. Clinton — as if it could have had any other aim — that 
 it was unusual and unfair. A motion was made to amend it, so as 
 to provide for a vote for the two Electors by ballot. Speech after 
 speech followed on their side — our friends naturally waiting for me 
 to defend my own proposition, and I to let the storm spend itself. 
 
 At the first pause I demanded the attention of the meeting as the 
 mover of the resolution, which I ought, in common courtesy, to have 
 been permitted to explain before it was so grossly assailed. The lead- 
 ers of the opposition finding that they had been too hasty, more read- 
 ily acquiesced in giving me a fair hearing. I then stated my object to 
 be to bring the question of Mr. Clinton's appointment to a test by the 
 viva-voce vote of the meeting ; that everybody knew that if my reso- 
 lution was adopted he would be excluded — ^those who were for his 
 exclusion voting for the resolution and those who were in favor of 
 his appointment voting against it; that in ordinary cases there 
 might be no great objection to a vote by ballot, although it was always 
 preferable that those who represented others should vote openly, and 
 in this case there were circumstances that made the obligation to vote 
 openly imperative. No one could doubt that when we were elected 
 large majorities of our respective constituencies were decidedly 
 against Mr. Clinton, and the proposition to give him the proposed 
 proof of the restored confidence of the party was an affair of yester- 
 day — ^brought forward without consulting the People or the possibil- 
 ity of consulting them. I was bound to presume, from the well 
 known sentiments of our constituents, that the result of our vote 
 would be the same whether we voted by ballot, or viva voce and in 
 either case against Mr. Clinton, but if it should happen to turn out 
 otherwise, there would, of necessity, be great excitements in the 
 State — ^thousands would think that a March had been stolen on the 
 party — ^there would of course be a desire to Imow who had done it — 
 suspicion would be spread over the State, and the meeting owed it to 
 itself to save each member from the consequences of the acts of 
 others,' which could only be done by an open vote .on the resolution. 
 If a majority of the Meeting were in favor of appointing Mr. Clin- 
 ton, and should say so in an open and manly way, I would cheerfully 
 submit to the decision, but no right-minded man could, upon reflec- 
 tion, desire such a result without being at the same time willing to 
 bear the responsibility of it. After pressing these and similar con- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTI3S" VAN BUREN. 79 
 
 siderations upon the meeting I resumed my seat, and after a few short 
 speeches on the other side, the names of the members were called, and 
 the resolution was adopted 'by a majority of nineteen, and our Elec- 
 tors were appointed. 
 
 Judge Spencer did not keep his promise to come to the Senate 
 the next day, but appeared on the day after jaded and dispirited. 
 He had not, however, the slightest idea of giving up the contest, 
 but complained bitterly of the feeble manner iij. which their cause 
 had been sustained in the Caucus, although he said that while they 
 subfftitted to their present defeat, they would contest the nomina- 
 tion " for Governor in the same way next winter and that he trusted 
 that we would also axiquiesce if they succeeded, to which I readily 
 agreed. 
 
 Legislative caucuses were then, as has been shown, the regular 
 mode of nomination, but, feeling doubtful of their success, the Clin- 
 tonians commenced, at an early day, to elect delegates from the 
 Counties represented in the Legislature by federalists, intending 
 to claim seats for them in the nominating Convention.^ We fol- 
 lowed their example, but in those contests they had one advantage 
 over us that we could neither prevent nor, in general, resist. The 
 federalists, except a small section called " the high minded " (who 
 brought but little aid from the masses) were favorable to Mr. Clin- 
 ton. Having lost alt confidence in their own success, and feeling 
 assured that Mr. Clinton must ultimately come over to them, in 
 addition to their indirect assistance of his Cause, which we felt 
 everywhere, they sent to our Convention obscure men of their own 
 who had no distinctive political character. In this way we were 
 defeated in a large majority of the federal counties. They also 
 obtained a preponderating influence, when the Legislature met, tho' 
 not an absolute control, over the new Council of Appointment, in 
 consequence of the inaction of Governor Tompkins, arising from 
 his situation as a candidate for the Vice Presidency, and in a short 
 time they obtained a complete ascendancy in respect to all new ap- 
 pointments. 
 
 Several meetings were held to establish regulations for the organi- 
 zation of the nominating convention, and notwithstanding the mass 
 of influence that was brought to bear against us, the Clintonians had 
 not yet obtained a majority of the Legislative Members. We resisted 
 the admission of delegates not members of either House on the 
 ground of precedent, and of the charge of federal interference, in 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 105. 
 
 » See Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 437. — 
 W. C. F. 
 
80 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOBT. 
 
 regard to which we fortified ourselves with well authenticated f acts.^_ 
 After a protracted debate at one of tliese preliminary meetings, with 
 the reluctant assent of our friends, I proposed to abandon the elec- 
 tions that had been made, and to elect the delegates anew on the same 
 day in each county, at a time to be fixed, and in case of such an 
 arrangement being agreed to, to consent to their admission. This 
 reasonable offer was violently opposed, and motion after motion made 
 for an adjoumm^t, which we were able to vote down. At mid- 
 night. Judge [Moak?] Swart, the Chairman, a family connection of 
 mine, and a very upright man, but one of the Congressional pro- 
 testers against the nomination of Mr. Monroe, and every inch a Clin- 
 tonian, decided that the motion to adjourn was carried. Upon being 
 asked to state the vote on the motion, he replied, with great sim- 
 plicity, " Fifty odd to forty odd ! " As this was rather too indefinite 
 to be satisfactory, we demanded that the names of the members 
 should be called and the vote taken more exactly. This was done and 
 the result declared to be a tie. We finally consented to an adjourn- 
 ment. At the next meeting our proposition was accepted. The dele- 
 gates were again elected, and as Mr. Clinton had undoubtedly made 
 some favourable advance in public opinion, and the same influences 
 were again applied, the election resulted as before. My own, the 
 adjoining county and the small' county of Broome were the only 
 federal counties in the State that returned anIn-Clintonian delegates. 
 Then ensued one of those stampedes that sometimes occur in all 
 political associations; men running from a defeated party like rats 
 from a falling house. A number of instances, some amusing and some 
 distressing, were presented of individuals, once ranking among the 
 firmest, now abandoning us under various but generally flimsy pre- 
 tences. With both wind and tide in his favor and the Council of 
 Appointment, that most formidable element of political strength 
 in those days, to a very great extent under his control. Judge Spen- 
 cer soon made a "practicable breach" in our Legislative defences. 
 After much difficulty we had settled down upon Judge Yates, with 
 his Imowledge and virtual consent, as our Candidate, and his brother 
 Spencer immediately set himself at work to induce or force Yates to 
 decline, and succeeded. Only a few days before the Convention the 
 latter incited me to his room, and told me that he nlust decline. He 
 was apparently entering upon explanations more or less elaborate, 
 when feeling indignant as well as grieved by his conduct but with- 
 out asperity of manner, I said to him that itl was unnecessary to 
 give himself that trouble, as we had prepared ourselves for the 
 
 1 The real point was wbether the counties which were represented l>y Federalists in 
 the Legislature should send delegates to the nominating convention. By resisting the 
 admission of delegates " not members of either House " those Federalist counties would 
 be without representation, and the Clinton support decreased, — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 81 
 
 contingency, and would not be embarrassed by his declension. I 
 then shewed him a letter from a friend of Gen. Peter B. Porter, 
 giving his assent to be our candidate, if we desired it, and left him. 
 I had before this communicated my apprehension on the point of 
 Yates' firmness to Chief Justice Thompson, who scouted the idea. 
 At our separate caucus a Senator from the Southern district-, Mr. 
 Crosby, with whom opposition to Mr. Clinton wasi an absorbing 
 passion, presented his venerable and imposing figure to the meet- 
 ing, and expressed a desire to ask a few questions of Mr. Van 
 Buren, if he had no objections to answer them. On receiving a 
 satisfactory assurance he asked for my opinion of the probable 
 result of the approaching Convention. I gave him my impression 
 in regard to our numbers, and my reasons for fearing that these 
 would, under the circumstances, be diminished rather than in- 
 creased, and that consequently we must be defeated. This, he said, 
 was his own opinion, and he then desired to know whether in such 
 an event I was willing to retire, with others similarly disposed, and 
 to put Gen. Porter in nomination. I answered promply and de- 
 cidedly, " No ! " and after stating the part that we had taken in get- 
 ting up the convention, and our consequent obligation to acquiesce 
 in the result, added that if we could be found capable of opposing 
 its decision for no other reason than because we found ourselves in 
 , a minority, our bad faith would reducq us from our present ele- 
 vated position as the main body, justly so regarded, of the Repub- 
 lican party of the State, .to that of a faction, like the Burrites and 
 Lewisites, which struggled for short seasons and then disappeared 
 from the stage ; but that if, on the other hand, we calmly pursued 
 a steady and consistent course — ^upholding the time honored usages 
 of the party and submitting to all that was done under them, until 
 we could regain the ascendancy in the usual way — and if Mr. 
 Clinton should, notwithstanding, subject his administration to 
 federal influences, as we all supposed he would, and as I thought 
 he would not be able to avoid doing even if he were so disposed, 
 we would soon have the power to overthrow it, and to re-establish 
 the Republican party upon its ancient foundations. These views, I 
 added, were founded upon the assumption that the convention would 
 be organized with tolerable firmness, but jf the majority committed, 
 in its organization, some act of violence, some palpable outrage that 
 would be apparent to all, I would consider the binding character 
 of their proceedings destroyed, and would in that case, and only in 
 that case, unite with those who might be so disposed, retire from 
 the Convention, and appeal to^ the People thro' the nomination of 
 Gen. Porter. Mr. Crosby then asked me to specify what I would 
 regard as a proceeding authorizing the step he had proposed. I 
 127483°— yoL 2—20 6 
 
82 AMBRICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 answered that there were several cases of disputed seats in the 
 Convention, all of which, except one, might, I thought, be decided 
 against us without furnishing a ground of complaint of the char- 
 acter required. The exception was that of the Dutchess County 
 delegation. There were serious objections to the regularity of the, 
 choice of our delegates, but for the admission of the Clintonian 
 delegates there was no ground or pretence whatever. If the con- 
 vention rejected our delegates and admitted the others I would 
 be ready for opposition. Mr. Crosby, who religiously believed that 
 there was nothing the Clintonian majority would not do to obtain 
 power, declared himself entirely satisfied, and our caucus dissolved.' 
 
 In deciding on the representation from Dutchess the Convention 
 took up first the case of our delegates and rejected them. It then 
 proceeded to consider the claims of the Clintonian delegation, and 
 the leading members from the Federal counties, such as Gideon 
 Granger, John Woodworth, and Nathan Williams, made animated 
 speeches in favor of their admission. 
 
 Our friends generally, and I among the rest, deeming the de- 
 cision certain, took up our hats to repair to the Senate Chamber to 
 nominate Porter, but the affair was destined to a different denoue- 
 ment. Perley Keyes, a Senator on our side, and, tho' a plain farmer, 
 a man of very rare sagacity, and Dr. Sargeant, long a distinguished 
 Republican member, a sincere man, but drawn by special circum- 
 stances into the Clintonian ranks where he had become a leader, 
 lodged at the same hotel. After the separrate caucuses, which had 
 both been held with closed doors, broke up. Senator Keyes invited 
 the Doctor to a friendly consultation, and communicated to him 
 confidentially what we had decided to do, and the latter agreed to 
 exert all his power to prevent a rupture in the party by rejecting 
 both sets of delegates from the county of Dutchess. I saw them 
 together several times behind the Speaker's chair, during the debate, 
 but had no idea of the subject of their conversation; Keys, it after- 
 wards appeared, having sought these interviews to strengthen the 
 Doctor's nerves under the violent" outpourings that came from his 
 side. Dr. Sargent waited until the debate was drawing to a close, 
 when he made, as he was very capable of doing, an able and effective 
 speech against the admission of their delegates, dwelling mainly on 
 the probability that their admission might break up the convention, 
 and the folly of thus endangering the cause, when they had a 
 sufficient majority of undisputed votes. Not one of the newly elected 
 delegates voted with him, but he carried a sufficient number of those 
 
 1 The eonveatlon was ehld a.t the Capitol 25 March, 1817. ° MS. I, p. 110. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MAKTIW VAK BUEEN. / 83 
 
 who belonged to his party in the Legislature to carry the question. 
 The next morning the principal part of the New York delegation, 
 including a man of so much moderation as John T. Irving, called 
 on me and insisted, without assigning any new reasons, that I 
 should still unite with them in nominating an opposing candidate. 
 The reception that I gave to this application offended them, and my 
 political candle was thus lighted at both ends. Mr. Clinton was 
 nominated and elected by an immense majority. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Year 1817 was distinguished by the first and settled commit- 
 ment of tlie State to the Canal policy that has since been prosecuted 
 with such signal success. It is not to be denied that a large majority 
 of the prominent men of the political party to which I belonged were 
 very decidedly opposed to this policy. They regarded it, with few 
 exceptions, as impracticable, and as brought forward principally 
 thro' the influence of Mr. Clinton, at the most depressed period of 
 his political career, with views rather to his own than to the interest 
 of the State. As to the first objection there was room doubtless for 
 an honest difference of opinion, but it must also be admitted that 
 their prejudice against Mr. Clinton, personal and political, in some 
 degree disqualified them from forming a safe opinion upon the sub- 
 ject. I did not in the least doubt that Mr. Clinton hoped to advance 
 his political interests by the agitation of the question, but I could 
 not concur with my friends in finding in that conviction sufficient 
 ground for opposing the measure itself, if its prosecution should ap- 
 pear to me practicable and beneficial to the State. A Bill authoriz- 
 ing the commencement of the Erie Canal passed the House of Assem- 
 bly at the previous session and came to the Senate near the close of it. 
 The necessary information not having in my opinion been obtained 
 to justifj^ its passage I moved, successfully, that all the clauses of 
 the Bill that authorized the commencement of the work should be 
 stricken out, leaving only the section making an appropriation for 
 further surveys aiid estimates. Mr. Loomis, a Western Senator, and 
 friend of Mr. Clinton, but moderate in his politics, and an ardent 
 advocate of the Canal, on its own merits, admitted that the views I 
 had expressed in support of my motion were entirely correct. I be- 
 lieve that he voted with us, but am certain that he was content with 
 the result, and I well remember the satisfaction he expressed that I 
 had not fallen into the error so prevalent in both parties — ^that of 
 looking upon the measure with eyes chiefly directed to its political 
 bearings. 
 
 When the Bill was before us at the next session the necessary 
 information had been obtained, and Judge Hammond (in his Politi- 
 cal History) does me simple justice in the credit Jie concedes to me 
 for the influence I exerted to secure its passage.^ My brother-in-law, 
 
 1 This measure was adopted in the House by a vote o£ 64 to 36, the majority being 
 composed mainly of the followers of Clinton and some Federalists. In the Senate the 
 bill received 18 votes in Its favor, and 9 In opposition. " There were five senators who 
 were zealous anti-Cllntonlans who voted for the bill. Perhaps it is not too much to 
 say, that this result was produced by th6 efficient and able efforts of Mr. Van Buren, 
 who was an early friend of the measure." Hammond, History of Political Parties in 
 the State of New York, I, 441,— W. C. F. 
 
 84 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MAETIN VAN BtTEEKT. 85 
 
 Senator "Cantine, a very ardent politician, and a pure man in public 
 and in private life, supported it earnestly. I believe our adverse 
 votes would have caused its failure, but am quite certain that we 
 could, if so inclined, have defeated it with the greatest ease. I made 
 an elaborate speech in its favor, of which a report was attempted but 
 acknowledged by its author Col. Stone,^ (a life long political oppo- 
 nent) to be very imperfect — for which he assigned complimentary 
 reasons, saying that he had found it difficult to report me generally 
 from the rapidity and animation with which I spoke, and that on 
 this occasion he was led to abandon the attempt by the great interest 
 he felt in the speech, and his gratification at its character. 
 
 I perhaps pressed the subject with greater earnestness because a 
 large majority of my political friends differed from me, and somo 
 blamed my course. Mr. Clinton was in the Senate Chamber, and 
 listened very attentively throughout, and altho' it was only a few 
 weeks after he had obtained the nomination for Governor, which I 
 had so zealously opposed, and our personal intercourse was very 
 reserved, he approached me, when I took my seat, shook hands with 
 me, and expressed his gratification in the strongest terms. From 
 that period to the end of my employment in the service of the State, 
 I supported with fidelity and zeal every measure calculated to ad- 
 vance its Canal policy, and opposed as zealously, every attempt to 
 prostitute that great interest to party purposes. 
 
 My shrewd friend, Senator Keyes, who was opposed to the Bill, 
 informed me that he intended to offer an amendment providing for 
 a branch canal from the main trunk to Oswego, in which place I 
 was largely interested, and that the success of the amendment must 
 depend upon my vote. I remonstrated with him on the unkindness 
 of his course in seeking to connect my action upon so important a 
 subject with my private interest, but told him that I should assuredly 
 vote against the amendment on that ground, if there was no other. 
 He notwithstanding offered it; I voted against it, and it was de- 
 feated. The construction of that 'branch many years afterwards 
 proved of great advantage to the interests both of Oswego and of 
 the State. 
 
 After the signal triumph of Judge Spencer in forcing the nomi- 
 nation of Mr. Clinton upon the party I did not much regret the 
 necessity that presented itself to encounter him again at this session 
 in one of those political skirmishes for which his passion was in- 
 nate and insatiable, and in which, if I often succeeded, it was be- 
 cause I consulted my judgement more and my temper less, and be- 
 cause I took greater care to be right. In consequence of our respect- 
 
 1 William L. Stone, conductor of the Albany Daily Advertiser, a leading federal news- 
 paper, and later editor of the Commercial Advertiser of New York City. — W. C. F. 
 
86 AMEEICAW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 able force in numbers and the preponderance of talent in our Sena- 
 torial ranks, conceded by Judge Hammond in his Political His- 
 tory ,i at the time of Mr. Clinton's election, we were not long in se- 
 curing a majority in that body, which, tho' generally willing to sup- 
 port such of Mr. Clinton's measures as were not in themselves ob- 
 jectionable, could not be regarded as politically friendly to him. If 
 matters were left to their natural course it was not likely that his 
 friends could improve his condition in this respect, and it was 
 not strange therefore that an administration that owed its existence 
 to extraneous means, should find itself compelled to resort to sim- 
 ilar appliances for its support. A case for this sort of interference 
 was presented in this its first year. 
 
 The seats of Mr. [William] Ross, of Orange County, a Clintonian, 
 and of my friend Mr. Cantine, of Greene, became vacant and were 
 to be filled at the next election. The particular counties in each 
 District from which 'candidates for Senatorial vacancies should be 
 taken were then designated at the seat of Government by the repre- 
 sentatives of the District in both branches of the Legislature. The 
 counties already named were fairly entitled to be, and would, under 
 ordinary circumstances, have been selected, but such a result would 
 have left things precisely as they stood, the one being favorable 
 and the other adverse to Mr. Clinton. A project was therefore 
 started by Judge Spencer to give to the county of Otsego, already 
 represented by Judge Hammond, a' Clintonian, another Senator, to 
 the exclusion of Greene, on the pretence that by a critical examina- 
 tion of the relative population of the counties composing the Dis- 
 trict, Otsego was better entitled to two Senators than Greene to one. 
 On my way to the meeting of the representatives of the District at 
 the Capitol, I was confidentially informed by a personal friend who 
 generally acted with the Clintonians, that there had been private , 
 meetings of the members on that side, attended by Judge Spencer, 
 in which it was agreed to give the vacancies to Orange and Otsego. 
 I met Mr. Eoss, at the door of the 'Senate, in the act of leaving the 
 place of our meeting, called him aside, and denounced in strong 
 terms the intrigue of which I had just been informed. He said he 
 had nothing to do with the affair. I told him that could not well 
 
 ' " Mr. Van Buren, of course, felt a deep Interest in the choice of the council of apjwint- 
 ment. His object would not be accomplished if men were placed in the council, a major, 
 ity of whom were decidedly hostile to the governor. In that case the public would Im_ 
 pute all the errors which might be committed, to the council, and judge of the executive 
 'by his speeches. Nor was he willing that Mr. Clinton should have a council which 
 would accord with him in all his views, and be subservient to his wishes. It would, he 
 thought, be more desirable to form a council which the governor could not control, but 
 for whose acts the public would hold him responsible. In other words, Mr. Van Buren 
 wished to create a council which should be nominally Clintonian, but which, at the 
 same time, should be really hostile to the governor. Partly by management, and partly 
 by accident, a council of the character last described, was actually chosen," Hammond, 
 History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 457. — W. C. F, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIW VAN BUKEN. 87 
 
 be reconciled with the fact that some of the meetings had been held 
 in his room ; that if the perpetration of this outrage was persevered 
 in we would not support him, and that he knew us well enough 
 to judge whether we would keep our word. He showed confusion 
 and alarm. Our meeting was soon after organized by placing Gen. 
 Belknap of Orange in the Chair — a warm friend of Mr. Clinton and 
 a very upright man. Judge Hammond, who was the leader on the 
 Clintonian side, and whom, judging from the candour and integrity 
 exhibited in his History of the times, it must have caused Judge 
 Spencer some labour to bring into the support of the contemplated 
 arrangement, moved that one of the Senatorial candidates should be 
 taken from Orange, in regard to which there was no dispute. I 
 moved to amend by adding Greene for the other, so that the question 
 should be taken on both vacancies at the same time. Judge Ham- 
 mond assigned plausible reasons against this course, without ad- 
 mitting that there was any opposition to Greene, and without laiow- 
 ing that I had been apprised of their plans. After sldrmishing in 
 this way long enough to be satisfied that he did not mean to be more 
 explicit, I made a full statement of the information I had received, 
 challenged a denial of its correctness," and receiving none, de- 
 nounced the projected scheme in decorous but severe terms, as a 
 proof of a determination to break up the party. Mr. Hammond 
 was not, as he says himself, an expert debater, and discomposed by a 
 statement of facts, not complimentary to the fairness of those vrith 
 whom he was acting, entered with evident embarrassment upon the 
 exhibition of his statistics in regard to the population of the coun- 
 ties, and other pretences that had been constructed *by the movers 
 in the plot. We scouted all his calculations as indicating a chaffer- 
 ing disposition inconsistent with that confidence and fraternal feel- 
 ing which had in time past characterized the action of the party. 
 We affirmed that the treatment of the small counties, that consti- 
 tuted nearly half the district, had always been of the most liberal 
 character, and that not an instance could be cited in which a double 
 representation in the Senate had been given to a large couiity, as 
 long as there was in the district a small county not represented, and 
 finally we exclaimed against the propriety of a separate and private 
 understanding by a portion of a political brotherhood about to as- 
 semble to promote the common cause, pledging itself to a particular 
 course without hearing what the rest had to say against it. 
 
 Gen. Belknap, the Chairman, very unexpectedly to all, rose from his 
 seat, and, tho' no speaker, said in impressive terms that he had at- 
 tended the meeting alluded to, and had promised to vote for the 
 exclusion of Greene, but that he was now satisfied that he had done 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 115. 
 
88 AMERIOAIT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 wrong, and that he would vote for my amendment. Mr. Throop 
 from Chenango, who had been a clerk in my office, but was a zealous 
 Ciintonian, next made an elaborate explanation of his present views 
 and his i-easons for not voting as he had pledged himself to ^'ote. 
 Whilst he was speaking, Hammond turned to me and said, " Would 
 you believe it, Sir! That young man has been one of the chief 
 Agents in getting up this business ! " When the vote was taken 
 my motion to include Greene was carried by a large majority. I was 
 detained in the Senate Chamber longer than the rest, and when I 
 went out I found a solitary individual, walking to and fro on the 
 Capitol, Porch, whom in the uncertivin light of the hour I did not 
 at first recognize, but I soon made him out, by his habit of humming 
 over the head of his cane, to be Dr. Davis, one of the Orange county 
 representatives. I approached him, and asked him what kept him 
 there at that time of night. He answered, with a hearty laugh, that 
 he was positively afraid to go home ; that Judge Spencer was wait- 
 ing for him at his room, and he did not know how to explain their 
 defeat, as they came to the meeting with a pledged vote of two thirds 
 in their favor, and had been defeated by about the same number! 
 I advised him to tell the Judge that their cause was not an honest one, 
 and that was the reason of its failure.^ 
 
 Gov. Clinton's inauguration was quite an imposing affair, as I 
 understood, and conducted in excellent taste. Having, contrary to 
 my usual course in such cases, agreed, on the suggestion of Judge 
 Thompson, not to attend, I did not witjiess it, and was accordingly 
 very much surprised to hear afterwards, that the latter was present, 
 with his family, and tliat my absence had in consequence been more 
 noticed than it might otherwise have been. This act, so inconsistent 
 with his general conduct, was caused by an influence which in its 
 usual and appropriate sphere is generally both benignant and auspi- 
 cious, but when exerted in the uncongenial paths of politicks is rarely 
 happy and always out of place. Knowing the Chief Justice to be, 
 
 'This Incident of the senatorial election Is more fully described bj' Hammond : 
 " Before the middle district convention adjourned, it wna resolved to appoint a com- 
 mittee to draft an address to the electors of tho district, on the subject of the approach- 
 ing election. Mr. Van Burcn was appointed chairman of that committee. Another 
 person agreeing with him in political views, and myself, were ot that committee. He 
 drew an address, in which he reviewed the political contest between the two parties 
 during the late war, and most soundly abused our old political opponents. Tho poor 
 federalists, who were so far from being dangerous, that they had no Idea of opposing 
 our candidates, be they who they might, very justly might have complained of this treat- 
 ment as illiberal. It not cruel. But on the part of Mr. Van Buren, the measure waa 
 politic and judicious. If the Ciintonian republicans refused to sign the address, then 
 It was evidence ot what was charged against thom, — a secret understanding with the 
 federalists,— if they signed it, then tho federalists might be told, that they had no more 
 to expect from one class of the i-epubllcans than from another, for both hod joined 
 in the uncalled for denunciations against them. The address eventually was signed 
 indiscriminately by all the republican members." Hammond, History of Political Parties 
 In the State ot New York, I, 47X.— W. C. F. 
 
ABTOBIOGRAl-HY OF MABTIH VAK BUKEN. 89 
 
 when left to himself a perfectly straight- forward man, I did not, as 
 I would have been justifiable in doing, break off my intercourse with 
 him, but contented myself with making him sensible of the injustice 
 he had done me, without asking or receiving explanations. 
 
 A few evenings afterwards I was visited by Gen. Solomon Van 
 Rensselaer, the Adjutant-General, who brought me a message from 
 Gov. Clinton to the effect that there was nothing in his feelings 
 towards me that would prevent on his part the maintenance of 
 friendly relations, and that he sincerely hoped that such would be 
 the case ; that he did not of course expect me to support any of his 
 measures which I did not approve, but would be happy to find that I 
 judged his administration fairly. I reciprocated these friendly assur- 
 ances .with much cordiality, and requested the General to say to the 
 Governor that all I asked of him was such an administration of the 
 Government as would satisfy our old political friends that he desired 
 to sustain the Republican party of the State, in which event I could 
 make myself useful to it, and would take great pleasure in doing so. 
 I felt the awkwardness of sendiag such a response through a high- 
 toned federalist, but thought it due as well to the Governor as to 
 myself, to make him understand my position correctly. He and 
 Judge Spencer might, at that time, by their joint influence, have pre- 
 vailed upon two of the foui- members composing the Council of Ap- 
 pointment to consent to my removal from the office of Attorney Gen- 
 eral, and thus might have effected it by his casting vote. By omitting 
 to make the attempt between July 1818, when he entered upon 
 the duties of his office, and January 1819, when a new Council was 
 chosen, he proved the sincerity of his professions made thro' Gen. 
 Van Rensselaer. Of the new CouncU not a single member could 
 have been induced to vote for my removal, and by the next — ^the only 
 one in which his friends obtained a majority — ^I was removed.^ 
 
 At the meeting of the Legislature in 1819 the Rubicon was passed 
 by the Clintonians and a speedy separation of the party made cer- 
 tain. They decided to support for Speaker of the House of As- 
 sembly, Obadiah German, a Senator in Congress during the War, 
 and its violent opponent. He was to our friends the most obnoxious 
 man in the Clintonian ranks. It had for a series of years been the 
 practice of the Republican members to" meet in the Senate Chamber, 
 and to select, by a majority, the individual to be voted for as 
 Speaker, and the choice thus made was always regarded as binding 
 
 '■ The new council was composed of Yates, Barnum, F. William Ross 
 
 and George Rosencrantz. It was elected with the aid of Federalist votes, only John 
 A. King, Duer and Carman being opposed. These decided not to vote for the Clinto- 
 nian council because of the treatment of "the senatorial question by Governor Clinton. 
 It was supposed that the Governor was hostile to the re-election of Rufus King, and 
 this supposition was confirmed when Judge Spencer was put forward as the candidate 
 of the governor's party. — W. C. F. 
 
90 AMBBICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 on the party. Owing, in some degree, to mismanagement, partly to 
 the unpopularity of German, and, to a small extent, to the absence 
 of members, we obtained a majority in the Caucus, and nominated 
 Mr. [William] Thompson, of Seneca, for Speaker. This result 
 astounded Mr. Clinton and his friends, who from having ridiculed 
 the idea of opposition to German were now filled with consternation. 
 Instead of uniting in the choice of Thompson, as they should have 
 done (the place not being one of primary importance) they decided 
 in the excitement and confusion of the time to elect, and did elect 
 German, by a union with the federalists.^ 
 
 The effect was electrical, and from one end of the State to the 
 other there was a revulsioTa of feeling in the minds of Republicans 
 inclining them to join hands at the Governor's expence. This gen- 
 eral sensation brought to Albany Jacob Barker, of whom I have al- 
 ready spoken, and who was always set in active motion by a crisis, 
 as had been shown on many occasions during the War. He possessed 
 the full confidence of Judge Spencer, and a large share of that of 
 the Governor and of his new friend Judge William W. Van Ness. 
 Barker confirmed the worst accounts they had received from the 
 counties and impressed them strongly with the necessity of taking 
 some step that might subdue the excitement, or at least divert the 
 public mind from the subject. A vacancy had been produced on the 
 Bench of the Supreme Court, and the coup d'etat proposed by Barker 
 was that the Governor should nominate me to the Council for the 
 Judgeship without enquiring whether I would or would not accept 
 it. I have before described the relations that always existed be- 
 tween Barker and myself. He came to me, after a full consultation 
 with the three gentlemen I have named, and first requiring and ob- 
 taining my promise that I would say nothing in regard to my own 
 feelings upon the matter he was about to lay before me, proceeded 
 to inform me fully of his plan, to which, he said, all the gentlemen 
 referred to had assented. His argument was that whether I accepted 
 cr not, it would be sufficient to repel the charge of Mr. Clinton's sub- 
 serviency to federal influence ; and if I accepted it would remove me 
 from a place where I was very troublesome, to one where I could 
 exert less political influence. The only difficulty, he told me, arose 
 from a promise the Governor had made to appoint Mr. [John] 
 Woodworth, but that they thought could be overcome. 
 
 He subsequently described to me an interview between Judge 
 Spencer and Woodworth, the object of which was to induce the latter 
 to relieve the Governor from his promise, the particulars of which 
 were too characteristic of the parties to require, with me, any other 
 proof of their authenticity. But Mr. Woodworth stood fast on his 
 
 •A full account of this election is given In Hammond, History of Political Parties In 
 the State of New Yorlt, I, 477.— W, C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 91 
 
 bond. The interference of his brother-in-law, Gen. Stephen Van 
 Eensselaer was next called into action, but with no better success. 
 They were all greatly dissatisfied with this pertinacious selfishness, 
 but the Governor, having received a personal favor from him, ful- 
 filled his promise and nominated Woodworth. It is probable that 
 when the result was found to be inevitable the proposition spoken of 
 by Judge Hammond of appointing two additional Judges, and my- 
 self as one of them, was proposed by Mr. Barker, and ahandoned 
 on being opposed ° by Judge Spencer ajid the Governor.^ I have 
 no idea that either of these gentlemen knew that I had been apprised 
 of these circumstances, or that they would have been much dissatis- 
 fied with the fact if they had known it. 
 
 The blunder of the administration in regard to the choice of 
 Speaker, was, shortly after, followed by an event that served to 
 strengthen us greatly. A vacancy occurred in the Board of Canal 
 Commissioners, and I was told by a federal member of the House of 
 Assembly, opposed to Mr. Clinton, and who subsequently became a 
 member of the party known as " the high-minded," that if we would 
 bring forward a candidate against Ephriam Hart the Clintonian 
 candidate, who was not_ acceptable to him and his friends, there 
 would be found votes enough on the joint-ballot to secure his elec- 
 tion. I proposed my friend Henry Seymour, father of the present 
 Governor [Horatio Seymour] to whom he at once agreed. On the 
 joint-ballot, we, to the surprise and deep regret of the Governor and 
 his friends, elected Mr. Seymour by a majority of one vote.^ This 
 gave us a majority in the Canal Board and I am quite confident that 
 we derived more advantage from the patronage and influence attached 
 to it than the Governor obtained from the Council of Appointment, 
 which was embarrassed by the circumstance that it had to minister 
 to the cravings of a party composed of discordant materials. 
 
 While things were going on in this way, I one day received, iu 
 court, a note from Judge Spencer, written on the Bench, saying that 
 he desired a private interview that evening, and would meet me either 
 at his house, or at mine, or at the residence of his son-in-law. I 
 returned an answer before he left the bench that I would come to his 
 house in the evening. 
 
 The state of party-feelings at the time may be inferred from the 
 fact that we were ,both sensible that" it was necessary to make our 
 interview strictly private to prevent its being used by mischevious 
 persons to foment jealousies among our friends. He received me 
 very kindly at the door, introduced me into his library, and turned 
 the key. He soon disclosed his object by expressing a strong desire 
 
 " Ms. I, p. 120. 
 
 1 Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 490. — W. C. F. 
 
 2 Hammond, History of Political Parties In the State of New York, I, 495. — W. C. F. 
 
92- AMEEIOAlir HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 to have the harrassing distraction in the party healed, and he had 
 sought this interview to ascertain whether a candid talk with me 
 might not lead, in some unexceptionable way, to the accomplish- 
 ment of that result. He had not been able to digest any plan of his 
 own, and was throughout, what was very unusual with him, em- 
 barrassed by his consciousness of the difficulties that surrounded the 
 subject. I was pleased to find that the idea of any action on my part 
 separated from my political friends, did not, at any time, appear to 
 have entered his mind, and I observed to him that while my con- 
 victions of the impossibility of carrying his wishes into effect were- 
 very strong, I need give him no assurances in regard to my personal 
 feelings and inclinations, as he had shown his sense of them by ask- 
 ing the interview. Among many other things, I urged the difficulty 
 of bringing the Republicans on our side, and for whom we claimed 
 that they constituted the main body of the party, to unite in the 
 support of an Administration by which Judge William W. Van Ness, 
 Elisha Williams, and many other prominent federalists were recog- 
 nized as political and confidential friends and advisers. I could con- 
 ceive of no way in which this objection could be obviated, that the 
 Governor would feel himself at liberty to adopt; professions and 
 assurances however honestly made, would, in the present state of 
 political feeling, pass for very little, and nothing short of an open 
 rupture with those gentlemen would inspire even th^ well-disposed 
 on our side with confidence in any arrangement we might adopt. 
 Mr. Clinton having received two Speakers and a Council of Appoint- 
 ment at the hands of those gentlemen could not now shake them 
 off to conciliate old friends even if he could bring his own feelings 
 to such a step. He admitted the difficulties that b^et their path in 
 that regard, and felt them the more sensibly as Judge Van Ness, 
 whom he once heartily disliked, had by this time conciliated his 
 esteem — and Judge Spencer was as sincere in his friendships as he 
 was thorough in his aversions. 
 
 After conversing until a late hour we seemed both satisfied that 
 nothmg effectual could be done to further the object of our con- 
 sultation, and were about to part, when he said that there was 
 another subject on which he wished to speak, but was embarassed 
 as to the manner of introducing it lest he might be misunderstood, 
 and give offence where certainly none was intended. He proceeded 
 to describe the pressure that had for a long time been made upon 
 Mr. Clinton for my removal and the force that these applications 
 derived from the circumstance that I was regarded as the leader 
 of the opposition to his administration. I interfered at this stage 
 of his remarks by begging him to permit me to anticipate what he 
 desired to say which as I presumed was that if my opposition was 
 continued the Governor would feel himself obliged to consent to 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 93 
 
 my removal. I then observed that as this was not intended as a 
 menace, of which I had not the slightest suspicion, and which he 
 earnestly disclaimed, I could have no objection to its introduction; 
 that I was not sorry it had been introduced, as I had for some time 
 been anxious to be fully understood by the Governor and himself 
 upon the point. I said that I had obtained my office from the same 
 source from which the Governor had derived his place, and was 
 earlier in possession. I sustained him in the leading measure of 
 his Administration, — ^that of Internal Improvements — ^but it was 
 complained that I was taking measures to prevent his re-election. 
 ' This I had a right to do, and I denied that he had any authority 
 to use his power, derived as it was, to coerce me into his support. 
 But at the same time I admitted that these views, had, by the course 
 of events, and conduct of parties, come to be regarded as mere 
 abstractions; — ^tTiat I was by no means certain that I would act 
 upon them myself if our cases were reversed ; — that I had for a long 
 time regarded the loss of my office, when the Governor obtained the 
 power to remove me, as the probable consequence of my persistence 
 in the course I felt it my duty to pursue, and that he might rest 
 assured that he would hear of no personal complaints from me or 
 my friends on account of my removal. 
 
 Judge Spencer acknowledged emphatic'ally the liberality of my 
 feelings, and the regret he would experience if matters took the di- 
 rection referred to, (in which I did not doubt his sincerity, for not- 
 withstanding occasional exhibitions of great violence, he was cap- 
 able of generous impulses) — ^and said, as I rose to leave him that? 
 he was happy we had met, because altho' we had accomplished noth- 
 ing upon the main subject, our conversation could not fail to give a 
 milder tone to our future differences. 
 
 The session terminated without any change in the posture of polit- 
 ical affairs, but also without my removal taking place. In the heat 
 of suromer I received an order from the Governor to attend the Dela- 
 ware Circuit, and to take part in a laborious and difficult trial for 
 Murder in Delaware County, and meeting him the next day, at the 
 Canal Board, he asked me whether I had received his order. I an- 
 swered affirmatively but enquired whether he thought it quite fair 
 as matters stood, (alluding to the called meeting of the Council of 
 Appointment, and the expectation of my removal during my absence) 
 to send me in such weather upon such a service, and proposed to him 
 to consent that I should employ Counsel on the spot, at the expense 
 of the State. He understood my allusion, and colouring, said, " No ! 
 Great interest is felt in the case, and the public will be disappointed 
 if you do not go!" 
 
 Before the adjournment of the Legislature I said to Gen. German, 
 in a jocose way, that his friend the Governor gave the State a great 
 
94 AMEKICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 deal of' trouble, that his adherents ought to apply to Mr. Monroe to 
 send him on some distinguished foreign mission, and that he would 
 be strongly tempted to unite in the measure, to which he made some 
 reply, in a similar vein. On my return from the Delaware circuit 
 I met the General on his way from New York, where the Council 
 of Appointment was is session, to his residence in Chenango. He 
 left his carriage, came to me and saluted me very cordially. I asked 
 him the news— what was the Council about, and has it made a new 
 Attorney General? He jeplied ''■Not yet^'' and then referred to 
 our former conversation, and said he had felt desirous to see me in 
 the hope of being able in some way to arrest the divisions that were 
 spreading in the party. I replied by giving to that conversation its 
 true character, but adding seriously that if the Governor was will- 
 ing to accept a foreign mission, I for one, would be happy to see 
 him get it. He said "No, No." — on which I told hini at once, but in 
 kindness, that for anything else it was too late; that the Governor 
 must either put us down, or be put out himself; that as matters 
 stood the leading men of both parties would only discredit them- 
 selves with the People by attempting to patch up a truce. "Well," re- 
 plied he, "it requires no prophet to tell us which of those results 
 will happen" — and we separated. I have always supposed that the 
 General had asked them to delay the removal until he could see me, 
 and that he wrote to New York from the nearest post-office, after 
 our interview, as I received my supersedeas almost immediately 
 thereafter.^ 
 
 Chief Justice Thompson, having received the ° appointment of 
 Secretary of the Navy, and there being besides strong objections 
 to his nomination for Governor on the part of some of our best men, 
 we determined, before the Legislature separated, informally, to 
 bring forward Vice President Tompkins. All admitted the Chief 
 Justice to be honest and sincere but it was thought tliat he did not 
 understand the feeling of the party sufficiently, and might quarrel 
 with it before his term of office expired. Although I had been very 
 instrumental in giving him the political prominence he possessed, I 
 
 1 " In July [1819] the Council met again. Although the removal of minor office hold- 
 ing Bucktails and tte appointment of Clintoniaus had been very general; yet Mr. Van 
 Buren, who stood at the head of the opposition to the Governor, and led on the attack, 
 had been allowed to hold one of the most Important, influential and at that time lucra- 
 tive offices in the State, the office of Attorney General, undisturbed. It was urged that 
 this inconsistency In the conduct of the administration ought to be obviated ; and after 
 much and long hesitation the Council removed him, and appointed Thomas J. Oakley in 
 his place . Mr. Van Buren, according to the maxim which before had, and since has 
 governed his political conduct, had no right to complain, and In fact, I believe, he did 
 not ; /but an outcry was of course raised in the newspapers, on account of the removal 
 of a republican from an important office, and the appointment of a federalist iu his 
 place." Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 507. Oakley 
 was the Dick Shift of the Bucktail Bards.— W, C. F. 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 125. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUREN. 95 
 
 came to pretty much the same conchision — for many reasons, one of 
 which I will mention by way of illustration. We went together to 
 the Delaware Circuit — ^in which county Gen. Eoot lived and then 
 exercised undisputed and indisputable political sway — and on our 
 way I expressed a hope to the Chief Justice that he would shut his 
 eyes to the General's foibles, and treat him kindly. For a few days 
 their intercourse was mutually satisfactory — so much so that the 
 latter confessed to me that there were good points about Thompson 
 of which he had not before been sensible; but before the Circuit 
 closed his prejudices were more than ever aroused and I could not 
 even prevail on him to take a respectable leave of the Chief Justice^ 
 The knowledge of our intention in regard to the Vice President 
 was the signal for opposition to the settlement of that portion of 
 his accounts for War expenditures that "had to be audited by the 
 States officers before it could be allowed at Washington. Until 
 then all went on smoothly and his accounts would have been with- 
 out a doubt, but for that circumstance, satisfactorily settled. He 
 soon came to an open rupture with the Comptroller Mclntyre (a 
 zealous friend of the Governor) who made an appeal to the public 
 in the form of an official letter, signed as Comptroller, and addressed 
 to the Vice President.^ I went to the residence of the latter at 
 Staten Island, as well to obtain his consent to be our candidate, as 
 to tender all the aid in my power in preparing an answer to the 
 Comptroller's letter, with copies of which the State had been in- 
 undated. I soon found that he was strongly impressed with the idea 
 that I wanted the nomination myself, ~ and persisted in declining, 
 until I alluded in terms to his motive, and gave him assurances of 
 his error which he could not but believe, when he consented to our 
 wishes. But when we came to the examination of his papers I 
 found him, in comparison with what he had been, exceedingly 
 helpless. Conscious of his integrity in all things — sensible of the 
 great services he had rendered to the country at periods of its ut- 
 most need, and of the disinterestedness of his motives, (which had 
 been strikingly displayed by his refusal to be drawn from his Post, 
 by the temptation of the office of Secretary of State) his feelings 
 had not been callous or his resolution strong enough to enable him 
 to bear up against the injustice, the ingratitude and the calumny 
 of which he was now made the victim. He could not speak on the 
 subject of his accounts with composure, or look at Mclntyre's letter 
 without loathing. When told of the indispensable necessity of giv- 
 ing to those matters prompt and thorough attention, he said, he 
 could not help it, and throwing down a bunch of Keys, exclaimed, 
 " There are the keys of my private papers, without reserve — here is 
 
 1 A letter to his Excellency Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of the State of l^ew 
 York. The answer was entitled : A Letter to Archibald Mclntyre, comptroller of the 
 State of New York. It ran through two editions. — W. C. F. 
 
96 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 my friend Mr. Leake — ^he knows a good deal about the papers and 
 will cheerfully give you all the aid in his power, and when you 
 want explanations come to me." 
 
 On examining his private letter-book I found a correspondence 
 between him and Thomas Addis Emmett containing an offer of 
 the office of Attorney General, and its acceptance. I immediately 
 went to the garden where he was, with the book in my hand, and 
 said to him " Vice President, I find here th&t you were the author 
 of an appointment that I have always attributed to Mr. Clinton," 
 and showed him the correspondence. He replied " Certainly, Gov. 
 Clinton knew nothing of the matter. I wanted to have Thoihas and 
 Southwick convicted of the bribery they practiced on the passage 
 of the Bill to incorporate the Bank of America, and thought you 
 too young for that service; and I knew besides that you would 
 come to the office early enough." 
 
 The knowledge of the injustice that I had for so many years 
 done to Mr. Clinton in this regard distressed me and made me after- 
 wards more cautious how I trusted to mere inferences in important 
 matters. There was then an impassable political gulf between us, 
 and no suitable opportunity was presented for explanation, but I 
 am sure this discovery had its influence on my dispositions towards 
 him at another and very critical period of his life. 
 
 In the course of my early interviews with the Vice President I 
 imbibed a suspicion that the habit of intemperance, to which he, 
 in the end, fell a melancholy victim, had commenced its fatal rav- 
 ages upon him. The Secretary of the Navy, (Thompson) whose 
 son had married the Vice President's daughter had taken a cottage 
 for the summer on the island, but was absent from home when I 
 arrived. On his first visit I proposed a walk, and in reply to his 
 question as to the condition in which I found the Vice President's 
 papers, I answered " So far, very well, but there is another matter 
 that has afflicted me more." I then asked him whether it had ever 
 occurred to him that our friend was becoming intemperate. He 
 paused a moment, and replied, with more feeling than was comm,on 
 to his nature, but with his habitual truthfulness, that he could not 
 say that the idea had not at times passed thro' his mind, but that 
 he had watched him as closely as he could, with propriety, and satis- 
 fied himself that his indulgence was temporary, occasioned by his 
 troubles, and would soon wear off. I hinted at the fearful respon- 
 sibility I was assuming in pressing his nomination if it should 
 turn out differently. He concurred very fully in this and said that 
 he trusted I knew him too well not to be satisfied that he would 
 be the last person to advise me to persevere if he thought there was 
 any real danger, and that he would not fail, if my apprehensions 
 were realized, to step forward, and share the responsibility with me. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 97 
 
 This relieved my i^ind, but I prepared, notwithstanding, an anony- 
 mous letter to the Vice President which I intended to put in the 
 post-office, when I reached the city, but tny courage, which was 
 never yet equal to such a performance failed, and when I got to 
 New York I destroyed it. 
 
 I soon found not only satisfactory but highly creditable explana- 
 tions of transactions that figured largely in the Comptroller's letter, 
 in the federal presses, and in the pamphlets which the enemies of the 
 Vice President had written on the subject of his accounts. . When my 
 examination was finished and he was delighted with the case he 
 was about to present, I was pleased to witness the revival of his 
 spirits and, with them, of his adroitness, tact and power. He pro- 
 posed to read his Reply first at a private meeting of the most dis- 
 tinguished of his personal and political friends — a step of the utility 
 of which I became very sensible when I found that these numerous 
 gentlemen, after having been thus consulted, identified themselves, 
 in some degree, with the document, and were as much interested in 
 its success, as they could have been if they had themselves written 
 it. My experience on this occasion had its influence in inducing me 
 ever afterwards to submit my own papers destined for publication to 
 the widest inspection of my friends, with liberal permission to 
 suggest improvements, and unaffected dissatisfaction if they failed 
 to avail themselves of it. There was one, and only one point on 
 which the Vice President and myself differed, and that will show 
 the effect that injustice had produced on a mind naturally the most 
 disinterested and self-denjdng, by tempting him contrary to the 
 usage of his life, to become the trumpeter of his own glory. I de- 
 sired to give the largest share of credit for results that had in fact 
 been produced by his individual efforts and sacrifices, to the 
 patriotism of the People, but he thought he had acted on that prin- 
 ciple long enough, and that the time had arrived when he ought to 
 claim what belonged to him. His version of the matter was inserted 
 in the letter, with an engagement on his part, to state to the meeting 
 our difference of opinion on the point, when he reached it, and to 
 abide by their decision. When I looked at the list of persons he had 
 prepared to compose the meeting I was amused with the complexion 
 of some of its parts, and yet nothing could have been more judicious 
 than such a selection. At the door of the place of meeting I met 
 Martin S. Wilkins, the Vice President's class-mate and early friend, 
 who, altho' an honest man in all respects, was substantially a 
 monarchist ^in his politics. Recognizing him, in the obscure light 
 of evening, and notwithstanding my previous knowledge that he 
 was to be one of the company, I said, " Mr. Wilkins you have made 
 some strange mistake in coming here!" 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 7 
 
98 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 " Not at all," he answered, " is not this the house of Jonathan 
 Thompson?" 
 
 "Yes!" said I — ^"but there is to be a democratic meeting here 
 tonight" (that term having come into use instead of Kepublican) 
 " and I am very sure that you do not go to such gatherings." 
 
 " That is true enough " replied Wilkins, " I don't care a d — n for 
 your democracy, but I take an interest in the success of honest men, 
 and believe my old schoolmate Daniel D. Tompkins to be one, and 
 I come here to-night to be confirmed in that opinion ! " 
 
 The Vice President made some very impressive remarks illustrat- 
 ing the truth of the statement upon the expediency of publishing, 
 on which he and I had differed — ^justifying the inferences he had 
 drawn, and strengthening the propriety of his position and con- 
 cluding with the declaration that the time had arrived when he ought 
 to do himself justice. Forming their° opinion upon these grounds 
 only, there appeared to be a general sentiment in the meeting that I 
 was wrong, followed by a remonstrance with me for my opposition. 
 In reply I dwelt for a short time on the danger of a man who had 
 always been so modest in speaking of his own merits changing his 
 character in that regard, particularly under his present circum- 
 stances, which as they stood were well calculated to excite public 
 sympathy; but when I came to describe the uses that Mr. Clinton's 
 caustic and busy pen would make of such seeming self adulation, in 
 a degree at the expense of the People, and at a moment when we 
 were seeking their favor, there was a change of sentiment, except on 
 the part of Mr. Wilkins, who contended that this flattering the 
 
 People was all stuff, and that the better way was to tell the truth 
 
 and abide the consequences. The rest advised the Vice President to 
 yield for the sake of policy — notwithstanding the truth of what he 
 proposed to say — which he did with a good grace. The letter was 
 received with the greatest favor, and embarrassed Governor Clinton 
 and his friends exceedingly. 
 
 The country was filled with the most exaggerated reports in re- 
 gard to the claims preferred against the State by the Vice President. 
 I offered a resolution, early in the next session, calling on the Comp- 
 troller to report the claims made, whether the accounts had been 
 settled according to the provisions of an act passed at the last ses- 
 sion,^ (before it was suspected that he would be a candidate) and if 
 not, the reason for the omission. That officer sent in an elaborate 
 reply which was referred to our committee. "We made a report 
 simple and unvarnished, stating the whole case in a way to be easily 
 understood by the People, and accompanied it by a Bill directing the 
 Comptroller to pay to the Vice President Eleven Thousand Dollars, 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 130. ■ 
 
 > Session Laws of 1819, p. 286. See Hammond, History of Political Parties In the State 
 of New York, I, 508.— W, C, F, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUKEN. 99 
 
 as the balance fully due to him from the State. When this Bill was 
 before the Senate I made a Speech that was very extensively pub- 
 lished and was entirely satisfactory to the friends of the Vice Presi- 
 dent.^ Gideon Granger, the Post Master General under Mr. Madi- 
 son, who had been elected to the Senate from the Western District, 
 was expected to reply, but did not do so, nor was any answer made, 
 and the Bill passed the Senate by a vote of two to one. To prevent 
 the influence of his silence, it was said and published that Mr. 
 Granger had temporarily lost his voice by a severe cold ; which was 
 partially true, but from the sympathy of which he gave unmistak- 
 able signs, whilst listening with respectful and undivided attention 
 to the recital of Tompkins' services, persecutions and sufferings, I 
 inferred a better reason for his disinclination to speak against him, 
 and gave him credit for his forbearance. Mr. Lot, a Member from 
 Lqng Island, and an ardent friend, was so far moved by the same 
 cause that he wept like a child and was obliged to leave the chamber. 
 
 The Vice President arrived at Albany from Washington about 
 (his time, and was received by our friends with wild enthusiasm. A 
 meeting^ composed of the Democratic members of the Legislature, 
 and citizens in great numbers and from all parts of the State, and 
 over which I presided, was, a short time afterwards, held at the Capi- 
 tol, by which Tompkins was nominated as a Candidate for Governor 
 with great unanimity and enthusiasm.^ After an unusually animated 
 contest in which each party exerted itself to the utmost, Mr. Clinton 
 was re-elected by a small majority, but neither of the results I pro- 
 posed to Gen. German occurred: we did not turn the Governor out, 
 nor did he put us down. Although we lost our Governor we chose 
 a Legislature by which I was appointed a Senator in Congress, and 
 which turned Mclntyre out of the office of Comptroller, in. which 
 he had worked so hard against us. 
 
 Several other stirring events transpired at the session of 1820. Mr. 
 Clinton called the attention of the Legislature, in his speech, to the 
 Missouri Question, and recommended action upon that subject. I 
 was not favourable to his recommendation, but unwilling to give 
 him the advantage of vrielding so powerful an influence against us 
 as it would have proved to be, if we had opposed it. Incessant at- 
 tempts were made by his friends to place me in that attitude. Per- 
 mission was asked, and given, to use my name in a notice signed by 
 
 1 Speech in the Senate of New Pork, on the Act to carry into effect the Act of 13th 
 April, 1819, for the settlement of the late Governor's accounts. Albany, 1820. — W. C. F. 
 
 "Feb. 22, 1820. In an account of the meeting, written by John A. King to Rufus King, 
 he said : " A well written address and Resolutions were then submitted by Mr. Van 
 Buren, the chairman ta the meeting, and were adopted with long and repeated cheering." — 
 W. C. F. 
 
 'The question of Tompkins' accounts remained open until after the election, and un- 
 doubtedly played some part in defeating him. In November, 1820, a measure was intro- 
 duced, and passed without opposition, ending the controversy by enabling the accounts 
 to be balanced.— W. C. F. 
 
100 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the most respectable citizens of Albany, of all parties, calling a meet- 
 ing to take the sense of the People on the subject. I was necessarily 
 absent, on a foreign circuit, when the meeting was held, and refused 
 my assent to their proceedings when they were presented to me, be- 
 cause they bore on their face the stamp of political and partisan 
 designs. A letter was written to me by the gentleman who obtained 
 permission to use my name, evidently intended for publication but it 
 was deemed inexpedient to publish my answer when they received it.^ 
 When the Resolution was acted upon in the Senate there was neither 
 debate nor a call of the Ayes and Noes ; and it was silently passed. 
 I was in my seat and would have voted for it if a formal vote had been 
 taken and I always afterwards therefore admitted my share of re- 
 sponsibility for its passage. It may be said that in overlooking the 
 bearings of the question upon the happiness of the People for whom 
 Congress were acting, and allowing myself to be influenced by^a 
 desire to prevent the Governor from making political capital out of 
 his recommendation, I placed myself on the same footing with him. 
 As. to motives I can only say that I state mine truly; that I acted on 
 the defensive, and that I had no hand in bringing the matter forward. 
 
 The re-election of Mr. Rufus King to the United States Senate 
 was another feature of this session that excited much feeling and 
 not a little surprise from the circumstance that it was unanimously 
 made by men, most of whom opposed him at the preceding session. 
 An appointment had been attempted then and failed because of the 
 three candidates brought forward respectively by the Clintonians, 
 Republicans and Federalists neither could obtain a majority of the 
 whole vote, necessary tp obtain a majority in either House; the 
 strength of the Democrats and Clintonians being nearly equal, and 
 divided between Col. Young and John C. Spencer.^ 
 
 In the recess I became, I believe for the first time, acquainted 
 personally with Mr. King, and from my connection with the defense 
 of Vice President Tompkins, in which the subject was noticed, be- 
 came also better informed of his patriotic course in support of the 
 War after the capture of Washington, and his urgent appeal to the 
 Vice President, then Governor, to assume every responsibility and 
 to trust for indemnity to the justice of his Country. Influenced by 
 
 ' Henry F. Jones, Jan. 19, 1820, to Van Buren and draft of Van Buren's answer, Jan. 
 21, are in the Van Buren Papers. 
 
 2 The three candidates proposed were John C. Spencer by the Clintonians, Samuel 
 Young, by the republicans or " Bucktails " and Rufus King, by the federalltsts. " In the 
 assembly Mr. Spencer received fifty four votes, Mr. Young forty four, and Mr. King 
 thirty four. Some of the members, who, on the resolution, voted for Col. Young, when 
 the resolution was lost, voted for Mr. King. The whole number of republican votes, In 
 both houses, for Col. Young, were fifty seven, while those given to Mr. Spencer were 
 sixty four ; showing evidently, at that time, a republican majority in the legislature In 
 favor of Mr. Clinton ; but the preponderance of talent was decidedly with the Bucktails." 
 Hammond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 486. The details of 
 the proceedings are told in John A. King to Rufus King, February 2, 1819. Life and 
 Correspondence of Rufua King, VI, 202.— W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OS" MARTIIT VAN BmElT. '(V\" 
 
 '■V-- ■" '^i 
 
 these considerations, and doubtless stimulated by" a d^ire to o^Etm 
 for Tompkins the votes and support of that section of thefelleralists 
 called "the high-minded" — then supposed to be quite influential — 
 I resolved, before the meeting of the Legislature, to support his 
 re-election. To this end, I prepared, under the pressure of my 
 numerous other avocations, a Pamphlet in his favor, which I sub- 
 mitted to the examination of Mr. William L. Marcy, by whom it was 
 much improved, from which circumstance Judge Hammond, in some 
 degree correctly describes it as our joint production. The pamphlet 
 was sent to the Members before they left home, and had, it was 
 believed, considerable effect upon their opinions. It was signed 
 "A Member of the Legislature" but generally understood, and not 
 denied, to come from me. With the exception of a few members of 
 the delegation from the city of New York, who never forgave my 
 refusal to unite in an adverse nomination to Mr. Clinton, the vote 
 of the Legislature was unanimous in favor of Mr. King's re-election. 
 No one .supposed for a moment that Mr. Clinton and his friends 
 were otherwise than hostile to the measure, but it was well under- 
 stood that they voted for it for the same reason which they charged 
 influenced us; that of gathering strength for the Gubernatorial 
 election. The part I took in the affair was a stereotyped charge 
 against me for the remainder of my political career, brought forward 
 by different parties and factions in turn as the shifting phases of 
 party politics made it their cue to lay hold of the subject. That 
 good natured but most unscrupulous politician. Major Noah, then 
 the Editor of the National Advocate, applied for and obtained a 
 confidential communication of my views on the subject as necessary 
 to the proper discharge of his editorial duties. When he became, 
 in the progress of time, opposed to me, he furnished to my enemies 
 for publication extracts from my letter, shamefully garbled, but 
 even in that state harmless. In 1840, when he felt rather friendly 
 again, he, to my amusement, offered the letter to a political friend to 
 save himself from the importunities of the Whig Committee of Eich- 
 mond, who he said were anxious to obtain it, having evidently for- 
 gotten the roguish use he had himself, years before, made of its 
 contents.^ 
 
 ' This letter is printed on p. 138 of the Autobiography. The autograph draft Is in the 
 Van Buren Papers. Eufus King gracefully noted his Indebtedness to Van Buren, in the 
 following extract of a letter to John A. King, January 14, 1820 : "The part taljen by 
 Mr. Van Buren has indeed been most liberal, and as I conceive at the risk of impair- 
 ing his high standing and Influence among his political friends ; do not fail therefore to 
 Inform him that I can never be insensible of his generosity and that no occasion can ar- 
 rive, that I shall not be ready to prove to him the personal respect & esteem with 
 which he has inspired me." Two months later (March 18) he wrote : "To the Vice 
 President I am not a little indebted for the support without which Mr. Clinton and his' 
 federal friends would have succeeded in degrading me. To Van Buren more especially 
 am I most particularly obliged ; whose views and principles, ag far as I have understood 
 them, deserve my hearty approbation." — W. C. F. 
 
102 AMERiCAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The election of 1820 resulted in the choice of a Democratic ma- 
 jority in the House of Assembly, and we availed ourselves of our full 
 possession of both branches of the Legislature, at the Extra session 
 called for the choice of Presidential Electors in the fall of that year, 
 to pass a Bill providing for a Convention to amend the ° Constitution 
 of the State, -which was rejected in the Council of Revision by the 
 casting vote of Gov. Clinton.^ Two friendly Judges, Piatt and Van 
 Ness, were absent on their circuits; Chancellor Kent and Judge 
 Spencer were known to be against the Bill, and the vote of Judge 
 Woodworth, who had been recently nominated by Governor Clinton 
 was confidently counted on to save the latter from the necessity of 
 giving the casting vote. To the surprise of every one, and the in- 
 dignation of the Clintonians, he voted with Judge Yates, and thus 
 produced the tie.^ A law was passed early in the winter session 
 to submit the question of Convention or No Convention to the Peo- 
 ple in the spring, who decided in favor of holding it by a majority 
 of seventy thousand. 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 135. 
 
 ' In the session of 1817-18 Ogden Edwards, at New York, brouglit a bill into the 
 assembly for calling a State convention to consider such parts of the constitution as 
 related to the appointment of offices. The object was to substitute for the council of 
 appointment some other method of appointing officers. Hammond advised Clinton to 
 adopt the suggestion and couple with it an alteration and extension of the right of 
 suffrage. "All men had become disgusted with the appointing power, under the old 
 constitution, and so universal was the opinion that a change ought to be made, that 
 I was satisfied that the council ot appointment could not much longer form a part 
 of our governmental machinery. The right of suffrage, too, was more restricted In 
 this State than in any other of the northern or middle States ; and I was satisfied 
 that public opinion, in a State so highly democratic, would not much longer endure 
 the restriction" (Hammond, I, 469). Although Clinton controlled one branch of the 
 legislature and could have directed the course of the question he refused to support it, 
 presumably on the ground that the project had originated in the opposition. Edward's 
 bill was rejected. 
 
 The idea of a convention was not abandoned by those opposed to Clinton, and his 
 re-election in 1820 produced the necessary unanimity. Local meetings were held ad- 
 vocating a convention, and the democrats, " perceiving that the only sure means " of get- 
 ting rid of Clinton was by changing some of the methods of government, " availed them- 
 selves, with great skill and adroitness, of the propensity of the people for an alter- 
 ation of the constitution to effect that object." It was to be a convention with un- 
 restricted powers, not confined only to the machinery of appointments. Clinton was 
 now in favor of the plan, and wished the question of calling a convention to be sub- 
 mitted to the people ; but the democrats were in a majority in both houses of the 
 Legislature, and passed a measure providing for a convention, the results of which 
 were to be submitted to the people for confirmation or rejection. The Clintonians 
 feared that It was the purpose of those favoring a convention of unlimited powers to 
 abolish the existing judiciary system, and introduce a new one not containing the pres- 
 ent judges and chancellor, who had created a prejudice by their political activities. 
 Gaining confidence in their ability to manage the convention after their own wishes, 
 they yielded and joined in favoring the movement. The bill was thrown out by the 
 Council of Revision, as related by Van Buren. T6 overcome the opposition of the 
 Council some leading Federalists proposed to have the Council of Appointment ap- 
 point three additional judges, and if experience should show there were then too many 
 judges, a convention might be called to modify the judiciary department so as to " in- 
 sure an unpolitical tribunal." Rutus King refused to give his support to this sugges- 
 tion, and it was never seriously discussed. — W. C. P. 
 
 ^ The same story, with other details, is told by Hammond, History of Political Parties 
 In the State of New York, I, 545.— W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 103 
 
 These circumstances seemed to overthrow the popularity of the 
 Governor, already greatly shaken, and induced his friends to advise 
 him to retire to private life at the end of his term, as he decided 
 to do. The Assembly also chose at the Extra-session a new Council 
 of Appointment of which Skinner, Bowne, and Evans were mem- 
 bers.^ Evans came to Albany, an honest and intelligent young man 
 from the Western District as a Clintonian, but being disgusted with 
 his Associates in the Legislature, he sought me out, in one of our 
 Caucuses, before they separated from us and when their leaders were 
 trying, against our opposition, to obtain an adjournment, and told 
 me that he had lost all confidence in the men with whom he was 
 acting, and asked me to consent to an adjournment, which I cheer- 
 fully did, from which time to the end of his life he was my fast and 
 active friend politically and personally. 
 
 1 This election was held on November 8, 1820. The full council was Walter Bowne 
 of the southern district, John T. Moore, of the middle, Eoger Skinner of the eastern, 
 and David E. Evans, of the western. The Clinton candidates were Townsend, Ross, 
 Frothingham and Barstow. Skinner was at this time United States Judge of the 
 northern district of New York, as well as a member of the State Senate. — W. C. F. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The first question that presented itself at the ensuing winter session 
 was that of filling the vacancy in the office of United States Sena- 
 tor, occasioned by the expiration of Mr. Sanford's term. Our 
 friends came to Albany in the opinion that the time had arrived 
 when my services ought to be transferred to the Federal government. 
 Mr. Sanford received a few votes in Caucus, but on the appointment 
 every democratic member voted for m,e, while he received the votes 
 of the Clintonians. I had neither solicited the place nor taken a 
 single step to promote my election, but was gratified by the distinc- 
 tion. My old professional opponent, Elisha Williams, then in the 
 Legislature, oifered to support me in return for my having once sus- 
 tained him against one of my political friends, in a matter by which 
 the fortune of his family was made; I told him that he was mis- 
 taken in supposing that he was under any obligation to me, as I had 
 only done in that case what I thought was right — ^but that I was 
 pleased with his sense of the act, and had certainly no objections to 
 his easing his mind by returning the supposed favor, which would 
 be better done by voting with his federal friends for Mr. Sanford. 
 This amused him very much and induced him to say in the House, in 
 his own way, that he thought T was the fittest man for Senator, but as 
 he was the very incarnation of old Federalism, I would not let him 
 vote for me, and he therefore voted for Sanford.^ 
 
 In April 1820, some forty gentlemen, of the federal party, most 
 of them J^oung men of talent and all occupying respectable positions 
 in society, came out with an Address in which they insisted that no 
 " high-minded federalist " would support Clinton. The use of this 
 expression obtained for them the designation of " the high-minded " 
 in the political nomenclature of the times, while their demonstration 
 against the Governor secured for them from his friends the less 
 flattering sobriquet of "the forty thieves."^ John Duer was their 
 ablest man, but his Federalism was so deeply dyed as to neutralize 
 
 ' The caucus for the purpose of naming a candidate for the United States Senate was 
 held on February 1, 1821. Sanford was nominated by Mr. Eomaine, of New York, and 
 Mr. Eldred, of Otsego, brought forward the name of Van Buren. No charges of neglect 
 of duty or want of loyalty to the party were made against Sanford, and, it was urged, 
 that to set him aside without cause, would be equivalent to a vote of censure, seal his 
 political usefulness, and destroy his political character in the public estimation. His 
 great knowledge and experience In commercial affairs pecullarl'.y fitted him to repre- 
 sent the State in the Senate. Col. Young acted as Van Buren's advocate, saying that 
 with Eufus King In the Senate the commercial matters would have proper attention, 
 and on a ballot Van Buren received 58 votes against 24 for his opponent. A resolution 
 was adopted expressive of the confidence of the meeting in Sanford, as balm to his 
 wounded feelings. — W. C. F. 
 
 ' A list of the forty who signed the address of April 14, 1820, will be found in Ham- 
 mond, History of Political Parties in the State of New York, I, 529. — W. C. F. 
 
 104 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 105 
 
 all his efforts to became a democrat. The sons of Eufus King were 
 prominent members. The whole number were indeed Mr. King's 
 devoted friends, and his advancement was the object nearest their 
 hearts. Their opposition to Mr. Clinton, to whom they allowed no 
 credit for the support his friends had given to Mr. King, was cor- 
 dially reciprocated. Tompkins was not to their taste as a candidate 
 for Governor, but when his nomination was decided on they supported 
 him with zeal and fidelity. 
 
 Pleased with their society and with the spirited manner in which 
 they sustained their position, I became more intimate with them than 
 was the case with any other prominent democrat, and formed sincere 
 attachments to several of their number. Our friendly relations were 
 strengthened by the early stand I took in favor of Mr. King, and. 
 their conviction that he was principally indebted for his election to 
 that circumstance, as they well knew that the friends of Mr. Clinton 
 would not otherwise have supported him. My partiality for them 
 produced heart-burnings on the part of many democratic young men, 
 which, in regard to some, were never entirely removed. Federalists 
 from their birth, and of the oldest and strictest sect, they could not 
 make much impression by their efforts upon the democratic ranks, 
 and failing to ,draw after them those from whom they had separated, 
 their success was not equal to their expectations, neither were they 
 treated by our party with the consideration which they thought they 
 deserved. Resentments- engendered on the first moments of separa- 
 tion between political associates are always accessible to the mollify- 
 ing influences of former sympathies not entirely extinguished, and 
 the recollection of common struggles and triumphs in the old cause 
 paves the way for re-union. These are more efficient when the cause 
 is one in which they or their ancestors have acquired distinction. 
 Most of these gentlemen had from early manhood enjoyed high and 
 influential position in what was called good society, and the sup- 
 position that they expected to occupy, on that account, greater con- 
 sideration in the democratic organization was not acceptable in that 
 quarter. There was a warm concurrence in feeling and opinion 
 between us upon the point that 'brought us together — opposition to 
 Mr. Clinton — ^but in regard to other matters we were far from enter- 
 taining similar views. Upon some of the latter we were called to act 
 together at a period when the ardour of our first embraces had in 
 some degree subsided. The first occasion of that description was 
 presented by the Convention for the Revision of the State Con- 
 stitution, which met at Albany in August 1821.^ 
 
 The County of Albany, where I resided, being then hopelessly 
 federal, the democrats of the large agricultural county of Otsego 
 
 ^Tbe convention assembled at Albany August 28, 1821, and did not close its sessions 
 till November 10. — W. C. F. 
 
106 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 elected me to the Convention without even apprising me of their 
 intention. 
 
 The federalists insisted, and generally believed that we main- 
 tained our ascendency in power mainly thro' the influence of the 
 Council of Appointment, and were therefore feverishly anxious for 
 its abolition. Convinced by full experience that the possession and 
 distribution of patronage did us more harm than good, as a party, 
 I early determined to advocate its diffusion to the widest extent 
 that should be found practical and consistent with the public in- 
 terest. When asked by the President of the Convention (Tomp- 
 kins) on what Committee he should place me, I replied, on that 
 "on the appointing power". Not understanding, or rather mis- 
 understanding my object, he smiled, but complied with my wish. 
 The fact that I was placed at the head of that Committee ^ strength- 
 ened the opinions of the federal members and made them quite con- 
 fident that an effort was to be made to preserve the Council of Ap- 
 pointment in a form perhaps changed but of unabated efficiency. 
 The President gave me an excellent Committee, embracing how- 
 ever, but under proper control, some of the most violent denouncers 
 of the Convention. Among these was Judge Ogden Edwards, of 
 the New York delegation, an honest, capable and well-meaning 
 man, but always overflowing with political prejudices. His dis- 
 position in this respect was vouched for by his own father, as re- 
 lated to me by my friend, Roger Skinner, who, on his return from 
 a visit to Connecticut, his native state, told me that he had met the 
 celebrated Pierpoint Edwards, the father of Ogden, and that he 
 had added to the usual enquiries about his son the question whether 
 " he had got through damning De Witt Clinton yet?" 
 
 I rather mischievously delayed calling my Committee together 
 until the suspicions I have referred to had time to mature. When we 
 were assembled I proposed to call on each member for his general 
 opinions upon the subject committed to us. Mr. Edwards imme- 
 diately suggested that the Chairman should give his views first. This 
 I declined to do, on the ground that such a course would be contrary 
 to parliamentary usage, according to which the Chairman is regarded 
 as a mediator, and, to some extent, an umpire between the conflicting 
 opinions of the Committee., 
 
 The process I proposed was then entered upon, and when finished 
 I deferred giving my own views until the next meeting. At that 
 meeting I submitted my propositions which were in substance. 
 
 1st To abolish the existing Council of Appointment without sub- 
 stituting any similar institution in its place; 
 
 'The full committee contained Martin Van Buren, Blrdseye, Colling 
 
 Jesse Buel, CUld, Ogden Edwards, and Rhinelander. — W. C. F. 
 
AtlTOBiO&RAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTEEN. 10*7 
 
 Snd To provide for the election of all military officers by the choice 
 of Companies, Eegiments and Brigades; 
 
 ° 3d To give the appointment of high Judicial Officers to the Gov- 
 ernor and Senate, and 
 
 4th To provide for the choice of all other Officers, save only Jus- 
 tices of the Peace, by the People, either through appointment by the 
 Legislature, or by direct election. The Justices of the Peace, as Judi- 
 cial Officers, ought not, I said, to be elected, but to bring them as near 
 to the People as possible and avoid the objections to their election, I 
 proposed that two lists should be made in each county, one by the 
 Board of Supervisors (who were themselves elected by the People 
 in each town) and the other by the county court Judges ; whenever 
 these two lists a^eed the choice should be complete, and whenever 
 they differed the Governor should select the Justices from them. 
 
 The jealous members of the Committee were not only disappointed, 
 but some of them confounded by my propositions. They went so 
 far beyond their expectations, in distributing the patronage of the 
 Government, and in removing the grounds upon which they expected 
 the battle in regard to the appointing power to be fought, as to 
 draw from, some the charge of radicalism. The question in regard 
 to Justices of the Peace was the only remaining point on which 
 speeches that had been prepared, in expectation of a different report, 
 could be directed. My recommendations were substantially adopted 
 by the Committee, but the portion of them relating to the choice of 
 Justices was violently assailed in the Convention by the federal mem- 
 bers and also by the " high-minded " gentlemen. I stated frankly 
 the principle upon which that part of my report was founded, and 
 that I considered it a fair subject for differences of opinion. The 
 questions were whether the spirit of the rule, to which every body 
 then assented, that the higher Judicial Officers ought not to be elected 
 should be respected in providing for the choice of Justices of the 
 Peace ; and, if so, whether the mode proposed by the Committee for 
 their selection was the best. 
 
 Mr. E-ufus King attacked the proposition with great earnestness, 
 and scarcely concealed acrimony. After enumerating a few objec- 
 tions to its practical operation, he took up the subject of the old 
 Council of Appointment, and denounced it as a machine that had in 
 times past been used and abused to monopolize central power. Al- 
 though his remarks were not directly aimed at me or at my friends, 
 they were, I thought, sufficiently susceptible of that construction to 
 require notice from me. 
 
 I replied at considerable length and with some warmth and in 
 the course of my remarks alluded delicately but intelligibly to one 
 
 ' MS. I, p. 140. 
 
108 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS". 
 
 of the uses that had been made of what he denounced as the Central 
 Power of which he had not complained. This affair caused a re- 
 serve in our personal intercourse which continued for some time, and 
 until the period arrived when our franking privilege as United States 
 Senators commenced. He then came to my seat and announced the 
 fact to me as a matter that might have escaped my notice, and at the 
 same time pressed me to dine with him. 
 
 After dinner he proposed a walk, and in the course of it spoke 
 feelingly of the collisions which political life almost unavoidably 
 produced between the best of friends, and the inquietude growing 
 out of them, and said that the best remedy he had discovered was to 
 forget and forgive — to sleep upon the matter, and rising in the morn- 
 ing to wash, shave, put on fresh linen, and think no more of it. Un- 
 derstanding the object of these suggestions, I also came to the con- 
 clusion to dismiss the subject from my thoughts, and our personal re- 
 lations resumed their previous footing. 
 
 Some time afterwards, and during the session of the Convention, 
 an editorial article appeared in the Argus remarking upon this and 
 other differences of opinion between this section and the great body 
 of our party — admitting that to some extent they had been antici- 
 pated as likely to occur in the course of time, but saying that it was 
 not expected that they would present themselves so soon. When I 
 came into the Convention, John Duer, in a courteous and not un- 
 friendly manner, repeated to me the closing words — " not so soon " — 
 w'th significant emphasis. This led to a farther conversation in 
 which I admitted that the article spoke my sentiments. We dined 
 together at his brother's lodgings with a few mutual friends, and 
 had an animated conversation upon points in regard to which we 
 entertained diverse views, in the course of which, becoming con- 
 vinced that there were radical differences in our feelings and opin- 
 ions which must prevent us from long acting together, I involuntarily 
 struck my hand upon the table with unusual earnestness, when he 
 instantly turned to me, and said '' that is the indication of a grave 
 conclusion ! May I know what it is, Sir ? " I laughed at his inter- 
 pretation and turned the conversation into a different channel. 
 
 These occurrences produced distrust, but no personal hostility, or 
 even determination to separate. That was brought to pass by the 
 ensuing Presidential election, and the influences it called into action. 
 A large majority of the Democrats supported Crawford, the rest 
 dividing upon Adams and Clay. The " high-minded " espoused the 
 cause of Mr. Adams zealously, and the feelings produced, or rather 
 revived by that contest carried them back into the federal ranks, — 
 then called National Kepublicans — ^where the survivors are still 
 serving as Whigs. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 All personal intercourse between Charles King, Editor of the New 
 York American, and myself was for many years broken off. After 
 he had retired from the Editorial profession, and had, I believe, 
 received the appointment of President of Columbia College, we hap- 
 pened to meet at an entertainment given at the opening of a new 
 Club House in New York. He approached me and entered into a 
 familiar conversation upon the topicks of the day. So long a time 
 had elapsed since I had seen him that I took him for his brother 
 James ^ and reciprocated his address very cordially, but the idea of 
 my mistake soon occurring to me the conversation gradually stiff- 
 ened on my part, and he, perceiving and understanding it, rather 
 abruptly but gradually withdrew. My son. Col. Van Buren, stand- 
 ing at some distance, and witnessing and comprehending the whole 
 scene, advanced towards me as Mr. King walked away, and said " I 
 saw that you did not at first recognize your old friend Charles." 
 I confessed that I had not, but as it had ever been my practice to 
 continue the war as long as my adversary desired it, but always to 
 be prepared for peace, I sought him out, and renewed a friendly 
 intercourse that has since be^n uninterrupted. 
 
 Thus disappeared from the political stage a party which, though 
 small in numbers produced nearly or quite as great an impression 
 as its predecessor and counterpart, in respect to size, the Bv/rrites — in 
 their day distinguished by the name of the "Little Band." The 
 latter were heard and felt through the pamphlet of "Aristides " 
 written by William P. Van Ness.^ — a production of great celebrity in 
 its time, — ^the Morning Chronicle, edited by Peter Irving, elder 
 brother of Washington Irving, and the " Corrector," a stinging little 
 sheet, edited by a number of young men and to which, I believe 
 Washington Irving was a contributor. The New York American, 
 edited with great ability, and a series of clever publications, of 
 which " Dick Shift " * (supposed to have been written by John Duer) 
 was the most piquant, were the oracles of the " high-minded." The 
 Burrites were headed by Aaron Burr, and the sons of Alexander 
 Hamilton were prominent members of the " high minded " party. 
 
 To the latter belonged indisputably the paternity of one public 
 measure, namely the attempt to impeach William W. Van Ness, 
 one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, for receiving a bribe from 
 
 1 James Gore King. 
 
 2 An examination of the various charges exhibited against Aaron Burr, Vice-President of 
 the United States, and a Development of the Characters and Views of his Political 
 Opponents. By Aristides. 1803. — ^W. C. F. 
 
 " See the letter from Johnston Verplanck to Van Buren, December 25, 1819, in the Van 
 Buren Papers. — W. C. F. 
 
 109 
 
110 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the Bank of America, to secure the assent of the Council of Kevision, 
 of which the Judges were then members, to the act of incorporation. 
 The fact that the Bank obtained its charter thro' the most daring and 
 unscrupulous bribery practiced upon various persons, occupying" 
 different positions in the public service, is undeniable. The matter 
 was investigated with great solemnity by a Committee of the House 
 of Assembly, appointed on the motion of Erastus Eoot, upon the 
 exhibition of the charge made by the Editors of the New York 
 American, Charles King, Johnston Verplanck and James A. Hamil- 
 ton, over their own signatures. The Judge appeared before the 
 Committee, supported by an imposing array of Counsel, and the 
 principal part of the session was occupied with the examination.^ 
 The Conunittee finally reported that there was no ground for the 
 interference of the House, but the public mind did not respond 
 favorably to the conclusions of the report. The consciousness of 
 this fact preyed upon, the Judge's spirits, and hurried him to a 
 premature grave. 
 
 Judge Van Ness_was by nature the ablest man among his asso- 
 ciates in public life. His facilities for early improvement had been 
 but limited, and he had no taste for deep study ; the brilliant repu- 
 tation he established as a lawyer and Judge was therefore mainly 
 founded on the raw materials with which nature had liberally en- 
 dowed him. His personal figure was imposing and his manners 
 peculiarly fascinating — so much so that even his enemies courted 
 his society. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
 1821, which was the last public station he held. In that body a 
 proposition was introduced by Grov. Tompkins, and supported by 
 Erastus Eoot and a host of other democrats, to vacate the offices of 
 the Chancellor and Justices of the Supreme Court by the new Con- 
 stitution. Although the Convention had the power to do this, it 
 had certainly not been expected by the Legislature or the People that 
 such a step would be taken. Sincerely desirous to secure the respect 
 and sanction of the public for our proceedings and opposed upon 
 principle to a course so prescriptive, I threw myself in the breach 
 against the weight of my party and opposed the proposition. To 
 neutralize the prejudices of friends, and to conciliate moderate men, 
 whilst resisting a measure, the success of which threatened all that 
 remained of the former greatness of Judge Van Ness, I deemed it 
 a fit if not a necessary occasion to allude to our past relations. This 
 was done in a speech delivered in his presence, from which the fol- 
 lowing in an extract : 
 
 The judicial officer wlio could not be reached in either of those ways, ought 
 not to be touched. There were, therefore, no public reasons for the measure, 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 145. ' " 
 
 ' See Proceedings of the Committee appointed to inquire into tlie official Conduct of 
 Williani W. Van Ness, New Yorls, 1820. — W. C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. Ill 
 
 and if not, then why are we to adopt it? Certainly not from personal 
 feelings. If personal feelings could or ought to influence us against the in- 
 dividual who would probably be most affected by the adoption of this amend- 
 ment, Mr. Van Buren supposed that he above all others would be excused for 
 indulging them. He could with truth say, that he had through his whole 
 life been assailed from that quarter, with hostility, political, professional and 
 personal — hostility which had been the most keen, active and unyielding. But, 
 sir, said he, am I on that account, to avail myself of my situation as a repre- 
 sentative of the people, sent here to make a constitution for them and their 
 posterity, and to indulge my individual resentments in the prostration of my 
 private and political adversary. He hoped it was unnecessary for him to say, 
 that he should forever despise himself if he could be capable of such conduct. 
 He also hoped that that sentiment was not confined to himself alone, and that 
 the Convention would not ruin its character and credit, by proceeding to such 
 extremities.* 
 
 A sufficient number of my political friends voted with me to de- 
 feat the proposition. The Chancellor and three of the Judges were 
 members of the Convention. The latter left soon after to hold the 
 Term at Utica, and the democratic portion of the Convention, no 
 longer irritated by the active intermeddling of Judges Spencer and 
 Van Ness in matters supposed to have partisan tendencies, was los- 
 ing the memory of my rebellion against party discipline and of the 
 whole subject; but the return of those gentlemen with renewed ar- 
 dour to their work of political intrigue caused a new proposition, 
 sufficiently varied in form to evade the parliamentary rule, to be 
 promptly introduced by a lay member, and procured for it a vigor- 
 ous support. I felt that I could now do no more than give a silent, 
 vote against the measure. The proposition was adopted, the offices 
 of the Judges were vacated, a new Governpr was elected before the 
 time arrived to fill the vacancies, and neither Spencer nor Van Ness 
 were renominated. They both resumed the practice of their profes- 
 sion, but his misfortunes preying upon Van Ness' proud spirit his 
 health failed, and he went to South Carolina in the hope of re-estab- 
 lishing it, but there, soon after, died at the house of his connexion, 
 Mr. Bay, a highly respectable resident of Charleston. I was inform- 
 ed by Mr. Bay, many years afterwards, that, in the closing scenes of 
 his life, the Judge spoke often and feelingly of his political and per- 
 sonal controversies, and that whilst he referred with much severity 
 to the conduct of some of those with whom he had been in collision, 
 he took pains to say that he should die without complaint or bitter- 
 ness against me, who, altho' among the most uniform of his oppo- 
 nents, had always treated him frankly and fairly. His unfriendliness 
 throughout his public life did not prevent my sincere sympathy with 
 him when he fell, and with his friends in their prayers over his 
 ashes. 
 
 1 Reports of the New York State Convention, 1821 (Carter and Stone), p. 535. 
 
112 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 A new Constitution was adopted by the Convention providing for 
 increased action on the part of the People themselves in the manage- 
 ment of public affairs, and liberalizing and elevating the political 
 institutions of the State to the standard required by the advances 
 made by public opinion in that direction. 
 
 I have noticed the part that I took in regard to two questions that 
 were acted upon by the Convention because they were more or less 
 complicated with other matters. To do as much in reference to all, 
 would require more space than I think it would be proper to devote 
 to the subjects here. There was scarcely any question raised in the 
 discussion of which I did not participate to a greater or less extent, 
 and those discussions as well as the votes that followed them are to 
 be found reported in the official proceedings and published accounts 
 of the doings of the Convention, which publications, altho' not accu- 
 rate throughout, are sufficiently so for all important purposes. 
 
 On one point only will I add a few words of explanation, because 
 it has been the subject of much remark, and of much partizan misrep- 
 resentation. 
 
 At one stage of our proceedings I was alarmed at the ground taken 
 by a number of my political friends upon the question of suffrage. 
 They seemed willing to go at once from a greatly restricted suffrage 
 to one having but the appearance of restriction, which I considered 
 very hazardous as well to our institutions as to the success of the work 
 of the Convention. I preferred to move upon this truly important 
 point step by step, and to advance as we should find ourselves justified 
 by experience. The partizan policy of advocating extreme measures 
 of seeming popularity, trusting that somebody else would prevent 
 their adoption, or that perchance they might not work as badly, if 
 adopted, as my reason anticipated, has never, I can conscientiously 
 say, been mine. I therefore exerted myself to moderate the extreme 
 views of my friends, and, when necessary, to oppose them until the 
 suffrage was established on what I deemed safe and reasonable 
 grounds. For this, and upon the ground of expressions loosely and 
 inaccurately reported I was for many years much censured, but, I 
 believe, not injured, because the People saw the soundness of my 
 motive even thro' the distorted and false views in which, for sinister 
 purposes, the subject was presented to them. 
 
 The new Constitution was approved and adopted by an immense 
 majority of the People.^ Judge Joseph C. Yates was elected Gov- 
 ernor, under its provisions, without opposition, Governor Clinton 
 retiring to private life, and I soon after took my seat in the Senate 
 of the United States. 
 
 1 The result showed 75,422 votes In faror of the Constitution and 41,497 votes against 
 or a majority of 33,925 on the side ol adoption. — W. C. F. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 The transfer from the State to the Federal Service has generally 
 been considered as a discharge from responsibility for the manage- 
 ment of the affairs of the former, but neither friends nor foes would 
 permit such a result in my case. The first had claims upon my 
 gratitude and good offices that I was not inclined to disregard, and 
 the latter found or fancied a party benefit in charging me with 
 influencing the action of the State Government from "Washington 
 thro' the agency of representatives at home to whom they gave the 
 name of the " Albany Kegency." 
 
 The inconvenience, to say the least of it, of this ubiquitous re- 
 sponsibility was strikingly and very disagreeably illustrated by 
 bringing me very early into disfavour with the new Governor whose 
 nomination I had preferred and aided in effecting. Judge Yates 
 was an honest man, possessed of a good understanding, who always 
 designed to do what he thought was right. He warded off too strict 
 a scrutiny into his mental capacities by a dignified and prudent re- 
 serve — a policy that long practice had made a second nature. He 
 had been strongly tempted, by his marriage connections, to depart 
 from the simplicity of life and manners characteristic of his race. 
 His first wife was a Kane, a family which almost without exception 
 was distinguished for the personal beauty of its members, and their 
 natural dignity of carriage, and which had made considerable ad- 
 vances towards the establishment of a sort of family aristocracy be- 
 fore it gave way under the pressure of adverse circumstances. His 
 second wife, with whom he acquired a good estate, was a De Lancey, 
 a powerful family at the commencement of the revolution, jealousy 
 of whose superior position at Court was said to have had great in- 
 fluence in inducing the Livingstons, and other families who figured 
 in that contest, to espouse the popular side. My acquaintance with 
 Mrs. Yates has led me to regard her as a good woman of superior 
 mind and sedulous in the performance of duty. I paid the Judge a 
 visit at Schenectady at the time when we were preparing to bring 
 him forward as a candidate for Governor, in company with several 
 of the " high-minded " gentlemen to whom he was very partial. 
 While we were at dinner the conversation was mischievously turned 
 by one of the guests for his own amusement to a matter in regard to 
 which our host ° and myself had, in past times, stood in opposition 
 
 " MS. I, p. 150. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 8 113 
 
114 AMBKICAIT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to each other. The Judge promptly and courteously said in reference 
 to it, "Ah ! that was at a time when I did not understand Mr. Van 
 Buren as well as I do now ! " On which Mrs. Yates turned to her 
 husband, and asked with unaffected simplicity whether he was sure 
 that he understood me now! The question of course was received 
 with a general burst of laughter, and not having the slightest idea 
 of incivility or unfriendliness, she began to apprehend that she had 
 shown both — an apprehension that it cost me no small effort to efface 
 from her mind. The circumstance slight as it was, strengthened 
 my impression that she was not in all respects well adapted to the 
 office of guarding her husband against the effects of a suspicious 
 temperament, which had been always an obstacle to his advancement, 
 and was the principal cause of his failure in public life. 
 
 On my way to Washington, in the fall preceding the Judge's 
 assumption of his official duties, I remained some time in New York 
 winding up professional concerns at the November Term of the 
 Supreme Court. Many of my friends were there in the prosecution 
 of their professional engagements, and some were doubtless brought 
 there by their fondness for political gossip, and by a desire to take 
 leave of me. I had not been long in Washington before I learned, 
 thro' a source entitled to my confidence, that the Governor-elect had 
 been told that I had assembled my friends in a private meeting at 
 New York, at which we had marked out a course for the Governor 
 to pursue as the indispensable condition of our support. There was 
 of course not a word of truth in this story, and under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances I would have taken no notice of it. But I knew the 
 Governor's disposition, and that he was surrounded by men in whom 
 I had little confidence, who owed me no good will and who had 
 personal objects which they might hope to promote by availing 
 themselves in this form of an infirmity to which they knew him to 
 be subject. I therefore determined to address myself to him di- 
 rectly, and to make a serious effort not only to disabuse his mind 
 upon the particular point, but to prevent the recurrence of similar 
 misunderstandings. In the propriety of this course, Mr. King, to 
 whom I mentioned the subject, fully concurred, and I wrote a letter 
 to the Governor in which I referred to the story I have mentioned 
 as a vile falsehood, expressed my apprehension that other misrep- 
 resentations of the same character would be made by bad men for 
 selfish purposes, avowed my disinclination to the slightest personal 
 interference in affairs which had, with my hearty approbation, been 
 committed to his hands, and closed with what appeared to me a clear 
 and conclusive argument to show that I could have no possible inter- 
 ests that would be benefitted by his overthrow and an assurance that 
 the first wish of my heart was that he might sustain himself success- 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIIT VAN BUEEIT. 115 
 
 fully and honorably in his responsible position. With most men 
 this would have been sufficient, but as to him the soil was too favor- 
 able to the rank growth of the seed I endeavoured to eradicate and 
 the sowers were too numerous and industrious to admit of any 
 success to my efforts. He had weakened his position by his jealousy 
 to an extent that enabled the friends of Col. Young to nominate the 
 latter in his place during the succeeding winter. Irritated by this 
 result and distrusting almost every body he was induced to take an 
 official step which I will have occasion to refer to hereafter, and 
 which finally prostrated him as a public man. 
 
 I entered the Senate of the United States in December 1821, at 
 the commencement of Mr. Monroe's second Presidential Term. John 
 Gaillard, of South Carolina, was then, as he had been for many 
 years, President fro tern, of that body. I need add nothing to the 
 eloquent description given of his character by Col. Benton, in his 
 Thirty Years' View, except the expression of my full concurrence 
 in what has been so well said. I was first placed on both the Judi- 
 ciary and Finance Committees, and soon succeeded to the Chairman- 
 ship of the former, a compliment to so young a man, on his first 
 appearance in the Senate, which I could not fail to appreciate. 
 
 There was at this period a perfect calm in the public mind upon 
 political subjects, and the Administration continued the course it 
 had pursued during the previous term, unlike any since that of Wash- 
 ington, without an organized opposition. The important questions 
 that occupied the attention of Congress during the Presidency of 
 Mr. Monroe were those of Internal Improvements by the Federal 
 Government and a Protective Tariff. Stronger proof could not be 
 required of the capacity of our system of Government to deal with 
 difficult public questions, and the strength it derives from that 
 source, than the fact that those disturbing questions, which (particu- 
 larly the latter) semed, in the hottest day of their agiation, to 
 threaten the continuance of the Union, in so brief a period not only 
 ceased to inflame the People, but, in the sense in wliich they were 
 then advocated and opposed, have become virtually obsolete. It is 
 also worthy of remark that neither of these great questions originated 
 with the Administration, or were regarded as Administration Meas- 
 ures. They found their origin in other sources and were called into 
 existence by other considerations than those of Executive recom- 
 mendation. 
 
 Mr. Monroe was universally regarded as the last of that class of 
 Statesmen to which the country had invariably theretofore looked 
 for Presidential candidates. This fact was sufficient to bring for- 
 ward for the succession the names of those of the succeeding genera- 
 tion who deemed themselves, or were deemed by their friends, as 
 possessing sufficient claims to the distinction. 
 
116 AMERICAIT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The most prominent of these were Clay, Calhoun, Crawford and 
 Adams. I name Messrs. Clay and Calhoun first because, from very 
 nearly the beginning of Mr. Monroe's Administration, their respec- 
 tive courses were most definitely shaped to that end. 
 
 Mr. Clay was Speaker of the House of Representatives, had re- 
 turned with eclat from his Mission of Peace, and enjoyed an exten- 
 sive popularity with uncommon facilities for its enlargement. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun was Secretary of War, the undoubted favorite of the 
 President, and in point of talent, industry and the art of winning 
 popular regard scarcely inferior to Mr. Clay. 
 
 A better field for the display of political ability and tact than 
 that presented to these distinguished gentlemen could not have been 
 imagined. The old Federal Party, yet strong in num'bers and rich 
 in its traditions, had been reduced to a low condition by the course 
 it had taken in regard to the War. Its former leaders, either from 
 policy or conviction, acquiesced in the condemnation that had been 
 pronounced upon it, and the future allegiance of its members seemed 
 to be offered as spoils of conquest to democratic aspirants to the 
 Presidency. 
 
 Eelaxation of the rigors of party discipline and acts of amnesty 
 in favor of vanquished federalists — splendid schemes of Internal 
 Improvement at the expense of the Federal Treasury with munifi- 
 cent bounties in the form of encouragements to Domestic Industry 
 to the North, the East, and the West, were the popular appeals and 
 blandishments with which Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, each secure 
 in his position at home, entered into the Presidential Canvass. 
 Hence the continued Agitation of all of these questions from near 
 the beginning to the end of Mr. Monroe's Administration — ^leaving 
 them at its close as unsettled as they were at any stage of their dis- 
 cussion and as it was expedient to Presidential aspirants that they 
 should be. These topicks for a political campaign were wisely se- 
 lected, and produced apparently extensive effects upon the public 
 mind. The great States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New 
 York, with the entire West, swallowed the baits that were held out 
 to them under such alluring disguises, in which they were joined by 
 the Eastern States as soon as our Yankee brethren saw that the 
 protective policy had acquired a sufficient hold upon the country to 
 make it safe for them to divert their superior skill and industry 
 from Commerce to Manufactures. So irresistible did the current 
 seem to have become that even Gen. Jackson, with all his repug- 
 nance to equivocation, and all his fearlessness of responsibility, was 
 fain, when he was brought into the Presidential Canvass, to take 
 refuge under the idea of a "judicious tariff." 
 
 These, as I have said, altho' the prominent Measures acted upon, 
 could not be regarded as among^ those^f Mr.^onroe's^Administra- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 117 
 
 tion. Although he knew that the protective policy was supported 
 by several members of his Cabinet, he never recommended it in his 
 Messages and he interposed his Veto against a Bill for the repair 
 of the Cumberland Road in a message in which the whole subject, so 
 far as it related to the exercise of Federal jurisdiction over the 
 territory embraced, was elaborately discussed. 
 . The Cumberland Koad was established under the Presidency of 
 Mr. Jefferson, and whilst Mr. Gallatin" was Secretary of the 
 Treasury. It was originally contemplated to be made out of the 
 avails arising from the sales of the public lands, and was established 
 to promote such sales. But Congress soon fell into the habit of 
 anticipating the receipts from that source by appropriations from 
 the Treasury and this [practice] had been almost annually repeated 
 for more than twenty years and had received the Executive approval 
 from Jefferson and Madison. 
 
 The jurisdiction by the Federal Government, which constituted 
 the foundation of Mr. Monroe's objection had never been exercised ; 
 but he was, I think, quite right in assuming that the establishnient 
 and support of the Eoad involved the claim of a right to its exer- 
 cise and therefore fairly presented the constitutional question upon 
 which he took, as to that point, the true ground. The Bill came up 
 soon after I had taken my seat in the Senate and I voted for it 
 rather on the ground of its paternity and the subsequent acquiesence 
 in it, than from an examination of the subject. The whole matter 
 was afterwards very thoroughly investigated by me when I found 
 reason to regret that vote and to take not only an early opportunity 
 to avow my error but also a decided stand against the claim in both 
 aspects of Jurisdiction and Appropriation. 
 
 The unavoidable and improper conflict of jurisdiction between the 
 Federal and State authorities that must arise from the establishment 
 of the Internal Improvement System advocated by its friends, was 
 apparent, and the objections arising from that source was insuper- 
 able. Pressed by the force of this argument the friends of the Road 
 almost always shunned the discussion of that branch of the subject 
 and insisted that the Federal Government could exercise a salutary 
 agency in the matter by appropriations of money without cessions of 
 jurisdiction. This power was fully conceded by Mr. Monroe, and the 
 exercise of it was sure in the end to impoverish the National Treasury 
 by improvident grants to private companies and State works, and to 
 corrupt Federal legislation by the opportunities it would present for 
 favoritism. I shall hereafter have occasion to speak as well of the 
 part I took in this matter subsequently, as of the total and, I hope, 
 final overthrow of the principle. 
 
 "MS. I, p. 155. 
 
118 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The subject of Piracy became prominent in the discussions of the 
 Senate, and I made a speech upon it. 
 
 Several Amendments of the Constitution, in regard to the election 
 of President and Vice President were also offered and discussed. 
 Upon one introduced by Gov. Dickerson of New Jersey, and hence 
 called the New Jersey Plan, proposing to district the States, I deliv- 
 ered a Speech of which I have only the preparatory notes ; these may 
 be found to contain suggestions of some interest' and are given in ^ 
 
 The wise disposition of our People to deal prudently with matters 
 touching the safe action of their political system in times past is 
 strikingly illustrated, in view of the inadequacy of the provisions 
 of the Constitution and laws for the government of Congress in can- 
 vassing the votes for President and Vice President, by the success 
 with which they have avoided difficulties for so long a period upon a 
 point in which their feelings are always so deeply excited. Appre- 
 hensive of danger from this source at the election of 1824r-5, when, 
 from the number of Candidates, it was generally assumed that the 
 election would come to the House, the Senate instructed its Judiciary 
 Committee to consider the subject and to report thereon. After con- 
 sulting with the older and more experienced Senators, I reported a 
 Bill supplying omissions in the old law, which passed the Senate but 
 failed in the House. As the law is still in the same imperfect State, 
 and the matter may some day become one of considerable interest, the 
 notes of my Speech upon the Bill, which were furnished to me by the 
 Reporter, but have never been published, are given in ^ 
 
 • In the Van Buren Papers, under date of December 29, 1823. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The period covered by Mr. Monroe's Administration was made 
 memorable by the canvass for the succession to which I have alluded, 
 and by his efforts to brmg about a fusion of Parties. 
 
 Mr. Monroe's, character was that of an honest man, with fair, but 
 not very marked capacities, who, through life, performed every 
 duty that devolved upon him with scrupulous fidelity. He had 
 been honorably connected with our Eevolutionary Contest, and from 
 the beginning of our party divisions was found in the same ranks 
 with Jefferson and his friends, although, like Mr. Madison, he was, 
 while perfectly sincere, yet from a difference in temperament, neither 
 so earnest nor so eager in his devotion to their common cause. But 
 two circumstances occurred, at early periods in his political career, 
 well calculated to stir his feelings and to whet his political zeal. 
 
 Having been appointed Minister to France by Washington he 
 was recalled under circumstances implying dissatisfaction. He 
 appealed to the People for his vindication in a publication of some 
 length, characterized, as it has appeared to me, by great fairness. 
 
 The second matter alluded to was as follows: — a m,an by the 
 name of Reynolds having, on several occasions, thrown out in- 
 timations that he was possessed of information that would inculpate 
 criminally the administration of the Treasury Department by Alex- 
 ander Hamilton, Congress a'J)pointed a Committee of Investigation 
 consisting of Monroe, Venable and Leiper.^ 
 
 Knowing that the relations between himself and Reynolds would 
 require explanations which it would not be agreeable to offer on 
 a public investigation, Hamilton invited the Committee to an in- 
 formal meeting at his own office, and there made to them a confi- 
 dential communication shewing that his connection with Reynolds 
 grew out of a criminal intercourse between himself and Mrs. Rey- 
 nolds, in aJl probability begun with the connivance of her husband, 
 and ended, after the lapse of a certain time, in the pretended dis- 
 covery by him, and the pecuniary extortions, imder menaces of ex- 
 posure, common to such cases. This statement was accompanied by 
 the exhibition of a series of letters, receipts for money and other 
 papers, placing its truth beyond all doubt. The Committee re- 
 ported that the imputation was groundless, and the subject soon 
 passed from the public mind ; but a history of the United States sub- 
 sequently appeared written by the well known James Thomas Cal- 
 
 1 Congress did not appoint a committee. An informal investigation was made by 
 Speaker Fredk. A. Muhlenberg, James Monroe and Abraham Venable. Leiper was not 
 in Congress until 1829. 
 
 119 
 
120 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 lender, in which the charge of peculation against Gen, Hamilton 
 was repeated with much solemnity. The latter sent the publica- 
 tion to Mr. Monroe, and made a respectful and friendly application 
 to him to be relieved, thro' his agency, from the odium of the charge 
 by a statement that would have that effect. Party spirit ran high, 
 and Mr. Monroe omitted to comply with this request. This omission 
 drew froin Gen. Hamilton a letter that was not a challenge absolute 
 or conditional in its terms, and contained no expression from which 
 an intention to make it the prelude to a challenge could be positively 
 assumed, but no one doubted on reading it that such was the Gen- 
 eral's ultimate expectation. This was answered by Mr. Monroe with 
 a few but slight words of explanation in regard to the course he 
 had adopted, and with a declaration in conclusion — from all that 
 appeared in the correspondence, quite .abrupt, — ^that if the General's 
 letter was intended to convey a demand for personal satisfaction his 
 friend Col. Burr was authorized to make the necessary arrangements. 
 Gen. Hamilton denied that such was the intention of his letter, but 
 said, in reply, that if an invitation to the field was intended to be 
 conveyed by Col. Monroe's letter he should not decline it, and his 
 friend Major Jackson was authorized to make the arrangements that 
 would in that event become necessary. Mr. Monroe disclaimed such 
 an intention, and the affair was terminated by a letter from Gen. 
 Hamilton which concluded with a declaration that he did not regard 
 the case as one calling for the resort that had been referred to. 
 
 Gen. Hamilton, thinking that the only way to wipe off the re- 
 proach that it was attempted to fasten upon his official character, 
 published to the World, a complete history of the transactions, in- 
 cluding all the documents submitted to the Committee, and the cor- 
 respondence with Monroe, in a Pamphlet written with much feeling 
 and signal ability.^ This having been done without consultation with 
 his friends, they took unwearied pains to suppress the publication, 
 deeming it neither necessary nor expedient. But few copies es- 
 caped their efforts, and one of these was sent to me, many years ago, 
 as a curiosity by an old gentleman whose antiquarian tastes led him 
 to collect and preserve such things, but I have °not seen it for a long 
 time, and what I have stated is from a recollection of its contents. 
 
 I read it at an early period of my life with great interest, and 
 could not but be strongly and favorably impressed by the readiness 
 with which Gen. Hamilton exposed his^moral character to just cen- 
 sure and the feelings of his family to the greatest annoyance, while 
 
 > Observations on Certain Documents contained in Nos. V and Vl of The History of the 
 United States for the Year IWS, in wlileh tlie charge of speculation against Alexander 
 Hamilton, late Secretary of the Treasury, is fully refuted. Written by himself. Phlla. 
 Printed for John Fenno, by John Bioren, 1797. 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 160. 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 121 
 
 vindicating his official conduct from unmerited reproach. But not- 
 withstanding my partiality for his personal character, and my con- 
 fidence in his courage, I could not resist the conclusion, on reading 
 the correspondence, that Colonel Monroe's disorderly inversion of 
 the regular steps of such affairs, by his bull-dog avowal of a readi- 
 ness to fight before he was challenged, having divested the contest of 
 its formal chivalry and dignity, induced the General to bring it to 
 a different result from that which he had at first contemplated. 
 
 It is not unlikely that these collisions with gentlemen at the head 
 of the Federal Government, whilst they afforded a useful stimulus 
 to Mr. Monroe's partizan zeal, attracted towards him, under the 
 political excitements of the periods when they occurred, a larger 
 share of popular attention and led to more numerous public employ- 
 ments, than, not being either a good speaker or a good writer, or 
 remarkable for any striking accomplishment, he might otherwise 
 have enjoyed. Having, besides, been born and reared on the red 
 clay grounds of the Old Dominion, so celebrated for the production 
 of Presidents, it is quite natural that he should, at an early period, 
 have come to the conclusion that to be among the successors of Wash- 
 ington would not exceed his deserts. That he did not think his own 
 pretentions unreasonably postponed by the preiference given to Jef- 
 ferson, his senior in years and whose claims upon the confidence and 
 favor of his country were incomparably superior to his own, I can 
 well imagine. But it became a very different affair when the day 
 arrived for the choice of Mr. Jefferson's successor, and when the 
 dwellers on the red soil could hardly believe it possible that the 
 other portions of the Union would be sufficiently self-denying to 
 acquiesce in any further selections from that already highly favored 
 spot. It is well known that Mr. Monroe's feelings were deeply 
 soured by the choice of Mr. Madison for the succession through the 
 influence of Mr. Jefferson — ^not seen or heard or exerted by improper 
 means but not the less effectual. The celebrated Protest of John 
 Eandolph and his associates, — for a long time distinguished by the 
 cognomen of "the Protesters," — was made in the interest of Mr. 
 Monroe, and long and bitter were their denunciations of the latter 
 for accepting office under Mr. Madison. Jefferson and Madison, 
 placable, just and sincere, were doubtless desirous that their neigh- 
 bour and friend with whom they had long been associated in the 
 public service, and whom they respected and esteemed, should enjoy 
 the same high distinction which had been conferred on themselves, 
 if that could be effected without doing violence to the feelings of the 
 rest of the country. But, with the exception of a single act, they 
 trusted the result to the well known and oft experienced partiality of 
 the Eepublican Party for the distinguished men of the Ancient Do- 
 minion. The office o'f Secretary of State had become a stepping 
 
122 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 stone to the Presidency, so much so that Mr. Clay, at a subsequent 
 period and in an unhappy moment, spoke of the selection of Presi- 
 dential Candidates from that station as following " safe precedents." 
 Mr. Madison had, as has already been said, with that single hearted- 
 ness and high sense of justice that formed a part of his character, 
 offered the place to Governor Tompkins as a proof of the estimation 
 in which he held his patriotic and useful services. 
 
 Gov. Tompkins' declension and the consequent selection of Mr. 
 Monroe, in all probability, controuled the question of the succession to 
 Mr. Madison. 
 
 I visited Washington during the session and enjoyed good oppor- 
 tunities to observe the movements that were on foot. The friends of 
 Clay, Lowndes, Calhoun, Cheves and others of less note evidently 
 looked to their respective favorites as not yet ready for the course, 
 but expected them to become so by the end of Mr. Monroe's term, 
 and were unwilling that the place should be pre-occupied by one of 
 their contemporaries. Crawford, also, but not so clearly, fell within 
 the scope of these considerations. 
 
 Mr. Crawford was by far the strongest of these aspirants, and 
 might perhaps have been nominated, if his friends had taken open 
 and unqualified ground in his favor. But they were seriously di- 
 vided in regard to the policy of such a course. Many of them, in- 
 fluenced by an apprehension that decided opposition to Mr. Monroe 
 might be unsuccessful and injurious to Crawford's future prospects, 
 were disposed to leave the question to be decided by time and 
 chance. 
 
 The nomination of Gov. Tompkins for the Vice Presidency was 
 generally favored, and I never understood that he expected or de- 
 sired that his friends should attempt to bring him forward for the 
 Presidency, nor could any efforts in that direction have been suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Notwithstanding this inaction on the part of rivals, Mr. Monroe 
 oibtained only a very small majority in the Congressional Caucus ; a 
 result not soothing to his feelings. The Eepublican Party was great- 
 ly in the ascendant, and Monroe and Tompkins were elected by a 
 large majority. 
 
 The Party which had raised Jefferson and Madison to the Presi- 
 dency elected Mr. Monroe under the expectation that his Adminis- 
 tration would be similar in its political aspects to those of his prede- 
 cessors. The People of the United States had, during both of 
 those Administrations, been divided into two and only two great 
 political parties. It is not necessary and would only serve to render 
 complex the views intended to be expressed to make any reference 
 here to the particular character and tendency of their conflicting 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 123 
 
 principles. For the present it needs only to be stated that in the ranks 
 of one or the other of these parties were arrayed almost all the Peo- 
 ple who took an interest in the management of public aifairs. These 
 differences were first developed in Congress and in Society during 
 the last term of Gen. Washington's administration, had a partial 
 and comparatively silent influence in the election of his successor, 
 but were openly proclaimed and maintained with much earnestness 
 during that successor's entire administration. The result of this 
 conflict of opinions was the expulsion of John Adams from the office 
 of President and the election of Thomas Jefferson in his place. Not 
 intolerant by nature Mr. Jefferson made an ineffectual effort to allay 
 the warmth of these party differences and to prevent them from in- 
 vading and poisoning the personal relations of individuals. But, 
 true to his trust, he not only administered the government upon the 
 principles for which a majority of the People had shown their pref- 
 erence, but he carried the spirit of that preference into his appoint- 
 ments to office to an extent sufficient to establish the predominance of 
 those principles in every branch of the public service. This he did, 
 not by way of punishing obnoxious opinions, or to gratify personal 
 antipathies, but to give full effect to the will of the mEtjority, sub- 
 mission to which he regarded as the vital principle of our Govern- 
 ment. Mr. Madison, elected by the same Party, tho' proverbial for 
 his amiable temper and for the absence of any thing like a proscrip- 
 tive disposition, pursued the same course, and upon the same prin- 
 ciple — ^the performance of a public trust in regard to the terms of 
 which there was no room for doubt. 
 
 The Administrations of Jefferson and Madison, embracing a period 
 of sixteen years, were, from first to last, opposed by the federal 
 party with a degree of violence unsurpassed in modern times. From 
 this statement one of two conclusions must result. Either the con- 
 duct of these two parties which had been kept on foot so long, been 
 sustained with such determined zeal and under such patriotic pro- 
 fessions and had created distinctions that became the badges of 
 families — ^transmitted ° from father to son — ^was a series of shame- 
 less impostures, covering mere struggles for power and patronage; 
 or there were differences of opinion and principle between them 
 of the greatest character, to which their respective devotion and ac- 
 tive service could not be relaxed with safety or abahdoned without 
 dishonor. We should, I think, be doing great injustice to our prede- 
 cessors if we doubted for a moment the sincerity of those differences, or 
 the honesty with which they were entertained at least by the masses 
 on both sides. The majority of the People, the sovereign power 
 in our Government, had again and again, and on every occasion 
 
 ' MS. I, p. 165. 
 
124 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 since those differences of opinion had been distinctly disclosed, de- 
 cided them in favor of the Eepublican creed. That creed required 
 only that unity among its friends should be preserved to make 
 it the ark of their political safety. The Country had been pros- 
 perous and happy under- its sway, and has been so through our whole 
 history excepting only the period when it was convulsed and con- 
 founded by the criminal intrigues and commercial disturbances of 
 the Bank of the United States. To maintain that unity becaine the 
 obligation of him whom its supporters had elevated to the highest 
 place among its guardians. Jefferson and Madison so interpreted 
 their duty. On the other hand, Mr. Monroe, at the commencement 
 of his second term, took the ground openly, and maintained it 
 against all remonstrances, that no difference should be made by 
 the Government in the distribution of its patronage and confidence 
 on account of the political opinions and course of applicants. The 
 question was distinctly brought before him for decision by the 
 Kepublican representatives from the states of Pennsylvania and 
 New York, in cases that had deeply excited the feelings of their 
 constituents and in which those constituents had very formally and 
 decidedly expressed their opinions. 
 
 If the movement grew out of a belief that an actual dissolution of 
 the federal party was likely to take place or could be produced by 
 the course that was adopted, it showed little acquaintance with the 
 nature of Parties to suppose that a political association that had 
 existed so long, that had so many traditions to appeal to its pride, 
 and so many grievances, real and fancied, to cry out for redress, 
 could be disbanded by means of personal fwors from the Execu- 
 tive or by the connivance of any of its leaders. Such has not been 
 the fate of long established political parties in any country. Their 
 course may be qualified and their pretentions abated for a season 
 by ill success, but the cohesive influences and innate qualities which 
 originally united them remain with the mass and spring up in 
 their former vigour with the return of propitious skies. Of this 
 truth we need no more striking illustrations than are furnished by 
 our own experience. Without going into the details of events fa- 
 miliar to all, I need only say that during the very "Era of good 
 feelings," the federal party, under the names of federal republicans 
 and whigs, elected their President over those old republicans Will- 
 iam H. Crawford, Andrew Jacltson and John C. Calhoun — ^have, 
 since his time, twice elected old school federalists — ^have possessed 
 the most effective portions of the power of the Federal Government 
 during their respective terms, with the exception, (if it was one) of 
 the politically episodical administration of Vice President Tyler — 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 125 
 
 and are at this time in power in the government of almost every 
 free state. We shall find as a general rule that among the native 
 inhabitants of each State, the politics of families who were fed- 
 eralists during the War of 1812, are the same now — holding, for the 
 most part, under the name of Whigs, to the political opinions and 
 governed by the feelings of their ancestors. 
 
 I have been led to take a more extended notice of this subject by 
 my repugnance to a species of cant against Parties in which too many 
 are apt to indulge when their own side is out of power and to forget 
 when they come in. I have not, I think, been considered even by 
 opponents as particularly rancorous in my party prejudices, and 
 might not perhaps have anything to apprehend from a comparison, 
 in this respect, with my cotemporaries. But laiowing, as all men of 
 sense know, that political parties are inseparable from free govern- 
 ments, and that in many and material respects they are highly useful 
 to the country, I never could bring myself for party purposes to 
 deprecate their existence. Doubtless excesses frequently attend them 
 and produce many evils, but not so many as are prevented by the 
 maintenance of their organization and vigilance. The disposition to 
 abuse power, so deeply planted in the human heart, can by no other 
 means be more effectually checked ; and it has always therefore struck 
 me as more honorable and manly and more in harmony with the 
 character of *our People arid of our Institutions to deal with the sub- 
 ject of Political Parties in a sincerer and wiser spirit — ^to recognize 
 their necessity, to give them the credit they deserve, and to devote 
 ourselves to improve and to elevate the principles and objects of our 
 own and to support it ingenuously and faithfully. 
 
 Two affairs grew out of the agitation of Mr. Monroe's fusion 
 policy which from their relation to prominent individuals and the 
 developments of character they produced, may be considered of suf- 
 ficient interest to be described here. 
 
 In no state in the Union was party discipline in so palmy a condi- 
 tion at this period as in New York, and a vacancy about to occur 
 in the office of Post Master at Albany, the Capitol of the State, pre- 
 sented to the Administration a fitting, if it was not also a desirable 
 opportunity for the inauguration of the policy in regard to appoint- 
 ments by which it had determined to be governed.^ Van Rensselaer 
 was, notwithstanding, appointed. Among the papers published at 
 the time of and in connection with this affair was a letter addressed 
 
 ijt had evidently been the intention of Mr. Van Buren to give an account of the 
 controTersy over the appointment of Solomon Van Rensselaer to be postmaster at Albany 
 in place of Solomon Southwick, removed for defalcation. The Federal side is well given 
 In Mrs. Catharina Van Rensselaer Bonney's " Legacy of Historical Gleanings," I, 366. — 
 W. C, F. 
 
126 AMERIOAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 by Vice President Tompkins and myself to the Republicans at Al- 
 bany, which contained the following : 
 
 That you ■will be disappointed and mortified we can readily believe, but we 
 trust that you will not be disheartened. While there are no men in this country 
 more inured to political sufferings than the Republicans of New York, there are 
 none who have stronger reason to be satisfied of the irrepressible energy of the 
 Democratic party, and that no abuse of its confidence can long remain beyond 
 its reach and plenary correction. 
 
 It would have been impossible at any moment during the admin- 
 istrations of Jefferson and Madison, or at any period since that of 
 John Quincy Adams, to have comprehended the degree of odium 
 brought upon me by this language within the precincts of the White 
 House and in most of the circles, political and social, of Washington. 
 The noisy revels of bacchanalians in the Inner Sanctuary could not 
 be more unwelcome sounds to devout worshippers than was this peal 
 of the party tocsin in the ears of those who glorified the " Era of 
 Good Feeling." 
 
 Whilst this excitement was at its highest point I took a trip to 
 Eichmond, Virginia, and visited Spencer Eoane whom I had never 
 seen but long known, by reputation, as a hearty and bold Republican 
 of the old " School. I found him to my great regret on a bed of sick- 
 ness, from which, although he lived some time, he never rose. But 
 in all other respects he was the man I expected to meet— a root and 
 branch Democrat, clear headed, honest hearted, and always able and 
 ready to defend the right regardless of personal consequences. He 
 caused his large form to be raised in his bed, and disregarding the 
 remonstrances of his family he insisted in talking with me for sev- 
 eral hours. He at once referred to the Albany Post Office Question, 
 told me that he had read all the papers in the case and thought that 
 we were perfectly right in the grounds we had assumed. He con- 
 demned in unqualified terms the course pursued by Mr. Monroe, 
 spoke freely of past events in his career, and of his apprehensions 
 that he would, if elected, be governed by "the views he had avowed. 
 
 Mr. Roane referred, with much earnestness, to the course of the 
 Supreme Court, under the lead of Chief Justice Marshall, in under- 
 mining some of the most valuable clauses of the Constitution to sup- 
 port the pretensions of the Bank of the United States, and placed 
 in my hands a series of papers upon the subject from the Richmond 
 Enquirer, written by himself over the signature of Algernon Sidney. 
 
 On taking my leave of him I referred to the manner in which he 
 had arranged the busts of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe in his 
 room, and said that if there had been anything of the courtier in his 
 character he would have placed Mr. Monroe, he being the actual 
 President, at the head instead of the foot. He replied with empha- 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 170. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 127 
 
 sis, " No ! No ! No man ranks before Tom Jefferson in my house ! 
 They stand Sir, in the order of my confidence and of my affection ! " 
 
 The other matter to which I allude as an incident of the history 
 of the fusion scheme, was a Pennsylvania affair. Mr. Monroe and 
 his cabinet appeared to have determined to take the bull by the 
 horns — a plan worthy of the strength and standing of the members 
 who abetted his favorite policy. New York and Pennsylvania were 
 not only the largest and most influential states in the Union, but 
 also, perhaps, the most devoted to the maintenance of existing polit- 
 ical organizations, and especially did this sentiment prevail in the 
 Western Judicial District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 If the republicans of those States could be seduced or forced into 
 an acquiesence in the fusion policy, there would have been the best 
 reason to anticipate its success everywhere. A vacancy occurring in 
 the office of Marshal for the Judicial District referred to presented 
 a fair opportunity for a display of the Administration scheme in re- 
 gard to appointments, parallel to that of the Albany Post Office. A 
 man by the name of Irish — an out and out federalist — ^Avas one of 
 the Candidates. His application was of course earnestly opposed 
 by the republicans, and proofs of their opposition in the shape of 
 protests from the members of the state Legislature and from State 
 officers, from their Representatives in Congress and from private 
 jjersons innumerable, were laid before the President, but without 
 avail. Irish was nominated to the Senate and the nomination was 
 confirmed. Although I happened not to have opened my lips on 
 the question of the passage of this nomination in secret session, yet, 
 as it was generally my lot to be held on such occasions justly or un- 
 justly to some measure of responsibility, my quasi friend David B. 
 Ogden circulated a report that I had made a most violent and Jacob- 
 inical speech against it, and thus disturbed the sensibilities of my 
 personal friends among the federalists, of whom I always numbered 
 many. Mr. Ogden was a sound lawyer and possessed a vigorous 
 intellect, but although an amiable man naturally, he was a violent 
 politician and liable to " welcome fancies for facts " in matters hav- 
 ing partizan relations. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Before I enter upon the engrossing subject at Washington, during 
 Mr. Monroe's last term, to wit, the election of his successor, I will 
 give a brief account of my senatorial dehut. 
 
 A Bill for the confirmation of the title of Mr. Cox of Philadelphia 
 to an extensive territory in Louisiana called the Maison Rouge Tract 
 was referred to our Committee. Having from unaffected timidity 
 and ° respect for the body of which I was so new a member, with- 
 held myself from debaite until an advanced period of the session, I 
 determined to make my first appearance on the floor upon this Bill. 
 To this end I gave to its merits a thorough examination, and be- 
 came satisfied that it ought not to pass. James Brown, an old and 
 prominent Senator and lawyer from Louisiana, being an early and 
 warm friend of Mr. Cox, and very decidedly in favor of his claim, 
 Mrs. Brown brought to the Senate Chamber several distinguished 
 ladies, among whom were Mrs. Cox and Mrs. Johnston, the wife 
 of his colleague, (now Mrs. Gilpin, of Philadelphia) to hear her 
 husband's speech. 
 
 It being my business as Chairman of the Committee to open the 
 matter to the Senate, and to state the objections to the Bill, I rose 
 for that purpose, and very soon met with a regular " break down " — 
 as such catastrophes to young speakers are called. However strange 
 it may appear in view of my previous public and professional career, 
 it is nevertheless true that timidity in entering upon debate in every 
 new situation in which I have been placed, and consequent embarrass- 
 ment in its first stages, have been infirmities to which I have been 
 subject in every period of my life. Finding that I could not pro- 
 ceed I made my retreat with as good a grace as possible and resumed 
 my seat. 
 
 Mr. Brown was a respectable, tho' not, in my estimation, a very 
 strong man. He had been long ^t .the bar in Louisiana, where the 
 lands in question were situated, was familiar with the Civil Law — 
 which was in force there — with the laws and ordinances of the 
 Colonies and the Statute laws of the State, all of which had a bear- 
 ing upon the validity of this title, and was withal an easy speaker, 
 plausible in his manner and much inclined to sarcasm. I can never 
 forget either the triumphant air with which he threw himself into 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 176. 
 128 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUEEN. 129 
 
 the debate, or the irritating condescension with which he explained 
 the causes of my failure. This he did by enlarging upon the differ- 
 ence in the legal systems of Louisiana and New York, particularly 
 in respect to the prevalence of the Civil law, and by obligingly 
 expressing his confidence that if the question had arisen in my own 
 section of the country I would doubtless have done it fuller justice — 
 only regretting that I should have allowed myself to make up so 
 confident 'an opinion against so valid a claim without a better 
 understanding of its merits. He then proceeded in a long discus- 
 sion of the points involved in the claim; but he had done more to 
 prejudice the passage Of the Bill in his opening remarks than his 
 subsequent argument, able as it undoubtedly was, could remedy. He 
 had totally extinguished the timidity by which my capacities had 
 been for the moment paralyzed, and had excited in its place a glow 
 of feeling and an anxiety for the reply which public speakers will 
 appreciate. He soon perceived the mischief he had done, and which 
 the vote confirmed in the rejection of the Bill by a large majority, 
 altho' it had passed the Senate at a previous session with only six 
 votes against it. - 
 
 When I resumed my seat Father Macon,^ as he was called in the 
 Senate, came to my place and shaking me cordially by the hand, 
 thanked me for the service that I had rendered to the public, and 
 said he had always believed the matter to be a' dishonest concern. 
 The Bill to confirm the title having thus failed, another was intro- 
 duced, or the old one modified to make it a Bill granting leave to 
 implead the United States and to try the question at law. So 
 bad had the character of the claim become in consequence of this 
 discussion that it failed even in that form. It was with the Judi- 
 ciary Committee an annual visitor, acted upon at almost every ses- 
 sion and invariably rejected. The Committee were at one time 
 nearly or quite unanimous against it; changes in its members, per- 
 sonal influence and solicitations of the worthy claimant and his 
 numerous friends, and those various considerations which are often 
 successfully brought to bear on the decision of Congress in regard 
 to private claims, after a time brought me into a minority in the 
 Committee, but not in the Senate. In the session of 1827-8, when 
 I had reason to expect that my friends would take( me from the 
 body, I told my friend, Mr. Seymour, of Vermont,^ a member of 
 the Committee, who was in favor of the Bill and had charge of it, 
 and who had made a report in its behalf, that I had a presentiment 
 that I should die before the next session, and submitted to him the 
 expediency of deferring the action of the Senate upon it until that 
 period. Understanding my meaning he adopted my suggestion. 
 
 '■ Nathaniel Macon of Nortli Carolina. ' Horatio Seymour, 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 9 
 
130 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 Twenty-six years have since elapsed, and the claim has been 
 through that period and I learn now still is the subject of legal in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 The late Mr. Cox, the claimant, a worthy citizen of Philadelphia 
 with some peculiarities in his disposition, retained to a very late 
 period his dislike towards me on account of my persevering and ob- 
 stinate opposition. I remember on one occasion meeting him on 
 board of a steamboat when he was not a 4ittle amazed a^ my civil 
 salutation, and while I was President he called at the White House 
 and, in a manner somewhat confused, told me that he called to dis- 
 charge what he regarded as the duty of every citizen — ^to pay his 
 respects to the Chief Magistrate of the country. I thanked him as 
 President, and added in the kindest spirit that I had allowed myself 
 to hope that other feelings might have formed a part of his induce- 
 ments, but that it was not for me to quarrel with his motives, so 
 long as they were of so justifiable a character. This interview en- 
 tirely removed the asperity of his feelings, and when I visited Phila- 
 delphia after my retirement and a short time before his death, he 
 evinced towards me the most cordial friendship. 
 
 The reappointment of Mr. King did not, in its consequences, I am 
 inclined to think, realize the anticipations of either of us. It is not 
 possible that any such proceeding could have been freer from pre- 
 concerted arrangement or intrigue of any description. I am quite 
 sure that I never exchanged a previous word with Mr. King upon 
 the subject of his appointment, or that I required or received any 
 assurance or intimations froni his friends or from anybody else 
 in regard to his political action if appointed. He was therefore 
 at perfect liberty to pursue any course his conscience dictated, so 
 far as we were concerned. Yet I must admit that I expected in view 
 of the general condition of the country in regard to party politics, 
 and the changes that had taken place in his own relations with his 
 party, in consequence of the patriotic course he had pursued in re- 
 spect to the War after the destruction of the Capitol, to find in him 
 a disposition to look with more complacency on the success of demo- 
 cratic measures and democratic men than proved to be the case. 
 
 But I did not allow, this to excite in my breast any unkind feel- 
 ings towards him. He was, altho' yet in the full possession of his 
 faculties, between twenty five and thirty years my senior — had o,c- 
 cupied with° distinguished credit a succession of high public sta- 
 tions, and might be disposed, with good motives and friendly views, 
 to turn to my advantage the stores of knowledge and experience 
 he had acquired. So long as the means he employed were unexcep- 
 tionable and his eflfoi-ts to turn my mind to conformity with his own 
 
 " MS. I, p, 180. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 131 
 
 were conducted with becoming delicacy, I could not be annoyed by 
 them — and he shewed himself incapable of acting otherwise. 
 
 I arrived at Washington almost without a preference between the 
 Candidates for the succession, save that I was strongly inclined to 
 regard Mr. Adams as excluded by the political bias and opinions 
 by which I thought he would be governed. Both Mr. Clay and Mr. 
 Calhoun were personally more agreeable and prepossessing in their 
 manners, and I regarded Mr. Crawford, from our first acquaintance, 
 as an honest and true man — an opinion which I never found reason 
 to change. His friends seemed more anxious to preserve the unity 
 of the Republican party, and on that account I imbibed an early in- 
 clination to give him the preference. But feeling that I was not 
 acting for myself alone, but for many confiding friends at home, I 
 deferred coming to a conclusion upon the subject until I could have ' 
 an opportimity to advise with them during the recess. 
 
 Mr. King and myself made our approaches to Washington, in the 
 succeeding fall, very leisurely — remaining some days at Philadelphia 
 and also at Baltimore. We were treated with much kindness at 
 both places and spent our time very agreeably. The Presidential 
 Question was introduced by him in the course of our journey, and 
 discussed on his part in our daily walks, and on most occasions not 
 otherwise pre-occupied, with miich earnestness. He spoke hand- 
 somely of Mr. Crawford and without special disparagement of either 
 of the candidates, and placed his preference solely on the ground of 
 the influence which the subject of slavery had exerted and was likely 
 to exert in future on the administration of the Federal Government. 
 In the course of several conversations he spoke of the long periods 
 during which the office of President had been held by citizens of the 
 slave States and the power they had thus possessed to elevate the 
 public men of their own section and to depress others, and he dis- 
 cussed their claims to this preponderance — comparing the talents, 
 native and acquired, of the People of the different sections, the serv- 
 ices, they had respectively rendered toward the establishment of 
 our independence, and the extent of their respective interests most 
 affected by the action of the Federal Government. He did not re- 
 gard Mr. Adams as particularly well adapted to be the leader in 
 such an issue, but he was placed in a condition to make him the best 
 we had; he was by no means sanguine in regard to his success — a 
 question he thought of inferior importance to the opening of the 
 proposed issue, which he firmly believed when once fairly started 
 must speedily succeed. 
 
 In the course of these protracted reasonings I acted the part of 
 listener rather than that of a contestant. Respect for their source 
 and the eloquence and earnestness with which they were made 
 secured from me a close and interested attention, but they did not 
 
132 AMERICAIT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 make the desired impression. My opinion was very decided that 
 the Southern States had dealt with the subject of slavery, down to 
 that period, in a wise and liberal spirit, and that they owed the dis- 
 proportionate influence which they had possessed in the Federal 
 Government to other causes than to the concentration of feeling and 
 effort produced by that interest. I was therefore unwilling to give 
 so controlling an influence in the Presidential election to the con- 
 siderations advanced by Mr. King, and I communicated this conclu- 
 sion to him with delicacy and unfeigned respect for his character, 
 and we proceeded on our journey without change in our feelings, 
 much less in our social relations. 
 
 As I acted at the time on the opinion I have mentioned, and as 
 there has subsequently been, in my judgment, a wide departure from 
 ' the policy which then commanded my approval, which has also in 
 its turn governed my action, I will here 'give my views of the matter 
 as it then stood, leaving the consideration of the change and its 
 consequences to its proper period and place. 
 
 At the time when the oppression of the Mother-Country com- 
 pelled our ancestors to resort to arms for the defence of their liber- 
 ties, the condition of the old Thirteen States was not materially dif- 
 ferent, in respect to the institution of Slavery, from that which ex- 
 isted at the period of which we are speaking. In those where it still 
 exists, it had been so deeply planted as to forbid the hope of seeing 
 it eradicated except thro' Providential means not then discoverable 
 by human intelligence ; whilst in those which are now free from it, it 
 had obtained but a slight hold upon the interests or upon the habits 
 and feelings of the inhabitants — ^none that would not be sure to 
 yield to wise and prudent legislation. But no obstacle was found 
 to arise from the difference in their condition in respect to the ex- 
 istence of slavery, to their cordial and devoted union in the struggle 
 which, by the blessing of Grod, resulted in the estahlishment of our 
 national independence. 
 
 No sooner had that great end and aim of all their secrifices and 
 sufferings been accomplished than the leading men — ^those who 
 swayed the councils of the States in which slavery existed and still 
 continues to exist, on all sides a race of great and good men — pro- 
 ceeded to the consideration of this difference in regard to slavery 
 in the condition of the states, and the possible consequences which it 
 might in time produce. They took up the subject with earnestness 
 and sincerity and with a determination to deal with it justly and 
 thoroughly. They foresaw that the day was not distant when slav- 
 ery would have ceased to exist in a majority of the states; that its 
 abolition would in all probability produce a more rapid increase in 
 the population of the non-siaveholding States ; that this would con- 
 
ATTTOBlOG&APHY OF MAETIN VAN BUREN. 133 
 
 tinue in a constantly augmenting ratio; that questions would arise 
 as to the relative value of free and slave laibor and as to the degree 
 of encouragement to which each was entitled, and they apprehended 
 that these might lead to invectives against the instiUition of slavery, 
 which the changed condition of States would naturally increase, and 
 that in this way the subject itself would come to be regarded as one 
 of political power, creating sectional parties and in the end over- 
 throwing the glorious fabric which had been raised by the joint 
 labors of all, if these sad results were not prevented by timely and 
 comprehensive measures. 
 
 They did not apprehend a disposition on the part of their North- 
 ern and Eastern brethren to disturb the domestic peace of the States 
 in which slavery had long and fixedly existed, by interference with 
 the subject within their 'borders. This would have been a desecration 
 of the fraternal spirit of the Eevolution so gross that their pure 
 breasts could not harbor a suspicion of it. They never doubted that 
 ample Constitutional protection for the possession and use of this 
 portion of their property would be secured to them, and that was all 
 that they required. 
 
 The spread of slavery and the increase of slave States was the 
 source and the only source from which trouble was apprehended. 
 
 The advance of liberty — ^the sign under which they had fought and 
 by which they conquered — and the growth and maintenance of free 
 institutions were the objects of that Revolution from which they had 
 just emerged. The existence and continuance of slavery in so many 
 of the States was a sad qualification of these noble aims and glorious 
 results — ^but it was impossible, positively and abolutely impossible to 
 avoid it, and its existence was without fault on the part of those who 
 had inherited it from ancestors many of whom were as little respon- 
 sible for its creation. 
 
 Shall the exceptional feature in the free system about to be organ- 
 ized be enlarged? Shall the influence and action of the Federal 
 Government be employed for the multiplication of slave States, or 
 to discourage their increase ? 
 
 These were the questions that presented themselves to all patri- 
 otic and thinking minds before and at the period of the adoption 
 of the Constitution; and it is an historical truth, worthy of all 
 honor, that the great preponderance of opinion on the part of all 
 that was imposing in character and venerable in authority in what 
 are still the Slave States was in favor of a course most in harmony 
 with the principles of the Revolution — ^that of discountenancing the 
 increase of Slave States. Such men as George "Washington, 
 Thomas Jefferson, Patrick" Henry, George Mason, James Madison 
 
 ° MS. T. p. 185. 
 
134 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and other patriotic citizens did not hesitate to express their repug- 
 nance to slavery, their regrets at its existence, their desire to see 
 it lessened and abolished, if possible, by proper means, and not 
 only their unwillingness to contribute to its extension, but their 
 readiness to co-operate in proper measures to limit its farther 
 spread by the increase of free states. 
 
 They were wise and experienced men and knew that such a sub- 
 ject could not be trusted to professions or acts which would be open 
 to different constructions, and could only be safely dealt with by 
 such measures as must carry conviction to the most prejudiced minds 
 because they went directly to the accomplishment of their object. 
 
 From such considerations and from such sources issued the Act 
 of July 1787 for the government of the North Western Territory. 
 By this Memorable Act its author and supporters intended not only 
 to provide effectually for the peace and safety of their beloved 
 country, but to repel, as far as was in their power, the suspicion of 
 their fidelity to the cause of freedom which their enemies had at- 
 tempted to fix upon them. Whether we regard the source from 
 which it originated, the support it received on its passage, or its 
 efficiency in promoting the great object of its enactment, this Law 
 deserves a place in our National Archives side by side with the 
 Declaration of Independence and the Federal Constitution. At- 
 tempts have been made to deprive Mr. Jefferson of the credit of 
 this great measure, as there have been cavillers against every truth 
 of history however firmly established. Nothing can be more certain 
 than that it was to his master mind that the country is indebted 
 for its conception, and to his perseverance in its support seconded 
 by the Legislature of "Virginia and the old Congress for its com- 
 pletion. 
 
 By its provisions the North Western Territory which was, in the 
 hands of Virginia, slave territory, was set apart for the creation of 
 six new states — ^the precise number of the slave states then, to all ap- 
 pearance, destined to remain such — and it was made an irrevocable 
 condition of the cession that slavery' should never be tolerated within 
 their boundaries. The Executive and Legislative Departments of the 
 State of Virginia, and the prominent men of the State, of all parties, 
 lent their aid to promote the measure and it passed the old Congress 
 by the unanimous vote of the Representatives from the slave-holding 
 states. Its adaptation to exigencies of the occasion to the promo- 
 tion of the policy of which I have spoken are too obvious to require a 
 single remark. It embraced all the vacant territory of the United 
 States which was at all likely to be converted into Slave States and 
 promised to balance the influence of the irredeemable slave holding 
 states in the Federal Councils — leaving the progress of Emancipation 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN" VAIST BUREN. 135 
 
 in the Middle and Northern States to work out a preponderance of 
 free states qualified, to a limited extent, by the new states that might 
 be made out of vacant territories still belonging to the States of 
 North Carolina and Georgia by divisions of those states. 
 
 The Act was passed but a short time previous to the meeting of the 
 Convention ^ which framed the Federal Constitution and its patriotic 
 promoters were not disappointed in the character and extent of the 
 influence which a measure so wise and liberal was destined to exert 
 upon the other members of the Confederacy. They found them ready 
 to secure the citizens of the Southern States in the full enjoyment of 
 the rights they claimed as slave holders by adequate constitutional 
 guarantees and the Southern members of the Convention reciprocated 
 that disposition by their significant consent that the word slavery 
 should not be used in the Constitution, and with the exception of the 
 members from South Carolina and Georgia they insisted that the 
 Slave trade should be forthwith abolished. The prolongation of the 
 period for its suppression was, it is well known, the consideration 
 given, in pursuance of an arrangement between the members last men- 
 tioned and some of our Eastern brethren, for the right in Congress 
 to pass Navigation Acts. 
 
 The six new States provided for by the ordinance of 1787 have 
 all been admitted into the Union as free States, according to its 
 provisions, and have now a representation in the U. S. Senate exactly 
 equal to that of the six^ Slave States of the old Confederacy and a 
 
 representation in the House of Eepresentatives of members to 
 
 members, the present representation of the latter. As late as 
 
 the year 1809, the territory of Indiana, under a momentary delusion 
 in regard to her best interests, applied to Congress for temporary 
 relief from the prohibition of the Ordinance against slavery. The 
 petition was referred to a Committee of which John Eandolph, dis- 
 tinguished for his devotion to Southern rights, interests and feelings, 
 was Chairman, reported against promptly and firmly and the report 
 acquiesced in with perfect unanimity by his Southern associates. 
 Add to all this the Declaratory Act of Congress by which the Slave 
 trade was declared Piracy, in the passage of which Southern men 
 took the most prominent part, and we have a series of Acts all 
 showing the absence of anything like a desire to advance their 
 political power by the spread of Slavery or the increase of Slave 
 States. 
 
 What subsequent steps have been taken bearing upon the relative 
 powers of the slave and free states, before the agitation of the 
 Missouri Question, and how far do they afford evidence of a different 
 design! 
 
 "^Van Buren confused the adoption of the Constitution by the Convention, September 
 17, 1787, with the date of convening which was May 14. 
 
136 AMEKICAN HISTORIC AL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Tennessee had been cut off from North Carolina — ^made a State 
 and admitted into the Union as had been the case with Vermont and 
 Maine taken from the states of New York and Massachusetts. Geor- 
 gia had ceded her vacant lands to the Federal Government for a 
 stipulation to be relieved from the occupation of certain Indian 
 tribes, out of which lands the states of Alabama and Mississippi had 
 been carved. The Floridas and Louisiana had been purchased, and 
 the state of Louisiana had been admitted into the Union. These 
 were all proceedings, except the purchase, anticipated by the acts 
 of the Government, and neither they nor the purchase last men- 
 tioned afforded indications of a design to increase, or exclusively 
 aggrandize the slave interest or power, nor were they at the periods 
 when they occurred, to my Iniowledge, objected to on that ground. 
 It may have been otherwise in respect to Louisiana, on the part of 
 some of our Eastern people, but thbir objections were not very ear- 
 nestly insisted on. These purchases were not in contemplation when 
 the Ordinance of 1787 was passed. The settlement of the Valley of 
 the Mississippi made the acquisition of the Mouths of that Kiver 
 a state necessity which could not be disregarded or much longer 
 delayed without hazarding the peace of the Country or the sta- 
 bility of the Union. The admission of Louisiana as a slave state 
 necessarily resulted from the stipulations in favor of the inhabi- 
 tants which the treaty unavoidably contained. I firmly believe that 
 if Mr. Jefferson had thought it practicable to acquire the territory 
 and to obtain its admission as a State without such stipulations, he 
 would have made the attempt. His whole course upon the subject 
 of slavery warrants this opinion. If the existence of slavery in the 
 state was an insuperable objection with the Northern states they 
 had only to withhold their assent from the treaty and the whole 
 proceeding would have fallen to the ground. But the paramount 
 necessity for the purchase banished that consideration from their 
 minds, if it existed there to any considerable extent — ^which in the 
 then state of public feeling upon the subject is not very probable. 
 
 The territory was too large for a single state, and a portion of it 
 comparatively thinly settled, but by a congenial population, was set 
 off as a separate Territory by the name of Missouri. Eight years 
 afterwards the latter applied to be admitted as a state, having in 
 the mean time acquired a sufficient number of inhabitants. Having 
 grown up as a slave territory under the territorial laws, and her 
 people being then, for the most part, slaveholders, Missouri claimed 
 to be admitted as a Slave State and had framed her Constitution acr 
 cordingly. On that ground — that is because her constitution recog- 
 nized and sanctioned the existence of slavery within her borders — 
 her admission into the Union as a state was opposed by large por- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUEEN. 137 
 
 tions of the Northern people. This opposition they had the right to 
 make. Thinking that it would be for the interest of the new State 
 that she should be free, and thinking also that from the smallness 
 of her population, and the limited number of slaves within the terri- 
 tory — even now not large — ^the State would find not more difficulty 
 in relieving itself from the existence of slavery than many of the 
 Northern states had experienced, they had a right to press those 
 considerations upon" the applicant by all fair and proper means. 
 If the unbiased opinion of Missouri could now be obtained I should 
 not be surprised to find it one of regret that she had not yielded to 
 that opposition and made herself a non-slave holding state. 
 
 The opposition that was made to the admission of Missouri takes 
 its character from the motives by which it was actuated and the 
 manner in which it was conducted. That opposition was unexcep- 
 tionable where it arose from an honest conviction that the pre- 
 vious abolition of slavery within her territory would be advan- 
 tageous to her, and that the admission of more slave states into the 
 Union would be adverse to its welfare, and where no improper means 
 were employed to carry out these views; but where it was, on the 
 contrary, the fruit of an outside policy — ^where the principal design 
 was to produce political and partisan effect by seizing on the ques- 
 tion as an opportunity to bring the politics of the slave states and 
 the standing of their supporters in the free states into disrepute 
 through inflammatory assaults upon the institution of slavery, which 
 we are under constitutional obligations to respect in the states where 
 i^ exists, — ^the opposition was culpably factious. Disguise the mat- 
 ter as we may such agitation must, in the light of reason and jus- 
 tice, be regarded as alike offensive to the spirit and derogatory to 
 the memories of the Revolution. If our participation in the pro- 
 tection which the Federal Constitution extends to the institution 
 of slavery hsid become intolerable to us, and we had satisfied our- 
 selves that the interests of humanity would gain mote by our re- 
 lease from that obligation than they would lose by a dissolution of 
 the Union, there was one way in which we. could obtain an honorable 
 discharge and that was by tendering to our brethren of the slave 
 holding states a peaceable and voluntary dissolution of that Union 
 which our Ancestors had formed with them under a different state 
 of feeling. To hold on to its advantages and at the same time to 
 lessen if not destroy through the agency of such agitations, that se- 
 curitj' to their slave property which was one of the principal bene- 
 fits promised to them by its adoption, was the reverse of such a 
 course. s 
 
 ° MS. I, p. 190. 
 
138 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 From all that I saw of it I could not divest my mind that such 
 was the intention of the movement against the admission of Mis- 
 souri on the part of its leaders. I thought so then — ^I think so 
 still. I feel less embarrassed in speaking of it thus freely because 
 I have always admitted my share of the responsibility so far as 
 the New York Resolutions went — ^but no farther. Although I did 
 not actually vote for them I allowed myself to be prevented by po- 
 litical and partisan considerations, which have been heretofore al- 
 luded to, from meeting them by open opposition. 
 
 While it affords me no satisfaction to say this I would the more 
 regret the necessity of this sacrifice to the truth of history if I 
 did not also know that at a later period and at a critical period, too, 
 for the South the Northern States stepped forward and screened 
 her from the assaults of the abolitionists in a manner and to an 
 extent that called forth the strongest expressions of approbation 
 and thankfulness from the Slave States, with acknowledgment that 
 more could not have been done or desired. What return has been 
 made for this conduct on our part will be seen in the sequel. All I 
 wish is that the simple truth of these matters should be told. 
 
 In confirmation of the statement of my own feelings at the time 
 of the Missouri agitation, I now for the first time publish two letters 
 written at that period ; one addressed to William A. Duer, recently 
 President of Columbia College, — (The letter to Mr. Duer has been 
 mislaid.) a zealous and active friend of Mr. King and of his ap- 
 pointment as Senator — and the other to Major M. M. Noah, at the 
 time Editor of the National Advocate in the city of New York. The 
 occasion of the latter epistle and certain circumstances in its history 
 have been heretofore related.^ 
 
 Letter to M. M. Noah, Esqe. 
 
 "Hudson Dec. 17, 1819. 
 
 D' Sib 
 
 Tour letter has reached me here in the midst of a Circuit and I have but 
 time to say a word to you on the interesting points you speak of. Advise 
 Thompson by no means to have such a meeting — It would as you say set an 
 example for Mr. Clinton for which he would feive the world. The dire necessity 
 to which he will be subjected of resorting to such nominations galls him to the 
 quick. Such a measure would therefore be intolerable in us, and I am aston- 
 ished that any discreet man should dream of it. Make yourself perfectly easy 
 on the suiject of the nomination. If such designs as you speak of exist they 
 are perfectly harmless. There is the most unprecedented unanimity on the sub- 
 ject among Kepublicans. Tompkins will be the man unless he himself declines. 
 Let the few individuals who entertain different views talk on, but don't notice 
 tfiem in your paper. They will soon be lost in the general mass. I should 
 sorely regret to find any flagging the subject of Mr. King in New York. We 
 
 > Page 101 of the Autobiography. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREN. 139 
 
 are eommitted to his support. It is both wise and honest, and we must have no 
 fluttering in our course. The Republicans of the State expect it and are ready 
 for it. I know that such is the case. There was not in the Senate a dissenting 
 voice that I could find. Mr. King's views towards us are honorable and cor- 
 rect. The Missouri Question conceals so far as he is concerned no plot, and we 
 shall give it a true direction. You know what the feelings and views of our 
 friends were when I left New York, and you know what we then concluded to 
 do. My Considerations " &c and the aspect of the Argus will shew you that we 
 have entered on the work in earnest We cannot therefore look back. Our 
 fair, consistent and manly course has raised our party in the estimation of all, 
 and its contrast with that of our opponents has cast much contempt on theirs. 
 Let us not therefore have any halting, but come out I beseech you manfully on 
 the subject and I wiU put my head on its propriety." * * * 
 
 At the time of my conversation with Mr. King, the Missouri 
 Question had been settled — ^most of the Candidates were slave-hold- 
 ers, and there was scarcely a ripple on the political waters produced 
 by slavery agitation. 
 
 It was not surprising that Mr. King and myself should differ upon 
 this point as we viewed it from opposite positions. Although not in 
 the Country during the administration of the elder Adams and per- 
 haps not approving of "all its measures, he nevertheless sympathized 
 with its conductors and had through life been the political friend 
 and associate of its principal supporters. He had regarded its over- 
 throw and the election of Mr. Jefferson as national misfortunes. He 
 had been in opposition — respectful indeed but not the less decided — 
 to the administrations of Jefferson and Madison during the sixteen 
 years of their continuance, with the exception of the support he gave 
 to the War after the sacking of Washington. With his political feel- 
 ings moderated by time and circumstances, he was still, as I found 
 upon a nearer approach, on all essential points, the same old fash- 
 ioned federalist that he had been from the start. Under a bias so 
 potent he was wholly unwilling to allow, indeed incapable of believ- 
 ing that the lodgment which Jefferson's political principles had ac- 
 quired and was likely to maintain in the minds of the People, in 
 preference to those of his own school, was well deserved on public 
 grounds, and he was ready to attribute it to the unanimity of the 
 slave states caused by the slave interest or by the " black strap " as 
 he called it. His feelings against the institution as a philanthropist 
 were thus stimulated by the prejudices of the politician, and he was 
 by their combined influence induced to embark with so much earnest- 
 ness in the Missouri agitation. 
 
 ° My feelings were of a very different character. My earliest 
 political recollections were those of the day when I exulted at the 
 
 > Conaiderations In favor of the appointment of Eufus King — a pamphlet of 32 pp. 
 (Dec, 1819). A copy is in the Toner Collection, Library of Congress. See the long 
 extracts published in Holland's Life of Van Baren (Hartford, 1836), p. 129. 
 
 - MS'. I, p. 195. 
 
140 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 election of Mr. Jefferson, as the triumph of a good cause over an 
 Administration and Party, who were as I thought subverting the 
 principles upon which the Eevolution was founded and fastening 
 upon the Country a system which tho' different in form was neverthe- 
 less animated by a policy in the acquisition and use of political power 
 akin to that which our ancestors had overthrown. I had ever since 
 regarded the continued success of Mr. Jefferson's policy as the result 
 of the superiority of the principles he introduced into the adminis- 
 tration of the Government over those of his predecessor, and was sin- 
 cerely desirous that they should continue to prevail in the Federal 
 Councils. I had not, as I have before stated, sympathized in the Mis- 
 souri Agitation because I could not conceal from myself the fact, to 
 which all we saw and heard bore testimony, that its moving springs 
 were rather political than philanthropical, and because I thought 
 nothing had arisen that would justify us in making the subject of 
 slavery a matter of political controversy. 
 
 These conflicting views, coloring all our conversations, soon con- 
 vinced us of the parts we were to take in the Presidential election. 
 I announced by intention to support Mr. Ol-awford soon after my 
 arrival at Wa^ington, and Mr. King was, from the beginning, the 
 knoAvn friend of Mr. Adams. But this difference did not then pro- 
 duce the slightest effect upon our social or friendly relations. We 
 messed together during the session, and notwithstanding the dis- 
 parity in our years, which was still greater between some others of 
 our associates and himself, our social intercourse was not only unem- 
 barrassed, but so genial and entertaining" as to have kept a pleasant 
 and lasting place in my memory. 
 
 A circumstance occurred in the succeeding recess affecting me per- 
 sonally that served to draw forth his friendly regard. Chief Jus- 
 tice Thompson, having been transferred to the Navy Department,* 
 disposed to testify his sense of the intimate relations that so long 
 existed between us, inquired of me by letter whether I would accept 
 the office of Judge on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, to supply the vacancy caused by the death of Brockholst Liv- 
 ingston. My impression, upon receiving the letter, was decidedly 
 against the acceptance of the offer, but on mentioning the subject to 
 Mr. King he took very earnest ground in favor of my accepting it, 
 and begged me not to decline, as it was my intention to do imme- 
 diately, until we could give the subject a fuller consideration. At 
 subsequent interviews he prevailed upon me to consent to the ap- 
 pointment. Having felt myself called upon to oppose an Act of 
 Mr. Monroe's administration in regard to an appointment in which 
 a large portion of my constituents was interested, I informed the 
 
 1 Smith Thompson transferred in AprU, 1823. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 141 
 
 Secretary that if the President was dispjosed to confer the office upon 
 me I would accept it, but I was desirous that it should be understood 
 as having been done exclusively on public grounds, as I had no desire 
 for the position and could not consent to be regarded as an appli- 
 cant for it. Mr. King wrote of his own accord to Mr. Adams, who 
 took a friendly part in the matter. 
 
 From some source" which I never perfectly understood obstacles 
 were thrown in the way of the appointment and considerable delay 
 intervened. An expression in one of the Secretary's letters induced 
 me to repeat my request that in Avhatever he said or did in the mat- 
 ter, I relied upon his friendship to prevent me from appearing be- 
 fore the President as an applicant for the office. After a while I 
 received a letter from him asking me whether, after what had hap- 
 pened between us, I thought he could with propriety take the office 
 himself. Mr. King had taken much interest in the subject and was 
 much displeased with the conduct of Secretary Thompson. He 
 thought I ought to leave him to his own course ; but feeling best sat- 
 isfied with an avoidance of the appointment, I wrote to him at once 
 absolving him from any obligation to myself and advising him to 
 take the place, for which, by the way, he was as eminently qualified 
 as he was unfit for political life. 
 
 Now, altho' I was very sensible that one inducement with Mr. 
 King, on this occasion, was a willingness to withdraw me from the 
 Presidential canvass, I was yet perfectly satisfied that he sincerely 
 thought the appointment a desirable one, and that it could not be 
 otherwise than beneficial to me to accept it. I was not therefore dis- 
 posed to undervalue the zealous and friendly part that he took in 
 the matter, because his success would favor other objects in which 
 he felt an interest and which he was quite justifiable in seeking to 
 advance by such means. 
 
 » On referring to my correspondence with Secretary Thompson, to which I could not 
 have access when the above was written, I find that, previously to the offer of his in- 
 fluence in obtaining the Judgeship for me, he had solicited in his straight forward way 
 my support of himself for the Presidency, and had become not a little impatient of my 
 silence. This circumstance, which, from the slight impression that it made on me, had 
 altogether escaped from my memory, may throw some light upon the course and dis- 
 position of the judicial appointment after it was ascertained that my inclinations in 
 regard to the Presidential Question were not in that direction. I cannot say that I 
 have at this moment any decided opinion as to the source from whence the obstacles 
 arose which prevented my appointment. The correspondence which accompanies this 
 Memoir will be found to possess interest from the light it throws upon the ways of men 
 and of several distinguished individuals in particular. I have myself fancied on read- 
 ing it now that I could discover traces of views and feelings on the part of others 
 which from the unsuspicious character of my mind did not occur to me at the time. 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 "My notice of the Presidential election of 1824-5 will be- confined 
 mainly to the State of New York. An unforeseen occurrence gave 
 the principal part of her electoral vote to Mr. Adams, and an acci- 
 dental circumstance, bearing upon that vote, turned the question 
 finally in his favor in the House of Kepresentatives. 
 
 By the law of the State, passed at a very early period, the Electors 
 of President and Vice President were directed to be appointed by 
 the Legislature. The election of members of the latter body in 1823 
 was held with direct reference to the Presidential question and re- 
 sulted in the choice of a very decided majority supposed to be and 
 which was, at the time, favorable to the election of William H. 
 Crawford. The friends of the other Candidates, recognizing their 
 defeat, demanded a second trial. A transaction something like this 
 occurred in 1800 — ^the object being to defeat Mr. Jefferson. After 
 a Legislature had been chosen known to be favorable to him an ap- 
 plication was made to Gov. Jay (as appears from his Life, by his 
 son,) by a prominent federalist, to call the old legislature, whose time 
 had not expired, to choose the Presidential electors, which Mr. Jay 
 very properly refused to entertain. 
 
 The movement now made was of a far more plausible character. 
 It was demanded that the Electors should be chosen by the People, in- 
 stead of being appointed by the Legislature, as had been the pre- 
 vious usage and as the existing law directed. The unreasonableness 
 of this demand under the circumstances was apparent, but its rejec- 
 tion was nevertheless a matter of great delicacy. It was an awkward 
 affair for a party which prided itself on being most in favor of em- 
 ploying the direct agency of the People in the conduct of public 
 affairs, to refuse such an application when there was yet time enough 
 to accede to it and to carry it into effect. It seemed, at least, in thus 
 refusing, to place itself in a false position. Our opponents pressed 
 this view of the subject with much earnestness and considerable 
 influence. But I have never doubted that we would have been able 
 to sustain ourselves before the country if it had not been for a very 
 unexpected and badly advised step taken by our friends at the mo- 
 
 " MS. Book II, p. 1. 
 J42 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAK BURBK. 143 
 
 ment when the Legislature adjourned to the Extra-session for the 
 choice of electors. 
 
 Gov. Clinton had listened to the advice of his friends and had 
 avowed his determination not to be a candidate for re-election — his 
 chance of success being regarded, by them as hopeless. He did not 
 lack troops of devoted personal adherents, but his failure to main- 
 tain his position in the favor of the People, under the auspicious 
 circumstances which had attended his public service, even when 
 strengthened by the complete success of the Erie Canal — a measure 
 to which his name was so closely and meritoriously linked — induced 
 them to think that he did not possess the faculty of making himself 
 generally and permanently acceptable to the People under any state 
 of affairs. They had therefore employed themselves in looking for 
 an office or employment for him which would be adequate for his 
 support, of sufficient dignity and independent of the popular vote. 
 He had confessedly done more than any other man to secure the suc- 
 cess of the great Public Work to which I have referred. The office 
 of President of the Canal Board which had been conferred on him 
 at an early day had no salary attached to it nor did he receive any 
 compensation for his services. Having the best right to be regarded 
 as the founder of the Work, that post as a mark of distinction only, 
 without reference to his usefulness in the performance of its duties, 
 was justly due to him. 
 
 Such being the state of things Mr. Clinton was removed by a vote 
 of the Legislature, on the last day of the session,"^ without notice or 
 specific complaint. 
 
 It has been truly said that this removal " operated like an elec- 
 tric shock upon the whole community." It secured to Mr. Clinton 
 a full measure of what he had never before possessed — the sympa- 
 thies of the People. The friends of Mr. Adams, generally, in the 
 Legislature and their leaders Wheaton and Tallmadge ^ voted for the 
 removal, but we had the majority — ^the motion came from our side — 
 and ours was the responsibility. 
 
 A public meeting was forthwith held at the Capitol, at which the 
 measure was severely denounced. Similar meetings followed in 
 every part of the State, and an excitement in the public mind was 
 produced which disinclined it to receive dispassionately the ex- 
 planations of our conduct in refusing to pass the electoral law. Our 
 excuses for declining to fight a battle over again that we had once 
 fairly won, which, but for this disturbing question would have been 
 favorably heard by the majority, would not be listened to by an 
 irritated community. 
 
 ' April 12, 1824, — W, C. F, * Henry Wbeaton and James Tallmadge, 
 
144 AMERICAN HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Mr. Clinton's re-election to the office of Governor was the redress 
 that instantaneously presented itself to the minds of the masses. 
 The people's party" — a temporary faction generated by the re- 
 fusal of our friends to pass the Electoral law and most of whose mem- 
 bers in the Legislature had voted for his removal — could not pre- 
 vent his nomination at a State Convention in the call of which they 
 had united. The current of public feeling, overwhelmingly in his 
 favor, carried him in by the largest majority ever given in the 
 state. So violent was the excitement that when I, to whom the 
 removal had occasioned much regret and who had no knowledge, 
 being in Washington, of the intention to make it, made my appear- 
 ance at the polls the shout of " Regency ! Regency ! " was raised by 
 the crowd and my vote was challenged by some dozen persons. The 
 efforts sincerely made by the Board of Inspectors and by some of 
 Mr. Clinton's most attached friends to get the challenge withdrawn 
 were ineffectual, and ,1 was obliged to take the prescribed oath. The 
 first returns from the Western Counties were astounding, but at a 
 meeting of a few friends, held at my lodgings, we canvassed the 
 State and still claimed success. On the following morning, how- 
 ever, my excellent friend Judge Roger Skinner came into my room 
 and furnished me with returns shewing that we had been, as I have 
 stated, completely routed. 
 
 A feeling of bitter personal hostility towards Gov. Clinton — 
 foreign to his generous nature, but for which he thought he had 
 adequate grounds — ^had made Judge Skinner more instrumental in 
 acxjomplishing the removal of Mr. Clinton than any other of our 
 friends. Knowing that if informed of the design I would have 
 done what I could to prevent it, he took especial pains to keep it 
 from me and laughed at the apprehensions I expressed on being in- 
 formed of the act. He was standing at the window, tapping the 
 glass with his fingers, whilst I was taking my breakfast with what 
 ° appetite his news had left me. I could not resist saying to him— 
 "I hope. Judge, you are now satisfied that there is such a thing 
 in politics as killing a man too dead!'''' an observation sufficiently 
 absurd to the general ear, but full of significance and matter for 
 painful reflection to him. He left the room immediately without 
 saying a word. Conscious that I had wounded him deeply I fol- 
 lowed him, to his lodgings, begged his forgiveness with perfect 
 sincerity and succeeded in obtaining it. But nothing could soothe 
 the pang inflicted on his heart by Mr. Clinton's success and by 
 the conviction that he had contributed to it. His health, always 
 delicate, gave way, and he died not long after in my arms. He was 
 among the worthiest and most valued of my friends, a«id I long 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 5. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUREN. 145 
 
 and deeply mourned his loss. He was the second person whose death 
 was obviously hastened by grief and mortification at Mr. Clinton's 
 success. The other was Judge ^ Crosby, Senator from Westchester 
 County, of whom I have already spoken in connection with Mr. Clin- 
 ton's nomination three years before. 
 
 To those familiar with the action of public bodies under the in- 
 fluence of panic it cannot be necessary to enlarge upon the injuri- 
 ous effects produced by these election results, received at the time 
 that the Legislature was in session for the sole purpose of appoint- 
 ing Presidential Electors. Gen. Peter B. Porter, a sagacious man, 
 well versed in political management and, tho' never popular himself, 
 very capable of influencing others, was at the head of Mr. Clay's 
 friends. His ablest associate and co-worker was John Cramer, a 
 veteran politician, who had been one of the Electors at Mr. Jefferson's 
 second election, had almost ever since been in public life, lived on 
 political intrigue, and having been familiar with legislative corrup- 
 tions was consequently well acquainted with the worst portion of the 
 members and the ways by which they might be operated upon. Fol- 
 lowing the example of their Principal their first step was to prevent 
 a Caucus^ in which, if its decision was adhered to, we would have 
 been entirely safe. In this step they would not have succeeded but 
 for the fact that the election had deprived us of the prestige which 
 the long possession of power had given us. They coalesced with the 
 friends of Mr. Adams, and this union enabled them to hold out rea- 
 sonable expectations of a share in the favors of the new Government 
 to members friendly to Mr. Crawford. The two sections made a 
 regular bargain for the division of the Electoral ticket and succeeded, 
 but so close was the vote that only thirty-two electors out of thirty- 
 six were chosen on the first ballot. On the second ballot four of our 
 ticket were elected, by which result Mr. Clay was excluded from the 
 House of Representatives and Mr. Crawford's name was returned 
 to it as one of the three highest. 
 
 We had formed our ticket upon a principle that brought on it 
 several of Mr. Clay's supporters, equal in number to the share they 
 were to have under their arrangement with the friends of Mr. Adams, 
 and four of these were lost. Although I did not suspect it at the 
 time, I had reason subsequently to believe that these were intention- 
 ally lost from a desire on the part of the Adams men to exclude Mr. 
 Clay from the House. 
 
 Our Governor in office. Judge Yates, and our new candidate for 
 that station at the election, Col. Young, — two very honest men but 
 impracticable politicians, — did each their part in breaking down the 
 
 > Dai-ius Crosby. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 10 
 
146 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 party by which the one had been and the other hoped to be elected. 
 
 I have ailready alluded to the unfounded prejudices in regard to 
 myself which had unhappily been created in the breast of the former. 
 These were not removed in the Eecess, and I left home for Washington 
 in December, 1823, in the full belief that we were destined to en- 
 counter his opposition upon the Presidential question in the shape 
 of the recommendation, in his second Message (January 1824) to 
 alter the mode of appointing electors,^ and I remained under that 
 impression until I heard that document read under the following 
 circumstances. 
 
 My colleague, Mr. King, resting confidently upon the almost uni- 
 versal impression that such must be its character, manifested more 
 curiosity for its arrival than I either shewed or felt. It was brought 
 to us at the close of our mess dinner at which were present our 
 mutual friends Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer, Messrs. Andrew Steven- 
 son, Louis McLane & others. Mr. King immediately proposed that 
 it should be read aloud, and Mr. Stevenson was, I think, designated 
 as the reader. Mr. King folded his handkerchief on the table before 
 him and resting his arms upon it, as was his habit, his complacent 
 countenance indicated the confidence and satisfaction with which he 
 prepared himself to hear the welcome tidings. The ordinary topics 
 of the Message were run over hurriedly until the reader came to the 
 interesting subject of the choice of electors, when, to the amazement 
 of all, we were favored with a string of generalities studiedly am- 
 biguous, but susceptible of only one interpretation which was that in 
 his Excellency's opinion it would be better to leave the law as it 
 
 ' The paragraph In the Governor's message read as foUows ; 
 
 " The choice of electors of president and Ylce-presldent, has excited much animadver- 
 sion throughout the nation ; and it is to be regretted, that a uniform rule on this sub- 
 ject is not prescribed by the constitution of the United States. It is manifest, that 
 the manner of electing may have an essential effect on the power and Influence of a 
 state, with regard to the presidential question, by either dividing the votes, or enabling 
 the state with greater certainty to give an united vote ; and until a uniform rule is In- 
 grafted in the constitution of the United States, the manner of electing will continue to 
 fluctuate, and no alteration made by any one state will produce a material change in 
 the various modes now existing throughout the union. In some states the people will 
 vote by a general ticket ; in some by districts, and in others by the legislature ; and no 
 practical remedy probably does exist, competent to remove the evU effectually, except by 
 an amendment to the national constitution. 
 
 "Although this state has heretofore sanctioned an attempt to accomplish that im- 
 portant object, which proved unsuccessful, the measure on that account should not be 
 abandoned ; and as the subject has recently been brought before congress, it is to be 
 expected that another opportunity will shortly be presented for the legislature of this 
 state to sanction an amendment, not only establishing a uniform rule in the choice of 
 electors, but also securing the desirable object of directing such choice to be made by 
 the people. A more propitious period of evincing its propriety and consequently afford- 
 ing a more favorable prospect of obtaining a constitutional number of the states to 
 assent to it, I am inclined to think has not presented itself since the organization of 
 the government. Persuaded that you as the representatives of a free people, will only 
 be influenced by reason and true patriotism, it is submitted to your wisdom ^nd dis- 
 cretion, whether, under existing circumstances, the present manner of choosing electors 
 ought, at this time, to be changed." — W, C. F. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAK BUREIT. 147 
 
 stood. A lowering frown chased the smiles from Mr. King's face, 
 and being observed by all produced an unpleasant pause, interrupted 
 by himself when, turning to me, he said " I think, Mr. Van Buren, 
 that Mr. Crawford's friends ought to send the Governor a drawing 
 of the Vice President's Chair." I asked for his reason. " Because " 
 said he, " I presume they have promised its possession to him." I 
 replied with some feeling, but respectfully, that I could not of course 
 say what had been promised him by the friends of the other candi- 
 dates, but that I was quite sure that Mr. Crawford's friends had 
 held out to him no allurements. " I hope so ! " on his part, and " I 
 hnow so ! " on mine followed in rapid succession, when he picked up 
 his handkerchief and walked out of the room. Mr. King was en- 
 titled to credit for his government of a naturally warm temper. We 
 saw no more of him that evening nor did he come to the breakfast 
 table in the morning, but at night following he pressed me to ac- 
 company him to a party given by the French Minister, which I did. 
 On our way he said what was proper in regard to the unpleasant 
 occurrence of the day before, and at the party he shamed my un- 
 prompt gallantry by dropping on his knee, in my presence, to retie 
 her loosened shoe-string for a very interesting young lady — ^the grand 
 daughter of Mr. Jefferson and my warm friend — a duty that his 
 greater age should have devolved upon me. 
 
 How Gov. Yates' mind had reached a conclusion so unexpected 
 by all of us I never ascertained. He lost a renomination and before 
 I left Washington I had the mortification to see his proclamation 
 calling an extra session of the Legislature in August to reconsider 
 the subject of the Electoral law.^ This served to increase the agita- 
 tion in the public mind caused by Mr. Clinton's removal but gave 
 us little farther trouble, our majority not having then been disturbed 
 as it was afterwards by the tornado of Mr. Clinton's election. I 
 wrote a communication for the Argus to shew the impropriety of the 
 call, and our friends in the Legislature, on the motion of Mr.^ Flagg, 
 resolved that nothing had arisen in the Eecess to justify the call under 
 the Constitution and adjourned. 
 
 ' In April, 1824, in caucus Yates received only 45 votes and Young 60. The un- 
 popularity of Yates was said to have been due to his opposition to an electoral law. 
 Hammond writes (II. 166) : " He pursuaded himself that the party in favor of that 
 measure, which he knew was composed as well of the Clintonlans as the people's men, 
 were so much divided in opinion about the selection of a gubernatorial candidate, 
 that if he were to place himself in an attitude which would enable them with any 
 decent regard to consistency to support him as their candidate, in all probability they 
 would do so ; or it in this view of the case he was mistaken — if he was to come out 
 publicly in favor of the measure which had recently excited so much attention — it would 
 create such confusion in the ranks of the supporters of Col. Young, as would, in all 
 probability, defeat a rival for whom it cannot be supposed he entertained much affection. 
 It must have been under some such Impressions, that, contrary to the expectations, and 
 to the surprise of all parties, on the 2nd day of June he issued a proclamation requir- 
 ing an extra session of the legislature on the 2nd day of August," — W, C, F, 
 
 ^Azariah C. Flagg. 
 
148 AMEEIGAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 Gov. Yates' future political prospects were by this act totally de- 
 stroyed. Col. Young, who obtained the nomination for Governor on 
 our side, not aware of Mr. Clay's want of strength with the rank 
 and file of the party in the state, allowed himself, in an evil hour, 
 to be persuaded to come out with a Card substantially avowing his 
 preference for that gentleman's elevation to the Presidency. This 
 disgusted the Republicans by thousands and I had great diificulty 
 to prevent a meeting at the Capitol to renounce his nomination. 
 
 These antecedent weaknesses and disastrous results were relieved 
 by a single amusing feature, and that was the very characteristic 
 tho' somewhat irreverent reply of Gov. Yates to his relative, John 
 Van Ness Yates, then Secretary of State, Who, designing to console 
 him in his adversity, said to him, "Well, after all, Governor, one 
 thing is true of you that cannot be said of any of your Predecessors. 
 You are the only Governor who came in unanimously !" "Yes, John, 
 by G — ," was the reply, " and, it may be added, who went out unani- 
 mov,sli/!" 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 I left Albany for Washington as completely broken down a poli- 
 tician as my bitterest enemies could desire. On board of the small 
 steamer that took us to the larger one that waited for her passengers 
 below the overslaugh it was my luck to meet Mxs. Clinton (the Gov- 
 ernor's wife) and her brother James Jones. The latter said to me 
 whilst we were "seated at the breakfast table, "Now is the time 
 admirably fitted for a settlement of all difficulties between Mr. Clin- 
 ton and yoursejf." I thanked him for his friendly suggestion — ^the 
 sincerity of which I did not in the least doubt — ^but replied that my 
 fortunes were at too low an ebb to be made the subject of a compro- 
 mise, and that when they improved a little I would remember his 
 generous offer. 
 
 I stopped at New York only long enough to pay the bets I had lost 
 on the State election and then went on for the first time without Mr. 
 King. I was dissatisfied with his course in the election, with which I 
 had no right to meddle ; but, as I was not in a mood to form a very 
 correct estimate of my rights in that regard, I indulged my feelings. 
 1 found at New York the good old Patroon Van Renssalaer, who with 
 the Dutch pertinacity and fidelity saw in my distressed political for- 
 tunes a reason for sticking to me and insisted on our journeying 
 together. At Philadelphia we were overtalien by Mr. King who said, 
 in his peculiar way, that he had been enquired of by his servant 
 William "why it was that Mr. Van Buren had for the first time 
 passed on without calling," and that the only answer he could make 
 to William's natural question was that he knew of no reason and did 
 not believe that a good one existed. I muttered some civil explana- 
 tion that explained nothing and when we reached Washington Messrs. 
 Van Rensselaer, McLane, Cuthbert^ and myself took a furnished 
 house and Mr. King joined a mess at the Hotel; our accustomed 
 social relations were, however, in most other respects, maintained. 
 
 The Presidential canvass in the House of Representatives soon 
 commenced and was carried on to its close with intense feeling and 
 interest. I obtained a meeting of the friends of Crawford in the 
 New York delegation and proposed to them in a few remarks that 
 we should abstain to the end from taking a part in favor of either 
 of the three gentlemen returned to the House — Jackson, Adams or 
 
 ' MS. II, p. 10. 
 
 ' Stephen Vaa Eensselaer of New York, Louis McLane of Maryland, ajid Alfred 
 Cuthbert of Georgia. 
 
 149 
 
150 AMERICAN HISTOEICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Clay [Crawford]. I assured them that there was no danger that an 
 election would not be made by others and that if the friends of Mr, 
 Crawford stood aloof from the intrigues which such a contest 
 would produce unavoidably they would form a nucleus around which 
 the old Republicans of the Union might rally if the new Administra- 
 tion did not act upon their principles as we apprehended would be 
 the case. They resolved with perfect unanimity to pursue that 
 course, and I do not believe that a single individual of our number 
 ever thought of departing from it : certainly not one did so depart. 
 Judge Hammond was therefore misinformed in regard to their in- 
 tention to vote in any event for Mr. Adams.^ 
 
 On one occasion Francis Johnson, of Kentucky, a prominent sup- 
 porter of Mr. Clay, called, by appointment, upon Mr. McLane and 
 myself, and in a long conversation endeavoured to prevail upon us to 
 unite with the friends of Mr. Clay in making Mr. Adams President. 
 Finding us unyielding, and standing with his hand on the door he 
 said that with our aid that result could be easily realized and that he 
 was not absolutely certain but thought that they could accomplish 
 it without our assistance. I stepped to the door and said " I think 
 that very possible, but, Mr. Johnson, I beg you to remember what 
 I now say to you — ^if you do so you sign Mr. Clay's political death 
 warrant. He will never become President be your motives as pure 
 as you claim them to be." He was a light hearted man and not apt 
 to take anything gravely, but replied with a sensibility unusual to 
 him that I might be right, but yet that he believed they would do 
 it and trust to the purity of their intentions for their justification. 
 The friends of Crawford lacked but one of being half of the New 
 York delegation, so that the diversion of a single vote from Mr. 
 Adams would produce a tie. Gen. Van Eensselaer was, through 
 his first wife, a brother-in-law to Gen. Hamilton, and had, at an 
 early age, imbibed his dislike to the Adamses. He at no time en- 
 tertained the idea of voting for Mr. Adams and communicated his 
 views to me at an early period and without reserve. On the morning 
 of the Election he came to my room and told me he had some thought 
 of voting for Gen. Jackson, and asked me whether it would make any 
 difference in the general result, adding that as he had uniformly told 
 me that he intended to vote for Crawford he did not think it proper 
 to change his determination without letting me know it. I told him 
 that as his. vote could not benefit Mr. Crawford it was of no im- 
 portance to us whether it was given to him or to Gen. Jackson, but 
 submitted whether, as his intention was known to others as well as 
 myself, there was an adequate motive for subjecting himself to the 
 imputation of fickleness of purpose by a change which would pro- 
 
 1 Hammond, Political History of New York, II, 177. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtlRElf. 151 
 
 duce no^neficial result to any one. He reflected a moment and 
 then said J^ was right and that he would adhere to Crawford. When 
 he arrived atHhe Capitol Messrs. Clay arid Webster had an animated 
 conversation with him in the Spe>aker's room. The first intimation 
 I had of the hesitq,tion they produced in his mind was a message 
 from Mr. McLane, through Mr. Archer ,i thatMr. VanEensselaer had 
 been staggered by the representations of those gentlemen, accom- 
 panied by a request that I would come to the House and talk to him. 
 I refused to do so on the ground that I had no right to interfere with 
 his action in that way ; the commjmications that had passed between 
 him and myself having all been voluntary on his part and the great 
 disparity in our ages rendering any attempt to influence him at such 
 a moment indelicate and inadmissible. Mr. Archer fully concurred 
 in these views, but in a few minutes returned with a request of the 
 same character, and from the same source, of increased urgency. I 
 consented to go into the House, and if Mr. Van Rensselaer, of his own 
 accord, addressed me upon the subject to do what I could to dissuade 
 him from the course it was feared he would take. 
 
 As I entered the Chamber Mr. Cuthbert met me and said that it 
 was not necessary that I should do anything in the matter, as Mr. 
 A^an Rensselaer had that moment assured him that he certainly 
 would not vote for Mr. Adams on the first ballot. I remained to 
 see the voting which took place presently afterwards, and was pained 
 to witness Mr. Van Rensselaer's obvious agitation and distress. 
 When the votes of the New York delegation were counted it was 
 found that Mr. Adams had a majority of one. The vote of the state 
 was of course given to him and he was elected. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
 at once admitted that he had voted for Mr. Adams and thus changed 
 the anticipated result. The excitement was of course very great, 
 and I hurried to our lodgings to prevent a breach between him and 
 Mr. McLane. I found the General and Cuthbert sitting at opposite 
 ends of the sofa, both much excited tho' not a word had passed be- 
 tween them. As I entered the former said "Well, Mr. Van Buren, 
 you saw that I could not hold out ! " I replied that I had no doubt 
 he had done what he conscientiously believed to be right, that was 
 enough and I hoped the subject would now be dismissed from our 
 minds. I then went to Mr. McLane's room and found him still more 
 stirred up and it required the greatest effort on my part and 
 a plenary exercise of Gen. Van Rensselaer's amiability to prevent 
 a breaking up of our Mess. 
 
 Gen. James Hamilton, of South Carolina, had enquired of me in 
 the morning what would be the result of the vote of our state and 
 I assured him as I was fully authorized to do, that it would.be a 
 
 y _ — . ^ — 
 
 » Willi&m S. Archer, of Virginia. 
 
152 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 tie. It had been ascertained that one of the Maryland delegation 
 would, on the second ballot, vote for Gen. Jackson, and would con- 
 tinue to do so. This would cause Mr. Adams' vote to fall short two 
 of the number required by the Constitution, and it was confidently 
 calculated that rather than submit to a failure to make an election, 
 a sufficient number of his supporters would feel themselves con- 
 strained to go for Gen. Jackson, who had received a large plurality 
 of the popular vote. This calculation was broken and every hope 
 dissipated by Gen. Van Eensselaer's sudden and unforeseen change. 
 The excitement caused by it was jtherefore not surprising. 
 
 I had asked no explanations of the General nor did I intend to 
 do so, as I was satisfied he could not give any that it would be 
 agreeable to him to make. But an evening or two after the election, 
 whilst on our way to visit Mrs. Decatur,^ he volunteered an expla- 
 nation which he did not make confidential but of which I did not 
 speak until a long time afterwards, and, to the best of my recollec- 
 tion, for the first time to Mr. Clay. He said that after what had 
 passed between us he felt it to be due to me that he should explain 
 the change in his vote which I had so little reason to expect. He 
 then proceeded to inform me that when he arrived at the Capitol 
 Mr. Clay invited him to the Speaker's room where he found Mr. 
 Webster; that they took the ground that the question of election or 
 no election would depend upon his vote: that they portrayed to him 
 the consequences that would in all probability result from a disor- 
 ganization of the Government, and referred in very impressive 
 terms to the great stake he had in -the preservation of order from 
 his° large estate, and kindred considerations. He said that his mind 
 was much disturbed by these views which he had not before re- 
 garded in so serious a light, but that he returned to the Chamber 
 determined not to vote for Mr. Ad^ms on the first ballot whatever 
 he might be induced to do ultimately if their anticipations of a 
 failure to make an election should prove ta be well founded. He 
 took his seat fully resolved to vote for Mr. Crawford, but, before 
 the box reached him, he dropped his head upon the edge of his desk 
 and made a brief appeal to his Maker for his guidance in the mat- 
 ter — a practice he frequently observed on great emergencies — and 
 when he removed his hand from his eyes he saw on the floor di- 
 rectly below him a ticket bearing the name of John Quincy Adams. 
 This occurrence, at a moment of great excitement and anxiety, he 
 was led to regard as an answer to his appeal, and taking up the 
 ticket he put it in the box. In this way it was that Mr. Adams 
 was made President. 
 
 ' Mrs. Stephen Decatur. ° MS, II, p. 15. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTRBN. 153 
 
 When I spent some days with Mr. Clay at Ashland, upon his invi- 
 tation in 1842, he rallied me considerably upon the General's vote, 
 and spoke of the labor it had cost him to correct the heresies I had 
 sown in his mind. Altho' there was, as I have said, no injunction of 
 secrecy iipon the General's communication and it was not impossible 
 that he omitted it to enable me to satisfy my friends in regard to 
 his conduct, I yet felt a delicacy in speaking of it on account of its 
 peculiar character, and therefore submitted in silence to Mr. Clay's 
 pleasantry. Upon his visit to me in 1849, he happened one evening 
 to recur to the subject, when I told him that I had on a former 
 .occasion omitted to place that matter before him in its true light 
 from a feeling of doubt in regard to the effect that a true relation of 
 the subject might have upon the reputation of a man whom we 
 both esteemed so highly, but that upon farther reflection I had come 
 to the conclusion that as it would be only strengthened in the point 
 upon which his merit was most conspicuous and real, that of sincere 
 piety and honesty, I felt that there could be no objection to my giv- 
 ing him the General's explanation of his vote in his own words, to 
 which he listened with great interest. 
 
 I joined the immense throng at Mr. Adams' house on the day of 
 the Inauguration and after paying my respects to him passed on to 
 the White House to take leave of the retiring President. I found 
 Mr. Monroe literally alone, and was as usual kindly received. I re- 
 mained an hour without being joined by a single individual, when I 
 parted from him for the last time. Owing to an early and some- 
 what excited difference in opinion upon what I could not but regard 
 as an unfortunate point in his administration, ■ our relations had 
 never been confidential. I nevertheless always respected and es- 
 teemed him. Although not possessed of remarkable talents, he passed 
 through an almost unequalled number of responsible public employ- 
 ments without leaving "a stain upon his character. 
 
 Neiar the close of this session I was pained to witness once more 
 the extent to which advancing years had impaired the power of self- 
 control for which my worthy colleague had been much distinguished. 
 This exhibition was the more distressing on account of the place 
 where it occurred. The Society of Shakers, residents of my native 
 county, sent to me their petition to Congress praying to be allowed 
 exemption from military services and from other duties which con- 
 flicted with their religious faith. I presented the Petition with 
 a brief reference to the characters of the petitioners and moved that 
 it should be referred to the Committee on the Militia. Mr. King im- 
 mediately rose, made for him, a very violent attack on the appli- 
 cants, as a band of fanatics, and ended by a motion to lay the 
 Petition on the table, adding that it would be but justly treated were 
 it thrown under the table. 
 
154 AMBKICAN HISfORICAli ASSOCIATION. 
 
 There was something so extraordinary, so unexpected and to all 
 present so amazing in his concluding remarks, as they related to 
 myself, that they failed to disturb my own temper. I was thus 
 enabled to describe very calmly, in reply, the true character and 
 condition of the petitioners, — concurring in the condemnation by 
 my colleague of their religious views, but giving them credit for 
 their charities, their sobriety and their industry, — claiming for them 
 the common right to petition Congress for a redress of grievances 
 even tho' they were not real, — stating what I considered due to my- 
 self in the matter, and concluding with a declaration of my inten- 
 tion, for reasons which the Senate would not fail to appreciate, to 
 postpone all comments upon the treatment which the petitioners had 
 received from my colleague Tmtil it should appear that he persisted 
 in his opposition to my motion in the spirit which had been exhibited. 
 The Senate was evidently relieved by the direction thus given to the 
 subject, and after a moment's pause, without farther remarks from 
 any quarter, met the motion to commit by an emphatic aye without 
 a single negative vote. 
 
 The occurrence produced a siispension of personal intercourse be- 
 tween us, but Mr. King's good sense and correct feeling soon put an 
 end to it. Within a day of two thereafter he approached me at the 
 adjournment of the Senate and proposed to tak& a seat in my car- 
 riage. On our way from the Capitol he expressed his great regret 
 on account of the occurrence which I have described, — ^his strong 
 feelings against the Shakers having caused him to overlook what 
 was due to myself. He apprised me of his intention to leave Wash- 
 ington in a day or two, never again to resume his seat in the Senate, 
 and said that he would embrace that opportunity to make his ac-. 
 knowledgments for the respect and kindness with which I had treated 
 him. He regarded it as a remarkable circumstance that we should 
 have passed as opponents thro' so exciting a Presidential canvass as 
 that which had just closed without more incidents to disturb our 
 feelings and. to threaten our friendship than the few which had un- 
 happily arisen, and that he owed it to me to say, before we parted, 
 how sensible he was that we were in a very great degree indebted 
 for that exemption to my amiable disposition and self command; 
 and he concluded by pressing me earnestly to pay him a visit on my 
 return home after the adjournment. 
 
 I need not speak of the extent to which my feelings were allayed 
 by this seasonable and kind explanation. I visited him on my re- 
 turn and was received with his usual cordiality. He said that some 
 of his friends had told him that I would not keep my promise to 
 come to him, but that he understood me better than they did, to 
 which I might have added that there were not a few of mine who 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIIT VAN" BTJEEN. 155 
 
 censuTed me for doing so. Some time afterwards I received a letter 
 from Mr. King informing me of his acceptance of the Mission to 
 England, tendered to him by Mr. Adams. I assured him in reply 
 of my gratification that he had found himself in a situation to 
 accept a place so honorable and for the duties of which he was so 
 well qualified, and wished him very sincerely a successful mission 
 and safe return. His health, however, soon failed and in about a 
 year he came home an invalid. I called at his home in the city, 
 and he directed that I should be admitted, but his old servant William 
 informed me that he was very ill and suggested the propriety of 
 deferring my visit for a day or two, in which I acquiesced. He grew 
 rapidly worse and shortly after died, and I was thus prevented from 
 seeing him again. 
 
 Mr. King's career as a public man, tho' it failed to fulfill the expec- 
 tations which were justified by its early promise, was highly distin- 
 guished. He was appointed a Senator in Congress by the state of 
 Massachusetts as early as 178-, and also a delegate to represent that 
 State in the Convention which framed the present Constitution of 
 the United States, was made Minister to England by Gen. Washing- 
 ton in 1796, and represented the country at that court until the acces- 
 sion of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, when he requested his recall, 
 was twice elected to the U. S. Senate by the state of New York, to 
 which he had removed, and was actually one of its representatives in 
 that body when he was nominated by Mr. Adams and appointed to 
 the English Mission. In politics he was from first to last a federalist 
 of the Hamilton school. The only material difference between him 
 and his old associates arose from a diversity of sentiment not upon 
 any general principle but in regard to the extent to which uxron a 
 particular occasion and a special question ° their country required an 
 intermission of party. He understood too well the working of the 
 public mind not to know that, after the sacking of the Capitol by the 
 enemy, the War, whatever might have been its previous character, 
 must become national, and that those who failed to support it would 
 fall under the ban of popular opinion. Viewing the matter in this 
 light and moved also by a genuine partriotic impulse he dissented 
 from the course pursued by his party in that crisis, arrayed himself 
 on the side of his country and zealously sustained the Grovemment. 
 This gave him a position in the public estimation which was denied 
 to the mass of his former associates and contributed largely to hig 
 re-election to the Senate. A man of sound sense and good taste, 
 having through the greater part of his life associated with eminent 
 men, as well in Europe as in his own Country, he had acquired a 
 thorough knowledge of what belonged to the proprieties of every 
 
 ' MS. II, p. 20. 
 
156 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 situation in which he was placed, and possessing withal a natural 
 dignity of manner was well fitted to adorn high public stations. Mr. 
 Jefferson, comparing him intellectually with others, spoke of Mr. 
 King as a " plausible man." Although I did not consider his mind 
 remarkable either for vigor or comprehensiveness, it yet struck me 
 that this remark did not do justice to it. Plausible he certainly was, 
 but he was also always impressive, at times eloquent and forcible. 
 He generally selected one or two of the principal points presented 
 by any subject under discussion, and appljdng to their elucidation all 
 the power of his mind, seldom failed to do them ample justice. He 
 never attempted what Hamilton scarcely ever omitted to do — ^to fol- 
 low the subject into all its legitimate bearings and bringing into view 
 the collateral issues which sprung out of it and were logically entitled 
 to influence its solution, to bend the whole matter to a great point 
 most favorable to his argument, — a practice that caused Callender to 
 say of him that " he beat his guinea into an acre of gold leaf." If Mr. 
 King had attempted this I think he would have failed. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Although far advanced in Federal politics I must not lose sight 
 of those of my own state. I will therefore, before I touch upon the 
 course of the Adams Administration, notice the most interesting por- 
 tions of her political history anterior to the very sudden and la- 
 mented death of Gov. Clinton. His prospects were never more 
 promising than in the early part of the year 1825. His triumphant 
 election as Governor of the largest state in the Union by the greatest 
 majority she had ever given to any candidate, produced by a wide 
 spread conviction in the public mind that he had suffered great in- 
 justice, required only ordinary tact and discretion on his part to en- 
 sure a continuing prosperity. The Erie Canal — the success of which 
 was his richest source of strength in the state — ^was completed this 
 season, and in the month of November a few days previous to the 
 state election, the mingling of the waters of the Atlantic and of the 
 Lakes was celebrated through the country lying between them. The 
 re-election of Mr. Adams was considered, from his well understood 
 want of popularity, highly improbable; Mr. Clay, by accepting the 
 office of Secretary of State, had for the time put himself out of the 
 line of competitors for the Presidency ; Mr. Crawford had been with- 
 drawn from public life by indisposition; the sanguine efforts in 
 behalf of Mr. Calhoun had proved signally abortive, and the lead- 
 ing politicians inclined to the opinion that Gen. Jackson's strength 
 could not stand the test of a four years exposure to the public scrutiny. 
 Under such favoring circumstances it was not surprising that Mr. 
 Clinton and his friends should have regarded his chances for the 
 Presidency as better than those of any other aspirant, yet strange as 
 it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the popular impulse in his 
 favor recently so strong was at the time of his great Canal celebra- 
 tion already subsiding, and the elaborate demonstrations of joy at 
 the completion of that work coldly received by the mass of the 
 People. Having, as they considered, justly rebuked the violence of 
 his opponents, they seemed disposed to leave his future fortunes to 
 his own management and to the course of events. 
 
 I did not accompany the Cortege from Buffalo to New York, but 
 joined in the procession at Albany and attended the public dinner 
 given on the occasion. My companion, in the former ceremonial, 
 was J. W. Taylor, who was a few weeks afterwards chosen Speaker 
 of the House of Representatives. Satisfied by my own observation 
 
 157 
 
158 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and by the accounts I had received from different parts of the state 
 that the injurious effects upon the harmony and efficiency of our 
 own party by the combined agitation of Mr. Clinton's removal and 
 the Electoral question had substantially spent themselves, I replied 
 to Taylor's observations in regard to the imposing character df Mr. 
 Clinton's position by pronouncing a very confident opinion that we 
 should defeat him in the elections for the legislature to be held 
 within a few days. He expressed his surprise at my delusion and 
 repeated the conversation to Gen. Van Eensselaer. The latter in- 
 formed me that he had told the Governor what I had said to Taylor, 
 who had assured him that there was but one senatorial district in, 
 the state in which we stood the slightest chance, and that the ma- 
 jority against us in the House of Assembly would be overwhelming. 
 Gen. Van Rensselaer was evidently distressed by my confidence in 
 a different result for tho' perhaps liking me personally quite as well 
 as he liked the Governor, he was on political grounds desirous that 
 the latter should be sustained. 
 
 'We elected three of the eight Senators, and a decided majority 
 in the House of Assembly. Although in this election the Demo- 
 cratic party acted in undisguised opposition to Gov. Clinton it is an 
 undoubted fact that their prejudices against him had then already 
 considerably abated. Their distaste for Mr. Adams — a strong and 
 I believe well founded belief that the Governor sympathized in that 
 feeling — and the fact that many of the leading friends of Mr. Adams 
 in the state and a large proportion of the members elected to the 
 Legislature on the same ticket with Mr. Clinton at the election of 
 1824, were as hostile to him as they were to us, contributed to that 
 change. Informal conferences took place at Albany, during the 
 session of the Legislature of 1825-6, between prominent democrats 
 and some of the friends of the Governor with a view to bring this 
 feeling to practical results. The Governor nominated his connexion 
 by marriage, Samuel Jones, always before a zealous Federalist, to 
 the office of Chancellor, and the Senate, in which our friends were 
 largely in the majority confirmed the nomination promptly and 
 unanimously. It was expected that he would give an indication that 
 he reciprocated the feelings of returning good will which had been, 
 in various ways, manifested, and the nomination of Mr. Eedfield^ 
 for the office of Circuit Judge was looked to as the proof of such dis- 
 position. He was believed to be personally favorable to this meas- 
 ure, but there was a lion in his path. Although he had obtained his 
 election by temporary secessions from the democratic ranks the great 
 body of his supporters was composed of the remains of the old fed- 
 eral party and they never could be taught the wisdom or expediency 
 
 * Ileman J, RedfleW, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIBT VAK BUEEN. 159 
 
 of foregoing the full enjoyment of present power with a view to fu- 
 ture advantages. He disappointed the wishes of our side, but se- 
 lected a democratic adherent the least obnoxious to us. 
 
 The sayings and doings of this winter, altho' they ameliorated 
 the prejudices against Mr. Clinton in the Democratic ranks, and 
 excited friendly feelings in the breasts of many which did not 
 altogether subside during the brief remainder of his life, yet car- 
 ried conviction to the democratic mind, on the whole, that he had 
 become so connected with the federalists by the support he had 
 received from them, by social intercourse and latterly by family 
 ties — all cemented by a common antipathy against the ascendency 
 of Southern principles in our National Councils, as to render his 
 support by us impossible without our" consent to an amalgamation 
 of parties in the state — which was deemed neither possible nor de- 
 sirable. I had a long and friendly conversation, neither private 
 nor confidential, with Gov. Clinton, on my way to Washington, at 
 the house of a mutual friend, to which we were both invited, and 
 returned in the Spring with a sincere desire that he should be re- 
 elected without opposition. My views were confined to that single 
 object. I had long been thoroughly convinced that his entangle- 
 ments with the federalists would always present an insuperable ob- 
 stacle to anything like the re-establishment of old political rela- 
 tions between him and the democratic party. As an individual I 
 was influenced by feelings of personal kindness and not a little 
 bj'^ a consciousness of the unintentional injustice I had done him in 
 the matter of the appointmeint of Attorney General; as a member 
 of the democratic party I felt that his re-election without a contest 
 would be a compliment that would go far to efface the severity of 
 their treatment of him in his removal from the Canal Board, and I 
 saw no adequate motive and some embarrassment in a contest for 
 Governor in the then state of National politics. I have heretofore 
 mentioned Dr. Cooper,^ then President of Columbia College in 
 South" Carolina. He was son-in-law of the celebrated Dr. Priestly,^ 
 and himself in many respects a remarkable man. Mr. Jefferson 
 expressed his regrets to me that they could not avail themselves of 
 his services as President of the University of Virginia, on account 
 of objections that were raised by many of the Trustees to his re- 
 ligious views, as he thought him by far the fittest man he knew of 
 for the place. The active, probably violent part he took in politics 
 during the administration of John Adams subjected him to indict- 
 ment and trial under the sedition act, and he was on conviction 
 sentenced to suffer imprisonment and! to pay a fine of, I believe, 
 
 " MS. II, p. 25, ' Thomas Cooper. ' Joseph Priestly. 
 
160 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 four hundred dollars. The imprisdnment he endured, and I intro- 
 duced and supported a Bill to refund to him the amount of the 
 fine — which has, I believe, been since refunded. This induced him 
 to write me several friendly letters, continued to a period when, as 
 he expressed it, he had not, in Quaker phrase, " freedom " to vote for 
 me for President however much he esteemed me personally. One 
 of these letters was written during the administration of John 
 Quincy Adams, on the subject of the candidate to be brought for- 
 ward against him. He expressed great respect and much good 
 will towards Mr. Clinton and could see but one objection to him, 
 and that was an apprehension, expressed in his usual strong style, 
 that Mr. C. would be too much under the influence of the clergy — an 
 apprehension founded upon an address then recently delivered by 
 him before the Bible Society. Coming up the river in the same 
 boat with Mr. Clinton shortly after its receipt, I informed him that 
 I had a, letter from the Doctor in which he was particularly men- 
 tioned in connection with the Presidency, but that as he might not 
 be pleased with its contents I would not offer to shew it to him — ^but 
 would do so if he desired it. He was well acquainted with the Doc- 
 tor's character and I handed him the letter at his request. He col- 
 oured as he read it, but smiled and said that there was no ground 
 for the apprehension. 
 
 Doctor Cooper came north the same summer and brought me a 
 letter of introduction from Thomas Addis Emmett. I invited Mr. 
 Clinton to meet him at dinner, and the latter was much pleased with 
 the originality and invariable force of the Doctor's observations. 
 
 Mr. Clinton was, in a little more than a year afterwards, forever 
 removed from the political stage by the hand of death, and the Demo- 
 crats of South Carolina took early ground in favor of Gen. Jackson. 
 To this Dr. Cooper was earnestly opposed insisting that it would be 
 far better in them to go for the re-election of Mr. Adams and giving 
 reasons for his opinion which were characteristic of the man. These 
 were that if they intended to carry their opposition to a protective 
 tariff to the extent contemplated by them, as to which as a nuUifier 
 he trusted that there would be no flinching. Gen. Jackson was the last 
 man they should think of for the Presidency because he would be 
 very apt to hang them, whilst they might hope to intimidate Mr. 
 Adams. 
 
 Having reason to apprehend that the impression that there might 
 be no opposition to the re-election of Gov. Clinton was causing con- 
 siderable uneasiness among our political friends I made diligent 
 enquiries in regard to their dispositions and to that end visited sev- 
 eral parts of the state. The result was an entire, conviction that any 
 attempt to prevent a counter-nomination would produce serious dis- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJEEN. 161 
 
 cord in our own ranks and ought not therefore to be made. A consid- 
 erable number of our delegates on their way to the Herkimer conven- 
 tion met together at my house. Among them were Silas Wright and 
 Perley Keyes, two of the most influential leaders of the party. Find- 
 ing after the lapse of some time, that no one introduced the subject 
 of their Convention about to be held, and understanding the cause of 
 their reserve, I introduced it myself by observing that it was an 
 extraordinary circumstance that we should have been so long to- 
 gether without a word being said in regard to the business they had 
 been appointed to perform. The ice being thus broken Mr. Keyes 
 expressed a desire to hear my views upon the subject. These were 
 given without reserve. Commencing with an admission that I would 
 myself have preferred acquiescence in the re-election of Gov. Clinton 
 and the reasons for that preference, I proceeded to inform them of 
 the enquiries I had made and the result of them, which was that I 
 was satisfied that a nomination could not be omitted without seri- 
 ously distracting our party and that I could not urge that course in 
 view of such a consequence. They were relieved and gratified by this 
 explanation, assuring me that there was great unanimity among our 
 friends in favor of a nomination, that they had heard with regret 
 that I was averse to it, and one of the delegation told me that the 
 meeting at which he was appointed had gone so far as to advise him 
 and his colleagues to nominate one of themselves, if they could get no 
 other candidate. 
 
 On being asked whom they had thought of as a candidate they 
 without a dissenting voice named Gen. William Paulding of West- 
 chester. I expressed the greatest respect for Gen. Paulding saying 
 that I would with pleasure make him Governor if it was in my 
 power to do so, but that there were, in my judgment, strong objec- 
 tions to his nomination. The place of his residence and his well 
 known participation in the feelings of his neighbors, adverse to 
 the construction of the Erie Canal, would alone make his selection 
 inexpedient. But there was another and strange as it might seem 
 to them a still more formidable objection. I alluded to the report 
 already extensively circulated that the General was the subject of 
 a singular monomania in regard to his physical condition — one well 
 adapted to be made the subject of ridicule. Knowing Mr. Clinton's 
 proclivity to that species of assault, and having on several occa- 
 sions witnessed his ability to make it effectual, I feared that he would 
 turn this report into a weapon for that purpose and whether true or 
 false that it would be in his hands very damaging against one who 
 was from other causes a weak candidate. These remarks naturally 
 led to a call upon me to name a candidate more likely to be success- 
 full. I replied that since I had changed my views in regard to a 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 11 
 
162 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 nomination I had reflected much upon that question as one likely to 
 involve our future success as a party and that I had come to a con- 
 clusion to which I was quite sure they would not upon first impres- 
 sions agree, but I desired that they would hear me patiently and 
 then do as they thought best. I confessed that in making my se- 
 lection I had looked beyond the election of a Governor, and had 
 been materially influenced by a deep sense of the disastrous conse- 
 quences that would follow anything like a signal defeat in the pres- 
 ent condition of National politics and so near a Presidential election 
 in which I hoped to see the democracy of New York act an impor- 
 tant part. °I said that I had never known an occasion on which I 
 was so willing as at present to make sacrifices to availability, or one 
 on which that point was entitled to so much consideration ; — ^that it 
 should be remembered that we had been overwhelmed at the previous 
 election of Governor by a union between the friends of Clinton, 
 Adams and Clay, for although our candidate Col. Young, had on the 
 eve of the election declared for Mr. Clay and had received the votes 
 of a few of his supporters, most of them had acted upon the prin- 
 ciple which on such occasions usually controls the action of minor 
 factions, that of striking at the strongest, and had voted for Clin- 
 ton to put down Crawford; — that a similar union between the 
 friends of Adams, Clay, Jackson and Calhoun had broken us down 
 in the Presidential election ; — ^that Mr. Adams had offered Mr. Clin- 
 ton the first seat in his Cabinet, which upon his declension was given 
 to Mr. Clay, and that there was, at the moment when I spoke, ap- 
 parently, a more cordial union between the friends of Clinton, 
 Adams and Clay than existed in 1824, and, if we so acted as to com- 
 pel them to go together, that something like the same result might be 
 produced. It was well imderstood that we intended to support Gen. 
 Jackson, and I urged that if we nominated a candidate who was 
 avowedly in his favor we would present to those three political in- 
 terests the same inducements they had in 1824 to coalesce, but that 
 having good reasons to believe that the apparent union between the 
 friends of Clinton on the one hand, and those of Adams and Clay, 
 now identified, on the other, was a hollow one, if we nominated a 
 candidate whom the latter would regard as their friend, and would 
 therefore favour or be only suspected of favoring by his election, 
 we would drive a wedge into that union that would sever it forever. 
 I then named William B. Rochester as the man whose nomination 
 would produce that result. His father had been a partner in business 
 with the father [-in-law] of Mr. Clay, and he was at that moment on 
 his return from a Mission which had been conferred on him through 
 Mr. Clay's, influence. He was also, as I remarked, eligibly situated 
 
 " MS. II, p. 30. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 163 
 
 in regard to the Canal, had so conducted himself as to avoid creat- 
 ing strong prejudices on the part of our friends, and altho' we might 
 have some trouble with him if elected we should probably succeed 
 in electing reliable men to all the other Departments of the Govern- 
 ment and in that event would be able to prevent him from doing 
 much injury to our cause. I believed him honest and had obtained 
 a small appointment for him from the General Government, and 
 was personally very partial to him although I did not suppose that 
 I could influence him against the wishes of Mr. Clay. 
 
 My exposition made a favorable impression upon the majority 
 of my auditors, but Wright and Keyes remained immovable.^ They 
 would consent to take Rochester for Lieutenant Governor, but his 
 nomination for Governor, all other considerations apart, would be 
 such a surprise upon the public that it would for that reason fail. 
 They held to the old rule of a regular progression, and could not 
 believe in the policy of starting a new man for so important a place. 
 The objection had no weight with me but they persisted in it. 
 I called those gentlemen back after the others left, and begged them 
 to think the matter over again on their way to Herkimer and to sac- 
 rifice their prejudices against Mr. Clay, which I Imew lay at the 
 bottom of their opposition, to the demands of the crisis. 
 
 William L. Marcy, then Adjutant General of the State, having 
 official business with Gov. Clinton on the following day was asked 
 what his friends would do at Herkimer, and on his replying that 
 they would probably make a nomination, the Governor exclaimed, 
 in a lively tone, "Gen. Paulding, I suppose!" On being informed 
 that it might be Eochester, Marcy told me that he sobered down 
 and became thoughtful to a degree that embarrassed the latter and 
 induced him to propose to postpone their business, to which the 
 Governor readily assented. Although not apt to place a very 
 high estimate upon the influence of his opponents. Gov. Clinton 
 saw at a glance the direction in which such a nomination would 
 point and the danger that would flow from it. Keyes and Wright 
 acknowledged to me afterwards that they saw the matter in the 
 same light before they got to Herkimer and used their influence upon 
 their arrival to secure the nomination of Rochester which was 
 made. The matter worked as we anticipated. The nomination 
 was reputed to have been made through the influence of the National 
 Administration, and that report received no contradiction from 
 Washington. The frail cord that united the latter with the Clinton- 
 ians was snapped, and could never have been reunited if Mr. Clinton 
 had lived. For many days after the election, Rochester was sup- 
 posed to have succeeded, and Gov. Clinton was finally found to 
 
 ^ Silas Wright, jr., and Perley Keyes, 
 
164 AMBRICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOM". 
 
 have been saved by the voi^ss of our friends on the Southern borders 
 of the state, given to him and to our Candidate for Lieut, Governor 
 because they were the open friends of a State Road from the River 
 to the Lakes along that border, the construction of which Mr. 
 Clinton had recommended to the Legislature whilst there was rea- 
 son to believe that Rochester would entertain different views of that 
 project. 
 
 We gave to Rochester a faithful support but had not mucli reason 
 as a party to grieve at the result. We carried the Legislature, and 
 every thing except the Governor, and cleared the way for our suc- 
 cess in the Presidential election. I had been doubtless in some de- 
 gree induced to recommend the course that was pursued by the 
 circumstance that my re-appointment to the Senate of the United 
 States would depend upon the Legislature then chosen. But I am 
 very sure that the influence arising from that source was subordi- 
 nate to my desire for the promotion of the cause I had heartily 
 embraced and actively supported. The readiness with which I had 
 before sacrificed high official station for its success must go far with 
 candid minds to sustain this assertion. 
 
 I received daily accounts of the feelings of Governor Clinton 
 during the time when the election was supposed to have gone against 
 him from one of his most devoted friends and I can say with per- 
 fect truth that I listened to his account with no other feeling than 
 regret that circumstances beyond my control had compelled me to 
 contribute to the result he so painfully deprecated. Of this his 
 friend was well convinced or he would not have made his communi- 
 cation to me. In explanation of the supposed loss of this election 
 and of other adverse results in his political career the Governor 
 said to this friend, who was an old democrat, that he had by the 
 force of circumstances been connected with a party which was under 
 the ban of public opinion and whose unpopularity would render 
 their support disastrous to any public man. The suspense as to the 
 result continued, as I have already mentioned, for several days as 
 we were not then favored with the facilities to convey information 
 we now possess. On the last night of its duration, the Governor's 
 friend to whom I have referred, called upon me in high glee with a 
 report that Steuben County, from which we confidently expected 
 more than one thousand majority, had, in consequence of the State 
 Road question, given more than that majority to Mr. Clinton, and 
 wis^ied to know before he communicated it to the Governor what I 
 thought of its truth, and effect if true. I told him that I considered 
 it an improbable rumour, but that we had all along been apprehen- 
 sive about that part of the State — ^that it might be true and if so that 
 
ACrXOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIK VAN BrRElT. 165 
 
 Mr. Clinton was undoubtedly reelected. He literally ran ° from me 
 for fear that some other person might anticipate him at the Gov- 
 ernor's house with the good news. The next morning being Sunday 
 a few moments before I started for church I heard the sound of 
 the steam being blown off, signaling the arrival of the Southern 
 boat, and immediately after I saw a busy friend of Mr. Clinton pass 
 my window in hot haste in the direction of the Governor's residence. 
 I directed Gen. Marcy's attention to him, saying that the steam- 
 boat had, I did not doubt, brought the news from the Southern tier 
 of counties which reelected the Governor, but this he did not credit. 
 As we walked to the church I told him the mystery would be solved 
 by the late arrival at church of the Governor and Mrs. Clinton. 
 After considerable progress had been made in the services they ar- 
 rived and Mrs. Clinton had no sooner settled herself in her seat than 
 she turned towards us and favored us with a look which induced 
 Marcy to whisper to me that the election was indeed lost. 
 
 This election ardently as it was contested and intense as was the 
 excitement caused by its closeness, did not in the least aggravate 
 the political hostility that had long existed between Mr. Clinton 
 and the democratic party. He did not the less respect them for 
 having supported with good faith and zeal a nominee who was not 
 at heart the object of their preference, and the great addition to 
 his previous prejudices against Adams and Clay made by the con- 
 duct of their friends in the recent elections went far to neutralize 
 his antipathy towards his fair and open opponents. I had every 
 reason to believe that such was the case in regard to myself per- 
 sonally. Altho' not a word had ever passed between us, either 
 directly or through friends, he was made to understand, — in what 
 way I never knew but have guessed that it was thro' Mr. Knower, 
 the father-in-law of Gen. Marcy, — the nature of my feelings towards 
 him [Clinton] and the extent to which I had been willing to go to 
 place him on an equal footing with his compeers in the Presidential 
 canvass, and he appreciated correctly the necessity which overruled 
 that disposition. 
 
 The election placed a sufficient majority of my friends in both 
 branches of the Legislature to secure my re-appointment to the 
 Senate against all opposition, yet I had the best reason to believe 
 that great efforts were made by the friends of the National Admin- 
 istration to prevail upon Gov. Clinton to unite in an attempt to 
 prevent my return, and that he promptly and definitively refused to 
 do so. Some of his friends over whom he had the most influence 
 voted for me and I was informed by his aid, Col. Bloodgood,^ that 
 a day or two before he died he had spoken of me in kind and com- 
 plimentary terms. 
 
 ° MS'. II, p. 35. ' De Witt Bloodgood. 
 
166 AMERICAN HISTOBICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The public mind at Washington was deeply agitated by the news 
 of the Governor's sudden death. Political rivalry, so rife at the 
 moment, was hushed for a season and rooted prejudices displaced 
 by feelings of sincere regret. The silencing of animosity and the 
 awakening of charity and sympathy in the human heart in the 
 presence of death is always a grateful subject of contemplation to 
 the benevolent mind, and when these effects are produced by the 
 sudden close of a prominent and influential public life, while yet in 
 mid career, it is no less matter of satisfaction to the patriot. At a 
 meeting of the representatives in Congress from the State of New 
 York, convened for the purpose of expressing their feelings on this 
 occasion, the following remarks were made by me,^ which I here 
 insert from a report published at the time. 
 
 The honorable Martin Van Buren of the Senate addressed the meeting 
 nearly in the following words : 
 
 Mr. Chairman : We have met to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of 
 our late Governor and distinguished fellow-citizen, De Witt Clinton. Some 
 of our brethren have been so kind as to ask me to prepare a suitable expres- 
 sion of our feelings: and I have, in pursuance of their wishes, drawn up 
 what has occurred to me, as proper to be said on the occasion. Before I sub- 
 mit it to the consideration of the meeting, I beg leave to be indulged in a few 
 brief remarks. I can say nothing of the deceased that is not familiar to you ^ 
 all. To all he was personally known, and to many of us intimately and 
 familiarly, from our earliest infancy. The high order of his talents, the untir- 
 ing zeal and great success with which those talents have, through a series 
 of years, been devoted to the prosecution of plans of great public utility, are 
 also known to you all; and by all I am satisfied duly appreciated. The 
 subject can derive no additional interest or importance from any eulogy of 
 mine. All other considerations out of view, the single fact that the greatest 
 public improvement of the age in which we live was commenced under the 
 guidance of his counsels, and splendidly accomplished under his immediate 
 auspices, is of itself sufficient to fill the ambition of any man, and to give 
 glory to any name. But, as has been justly said, his life and character and 
 conduct have become the property of the historian, and there is no reason 
 to doubt that history will do him justice. The triumph of his talent and pa- 
 triotism cannot fail to become monuments of high and enduring fame. We 
 cannot indeed but remember that in our own public career, collisions of opinion 
 and action, at once extensive, earnest and enduring, have arisen between the 
 deceased and many of us. For myself, sir, it gives me a deep-felt, though 
 melancholy, satisfaction, to know, and more so to be conscious that the 
 deceased also felt and acknowledged, that our political differences have been 
 wholly free from that most venomous and corroding of all poisons — ^personal 
 hatred. But in other respects it is now Immaterial what was the character 
 of those collisions. They have been turned to nothing, and less than nothing, 
 by the event we deplore, and I doubt not that we will, with one voice and 
 one heart, yield to his memory the well deserved tribute of our respect of his 
 
 1 Oakley's note to Van Buren Feb. 18, 1828, suggesting that the latter take the lead 
 in the matter Is in the Van Buren Papers in the Library of Congress. The remarks are 
 from The National Journal, Washington, D. C, Feb. 22, 1828. The meeting was held 
 in the Capitol, Feb. 19. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN, BUREN, 167 
 
 name and our warmest gratitude for his great and signal service. For myself, 
 sir, so strong, so sincere and so engrossing is that feeling, that I, who whilst 
 living never no never envied him anything; now that he has fallen, am 
 greatly tempted to envy him his grave with its honours. 
 
 Of this the most afflicting of all bereavements that has fallen upon his 
 wretched and despondent family, what shall I say? Nothing — their grief is too 
 sacred for description — ^justice can alone be done to it by those deep and 
 silent, but agonizing feelings which on their account pervade every bosom. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren then submitted the- following resolution : 
 
 The Delegation from the State of New York to the Senate and House of 
 Eepresentatives of the Congress of the United States, having been informed 
 of the sudden death of De Witt Clinton, late Governor of that State, feel it 
 due to the occasion, as well as to their own feelings, to unite with the people 
 they represent, in expressing their deep and sincere sorrow for a dispensation 
 ' of Providence which, has, in the midst of active usefulness, cut off from the 
 service of that State, whose proudest ornament he was, a great man, who 
 has won and richly deserved the reputation of a distinguished public bene- 
 factor. 
 
 Sensibly impressed with respect for the memory of the illustrious dead, they 
 will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days; and they request 
 that a copy of these, their proceedings, be communicated to the family of the 
 deceased, with an assurance of their condolence at the greatest bereavement 
 that could have befallen them on this side the grave. 
 
 After a lapse of more than a quarter of a century' and after hav- 
 ing enjoyed the highest political distinctions known to our system, 
 I can truly say that I feel upon the subject now as I expressed my- 
 self then. 
 
 Mr. Clinton's political advancement did not realize either the antic- 
 ipations of his early friends or perhaps his own expectations. But 
 he left traces upon the times in which he lived which were made 
 indelible by his connection with the great Public Work of his pe- 
 riod — ^the Erie Canal. In all the relations of private life his con- 
 duct and character were, if not faultless", certainly without just 
 reproach. His social habits for a season excited the apprehensions 
 of his friends and were made the subject of unfavorable censure 
 by his opponents, but the former were dispelled and the latter refuted 
 before he died. His talents are admitted to have been of a high 
 order and were favorably exhibited in his writings; his speeches 
 also were carefully and well constructed but delivered in an awk- 
 ward and unimpressive manner. He never enjoyed extensive popu- 
 larity with the masses, altho' there can be no doubt of his desire 
 to acquire it, and the failure of his efforts in that direction has been 
 variously accounted for. His official communications were filled, 
 sometimes overloaded, with expositions and recommendations of 
 measures which he thought calculated to subserve public and ad- 
 vance private interests. His friends generally attributed his want 
 of popularity to the stateliness and seeming hmtewf of his man- 
 
168 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ners, but when the limited extent pf his personal intercourse with 
 the People is considered the correctness of this interpretation of re- 
 sults so diffused may well be doubted. 
 
 In this matter of personal popularity the working of the public 
 mind is often inscrutable. In one respect only does it appear to be 
 - subject to rule, namely in the application of a closer scrutiny by the 
 People to the motives of public men than to their actions. When 
 one is presented to them possessed of an ardent temperament who 
 adopts their cause, as they think, from sympathy and sincerely re- 
 gards their interests as his own, they return sympathy for sympathy 
 with equal sincerity and are always ready to place the most favorable 
 constructions upon his actions and slow to withdraw their confidence 
 however exceptionable his conduct in many respects may be. But 
 when a politician fails to make this impression — when they on the 
 contrary are led to, regard him as one who only takes the popular side 
 of public questions from motives of policy their hearts seem closed 
 against him, they look upon his wisest measures with distrust, and are 
 apt to give him up at the first adverse turn in his affairs. The 
 process by which they arrive at one or the other of these conclusions 
 is not easily described. Feeling has of course more to do with it 
 than reason, yet, tho' sometimes wrong, it must be admitted that 
 they are much oftener right in their discriminations. Jefferson and 
 Jackson were favorites of the character I have described, and justly 
 so. Clinton was not. For his conduct in regard to the Erie Canal 
 he received from the public all the credit to which he was entitled 
 notwithstanding the unfavorable criticisms that were made as to his 
 motives — criticisms of which we would not have heard if that great 
 public service had been rendered by either of the statesmen I have 
 referred to. A striking illustration of the truth of this view was 
 furnished by the fact that when he was for the last time a candidate 
 for popular suffrages he was not as well supported by the people on 
 the line of the Erie Canal (making allowances for their political 
 preferences) as his competitor, a young man who had rendered no aid 
 to that great enterprise deserving to be mentioned in comparison 
 with his own. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Circumstances occurred in the summer of this year which from 
 their bearing upon a great public question are deserving of notice. 
 The annual petition of the manufacturers to Congress for increased 
 protection, presented at the previous session, resulted in the report 
 of what was called the ° Woollens' Bill. Having promised to accom- 
 pany a friend on a visit to the Congressional Cemetery, I was absent 
 from the Senate when the Bill was reached and rejected by the cast- 
 ing vote of Vice President Calhoun. My absence was assumed to 
 have been intentional and was made the ground for the usual news- ■ 
 paper vituperation, according to which my delinquency was greatly 
 aggravated by my accompanying Gen. Hamilton and Col. Drayton 
 to South Carolina at the close of the session. Whilst at Charleston 
 I received a letter from Comptroller Marcy urging my immediate 
 return to arrest the use that our opponents were making of the ma- 
 terials with which I had thus supplied them. Having had some 
 experience of his propensity to croak^ and being withal not ready to 
 comply with his unreasonable request, I replied that if my standing 
 at home was not sufficient to protect me against such assaults it was 
 not worth preserving and that I should not hasten my return for 
 such a purpose. On my way homewards I learned at West Point 
 from a reliable authority that the Tariff champion Mallary had in- 
 formed his friends that it was the intention of the Protectionists to 
 denounce my course at a State Tariff Convention which was to meet 
 at Albany within a week or two, and that my old friend the Patroon' 
 had agreed to preside at the meeting. I immediately determined to 
 face the assemblage and to speak for myself, but without communi- 
 cating my intention to a single friend. 
 
 To the very able exposition of the system and the persistent 
 assaults upon its injustice and impolicy by the New York Evening 
 Post, the country is more indebted for its final overthrow, in this 
 state at least, than to any other single influence. 
 
 On the morning of the Tariff meeting at the -Capitol I sent for 
 my friends Benjamin Knower and Charles E. Dudley, and for the 
 first time informed them of my intentions and asked them to accom- 
 pany me. They vehemently remonstrated against the proposed 
 step and told me that they had been reliably informed of the inten- 
 tion to pass a vote of censure upon my course in regard to the 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 40. 1 Stephen Van Rensselaer. 
 
 169 
 
1*70 AMERICAH HISTOBICAIi ASSOCIATION". 
 
 Woollens Bill,^ and that altho' there would be many of my political 
 friends at the meeting, a very large majority would be enemies who 
 would avail themselves of my presence to make the proceeding more 
 humiliating. I agreed with their opinion as to the meditated as- 
 sault, but observed that it would not be contained in the Report 
 of the Committee, as well to save the feelings of my friends at the 
 Commencement as because the managers would know that Gen. Van 
 Rensselaer would not make himself a party to such a Report by a 
 Committee of his appointing, and that as the censure, for theSe rea- 
 sons, would doubtless be reserved for a motion to amend, at the 
 close of the proceedings, if I could unexpectedly appear before them 
 after the organization of the meeting I would take my chance for 
 what was done afterwards. They still objected, but were of course 
 Avilling to go with me, and after ascertaining, by a messenger dis- 
 patched for that purpose, that the assemblage was organized for its 
 work we repaired to the Capitol. 
 
 My appearance occasioned evident surprise. The good Patroon 
 who presided asked me to take a seat by his side, which I respect- 
 fully declined, and chose an eligible position in the crowd. At 
 the end of every speech the eyes of the assemblage were directed 
 towards me, but I waited until every one had spoken who desired to 
 do so, and I then addressed the meeting for nearly two hours. Some 
 of the speeches previously made contained or insinuated enough to 
 justify me in regarding myself as accused of delinquency in the 
 matter of the Woollens Bill and thus to open the whole subject. 
 I was listened to throughout with silent but respectful attention. 
 During the whole time my friend Knower sat directly before and 
 with his eyes fixed upon me, and when I spoke of the injustice 
 that had been done to me he was so much moved as to attract the 
 attention of the meeting. He was then extensively engaged in the 
 purchase of wool, but being a Republican of the old school and 
 withal a singularly upright man and sincere friend, those fine qual- 
 ities had not yet been affected by the ardent pursuit of money. At 
 a later period he separated from many of his early friends, myself 
 among the rest, in consequence of their anti-tariff opinions, but a 
 short time before his death he addressed me a letter replete with 
 the sentiments and the spirit of his best days. 
 
 At the close of my speech Mr. J. Townsend a son-in-law of Judge 
 Spencer and a rich manufacturer, expressed a desire to pass a vote of 
 tha^ks to me for it, but some of his more sagacious associates, who 
 did not think as favorably of its probable effect, interfered and over- 
 ruled him. The meeting dissolved without anything being further 
 
 lA bin for the "Alteration of the acts Imposing duties on imports " Introduced Jan. 
 27, 1827, by Kollin C. Mallary, of Vermont, and designed to amend the tariff of 1824. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtfEEN. 171 
 
 said or done, and we moved down State Street from the Capitol 
 with every indication of exultation on the part of my friends at its 
 denouement, and of dejection on the other side, 
 
 Mr. Knower came to me in the evening and told me that, on his 
 way home from the Capitol, Mr. Wood, one of his wool buyers 
 and a sensible man, said to him — ^'Mr. Knower! that was a very 
 able speech ! " - " Yes, very able ! " he answered. "Mr. Knower ! " 
 again said Mr. Wood, after a considerable pause, — ^"on which side 
 of the Tariff question was it? " ° "That is the very point I was 
 thinking about when you first spoke to me, Mr. Wood ! " replied 
 Knower. 
 
 I have frequently been told and have always believed that I ren- 
 dered much service to the cause of truth by that speech, but this 
 conversation between two intelligent and interested men would 
 seem to indicate that directness on all points had not been its most 
 prominent feature. 
 
 In the course of my remarks I had referred to the fact, by way 
 of putting myself in good company, that the Chairman of the 
 Meeting, my very good friend the Patroon, had been also absent 
 from his seat in the House of Representatives when the Woolen's 
 Bill passed that body. The recollection of this fact, and especially 
 my reference to it, Kad made him quite uneasy in a position which, 
 as I understood, he had promised, even before he left Washington, 
 to occupy altho' he had not been apprised of the intention to assail 
 me. In the evening, being desirous to see how he had relished 
 the proceedings, I proposed to Gen. Thomas Pinckney, of South 
 Carolina, who had called upon me, a visit to the Manor House. 
 We found Gen. Van Eensselaer in the act of giving Mrs. Van Rens- 
 selaer an account of the meeting and our arrival created an em- 
 barrassment, unpleasantly obvious to both of us, that made me 
 regret that we had interrupted him. 
 
 I had sustained the protective policy by my votes and speeches 
 under instructions of the Legislature, but the more I became ac- 
 quainted with its true character and with the views of its advocates 
 the more my repugnance to it Tjecame strengthened. Compelled to 
 regard it is a system equally unwise and illiberal, kept on foot by 
 politicians to secure the support of a class of men whose selfish 
 appetite increased by indulgence, I became sincerely solicitous for 
 its overthrow ; but experience having shewn that it had acquired, by 
 the plausible pretences upon which it was sustained, a hold upon the 
 public mind which could only be loosened by degrees and by means 
 which would not rouse the prejudices of its supporters, I determined 
 to assail it in that form. "VVTiatever may be thought of the morality 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 45. 
 
172 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 of such a conclusion it was to my mind quite clear that an obstinate 
 error like this, fostered by positive private gains to a busy few and 
 promises of individual advantages to large and influential classes 
 could in no other way be successfully combatted, and I considered it 
 a case in which the end would justify means so little exceptionable. 
 President Jackson pursued a similar course, and, as I know, for 
 similar reasons, in his Maysville Veto.'- The great influence which 
 that Message exerted in overthrowing the entire system of Internal 
 Improvement by the Federal Government, altho' it was only directed 
 against a part, is universally conceded. How much was done to- 
 wards correcting public sentiment on the subject of high tariffs in our 
 state by the course I pursued, it is not for me to say. Governor 
 Marcy, who will not, by those who knew him, be remembered as a 
 flatterer even of his best friends notwithstanding this instance of 
 exaggerated praise, in a letter to me some months after this period, 
 referring to his solicitude as to the political effect that must be pro- 
 duced by the tariff feeling and his apprehraision that it had disturbed 
 his relations with Mr. Wright, wrote as follows: 
 
 There was last spring a more than half formed opinion that you was hostile 
 to the Tariff ; this opinion was settling down into a conviction accompanied with 
 some excitement and was doing (or rather was about to) infinite mischief to 
 the cause of Genl Jackson in this State, when, at the most auspicious moment 
 that political sagacity ever selected, and by the most successful efCort that 
 talent ever made, you destroyed in the speech yoit made at the Capitol all the 
 works which long premeditated mischief had contrived, and the industry of 
 political enemies had been many months employed, to raise up for the prostra- 
 tion of yourself find the cause you had espoused.' 
 
 In every subsequent National canvass until my final retirement 
 from public life my Woollen's Speech (as it was called) was made 
 a prominent subject of a partizan agitation. It was denounced by 
 my opponents at the South as proof of my being a Protectionist and 
 by those at the North as proof of my hostility to the system. So fre- 
 quent and continued were the applications for explanations that I 
 was obliged to have an edition of the speech published for the benefit 
 of my friends at the South. At the north its drift and design were 
 soon understood and in the end f avo^bly appreciated. 
 
 In the fall of this year Thomas Addis Enmiett was seized with 
 paralysis whilst engaged in the trial of a cause, and died almost im- 
 mediately. I was one of the opposing counsel in the cause, and as 
 the court adjourned on the preceding day he [Emmett] expressed to 
 me his surprise that we had kept our suit — ^the claim of Bishop 
 Inglis, of Nova Scotia, to the immense estate called the Sailor's Snug 
 Harbor — on foot so long, but added that we could not prolong its life 
 
 1 Message of May 27, 1830, with veto of bill authorizing a subscription of stock In 
 the Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Company. 
 
 "This letter, Marcy to Van Buren, 1828, Jan. 29, Is the Van Buren Papers in the 
 Library of Congress. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 173 
 
 beyond twelve o'clock of the next day. When that time arrived I 
 followed him from the bar to the stove, whither he had been called by 
 an acquaintance, and said " Well, Mr. Emmett, the hour has come and 
 we are alive yet !" " Yes," he answered — •" but you cannot live much 
 longer ! " Immediately after my return to my seat David B. Ogden 
 said to me " Look at Emmett ! He is going to have a fit ! " I looked 
 and replied that it was a mistake. .In a few moments he repeated 
 the alarm more emphatically. I went to Chief Justice Thompson, 
 before whom the cause was tried, and informed him of Mr. Ogden's 
 suspicions. The Judge observed Mr. Emmett closely, and replied 
 pleasantly "No! No! Ogden is mistaken — 'his under lip hangs a 
 little lower than usual, but that is natural to him when he is writ- 
 ing ! " At that instant and as I turned towards my seat I saw Mr. 
 Emmett reel in his chair and extend his hand towards a neighbour- 
 ing pillar. I endeavoured to intercept his faU but without success; 
 he was carried to his house and died in a few hours.'^ 
 
 I had considerable professional intercourse with Mr. Emmett, 
 admired his talents, and always found him liberal, honorable and 
 just. His conduct and character as a public man are known to the 
 country. He soon lived down the censures and hatred which pur- 
 sued him in his emigration and were for a season troublesome, and 
 died universally lamented as an honest man and faithful citizen. 
 
 There were circumstances iu the life of my iU fated friend 
 Samuel A. Talcott, connected with the same trial in the course of 
 which Mr. Emmett died, which lead me to take here a brief notice 
 of his brilliant yet melancholy career. About the year 1819 I 
 chanced to see a number of articles in a western newspaper criticis- 
 ing and censuring my course in regard to a public question, the 
 marked aibility of which caused me to make enquiries in respect to 
 their paternity. I soon ascertained that they were written by Mr. 
 Talcott, a young federal lawyer of Oneida County whom I had 
 never seen. Happening afterwards to be on the same boat with him, 
 on our way to attend the Supreme Court at New York, I sought and 
 made his acquaintance, and finding him undetermined, on our ar- 
 rival, where to lodge, I invited him to accompany me to the Parke 
 Place Hotel where I usually staid, to which he consented. The 
 house being very full I ordered a bed in my room for his temporary 
 accommodation. This arrangement led to frequent conversations 
 which impressed me with the highest opinion of his character and 
 intellectual endowments. I told him one day, between jest and 
 earnest, that he was misplaced in the political field, and that he 
 ought to be on our side. At the moment I had not the least idea 
 that any consequence would flow from the remark, but I soon dis- 
 
 ' Nov. 27, 1827. 
 
174 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 covered that he had thought seriously upon the subject, and was 
 desirous to talk farther with me a;bout it. I gave him a very un- 
 reserved account of my own political opinions and, as far as I un- 
 derstood them, of those of the mass of my party, and pointed out 
 to him the reasons why his chances for fame and public usefulness 
 would be increased by joining us; but advised him at the same time 
 to come to no hasty conclusion — ^to think the matter over deliber- 
 ately at home, and, if he found his way so clear as to afford a 
 reasonable confidence that the change when made would be satis- 
 factory and permanent, to make it — ^if not, to stay where he was, 
 for I had too much respect for him to wish him to adopt a time 
 serving policy. 
 
 Some weeks after this I received a letter from him informing 
 me of his intention to attend a democratic meeting and to avow 
 his adhesion to our party and that I might rest assured that he 
 had not come to the conclusion without a solemn resolution that 
 in politics as it was his first so it would be his last change. 
 
 His great talents soon made him conspicuous in our ranks and 
 as early as the year 1821 he was appointed Attorney General of 
 the State in the place of my successor in that office Thomas J. 
 Oakley. The selection of so young a man and so recent a con- 
 vert from the federal side drew down considerable censure upon the 
 Council of Appointment from disappointed candidates and their 
 friends and not a small portion of it was diVerted against myself 
 on the suspicion, better founded than usual, that I had exerted 
 myself in his favor. I felt no uneasiness about this, as I was cer- 
 tain that it would soon satisfy all disinterested friends that it was 
 the best selection that could have been made. This he accomplished 
 in a short time and very thoroughly, and whilst the man, who had 
 busied himself in an unavailing effort to get up a Legislative meet- 
 ing to denounce us for making a federal appointment, himself joined 
 the other side, young Talcott attained a solid popularity in our 
 party and an eminent professional standing. 
 
 But these bright prospects were destined to be early blasted by 
 haljits of intemperance, which grew upon him with fearful rapidity, 
 and filled the hearts of his friends with sorrow. The wane of his 
 professional fortunes, before his fall, was protracted by the respect 
 which he inspired as a man and by the admiiration which he com- 
 pelled by his remarkable professional talents and acquirements. 
 After the fell disease had made great progress his clients, unwilling 
 to dispense with his services, often resorted to the expedient of en- 
 listing the good offices of some mutual friend to remain with him 
 and to keep him for a time from the intoxicating bowl. Many in- 
 stances of this were known to me of which I will notice a few. Under 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIH VAK BUREN. 175 
 
 such training (which he perfectly understood and aided as far as 
 his infirm nature "would allow) he made an argument in the Su- 
 preme" Court of the United States which called forth the strongest 
 applause of Chief Justice Marshall and all his brethren, greatly 
 excited a numerous and intelligent audience and attracted the atten- 
 tion of the country to an almost unprecedented extent. 
 
 In a very important trial between the State of New York and 
 John Jacob Astor, in which Chancellor Kent, Mr. Webster and my- 
 self were employed as Counsel on behalf of the State, and Mr. Tal- 
 cott represented it as Attorney General, it became necessary to have 
 a consultation in regard to several difficult questions of law which 
 arose in the case. We agreed to meet at the Chancellor's office in 
 Greenwich street, and Mr. Talcott was to call for me on his way 
 down to the appointed rendezvous. When he arrived, at my room 
 I was shocked to find that he was very much intoxicated and taking 
 his arm I led him past Rector street, down which lay our direct 
 route, as far as the Battery, and there walked with him to and fro 
 for a long time and beyond the hour fixed for our meeting. When 
 in one of our turns we came to the gate which was nearest the 
 Chancellor's residence, he looked me in the face and, expressing by 
 a smile his consciousness of my object, said — ^"I think it will do 
 now !" " Well," I replied, " if you think so we will go !" 
 
 The other gentlemen had been waiting for us and he at once pro- 
 ceeded, as his official station required, to state the several questions 
 in their order, the difficulties of each, and the manner in which he 
 thought it best to deal with them. He did this in so full, able and 
 vivid a manner, as to leave us nothing to do but to adopt his recom- 
 mendations. After he left us to fulfill an appointment, the Chan- 
 cellor and Mr. Webster expressed very earnestly their admiration 
 of the general accuracy of his views, the simple power of his lan- 
 guage, and his extraordinary familiarity with questions as abstruse 
 and difficult as any in legal science. They referred also with deli- 
 cacy and obvious sincerity to their regret at hearing of the un- 
 favorable impressions which existed in regard to his habits, but 
 not one of them dreamed of the narrow escape they had just had 
 from an exhibition of them. 
 
 In the suit on the trial of which Emmett fell, which was, as I have 
 mentioned, an action brought by Bishop Inglis of Nova Scotia for 
 the recovery of real estate in the city of New York, even then of 
 great value and now worth several millions of dollars, Talcott was 
 one of his associate counsel. The Bishop claimed as heir at law of 
 the last otvner, Mr. Randall, and the defendant claimed under his 
 will, by which the whole property was devised as a charity for the 
 support and comfort of aged and infirm seamen. We contested this 
 
 ' MS. II, p. 50. '' 
 
176 AMERICAN HISTOEICAl, ASSQCIATION. 
 
 devise as illegal and had, for reasons not necessary to be stated here, 
 satisfied ourselves that if we could obtain possession of the property 
 we would have no difficulty in maintaining it. During the early 
 stages of the trial, Talcott was in an unfit state to come into court, 
 and his associates under the lead of Enmiett, desirous to avoid the 
 issue on the validity of the devise, had for several days managed 
 the defence in a way which shewed a determination to rely on their 
 possession as a sufficient bar to our claim. On the day before the 
 sad occurrence that filled us all with sorrow, Talcott walked into court, 
 looking fresh and well, and took his seat among his associates. 
 After some conversation between them Mr. Emmett asked the indul- 
 gence of the Court while they retired for consultation, and gave as a 
 reason that they had until that moment been deprived of the assist- 
 ance of Mr. Talcott by his indisposition. As they walked out I said 
 to Mr. Ogden, my associate, that I was quite sure that Talcott would 
 induce them to produce the will, but he thought that the opposite 
 policy had been too firmly settlfed. The first thing after their return 
 was Mr. Emmett's offering the will in evidence. 
 
 We were defeated and I had the curiosity immediately after the 
 trial was ended to ask the Chief Justice what he would have thought 
 of the cause if they had not introduced the will. He replied that, 
 assuming from the course pursued by the defendant's counsel that 
 they did not mean to rely upon it, he had considered the cause in 
 that light, and had come to a very decided conclusion that they 
 could not prevent our recovery on the strength of their possession. 
 I have therefore ever thought that the chances were at least equal 
 that if Talcott had not come into court that large estate would 
 have gone iii a different direction. 
 
 Within an hour after the fall of Mr. Emmett I took a long walk 
 with Talcott and pressed upon his attention the vacancy in the pro- 
 fession naw certain to be created in New York by Mr. Emmett's 
 death, and the fact that he was the most able man in the state to 
 fill it. After talking some time I paused and added that there 
 was but one obstacle to his success, and that he must understand 
 what I alluded to. He said he did well understand! I exclaimed 
 with vehemence — '"is it not possible to remove that?" — to which 
 he answered characteristically, "I can try!" He moved to the city 
 and endeavoured to break the hold of his insidious enemy, but in 
 vain. In the course of a few years he became an inmate of the 
 Hospital for the Insane where he died. Thus perished, alas ! how 
 ingloriously, a mind of the highest order ; a counsellor of well earned 
 and brilliant distinction — ^the best black-letter lawyer I ever Imew — ; 
 a man of the purest personal character and friend the most sin- 
 cere. 
 
CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 Of the action of the Federal Government during the adminis- 
 tration of Mr. Monroe I have nothing farther to say, but I cannot 
 pass without noticing two visits I made to Virginia during his 
 last term, the incidents of which were interesting to me and the 
 relation of them may be somewhat so to others. It seems unavoid- 
 able in writings of this kind to make oneself to a great extent 
 the hero of the narrative, although the offensive intrusion of " the 
 eternal I" is as disagreeable to me as it can be to the reader. I 
 doubt not that when Mr. Jefferson feelingly exclaims in his auto- 
 biography, that he is tired of speaking of himself, he disclosed 
 the true reason why that work was not continued to its proper 
 termination: and I am continually tempted by the same induce- 
 ment to bring my story to an abrupt close. 
 
 I paid my first visit to Mount Vernon on the invitation of Judge 
 Bushrod Washington 'to spend Christmas with him, accompanied 
 by Gen. C. F. Mercer who had been the bearer of the invitation. 
 A closer acquaintance confirmed my impressions of the purity of 
 the Judge's character, and I was agreeably surprised by the vi- 
 vacity of his disposition. His mental qualifications were of a highly 
 respectable order,, and united to the simplicity and frankness of 
 his manners made his society peculiarly agreeable, and his cordial 
 hospitality assisted by the Herberts,^ Mrs. Washington's nephews 
 who besides their other accomplishments sang remarkably well, 
 made ours a merry Christmas. Mrs. Washington had been a long 
 time bed-ridden, but the singing drew her to the head of the stair 
 case and it was delightful to see how much this circumstance ex- 
 cited the Judge's sensibilities and added to the general hilarity. 
 In the course of the evening we availed ourselves of the fine weather 
 to take a stroll on the lawn, and leaving the young people to their 
 amusements he led the way to a covered walk in the adjoining 
 grove. I spoke of the extent to which my interest in the beautiful 
 scene about us was enhanced by the associations, to which he as- 
 sented and added that my observation reminded him of an occasion 
 when he paced that walk as we were now doing, but with a more 
 troubled heart. 
 
 " I received " said he, " a letter from the General " (his invari- 
 able synonym for his uncle) " in the spring before his death re- 
 
 ' Judge Washington's nephews, Bushrod W. and Noblet Herbert. 
 127483°— VOL 2— 20 12 177 
 
178 AMERICAN HISTOEICAt, ASSOCIATION'. 
 
 questing Mr. Marshall, as he always called the future Chief Justice., 
 and myself to come to Mount Vernon. The court was sitting and 
 a compliance with his request of course inconveninent, but it never 
 occurred ° to either of us to postpone his business to our own. Our 
 brethren of the bar readily acquiesced in a postponement of our 
 causes, and we started, as was the fashion of the time, on horseback 
 and with no other wardrobe that what we carried on our persons. 
 I mention the latter circumstance because of an accident to which 
 equestrians are peculiarly liable, having occurred to Mr. Marshall, 
 which frequently exposed to view the nether extremity of his shirt, 
 causing infinite amusement on the journey and much embarrassment 
 at Mount Vernon. On our arrival in the evening, the General took 
 me into the library and informed me that he wished Mr. Marshall 
 and myself to offer for Congress at the approaching election — ^Mr. 
 Marshall for Henrico district and myself for Westmoreland. As I 
 resided in Eichmond, altho' my property lay in Westmoreland, 
 it might be safest, he said, to make a partial removal there to satisfy 
 the law, which could not give me much trouble. 
 
 " Having explained his wishes and briefly assigned his reasons 
 he desired me to break the matter to Mr. Marshall so that he could 
 have our answer at supper. I called Mr. Marshall out, and on this 
 walk we had our consultation. We had of course the strongest 
 possible desire to conform to the General's wishes, but could not 
 bring our minds to any other conclusion than that to do so in this 
 instance would be destructive of our prospects in the pursuit we 
 preferred, and injurious to our families. Altho' it was not so with 
 Marshall, I was myself deeply conscious of an unfitness for politi- 
 cal life. It was made my duty to state our objections to the Gren- 
 eral which I did very earnestly. He heard me through without 
 interruption, and then answered in his usual grave and emphatic 
 way — ^"Bushrod, it must be done!" With this 1 returned to my 
 friend, still lingering in this grove in painful suspense. We re- 
 sumed our walk and finally agreed that me must comply with the 
 General's wishes at all hazards. We returned to him and informed 
 him of our assent to his proposition. He expressed his satisfaction 
 in very kind terms and said that he was sensible of the inconvenience 
 to which a compliance with his views toight subject us, but was 
 certain that he had asked nothing from us which he would not have 
 done himself if our situations had been reversed. We left Mount 
 Vernon early in the morning and returned to Richmond with feel- 
 ings of great anxiety. 
 
 " I had entered upon the steps deemed advisable to qualify myself 
 to represent Westmoreland when I received a letter from the Secre- 
 
 • MS. II, p. 55. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAK BUREE". 179 
 
 ^tary of State informing me that President Adams had appointed mc 
 one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and 
 I was advised by the same letter that a circuit court was to be held 
 in Georgia in so short a time that it would be necessary to start im- 
 mediately for that state if I accepted the office. I took the official 
 oath immediately, threw myself into the stage coach, proceeded to 
 Georgia and informed the General from that place of what I had 
 done and my reasons for doing it." 
 
 General Washington died in the month of December in the same 
 year.^ Marshall offered for the Henrico district, was elected and 
 made his justly admired speech in defence of the administration for 
 its course in the case of Jonathan Eobbins, Which raised him at once 
 to the first rank in that body. He was appointed Secretary of State 
 by Mr. Adams, on the removal of Timothy Pickering, and, just before 
 the end of his term. Chief Justice of the United States. 
 
 I listened to the Judge's narrative with interest but with a painful 
 sense of the danger to which it showed that Gen. Washington had 
 been exposed of becoming involved in the conflicts of party, at that 
 moment as violent as they have ever been, — a danger from which, 
 in the inscrutable providence of God, he had been withdrawn by an 
 early and otherwise premature death. No man entertained a sounder 
 sense of what belonged to his position, possessed more self command 
 or could be more ready to sacrifice personal feelings to the public 
 good than Gen. Washington. These high traits had all been strik- 
 ingly exhibited in the course of the trying years of his administration, 
 as well as in his subsequent retirement. Nor was it possible that any 
 extent of personal irritation could ever bring his mind to sanction 
 public measures that he did not conscientiously believe would be 
 beneficial to the country. He was yet a man, and as such subject 
 to some extent to the passions and infirmities of his nature, and the 
 state of his feelings described by Judge Washington at a period and 
 under circumstances so inauspicious to their continued restraint, gives 
 us reason to apprehend that had he lived longer his wise and self 
 imposed reserve would have been farther and farther relaxed until 
 he would have become more deeply involved in the angry conflicts 
 of party than was to be desired in one who at that moment possessed, 
 with rare if any exception, the warm affections and the respect of the 
 whole country. 
 
 Who can think without pain upon the consequences of his with- 
 drawal from that enviable position which made the sacred appella- 
 tion of Father of his Country so acceptable to all his countrymen 
 and the loss of which would have robbed not only our History but 
 Human Nature itself of one of the brightest glories of both. Who 
 
 ^Pecember 14, 1799, 
 
180 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 that has been enabled to comprehend the violence of party spirit—, 
 to know that the influences neither of religion nor of kindred nor of 
 any other earthly relation or situation have sufficient strength to 
 avert animosities or denunciations between partizan belligerents, can 
 regret that Washington's fair fame was snatched from farther ex- 
 posure to that fiery ordeal, or can hesitate to acknowledge that the 
 goodness of Providence which had, for his own and his Country's 
 welfare, directed all his actions through his most useful and brilliant 
 life, was scarcely less signally displayed in his death. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 In the course of the winter of 1824, preceding the Presidential elec- 
 tion, Ninian Edwards, one of the Senators in Congress from the 
 state of Illinois, set in motion the famous A. B. plot, by causing to 
 be published in the "Washington Republican," newspaper, several 
 articles signed with those initials, in which Mr. Crawford was 
 charged with culpable mismanagement of the public funds at dif- 
 ferent and remote points in the Western Country. Having thus 
 sown his seed, he obtained from Mr. Monroe the appointment of 
 Minister to Mexico, and after the nomination had been confirmed 
 and his commission delivered him, he sent to the Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives copies of those articles, with a letter avow- 
 ing himself the author of them and affirming that the charges they 
 contained could be supported by legal proofs if the House directed 
 their investigation. At this stage in the proceedings and a short 
 time before the close of the session he started on his Mission, as- 
 suming from the nature of his charges and the remoteness of the 
 places from which the testimony was to be obtained that the mat- 
 ter could only be acted on in the recess, and intending that Mr. 
 Crawford's friends instead of giving their attention to the election 
 should find their time engrossed for the few months which yet re- 
 mained before it was to take place in defending him before a commit- 
 tee of investigation. 
 
 Governor Floyd of Virginia, a political friend of Mr. Crawford, 
 moved instantly for such a coDomittee, and one was selected by Mr. 
 Speaker Clay (himself a rival candidate) with equal delicacy and 
 discretion. It was composed of seven of the most respectable mem- 
 bers of the House, viz : Gov. Floyd, and Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, 
 and Mr. Owen, of Alabama, friends of Crawford, Daniel Webster 
 and John W. Tayler, supporters of Adams, Edward Livingston, who 
 was in favor of Gen. Jackson, and ° Gen. McArthur, of Ohio, a 
 friend of Clay. 
 
 The public mind was greatly shocked by the ruthlessness of the 
 attack and was prepared to find it unfounded as well because of the 
 conduct and reputation of its author as of Mr. Crawford's exemplary 
 character. The Committee seemed similarly impressed and entered 
 upon the immediate investigation and conducted it throughout in a 
 spirit and with a degree of impartiality that reflected the highest 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 60. 
 
 18] 
 
182 AMBKICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 honor upon themselves and upon the Speaker by whom they had 
 been selected. Mr. Crawford was at the time confined by a disease 
 which had brought him to death's door and deprived him almost 
 entirely of the use of hig eyes during the whole investigation. His 
 friends were of course ready to render any assistance not inconsistent 
 with the proprieties of their positions, but the laboring oar was in 
 the hands of his Chief Clerk, Asbury Dickins, who discharged his 
 duties with fidelity and consummate ability. The Defence, which was 
 almost altogether prepared by Dickins, drew forth loud and earnest 
 applause from friends and foes. Whilst it left no matter of fact or 
 argument unattended to, it did not contain a single harsh comment 
 upon the conduct of Mr. Crawford's accuser, a feature which I was 
 very desirous it should possess and to which I took some pains to 
 reconcile our friends who were naturally excited and justly indig- 
 nant. 
 
 The Committee immediately despatched the Sergeant at Arms 
 after Edwards, who pursued him fifteen hundred miles on his way 
 to Mexico. Edwards had left the prosecution of the case in the 
 hands of his son-in-law, Mr. Cook, then a member of Congress, and 
 holding in his hands the vote of Illinois upon the Presidential ques- 
 tion in the House — where it was almost certain it would have to 
 be decided, and with the cunning and unscrupulousness which char- 
 acterised all. his actions in the matter he evidently placed great re- 
 liance on that circumstance; but in this too he was^ disappointed. 
 The Committee satisfied themselves of the utter falsity of the charges 
 before Edward's return and, to prevent him from injuring Mr. 
 Crawford in the public estimation at so critical a period, made and 
 published a report,^ in part, exonerating his conduct from the 
 slightest impeachment. They however thought it proper to give 
 Edwards an opportunity to be heard and to that end adjourned 
 to meet again after the close of the session, when he was examined, 
 but proved nothing to change the character of the report which 
 was reaffirmed. He resigned his appointment and sank into an 
 inglorious retirement. 
 
 Our friends being desirous that I should remain at Washington 
 until the Committee reassembled, I spent the intervening time after 
 the adjournment of Congress in making a visit I had long con- 
 templated to Mr. Jefferson, accompanied by Gov. Mahlon Dicker- 
 son. Altho' suffering at the time from the pressure of pecuniary em- 
 barrassments, brought upon him by responsibilities incurred for an 
 old friend, Mr. Jefferson received us with unaffected cordiality, and 
 exerted himself cheerfully and heartily to make our visit agree- 
 able. He had known and highly esteemed Gov. Dickerson when 
 
 1 Report of select committee of tbe House, 18th Cong., 1st sess., vol. 6, No. 128. 
 
\ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAN BUREST. 183 
 
 he i^ided at Philadelphia during the most stormy period of the 
 administration of John Adams, and he referred in a lively but tol- 
 erant spirit to many scenes of those stirring times, in not a few of 
 which thK Governor had himself been an actor, — such as his ac- 
 companying. Dr. Cooper (of whom I have spoken) arm in arm to 
 prison upon his conviction under the sedition law, altho' at the time 
 Recorder of the City, — and to various exciting articles which had 
 appeared in the Aurora^ newspaper, supposed to have been written 
 by Gov. Dickerson. The gratification of the latter in finding the 
 most interesting events of his early political life thus brought step 
 by step under a sort of commendatory review was unconcealed and 
 pleasant to witness. On the next and subsequent days, leaving the 
 Governor to be entertained by our host's grand-daughter, an ac- 
 complished and very agreeable young lady, now Mrs. Coolidge,^ 
 of Boston, (whose future husband paid his first visit to her while 
 we were at Monticello) we employed our mornings in drives about 
 the neighbourhood, during which it may well be imagined with 
 how much satisfaction I listened to Mr. Jefferson's conversation. 
 His imposing appearance as he sat uncovered — never wearing his 
 hat except when he left the carriage and often not then — and the 
 earnest and impressive manner in which he spoke of men and 
 things, are yet as ;fresh in my recollection as if they were experiences 
 of yesterday. I have often reproached myself for having omitted 
 to make memoranda of his original and always forcible observa- 
 tions and never more than at the present moment. Uppermost 
 in my mind is the recollection of his exemption from the slightest 
 remains of party or personal prejudice against those from whom 
 he had differed during the stormy period of his public life. Those 
 who like myself had an opportunity to witness his remarkable free- 
 dom from the common reproach of political differences would find 
 it difficult to doubt the sincerity of the liberal views he expressed 
 in his Inaugural Address in regard to parties and partisan con- 
 tests. 
 
 The bank of the United States was at this time in the plenitude 
 of its power, and Mr. Jefferson was much disturbed by the sanc- 
 tions which its pretentions received from the decisions of the Su- 
 preme Court, under the lead of Chief Justice Marshall, which he 
 regarded as tending to the subversion of the republican principles 
 of the Government. He expressed his belief that the life tenure 
 of their, offices was calculated to turn the minds of the Judges in 
 that direction, and that the attention of our young men could not 
 be more usefully employed than in considering the most effectual 
 protection against the evils which threatened the Country from 
 
 1 Miss Ellen Wayles Randolph, late Mrs. Joseph Coolidge. 
 
184 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 that source. He spoke of the power of Impeachment with great 
 severity not only as a mockery in itself, but as having exercised an 
 influence in preventing a resort to a more thorough remedy, which 
 he thought was only to be found in a change in the tenure of the 
 judicial office. Annual appointments, as in the New England states, 
 were, he thought, the best, but he would be content with four or 
 even six years, and trust to experience for future reductions. Fresh 
 from the Bar, and to some extent at least under the influence of 
 professional prejudices, I remember to have thought his views ex- 
 tremely radical, but I have lived to subscribe to their general cor- 
 rectness. 
 
 In a speech in the Senate delivered years ago^ I referred to the 
 Bank of the United States as having been the great pioneer of con- 
 stitutional encroachments, and our subsequent experience has con- 
 firmed the justice of the remark. It is worthy of notice that since 
 that Institution has happily ceased to exist we have not only been 
 exempted from any such overwhelming pecufiiarj'^ convulsion as 
 those caused by it, but the Supreme Court has occupied itself with 
 its legitimate duties — ^the administration of justice between man and 
 man — without being, as formerly, constantly assailed by applica- 
 tions for latitudinarian constructions of the constitution in support 
 of enormous corporate pretensions. We might, perhaps, have ex- 
 pected that in such a calm even Mr. Jefferson's alarm, if he had lived 
 to see it, would at least in some degree have subsided; but this 
 state of things can only be expected to last until a similar or equally 
 strong interest is brought under discussion of a character to excite 
 the whole country and to enlist the sympathies of a majority of the 
 Court and requiring the intervention of that high tribunal to sus- 
 tain its unconstitutional assumptions by unauthorized and unre- 
 strained construction. Whether the institution of domestic slavery is 
 destined to be such an interest remains to be seen. The experi- 
 ence of ages proves that with exceptions too few to impair the rule, 
 men can not be held to the performance" of delegated political trust 
 without a continued aijd practical responsibility to those for whose 
 benefit it is conferred. The theory of the independence of the Sov- 
 ereign in the case of the Judges in England, which we have copied, 
 entirely fails when applied to us. Therei they are rendered inde- 
 pendent of the Crown to secure their fidelity to the public against 
 the influence of the power to which they owe their appointment 
 here their life-tenure renders them independent of the People for 
 whose service they are appointed. Irresponsible power of itself ex- 
 
 ' " Substance of Mr. Van Buren's observations in tlie Senate " [Feb. 12-13, 1828] a 
 pamphlet of 16 pp. In whlcli two speeches are welded into one, is In the Van Buren 
 Papers. Ct. Congressional Debates, iv. 1 : 313, 338. 
 
 ° Ms. II, p. 65. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIlir VAIST BUKEN. 185 
 
 cites distrust, and sooner or later causes, on the part of its possessor, 
 an impatience of popular control and, in the sequel, a desire to coun- 
 teract popular, will. The only effectual and safe remedy will 'be to 
 amend the constitution so as to make the office| elective, and thus 
 compel the Judges, like the incumbents of the Executive and Legis- 
 lative departments, to come before the people at stated and reason- 
 able periods for a renewal of their commissions. 
 
 The subject of Internal Improvements by the General Government 
 was another matter which occupied Mr. Jefferson's attention and 
 caused him much concern. He spoke of it, with some feeling, as a 
 mode of wasting the public revenues, without the probability of 
 adequate returns, and involving violations of the constitution injuri- 
 ous to the interests it professed to advance, and expressed his appro- 
 bation of the course I was pursuing in regard to the system in flatter- 
 ing terms. 
 
 I derived the highest gratification from observing that his devo- 
 tion to the public interest, tho' an octogenarian and oppressed by 
 private griefs, was as ardent as it had been in his palmiest days. 
 Standing upon the very brink of the grave, and forever excluded 
 from any interest in the management of public concerns that was 
 not common to all his fellow citizens, he seemed never to tire in his 
 review of the past and in explanations of the grounds of his appre- 
 hensions for the future, both obviously for my benefit. In relation 
 to himself he was very reserved — ^taking only the slightest allowable 
 notice of his agency in the transactions of which he spoke. Happen- 
 ing to notice a volume in his library labelled curtly and emphatic- 
 ally — ■" Libels " — I opened it and found its contents to consist en- 
 tirely of articles abusive of himself, cut out of the Newspapers ; and 
 shewing it to him he laughed heartily over the irochure, and said 
 that it had been his good fortune thro' life to be, in an unusual 
 degree, indifferent to the groundless attacks to which public men 
 were exposed. My inquiries in regard to individuals who had been 
 prominent actors on the political stage in his day, were naturally 
 as frequent as was consistent with propriety, and his replies were 
 prompt and made with apparent sincerity and absolute fairness. Of 
 Gen. Washington and of his memory he invariable spoke with undis- 
 guised regard and reverence. The views he took of his political 
 
 character and career are fully stated in has letter to me of the , to 
 
 which I shall have occasion presently to refer. The residence so near 
 to each other of two such men, and the change which had taken place 
 in their political relations presented an irresistible opportunity to 
 mischievous busy-bodies, and no effort of theirs or of political rivalry 
 or private enmity was omitted to impress Gen. Washington with a 
 belief of Mr. Jefferson's ill will towards him. In speaking to me, in 
 the letter I have mentioned, of the feelings of the old republicans, 
 
186 AMERICAlsr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 himself included, towards Gen. Washington, he uses this eloquent 
 and, on its face, truthful language : 
 
 He lived too short a time after and too much withdrawn irom information 
 to correct the views into which he had been deluded, and the continued assidu- 
 ities of the party drew him into the vortex of their intemperate career, sep- 
 arated him still further from his real friends, and excited him to actions and 
 expressions of dissatisfaction which grieved them but could not loosen their 
 affection from him. They would not suffer the temporai-y aberration to 
 weigh against the immeasureable merits of his life, and altho' they tumbled 
 his seducers from their places they presen'ed his memory embalmed in their 
 hearts with undiminished love and devotion, and there it forever will remain 
 embalmed, in entire oblivion of every temporary thing which might cloud the 
 glories of his splendid life.* 
 
 If anything could be required to establish the truth of this state- 
 ment in regard to Mr. Jefferson himself it would be sufficient to 
 refer to the fact that all the great statesmen, his contemporaries, have 
 gone hence, and that their papers have been ransacked and pub- 
 lished without reserve, as well as his own, by friends and foes, 
 and that not a fragment has been found to cast a doubt upon it. 
 
 Observing that in describing party movements he almost always 
 said " The republicans " pursued this course, and "Hamilton " that — 
 not naming the federalists as a party, except by the designation of 
 a sole representative, I brought this peculiarity to his attention. He 
 said it was a habit that he had fallen into at an early period from 
 regarding almost every party demonstration during the adminis- 
 trations preceding his own, as coming directly or indirectly from 
 Hamilton. He spoke of him frequently and always without pre- 
 judice or ill will, regarding him as a man of generous feelings and 
 sincere in his political opinions. In answer to my question whether 
 Hamilton participated in some step that he condemned, he replied — 
 " No ! He was above such things ! " His political principles Mr. 
 Jefferson condemned without reserve, save only their sincerity, re- 
 garding them in their tendency and effects as more anti-republican 
 than those of any of his contemporaries. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's account of the humble position from which Pat- 
 rick Henry raised himself to eminence and the limited means of 
 education and study with which he had been able to make a never 
 to be forgotten impression upon the age in which he lived, inter- 
 ested me exceedingly. He described his agency in facilitating Mr. 
 Henry's admission to the Bar, which was, in substance, that hap- 
 pening to be in the vicinity of the residence of Mr. Henry who 
 was then a clerk in a small country store, the latter called upon 
 him and asked him to use his influence with Mr. Wythe and Mr. 
 
 »A signed draft of tills letter, dated June 29, 1824, by Jefferson, Is In the Jefferson 
 Papers, Library of Congress. Ser. 1, v. 14, 298. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAN BTJREN. 187 
 
 Pendleton to induce them to unite with him in giving a certificate 
 of qualification which was necessary to enable Mr. Henry to pro- 
 cure a license to practice law. In reply to Mr. Jefferson's enquiry 
 in regard to the extent of his legal studies, Henry acknowledged 
 that it was but very recently that he had resolved to ask admission 
 to the Bar, and that he had not as yet opened a law book, but 
 offered to pledge his honor that he would not practice until he 
 had pursued the proper course of study. It was upon that assur- 
 ance that they consented to give him a certificate, and Mr. Jefferson 
 added that such was Henry's aversion to reading that he did not 
 believe that he had ever read the whole of any book! Taking up 
 a volume of Blair's lectures, one day at Monticello, and glancing over 
 a page or two, Henry exclaimed " this is a very sensible book and 
 if you will lend it to me I think I will read it." On his returning 
 it months afterwards Mr. Jefferson, as a matter of curiosity, asked 
 him whether he had read it through, and he acknowledged that he 
 had not. In Mr. Jefferson's Autobiography, published by Congress, 
 will be found a statement of similar import. Yet such was the 
 strength and acuteness of his intellectual powers and so impressive 
 and efficient his native eloquence, that of all the able men of whom 
 Virginia then boasted there was not one whose speeches produced 
 as great effect as did those of Patrick Henry. Mr. Jefferson did 
 full justice to his services in the Legislature during the Revolu- 
 tionary War, and in the State Convention for the adoption of the 
 Federal Constitution, and ° described to me the singular effects 
 produced by some of his addresses to juries. When the eminent 
 position he attained as an orator as well at the Bar as in the public 
 councils is considered in connection with the circumstances under 
 which he was admitted to practice (as to the main facts in regard 
 to which I am certain of having stated them correctly) it presents a 
 most remarkable illustration of the power of genius unaided by 
 education. 
 
 Our host pressed us with much earnestness to remain a few days 
 longer, when we proposed to leave, and in reply to my excuse for 
 returning to Washington, the desire to be in season for the meeting 
 of the A. B. Committee, he said that his experience justified him 
 in assuring me that a few days would make no difference in that 
 respect, as I found to be true enough. When parting from him 
 he said he would take the liberty of an old man to give us some 
 advice upon the subject of being in a hurry. The first fifty years 
 of his life had been harassed by the habit of thinking it indispensa- 
 ble that things should be done at a certain time and engagements 
 kept to the moment; but upon summing up results he had found 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 70. 
 
188 AMERICAN- HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 that his punctuality had proved a losing business and that in a 
 thousand instances things would have gone on rather better if he 
 had given himself more latitude, and that subsequently he had 
 adopted a different, and as the result had satisfied him, a wiser 
 rule. Hoping that we would do likewise he bid us an affectionate 
 farewell. In Gov. Dickerson he had met an old friend whom he 
 had proved in the times which were then and long afterwards not 
 inaptly called the "Keign of Terror," and whom he had not ex- 
 pected to see again, and for me he manifested a regard which I 
 might safely construe into a,n approbation of my public course, 
 and I could not fail to be highly gratified by such an assurance 
 from one whose character, conduct and principles formed my heau 
 ideal of thorough patriotism and accomplished statesmanship. 
 
 I had spoken of a political pamphlet by Timothy Pickering*^ 
 which, as appeared by the newspapers, had just made its appear- 
 ance and Mr. Jefferson requested me to send him a copy — ^which I 
 did. A few weeks afterwards I received the letter from him to 
 which reference had already been made, and which accompanies 
 these memoirs. I am sure that no intelligent mind can peruse it 
 without being deeply interested by its graphic views of circum- 
 stances and events not generally understood and in which no Amer- 
 ican citizen can fail to take the deepest interest. 
 
 I visited the elder Adams, at Quincy, the next summer after I 
 was at Monticello, and I do not recollect ever to have seen a more 
 striking and venerable figure than he appeared at t|iat day. The 
 traces of advanced age were more perceptible in him than in Mr. 
 Jefferson, but did not appear to affect him either in mind or body, 
 beyond the unavoidable infirmities of the decline of life. He re- 
 ceived me kindly, and during the short period that I felt myself 
 justified in occupying his attention conversed with uniform good 
 sense, and a degree of animation and decision seldom witnessed in 
 so old a man. 
 
 The Adamses, including that public spirited patriot Samuel 
 Adams, were an extraordinary race and made indelible impressions 
 on the times in which they lived. John Adams was, in the estima- 
 tion of his successful rival, the most effective orator of the Revolu- 
 tion — a post of danger as well as of honor, as was shewn by the ex- 
 ception of his name, among others, from the offers of pardon which 
 the Crown, from time to time, tendered to her rebellious subjects. 
 
 I need hardly say that his greatness was not without alloy, but 
 happily for his country the defects of his character did not affect 
 his usefuUness until after her independence had been established. 
 
 >A Review of the Correspondence between the Hon. John Ad&ms, late president of the 
 United States and the late Wm. Cunningham, esquire • • " by Timothy Pickering. 
 (Salem, 1824.) A copy is in the Library of Congress. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN. 189 
 
 Whatever these defects may have been, one thing was at all times 
 clear, as Dr. Franklin, in a brief sketch of his character (quoted be- 
 low and not designed, as a whole, to be particularly complimentary) 
 said, "he was always honest," and so were Samuel and John Quincy 
 Adams. Indeed such, to their honor be it said, has, with very rare 
 exceptions, been the character of our high public functionaries at all 
 periods. In the times of John Adams the political atmosphere had 
 been so thoroughly purified by -the Eevolutionary fires that no man, 
 whatever his talent or his services, who was wanting in that the 
 first qualification for public trusts could have been sustained for 
 a day., Arnold was corrupted by the enemy, and scorn will never 
 cease to designate, with her unmoving finger, his infamy. Edmund 
 Eandolph who possessed the confidence of Washington and Jeffer- 
 son, and was appointed by the former Secretary of State when the 
 latter resigned, ranking among the highest in personal position and 
 in talent, was unhappily exposed to suspicion as to his official integ- 
 rity, and he fell at once to rise no more. An attempt was made to 
 attach suspicion to the acts of Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of 
 the Treasury — as I have heretofore described. We have seen' at 
 what a sacrifice he vindicated the purity of his official conduct, and 
 manifested his sense of the indispensable necessity .of such a vindi- 
 cation whenever it should be questioned. 
 
 It is always hazardous for one whose judgments are deductions 
 from what he reads to pass upon the personal characters of public 
 men, yet it is the motive and sincerity with which this is done 
 which makes it excusable or otherwise. My own impression has 
 always been that Mr. Adams's subsequent failure in public- life 
 was, in no considerable degree, owing to an overweening self esteem 
 and consequent impatience under honors conferred on his cotem- 
 poraries. Frequent exhibitions of this feeling, with — not too high, 
 certainly — ^but perhaps too exclusive an appreciation of his own 
 services, were, I cannot but think, among the causes of his un- 
 popularity. It was this, doubtless, which gave a feverish character 
 to his relations with Dr. Franklin, during their residence in Europe. 
 The same causes produced wider and still more injurious effects 
 on his return to the United States. The attention of public men, 
 engrossed during the "V^^ar by the enemy, was diverted by the peace 
 and more closely directed towards each other, and anticipated 
 rivalries doubtless added keenness to those examinations. The 
 previous friendly relations between himself and Mr. Jefferson were, 
 not improbably, then weakened and suspended : with Hamilton, who 
 was himself not deficient in the same quality, he was soon in open 
 hostility: he looked down upon Hancock, and an impression was 
 made upon the minds of many that he yielded, with less complacency 
 
190 AMERICAIT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 than the other leading men of his day, to the universal preference 
 accorded to Washington. These well known circumstances, in con- 
 nection with his after expressed admiration of the English system, 
 always excepting its corruptions, gave rise to the imputation, un- 
 doubtedly unjust, that his resistance to the Crown did not arise 
 so much from opposition to Monarchy in the abstract as to a natural 
 preference for the House of Braintree over that of Hanover. 
 
 The election at which he was chosen President passed off without 
 anything like a partizan canvass. The seeds of future party di- 
 visions had begun to sprout at the seat of Government, but in the 
 country at large these divisions were yet unseen and unfelt. The 
 election was suffered to drift to its conclusion without serious ef- 
 forts to control its direction. In Mr. Madison's correspondence 
 may be found a letter from Mr. Jefferson, authorizing ° Mr. Madi- 
 son to announce to the House of Representatives if the vote proved 
 to be equal, as it nearly turned out to be, as the earnest desire of 
 the writer that Mr. Adams might be preferred.^ Mr. Adams was 
 a man of strong feelings and those to which I have particularly 
 alluded had lost none of their force by his long previous occupation 
 of an office without patronage or power. Mr. Jefferson tells us that 
 consultations between them on public affairs, tho' at first invited, 
 were in the end' studiously avoided, and we know that his relations 
 with Washington were not free from embarrassment. The latter 
 had, as Commander in Chief of the Provisional Army, recommended 
 for Major Generals Hamilton, Pinckney and Knox; Mr. Adams 
 made the appointments, but was induced, it was supposed by his 
 prejudices against Hamilton, to reverse the order by placing' Knox 
 first and Hamilton, last. Washington, as might have been antici- 
 pated, took exception to this arrangement of the names and in- 
 siste'd upon the order he had proposed, which was finally adopted. 
 I need not say that such a transaction could not pass to its con- 
 summation without offending the feelings of both. 
 
 Of Mr. Adams' support of the Alien and Sedition laws I have 
 elsewhere spoken. These laws were the legitimate fruits of prin- 
 ciples which Hamilton had instilled into the federal party yet the 
 largest share of public odium they excited fell upon the head of 
 Adams. Divisions arose in that party and Hamilton took ground, 
 covert at first but finally avowed against his reelection. Fearless 
 in spirit and bold in movement the President removed from the 
 office of Secretary of State that remarkable man Timothy Pickering 
 who had been appointed by Washington, but whom he suspected of 
 
 " MS. II, p. 75. 
 
 • Dec. 17, 1 7.90. In the Madison Papers, Library qf Congress, It Is printed in Ford's 
 Works of Jefferson. (N. Y, 1904), v. 8, 254, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIlSr VAN BUREN. 191 
 
 being too much influenced by Hamilton, and threw himself upon 
 the country for support. ' 
 
 Public services have their stipulated reveards, and all beyond, 
 the People proudly regard as reserved for free-will offerings. 
 Nothing is so likely to offend and repel their confidence as appeals 
 for their support which wear the appearance of claims of right on 
 the part of the applicant. Mr. Adams found it difficult, consti- 
 tuted as he was, to make any to which his enemies could not cause 
 that objection to be plausibly set up. He was consequently never 
 popular save during the war of the Kevolution, when his appeals 
 to the People were for their own interests and defence, and under 
 the weight of this personal and administrational unpopularity, 
 which his Revolutionary services could not surmount, he not only 
 fell himself but drew down upon his party imperishable odium. 
 
 In a letter from Dr. Franklin to Robert E. Livingston, the Sec- 
 retary of Foreign Affairs to the Congress, dated " Passy 22d. July, 
 1783," he alludes to Mr. Adams as follows : 
 
 * * * It is therefore I write this, to put you on your guard (believing 
 it my duty, though I know that I hazard by it a mortal enmity) and to cau- 
 tion you respecting the insinuations of this gentleman against this Court, and 
 the instances he supposes of their ill will to us, which I take to be as imaginary 
 as I know his fancies to be that Count de Vergennes and myself are con- 
 tinually plotting against him, and employing the news writers of Europe to 
 depreciate his character &c. But as Shakespeare says, " Trifles light as 
 air " &c. I am persuaded however that he means well for his country, is 
 always an honest man, often a wise one, but some times, and in some things, 
 absolutely out of his senses.' 
 
 In the recently published Life and Works of John Adams, his 
 grandson, the author and compiler, has incorporated in the Diary 
 of Mr. Adams a paper left by him entitled " Travels and Negotia- 
 tions", which appears to have been commenced in December 1806, 
 and from which the following is extracted : 
 
 Dr. Franklin, one of my coHeagues, is so generally known that I shall not 
 attempt a sketch of his character at present. That he was a great genius, a 
 great wit, a great humorist, a great satirist, and a great politician is certain. 
 That he was a great philosopher, a great moralist, and a great statesman is 
 more questionable. (Vol. Ill, p. 139.) 
 
 Whether the venerable diarist, when the above was written, had 
 been apprised of the notice which had been taken of him by his 
 renowned and equally venerable co-negotiator we can never know. 
 Its resemblance to an excusable retort cowteous is certainly not a 
 little striking. 
 
 To return to' the commencement of .the administration of John 
 Quincy Adams, efforts were made by its friends to excite public 
 
 ^ In the Department of State, Continental Congress Mss. It is printed In Wharton, 
 Diplo. Corres. (Washington, 1889), v. 6, 580. 
 
192 AMEKICAH" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 odium against its opponents by charging that their opposition was 
 personal, predetermined, and made without reference to public 
 measures. In this they were aided by an unwise and somewhat 
 inflammatory declaration attributed to one of the South Carolina 
 members. In point of fact our opposition commenced at the thresh- 
 hold of the new administration but our course was nevertheless not 
 justly deserving of the imputations that were cast upon it. The 
 fact that the election of Mr. Adams had been made against the 
 known wishes of a majority of the People was at least sufficient to 
 justify us in standing aloof until we were officially informed of 
 the views and principles in the administration of the Government 
 by which the President-elect would be guided. The vote of non- 
 concurrence in the nomination of Mr. Clay as Secretary of State, 
 was confined to a portion only of our friends and avowedly given 
 on personal grounds. Beyond that nothing was done until the de- 
 livery of the Inaugural Address in which the new President dis- 
 closed the principles of his administration — ^principles of which 
 neither he nor his Cabinet expected our support. 
 
 Mr. Adams was an honest man, not only incorruptible himself, 
 but, as I have before said (and in these days it cannot be too often 
 said or too favorably remembered) an enemy to venality in 
 every department of the public service. He loved his country, 
 desired to serve it usefully and was properly ambitious of the honor 
 of doing so. At a time and under circumstances highly creditable 
 to his patriotism he left his party and came to the support of Mr. 
 Jefferson's administration. Knowing that in voting for the em- 
 bargo he opposed the opinion of his State he resigned the place 
 of Senator in Congress which he held by her appointment and 
 was, in the following year, sent as Minister to Russia by Mr. Madi- 
 son. He occupied several prominent public stations abroad during 
 Mr. Madison's administration and was recalled at the commence- 
 ment of Mr. Monroe's term to take the leading position in his cab- 
 inet. The appropriate duties of these high offices, commencing 
 very soon after his rupture with the federalists and continuing 
 through the entire administrations of Madison and Monroe, he dis- 
 charged not only with great ability but with equal fidelity and 
 honor. He doubtless embraced fully and sympathized cordially in 
 the feelings and opinions of Jefferson, Madison and the republican 
 party, by which they had been elected and by which alone the admin- 
 istrations were sustained, on the subject of the War with England. 
 The same may be said in regard to most if not all the public ques- 
 tions that arose out of our foreign relations between the imposition 
 of the embargo and the close of Mr. Monroe's Government. 
 
 But such we are bound to believe was not the case in respect to 
 the political creed of the old republican party on the subjects of the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREIT. 193 
 
 proper and only legitimate objects for the institution of govern- 
 ments among men, and the purposes for which they should be em- 
 ployed, — of the true theory of our complex Federal and State 
 system in its operation upon domestic affairs, and the uses for which 
 they were respectively framed and could only be rightly applied, 
 and of the binding effects of written constitutions; a creed which 
 having caused the Revolution subsequently, in the same spirit and 
 significancj', triumphed in 1800, "and was throughout, faithfully 
 sustained by Jefferson, and, with a solitary exception, by Madison. 
 The influence which that party had exerted in the overthrow of the 
 Founder of his House was not calculated to conciliate the feelings 
 of a man of Mr. Adams' temperament. He had too much self 
 respect to profess that, on these points his original views of opinions 
 which had met with his warmest opposition in the early part of his 
 political career had undergone any change. He therefore em- 
 braced with avidity and supported with zeal the project of Mr. 
 Monroe to obliterate the inauspicious party distinctions of the past 
 and to bury the recollection of their causes and effects in a sepulchre 
 proposed by himself — ^to wit in "the receptacle of things lost on 
 earth." 
 
 With such feelings and amidst the distractions and consequent 
 temporary overthrow of the republicans he was elevated to the 
 Presidency. The condition of parties at that moment, the feelings 
 that pervaded them and the effects produced by the preliminary 
 steps and subsequent measures of the new Administration are mat- 
 ters of interesting review, at least to one who had opportunities to 
 judge of them correctly and thinlcs himself , able to speak of them 
 with reasonable impartiality. 
 
 The election of the son of the statesman whom the ancestors of 
 some among them had deemed it such a triumph to overthrow in 
 the great civil struggle of 1800 — a son believed to be imbued with 
 many of the strong prejudices and obnoxious opinions of his 
 father — as the first fruit of their own distractions, was a source 
 of keen regret to the old republicans, save the comparatively few 
 who had decided to follow the fortunes of Mr. Clay. The power 
 which the old federal party had exerted in the recent contest and 
 the alacrity and exulting spirit with which its votaries rallied to the 
 standard of Mr. Adams as to a complete restoration of their influ- 
 ence in the Government, soon satisfled those who had yielded to the 
 idea of the extinction of that party of their delusion — a convic- 
 tion mingled with self reproach. These latter, attached as strongly 
 as ever to the principles of their own party, and convinced by their 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 80. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 13 
 
194 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 unexpected defeat of the continued necessity of organization to 
 make them ascendant, became early desirous for its restoration. Al- 
 ways under similar circumstances, the rank and file of, a political 
 party, taught by adversity the folly of their divisions, look to a 
 discontinuance of them to soothe its mortification, and long delays 
 in accomplishing a cordial reconciliation are invariably attributed 
 to the policy and ambition of leaders. In the present case the 
 difficulties of this kind were not formidable, as the friends of Mr. 
 Clay were readily made scape-goats for all delinquencies. A short 
 interval to soften the minor irritations produced by the asperities 
 of the canvass, and an outside pressure from the successful candi- 
 date were alone necessary to the formation of a hearty and effective 
 union between the friends and supporters of Jackson, Crawford 
 and Calhoun. That pressure was quickly applied by Mr. Adams 
 in his Inaugural Address. Believing that the steps that had been 
 taken to break up old party organizations had been successful, a 
 large portion of that paper was employed in demonstrating and 
 applauding the result. The merits and demerits of the two great 
 political parties which had divided the opinions of our country 
 were, in felicitous terms, placed upon a. footing of equality; the 
 policy of our Government towards foreign nations was assumed 
 to have been their principal source; the catastrophe of the French 
 Revolution and our subsequent peace with Great Britain were al- 
 luded to as having uprooted the baneful weed of party strife; no 
 differences of principle, it was declared, either in relation to the 
 theory of government or to our foreign intercourse, had since ex- 
 isted sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties; ani- 
 mosities growing out 'of political contention had consequently, he 
 said, been assuaged and the most discordant elements of public 
 opinion blended into harmony. 
 
 The scattered members of one of those great parties, of that, too, 
 which when united had for a series of years possessed the confidence 
 of the country and been intrusted with the administration of the 
 government, but which had now been defeated mainly by the con- 
 certed action of its old opponents — could not be expected to listen 
 with complacency to this description, by their successful rival, of a 
 state of things which they had discovered to be " a delusion and a 
 snare." But this was not all : the new President annouflced among 
 the subjects of Federal legislation which he favored that of Internal 
 Improvement by means of Roads and Canals. He admitted that 
 some diversity of opinion had prevailed in regard to the power of 
 Congress over the subject, but it was alleged that a great advance 
 had taken place in public sentiment in favor of the power and con- 
 fident hope was expressed that its extent and limitation would soon 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIW VAN BUEEN. 195 
 
 be established to the satisfaction of all, and " every speculative 
 scruple solved'by practical public blessings." 
 
 In his first annual Message he dwelt with much earnestness and 
 at great length on the same subject — pressed the transcendant im- 
 portance of the policy recommended and the obligation to promote 
 it, and recommended to the persevering consideration of Congress 
 " the general principle in a more enlarged extent ;" embraced among 
 Several other specified objects a University and Astronomical Ob- 
 servatories, describing the latter as " light houses of the skies ! " — a 
 name sufficiently felicitous in regard to the subject, but indiscreetly 
 used as conceded by his friends in reference to the circumstances 
 under which he spoke, — and closed with an admonition as to the 
 consequences of attempting to excuse our failure in duty by pro- 
 claiming to the world that we had allowed ourselves " to be paralized 
 by the will of our Constituents." 
 
 These papers were written with the ability for which Mr. Adams's 
 pen was justly distinguished. They were filled with well-wrought 
 encomiums on the Federal Constitution, plausible definitions of the 
 grants and limits of powers between the General and State Govern- 
 ments, and eloquent injunctionsi in favor of their faithful observ- 
 ance ; and yet not one of the followers of the old Republican faith- 
 no intelligent friend of the reserved rights of the states could fail 
 to see in them the most ultra latitudinarian doctrines. The expres- 
 sions which I have quoted, and especially that in which he spoke of 
 the Representatives allowing themselves to be palsied by the will 
 of their constituents, tho' couched in terms of professional ambiguity, 
 were well calculated to strengthen that conclusion. Even Hamilton, 
 who had always been placed at the head of the latitudinarians, 
 whilst avowing, in the ingenuousness of his nature, his admiration 
 of the British Constitution, admitted that the establishment of a 
 monarchy here ought not to be attempted because it would be 
 against the known wishes of the people, while it was the duty of 
 their representatives to conduct the government on the principles 
 elected by the constituency. 
 
 Mr. Adams's description of the then state of public opinion in 
 respect to the constitutional power of Congress over the subject of 
 Internal Improvements was, in the main and particularly in 
 respect of those who had constituted the great body of the Repub- 
 lican party, very incorrect. It was true that several prominent 
 Republicans had, after the peace, entered warmly into the support 
 of that system, evidently under the impression that° it was the 
 path to the confidence and support of the people, and there were of 
 course not a few, in every section of the country, who, stimulated by 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 85. 
 
196 AMBBICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 self interest, were willing to have their '' speculative scruples solved " 
 by so-called, " practical public blessings." But the thinking and 
 disinterested minds of the party, as well as the mass who were influ- 
 enced by their counsels, continued to regard the claim of this power 
 as dangerous heresy and to oppose it by every effort — an opposition 
 of which the Journals of the National Legislature through several 
 administrations furnish abundant evidence. 
 
 I never entertained a moment's doubt, after the delivery of the 
 Inaugural Address, of the speedy reunion of the Republican party — 
 excepting the personal adlierents of Mr. Clay, but including a 
 majority of its former supporters in the eastern states who had been 
 drawn off to Mr. Adams by the consideration of his being an eastern 
 man. 
 
 It suited the policy of the friends of the Administration, taking 
 advantage of an article in the Alhany Argus, newspaper, which was 
 published without my knowledge and in well understood opposition 
 to my opinions, and of the near expiration of my Senatorial term, to 
 charge me, through their presses, with a concealment of my views 
 in regard to the new government until I might secure my reelection : 
 hence the imputation of non-conmiittaMsm which became thence 
 forward the parrot-note of my adversaries throughout my public 
 career always applied to my sayings and writings except when it 
 was supposed that more injury could be done by attributing to me 
 the sentiments which I meant to express. My son, Col. Van Buren, 
 on his return from the campaign in Mexico, described to me an inci- 
 dent amusingly illustrative of the tenacity with which this party 
 catch-word of more than twenty years maintained its place in the 
 vocabulary of those who had been accustomed to use it. At the 
 hottest moment of the battle of Monterey, when it required all the 
 circumspection of Gen. Taylor and his staff to avoid the cannonade 
 of the enemy, directed against the position they occupied, Col. 
 Baylie Peyton rode up to the General with a message from Gen. 
 Worth who was stationed on the opposite side of the city. Having 
 made his communication, he added that a letter had been found in 
 the pocket of a dead cavalry officer from Santa Anna in regard to 
 whose movements and plans there was great uncertainty and of 
 course great interest. " Well," said the General, " which way is he 
 moving?" "Upon that point" replied the Colonel, "his letter is 
 quite Van Bwen-ish and leaves us altogether in the dark ! " Gen. 
 Taylor, who knew enough of party politics to recognise a portion 
 of its vocabulary so notorious, and to his credit as a soldier very 
 little more, turned to my son at his side and said, somewhat sharply, 
 "Col. Peyton, allow me to introduce you to my aid Major Van 
 Buren." Peyton, altho' a violent political partisan, was a generous 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 197 
 
 hearted man and had, in the excitement of the moment, been un- 
 mindful of my son's presence. Regardless of the constant saluta- 
 tions to the company of the enemy's artillery he insisted on acquit- 
 ting himself on the spot of intentional want of courtesy, either to- 
 wards him or myself — for whom he protested, notwithstanding 
 political difference, he had always entertained the kindest and most 
 respectful feelings ; which was doubtless true, and he was of course 
 readily excused upon the single condition that he would allow my son 
 to give me the benefit of a hearty laugh by describing the scene to me. 
 There was never perhaps a more unfounded imputation, and no 
 two men in the country were less in doubt in respect to my course 
 than Mr, Adams and Mr. Clay. They understood too well my feel- 
 ings on the subject of Mr. Monroe's fusion policy which they both 
 promoted, and they had seen too much of my opposition to the 
 principles and measures which they knew would become leading 
 features of their administration to expect me to sustain it. I feel 
 that I can say with truth that throughout my political career it 
 was my invariable desire to have my opinions upon public questions 
 distinctly known. I publicly answered, without hesitation or un- 
 willingness, more questions put to me by opponents whom I knew 
 to have sinister purposes in putting them and whose predetermined 
 votes were not to be affected by any assurances or explanations, 
 than have been answered by all the Candidates for the Presidency 
 together from the commencement of the Government to this day. 
 Notwithstanding that these are by-gone affairs, in their time of very 
 limited importance and now of none, yet in view of the extraor- 
 dinary success of this partisan accusation and of its striking illus- 
 tration of the power of the Press, I will record the proof of its 
 original falsity which has at this late date accidentally fallen under 
 my notice. In looking over some old papers for another object, I 
 accidentally laid my hand on a letter from Mr. Croswell, at the 
 time Editor of the Albany Argus, in which the article in that news- 
 paper which was so confidently attributed to my dictation and 
 which gave rise to the charge of my pursuing a non-committal 
 policy in regard to the administration of Mr. Adams, is directly 
 referred to. The letter is dated April 3d, 1826, and the following 
 extract is all that it contains upon the subject: 
 
 * * * I must ask you not to be surprised at the tenor of the leading 
 editorial article of this morning. It has not been written without deliberation. 
 The truth is, whilst there is an increasing aversion towards Mr. Adams 
 amongst the Republicans of the State, there is a great aversion on their part 
 to any collision with the administration which shall drive them to the sup- 
 port of Mr. Clinton, or that shall force them to encounter the hostility of 
 both. They prefer, for the present, at least, to stand in the capacity of 
 lookers on, believing that the natural hostility between A and C will be 
 certain of shewing itself, and the sooner if we afford them no other aliment 
 
198 AMEEIOAK HISTOEIOAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 than themselves. It is for this reason and because it Is believed that little 
 advantage and very great evil may arise from a contrary course that we 
 propose to let the National politics alone.i 
 
 The italicising in the above extract is my own. It thus appears 
 that the position assumed by my friends at Albany was taken with- 
 out my previous knowledge, and to shew how inconsistent it was 
 with my known opinions and acts it is only necessary to say that 
 I spent the month of March immediately preceding the date of the 
 letter in earnest and active participation with the opposition in 
 the Senate in their efforts to defeat the Panama Mission, and i^e 
 month of April, in which it was written, in resisting the project 
 of the Administration in respect to the Judiciary Bill. The former 
 was its favorite measure, whilst it acquiesced in the loss of the 
 latter rather than agree to the Jeffersonian restriction of the act 
 of 1802, confining the residence of the Judges to their circuits, 
 (upon which we insisted) notwithstanding our assent to the num- 
 ber of Judges which they proposed, and of which they had the 
 appointment, or rather nomination. 
 
 My views in regard to the then next Presidential election were 
 formally asked by that estimable man and inflexible old Eepublican, 
 Judge William Smith, of South Carolina in an interview which 
 I had with him at Boston, within three months after the commence- 
 ment of Mr. Adams's Administration. I informed him that as 
 Mr.° Crawford was removed from further competition by the state 
 of his health my next candidate would be Andrew Jackson. To 
 his questions in regard to the probability of success and to the 
 safety with which we might rely on the General's present political 
 opinions — ^his confidence on the latter point having been shaken 
 by the famous letter to Mr. Monroe^ and by the incidents of the 
 last election, — I answered that by adding the General's personal 
 popularity to the strength of the old Eepublican party which 
 still acted together and for the maintenance of which the Judge 
 and myself had been strenuous colaborers, we might, I thought, 
 be able to compete successfully with the power and patronage of 
 the Administration, then in the zenith of its prosperity; that 
 we had abundant evidence that the General was at an earlier period 
 well grounded . in the principles of our party, and that we must 
 trust to good fortune and to the effects of favorable associations 
 for the removal of the rust they had contracted, in his case, by 
 a protracted non-user and the prejudicial effects in that regard 
 of his military life. 
 
 1 Edwin Croswell to Van Buien, Apr. 3, 1826, In the Van Buren Papers. It is in- 
 dorsed : " Origin of the non-committal charge, M. V. B. 1842." 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 90. 
 
 2 Jackson's letter of Oct. 23, 1816, and a certified copy of Monroe's reply, Dec 14, to 
 this and the Jackson letter of Nov. 12 are In the Jackson Papers, Library of Congress. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 199 
 
 Pleased with these views the Judge asked my consent to speak 
 of them freely as coming from me, which was readily given, and 
 he entered upon their support with characteristic spirit. It was 
 at my suggestion that Gen. Jackson afterwards offered to Judge 
 Smith a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, which he declined. 
 
 From that period to^the election there never was a moment in 
 which my intention to oppose the reelection of Mr. Adams was not 
 universally known, notwithstanding which fact the Administration 
 pregses succeeded extensively in imposing the non-committal fic- 
 tion upon the credulity of their readers. I spent a few hours, not 
 long since, with Mr. Walsh, formerly Editor and Proprietor of 
 the National Register^ (adjournal politically opposed to me, pub- 
 lished in Philadelphia) and with his amiable family, at their resi- 
 dence, in Paris, and we all laughed heartily together at his allu- 
 sions to some of the absurd anecdotes which the party spirit of 
 that day had put in circulation on this point. Among many others 
 of equal pretensions to truth he related this: — a bet was offered 
 by one partisan to another that the latter could not put to me a 
 question on any subject to which he would receive a definitive an- 
 swer, which was accepted and the question asked was whether I 
 concurred in the general -opinion that the sun rose in the East ; my 
 answer having been that I presumed the fact was according to the 
 common impression, but, as I invariable slept until after sun-rise, 
 I could not speak from my own knowledge. Mr. Walsh heard this re- 
 ported by persons who Relieved it to he true: — a strong illustration 
 of the influence of a party press and of the fatuity of a blind party 
 spirit. 
 
 The acceptance by the President, in behalf of the United States, 
 of an invitation received from the American States of Spanish origin 
 to send a Minister to represent us at their proposed Congress at 
 Panama, was the first great measure of Mr. Adams's administration. 
 This extra-territorial action of the Executive branch of the Gov- 
 ernment, being without precedent in its history, contrary to the 
 scope and spirit of the Constitution and at variance with one of 
 the most prominent recommendations of the Father of his Country 
 in regard to our foreign policy, presented the first tangible point 
 for the opposition which had been anticipated and could not have 
 been avoided without an abandonment of cherished principles and 
 which there was in truth no disposition to avoid. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun had, to use his own words, "taken a perfectly neutral 
 position between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Adams," and there was not 
 a little curiosity to learn _ what his course would be towards the 
 
 » Tlie National Gazette and Literary Register, edited by Robert Walsh. 
 
200 AMEBlCAlf HlSlfOMCAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Administration after these developments of its vieWs. I called 
 upon him, at his residence in Georgetown, at the commencement of 
 the session and found him as decidedly hostile to the Panama Mis- 
 sion as I was myself. Although nothing to that effect was then 
 said there was also an obvious concurrence in opinion between us 
 that opposition to so prominent a ifteasure of the Administration 
 could not fail to lead to an ultimate union of efforts for its over- 
 throw. This followed and from that period to the election of Gen. 
 Jackson there was a general agreenient in action between us, except 
 in regard to the Tariff policy of which I have already spoken. , 
 
 The Panama Mission was a very imposing measure and well cal- 
 culated, on first impressions, to be very popular. An assemblage 
 of the free states of a Hemisphere by their representatives in one 
 Congress, to deliberate upon the most effectual means to protect 
 their own sovereignties, to advance the great cause of free govern- 
 ments and, thro' their instrumentality, the dignity and the happi- 
 ness of their people, in contrast with, and, in some degree, at least, 
 in antagonism to the so-called "Holy Alliance" of the absolute 
 Governments of another Hemisphere, assembled in another Con- 
 gress to maintain and promote their despotic sway over the minds 
 of men, was a scheme appareintly well planned to captivate republi- 
 can citizens. It seemed also well devised to soothe the public mind, 
 to lessen the irritation unexpectedly produced by angry discussions 
 during the recess growing out of the appointment of Mr. Clay and 
 the doctrines broached in the Inaugural Address, and to bury the 
 recollection of former discrepancies in the views of the leaders of 
 the Administration by presenting them to the Country as the cor- 
 dially united and enthusiastic advocates of a noble National under- 
 taking. Indeed, no project could have been better adapted to pro- 
 duce the latter result, for attempts to dazzle the public mind by 
 gala-day measures of that description formed the ruling passion 
 of Mr. Clay's political life to which he sacrificed bright prospects 
 that could doubtless have been easily realized by simpler means. 
 
 Yet it was not difficult to show that the scheme was ill-advised and 
 could not fail if carried out to cause incalculable evils to the Coun- 
 try. The first question was in regard to the point at which the assault 
 should be commenced — ^whether in the Senate, on the nomination of 
 the Ministers, or in the House qu the appropriation for their salaries. 
 Our greatest strength, in regard to talent as well as comparative 
 numbers being in the Senate, that body was selected as the principal 
 field of contest. The nomination of Ministers was referred to the 
 Committee on Foreign Affairs of which Nathaniel Macon was Chair- 
 man, who made an able report against the mission.^ Our objection 
 
 » Executive Proceedings • • • on • • ♦ the mission to the Congress at Pan- 
 ama, 1826, Jan. 16. S. Docs., IBtti Cong., 1st sess., No. 68^ p. 57. 
 
AtTTOBlOGftAtH'? OF MAHtClN VAN BtlREN. 201 
 
 being to the measure and not to the men nominated as Ministers, and 
 therefore wholly unprecedented, I thought it a case in which the 
 discussion should be public and introduced a resolution, which was 
 adopted, to that effect " unless in the opinion of the President, the 
 publication of documents, necessary to be referred to in debate, 
 would be prejudicial to existing negotiations." 
 
 Mr. Adams, on receiving a copy of the resolution, refused to give 
 the opinion respectfully asked by the Senate, not content with that, 
 he, in his return message, said he would leave it to the Senate itself, 
 (who were of course to a great extent ignorant of existing negotia- 
 tions) to decide " the question of an unexampled departure from its 
 own usages, and upon motives, of which, not being himself informed, 
 he ° did not feel himself competent to decide." This refusal, and the 
 unauthorized allusion to and virtual condemnation of our motives 
 gave great offense to the Senate, and was the first act of discourtesy 
 in a series of proceedings which produced unprecedented excitement 
 and ill-blood as well in the Senate as in the Country. A retaliatory 
 movement was proposed, but as the original resolution had been 
 introduced by me, our friends conceded to me, in a great degree, the 
 suggestion of any action to be adopted on our part. I was sensible 
 of the importance of the proposed opportunity to repel the censure 
 that was cast upon us for obstructing the passage of a measure repre- 
 sented by the Administration press to be eminently patriotic, but my 
 anxiety to avoid anything that might be construed as a factious 
 opposition was so strong as to induce me to prefer to waive it, which 
 was accordingly done. 
 
 The discussions occupied several weeks and became earnest and 
 sometimes violent. After unmistakable indications of effects pro- 
 duced by Governmental influence, the nominations were confirmed 
 by a vote of 24 to 20,* and the measure received the sanction of both 
 Houses of Congress, but it was undeniably thoroughly discredited 
 with the Country by the opposition it had received. The Ministers 
 went out but they found no Congress. Several of the Treaties among 
 the South American States authorizing it were not ratified by them, 
 nor were any other steps taken to carry the plan into effect. 
 
 This general abandonment of the grand enterprise by its putative 
 fathers, together with suspicious signs in the correspondence, satis- 
 fied me that altho' it had been apparently organized in South Amer- 
 
 "MS. II, p. 95. 
 
 ' With Van Buren voted Flndlay of Pennsylvania, Chandler and Holmes of Maine, 
 Woodbury of New Hampshire, Dlckerson of New Jersey, and Kane of Illinois, making 
 seven Northern and twelve Soathern senators. Against Van Buren were eight sena- 
 tors from Slave States, Barton of Missouri, Bouligny and Johnston of Louisiana, Cbam- 
 ' bers of Alabama, Clayton and Van Dyke of Delaware, Elchard M. Johnson of Kentucky 
 and Smith of Maryland. It was an incipient but a true party division. — Shepard, Martin 
 Van Buren, American Statesmen Series (Boston and New York, 1899), p. 131. 
 
202 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 ica, the inspiration which suggested it was of Washington origin. 
 Mr. Adams, in his next annual Message, sang a graceful requiem over 
 the lost project, accompanied by exculpatory observations to which, 
 as no danger of resurrection was apprehended, there was no reply. 
 A copy of a speech delivered by me on the subject will be found 
 in .^ 
 
 1 The pamphlet edition of Van Buren's speech, Washington City, Gales & Seaton, 1826, 
 41 pp. 8° la In the Van Buren Papers under date of March 14. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The proposition for the Mission to Panama was accompanied by 
 a measure not less obnoxious to public feeling and alike indicative 
 of great ignorance of the current of public sentiment on the part 
 of the President and his Secretary of State, or a recklessness in 
 encountering it in the prosecution of favorite schemes inconsistent 
 with the character of prudent statesmen. That which we have just 
 described was pressed upon the Coujitry in open disregard of a 
 familiar principle in our foreign policy, the observance of which 
 had been coeval with our Government and which had acquired a 
 permanent and favorable lodgment in the public mind. The measure 
 now referred to was the concession to Great Britain by treaty 
 stipulation of the Eight of Search to prevent the prosecution of 
 the slave trade under our flag, a pretension against which, when 
 attempted to be put in practice for the purpose of recovering British 
 seamen from our service, we had waged a war — the cause of which 
 was yet fresh in the recollection of the People, as well as the irri- 
 tations produced by it. 
 
 We opposed the treaty and defeated it by a decided vote.^ The 
 condition of the Country in its foreign and domestic 'relations was 
 so favorable at this time that with discreet men at the head of the 
 Government, and ordinary prudence in the conduct of its affairs, 
 there could not have been the slightest doubt of the success of the 
 Administration, but unfortunately, as well for the Country as for 
 themselves, neither Mr. Adams nor Mr. Clay were either discreet 
 by nature or instilled by experience with a proper appreciation of 
 the humble virtue of prudence in the direction of public business. 
 Munificently endowed with genius and talents, their passion for 
 brilliant effects, of which I have spoken as peculiar to Mr. Clay 
 but which was common to both, was not crowned with a degree 
 of success proportionate to the hazard of its indulgence. In the 
 career of the military leader this is often otherwise, but in the 
 administration of civil affairs statesmen of sober judgment and 
 
 •The Convention witli Great Britain was flnaliy disposed of by the Senate May 22, 
 1824. The votes on the various amendments are given In the Executive Journal of 
 the Senate (Washington, 1828) V. 3, pp. 380-387. As ratified, by a vote of 29 to 13," 
 the convention was well nigh worthless as n. means of suppressing the American slave 
 trade. For the final end of this negotiation see Clay's letter to Addlngton, Apr. 6, 1825, 
 in American State Papers, Foreign 5, No. 414, p. 783. 
 
 203 
 
204 AMEKICASr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 prudence though possessed of less shining talents are generally the 
 most prosperous. 
 
 Among other occurrences at the seat of Government during this 
 stirring period the duel between Mr. Clay and Mr. John Randolph 
 produced by a denunciation of the Administration on the floor of 
 the Senate, by the latter, as a " coalition between the puritan and 
 the blackleg " was one of the most exciting. In his " Thirty Years' 
 View," Colonel Benton has given an account — clever and impar- 
 tial — of this affair. The subject was frequently adverted to by 
 Mr. Randolph during our rides together and the details recited 
 in his peculiar way. He invariably admitted that laying out of 
 view the place where the offensive words were spoken and its im- 
 munities, which he said he had waived as far as he could, Mr. Clay 
 had incurred no blame in calling him to the field. On one occa- 
 sion he told me that the latter had been six years in bringing his 
 mind to that point, during which he had, on several occasions, fur- 
 nished him ground for such a step, but as he had always given 
 the offense in a way that left it optional with Mr. Clay to give 
 the matter that direction or to let it pass, he had taken the lat- 
 ter course. Perhaps no man ever lived more qualified to do such 
 a thing successfully than Randolph. He insisted that he at no 
 time intended to take Mr. Clay's life and assigned as a reason 
 his respect for Mrs. Clay and his unwillingness to make her unhappy, 
 but he admitted that, after certain occurrences, he had determined 
 to wound him in the leg — ^his failure to accomplish which design 
 he attributed to an anxiety to avoid the hfieepcm, to hit which he 
 regarded as murder! 
 
 Mr. Randolph's intemperate speeches during the whole of the 
 Panama discussion attracted a large share of the public attention, 
 and the Vice President was much censured by portions of the public 
 press for omitting to call him to order. Randolph justified himself 
 on the ground that a corrupt and tyranical administration could not 
 be overthrown without violence, and quoted in his defence the 
 text of scripture which says "the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth 
 violence and the violent take it by force." Mr. Calhoun held that 
 he did not possess the power to call a senator to order, as the 
 rules conferred that power on the members of the body only — 
 that he could not claim it by implication, and that as he was not 
 placed over the body by their own choice or responsible to them, he 
 ought not in so delicate a matter to act upon doubtful authority. 
 He therefore, very properly called upon the Senate to express its 
 ' opinion upon the subject, and to confer the power upon him by their 
 rules if they wished him to exercise it and if they concurred with 
 him in supposing that he did not already possess it. This led to 
 an elaborate discussion of the question and of the true construe- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 205 
 
 tion of the Constitution in regard to implied powers, in which I 
 
 tooli part and delivered a speech which will be found in .^ 
 
 Mr. Randolph was in every way a most extraordinary man, and 
 occupied wherever he went a large share of public attention. There 
 
 was not a session of Congress during his years service as a 
 
 member in which his sayings and doings did not contribute the 
 principal staple of the political gossip at Washington. This was 
 particularly the case at the commencement of Mr. Adams's ad- 
 ministration, when he appeared for the first time in the Senate 
 where his whole course was one of annoyance to his opponents and 
 of not a little uneasiness to his friends. He spoke day in and day 
 out, and sometimes for several successive days, upon matters and 
 things in general having political and personal bearings but not 
 always even directed to the business before the Senate — an abuse 
 in which others have since been largely participant, but in which 
 perhaps there has never been so great an offender. His speeches 
 attracted great attention from the severity of his invectives, the 
 piquancy of his sarcasms, the ° piercing intonation of his voice and 
 his peculiarly expressive gesticulation. He could launch imputa- 
 tions by a look, a shake of his long figure, or a shrug of his 
 shoulders, accompanied by a few otherwise commonplace words, 
 which it would require in others a long harangue to express. These 
 rare oratorical accomplishments were never suffered to grow rusty 
 for want of use, and he kept us in constant apprehension that he 
 would still further thia our ranks in the Senate, already some- 
 what weeded by Executive favours, by the character of the stimu- 
 lus with which he was in the habit of urging the sluggish zeal of 
 some of our brethren. He had for some time been desirous to take 
 iu' hand the case of John Holmes, of Maine, whose party fidelity 
 was doubted by his associates long before he quitted them, and 
 Randolph at length foimd a more justifiable ground for his assault 
 than he could have anticipated. Holmes had made a speech which 
 Randolph thought bore upon its face satisfactory evidence of being 
 designed to propitiate the Administration, and either in it, or in 
 some collateral remarks, had spoken of the Vice President and 
 himself as personal friends. Randolph, finding these remarks in 
 the papers, called the attention of the Senate to the subject, denied 
 the right of Mr. Holmes or any other person to define his personal 
 relations in delicate and guarded terms but in a way entirely 
 respectful to that Senator, and, as an excuse for not saying what 
 he now said when the remark was made, explained that he had 
 not heard it and presumed it must have been made whilst he was 
 
 1 See Holland's Life of Van Buren (Hartford, 1836) p. 279 for a long extract of this 
 speech and note to p. 184 " Substance of Mr. Van Buren's observations in the Senate." 
 • MS, II, p. 100. 
 
206 AMERICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 out of the Senate. Holmes, thrown off his guard by the courteous 
 manner in which Eandolph had excused his omission to notice the 
 circiynstance on the spot, not only insisted that Randolph was in 
 his seat, but that he heard the remarks to which he now took ex- 
 ception, and evinced a degree of pertinacity in doing so which 
 amounted to rudeness. From the moment that Eandolph under- 
 stood such to be the drift of Holmes' remarks, his face assumed 
 its sternest expression, and he sat stiffly in his chair with folded 
 arms, manifestly tortured with suppressed rage. On Holmes' re- 
 suming his seat, he rose and recapitulated, with a self possession 
 that surprised us, what had occurred — shewed the length he had 
 gone to satisfy the Senator from Maine that he had no cause of 
 complaint in the matter referred to and the persistence of that 
 Senator in an attempt to impeach his veracity. Having done this 
 in a cold and unimpassioned manner, his appearance and style 
 suddenly changed, and he charged Holmes with a premeditated 
 design to make a personal attack upon him as a peace offering to 
 the Administration, and a prelude to his political apostacy, and 
 proceeded in an assault the most severely personal that had per- 
 haps ever been heard within that chamber and seeming at the 
 moment to annihilate his antagonist. , 
 
 Altho' of course there were repeated cries of "Order! Order!" 
 there was no specific and responsible call, and, if there had been, 
 his words were so skillfully chosen and his peculiar gestures con- 
 tributed so largely to the conveyance of the most offensive imputa- 
 tions, that a Senator calling him to order would have found the 
 greatest difficulty in writing down, as the rule required, the disor- 
 derly words on which the motion could be founded. The Senate im- 
 mediately adjourned under great excitement. Randolph came to me 
 and insisted that I should go home and dine with him, and on our 
 way to his lodgings I remonstrated with him on his course in break- 
 ing down our party strength, admitted that Holmes had given him 
 a fair excuse for a reply of great severity, but not for an attack like 
 that he had made which would unavoidably drive him from our 
 ranks. " I deny that," he vehemently replied, " I have not driven 
 him away. He was already a deserter in his heart; if you examine 
 the body you will find that the, woimd is in the hachP^ 
 
 I could not at the time account for the respectful and mild char- 
 acter of his preliminary explanations to Holmes, as I laiew the state 
 of his feelings towards him, but was in the end satisfied that it was 
 a part of his design to make sure of his victim by first putting him 
 as far as possible in the wrong. This affair was the cause of an 
 extraordinary scene in the Senate a few days afterwards. 
 
 Mr. Randolph's speeches became more and more annoying to the 
 Administration and its friends, in and out of the Senate, and yet 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAIT BUEEN. 207 
 
 no one seemed willing to incur the responsibility of calling him 
 to order. I inferred from circumstances a design on the part of the 
 administration Senators to administer a corrective to Mr. Randolph 
 by severally quitting their seats when he was speaking to an extent 
 sufficient to leave the Senate without a quorum. This was practicable 
 as the call of the House, usual in the other branch of Congress, was 
 unluiown in our body. Having engaged one day to dine with my 
 friend Gen. Van Rensselaer at an hour earlier than the ordinary 
 adjournment of the Senate, I gave Randolph notice in the morning 
 of the necessity I should be under of leaving whilst he was speaking 
 and of my desire to avoid setting such an example on account of my 
 suspicion as to the game of our opponents. He promised to close his 
 speech in season, but did not. Whey my hour arrived I held up my 
 watch, and he pointed to the door. I left and the example was 
 quickly followed by the members of the opposition; in a very short 
 time the flag of the Senate was lowered and the body adjourned for 
 want of a quorum. This unusual proceeding having been once 
 adopted — was soon to a considerable extent, converted into a prac- 
 tice, to the great annoyance of Randolph whose vanity was wounded 
 by an apparent indifference to his speeches which he had seldom ex- 
 perienced and was little able to brook. The circumstance sensibly 
 increased the bitterness of his denunciations and finally led "to that 
 which caused the duel between himself and Mr. Clay whose im- 
 patient spirit could no longer endure the invectives which were 
 incessantly hurled at him by Randolph. 
 
 He [Randolph] visited Virginia soon after and whilst there became 
 satisfied that his chance for a reelection was far from favorable. 
 This increased the acerbity of his temper, and he returned to Wash- 
 ington with a determination to leave it for England almost immedi- 
 ately. He sent a message to me, on his arrival, asking me to call upon 
 him at his old quarters. Being engaged in the Senate, it was not in 
 my power to do so before the adjournment, of which I informed him 
 by a note, adding also that I should expect him to dine with me. 
 When I reached his lodgings I entered what I supposed to be his bed- 
 room, but which proved to be that of Mark Alexander, a member of 
 the House from Virginia. I found Randolph booted and spurred, 
 stretched at full length on his colleague's bed, and fast asleep, with 
 his letters and papers scattered about him. I was so much inter- 
 ested in the appearance of his tall and gaunt figure, extending be- 
 yond the foot of the bed, and in observing the striking resemblance 
 of his features to the Indian race, from which it was his pride to 
 claim descent, that some moments elapsed before I could make up 
 my mind to awaken him. When we reached my lodgings and found 
 that the members of the Diplomatic Corps were expected guests. 
 
208 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOH". 
 
 some of whom indeed had already arrived, he for a few moments 
 insisted on returning, but, as I had foreseen, he was easily induced 
 to abandon that idea, and I could not have afforded my company 
 a greater treat than was furnished by his presence. He took the 
 parole at once, and kept it till a late hour, talking upon a great 
 variety of subjects with more than his usual ability and with the 
 most entertaining raciness and originality. He began the meal with 
 calling for toast-water, pleading that wine was too strong for him, 
 but yielding to the excitement of conversation and the grateful con- 
 sciousness of appreciative listeners he gradually advanced through 
 wine and water to wine, brandy and water and, before he left, to 
 clear brandy. After the company retired he sat with me 'till long 
 after midnight describing the condition of things in Virginia, and 
 his reasons for apprehending his defeat at the Senatorial election. 
 Mr. Tyler, who had 'till that time always been in the Republican 
 ranks, would, he said, be brought forward as a Candidate or sup- 
 ported" by his enemies and his explanation of the causes which 
 would induce a suiEcient number of Republican members to vote 
 with them, brought into view the hostility which had at different 
 periods of his life existed between himself and Jefferson, Madison, 
 Monroe and others and of which he gave me graphic and very in- 
 teresting accounts. Having engaged no lodgings, in consequence of 
 a determination, as he declared, never again to "have any in that 
 corrupt hole" (as he called Washington), I sent my servant out to 
 find a bed for him and afterwards to conduct him to it. 
 
 On the following morning he appeared in the Senate, dressed with 
 unusual care and apparently in excellent spirits, having ordered his 
 carriage to be sent to the Capitol, with his luggage, at noon, to con- 
 vey him to Baltimore. Mr. Calhoun had, at his instance, appointed 
 him a member of the Committee on Rules and his object, in coming 
 to the Senate, was to report one or two very proper amendments to 
 the standing rules of the body. 
 
 Mr. Holmes had manifested more sensibility in regard to Ran- 
 dolph's attack upon him that was supposed to belong to his nature, 
 and his inflamed appearance after it, in the Senate excited the appre- 
 hensions of his friends in regard to his habits. His excitement on 
 the morning referred to was greater than usual and he carried a 
 huge cane which indicated that he meditated or expected a personal 
 attack. He took the floor immediately after Randolph resumed his 
 seat arid read from a paper a series of amendments of the Rules 
 which he proposed. These with scarcely an exception referred to 
 acts with which Randolph had been charged and which it was pro- 
 posed thereafter to prohibit. Among them was one declaring it a 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 105. 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 209 
 
 violation of order in a Senator to make personal references to gentle- 
 men who had been introduced on the floor of the Serfate by other 
 Senators. Mr. Eussell,^ of Boston, Editor of the Colvmhiom Centi- 
 nel, a newspaper which had made a reckless opposition to the 'War 
 of 1812, had been so introduced during the session, and Randolph 
 had attracted the attention of the body to him by a general and 
 seemingly not personal reference to a notorious feature in his polit- 
 ical career; it was at that occurrence that the proposed amendment 
 was aimed. 
 
 Immediately after Holmes finished the reading of his propositions, 
 Randolph asked Mr. Tazewell, his colleague, to take the clerk's seat, 
 and to write, as he dictated, a series of amendments to them " in the 
 form of instructions to the Committee," — designed as answers to 
 them by successive recriminations. Mr. Tazewell, one of the best 
 tempered men I ever knew, complied, and when the proposition 
 which I have particularized was reached, under the impression that 
 Eussell had been introduced by Holmes, Randolph dictated the dec- 
 laration, as an amendment, i;hat the " personal reference " which it 
 was now designed to stigmatize as disorderly was no more than a 
 suitable reproof of the Senator who was so wanting in a sense of 
 what was due to the dignity of the Senate and to his own character 
 as to introduce such a man within the Bar ! 
 
 At this point the affair received an unexpected complication. 
 Senator Lloyd of Massachusetts, a man of undoubted courage, who 
 felt no insurmountable scruples upon the subject of private com- 
 bat, and between whom and Randolph there had already occurred 
 some newspaper sparring, sprang to his feet the moment the offen- 
 sive words were uttered, announced himself as the Senator who 
 had introduced Russell, repelled with great vehemence every as- 
 sault upon that gentleman, whom he pronounced to be quite equal 
 in respectability to Randolph himself, and indignantly shaking his 
 closed hand at the latter, declared his readiness to give him satis- 
 faction there or elsewhere! Randolph, entirely taken by surprise, 
 sought an opportunity to explain, and disclaimed all hostile feelings 
 towards Lloyd ; but the latter could neither be appeased or silenced 
 and continued his minatory gestures and denunciations with un- 
 diminished vehemence. In this condition of things Mr. King, of 
 Alabama, called both the Senators to order, and Mr. Calhoun re- 
 quested him to reduce the objectionable words to writing, as re- 
 quired by the Rules. Sensible of the difficulty of committing to 
 paper expressions used in such a squabble, which was yet going 
 on, Mr. King declined to do so, and in the excitement of the moment 
 said abruptly, that he would not! Mr. Calhoun, anxious from 
 
 •Benjamin Bussell. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 14 
 
210 AMERICAN HISTORICAI, ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 what had passed, to do his whole duty when a case occurred within 
 the Eules, rbse from his seat and, pale with agitation, said " The 
 Chair orders the Senator from Alabama to reduce the words to 
 writing." The Senate at this moment presented a striking tableau — 
 Calhoun, King, Lloyd and Randolph on their feet, intensely ex- 
 cited, and every Senator present inclining from political and per- 
 sonal sympathy to take sides in the fray — ^when the last moved 
 deliberately from his place, which was on the extreme outer range 
 of seats, and passed in front of the Chair to the door, exclaiming 
 as he walked along, "I will have no more of this! I am off for 
 England! Good bye, Tazewell! Good bye, Van Buren! They are 
 all against me! They are all against me Tazewell, in Virginia 
 too ! " — and still uttering ttiese words the doors of the Senate closed 
 behind Mm. 
 
 The Vice President and Messrs. Lloyd and King resmned their 
 seats: Mr. Tazewell returned to his place leaving his unfinished 
 papers on the Clerk's desk and for a little while nothing was said 
 or done. A sense of relief from the excitement in which Randolph 
 lived and moved and had his being, as his native element, prevailed, 
 and the Senate after a pause took up the order of the day without, 
 either then or at any future time, giving further attention to the 
 proposed amendments.* 
 
 ■ This account of these proceedings is according to my best recollection of them, which 
 is unusually fresh, as the subject Is one to which my attention has been frequently 
 directed, and of which I have often spoken. Mr. Tazewell's officiating as Secretary is 
 entirely lelt out in the published proceedings, a point in which 1 know I cannot be mis- 
 taken, and a form given to the whole proceedings in some respects more consistent with 
 the dignity of the body, about which the gentlemen charged with the publication of the 
 details were always, much to their credit, very solicitous. Some allowance is certainly 
 due to that consideration, in judging of the partial, and not very important, differences 
 between their account and mine, which I cannot but think conveys with substantial 
 accuracy their true character. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 An act for the relief of the oiRcers of the Army of the Revolution 
 in relation to their half -pay became a law about this time, and upon 
 its passage I delivered the speech which will be found in ^ 
 
 Its merits will doubtless be found to fall below the reputation it 
 acquired, yet I derived as much satisfaction from the effect it was 
 believed to have produced as from anything in my legislative expe- 
 rience. The Bill had been long under discussion, and the Senate 
 had adjourned on the previous day on my motion, which constituted 
 a notice according to usage that it was my intention to address the 
 Senate upon the subject. Before the hour arrived for taking up the 
 order of the day my friends pressed me not to speak as the Senate 
 had been sufficiently canvassed to make the defeat of the Bill cer- 
 tain. Louis McLane of Delaware, a member of the Senate, and a 
 son of one of the officers for whose relief it was the object of the 
 measure to provide, backed this advice so earnestly that I was in- 
 duced to yield to it. When the Bill was announced the Vice Presi- 
 dent turned his eyes towards my seat and seeing no intention on my 
 part, or on that of any other Senator to speak, rose and stated that 
 the question would be on final passage and was in the act of taking 
 the sense of the Senate upon it when two ladies, friends of mine, 
 who had come to the .Senate to hear me, shook their fans at me in 
 token of their disappointment and I rose from my seat intending to 
 go to them with an apology. The Vice President assuming that I 
 rose to speak announced "the Senator for New York" and, suddenly 
 changing my mind, I proceeded to address the Senate, at length, in 
 favor of the Bill. 
 
 When I had concluded. Gov. Branch,^ of North Carolina, an 
 impulsive but always honest man, who had been violently opposed to 
 the proposed" measure, moved to adjourn the question saying that 
 views of the subject had been presented which were new and upon 
 which he desired an apportunity to reflect. His colleague, the 
 venerable Macon, scouted the idea of an adjournment, said that 
 a good speech had undoubtedly been made, but that lawyers knew 
 how to make good speeches on either side of any question, and 
 hoped that the Senate would without further debate proceed to the 
 vote and reject the Bill. 
 
 "Gales and Seaton's Register of Debates, under date of Jan. 28, 1828, vol. 4, pt. 1, 
 167-182. 
 2 John Branch. 
 ° MS. II, p. 110, 
 
 2Jl 
 
212 AMERICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'. 
 
 Gov. Branch replied with feeling that his course in regard to it 
 was well known, that he had several times spoken against it, but that 
 he had no other feeling in the matter than a desire to do right and 
 that unless the views which had now been taken of the subject were 
 satisfactorily refuted, he would, if driven to the vote, support the 
 Bill. This declaration produced an adjournment. It was soon dis- 
 covered that others had also given way and a proposition was sub- 
 mitted to us the next morning that if we would accept certain amend- 
 ments, of a character not very o'bjectionable, a sufficient number 
 would change their votes to secure a majority. We consented and 
 the Bill became a law^ — gladdening the hearts of many yet sur- 
 viving soldiers of the Revolution and of the descendants of their 
 departed brothers-in-arms, by the appropriation of large sums of 
 money in satisfaction of their just claims. 
 
 Imprisonment for debt, the rigour of which had been greatly 
 relaxed by state laws, being still in force against debtors to the 
 United States, attracted a considerable portion of the attention of 
 the Congress. My own efforts for its abolition commenced in the 
 State Legislature at an early period of my connection with that 
 body and were continued in the Senate of the United States in con- 
 junction with Col. Richard M. Johnson, whose truly philanthropic 
 feelings made him an enthusiast in the cause. 
 
 My plan from the beginning was : 
 
 1st To provide for the most searching inquiries into the prop- 
 erty of the debtor, however invested, and to arm the creditor with 
 all necessary facilities to secure the application of it to the pay- 
 ment of his debts ; and 
 
 2d To punish fraudulent concealments as crimes, by confinement, 
 upon executions, to the walls of the prison. 
 
 Those facilities being secured to the creditor, I regarded every 
 other lien on the body of his debtor as alike inhuman and immoral, 
 and advocated a repeal of the law by which it was authorized. 
 The subsequent adoption of these views of the subject and the 
 extent to which a practice, that had become, by inflicting punish- 
 ment upon misfortune, the opprobrium of the age, has accordingly 
 been abrogated, is highly honorable to the country. Although a 
 professional man, not wanting in esprit du corps, I yet must admit 
 that this great reform is perhaps indebted for its success less to 
 our lawyers and merchants than to almost any other clkss. I gener- 
 ally found them the most obdurate and inflexible in their adherence 
 to the old system arising rather from the force of habit than from 
 less humane or less liberal dispositions. The merchant had been 
 educated to look upon the security founded on the fear of imprison- 
 
 » Approved Feb. 12, 1828. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 213 
 
 ment as a vital element in a well regulated credit system, and the 
 lawyer had been blinded to the immorality of such liens by the long 
 and frequent enforcement of them under the sanction and with the 
 cooperation of the Courts. But all such ideas and arguments have 
 been exploded by the steady progress of liberal opinions, and there 
 are none now who would more cordially resist the restoration of • 
 imprisonment for debt, in the absence of fraud, than those classes. 
 So certain and so generous indeed is now the indulgence of the 
 American Merchant to his unfortunate debtor as to place him in 
 that respect in a more creditable position than is occupied by his 
 mercantile cotemporaries in any part of the world. 
 
 The subject of a Bankrupt Law was also seriously agitated in 
 the Senate whilst I was a member of that body. The abuses prac- 
 tised under the law of 1800 not only led to its speedy repeal but 
 attracted a degree of odium to the system itself which prevented 
 its reenactment until 184^; a spasmodic effort was then made to 
 close up the appalling chasm which had been made in the business 
 relations of the Country through the instrumentality of a Bankrupt 
 law, which, so soon as it had effected a sort of general jail delivery, 
 was, like its predecessor, sent to an early and ignominious grave. 
 
 During that long interval there had been several unsuccessful 
 attempts to revive the system. Mr. Hayne,^ of South Carolina, who 
 had moved in the matter previously, introduced, upon leave, at the 
 commencement of the session of 1827 "A Bill, to establish a uni- 
 form system of Bankruptcy throughout the United States." It 
 contained the usual provisions applicable to merchants and traders, 
 and also a section (the 93d) extending to all classes, whether traders 
 or not, upon the principle of an Insolvent law, and was referred 
 to a select committee composed of Messrs. Hayne, Berrien, Silsbee, 
 Smith of Maryland, Johnson of Kentucky, Sandford^ and myself. 
 
 The proceedings of this Committee and the action of the Senate 
 upon them have been kept fresh in my recollection by the striking 
 exhibitions they afforded of the working of that spirit of rivalry 
 so common to political life and so influential in the business of 
 legislation. The leading and most active friends of the proposed 
 Bill were Col. Hayne, the Chairman of the Committee, and Judge 
 Berrien,' of Georgia. They were co-adjutors in politics and among 
 the foremost in organising and forwarding the Party then in course 
 of development which had for its objects the overthrow of the 
 existing Administration and the election of Gen. Jackson. Col. 
 Hayne possessed a lively imagination and an intelligent and dis- 
 
 1 Robert Y. Hayne. 
 
 ' Nathaniel Sllsbee of Massachusetts ; Samuel Smith, Richard M. Johnson, and Nathan 
 Sandford, of New York. 
 'John Macpherson Berrien. 
 
214 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 criminating mind. Judge Berrien was not less ^highly favored in 
 both respects, and had besides, acquired a greater wariness in debate 
 by a long and more busy professional life. They were both am- 
 bitious and looked forward, as they had a right to do, to high rank 
 in the party of which they were members. 
 
 When called upon in the Commitee for my opinion of the Bill, 
 I declared myself ready to vote for a Bankrupt law proper, appli- 
 cable to merchants and traders, but opposed to the ninety-third 
 section as unauthorized by the Constitution and in every respect 
 inexpedient. I was prepared to assign the reasons which had 
 brought my mind to those conclusions but was prevented from doing 
 so by finding no disposition such as I had anticipated, on the part 
 of the leading supporters of the measure in its original shape, to 
 make me a convert to their opinions. The sense of the Committee 
 was at once taken and a majority declared in favor of the whole 
 Bill. Differences of opinion in regard to the disputed section were 
 regarded with indulgence as results which had been expected, and 
 dissentients were referred to the Senate Chamber for the explana- 
 tion and vindication of their views. 
 
 I was certainly somewhat piqued at this course but having wit- 
 nessed similar proceedings among political friends when acting upon 
 subjects supposed to be of great interest in the public mind I de- 
 termined to be no further influenced by it than to give the Bill a 
 more thorough examination after stating more distinctly to the 
 committee my intention to " oppose it if the objectionable clause 
 was retained. I went to the Senate intending to confine myself 
 to a simple and brief statement of the ground I occupied, notwith- 
 standing that I had, as I believed, made myself master of the sub- 
 ject and notwithstanding the feelings produced by my construc- 
 tion of the course pursued in the committee. I came to this con- 
 clusion because my support even of the constitutional parts of the 
 Bill was little more than an acquiescence in the opinions and wishes 
 of my friends — ^my own impressions being then tis they have been 
 since that the frauds inseparable from the execution of a national 
 bankrupt system are likely to outweigh its advantages and I could 
 therefore feel no great solicitude for its passage. Besides I feared 
 that I could not present the encroachment of the ninety-third sec- 
 tion upon a state sovereignty in its details and in the proportions 
 which the subject allowed without mortifying the pride of my 
 southern friends by holding them up to their constituents as un- 
 faithful to a principle which was the comer stone of our Party and 
 particularly so regarded in the states they represented. 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 115. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 215 
 
 A motion was made by Gov. Branch to strike out the 93d section, 
 and upon this and other motions a debate ensued which occupied the 
 Senate for more than a week. When the question was about to be 
 taken I made the brief statement I contemplated, and which ap- 
 pears in the Congressional Debates. The motion failed, and the 
 section was retained by a vote which indicated the passage of the 
 whole. Bill, but a motion to reconsider was made the next morning 
 by Senator Barton of Missouri, who had upon more reflection 
 changed his opinion and was now against the section. On this mo- 
 tion the debate was renewed embracing the whole subject and in 
 the course of it the principles I had briefly advanced were reviewed 
 to^ an extent that made it my duty to sustain them. I thereupon 
 delivered a speech of considerable length which was not published 
 for the reasons assigned by Gales & Seaton in their volume of the 
 debates of that session, but which I have always regarded as the 
 most successful of my senatorial efforts.^ Whatever may have been 
 its merits, or its lack of them, there was no difference of opinion 
 as to its effects upon the disposition of the question. It placed the 
 provisions of the ninety-third section in lights that had not before 
 occurred to many of those who sustained it and made them anxious 
 to get rid of it without an immediate change of votes. They be- 
 came in consequence disaffected to the Bill, and, although the vote 
 on the section was substantially the same as before, the whole Bill 
 was rejected by a vote of 25 to 15, On motion of Col. Hayne it 
 was recommitted to the select Committee with instructions to strike 
 out the obnoxious section, and in that form reported to the Senate 
 where protracted efforts were made for its passage, but without 
 success. 
 
 Upon the conclusion of my speech the Senate adjourned and 
 before I had left my seat Messrs. Hayne and Berrien approached 
 me with vehement complaints of the course things had taken and 
 of my agency in producing it. I proposed to them to join me in 
 the carriage and to talk the matter over on our way to our lodgings. 
 Our conversation was of that eager and earnest character usual to 
 Southern men when highly excited. Judge Berrien being asked 
 to specify the ground of his complaint said that I had taken them 
 by surprise — ^not having given them reason to expect that I would 
 oppose the ninety-third section in debate altho' I had disapproved 
 of it. Col. Hayne, however, without waiting for my reply, ex- 
 
 1 Van Buren spoke on the biU on Jan. 23, 25, 26, and 27 and again on Feb. 1, 1827. 
 The surviving portions of these speeches are In Gales and Seaton's Register of Debates, 
 vol. 3, 82, 104, 119, 121, 160 and 226. The principal speech was delivered on Jan. 27 
 and under that date Gales and Seaton (3, 160) explain that this and Van Buren's pre- 
 ceding speeches are not reported because their reports, forwarded to Van Buren for 
 revision, were mislaid by him. V.an Buren's auto-notes for his speech are in the Van 
 Buren Papers under date of Jan. 23, 1827. 
 
216 Al^EElCAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATIOif. 
 
 claimed that he felt bound to admit on the contrary that I had 
 given them distinct notice that I would make active opposition to 
 the Bill if that section was retained: — ^"But what I complained 
 of " said he, " is that Mr. Van Buren did not state his objections, 
 ^hich now appear to have been of so grave a character, that he 
 did not make an effort tp convince us of their importance and give 
 us such information upon the subject that we might have been 
 prepared either to admit their weight or to rebut them." 
 
 I at once admitted that this complaint would have been well 
 founded had not circumstances occurred which excused me from 
 doing what he suggested, and informed them that I attended the 
 Committee intending to give them a candid account of the [my] 
 reasons but their attitude compelled me to think that they did not 
 desire me to do it. We could not agree entirely as to all the facts 
 on which my opinion was founded, but my statement evidently modi- 
 fied their complaints. In the subsequent discussions Col. Hayne 
 made no further attempt to sustain the ninety-third section nor did 
 Judge Berrien make material reference to it otherwise than to repel 
 as unfounded the charge he attributed to me of a want of proper 
 respect on his part for state rights. 
 
 Although the Judge and myself were afterwards members of Gen. 
 Jackson's Cabinet and our personal relations were always respect- 
 ful they were never confidential nor particularly cordial. From my 
 first acquaintance with him I felt that the cultivation and mainten- 
 ance of such an intercourse with him would be impracticable, a 
 sentiment which surprised me because it was inconsistent with the 
 general current of my disposition and indeed then for the first time 
 entertained. I refer to the fact only on account of its singularity 
 and not in a spirit of complaint, as the fault, if any existed, may as 
 likely have been with myself as with him. 
 
 Col. Hayne I always regarded as a fair and generous hearted man. 
 His course towards me on the question of my nomination as Minister 
 to England, unjust as it was, did not change this opinion. I found 
 no difficulty in attributing it to other influences than the unbiased 
 dictates of his own heart. He was an improving man and if his 
 life had been spared would doubtless have risen to still higher dis- 
 tinction, at least in his own state. He possessed a tolerably good 
 opinion of his own capacity, but whatever may have been the degree 
 of this estimate of himself it was not sufficient to blind his eyes to 
 what was passing about him. The Senate was at that time com- 
 posed of much older men that at present, who were at least not 
 less able. One consequence of their long experience in public life 
 was that they spoke less for effect and sometimes discussed questions 
 of considerable importance with seeming carelessness and compara- 
 
' AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 217 
 
 tive feebleness. Newly appointed Senators often spent portions of 
 the session previous to the 4th of March on which they were entitled 
 to take their seats at Washington and much of the time in the Senate 
 Chamber preparatory to becoming actors themselves, and I seldom 
 failed to discover in the faces of the younger men of this class a 
 disappointment in the character and proceedings of the body to 
 which they had been chosen ; a feeling which frequently inspired them 
 with a degree of confidence and self-sufficiency on their first appear- 
 ance which the Senate always understood and seldom omitted to 
 correct in a way alike efficacious and decorous. Col. Hayne was a 
 marked subject of this feeling as he was also of the appliances de- 
 signed to remove it. He entered at once into the debates and without 
 the slightest embarrassment spoke fluently, intelligibly, sometimes 
 forcibly but often without the slightest effect. Whilst he was him- 
 self treated with proper respect, motions, arguments and opinions 
 which he deemed very conclusive, were sometimes disposed of in a 
 summary and unceremonious way not [at] all consistent with the 
 weight to ° which he deemed them entitled. In short, altho' no one 
 appeared to be specially disposed to thwart him there was an in- 
 visible but continual filling of his pockets with lead by which his 
 career was seriously obstructed. His disappointment was always 
 seen in his expressive countenance and once to my knowledge spoken 
 out. No one informed him of the cause, but he did not fail to dis- 
 cover it himself, or to take promptly the steps to remedy the evil. 
 From originating propositions himself he became obviously desirous 
 to follow the lead of others — ^instead of the usual confident and ex- 
 cathedra way of advancing his opinions they were now expressed 
 with diffidence in moderate terms with well conceived expressions of 
 deference to those of the elder and more experienced members of 
 the Senate. The change was observed and appreciated. He had not 
 only thereafter no more reason than any other member of the Senate 
 to complain of its want of consideration for what he said or did, 
 but he contracted a habit of acting and speaking in the body which 
 was of great value to him there and would have been equally useful 
 to him in any after stage of public life. 
 
 The revulsion in trade and business of every description in 1837 
 produced a clamor for a revival of the Bankrupt system from large 
 portions of the people who had ruined themselves by their own 
 improvidence. Among the many questions put to me by my op- 
 ponents in the canvass of 1840 — numerous enough to fill a volume — 
 and answered notwithstanding the silence in which by their advice 
 their own candidate was shrouded, ther© were several calling for 
 my opinion upon that subject. I took in my replies the same 
 
 • MS. II, p. 120, 
 
218 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 ground that I occupied on the occasion of which I have been speak- 
 ing and in so doing was not unaware qf the costly sacrifice I made 
 of votes which I would otherwise have received. 
 
 The subject of the Judicial system of the United States and its 
 improvement was also elaborately discussed at this session. The 
 increase of the number of states and the inability of the Judges 
 to do equal justice to all made some alteration in the existing or- 
 ganization of the courts a matter of high necessity. Several plans 
 were considered one of which I will notice here because I think 
 it involves a principle of great importance and because after re- 
 peated ineffectual efforts for its establishment it seems yet to have 
 supporters in and out of Congress and will in all probability be 
 again proposed. This arrangement separates the Justices of the 
 Supreme Court from the performance of circuit duties and de- 
 volves them upon circuit Judges, to be appointed for that purpose, 
 or upon the district Judges. 
 
 Although the attempt to require by law that the Judges of the 
 Supreme Court in the event of the establishment of such a system, 
 should reside at the seat of Government has not to my knowledge 
 been actually made yet its propriety has been sustained in Con- 
 gressional discussions and it is moreover generally conceded that 
 that consequence would naturally follow without legal require- 
 ment. The struggle for the accomplishment of this object, seldom 
 avowed but always meant, may be traced through our legislative 
 history for more than half a century. The Act of 1789, first or- 
 ganizing the Judicial system of the United States, authorized the 
 Judges to make temporary allotments of the Circuits among them- 
 selves, but made no provision in respect to their places of residence. 
 So the law remained until the celebrated Act of 1801, passed at 
 the close of the administration of the elder Adams, which provided 
 for an entire reorganization of the system. It converted the Su- 
 preme Court into a Court of Appeals, relieved its Judges from 
 Circuit duties and directed the appointment of nineteen Circuit 
 Judges for their performance. 
 
 The appointment of so large a number of officers for life by an 
 administration from which the People had already withdrawn their 
 confidence, and the extension of the Judiciary so far beyond the 
 wants of the public service, aided by the extraordinary excitement 
 of the period, drew down upon that Act and its authors the greatest 
 public odium. The incoming administration of Mr. Jefferson pro- 
 cured the repeal of the law, the abolition of the offices of the new 
 Judges, and the substantial reestablishment of the old system. The 
 talents of the federal party then most conspicuous, were employed 
 in brilliant but vain efforts to resist these measures. Their enactment 
 
AXJTOBIOGKAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BXJREN. 219 
 
 was denounced as a violation of the Constitution and was held up to 
 the People, in the forum and in the press, as the first fruits of vic- 
 torious jacobinism. But these exertions were unavailing. The sys- 
 tem then in substance restored has ever since prevailed and still 
 exists because it is the best of which the subject is susceptible. 
 
 But one material alteration of the former system was made, and 
 that was upon the point to which I have referred. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson and his associates in the Government saw, as they 
 believed, in the bold measure of their retiring opponents the extent 
 to which the latter counted upon the Judicial power as a political 
 engine, and they saw in the Judiciary the only portion of our politi- 
 cal system that was virtually irresponsible to the People. They 
 knew that the possessors of such a power must in the sequel by the 
 workings of the htiman heart and the irresistible law of human na- 
 ture be hostile to the principles upon which the Government should 
 be conducted and by which its Republican spirit could be alone up- 
 held. Although the law they were about to repeal did not require 
 the Judges to reside at the seat of Government, they could not doubt 
 that such would be the effect and was probably the design of its pro- 
 visions, of which they foresaw the evil political consequences, and 
 they applied the only remedy within their reach in providing by law 
 that the Judges should reside within their respective circuits. The 
 only exception of this rule was in relation to the state of Virginia, 
 That state had two judges on the Bench, Chief Justice Marshall and 
 Justice Washington. In deference to the Father of his Country the 
 case of Judge Washington was excepted from the otherwise general 
 provision, and he was not withdrawn from Mount Vernon. Seven 
 years afterwards when the appointment of an additional Judge 
 became necessary for Ohio the same provision was adopted and has 
 been preserved in every subsequent law by which the system had been 
 extended to meet the growing exigencies of the service. 
 
 But it has not been preserved without a struggle. On the occa- 
 sion of the proposed appointment of three new Judges, during the 
 administration of the younger Adams, the adoption of a clause com- 
 pelling them to reside in their respective circuits was one of two 
 questions upon which the Houses of Congress differed and through 
 their non-concurrence in which the Bill was lost. The proposition 
 of the House of Representatives was reported and sustained by Mr. 
 Webster, and that of the Sena.te by myself. Portions of my obser- 
 vations at the time upon the subject will be found' in .^ 
 
 It will be perceived by the remarks here referred to that I have 
 subsequently changed my opinion in regard to the proper tenure of 
 
 1 Van Buren's entire speech, which was delivered Apr. 7, 1826, Is in Gales and Seaton's 
 Register of Debates, vol. 2, pt. 1, 410-423. 
 
220 AMERICAN- HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Judicial officers. Some of the reasons for this change are elsewhere 
 stated. It was founded on observation and reflection and without 
 prejudice. The tide of public opinion on the subjects of the juris- 
 diction of the Federal courts and the term for which their Judges 
 should hold their offices " has had its ebbs and floods, and it is my 
 firm belief that the time is not far distant when these questions will 
 be more seriously agitated. 
 
 The future fortunes of Mr. Clay became dependent in a very great 
 degree upon the success of Mr. Adams. This consideration added to 
 his views of the public interest, enlisted all his faculties in the 
 struggle. The contest between Mr. Adams and Gen. Jackson, who 
 was with great unanimity selected as the republican candidate, was 
 an arduous one, but was not, after the lapse of a year, considered of 
 doubtful result on our side. The common rally of the old Repub- 
 licans in favor of the GrBneral caused many Federalists, who had 
 supported him in the last trial, to leave him now, and with the 
 exception of a few prominent men in different states the masses of 
 that party went cordially for Mr. Adams. But a zealous union be- 
 tween that portion of the republican party who, adhering to its 
 usages, had shown themselves willing to sacrifice personal prefer- 
 ences to its harmony, the numerous supporters of Gen. Jackson in 
 the preceding election who constituted the majority in several of 
 the states, and the friends of Mr. Calhoun, who controlled South 
 Carolina and were formidable in many other states, encouraged by 
 the tried popularity of their candidate, and strengthened by the mis- 
 management of the administration was too powerful to be resisted, 
 and Jackson and Calhoun were elected to the offices of President 
 and Vice President by large majorities. 
 
 The same fall my friends called on me to stand as their candi- 
 date for Governor of New York with a degree of unanimity and 
 earnestness that did not admit of a refusal, and I was elected by 
 a plurality of more than 30,000 over my quondam friend Smith 
 Thompson, who was run for the office without resigning his seat on 
 the bench of the Supreme Court. The anti-masonic excitement, 
 which is too weU understood to require explanation, made its first 
 political demonstration at this election. The criminal transactions ^ 
 which produced it were perpetrated in the midst of a district of 
 country in the Western part of the state which since the War of 
 1812 had been strongly on the republican side in party politics, 
 and owing to this circumstance and to the fact that dislike of 
 secret societies had always formed a more marked feature of our 
 creed, the sincere converts to the new party were principally drawn 
 from our ranks. The votes given for Mr. Southwick, the anti- 
 
 ° MS. II, p. 125. 
 
 * Tbe abduction and probable murder of William Morgan in. the f aU of 1826. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREN. 221 
 
 masonic candidate for Governor, exceeding in number the majority 
 by which I was elected over Judge Thompson, were almost exclu- 
 sively given in this region and at least two-thirds of them taken 
 from our side. 
 
 I entered upon the duties of the office of Governor early in 
 January, and sent a Message to the Legislature which convened 
 at the same time. I received soon after a letter from John Ran- 
 dolph communicating his own and Nathaniel Macon's congratula- 
 tions upon the character of that paper. Few men were better in- 
 structed in the principles of the republican party than Mr. Ran- 
 dolph and there was not one on whose good opinion I placed a 
 higher value than on that of the venerable Macon. 
 
 I held the office of Governor only ^ days and during that 
 
 short period succeeded in obtaining the action of the Legislature on 
 three subjects in which I felt great interest. These consisted of 
 adequate measures, first, to protect the public and more particularly 
 the laboring classes, who were most concerned in a sound currency 
 because they were the most dependent upon it and the least able to 
 detect what was otherwise, from losses through bank failure ; second, 
 to prevent as far as possible the use of money at the elections, and 
 t/idrd to abolish a particular monopoly^ and thereby to relieve a 
 valuable portion of the business of the community from unneces- 
 sary and therefore injurious interference on the part of Government. 
 
 Of my consistent opposition to the multiplication of banks and 
 my readiness to suppress and punish the frauds they have com- 
 mitted on the public I have before spoken. I think in these respects 
 the record will not produce the evidence of any man having gone 
 beyond me, be the merit great or small. Thoroughly satisfied of the 
 hopelessness of the task of putting a stop to the improper increase 
 of banks I turned my attention to the consideration of the most 
 effective measures to protect the most helpless against losses by their 
 failures. Joshua Forman, of Onondaga county, a plain but prac- 
 tical and far-seeing man, apprised of my general views in the mat- 
 ter, submitted for my consideration a plan for the accomplishment 
 of my object of which I thought favorably and which contained in 
 a rough state many of the features of the Safety Fund System which 
 was finally adopted.^ I opened communications with those whom I 
 regarded as the most competent and trustworthy bankers of New 
 York and Albany and submitted to them the project of Mr. For- 
 man with my own views of the subject, and after full discussion we 
 
 1 Prom Jan. 1, 1829, to Mar. 12, 43 days. 
 
 'The bank monopoly, created by the practice of the State accepting a money bonus 
 for a bank charter. 
 = Forman's letter dated Jan. 24, 1829, is to the Van Buren Papers. 
 
222 AMERICAIir HISTOEICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 settled upon the plan ultimately submitted to and adopted by the 
 Legislature. Having an abiding faith in the wisdom and efficacy 
 of the system, if honestly administered, I have^requested my friend, 
 Major Flagg,^ who as Comptroller of the State had much to do 
 with its administration, and in whose statements all who knew him 
 will confide, to give me a brief statement of its workings through- 
 out. His reply will be found 
 
 The law which I assisted in framing to restrain the use of money 
 in elections is still, I believe, on the statute books, and no one can 
 doubt its sufficiency if the provisions were fairly executed. I exerted 
 myself to the uttermost before I left Albany and afterwards from 
 Washington, by letters to induce my political friends to take a strong 
 stand in its support at the first election after its passage urging 
 upon them considerations founded on the unprincipled character 
 of the practices it was intended to suppress, the special obligation 
 upon them to abstain from and resist such practices as claiming a 
 purer political faith than their opponents and finally the inferior 
 motive of expediency. I assured them that experience had satis- 
 factorily established the fact that as to the two great parties which 
 divided the country the spontaneous feelings of a large majority 
 of the People were on our side ; that whenever we were defeated the 
 result could generally be traced to specific and extraneous causes; 
 that with this truth before our eyes nothing could be more unwise 
 in us than to tolerate practices which exerted an influence upon the 
 elections in utter disregard of the conduct or principles of the re- 
 spective parties or of the unbiased inclinations of the People; that 
 in the use of money the struggle was altogether unequal — the banks, 
 incorporated companies of all descriptions and the monied interest 
 being generally against them and able to raise more dollars than they 
 could cents and that whilst they paid out their driblets their adver- 
 saries, emboldened by their participation, would carry all before 
 them by the lavish expenditure of thousands. ■ 
 
 I urged them in view of these and other similar considerations 
 to forbear the use of money themselves, to appoint at their town 
 meetings a committee whose duty it should be to attend the polls 
 and to institute prosecution in every case where they had reason 
 to believe that the law had been violated. But my efforts were un- 
 availing. Not a single committee was appointed or any efforts to 
 my knowledge made to carry the law into effect. It has stood ° 
 as a dead letter on the statute book ever since. Excuses were given 
 by some of my friends that its provisions were too stringent and 
 that they could not carry an election without violating some of 
 
 ' Azarlali Cutting Flagg. His statement is missing from ttie Van Buren Papers, 
 " MS. II, p. 130. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 223 
 
 * 
 
 them. Partisans have since waded through seas of corruption in 
 the profligate use of money in elections — ^neither side has been 
 free of offense although nine tenths of the effects produced have 
 without doubt enured to the benefit of our opponents. 
 
 I have ever advocated the abolition of patronage that was not 
 acquired for the despatch of public business and limiting the in- 
 terference of the Government in the business concerns of the People 
 to cases of actual necessity, and [have been] an enemy to monopoly 
 in any form. Our state being eminently commercial a large and very 
 valuable portion of its trade was carried on through the medium of 
 sales by auction. The exclusive right of making such sales had, from 
 the commencement of the Government, been conferred on officers 
 called auctioneers, appointed and commissioned like the other officers 
 of the Government. Appointments of this nature were like others 
 usually given by both parties to l^eir political supporters, but as 
 meritorious politicians are neither necessarily or even usually good 
 men of business or possessed of the means required to carry on 
 business to advantage, they fell into the habit of transferring their 
 official rights to those who were more fortunate in those respects 
 for a share of the profits. A species of official brokerage was thus 
 kept on foot and sanctioned from the necessity of the case discredit- 
 able to the administration of "public affairs. 
 
 Looking upon the creation of these offices as an extension of pat- 
 ronage by Government to be a case where it was neither necessary 
 nor advantageous, and upon the ^exclusive privileges attached to 
 them as an injurious monopoly, and satisfied that the business would 
 be better attended to when left to those who had no other claims 
 to be employed than those which arose from established character 
 and proved capacity I recommended to the Legislature to abolish 
 the offices and to throw the business open to public competition. 
 This was promptly done, and the results have satisfactorily vindi- 
 cated the wisdom of the policy. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 °I received a letter from Gen. Jackson, soon after his arrival 
 at Washington, offering me the place of Secretary of State of the 
 United States ^ — a wholly unsolicited step. I had expressed no desire 
 to receive that or any other appointment at his hands, either to 
 him or to any other person and I have every reason to believe that 
 no advances to that end were ever made on the part of my personal 
 friends. He said in a published letter : " I called him [Mr. V. B.] to 
 the Department of State influenced by the general wish and expecta- 
 tion of the republican party throughout. the Union." This position, 
 like every other office or nomination save one, bestowed upon me 
 in the course of my long public life, came to me without interference 
 on my part, direct or indirect, and in the execution of the well under- 
 stood wish of the great majority of the political party of which I 
 was a member. My election to the New York State Senate, the first 
 elective office I ever held, was the exception referred to. The cir- 
 cumstances under which I then felt myself constrained to interfere 
 personally in support of a nomination, which I not only did not 
 wish but stood ready to decline, have' been unreservedly stated in an 
 earlier part of this work. With that single exception my observance 
 of that abstinence from personal efforts to acquire political advance- 
 ment, which was once inexorably demanded by the habits and feel- 
 ings of Northern people, has been uniform. On the most interesting 
 occasion of all — when my acts and motives were most unsparingly 
 assailed — ^that of my acceptance of the Presidential nomination, I 
 flung before my opponents, including a large number whom I had 
 been constrained, by views of public duty, to make such, altho' pre- 
 viously close and confidential friends, a challenge upon this theme, 
 to which it will be admitted no one would have ventured to resort, 
 at such a time, who was noi^well assured of his invulnerable position. 
 
 My second nomination -for the State Senate was made with per- 
 fect unanimity. The opposition made to my appointment as Attor- 
 ney General, under the State Government, in 1815, was an indi- 
 vidual effort by Judge Spencer, whose influence in such matters 
 had before been irresistible, to punish me for refusing to sustain 
 his views in relation to the choice of U. S. Senator, by defeating 
 an appointment against which there was not, until that attempt, 
 a known dissentient in the party to which we both belonged; an 
 appointment by the way, of which he was, at an earlier period, 
 
 * ° MS. Ill, p. 1. 
 
 > This letter, Feb. 15, 1829, Is In the Van Buren Papers. 
 224 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 225 
 
 the first to suggest the fitness and of which he was an advocate until 
 his favor was changed into hostility in the way I have stated. The 
 principal features of that affair have been described already and 
 I will only add here the Gov. Tompkins delayed his casting vote, 
 at the Council, between Judge Woodworth and myself — ^giving to 
 it a quasi-public character by announcing it at the Capitol — and 
 declared in giving it that he decided the question in my favor be- 
 cause he believed me to be competent to discharge the duties of the 
 office and because he knew that my appointment was confidently 
 expected by the party by which he had himself been elected. To 
 this it may with truth be added that there was at the moment some 
 coolness between the Governor and myself growing out of his ap- 
 pointments in my county, and that altho' the question upon the tie 
 vote of thfe Council was pending before him some days, he was not 
 approached upon the subject either by myself or by any of my 
 friends, to my knowledge or belief. Having been removed from 
 the office of Attorney General under circumstances already noticed 
 1 was, upon the return of my political friends to power, appointed 
 U. S. Senator, without disagreement among them. After the ex- 
 piration of six years, my re-nomination in caucas was made with 
 great unanimity and received no opposition in the Legislature save 
 from my political opponents. My nomination for the office of 
 Governor was also made without opposition, and against my wishes, 
 by a State Convention. Of my appointment as Secretary of State 
 I have just spoken, and to that of Minister to England there was no 
 dissent, save by the antagonists of my party. I was made a candi- 
 date for the office of Vice-President of the United States in pursu- 
 ance of the spontaneous and united demand of the democracy of the 
 Nation ; a complimentary vote was given in Convention to two other 
 gentlemen by the delegates of their respective States, who were, in 
 point of fact, as friendly to my selection as were those who advocated 
 it from the first, but the nomination was forthwith made unanimous 
 in form as it was in the wishes of the mass of the democratic party. 
 
 I received my nomination as the democratic candidate for the 
 office of President of the United States from the National Demo- 
 cratic Convention of 1835* and again, after a four years incumbency, 
 
 * At the election, foUowtog this nominatioii, I was deprived of the votes ol the States 
 of Tennessee, Georgia and even of that of the thoroghly democratic State of Alabama, 
 by a combination between the friends of Judge White, of Tennessee, and of Mr. Calhoun 
 with the undivided opposition to President Jackson's administration in those States. 
 The Judge had not been a candidate before the convention. He was naturally honest, 
 alhto' open to prejudices, and more self-willed by far than General Jackson himself. 
 When Major Baton quitted the War Department I advised the President to offer the 
 place to Judge White, and, as his own family had left him, in consequence of the Baton 
 imbroglio, I was particularly desirous that he should Invite the Judge also, who was 
 then a widower, to reside with him, with which he complied. Knowing the Judge only 
 as the active and open friend of Gen. Jackson, J was not a little struck by the care and 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 15 
 
226 AMEEICAW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 from a similar convention in 1840, by the votes of every member of 
 those bodies. Defeated in 1840, thro' well understood causes, the 
 great majority of the democratic masses rallied for the restoration 
 
 circumspection which the latter evinced In every step he took In the matter, but when 
 Judge White declined and I became better acquainted with the personal feeling of both 
 parties, I had no difficulty in understanding what before appeared inexplicable. I had 
 no special claims upon the Judge, but It cost him a great effort to separate from the 
 General, who admonished him, as well as his wife (after his second marriage), in his 
 usual unreserved and emphatic way, of the consequences of the step be was about 
 to take. But Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, chosen Speaker of the House over Mr. Polk, by 
 the votes of the opposition and of democratic members disaffected towards the Jackson 
 administration, and Mr. Webster, by his attentions particularly to a member of the 
 Judge's family as welPas to him, overcame his scruples. 
 
 I have always believed that if I had possessed » tithe of the skill In subtle manage- 
 ment and of the spirit of intrigue, so liberally charged upon me by my opponents, and 
 upon the strength of which they gave me the title of " magician," I could have turned 
 aside the opposition which sprang from that source without much difficulty. Mr. 
 Speaker Bell, tho' not one of Judge White's closest friends, doubtless controlled his 
 action In the matter by force of superior capacity and knowledge. He had a passion 
 for political intrigue and occupied at the moment a position of difficulty and hazard 
 from the circumstances attending his elevation to the chair. I received frequent hints 
 of a desire on his part to hold a confidential conversation with me and was one day 
 invited to dine with a mutual friend well disposed to his advancement ; informed (he- 
 fore hand) that the Speaker would he the only other gentleman invited, I expected that 
 the subject of the Presidential election would be introduced and could easily imagine 
 the shape of the suggestions that would be made. Bell and Polk were at the head of 
 rival interests in Tennessee, and the treatment they might respectively expect to receive 
 from the new administration, if I should he elected, was a matter of interest to both. 
 After the ladles retired, the subject was, as I had foreseen, introduced, but a severe tooth- 
 ache compelled me to decline the conversation and to retire almost immediately. We 
 separated with the significant expression, by the Speaker, of a hope that I might not 
 have a tooth-ache when we should meet again. This occurred shortly after the com- 
 mencement of the session of Congress of 1834-S. Some days thereafter, and on the 
 last day of December, when Mr. Adams delivered before Congress, his address on the 
 Life and Character of Lafayette, another attempt to converse upon the matter was 
 made. The Senate repairing to the Eepresentative Chamber, I, as the presiding officer 
 of that body, was of course placed by the side of the Speaker. He introduced the sub- 
 ject by an expression of his regret that the republican party was to be divided by the 
 nomination of Judge White and the satisfaction he would derive from an amicable 
 adjustment of the matter, and proceeded to say that such progress had been made 
 and such a point reached as made it indispensable that whatever was to be done to 
 arrest it should be done immediately. Determined from the beginning to make no ex- 
 planations as to the course I would pursue if elected, in regard to personal intereel^, 
 I put a civil end to the conversation by a few general remarks in regard to the duty 
 that the friends of Judge White owed to the republican cause and my convictions that 
 they could not so far forget it, as well as their Interest, as to disregard both by the 
 course indicated, and closed with an observation on the speech which was being delivered 
 in front of us. 
 
 struck by the peculiarity of the time and occasion selected by the Speaker for this 
 communication I turned with greater interest to the correspondence between Judge 
 White and the Tennessee delegation (Mr. Bell being one of them), soon after published, 
 and found that It was only on the previous evening that the delegation had obtained his 
 consent to the use of his name and that there was therefore great reason for the urgency 
 manifested, arising from the necessity for speedy action. 
 
 It was lmmedla;tely afterwards announced In the Tennessee newspaper, 'which was 
 regarded as the Judge's organ, that his name would not be withdrawn, and the sequel 
 is known. His resignation as Senator and final retirement from public life, conscious 
 of the extent to which he had been deceived and used, and sick of politics, followed 
 Immediately upon the result of the election. 
 
 When his old colleague, Mr. Grundy, reached Washington, I inquired^ after the Judge 
 and was answered by that facetious and worthy man as follows : " You ask me how he 
 spends his time ! I will tell you : — he sits all the day long In the chimney corner, spit- 
 ting tobacco Juice by the gallon, cursing everything and everybody, except his Creator, — 
 but tWm&tej/' devilish hard of Him! " Note iy Van Bnren. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIK VAN BTJEBN. 227 
 
 of their overthrown principles, by the instrumentality of my re- 
 elevation to ° the Presidency. More than three fourths of the States 
 instructed their delegates either in express terms, or thro' unmis- 
 takable avowals of their preferences, to vote for my nomination. 
 Their wishes were, however, defeated at the Baltimore Convention 
 by the intrigues of politicians of which a brief notice will be taken 
 at the proper place. 
 
 The unqualified resolutions of respect and confidence adopted with 
 entire unanimity, by both branches of the Legislature of New York, 
 on my resignation of the office of Governor, with the feelings of 
 personal regard manifested by the citizens of Albany, without dis- 
 tinction of parties, was the first let up in party violence that I had 
 ever experienced. These exhibitions of friendly and liberal senti- 
 ments, coming, to a considerable extent from men between whom 
 and myself there had been, for about a quarter of a century, a cease- 
 less partisan contest, always more or less acrimonious, affected me 
 deeply^I need not say, most agreeably ; not solely on my individual 
 account but on account also of the evidence they presented that 
 there lies at the Ijottom of our party divisions a mass of kind and 
 generous feelings, on all sides, waiting only fit occasions for their 
 display. 
 
 On my way out of the city I paid my last visit to the venerable 
 John Taylor, then supposed to be on his death-bed ; a sad anticipa- 
 tion which was soon realized. Gov. Taylor was no ordinary man. 
 From a comparatively obscure condition in life he had by his own 
 unaided efforts raised himself to a position of much influence in 
 the Government, and to the first rank in society. From the begin- 
 ning a devoted personal and political friend of George Clinton he 
 nevertheless cultivated friendly and social relations with General 
 Schuyler, General Hamilton and many other distinguished federal- 
 ists, and there were, for many years, few private tables at which 
 leading and eminent men of opposing politics were more frequently 
 assembled than at his — ^none certainly at which a generous and 
 elegant hospitality was more liberally dispensed, a- gratification in 
 which an ample estate, acquired by his own industry and without 
 reproach, enabled him freely to indulge himself. 
 
 On my first entrance upon public life he heard me with great 
 kindness, and altho' we had been occasionally at issue in the State 
 legislature and sometimes quite warmly, I never had reason to 
 apprehend that those collisions had produced any change in his 
 personal feelings towards me. The most important as well as the 
 most exciting occasion on which we caine in conflict related to the 
 course we respectively pursued in regard to Gov. De Witt Clinton. 
 
 " MS'. Ill, p. 5. 
 
228 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 He opposed, as has been related, the election of that gentleman 
 for the Presidency in 1812. In doing so it must now be admitted 
 that he acted a wiser part than I did, and I have before referred 
 to the apparent asperity with which, on that occasion, he resented 
 my course in the State Caucus. But, as I have also mentioned, 
 his disposition towards Governor Clinton was subsequently entirely 
 changed, and when the latter became finally separated from the 
 republican party. Gov. Taylor's long indulged partiality for the 
 Clintons proved too strong to prevent him from adopting the same 
 course. From that period to the day of his death we were opposed 
 to each other in politics, but there never was a time when my feel- 
 ings towards him were not of the kindest character and if I could 
 ever have doubted his cordial reciprocation of them such doubts 
 would have been effectually removed by our last interview. 
 
 Apprised of my intention to call on him he had caused himself 
 to be supported in a sitting position and was attended only by his 
 adopted daughter, Mrs. Cooper, one of the very best of women.° 
 Taking my hand, at first, in both of his own and retaining his, hold 
 by one until I left, with every sign of regard, he referred briefly 
 and impressively to his own hopeless condition and to the extreme 
 improbability of our ever meeting again in life, and then spoke, 
 earnestly and feelingly, of our past relations, of the length of time 
 •during which we had acted together in the service of the State, 
 of the occasions on which we had taken different views of the public 
 interest and of the momentary excitements they had produced, 
 dwelt upon the respect and kindness I had extended to him at all 
 times, and assured me in very gratifying words of the favorable 
 opinions he had formed of my character. He then adverted to 
 the subject of the journey upon which I had started, the new duties 
 upon which I wag about to enter, and in flattering terms, to results 
 which might be anticipated from them if my future course was as 
 discreet as the past had appeared to him to have been, and, with 
 the expression of a sincere wish that my future life might be a 
 happy one and that my political career might be crowned with com- 
 plete success, he bade me a final and affectionate farewell. 
 
 I need not say how cordially I reciprocated the assurances of 
 respect and regard with which the dying patriot honored me, nor 
 will I attempt to describe the satisfaction I derived from the circum- 
 stance that my residence at Albany, theretofore so stormy and harass- 
 ing, had been closed by an interview which, in every respect save that 
 it was destined to be the last, was so truly gratifying. 
 
 My health had been reduced by the pressure of business to a state 
 which rendered travelling painful, and the irksomeness of my jour- 
 
 > MS. Ill, p. 10. 
 
ATTTOBIOGRAtHY OP MARTIN VAN BtJREN. 229 
 
 ney was not a little aggravated by the accounts which I received 
 from friends whom I met on my way of the condition of things at 
 Washington. Mr. Woodbury arrived at New York after I had 
 retired for the night, and knowing that I was to leave early in the 
 morning, he obtained permission to see me in my bed-chamber. His 
 enumeration of the friends who were dissatisfied with the forma- 
 tion of the Cabinet, and the dispositions they had indicated, was 
 rendered more imposing by my Imowledge of his usual discretion in 
 speaking of such things. Yet whilst I placed much confidence in 
 his good sense and regard to truth, I was well apprised of the extent 
 of his disappointment in not having been himself selected for the 
 Cabinet, as he, perhaps, ought to have been, and was therefore in- 
 clined to make liberal deductions from his description on account of 
 the natural effects of such a condition of mind upon the views of 
 most men. - At Philadelphia I had a long and gloomy interview 
 with Mr. and Mrs. Livingston also just from Washington. Mr. Liv- 
 ingston's situation was, in one respect, the reverse of Woodbury's, as 
 he held in his pocket President Jackson's unconditional offer of the 
 mission to France — the only place he desired to occupy. Yet their 
 description of the unpromising state of things at the White House 
 was notwithstanding still more emphasized than the first, especially 
 in regard to matters which were peculiarly within the range of 
 female cognisance and which, tho' not of the highest, are still of 
 considerable importance. On probing the sources of their somewhat 
 dismal forebodings to the bottom, I was gratified to discover that 
 Mr. Livingston's confidence in the strong sense, perfect purity and 
 unconquerable firmness of the President, which I had all along re- 
 garded as the promising features of his character with reference to 
 his new position, had not suffered any abatement. He was as well 
 satisfied as he ever had been that no man or set of men could ever 
 lead the General to do an unworthy action, and that his willing- 
 ness to hear and respect counsel from those who might be better 
 instructed than himself, in respect to particular points, might under 
 all circumstances be relied on. An apprehension, founded on the 
 assumption that an influence was exerted over the President which 
 would, in the natural course of things, in respect to the social phases 
 of the Presidential Mansion, lead to degradation and contempt in 
 the eyes of foreigners and of good society in general, was found to 
 be the principal source of their fears. They informed me at the 
 same time of the offer of the Mission to France and of their confident 
 expectation that Mr. Livingston would be able to accept it. It was 
 therefore only necessary to refer to the probability that they would 
 be the persons most exposed to annoyances at a foreign court, from 
 any scandal that might obtain circulation upon that point, to lead 
 me to the inference that their description was an exaggerated one, 
 
230 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOH. 
 
 made such to induce me to take early and effective steps to prevent 
 or to remedy the evils they apprehended. 
 
 Thus far were those intelligent aJid estimable people from fore- 
 seeing what soon became obvious to qualified observers, that Presi- 
 dent Jackson's receptions at the Presidential Mansion would cer- 
 tainly not be considered inferior, either in the cost or brilliancy of 
 his entertainments or in the grace and dignity with which his guests 
 were received, as well by himself as by the female members of his 
 family, or in the genuine hospitality which they dispensed, to those 
 of any of his most distinguished predecessors. 
 
 But my strongest "pose" was reserved for my arrival at New 
 Castle. As our boat approached the wharf at that place I recog- 
 nized among the crowd, as I expected to do, my particular friend 
 Mr. McLane, with disappointment and deep mortification stamped 
 upon every line of his intelligent countenance. His personal antici- 
 pations in regard to the composition of the Cabinet had been higher 
 and, as he and his friends supposed, better founded than those of Mr. 
 Woodbury. He took my arm as I stepped on shore and proposed 
 that we should walk on in advance of the stagecoach, which was 
 sufficiently delayed to give us a tramp, not a little fatiguing to me 
 in my state of health, but which gave him a fair opportunity to 
 relieve his mind, so far as that could be done by "unpacking his 
 heart with words." He took the pwrole at once and kept it until 
 the coach overtook us. In the course of his excited harangue, for 
 such it literally was, he described, in the earnest and energetic man- 
 ner usual with him when deeply moved, the degraded condition to 
 which he thought the administration already reduced thro' the ad- 
 vice' of the evil counsellors by whom General Jackson was sur- 
 rounded, and in conclusion referred to a letter that he had written 
 to me at Albany immediately after the selection of the Cabinet. 
 In that letter, after saying that such a Cabinet required no comment 
 and that he could not see how it could command public confidence, 
 and raising a series of objections to the official arrangement, he sub- 
 mitted to my reflections whether the interests of my friends and of 
 the Country required of me the sacrifice of assisting in an attempt to 
 repair its defects and to give strength to the administration, or 
 whether I should not rather remain in my elevated position in the 
 State of New York and leave these strange occurrences to run their 
 course. As I had already resigned the office of Governor, to which 
 he referred in his letter, he now spoke, with obvious hesitation, in 
 respect to my thi'owing up that of Secretary of State, not recom- 
 mending such a course specifically but giving most emphatic assur- 
 ances of the indispensable necessity of great changes in the existing 
 organization of the Government as the only way by which that 
 step could be avoided without subjecting myself to great discredit. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 231 
 
 There were un'fortunately many others who had been prominent 
 and active in the support of General Jackson's election scarcely less 
 dissatisfied with the Cabinet selections. The best known and most 
 influential politicians of this description in Virginia and in South 
 Carolina very generally shared in that feeling; and what made this 
 matter more embarrassing to myself was the fact that they consti- 
 tuted a class with whom my relations both personal and political 
 had been the closest, who passed as my zealous friends and who 
 had been from the beginning and to a man, in favor of my being 
 placed at the head of the new Cabinet. General Hamilton, of South 
 Carolina, a very prominent man amongst them, told my friend Cam- 
 breleng, as he informed me by letter before I left Albany, that " if 
 T went into the Cabinet I would cut my throat." There was prob- 
 ably not one of these malcontents more disappointed than myself 
 by the composition of the administration. I had been, perhaps, at 
 too great a distance to be conveniently consulted on the subject ° by 
 the President elect, if he had been that way disposed, but my atten- 
 tion had been throughout directed to other quarters. Except Mr. 
 Ingham, the new Secretary of the Treasury, I had not heard that 
 either of the successful gentlemen had been proposed for the Cabi- 
 net before I received the news of their selection. It was besides not 
 in my power to regard some of them, though deficient neither in 
 character nor in social or general respectability, as well adapted to 
 a satisfactory performance of the duties to which they had been 
 appointed. Thus situated I could not allow any considerations not 
 involving a sacrifice of personal honor to prevent my acceptance of 
 the President's invitation, and I continued my progress to the seat, 
 of Government with the same determination with which I had left 
 Albany, that of contributing all in my power to secure the success 
 of the administration. 
 
 It was after dark when I reached Washington and the coach had 
 barely arrived at the hotel before it was surrouned by a crowd of ap- 
 plicants for office whose cases had been deferred until the Cabinet 
 should be full. They followed me into and filled my room, where, 
 from a sofa on which my health compelled me to lie, I informed them 
 that it was my intention to pay my respects to the President within 
 an hour, until the expiration of which time I would listen patiently 
 to any thing they desired to say. They proceeded accordingly to 
 communicate their respective wishes, and when it became necessary 
 to close the interview I informed them that I would carefully ex- 
 amine the papers in such cases as belonged to my department and 
 would endeavor to do justice to their applications, but that I was in- 
 disposed to see persons who desired appointments seeking them in 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 15. 
 
232 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 person at the seat of Government and disinclined to report in favor 
 of such as did not leave their cases to the justice of the President 
 and go home. 
 
 A solitary lamp in the vestibule and a single candle in the Presi- 
 dent's office gave no promise of the cordiality with which I was, 
 notwithstanding, greeted by General Jackson on my visit to the 
 White House. I found no one with him except his intimate friend 
 Major Lewis. His health was poor, and his spirits depressed as 
 well by his recent bereavement of his wife as by the trials of per- 
 sonal and political friendship which he had been obliged to en- 
 counter in the organization of his Cabinet. This was our first meet- 
 ing as political friends and it was certainly a peculiar feature in that 
 interview and no insignificant illustration of his nature that he 
 received with most affectionate eagerness, at the very threshold of 
 his administration, the individual destined to occupy the first place 
 in his confidence, of whose character his only opportunities to learn 
 anything by personal observation had been presented during periods 
 of active political hostility. 
 
 He soon noticed my exhaustion from sickness and travel and, con- 
 siderately postponing all business to an appointed hour of the next 
 day, recommended me to my bed. 
 
 From that night to the day of his death the relations, sometimes 
 official, always political and personal, were inviolably maintained 
 between that noble old man and myself, the cordial and confidential 
 character of which can never have been surpassed among public 
 men. The history of those associations I propose to relate and to 
 accompany it with an unreserved publication of our entire • corre- 
 spondence. But before entering upon this work it may be useful 
 that I should give a succinct account of our personal and political 
 intercourse from the commencement of our apquaintance to the time 
 of his elevation to the Presidency. 
 
 I was presented to General Jackson for the first time, at Wash- 
 ington in the winter of 1815-16, whilst on a visit to that city, to 
 which place he had been called by the exciting contest that grew 
 out of his Seminole campaign. Partaking of the extraordinary in- 
 terest which he inspired wherever he went I sought an inti-oduc- 
 tion to him at the very moment of his departure for Tennessee, and 
 did not see him again until I met him, in 1823, on the floor of the 
 Senate of the United States, of which body he had become a member. 
 Although we agreed better in our fundamental opinions and prin- 
 ciples than I did with many with whom I was acting, it so happened 
 that we had taken different sides on occasions of an exciting charac- 
 ter. He visited New York at a period when the contest between 
 Gov. DeWitt Clinton and a majority of the republican party of that 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BURBN. 233 
 
 State stood at fever-heat, and having been invited to a public din- 
 ner by the Tammany Society, which constituted one of the leading 
 interests in opposition to Mr. Clinton, he gave a toast, when called 
 upon, highly complimentary to that gentleman. We were of course 
 very much stirred up at being thus snubbed, as we considered it, 
 by the gallant General, — ^more so doubtless than the occasion called 
 for. He not only was no politician, but was, at that time, openly 
 and zealously advocating the mitigation if not the entire suppres- 
 sion of party divisions amongst us. It may be very well doubted 
 whether he made himself at -all acquainted with the nature or extent 
 of the controversy in which he seemed to take a part. We invited 
 him as a meritorious Chief who had rendered the Country great serv- 
 ice, we could not think him capable of offering an insult to his 
 entertainers, we could well afford to allow the right of opinion 
 in its fullest latitude, and there was, it must now be confessed, 
 enough in the character and public services of Mr. Clinton to jus- 
 tify the General's admiration and respect, even admitting the im- 
 putation of political infidelity which we preferred against him to 
 have been well founded. The General was, moreover, in those days, 
 as I have just intimated, an advocate of Mr. Monroe's amalgama- 
 tion policy, which we, on the other hand, regarded as the gross 
 delusion which it proved to be, — an opinion in which Jackson, be- 
 fore the end of his first Presidential term, not only cordially con- 
 curred but was inclined at times to carry too far in the opposite 
 direction. 
 
 He made his appearance in the Senate in the double character 
 of one of the Senators from Tennessee and her candidate for the 
 office of President of the United States, and among those who op- 
 posed his election to the latter place there was scarcely one more 
 actively and zealously employed than myself; an opposition which 
 extended alike to' Mr. Adams and to himself and which was neither 
 relaxed nor intermitted until the final settlement of the question 
 by the House of Representatives. But these differences did not 
 produce the slightest trace- of ill blood between us. Our personal 
 intercourse from the day we met in the Senate to the end of the 
 severe Presidential cantvass of 1824, was, on the contrary uniformly 
 kind and courteous, altho' circumstances occurred which, unex- 
 plained, were well calculated to put his self-control at least for the 
 moment, to severe tests. 
 
 In November 1816, after Mr. Monroe's elevation to the' Presi- 
 dency had become certain, General Jackson wrote a friendly letter 
 to him in respect to the i formation of his Cabinet.^ 
 
 » See note to p. 198 ante. 
 
234 AMEKICABT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 In that letter he said : — ^" Every thing depends upon the selection 
 of your ministry. Now is the time to exterminate that monster 
 called party-spirit." Whatever may then have been the real state 
 of Mr. Monroe's feelings in respect to the General's advice, he did 
 not deem its immediate adoption either safe or prudent. He had 
 been elected as the nominee of a party caucus and as the successor 
 of two Presidents in whose support" a similar agency had been 
 employed. To have pursued a course like that recommended to 
 him by General Jackson, under such circumstances, and in the then 
 state of public opinion, could not have failed to prove disastrous 
 to his administration. He therefore wrote to the General an elab- 
 orate answer, complimenting his liberality but pointing out the 
 inexpediency of the course he had proposed. In 18^1-2, when his 
 first term was about toi expire and his re-election for the second 
 had been carried, with only a single electoral vote against him in 
 the whole Country, Mr. Monroe became, as I have elsewhere fully 
 described, ready and anxious to carry into effect the policy recom- 
 mended to him by the General four years before. The course pur- 
 sued by his administration to that end was contrary to the general 
 sentiment of the republicans and was met with particular and very 
 marked hostility at two points, as we have seen, to wit: in New 
 York and Pennsylvania; the demonstrations against the Presi- 
 dent's policy in the former state growing out of the appointment 
 of a postmaster at Albany and of the nomination of Irish,^' an out 
 and out federalist, for the office of Marshal of the Western District 
 of Pennsylvania, in the latter. 
 
 Both of the Pennsylvania Senators remonstrated earnestly with 
 Mr. Monroe against this nomination on the express ground that 
 it was made in the execution of that amalgamation policy to 
 which they and their State were opposed. It was notwithstanding 
 made and they carried the question to the Senate, where it was 
 thoroughly canvassed, and by wliich body the nomination was 
 rejected by a vote of 26 to 14; the dissentients being, of course, and 
 to a man, republicans. To silence the opposition of Pennsylvania, 
 the President, in the course of his discussions with the Senators from 
 that State, read to them the letter received in 1816 from General 
 Jackson who was already looked upon as a probable candidate for 
 the Presidency and understood to be the favorite of Pennsylvania. 
 Mr. Monroe also, as it subsequently appeared, read the letter to 
 several other members of Congress to remove their objections to 
 the policy he was pursuing. As the letter was shewn to the Pennsyl- 
 vania Senators, in connection with the performance of their public 
 duties, and in no sense confidentially, they bath spoke of the sub- 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 20. » William B. Irish. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAK' BUREN". 235 
 
 ject without reserve. The interest of the public in the matter of 
 course increased with the improvement of the General's prospects 
 of success and the affair soon got into the newspapers and caused 
 a great sensation, particularly in the Western District of Pennsyl- 
 vania, which was the stronghold and headquarters of the demo- 
 cratic party of that State and already much excited by it. The 
 Crawford newspapers circulated far and near the charge that Jack- 
 son had written such a letter. The papers which supported Jackson, 
 well aware that, if written, it could not be successfully defended in 
 that State, denied that the General had written or that Mr. Monroe 
 had received any letter of the kind. 
 
 Messrs.. Lowrie and Findley,^ the Senators, were called out from 
 all parts of the State. Findlay, who was in favor of Jackson, re- 
 fused to say what he knew whilst Lowrie, who was a Crawford 
 man, although he had taken no steps towards a publication of the 
 facts, stated them publicly and truly. George Krehmer, the ever 
 active friend of Gen. Jackson, applied to Mr. Monroe for. infor- 
 mation and he authorized him to say that it was false that the Gen- 
 eral had ever written to him such a letter as Krehmer described. 
 Gen. Jackson substantially authorized Krehmer to say the same 
 thing, declaring at the same time that he had reserved no copy 
 of the letter and spoke only from memory. These denials were 
 literally well founded because Krehmer's description of the letter 
 was materially variant from the letter itself. 
 
 A protracted correspondence ensued, the parties to which were 
 the President, his son-in-law, Mr. Hay, Gen. Jackson and Mr. 
 Lowrie. The latter removed the technical grounds upon which 
 these denials were founded by setting forth the contents of the 
 letter according to his recollection of them and as he had declared 
 them to be and called, in respectful terms, upon Mr. Monroe to 
 publish Gen. Jackson's letter, a demand which ihe thought him- 
 self entitled to make as it had been shewn to him to'influence his 
 course in the performance of a public duty and without reserve. 
 Mr. Monroe refused to explain. Lowrie was thus brought in 
 collision, upon a question of veracity, with two of the most power- 
 ful men in the Country, and the Jackson newspapers, as well as 
 those in favor of other candidates, regarding Crawford as the 
 strongest rival of their respective favorites and desiring therefore 
 to reduce his strength, attacked him [Lowrie] with much violence. 
 My opportunities to become acquainted with his [Lowrie] character 
 were very ample and I never met with a more upright and virtuous 
 man in the course of my life. 
 
 Whilst the affair was in this condition, Mr. Lowrie's mail was one 
 morning laid upon his desk, by one of the pages of the Senate, at a 
 
 'Walter Lowrie and William Findlay. 
 
236 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 moment when my attention happened to be directed towards him. 
 Sitting next to him I perceived that, on opening one of his letters, 
 he turned very pale. To my enquiry as to the cause he replied quickly 
 " See this!", and on examining the letter we found, to our amaze- 
 ment, that it enclosed a copy of Mr. Monroe's reply to the letter 
 from Gen. Jackson which the former had shewn to himself and 
 Findlay. The copy was partly in Mr. Monroe's handwriting and the 
 residue in that of his son-in-law, Mr. Hay, who had published several 
 violent attacks upon Lowrie. It sustained everything that had been 
 said by the latter and was accompanied by a brief anonymous note 
 to the effect that the writer had been induced to send it to him by 
 seeing the injustice which he was suffering. 
 
 Struck by the delicacy of the affair in all its aspects and by a sense 
 of the extent to which the possession of such a paper, in the absence 
 of a satisfactory explanation as to the manner in which it had come 
 to Mr. Lowrie's hands, might be made to increase his embarrass- 
 ments, I held the letter in my hand and beckoned to Mr. Macon to 
 come to my seat. He did so immediately when I informed him of 
 its contents, that I had seen Mr. Lowrie receive and open it, that he 
 had immediately placed the enclosure in my hands and that Mr. 
 Lowrie and myself asked the favor of him to take the papers into 
 his possession, to authorize Mr. Lowrie to state publicly that they 
 were in his keeping and to refer those who desired to see them to 
 him for that purpose. Of the character of that venerable and just 
 man, whose fame was and is co-extensive with our Country and 
 whom all wh0| knew him honored and esteemed for his exemplary 
 purity, I have already spoken. There was perhaps no feature more 
 marked in his long and creditable life than his freedom from the 
 personal contentions to which public men are so often exposed. Pur- 
 suing the even tenor of his way he seldom meddled in other men's 
 affairs or became a party to their quarrels, but on this occasion, and 
 without hesitation he replied, — ^" Yes ! yes ! Give them to mc. 
 Lowrie is an honest young man — he has had gxeat injustice done 
 him. Give me the papers and I "will stand by him be the conse- 
 quences what they may." I gave him the letter, which had upon 
 it the Richmond, Va., post mark, and which with its enclosures, he 
 placed in the inner podiet of his coat, buttoning it np tightly as he 
 walked away to his seat. 
 
 Lowrie immediately apprised Mr. Monroe by a note that he was 
 in possession of a copy of his reply to Gen. Jackson's letter and of the 
 manner in which it had come into his hands. He avowed his inten- 
 tion to keep it as a protection against the charges which had been 
 made against him, to a considerable extent with Mr. Monroe's co- 
 operation, and urged him again to relieve him from the painful di- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 237 
 
 lemma in which he was placed, by the publication of Jackson's let- 
 ter; a document which Mr. Monroe had dedicated to public use by 
 employing it as an excuse for his official coui-se, to which act and 
 its subsequent denial the difficulties in which Lowrie had been in- 
 volved were fairly attributable. He also sent his friends Judge 
 Baldwin and Speaker Stevenson^ to the President to ascertain 
 whether he had received his note and what he intended to do in the 
 premises. Mr. Monroe's reply on both occasions was simply that he 
 had not decided to take any further steps in the matter. °By this 
 new phase of the controversy in which LoAvrie had heretofore had 
 the worst in consequence of the weight and power of his opponents, 
 the tables were turned against them. His friends justified his reten- 
 tion of the letter on the ground of its necessity to his defense in a 
 matter in which it was now evident to all that he was the injured 
 party and no proceeding's could have been instituted to compel its 
 surrender which would not disclose its contents. Nor was the dissat- 
 isfaction of General Jackson with the course that had been pursued, 
 which had been obvious from the beginning, at all diminished by 
 the turn it had now taken. When he gave the advice in question he 
 was Commander-in-Chief of the Army, with a soldier's antipathy 
 to party politics and not regarding himself, in all probability, as 
 within the range of Presidential candidates. A'^Tien, several years 
 after it was written, the use was made of his letter which produced 
 all this evil, he was very likely to become one and was actually nomi- 
 nated by his State a few months afterwards, and his strongest sup- 
 port was believed' to be in Pennsylvania, where the doctrines he was 
 charged with advancing were especially unacceptable, quite as much 
 so as in any State in the Union, and where from the circumstances 
 of the case the knowledge of their having been so advanced was in a 
 fair way to be brought to every man's door. Besides the great and 
 well understood change in his position, he may have entertained a 
 different opinion upon the point, as was certainly the case after- 
 wards. All these things were open to Mr. Monroe's observation and 
 reflection and it is difficult to believe that General Jackson was 
 otherwise than dissatisfied that the President should.have overlooked 
 or disregarded them, when, after the lapse of years and without 
 even asking his consent, he employed the advice given him in the way 
 and under the circumstances, I have described. 
 
 Doubtless in other respects the course that the matter had taken 
 was very galling to the General. He hated concealments. There 
 was no trait in his character more obvious to others or more proudly 
 and justly asserted by himself than his fearlessness in declaring 
 
 '■ Henry Baldwin of Connecticut and Andrew Stevenson. ° MS. Ill, p. 25. 
 
238 AMEBIOAl!]' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 liis opinions and his readiness to bear any responsibility attaching 
 to the avowal of them. With the knowledge that I now have of 
 him, in that respect, I can well understand the mortification he 
 endured from seeming to be privy and consenting to an evasion 
 in regard to his opinions, and the correspondence between him and 
 Mr. Monroe plainly discloses the existence of this chagrin. 
 
 Mr. Krehmer once more stepped forward and addressed him on 
 the subject. In the General's reply, which was throughout respect- 
 ful to Lowrie, after saying that his correspondence with Mr. Monroe 
 was private and confidential, although denying the version of Mfi 
 letter which he erroneously tuiderstood Mr. Lowrie to have given 
 to it, he broke through the entanglements! into which he had suf- 
 fered himself to be drawn by a species of special pleading foreign 
 to his nature and habits by admitting that his advice to Mr. Monroe 
 had been to select for his Cabinet " men of probity and talents with- 
 out regard to party." This was the substance of the advice con- 
 tained in his letter to the President now expressed with more caution 
 and in a way well calculated to make favorable impressions on the 
 minds of large portions of the People. 
 
 Having thus relieved himself from the quibbles that had been 
 resorted to in his behalf by inferior minds, he said, "My opinions 
 and sentiments such as they have been written or expressed, at any 
 time, each and every one are at all times welcome to. In public 
 or in private letters I but breathe the sentiments I feel and which 
 my judgment sanctions, and no disposition wiU ever be entertained 
 by me either to disguise or suppress them." 
 
 He also informed Mr. Krehmer that Mr. Monroe had placed all 
 his letters, at his own instance, in the hands of Major Eaton, with 
 a view to their immediate publication. They were published and 
 everything alleged by Mr. Lowrie in regard to the contents of the 
 one read to him was fully sustained by the letter itself, and his 
 course was not only fully vindicated before the Country but left 
 impressions on the minds of his brother Senators which sought and 
 soon found an opportunity for their gratification by his election to 
 the profitable and honorable office of Secretary of the Senate. This 
 place he held for many years during the most exciting periods in 
 our political history and discharged its duties with credit to himself 
 and to the satisfaction of every member of the body; at least I 
 never heard the slightest complaint, from any source, of his official 
 conduct and I have no doubt that he might have continued in the 
 position, if he had desired it, to the present day. It was in refer- 
 ence to him that John Eandolph uttered the witty paradox, which 
 contained an undisputed truth, ''that altho' he could neither read 
 nor write he was the best clerk that any public body was evieir 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 239 
 
 favored with ! " His reading was certainly not of the best and his 
 penmanship egregious, but there was in him beside punctuality, in- 
 dustry and order, a personal amiability which won the hearts, and 
 a firm integrity and sound sense which commanded the respect and 
 confidence of all the Senators. 
 
 His seat, while Senator, was, as I have said, next to mine and 
 that of GBneral Jackson directly before us. Altho' well advised of 
 the extent to which Mr» Lowrie had been sustained and counselled 
 by me thro' the trying positions in which he had been placed, the 
 General seldom took his seat in the morning, especially whilst the 
 matters of which I have been speaking were in progress, without 
 exchanging friendly salutations and shaking hands with both of 
 us. His respect for Lowrie was doubtless increased by the fact that 
 the latter called upon him the moment the affair was made public, 
 gave him an account of the contents of the letter read to him by 
 Mr. Monroe, as they afterwards appeared, justified himself in 
 speaking of the matter as he had done, but denied having had any 
 agency in bringing the matter into the newspapers. The General 
 was pleased with his candor and obvious sincerity and assured him 
 that he should never object to let the letter speak for itself by its 
 pu:blication. 
 
 I had good reasons to know that he cherished feelings of wann 
 regard towards Mr. Lowrie to the last and, at the time, I was well 
 satisfied that the whole transaction, so far from exciting his prej- 
 udices against either impressed him most favorably towards both 
 of us. 
 
 Gen. Jackson's position in respect to the Tariff of 1824, acted 
 upon on the eve of the Presidential election, was an embarrassing 
 one. Pennsylvania, a strong tariff State, had been among the first 
 to embrace his cause and she had done so with great zeal and 
 power. A still larger portion of his strength was supposed to lie in 
 the Southern and South Western States, which were all anti-tariff. 
 He entered Congress with a general bias in favor of protection but 
 with several reservations, the most prominent among which was a de- 
 sire to limit Legislative encouragement to articles necessary to the de- 
 fence of the Country in time of War. Altho' averse to the prostitu- 
 tion of a question so deeply affecting the interests of the Country 
 by using it for mere partisan purposes, he was, at the same time, 
 unwilling to submit quietly to such an application of it by his 
 enemies to his own prejudice. His military career, peculiar and 
 difficult as was its character, had given him a spirit of watchfulness 
 in regard to the movements of his enemies which was revived by 
 the perplexing situation in which he found himself between Penn- 
 sylvania, his Northern head-quarters, and the anti-tariff States of 
 the South and stimulated into action by the obvious and persevering 
 
240 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 efforts of his opponents to prejudice him, thro' that channel, in the 
 estimation of both. In this dilemma, and following his natural and 
 always strong impulses to defeat the machinations of his enemies, 
 he assumed a position in regard to it more equivocal than any he 
 had ever occupied on any public question, if not the only one in 
 his career to which such an epithet could have been applied with 
 any shew of reason. He declared himself in favor of a " judicious 
 tariff " — an avowal that was no sooner published than Mr. Clay at- 
 tempted to scandalize it, for its ambiguity, by a characteristic shrug 
 of his shoulders, a toss of his head and the counter-declaration — 
 " well, by , I am in favor of an ^?^judicious tariff !" 
 
 The Tariff Bill of 1824, as it came from the House and was re- 
 ported by the Senate Committee of Manufactures, contained a 
 clause imposing a duty of 4| cents on every square yard of cotton 
 bagging imported into the United States — a provision understood 
 to have been specially designed to favor large establishments for 
 the manufacture of that° article at Lexington, Kentucky. This 
 provision was particularly obnoxious to the cotton growing States 
 of Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and 
 Tennessee, upon whose votes the General's supporters relied with 
 confidence and the People of which were among his most zealous 
 friends. The numerous supporters of Mr. Calhoun in those States, 
 between whom and those of Mr. Clay — ^including the respective 
 Chiefs — there existed, at that time, the most bitter animosity, per- 
 sonal as well as political, united with the friends and supporters of 
 Mr. Crawford not only in opposing the entire bill but in denouncing 
 this part of it with special vehemance. They characterized it as a 
 tribute extorted from the cotton growing states to enrich Mr. Clay's 
 Kentucky pets, and the fact that those were the principal if not the 
 only manufacturers of cotton bagging in the United States gave 
 great force to their charges. These circumstances adding the force of 
 personal and partisan prejudices to a fixed hostility to the policy of 
 protection raised their oppugnancy to this particlar branch of it to 
 feverheat and led to frequent and earnest remonstrances against the 
 support that they feared General Jackson intended to give to it. 
 They often called him from' his seat, and as that was directly in 
 front of mine and mine on the outside row, not a few of their con- 
 ferences unavoidably took place in my hearing. 
 
 The division of the Senate upon the Bill was known to be a 
 very close one and great pains were taken by its more zealous 
 friends to impress its supporters with a sense of the danger of 
 losing it if material amendments were permitted to pass that body. 
 The General so understood the matter and had made up his mind 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 30. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREN. 241 
 
 to go for the Bill, as it stood, notwithstanding his repugnance to 
 the cotton-bagging duty and the anxious wish of so many of his 
 friends that he and his colleague. Major Eaton, should cause its 
 rejection by their votes, which they had it in their power to do. 
 
 When the cotton-bagging clause was reached Mr. Macon moved 
 to strike out altogether and when the ayes and noes were taken 
 upon that motion I, who had until that moment in obedience to 
 the wishes of my State, voted for the other parts of the Bill, an- 
 swered in the affirmative, in consequence of which the vote on strik- 
 ing out stood, ayes 2S, noes 24; the General and his colleague both 
 voting with the majority. Perceiving at a glance that my course 
 threw the responsibility of the retention of the clause upon his 
 own vote, he turned around and under evident excitement ex- 
 claimed — " You give way. Sir ! " I replied, " No, Sir, I have been 
 from the beginning opposed to this clause and informed Gov. 
 Dickerson, when he reported the Bill, that I should vote against 
 it unless the duty was greatly reduced. Subsequent reflection led 
 me to regard this provision as an exceedingly exceptionable one 
 and I finally determined to oppose it in any shape, and so informed 
 the Governor." Before I had time to finish what I intended to 
 say he stopped me and earnestly asked my pardon for meddling 
 in a matter with which he had no right to interfere, declared that 
 however great might be his disappointment at my vote, which had 
 drawn from him, under the impulse of the moment, the remark 
 he had made, he ought not to have forgotten that that vote was 
 my own and that he, at all events, had no right to call it in ques- 
 tion; and he pressed me, with much earnestness, to say that I was 
 satisfied with his apology, which I did. 
 
 The Senate almost immediately adjourned and the excitement 
 caused by the affair was even greater than could have been antici- 
 pated. The discontent of some among the offended friends of the 
 General soon found a vent. As my candidate ■ for the Presidency, 
 Mr. Crawford was a citizen of a cotton growing State they' saw, in 
 the transaction, a plan to weaken their candidate and to strengthen 
 our own, his most formidable competitor, in those localities, and I 
 soon discovered, to my mortification, that a few of the friends of 
 Mr. Crawford had not been backward in countenancing that idea 
 by their encomiums upon the adroitness of the movement. I had 
 not been, however, actuated by any such motive or by any other feel- 
 ing than one of disgust at the nakedness and extravagance of the 
 proposed horms to Companies which had been formed to make money, 
 which were without just claims to so large a share of Legislative 
 favor, but which there was every reason to believe were at the time 
 in the receipt of very liberal profits. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 16- 
 
242 AMEEICAIT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 So far was I from wishing to encrease Gen. Jackson's embarrass- 
 ments, of much of which I had been an involuntary witness, that I 
 had been on the contrary, so favorably impressed by his noble bear- 
 ing in that very matter and by the promptitude and good feeling 
 with which he atoned for his abrupt address to me, by his whole 
 conduct during the exciting scenes of the Lowrie correspondence, 
 and by his general bearing towards me, an undeviating opponent in 
 the Presidential canvass, that my first impulse, on perceiving the 
 excitement that had sprung up, was a desire to aid in relieving him. 
 In this state of mind I approached him, on his appearance in the 
 Senate, on the following morning, referred to the proceedings of the 
 previous day and to the construction placed upon them by some of 
 his friends and, to my great mortification, sanctioned, at least to 
 some extent, by a few of mine, admitted that under existing circum- 
 stances, I ought not to be surprised by such interpretations on the 
 part of zealous and excited politicians, but assured him that they 
 were nevertheless entirely unfounded. I then stated to him, more 
 fully than I was permitted to do on the previous day the extent and 
 character of my objections to the duty, reminded him that after the 
 Bill was reported to the Senate Mr. Macon, after so close a vote, 
 would undoubtedly renew his motion which would bring the ques- 
 tion up again after the expiration of a week or two, that I would not 
 be disappointed if other members by that time took the same view 
 of the matter that I had done and that I sincerely hoped that he 
 would be of the number. 
 
 As I anticipated the motion was thus renewed after the Bill had 
 been reported to the Senate from the Committee of the Whole; 
 [John] Holmes, of Maine, changed his vote, as did also Gen. Jackson, 
 and the clause was stricken out by a vote of 25 to 22. Gov. Dickerson, 
 the Chairman of the sub-Committee, made the greatest efforts to re- 
 store it, but with no other eilert than to induce Mayor Eaton ^ the 
 General's colleague, who had made a speech in favor of the clause, 
 to vote against it also. The ferment among the General's cotton- 
 growing friends subsided, and the subject passed from the public 
 mind. 
 
 Of the failure to elect a President and the choice by the House 
 of Representatives at the next session of Congress I have already 
 spoken. Gen. Jackson resigned his seat in the Senate at its close 
 and retired to the Hermitage, where he awaited, with calmness and 
 dignity, the judgment of the People upon the conduct of the House 
 of Representatives. Nothing transpired during the session to change 
 or affect our relations either personal or political save the natural 
 tho' silent influence of a common defeat to increase mutual good 
 will and sympathy. 
 
 'John Henry Eaton. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN" BUEEN. 243 
 
 From the day we parted at Washington to the evening on which 
 I waited on him to enter upon the duties of the office to which he had 
 appointed me there had been no personal intercourse between us, 
 nor any correspondence or communication in any form, save a formal 
 letter from him introducing one of his friends, one or two letters 
 to him and the Nashville Committee in reply to calls for my opinion 
 as to the proper course to be pursued in respect to certain points in 
 the canvass,^ all of which will be found in the correspondence here- 
 with published,^ his letter of invitation to become a member of his 
 Cabinet and my acceptance of it. The first information he received 
 of my determination to support him, which was early formed, could 
 therefore, as has been elsewhere stated, have been only derived from 
 the newspapers or from the letters of others. 
 
 1 A letter of Aug. 8, 1828, from W. B. Lewis asking for political advice is in the Van 
 Bureau Papers, but no letter of tMs nature from Van Buren is now to be found either 
 in the Van Buren or Jackson Papers. 
 
 ^ It was Van Buren's intention, to accompany this autobiography with selected letters 
 from his papers an intention he did not carry out. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 On my arrival at Washington I found a very large number of 
 letters, addressed to me from different parts of the Country by 
 our friends, speaking of the state of public opinion in their re- 
 spective vicinities in relation to the formation of the Cabinet and 
 subsequent acts of the Administration. " I will not give a detailed 
 description of their contents which were, without any exception 
 that I can remember, of the most gloomy character. This was per- 
 haps the natural result of the circumstances which attended the 
 beginning of the new Government. A very large majority of the 
 supporters of President Jackson in Congress and of the active 
 politicians who had been drawn to the seat of Government to wit- 
 ness the ceremonies of the Inauguration were deeply dissatisfied 
 with the first steps taken by the President of their choice. In very 
 many instances their discontent was aggravated by private griefs, 
 in more by the disappointment of friends for whose advancement 
 they were solicitous and in not a few by sincere and disinterested 
 sorrow in finding high anticipations dashed to the ground, as they 
 supposed, by the formation of a Cabinet of which as a whole, they 
 could not approve. This influential mass embracing a large por- 
 tion of the respectability and talents of our party, in returning to 
 their respective States spread the opinion formed at Washington 
 broadcast throughout the Country. The views they took of the 
 matter and the opinions they had formed unhappily, -to a great 
 and influential extent, flowed into ears prepared, not to say, pre- 
 disposed, to credit them. General Jackson was not the choice of 
 the politicians, as a body, of any considerable portion of the States. 
 Those of them who had enlisted in the support of his competitors 
 Crawford, Clay, Calhoun, for a season, and Adams, at the pre- 
 vious election, during that excited canvass had worked their minds 
 into the strongest convictions of the truth of the impressions they 
 had at the first imbibed of his unfitness for the place. These had 
 been to a great extent, worn off by the collisions and still greater 
 excitement of the recent election, leaving the subjects of them, 
 however, liable to be more easily carried away by the first ad- 
 verse current and they constituted the class to take active parts 
 on such occasions who look narrowly into the action of men in 
 power and interfere with their proceedings thro' epistolary and 
 personal remonstrances. 
 
 " MS. Ill, p. 38. 
 
 244 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 245 
 
 It was doubtless from this class of the President's constituents 
 that these complaints mainly proceeded. The judgment of the 
 masses was still in abeyance. 
 
 The duties imposed upon me in respect to these communica- 
 tions were of an extremely delicate and responsible character. Their 
 authors had a right to expect that their views should be submitted 
 to the President whom they had assisted to elect and they could 
 not perhaps have selected a more appropriate channel for that 
 purpose. They told their story "free, offhand" and the remon- 
 strances and advice were not always or indeed generally expressed in 
 terms which excluded the idea of reproach ; and the peculiar delicacy 
 of the task of submitting such to the President, by one whose relations 
 with him were of a character I have described mine to have been, 
 was not a little increased by the circumstances that for the most 
 part they came from men with whom I had been closely allied 
 in opposition to General Jackson, at the preceding election. My 
 personal association with him as a political ;friend was of but a 
 few days standing and tho' cordial on both sides was not^ for the 
 reasons I have intimated, at first entirely free from the embarrass- 
 ments arising from antecedent events. I have moreover alluded 
 to his state of body and mind, ill adapted to exhibit his character 
 and disposition to the best advantage; still every thing that I saw 
 and heard of and from him impressed me in the strongest manner 
 with a conviction of his sincerity, integrity and straightforward 
 truthfulness. 
 
 I therefore determined to rely without reservation or hesitancy 
 upon those qualities, to submit in their strongest aspect the adverse 
 views of the course he was pursuing which were entertained by 
 many who had supported his election and to leave our future re- 
 lations to the judgment he should form upon the whole subject. 
 
 With these views I selected from the mass of letters referred to 
 and sent to the President one from Thomas Kitchie, the Editor of 
 the Richmond Enquirer, then regarded, and I doubt not correctly, as 
 my warm personal and political friend, who tho' he had supported 
 Gfeneral Jackson with much power and effect in the last election, 
 had, with myself, opposed him before and in a manner and under 
 circumstances calculated to excite in him for the moment, strong 
 feelings of dissatisfaction. It was enclosed with a note from myself : 
 
 Martin Van Bueen to the President [Andrew Jackson]. 
 
 Mt Dear Sib, 
 
 On my return from your house last evening, I found the enclosed among 
 some letters which I had not before been able to examine. Upon a careful con- 
 sideration of Its contents I find it to be so evidently written for your perusal 
 as to make it something like a duty on my part to lay it before you ; and 
 I do that the more readily from an entire consciousness that you wish to 
 
246 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 learn all that may be said with decency in respect to your administration by 
 those interested in its success. I have known Mr. Ritchie long and intimately 
 and am well satisfied that there is not a man of purer public spirit in the 
 Country. The disinterestedness of his views with the great ability that has 
 characterized his paper have given it an influence infinitely greater than any 
 other press in the Union. Whatever you may think of the wisdom or justice 
 of the opinions expressed by such a man I am quite sure that they will 
 receive from you a liberal and respectful consideration. 
 
 Not being certain, from the great press that is made upon me, that I shall 
 be able to see you today, I have thought proper to enclose it and will receive 
 it^again at your perfect leisure. 
 Yrs. affectionately 
 
 March 31st, 1829. M. V. B.' 
 
 The Pbesident. 
 
 Thomas Ritchie to M. Van Btjbbn. 
 Dear Sib, 
 
 This is in all probability the last letter I shall have the honor of addressing 
 you for many years to come. Our respective situations, though vastly dif- 
 ferent from each other, make .such a correspondence delicate on both sides. 
 A Secretary of State has' his own duties to perform, and sa has an Editor 
 however humble he may be. I need not be more explicit, but I cannot reconcile 
 it to myself to remain altogether silent amid the scenes which I have wit- 
 nessed. You are the only member of the administration with whom I am ac- 
 quainted. I therefore address myself to you. If there be anything in this 
 letter which you may think it proper to submit to Gen. Jackson you are au- 
 thorized to lay it before him, — and him only. In truth I would have addressed 
 myself directly to him, but for my anxiety to preserve even the appearance 
 of that respect which I sincerely feel for his character and himself. 
 
 You, Sir, or perhaps Gen. Jackson, if he should see this letter, may charge 
 the writer with arrogance, impertinence, call it what you will, for intruding 
 my opinion, unasked and unacceptable upon the grave matters of which it 
 proposes to treat. I am content to abide by your severest censures, as I am 
 satisfied with my own motives. This letter is dictated by the most friendly 
 feelings. It is from a sincere desire that you should be possessed of the state 
 of public opinion in this part of the Country that I break thro' all the rules 
 of etiquette. 
 
 You know how anxiously I desired the election of General Jackson. My 
 most intimate friends have witnessed the joy which his success inspired. I 
 regarded [it] not simply as the downfall of a party which had corrupted the 
 purity of elections and abused its power for its own little purposes, but as a new 
 epoch in the history of our Country, — as opening a bright j)rosp.ect of wise and 
 constitutional principles. I need not say, Sir, that I had nothing to gain except 
 as one of ten millions of people. I have nothing to ask, — the administration 
 has nothing to offer which I will accept. 
 
 Why this bright prospect Is somewhat clouded over within the short space 
 of thirty days- I will not enter into a long recapitulation to explain. I pass 
 over the Cabinet. It has disappointed many of the sincerest of the President's 
 friends. In the same proportion, that it dispirited them has it raised the hopes 
 of their enemies. They have already raised the standard of opposition, and a 
 rival, who was abandoning all his views in utter despair, was immediately ani- 
 mated to enter the lists again. I do not speak at random when I make these 
 assertions. The admirable Inaugural Address, however, counteracted these 
 
 * In the Van Buren Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 247 
 
 effects ° in some degree. It gave us all additional spirits. But, I speak It with 
 profound regret, the subsetiuent appointments have thrown a cloud over our 
 friends which it will require some time and great wisdom to dispel. We are 
 sorry to see the personal friends of the President appointed ; we lament to see 
 so many of the Editorial Corps favored with the patronage of the Administra- 
 tion. A single case would not have excited so much observation, — but it really 
 looks as if there were a systematic effort to reward Editorial Partizans, which 
 will have the effect of bringing the vaunted Liberty of the Press into a sort of 
 contempt. I make allowance for th'e situation of these gentlemen. I know 
 most of them are able and qualified. They have fought manfully to put out a 
 corrupt coalition — They have fought with the halter round their necks ; and 
 not, as I have done, so much in the country of friends, as of enemies. I allow 
 for all these things, and still the truth cannot be disguised that the press, 
 which shrinks like the sensitive plant from the touch of Executive Power, has 
 been heedlessly handled. Invade the freedom of the press and the freedom of 
 election, by showering patronage too much on Editors of newspapers and on 
 Members of Congress, and the rights of the People themselves are exposed to 
 imminent danger. I know that this was not the motive of such appointments ; 
 but I argue about effects: effects too not to be brought about by this administra- 
 tion but by less worthy ones which are to succeed it. 
 
 There is some difficulty under all new Administrations to know whom to 
 put out and whom to put in; and it is the right use of patronage under such 
 circumstances that constitutes one of the most delicate operations of Govern- 
 ment. We should suppose that one pretty good rule was for the Chief Magistrate 
 to consider offices not as made for himself, the gratification of his own feelings 
 and the promotion of his own purposes, but as a public trust to be confided to 
 the most worthy. I throw out this suggestion because I have seen too much 
 stress laid upon the personal feelings of the President by some who did not 
 sufficiently estimate the high station which he occupies. There is another 
 thing. I go for reform, — ^but what is reform? Is it to turn out of oflice all 
 those who voted against him, or who decently preferred Mr. Adams? Or is it 
 not rather those who are incapable of discharging their duties, the drunken, 
 the ignorant, the embezzler, the man who has abused his official facilities to 
 keep Gen. Jackson out, or who are so wedded to the corruptions of office as to 
 set their faces against all reform? Is it not to abolish all unnecessary offices 
 and to curtail all unnecessary expenses? It surely is not to put out a good 
 and experienced officer because he was a decent friend of J. Q. Adams, in 
 order to put in a heated partizan of the election of Gen. Jackson, which parti- 
 zan chooses to dub himself on that account the friend of Reform. I trust that 
 such a spirit of Keform will not come, near to us in Virginia. Should any one 
 be seeking the loaves and fishes of federal office in Virginia I hope the Admin- 
 istration will be very careful whom they may put out to serve such an office- 
 seeker. There is no man whom I would touch in this city. 
 
 The course of appointments at Washington is calculated to cool and alienate 
 some at our friends. The enemies of the Administration are on the alert. They 
 are availing themselves of all our errors, while we are so situated that we are 
 unable to justify or defend them. You can scarcely conceive the uneasiness 
 which prevails. Will you excuse me for troubling you with the following Ex- 
 tract, which I have received from Washington, from a profound observer of 
 men and things. He is a warm friend of the President — and no Virginian : — 
 
 " I can read the history of this Administration more clearly than I did the 
 late one and I was in no respect disappointed in my views respecting its course 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 40. 
 
248 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and termination. Under tlie profession of Reform changes will be made to the 
 public injury. Let the rule be once known and every man who was not an 
 active partisan of Gen. Jackson will be brought within it. A great number of 
 violent men, alike destitute, I fear, of principle and intelligence, will be thrown 
 into conspicuous positions, .in the excitement, and placed in offices of trust. 
 High minded and talented men, In such a result, will, for a time, be thrown 
 into the shade. The contest will be for office and not for principle. This will 
 impair the moral force of our institutions at home and abroad, and may 
 eventuate in their destruction. 
 
 " Should the present Administration go down, as I fear it will, and should 
 Clay come into power, on Ms system,_ I tremble for the Union. A scene of 
 violence, reckless of consequences will then be the order of the day. This is a 
 gloomy picture, and I wish to God I could persuade myself it is too highly 
 colored. I see and understand perfectly all the movements made." 
 
 My heart aches as I make this Extract. Sincerely do I trust that its gloomy 
 anticipations may be defeated, and that Gen. Jackson may lay down his power 
 amid the loudest acclamations of a grateful people. I would do anything that 
 was honorable and proper to lead to this result. But I have done. 
 
 I beg you to make no answer to this letter. I write in haste and vrith pain. 
 Perhaps I ought not to write it at all. 
 
 I am. Sir, resp'y 
 
 Thomas Ritchie.' 
 
 Maeoh 27th 1829. 
 
 Gen. Jackson's note, returning to me the above letter, it will be 
 seen bears date on the same day with my communication to him and 
 was as follows: 
 
 President Jackson to M. Van Btjken." 
 
 I have read the enclosed letter with attention and if the facts adverted to 
 would warrant the conclusion the objections would be well founded. 
 
 There has been as yet no important case of removal except that of General 
 Harrison ; and I am sure if Mr. Ritchie has read the instructions given to our 
 Ministers, who were sent to Panama, he must think the recall of General 
 Harrison not only a prudent measure but one which the interest of the Country 
 makes indispensably necessary. I have referred to the case of Gen. Harrison 
 only, because I cannot suppose Mr. Ritchie has any allusion to the auditors and 
 comptrollers, who were dismissed not so much on account of their politics as 
 for the want of moral honesty. 
 
 The gentleman who has been selected to supply the place of Gen'l Harrison 
 is, I believe, as well qualified, if not better, than any other who w6uld have 
 undertaken the mission to that Country. 
 
 I would advise the answering of Mr. Ritchie's letter; and ini the most 
 delicate manner to put him on his guard with respect to letter writers from 
 Washington. The letter he has extracted from, instead of being from my 
 friend must be from some dlsappoined office hunter — one who merely professes 
 to be my friend, or perhaps from a friend of Mr. Clay in disguise. 
 
 How could this letter writer know what changes were to be made? How 
 can he pretend to foretell, without knowing who are to be appointed, that 
 the changes will be injurious to the public interest? — You may assure Mr. 
 Ritchie that his Washington correspondent knows nothing of what will 
 be the course of the President on appointments, or he would have known 
 
 » In the Van Buren Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MAETIN VAN BUREN. 249 
 
 that the President hcas not nor will he ever malie an appointment but with 
 a view to the public good and the security of the fiscal concerns of the 
 nation. He never has, nor will he appoint a personal friend to office unless 
 by such appointment- the public will be faithfully served. I cannot suppose 
 Mr. Ritchie would have me proscribe^ my friends merely because they are 
 so. If my personal friends are qualified and patriotic why should I not be 
 permitted to bestow a few offices on them? For my own part I can see no 
 well founded objections to it. In my Cabinet it is well known that there 
 is but one man with whom I have had an intimate and particular acquaint- 
 ance, tho' they are all my friends in whom I have the greatest confidence. 
 But even if it were as Mr. Ritchie supposes, I have only followed the ex- 
 amples of my illustrious predecessors, Washington and Jefferson. They 
 took from their own State bosom friends and placed them in -the Cabinet. 
 Not only this but Gen'l Washington went even farther, — besides placing 
 two of his friends from Virginia near him, he brought into his Cabinet 
 Gen'l Hamilton with whom, if possible, he was upon more intimate terms 
 that I am with any member of my Cabinet 
 
 I have drawn your attention to these facts because I apprehend that our 
 friend Mr. Ritchie " had not reflected upon the subject or he would not 
 have suffered himself to be so easily alarmed. I have, I assure you, none 
 of those fears and forebodings which api)ear to disturb the repose of Mr. 
 Ritchie and his Washington correspondent I repeat, it would be well for 
 you to write Mr. Ritchie and endeavour to remove his apprehensions of diffi- 
 culty and danger. Say to him before he condemns the Tree he ought to 
 wait and see its fruit The people expect reform, they shall not be dis- 
 appointed; but It must be judiciously done and upon prvneiple. 
 Yours respectfully 
 
 A. Jackson 
 March 31st 1829 
 Mr. Van Bueen. 
 
 In pursuance of the President's suggestion I wrote to Mr. Ritchie 
 as follows: — 
 
 M. Van Btiren to Thomas Ritchie. 
 Private. 
 
 Washington April 1, X829. 
 Deae Sib, 
 
 I am constrained by my respect for your opinions and esteem for your 
 personal character to disregard the delicate intimation at the close of your 
 letter, so far at least as to aclaiowledge its receipt and to say a few words 
 as to its contents and the direction I have given it. 
 
 Owing to the great number of letters I found here at my arrival requiring 
 my attention yours did not fall under my observation until Monday evening. 
 After a careful examination of its contents I believed it was due as well to 
 the President as to yourself to submit it to his perusal, which was done 
 on Tuesday morning. He read it with the best feelings and, on returning it 
 to me, entered into a full explanation of the points to which you refer, with the 
 utmost deference to the opinions you have advanced and respect for their 
 author. 
 
 I express his sentiments when I say that it is at all times most agreeable 
 to him to learn the candid opinions in relation to its course of those who 
 take as I Isaiow you do, an interest in the success of his administration, and 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 45. 
 
250 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to explain, as far as time and circumstances will permit, the principles by 
 which every public act is regulated. 
 
 Disclaiming all reserve with those whom he respects, it would be perfectly 
 agreeable to him that you should be fully apprised of the motives and views 
 that have actuated him in making the appointments to which you refer, and 
 it will give me much pleasure should you visit this city (which I sincerely 
 hope you may be able to do) to make you acquainted with both, under a 
 sure conviction that you will admit the purity of the former if you cannot 
 fully concur in the justness of the latter. 
 
 Your ovm good sense will satisfy you of the impracticability of avoiding 
 mistakes or giving any thing like universal satisfaction in the discharge of 
 that portion of the Executive duties which relates to appointments, par- 
 ticularly under existing circumstances. It is not in the wit of man to do so. 
 I have been here but a short time and cannot of my ovm knowledge say 
 anjfthing as to past measures, but I have seen enough to satisfy me that no 
 man ever entered upon the duties of the Chief Magistrate of this or any other 
 Country with greater purity of purpose or a more entire devotion to the 
 honor of the Government and the welfare of the Country than did the present 
 incumbent, and I shall be grossly deceived if in the sequel, that is not the 
 opinion of the great body of the American People. 
 
 Hoping soon to have the pleasure of seeing you I have only to ask that 
 the contents of this as well as the fact that it has been written will be con- 
 fined to your own bosom, and to assure you of my great respect and regard.' 
 
 If to these and such as these disturbing and discouraging matters 
 be added the obstacles that were thrown into his path by means of 
 the Eaton embroglio, — ^a private and personal matter which only 
 acquired political consequence by its adaptation to the gratification 
 of resentments, springing out of the formation of the Cabinet, and, 
 as was supposed, to the elevation or depression of individuals in 
 high positions, — ^we will be able to estimate justly the adverse in- 
 fluences which surrounded President Jackson when he entered upon 
 his official duties. 
 
 Having as military commander abstained from frequent councils 
 of war, because he thought they were too apt to be used to screen- 
 the General from a proper and often most salutary responsibility, 
 he carried something of the same feeling into his action as President. 
 His disinclination to Cabinet councils, springing in part from this 
 consideration was doubtless greatly strengthened by the circum- 
 stance that he foresaw, at an early day, the division that soon after 
 broke out among his constitutional advisors, from the source to 
 which I have alluded, and he fixed his course in the way he deemed 
 best adapted to neutralize its effects. But whatever may have been 
 his reasons the fact was that for a long time at least his practice 
 was to have interviews with the heads of departments separately 
 as often as was ■ necessary to the proper discharge of the business 
 entrusted to them and to ask the opinions of the other members also 
 separately when he desired them upon questions not belonging to 
 
 ' Draft in tbe Van Buren Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 251 
 
 their departments. One of the New York newspapers, friendly to 
 him, whose Editor had visited Washington in mid-summer, said, 
 and I have no reason to doubt, correctly, that down to that period 
 not a single Cabinet meeting had been had for the dispatch of 
 business. 
 
 Soon after my arrival I met him [the President] to talk over the 
 general concerns of the State Department. The question that first 
 presented itself for consideration was the condition of our represen- 
 tation abroad, the expediency of changes, the extent to which it was 
 desirable to carry them and the persons to be appointed. As soon as 
 these points were broached he volunteered to say that he had com- 
 mitted a great mistake in respect to portions of them for which he 
 thought it was his duty to apologize, — ^that as he had selected me 
 to manage that branch of our national concerns I ought to have 
 been consulted in respect to the changes to be made and the selec- 
 tion of the ministers, — that instead of this, induced by considera- 
 tions which he stated and which were, tho' not consistent, as he 
 admitted, with the proper transaction of business, creditable to 
 his heart, he had disposed of the two most important Missions by 
 offering that to England to Mr. Tazewell ^ and the French Mission 
 to Mr. Livingston.^ Having been apprised by Mr. Livingston him- 
 self of these steps I was of course prepared to give my views in 
 respect to them, and admitting, as I did cheerfully, that there were 
 no two gentlemen in the circle of his friends better entitled to 
 such a compliment as he had paid them or in whose behalf my per- 
 sonal feelings would, on suitable occasions, be more cordially en- 
 listed, I yet felt bound to say4;hat, having regard to the character 
 of the business to be attended to at those courts, viz: the settle- 
 ment of the long pending and greatly complicated questions be- 
 tween us and England in respect to the West India Trade and the 
 still older and scarcely less difficult and tedious subject of our 
 claims upon France, I had not been able to satisfy myself that he 
 had been fortunate in his selections. I assigned my reasons for 
 that opinion, at length, not, it is scarcely necessary to say, urging 
 anything against the public or private worth or general capacity 
 of either, but insisting that the public service in those respects 
 would be, in all probability, more successful if those Missions had 
 been entrusted to active young men whose reputation as Statesmen, 
 unlike those of Livingston and Tazewell, were yet to be established, 
 who would seize upon those questions which had so often baffled 
 the capacities of old diplomatists with the spirit and Vigour of 
 youth and whoi would be sufficiently ambitious to encounter and 
 resist the rebuffs to which, on such oft debated points, they must 
 
 1 Littleton W. TazeweU. "Edward Livingston. 
 
252 AMERICAN HISTOKICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 expect to be exposed and to submit to the drudgery thro' which 
 final success could alone be hoped for. 
 
 He listened to me with marked attention and, when I had finished, 
 said, with much feeling, that his own subsequent reflection had caused 
 misgivings in respect to the adaptation of the gentlemen he had 
 selected for the particular concerns with which they were to be 
 charged and that the views I had expressed convinced him entirely 
 that his course, tho' well meant, had been an unwise one, adding that 
 nothing could afford him more satisfaction than to be able to recall 
 the offers he had made if he could do so in a way ° perfectly consist- 
 ent with what was due to his own honor and to the feelings of the 
 gentlemen to whom he had tendered them, which we were agreed 
 could not be done. But as his offers had neither been accepted nor re- 
 fused, tho' considerable time had elapsed since they had been made, 
 the prominence of the subjects referred to in the public mind and 
 the desire that would naturally be felt by the parties particularly in- 
 terested and by the friends of the Administration to see prompt and 
 effective measures adopted to remedy what the latter had regarded 
 as failures on the part of our predecessors, suggested the propriety 
 of writing to those gentlemen assigning the reasons for speedy action 
 and inviting them to give definite answers upon the point of accept- 
 ance and to be ready, if they accepted, to start upon their respective 
 missions as early as the first of August then next, which would 'leave 
 them four months for preparation. To this he cordially assented 
 and I promised to prepare the letters for his inspection. 
 
 The missions in respect to which changes were resolved upon at 
 that interview were those to England, France and Spain. For the 
 last he invited me to suggest a name. I proposed that of Mr. Wood- 
 bury,^ which he promptly accepted. He had served with him in the 
 Senate and as no member of the Cabinet had been taken from 
 New England he considered his location fortunate. I wrote to Mr. 
 Woodbury on the spot.^ 
 
 In my letter I expressed a confident belief that "in the present 
 state of things his talents (of which no one had a higher opinion 
 than myself) would enable him to render essential service to the 
 Country and acquire great credit to himself and that I was author- 
 ized to say that the President embraced with pleasure, this, the earli- 
 est opportunity which circumstances had allowed him; to manifest 
 the high sense he entertained of his public services and of his (Mr. 
 Woodbury's) claims upon his personal respect and esteem." 
 
 Two weeks had not elapsed since I had parted from Mr. Wood- 
 bury, at New York, at midnight, with evidences, both ocular and 
 oral, of his serious disappointment, and feeling that the President 
 
 • MS, III, p. 50. > Levi Woodbury. ' Apr. 7, 1829, Van Buren Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 253 
 
 had made me the happy instrument of a good act in authorizing 
 the offer to him of so honorable a mission I looked with much com- 
 placency for the receipt of his answer, not doubting it would show 
 that the wounded spirit had been healed, in some degree, at least, 
 thro' my agency. 
 
 It came, but not in the gratifying form I had anticipated, rather 
 as a damper upon my feelings. He was very anxious to do what he 
 could to "furnish the President with any influence in his power 
 towards the successful accomplishment of the policy of his admin- 
 istration, as thus far developed, and to obviate misapprehensions, 
 prejudices" &c; but it was doubtful whether he would be ablei to 
 accept the mission, and he wanted information on certain named 
 points before he could decide. These related principally to the busi- 
 ness to be transacted in Spain — ^the time to elapse before he would 
 have to start on his Mission — ^when his salary would commenceif he 
 accepted and how long he would be expected to remain abroad. 
 
 Without changing our opinions in respect to the strong points in 
 Mr. Woodbury's character or his capacity to make himself useful in 
 the public service, this answer occasioned both to the President and 
 myself no little surprise and disappointment. We could not help 
 seeing that the President's prompt offer, and the flattering terms in 
 which it had been conveyed, instead of being received as proof of our 
 respect and esteem for him had filled Mr. Woodbury with exaggerated 
 notions of our estimate of the importance to the administration that 
 he should be conciliated. Yet this was all a mistake. He was one of 
 the few prominent New England men who had withstood the sec- 
 tional current in favor of Mr. Adams and remained with us thro' 
 the election, for which reason, strengthened by the fact that the 
 Eastern States were not represented in the Cabinet, I was desirous, 
 sensible of his undoubted capacity, that he should receive an early 
 proof of the favor and confidence of the Executive ; but there could 
 not possibly have been a greater error than the supposition that, in 
 the matter of appointments, President Jackson was ever influenced 
 by any consideration like that here suggested. The conciliation of 
 individuals formed the smallest, perhaps too small a part of his 
 policy. His strength lay with the masses and he knew it. He first, 
 and, at least in all public questions, always tried to be right and when 
 he felt that he was so he apprehended little — sometimes perhaps too 
 little — from the opposition of prominent and powerful men; and 
 it must now be admitted that he seldom over-estimated the strength 
 he derived from the confidence and favor of the people and his con- 
 sequent ability to cope with his political opponents. 
 
 Mr. Woodbury's letter was the first answer to the President's offer 
 of important public employment after the organization of his Cabi- 
 net and it doubtless served to put him a little upon his mettle. It 
 
254 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 oesides presented a good opportunity for a brief expose of the course 
 which he intended to pursue in similar cases. I have only the rough 
 draft of my reply before me which I insert, as it furnishes from its 
 confidential character, reliable evidence of the principles upon which 
 the President acted in the discharge of his official duties. 
 
 To Levi Woodbury. 
 
 Private. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 If you accept the President will expect you to leave the Country as soon as a 
 due regard to your private affairs will allow, so that you are not detained 
 beyond the first of August, Delay in the departure and dispatch In the return 
 of our Foreign Ministers was a vice of the late administration which we con- 
 demned then and must not practice now. The President will therefore expect 
 that the Ministers appointed by him shall proceed upon their missions In a 
 reasonable time and regulate the period of their return by the public interest 
 and not by their pleasure or personal convenience. If good cause exists for an 
 early return leave will of course be given but in the absence of special reasons 
 a return in a shorter period than four years will not be anticipated. 
 
 The President regards the Mission to Spain as the second in point of impor- 
 tance in the present condition of our foreign relations, and testifies that con- 
 viction by the fact of depriving himself of your services in your present highly 
 honorable and responsible situation. 
 
 Your salary will, in case of acceptance, commence from the time you leave 
 your home including a visit to this city which will be regulated by the period 
 of your departure. 
 
 Hoping that your decision will be such as I cannot but think will redound 
 to your honor and advance the interests of the Country 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 
 Tour friend and obd't serv't^ 
 
 Mr. Woodbury's answer to this avowed his concurrence in the 
 general views it expressed and disclaimed all desire to have prin- 
 ciples so clearly conducive to the public interests departed from on 
 his account. He said that if the Mission had been for a specific 
 object likely to be accomplished in a year or two, he would have 
 overcome all objections and accepted the offer, but that his family 
 were inflexibly opposed to accompanying him, that a large majority 
 of his friends were adverse to his leaving the Country for so long 
 a time, if at all, and as the mission was of a general character and 
 must probably last four years, or longer, he was constrained with 
 great reluctance to decline it. To put him entirely at his ease upon 
 the subject, by direction of the President, I informed him that his 
 letter had been submitted to the latter who found nothing in the 
 reasons assigned otherwise than satisfactory — ^that he regarded the 
 considerations upon which the declension had 'been placed as proper 
 to be taken into view and to control the decision, and that it was a 
 satisfaction to the President to know that one consequence of his 
 
 » Written In April; 1829. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BTJEBN. 255 
 
 disappoinment would be to 'save to the councils of the nation the 
 advantages of Mr. Woodbury's talents and es^erience.^ 
 
 In a subsequent letter,^ based on the preceding one, Mr. Wood- 
 bury assured the President of his entire willingness to fill any situa- 
 tion under the Government which would not, like the Mission to 
 Spain, require so long " an absence from his family, and accom- 
 panied that announcement with a gloomy account of the disordered 
 condition of our own party and of the extraordinary activity with 
 which the opposition had already entered on the canvass for the 
 next Presidential election ; talked of resigning his seat in the Senate 
 and of retiring from public life, &c., &c, upon all of which Gen. 
 Jackson, in returning his letters to me, remarked in a note " that 
 he inferred that Mr. Woodbury over rated the value of the aid that 
 Mu. Adams would be able to bring to Mr. Clay at the next Presi- 
 dential election and was more alarmed than the facts would war- 
 rant; that we had only to continue the course we have commenced, 
 take principle for our guide and public good our end, and the people 
 will sustain us." 
 
 In this brief note and in that relating to Ritchie's letter are to be 
 discovered the secret of the General's extraordinary popula'rity. Such 
 an abiding trust in the integrity of the people and in their fidelity 
 to those who are faithful to them, accompanied by a readiness to 
 spend and to be spent in their service, a willingness at all times to 
 sacrifice ease and comfort and if necessary to hazard his life for 
 their safety could not escape their knowledge or fail to secure their 
 love and gratitude. Since his character had become known to them 
 by a long series of self sacrificing acts they had not doubted that a 
 solicitude for their welfare most ardent and of never failing disin- 
 terestedness was deeply seated in his heart and ever present to his 
 mind. Nor was it surprising that this faith and these dispositions 
 constituted such marked features in his character. They were nat- 
 ural results of peculiar circumstances in his condition. No public man 
 was ever so highly elevated of whom it could be said with more 
 truth that he was one of the people. They were his blood relations 
 — ^the only blood relations he had in this or, as far as is yet known, in 
 any Country. No one stood nearer to him in that great natural tie 
 than another. The remarkable success which crowned his efforts in 
 their service had inspired him with a firm belief that to labour for 
 the good of the masses was a special mission assigned to him by 
 his Creator and no man was ever better disposed to work in his 
 vocation in season and out of season. It is not surprising that with 
 these convictions and dispositions he should have been so potent with 
 a sagacious and just people. 
 
 > May 3, 1829, Van Buren Papers. ' May 18, 1829, Ibid. ° MS. Ill, p. 55. 
 
256 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 I have not introduced these particulars by way of blame or still 
 less of disparagement but to give an inside view of the actions of 
 public men — a view which generally diflfers materially from that 
 which is seen by the public. The sequel of this work will shew how 
 much there was in Mr. Woodbury's career deserving of the respect 
 and approbation of his Countrymen and of the support which both 
 Gen. Jackson gind myself gave to him to the very close of our public 
 lives, notwithstanding striking peculiarities, I might almost say 
 obliquities, in his political course. 
 
 Mr. Tazewell, altho' willing to represent his State in the Na- 
 tional Legislature, appeared to me to be as free from the love 
 of office as any man with whom I was associated in public life. 
 He came to the seat of Government very soon after my arrival and 
 I think before I wrote to him on the subject of the Mission to 
 England which had been tendered to him by the President. He 
 was he said unwilling to accept it unless lie could satisfy himself 
 that by doing so he would have it in his power to render his 
 Country some signal service. Upon that point at least he seemed 
 to carry his heart in his hand, and left no room for misconstruc- 
 tion or doubt as to his sincerity. He had taken as Senator an active 
 part in the proceedings of Congress on the subject of the West India 
 Trade, but his hopes of a successful negotiation in respect to it 
 were not sanguine. In this state of mind his purpose in coming to 
 Washington was to ascertain whether it was at all probable that he 
 would be able to exert an influence in behalf of the repeal or modi- 
 fication of the com laws, and to place the question of his accept- 
 ance upon the result of that enquiry. He announced that deter- 
 mination to the President and myself but we could not with truth 
 give him any encouragement upon the point and told him so with- 
 out reserve. Being well acquainted with the British Minister at 
 Washington, Sir Charles E. Vaughan, and appreciating the sincerity 
 and frankness of his character, he expressed a desire to see and 
 consult with him upon it to which we saw no objections. He car- 
 ried, I think, a letter from me expressive of his desire and of the 
 President's approbation of the proposed interview, but Sir Charles 
 expressed so confidently his conviction of the utter hopelessness 
 of the proposed attempt that Mr. Tazewell returned and declined 
 the Mission. 
 
 I remember well how much pleasure and relief, amid our cares 
 and vexations we experienced from the candid, unselfish and public 
 spirited disposition shewn by him in these interviews. At the 
 next session' of Congress Mr. Tazewell embarked, or, I might per- 
 haps with truth say, was drawn by his persoi^al and political as- 
 sociations into a violent opposition to the Treaty with the Sublime 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 257 
 
 Porte for the navigation of the Black Sea by American vessels — 
 the occasion of the first overt act of Mr. Calhoun's opposition to 
 the Administration of President Jackson. In this I, having con- 
 ducted the negotiation, thougM, him wrong and it was well under- 
 stood that his State, although interposing no specific complaint, 
 did not approve of his course; but whatever may have been the 
 degree of credit or discredit due to his conduct on the latter occasion 
 I have never forgotten his rare and admirable bearing on that to 
 which I have first referred, and I take much pleasure in making this 
 record of the transaction to which it related. 
 
 Satisfied that he had been too hasty in respect to the appoint- 
 ments to England and France, General Jackson informed me that, 
 it it should become necessary to make new selections, he would 
 expect me to name the men and that, having confidence in my judg- 
 ment, it! was more than probable that he would adopt them. 
 
 Mr. Berrien, who had been appointed Attorney General, was, 
 at the moment, in Georgia arranging his private affairs prepara- 
 tory to his removal to the seat of Government. Assuming that 
 he would prefer the place of Minister to England the President 
 authorized me to offer him an exchange of places and, on the as- 
 sumption that he would certainly consent to it, to offer the Atr 
 torney Generalship to Mr. McLane, which was done without wait- 
 ing for Mr. Berrien's answer. Mr. McLane's reply addressed to 
 me in an unofficial letter, did not come up to my anticipation, but 
 the President was predisposed to regard it in the most favorabla 
 light and I was too partial to him to scan his faults. He con- 
 fessed that he had not his own free consent to accept the place and 
 did so reluctantly, regarding it as a sacrifice to the interests of his 
 large family (which did not leave him at liberty to be fastidious, 
 or to consult his own inclinations) and to those of the cause and 
 of his friends ; adding that " if he could have supposed the Presi- 
 dent intended to make any immediate provision for him he could 
 have suggested one much more desirable to himself and probably 
 equally so for him and all others. He thought moreover that he 
 (the President) had purchased the change in the office of Attorney 
 General at too great a price." 
 
 ° Fortunately, as we supposed, for the gratification of our friend 
 McLane, the Attorney General decided to remain where he was, and 
 not doubting that it was the English Mission to which the former 
 referred as the place that would have been more desirable to him- 
 self and the arrangement probably equally satisfactory to all others, 
 I forthwith presented his name to the President who authorized me 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 60. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 17 
 
258 AMERICAN' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to offer it to him. But we were destined to further disappointment. 
 From Mr. McLane's answer, addressed to me, as before unofficially, 
 it appeared that my letter had "embarrassed him;" that when he 
 wrote me the day iefore accepting the office of Attorney General 
 "he was not altogether without his fears that Mr. Berrien might 
 not assent to the change for "what was so desirable to^ us and on 
 which account principally he had decided as he did, i. e. to be with 
 me in the Cabinet, and for that very reason the change might not 
 be agreeable to him." To this it was added, among other things, 
 that he hoped that his letter to the President however would shew 
 his disposition to consult his own and the honor of the .administra- 
 tion, and thus "preserve my (his) chance for what I will frankly 
 tell you would make me happier than any other honor — ^the Bench." 
 Meantime, that chance not being impaired, the Mission to England, 
 he thought might be turned to even greater advantage, &c; that con- 
 sidering moreover the impropriety of exposing you (me) and the 
 President to many rejected offers as to this Mission, at this period 
 of the administration and understanding from your (my) letter 
 that your (my) individual views are in favor of this determination 
 I will accept the Mission to England * * * "i must trust to 
 your friendship and sagacity to keep me in the miud of the President 
 and to give such a direction to this affair as may ultimately end 
 best for us all." 
 
 Upon the suggestion of my esteemed and noble hearted friend, 
 Capt. Jack Nicolson, of the Ifavy, I proposed the name of Wash- 
 ington Irving, who was then in England, for the place of Secretary 
 of Legation to the English Mission to the President and on obtain- 
 ing his assent I wrote to his brother Judge Irving ^ for his opinion 
 whether it would probably be acceptable, and receiving a favorable 
 answer, the appointment was forthwith made. 
 
 If Mr. Livingston manifested less indifference to the acquisition 
 of his place than Mr. Tazewell it was not because he estimated more 
 highly the distinction or craved the emoluments of office. The 
 enjoyment of official pomp and circumstance is, quoad the United 
 States, an Eastern or New England feeling and is still fostered 
 there by the ceremonies and forms incident to public authority. 
 My friend Woodbury, tho' tgo sagacious to waste much of his 
 earthly substance on account of it, yet took great satisfaction in 
 its indulg^ce when attainable without too much pecuniary sacri- 
 fice, and Webster's passion for it was of a still stronger type. 
 The latter was never morei at home or in- gayer spirit than when 
 playing the potentate within the circle and to the extent of his 
 official possessions. The Southern people were remarkably free from 
 
 ' ,Tohn Treat Irving. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 259 
 
 this weakness nor was there ever much of it in the Middle States. 
 Eegarding Webster and Woodbury, from the North, and Marshall 
 and Tazewell, from the South, as examples of the extent of it in 
 their respective sections they represented in this respect antipodes 
 whom it would be difficult to imagine belonging to the same Country 
 and reared under the same Government. 
 
 Tazewell, altho' well educated and, in the best sense of the term, 
 a gentleman, would not have been called a literary man, and I am 
 sure he derived more social enjoyment from his games at quoits with 
 Chief Justice Marshall, Gen. Wickham,^ Dr. Brockenborough ^ and 
 others like them at E,ichmond,° or ft*om dinners of sheeps-head with 
 his unceremonious but well bred friends and associates at Norfolk, 
 than he could promise himself abroad. To Mr. Livingston nothing 
 could be offered more agreeable than the opportiuiity and facility 
 for the cultivation of letters and the society o^f the highest living 
 authorities in art and science at Paris as the fruition of long 
 cherished anticipations of that character. Mrs. Livingston was 
 French by birth and education and possessed withal superior accom- 
 plishments and qualifications for the station to which she seemed des- 
 tined. Besides these circumstances the French Mission had long 
 been a source of honorable pride in his family^ having been the 
 highest official distinction enjoyed by his distinguished brother 
 Chancellor Livingston, one of the Committee which reported the 
 Declaration of Independence; in after times it attracted to hjs own 
 to distinguish it from a worthy connexion of the same name the 
 sobriquet of French Edward. 
 
 But altho' he did not lack inducements, worthy to be taken into 
 consideration in making up his own opinion, there were others en- 
 titled to more influence with the President. He had become satisfied 
 that altho' no appointment could be made that in respect to his indi- 
 vidual feelings it would give him more pleasure to make and perhaps 
 none that would add more dignity to the Mission, the selection might 
 not prove to have been a fortunate one in view of the particular sub- 
 ject to be acted upon and which he was very desirous to adjust. 
 
 I opened a correspondence with Mr. Livington upon the subjects 
 of his acceptance of the Mission and the period of his departure 
 which resulted in his declension on account of the state of his private 
 affairs which required his presence in the United States to a later 
 period than any to which his departure could, in his own opinion, 
 be properly deferred. Subsequent transactions, to be hereafter re- 
 ferred to, would be sufficient to shew, if proof of "the fact could be 
 thought necessary, that the result in no degree affected the friendly 
 relations which had long existed between him, the President and my- 
 
 1 John Wiekham. ^ jjr. William ? Brockenborough ° MS. Ill, p. 65. 
 
260 AMERICAN HISTOEICAIi ASSOCIATIOH. 
 
 self. His decision to decline was, on tlie contrary, conveyed to the 
 President in a letter which both in matter and manner were highly 
 honorable to him.^ 
 
 By the invitation of the President I suggested a name for the 
 vacant mission — ^that of William C. Rives, of Virginia, to which 
 he readily agreed, and Mr. Eives promptly accepted the offer. Mr. 
 Livingston's letter to the President having been received by the 
 morning mail from the North I wrote to Mr. Eives by the Southern 
 mail on the same day. On the following morning Mr. Livingston 
 presented himself at my office and thinking it possible that he came 
 to withdraw his declension I informed him at once and in suitable 
 terms of what had been done on the previous day. Nothing appeared 
 during his short, stay to confirm or disprove thait suggestion, but I 
 have always been of the opinion that such had been his intention. 
 
 The President selected from several names presented for the Mis- 
 sion to Spain, which had been declined by Mr. Woodbury, that of 
 Gov. Van Ness,^ of Vermont, and he was commissioned accordingly. 
 Mr. Van Ness was a man of rare natural endowments and occupied 
 a position among the friends of the National Administration in 
 New England which entitled him to its favorable consideration. 
 My relations with his family had been for years of an unfriendly 
 character but I acquiesced cheerfully in his selection. The ap- 
 pointments of Mr. Preble* to the Netherlands, Mr. Eandolph* to 
 Eussig,, and several Charges to other Countries having been agreed 
 upon subsequently, I entered upon a very full examination of the 
 condition of the public business at the different points to which 
 new Ministers were sent, the actual state and past history of unfin- 
 ished negotiations and the collection of materials for new instruc- 
 tions. Upon this work was bestowed between two and three of 
 the most laborious months of my whole life. Other matters, of 
 course, appertaining to the Department of State, occupied portions 
 of my attention. Communications between the President and For- 
 eign Ministers had been postponed till my arrival and I was grieved 
 to learn from a friendly and well informed source that impressions 
 adverse to the former had been made upon most of the members 
 of the Diplomatic Corps. Naturally inclined, from causes that need 
 not be stated, to side with the party least imbued with the demo- 
 cratic spirit of the Country, the members of that body have been 
 always predisposed to approach with distrust any Chief Magis- 
 trate elevated to power by that influence. The character of the 
 canvass which resulted in the election of Gen. Jackson and the 
 
 ' Uvlngston to Jackson, May 3, 1829, in the Van Buren Papers. 
 ^ Cornelius Peter Van Nesa. 
 "William Pitt Preble. 
 'Jobn Randolph, of Roanoke. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 01" MARTIN VAN BXJEBif. 261 
 
 unprecedented extent to which the feelings of the masses of the 
 People had been enlisted in his favor had added much strength 
 to this bias. Apprehensions arising from that and kindred sources, 
 stimulated by the gossips of the Capital, a class to whose reports 
 diplomatists are always ready to listen, had, I found, grown to a 
 sort of panic. An idea of the nature and prevalence of this feel- 
 ing may be formed by recurring to the interview between Mr. and 
 Mrs. Livingston and myself at Philadelphia. If persons of their 
 intelligence so well acquainted with Gen. Jackson, understanding 
 the many admirable and strong traits in his character and withal 
 sincerely solicitous for his success, could imbibe such gloomy views 
 of the state of affairs at the seat of Government, in respect to points 
 in which the Foreign Ministers took great interest, what must have 
 been those of the Ministers themselves, entertaining in advance the 
 apprehensions to which I have alluded. 
 
 I made it my business, without delay, to see Baron Huygens, the 
 Minister from Holland, with whom as a brother Dutchman I had 
 previously established very friendly relations, and Sir Charles E. 
 Vaughan, the British Envoy, with whom I had been for some time 
 also upon intimate and cordial terms, and to do what I could to 
 remove the unjust impressions of which I have spoken, and I met 
 with a degree of success which the elevated character of both had 
 given me good reason to anticipate. I next invited the Diplomatic 
 Corps, by direction of the President, to meet me in a body, at the 
 Executive Mansion with a view to their presentation and on the 
 evening before the day appointed for that purpose I sent the follow- 
 ing note 
 
 To THE President. 
 Deae Sie 
 
 In conversation last evening with Mr. Huygens lie made a suggestion which 
 I think deserves consideration. I mentioned to him, as I had before done to 
 Sir Charles Vaughan, that as the only object of the introduction tomorrow 
 was to relieve them and yourself from the embarrassments resulting from the 
 very irregular interviews which had previously taken place, It could not be 
 necessary to have anything like formal addresses. To this both assented and 
 Mr. Huygens added that an impression had been made in Europe of an un- 
 favorable character in respect to your dispositions in respect to our foreign 
 relations; that they (the Diplomatic Corps) had already seen sufficient to 
 relieve whatever apprehensions might have existed upon that point and were 
 strongly disposed by their reports to do all in their power to effect the same 
 result at their respective courts; that the invitation for to morrow was very 
 proper in itself and had been well received and that if you should choose to 
 submit a few observations to them of a general character and advancing only 
 the same sentiments as those contained in your inaugural address, it would, 
 he thouglit, enable them to do great good at home. 
 
 I submit to you whether avoiding anything like a set speech, and without 
 designing it for any other publication than would be given to it by the Ministers, 
 in their reports, and by common fame, you might not say to them, with ad- 
 
262 AMERICAN HISTOftlCAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 vantage, that tlie sentiments you expressed in your inaugural address in regard 
 to tlie foreign relations of the Country you now repeat to them ; that your 
 opinion now is and always has been that the true interests of this Country 
 would always be best consulted by preserving the relations of peace with all the 
 world, and an intercourse founded upon principles of fair reciprocity ; that 
 you entered upon the trust committed to you without foreign prejudices or 
 predilections and with personal feelings of the most friendly character towards 
 every nation with whom we have intercourse, and that it should be your en- 
 deavour as It was your sincere desire to promote the° interests of your own 
 Country, without doing injustice to the rights of Others, by the most frank, 
 friendly and sincere negotiations. 
 
 I shall have the pleasure of seeing you either this evening or in the morning. 
 Yours truly 
 
 Sunday Morning 
 
 April 5th, 1829. 
 
 The attendance of the Ministers was full and after they had been 
 individually presented to the President he made them a brief ad- 
 dress, expressing substantially the ideas which had been suggested, 
 which, delivered in the General's invariably happy and impressive 
 manner was received with the highest satisfaction and a copy having 
 been furnished to each, at their request, was forthwith forwarded to 
 their respective governments. The introduction was followed by 
 invitations to dinner and an entertainment, to say the least of it, not 
 inferior to those to which they had been accustomed, on similar oc- 
 casions, anywhere. The simple yet kindly old-school manners of 
 the host with the amicable assurances of his address and the unex- 
 ceptionable quality of his banquet made the most favorable impres- 
 sions upon the guests which they took no pains to conceal, and thus 
 the anxieties of these gentlemen were completely relieved and their 
 prejudices materially softened by the most approved diplomatic ma- 
 chinery. 
 
 Notwithstanding these auspicious signs of improvement in one 
 branch of the public service, circumstances soon occurred in another 
 by which my own continuance in the Cabinet was, for a brief period, 
 involved in difficulty and doubt. 
 
 The President made it a rule of his administration from which he 
 very rarely departed, to bring all questions in respect to which he 
 had reason to anticipate opposition from his Cabinet, to a speedy 
 decision, — a practice, founded in good sense and an accurate knowl- 
 edge of human nature, which served to prevent the heart-burnings 
 and excitement which such differences in opinion, when often dis- 
 cussed and long kept on foot, seldom fail to engender. He had 
 doubtless, from a very early period, decided to appoint Samuel 
 Swartwout Collector of the Port of New York, and, without any- 
 thing having passed between us upon the subject, seemed to have 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 70. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 263 
 
 expected opposition from me, certainly, and possibly from the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury. He waited no longer than was made neces- 
 sary by his indispensable attention to other important points which 
 arose upon the complete organization of his Cabinet before that 
 matter was brought forward and first broached to me in the follow- 
 ing note : 
 
 April 20th, 1829. 
 Db. Sib 
 
 I have this mornins; sent to Mr. Ingham* the papers in relation to the 
 New York Customs, requesting him after he examines them to hand them 
 to you. Will you also have the goodness to look at them and give me your 
 opinion in writing on the relative merits of the several applicants specifying 
 at the same time the offices to which you would appoint them, and how 
 far the principles we have adopted would justify dismissals from office in 
 that Port? I wish now to act promptly on a subject which has a good deal 
 worried me. ' 
 
 In addition to the papers sent Mr. Ingham this morning I have a few 
 more confidential letters, for the most part in favor of Mr. Swartwout. The 
 two Senators from New York, also, verbally recommended Mr. Swartwout. 
 I am, very respectfully Yrs &c 
 
 Andrew Jackson 
 
 Mr. Van Buben. 
 
 Although the General referred to the appointments in the Custom 
 House generally, that of Collector was the bone of contention by 
 which he had been worried. Upon examining the documents sent 
 me I found the President's files as was usually the case on similar 
 occasions, overburthened with recommendations in favor of Swart- 
 wout's appointment from persons too many of whom would have 
 been bad advisers under any circumstances and had no right to speak 
 for the friends of the administration in the City, and not a few of 
 whom had opposed us in the election, with scarcely a communica- 
 tion from those who were best entitled to be heard from on the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 After consulting with the Secretary of the Treasury I wrote to 
 our friends in New York apprising them of the danger of Swart- 
 wout's appointment unless they forthwith presented to the President 
 unequivocal evidence of the sense of the city and advising that the 
 Chamber of Commerce should be applied to for an expression of their 
 opinion, not doubting that they would, notwithstanding their gen- 
 eral political opposition to the administration, step forward, in a 
 case of such magnitude and endeavour to prevent the great evil 
 which I thought the appointment of Swartwout would be. I wrote 
 to our Senators Dudley and Sanf ord,^ to know whether they had rec- 
 ommended the act and received the fullest assurances from them that 
 the President had been deceived upon that point. Having taken 
 
 1 Samuel D. Ingrain. ' Charles B. Dudley and Nathan Sanford. 
 
264 AMERICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 these steps to secure an interference from the proper quarters, I pre- 
 pared an opinion, in compliance with the President's invitation, 
 which filled several sheets, stating unreservedly the objections to the 
 appointment of Swartwout and to the character of the recommenda- 
 tions in his case, and suggesting the names of John J^erguson or 
 Saul Alley for the office in question. 
 The following is an extract from my written opinion: — 
 I have known Mr. Swartwout for many years although not intimately. I 
 have always regarded him as a generous, warm-hearted, and high-spirited man, 
 influenced by kind feelings to his friends and have consequently never enter- 
 tained any other than friendly feelings towards him personally. Politically 
 he has never been and is not now in a situation to make his opinions the cause 
 of prejudice or solicitude with me. It is my clear and decided opinion (and 
 a firmer or better grounded conviction I never entertained in my life) that 
 the appointment of Mr. Swartwout to the office of CoUector of the Port of New 
 York would not be in accordance with public sentiment, the interests of the 
 Country or to the credit of the administration. Deeply impressed with the pe- 
 culiar importance of this appointment and anxious fully to discharge the duty 
 imposed upon me by your request, and by the relation in which I stand to you, 
 I feel it my duty to add that his selection would in my judgment be a measure 
 that would in the end be deeply lamented by every sincere and intelligent 
 friend of your administration throughout the Union.' 
 
 This opinion was dated April 23rd, and delivered to the Presi- 
 dent on the next morning. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury informed me that he had prepared 
 an opinion, coming to the same result, but as he did not seem dis- 
 posed to compare notes with me I did not press him to do so, and I 
 never saw the views he presented of the subject. During the even- 
 ing of the day on which our opinions had been delivered I received 
 the following notes: 
 
 Feom the President. 
 
 April 24th, 1829. 
 De Snt, 
 
 I have looked over your views and expositions as to the appointments in the 
 Customs of New York with great attention and care, and, with the best lights 
 afforded to my judgment, have settled in the determination to place Mr. Samuel 
 Swartwout in the office of Collector. It will be matter of regret to me if our 
 friends in New York shall complain of the selection, but from the strong and 
 highly respectable recommendations presented in his favor I cannot suspect 
 that any greater dissatisfaction will be produced than would be towards almost 
 any other who might be selected ; perfect and entire unanimity in appointments 
 is not to be expected. 
 
 Respecting Mr. Swartwout all agree, and many have spoken, that he is a 
 warm hearted, zealous and generous man, strictly honest and correct in all his 
 dealings and conduct ; none have impugned his ° integrity or honor. He is re- 
 puted to be poor, but as an honest man is " the noblest work of God," I cannot 
 recognise this as an objection to any man. Mr. Jefferson's rule " is he honest — 
 is he capable," I have always admired. This being the case of Mr. Swartwout, 
 
 '■ In the Van Buren Papers, April 23, 1829. " MS. HI, p. 75. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 265 
 
 from his recommendations, and it appearing tliat he can give the necess?iry 
 security required of him, I have thought proper to appoint him. 
 
 Your friend 
 
 Andrew Jackson 
 Mr. Van Bxteen. 
 
 Respecting the appointment at Nashville (Attorney) I shall leave that to you ; 
 fair reciprocity is always right, and as I have given you, in your State, a Collec- 
 tor, I leave you, in mine, to give us an Attorney ; asking nothing more than that 
 you will give us as qualified a man. I have directed all the recommendations to 
 be sent you for the applicants for this office. 
 
 Yours, &c 
 
 ANDEEW JACKSPN 
 
 April 24th 1829 
 To the Sec't of State 
 
 These notes- were accompanied by another informing me that 
 he had appointed my friend, James A. Hamilton, District At- 
 torney for the Southern District of New York. The President was 
 well warranted in assuming that I was friendly to Mr. Hamilton 
 and took an interest in his welfare. He carried a letter from me to 
 Gen. Jackson when he went to New Orleans in his company, as a 
 representative of the Tammany Society, to attend a celebration 
 of the successful result of the Presidential election, and, after my 
 appointment, I had also suggested his name to the President as 
 Acting Secretary of iState, during the interval previous to my 
 arrival at Washington. But he was mistaken in supposing that I 
 wished Mr. Hamilton to have or would have recommended him for 
 the appointment conferred upon him. I could not have done so 
 with justice to my political friends in New York and the appointee 
 was himself too well satisfied of this to broach the subject to me, if 
 he was advised of what was intended, of which I know nothing. 
 He was sitting by me when the President's notes were received and 
 they were instantly communicated to him. He said that he had not 
 anticipated his own appointment, or words to that effect, to which 
 I repljed that he must be sensible that the difficulties of my position 
 growing out of the appointment of Swartwout, with reference to 
 the feelings of my New York friends, would be materially in- 
 creased by what had been done; he admitted that such might be 
 the case but added nothing further and I did not think that I had 
 a right to say more. If I had received the slightest intimation that 
 such a step was in contemplation my dissent would have been 
 promptly expressed, altho' ,not for reasons founded on a want 
 of integrity or capacity on his part. The General had doubtless 
 been induced to believe either from the facts to which I have alluded, 
 or thro' representations of Hamilton's friends, that his appoint- 
 ment would go far to reconcile me to that of Swartwout. I did not 
 think, ^s I have said, that I had a right, under the cirQjimstances, 
 
266 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 tq ask him to decline, but so far as appearances could speak, he was 
 not left in doubt in respect to my mortification at the whole trans- 
 action. 
 
 I had been from the beginning aware of the strong preference 
 which Swartwout's apparently chivalrous character and engaging 
 manners had. excited in the breast of the President, but I had not 
 anticipated nor was I at all prepared to witness its, influence in' 
 so grave a form. The result came upon me at a moment when 
 my health was feeble and my spirits depressed, and, tho' I had 
 resisted all the reasonings that had been given to me, since my 
 appointment, by men whose friendship I did not in the least doubt, 
 my mind was not at ease in regard to my position. I took my hat 
 and walked the streets of Washington until a late hour of the night 
 deliberating whether I ought not to adopt the advice I had received 
 and to resign a post surrounded by such embarrassments, but I re- 
 turned to my lodgings and retired to my bed with my views in: 
 respect to the path of duty painfully unsettled. I need scarcely 
 say that it was not by the possible consequences of a single appoint- 
 ment, important as that undoubtedly was, that I was induced to 
 raise the question which I canvassed with so much earnestness. 
 The evils I apprehended from a step of that character might, after 
 all, not occur, or might be limited in extent, but the feeling which 
 so deeply disturbed me arose from an apprehension," excited by 
 what had just occurred that my dissatisfied friends might prove 
 to have been right in their belief that persons who could never 
 possess my confidence had acquired an influence over the President's 
 mind which would force me to an ultimate resignation if they 
 retained it. 
 
 But the first impressions of the morning, always to me the clear- 
 est and the best, presented the subject in a light which, tho' not 
 divesting it of a few painful features, indicated the right way with 
 reasonable distinctness. I was satisfied that in deciding upon the 
 effect which this act of the President ought to have upon my own 
 course I could not properly go beyond the motives by which I 
 believed him to have been actuated. If I could think for a moment 
 that he had made the appointment with impressions of Swartwout's 
 character similar to my own my instant withdrawal was a matter 
 of duty, but if on the other hand I felt authorized to assume that 
 he had acted in good faith, under a sincere conviction that those 
 impressions on my part were unfounded, and that whilst he grati- 
 fied his personal pi-edilections, he at the same time consulted well 
 the public interest, I could not make his act the ground of resig- 
 nation without pretending to rights which I did not possess. He 
 was alone responsible for it and had extended to me all the con- 
 sideration due to my position by asking and respectfully considering 
 
/ AtTTOBIdGRAPHY OF MAllTIN VAN BUEEN, 267 
 
 my advice. To have claimed more might well have been thought 
 an encroachment on his Constitutional rights. A perseverance on 
 his part in acts of the same nature to an extent suiRcient to shew, 
 beyond reasonable doubt, a radical and incurable defect in his char- 
 acter, would change the state of the question, but as matters stood 
 my first duty was to try to prevent a state of things so greatly to be 
 regretted and there was certainly much in the way the act in question 
 had been performed to encourage me in making such an effort. 
 
 There were moreover certain other considerations of much weight 
 in favor of the course I decided to pursue. I could not help feeling 
 that my position was a peculiar one and that there were responsibili- 
 ties attached to it of a character widely different from those which 
 ordinarily attach to occupants of public stations, to explain which 
 I must take the risk of exposing myself to the charge of excessive 
 vanity — about the only reproach which my political enemies had 
 never laid at my door. No man ever attained to eminence in our 
 Country who was more exclusively the artificer of his own fortunes 
 than was General Jackson, or whose unsurpassed personal popularity 
 was founded to a greater extent upon the confidence of the People 
 in the integrity of his motives and in the value of his disinterested 
 services, unaided by extraneous or adventitious circumstances. In 
 respect to practical good sense, sound and ripe judgment, knowledge 
 of human nature, indomitable and incorruptible spirit and general 
 capacity for business a large majority of the People of the United 
 States relied upon him with the greatest confidence and with entire 
 justice. But of his experience in executive duties like those which 
 appertain to the pffice of President and of his habitual self control, 
 a matter of vital importance in that high station, many of his warm- 
 est supporters were not without lively apprehensions— a portion anx- 
 iously distrustful. Hence arose a general solicitude on the part of 
 his friends that he should have nearest to him in his Cabinet one to 
 whose qualifications and discretion, in those respects, they might 
 trust. The gratification of this desire was looked for, as the result 
 proved, with unusual unanimity, in m.y appointment as Secretary of 
 State, whether rightly or not is a question" which, in this view of 
 the subject, it is not necessary to consider. Accordingly the result 
 of the election was no sooner laiown than there arose, spontaneously 
 throughout the Country, without respect to sections or cliques, a call 
 upon the new President from those who had raised him to power 
 for that appointment. To that expression there was no avowed 
 exception. I have heretofore quoted Gen. Jackson's published dec- 
 laration that he considered my name to have been placed before him 
 for the place to which he called me by the united voice of tjie politi- 
 
 ' MS. Ill, p. 80. 
 
268 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 cal party by which he had himself been elected — a declaration often 
 repeated by him in conversation and in letters as well while the 
 formation of the Cabinet was in progress- as subsequently. Thus 
 holding my post my reflections satisfied me that I was not at liberty 
 to withdraw from it without farther efliorts to realize the wishes of 
 those who had given me this gratifying proof of their confidence. 
 
 Under these impressions I decided to remain and only asked the 
 consent of the President that I should inform my friends in New 
 York that the appointment of Swartwout had been made against 
 my earnest remonstrance and that of Hamilton without my knowl- 
 edge or desire. This he promptly gave in a letter which stated the 
 facts exactly and which he advised me to send to my friend Mr. 
 Cambreleng with permission to shew it to whom he pleased. Swart- 
 wout succeded in making himself a popular Collector and the Presi- 
 dent made occasional good-natured allusions to the apprehensions I 
 had exhibited on the occasion of his appointment, speaking of the 
 matter as the greatest of the few mistakes he had known me to make. 
 After I had resigned the office of Secretary of State and whilst we 
 waited for the carriage in which he was about to accompany me a 
 part of the way to Baltimore he placed in my hand my protest 
 against Swartwout's appointment saying that it was a document 
 which would not read well hereafter when it is considered how great 
 was the error on which it was founded and begging me to take it 
 and destroy it, or to permit him to do so. Perceiving the kind feel- 
 ing in which the proceeding originated, I replied that I could not 
 consent to its destruction, that I was free to confess that appear- 
 ances favored his opinion but that the affair was not ended nor my 
 apprehensions removed; that, however, if he would permit me, I 
 would endorse upon it my sense of the kind motives which induced 
 him to return it and that I accepted it because I could not deny 
 the gratification which I knew he took in doing what he considered 
 a favor to his friends. I wrote the endorsement in the carriage, read 
 it to him and he laughed at my obstinacy." 
 
 The sad catastrophe which followed is well known. The subject 
 was never afterwards referred to between us. Even during my visit 
 
 « That my strong apprehensions were not confined to myself abundantly appears from 
 Mr. Cambreleng's reply to my letter notifying him of Swartwout's appointment, from 
 which I extract the concluding paragraph : — 
 
 New York 88 Aprtt 1W9 
 My Dear Sie, 
 
 I congratulate you that the appointments for New York are at an end — and now mark 
 me — If our Collector Is not a defaulter in four years, I'll swallow the Treasury if It was 
 all coined in coppers. 
 
 Most sincerely Tours 
 
 C. C. Cambeelbng.* 
 Hon"* M. Van Bdben 
 
 ' In the Van Buren I'apers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 269 
 
 to the Hermitage in 1842 when most of the transactions of that and 
 Still earlier periods interesting to himself were brought into re- 
 view in the course of our familiar and to me deeply interesting con- 
 versations this matter was studiously avoided. He did not refer to 
 it and I was too sensible of the extent of his disappointment and 
 mortification to do so myself. 
 
 At the hazard of being thought to descend to matters too unim- 
 portant I recur to the day after my arrival at Washington to men- 
 tion an incident which happened at that time. I do so because it 
 goes to show how little either the abuse that had been heaped on 
 both himself and Mrs. Jackson, to whom he was devotedly attached, 
 or the rupture of personal and political friendships caused by the 
 selection of his Cabinet, or the peculiar views of those by whom he 
 was surrounded and by whom he was supposed to be unduly influ- 
 enced, or all of them combined had weakened those just and hon- 
 ourable sentiments with which his nature was thoroughly imbued 
 and which never failed to show themselves when occasion offered. 
 His defeated competitor removed from the White House to Com- 
 modore Porter's place, on Meridian Hill, where he resided for some 
 time. Up to the time of niy arrival no one connected with the new 
 administration, which had then been organized some six weeks, had 
 called upon Mr. Adams. On examining into the cause of this omis- 
 sion I found that it was considered due to the feelings of the Presi- 
 dent which had been deeply wounded by an attack on Mrs. Jackson 
 that had appeared in the Washington Journal, a newspaper exten- 
 sively regarded as under the influence of Mr. Adams^ Not believing 
 that Gen. Jackson desired such a course to be pursued, and satisfied 
 as to what my own should be, I apprised him of my intention to 
 pay my respects to the ex-President, to which he instantly replied 
 that he was glad to hear it. He said that the treatment which he 
 had too much reason to think he had received from Mr. Adams was 
 of such a character that he did not feel himself at liberty to over- 
 look it or he would long before have called upon him himself, 
 but this was his personal matter and his friends would best consult 
 his own wishes when they left its treatment to him alone. It was 
 his desire, he said, that those associated with him in the Govern- 
 ment should treat Mr. Adams with the respect that was due to him 
 and he was happy to find that I was about to set them so good an 
 example. The beneficial effects shed upon the new relations which 
 had been established between the President and myself by this mag- 
 nanimous course on his part may well be imagined. 
 
 I made my call and was very cordially received by Mr. Adams, 
 and I subsequently sent to him, from time to time, the despatches 
 relating to unfinished negotiations in the results of which he ex- 
 pressed particular interest, with such of the foreign newspapers as 
 
270 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 he desired to read. When. I left him he said he would give me a 
 hint that I might find useful which was that no secrets could be kept 
 in the State Department, but that on the contrary the foreign 
 Ministers were always certain in one way or another to get informa- 
 tion of any negotiation going on there in which their Governments 
 felt an interest. 
 
 The first negotiation we instituted was one with the Sublime Porte 
 for the establishment of commercial relations between Turkey and 
 the United States, and the admission of American vessels to the 
 navigation of the Black Sea. Apprehensive that other powers might 
 interfere to our prejudice I availed myself of Mr. Adams' hint and 
 kept all the papers at my private rooms while the matter was in 
 progress. The negotiation was entirely successful and I embraced 
 an early opportunity to advise Mr. Adams of the proceeding and the 
 result, both of which he highly commended. 
 
 Encouraged by the General's remarks, I made a serious effort to 
 i-e-establish friendly relation^ between him and Mr. Adams, and for 
 a season with good prospect of success. Believing that the former 
 would be entirely safe in assuming that Mr. Adams had no previous 
 knowledge of the attack upon Mrs. Jackson, which had so much of- 
 fended him, I urged that it was his business as the victor to make 
 friendly advances and that moreover such was the course which the 
 public would expect from his character. The injury of which he 
 complained was one in regard to which he proved to be more impla- 
 cable than was the case as to any to which he had been subjected. I 
 finally prevailed upon him notwithstanding to promise me that he 
 would on some fitting occasion speak to Mr. Adams and offer him his 
 hand. The funeral of Doddridge, a member of Congress from Vir- 
 ginia, which I thought Mr. Adams by his partiality for the late mem- 
 ber, would attend struck me as likely to present an appropriate op- 
 portunity. For some reason I was not able to be present myself but 
 I made it my business to remind the General, before he started, of his 
 engagement which he promised to fulfil. Calling afterwards to as- 
 certain the result he told me, with obvious sincerity but with a smUe 
 which I confessed to be irrepressible when I heard his report, that he 
 had approached Mr. Adams with a hona fde intention to offer him 
 his hand, but that the " old gentleman," as he called him, " observing 
 the movement, had assumed so ° pugnacious a look that he was afraid 
 he would strike him if he came nearer !" I had no difficulty in ex- 
 plaining Mr. Adams' looks in a way to keep my proposition open 
 for further consideration. Sometime afterwards the General, Major 
 Donelson ^ and myself were sitting at the dinner table, after the ladies 
 liiid retired, when one of us, perceiving a copy of a Congressional 
 
 ° MS. Ill) p. 85. 1 Andrew Jackeou Donelson. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUEBN. 271 
 
 document on the mentelpiece, took it up and found it to be a report 
 made by Adams as Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture. As 
 the weather was unpropitious for walking and they were neither of 
 them wine-bibbers, I proposed that the Major should read the report 
 >vhich he accordingly entered upon. To my amazement the brochure 
 proved to be, under that cover, a labored, unjust and violent attack 
 upon the President and his administration. For a while he listened 
 with composure, occasionally interposing an expression of pity that 
 the author should have nourished such violent antipathies at his 
 time of life, but the charges became hotter and hotter and more and 
 more unjust, his patience became exhausted and he said, with con- 
 siderable vehemence, "Stop ! Major, I will hear no more of it !" — 
 and then, after a moment's pause, he turned to me, with a perfectly 
 composed countenance, and added, "I hope, my dear Sir, that you 
 are satisfied that it will be best to give up the project you have so 
 .much at heart." 
 
 I sincerely regretted that I was compelled to abandon the idea of 
 reconciliation between these gentlemen as is many personal qualities, 
 they were formed to like each other and were warm friends during 
 the General's Seminole difficulties — perhaps the most trying period of 
 his public life. Whatever differences of opinion may have existed in 
 regard to the propriety of his [Adams] appearance in the House of 
 Representatives or to the course he pursued there, no liberal mind 
 can fail to admire the spirit and indomitable firmness with which 
 he maintained opinions which he, doubtless, conscientiously believed 
 to be right altho' they were not always in harmony with those of 
 the House. On more than one of these occasions he presented a 
 full length portrait of " the old man eloquent " not often exhibited 
 to that body. One of those stirring and unpremeditated outbursts 
 will be long remembered. The occasion was a proposition to give 
 the President power to enforce our claims for indemnity against 
 France. Mr. Webster had wound up a violent attack in the Senate 
 upon the proposition by saying that he would not consent to give 
 the power asked for by President Jackson even if our quasi-enemy 
 were thundering at our doors ! Mr. Adams, with kindled eyes and 
 tremulous frame, closed an eloquent and forcible defense of the 
 proposition with a hearty denunciation of the unpatriotic avowal 
 which had been made in the other house and with the declaration, 
 at the top of his piercing voice, that the man who was capable of utter- 
 ing such a sentiment had but one step more to take, and that was 
 to meet the enemy at the door and to join him ! The excited feeling of 
 the House broke forth, for the first time in either Hall of our na- 
 tional Legislature, in a general clapping of hands. 
 
 Mr. Adams' general personal demeanour was not prepossessing. 
 He was on the contrary quite awkward, but he possessed one ac- 
 
272 AMERICAN HISTORICAX, ASSOCIATIOir. 
 
 complishment for which those who had only seen his grave and 
 unamiable looking countenance of the morning and in public could 
 scarcely have given him credit, — ^he was, in a small and agreeable 
 party, one of the most entertaining table companions of his day. 
 Whilst the Presidential question was pending in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, I was, one day, somewhat surprised to receive an invi- 
 tation from George Sullivan, of Boston, then temporarily residing 
 at Washington, to meet Mr. Adams and a small party at dinner. 
 On mentioning the circumstances to my friend, Forsyth,^ he told 
 me that Sullivan was electioneering for Mr. Adams, in a quiet way, 
 by thus bringing him under the observation of gentlemen who had 
 imbibed personal prejudices against him. He then informed me 
 of Mr. Adams's proficiency in that accomplishment to which I have 
 just referred and of which I was not before aware. I was not able 
 to avail myself of Mr. Sullivan's invitation, but, in after days, I 
 remembered the circumstance, and, as frequently as I felt myself 
 at liberty to do so, especially during my occupation of the White 
 House, I invited "Mr. Adams to small round-table dinners and al- 
 ways derived unqualified delight from his society and valuable in- 
 formation from his conversation. 
 
 But it is time to return from this long digression. Dismissing 
 from my mind, as far as possible, the feelings of mortification and 
 regret which had been caused by the great mistake the President 
 had unwittingly committed in the appointment of Swartwout, I 
 devoted myself to the preparation of instructions for the Ministers 
 to be sent to England, France, Spain and the Netherlands, besides 
 others of minor grades. 
 
 The negotiation with England, in respect to the trade between 
 the United States and her West India and North American Colo- 
 nies, by the previous administration had not only been brought to 
 an adverse close but had reached that result thro' much irritation 
 on both sides. That with France to obtain indemnity for spolia- 
 tions upon our commerce was in a condition apparently as hopelesg 
 after having been discussed ad nauseam under successive adminis- 
 trations. With such difficult and grave matters in the front ground, 
 a thorough review not only of the original transactions out of which 
 existing questions had arisen but of the several steps which had 
 been taken by the parties towards their adjustment became indis- 
 pensable. By such a course only could I hope to raise points suffi- 
 ciently new and fresh, either in fact or in the manner of presenting 
 them, to revive interest that had become dormant or to induce 
 them to re-open questions which our adversaries affected to regard 
 as settled. 
 
 ' Jolm ForsyUi of Georgia. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 273 
 
 My labours upon this branch of my official duties were thus 
 spoken of in a contemporary publication: — 
 
 Our unadjusted foreign relations liave been placed in a fair train of settle- 
 ment. The labor and devotion to tbe public service by which this has been 
 accomplished are not much known beyond the circle of the State Department. 
 The Secretary has been employed for weeks in succession, from morning till 
 sundown, in preparing dispatches and fitting out missions, involving the most 
 important interests of the Country. Frequently time has been snatched from 
 the night to accomplish these works in time for the departure of the foreign 
 Ministers. Since last March, four Ministers have been furnished with instruc- 
 tfons involving much labor and unweary research in the preparation. Two of 
 these missions were particularly Important ; Mr. McLane, sent to England, and 
 Mr. Rives commissioned to France. In addition to these foreign missions to 
 England, France, Spain, and Colombia, we learn that Mr. Preble, Minister to 
 the Netherlands, has just arrived at Washington preparatory to his departure 
 for that Country. This Mission involves interests of great importance to the 
 state of Maine. The settlement of the North-east Boundary question, which 
 has been placed before the King of the Netherlands for his arbitration is now 
 in a fair way of reaching a termination. In a short time a functionary will be 
 sent out to Peru ; and others perhaps to the other South American governments. 
 Before the commencement of the next session of Congress, the Secretary of 
 State will have accomplished an immense quantity of public business, &c, &c, &c.' 
 
 The results of these labours were without reserve communicated 
 to Congress and thus subjected to the scrutiny and animadversions 
 of able and violent, not to say reckless opponents, anxious almost 
 without precedent, for the overthrow of the administration and 
 scarcely less so to interpose obstacles in my path. 
 
 I am not aware that the construction or matter of those voluminous 
 instructions have ever been unfavorably criticised with the single 
 exception of that portion of one of them which was selected as a 
 pretence for the rejection of my nomination as Minister to Eng- 
 land. * * *2 
 
 1 Niles Register, Vol. 37, p. 172. 
 
 2 Three and a half pages of the MSS. have been cut out at this point. 
 
 127483°— -VOL 2—20 18 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 The Ministers to England and France were despatched as early 
 as July and in the same public vessel. They arrived at the Courts 
 to which they were respectively accredited early in September and 
 entered upon the performance of their duties promptly and with 
 a degree of energy, industry and perseverance which was expected 
 from capable' young men, covetous of fame and who felt that their 
 success in undertakings of such magnitude, which had long baffled 
 the efforts of numerous predecessors, could not fail to advance their 
 progress towards the great goal — ^the Presidency — towards which 
 their aspirations were as keen and perhaps as confidently directed 
 as those of their most ambitious cotemporaries. They each brought 
 to the accomplishment of the tasks assigned to them talents of a high 
 order, with habits of industry not easily broken down and spirits 
 not liable to be discouraged by slight obstacles. Speedy and com- 
 plete success followed on the part of each in respect to the leading 
 matters which had been committed to his care. Mr. McLane suc- 
 ceeded in bringing to a satisfactory conclusion, within ten months 
 from his presentation to the King, the negotiation in relation to 
 the trade between the United States and the English West India 
 and North American Colonies, a subject which had for many years 
 afforded matter of contention between the two governments and 
 had involved six separate negotiations. By that arrangement our 
 trade was placed on a footing more favorable than any on which 
 it had ever stood and our commerce and navigation in the Colonial 
 ports of Great Britain became entitled to every privilege allowed 
 to other nations. To the propriety of the settlement there was no 
 opposition on the part of the Senate, or in Congress or from any 
 other quarter. Mr. Rives' efforts were equally successful altho' the 
 period of the conclusion of his negotiation was somewhat longer 
 deferred in consequence of a change in the Government of France 
 and other causes. 
 
 It would be doing injustice to these gentlemen not to assign a 
 large share of credit for the success of these negotiations to their 
 personal exertions, but it would be doing at least equal injustice in 
 another quarter not to notice the extent to which we were indebted 
 for those results to the character of the new President, to the just 
 and liberal principles which he had, unexpectedly to the Sovereigns 
 of Europe, displayed in the developments of his foreign policy 
 and not a little, perhaps, to a prudent foresight of the consequences 
 274 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN". 275 
 
 of persevering injustice in their dealings with a man of his tem- 
 perament. The latter idea may be considered strengthened by the 
 fact that indemnity was almost inamediately obtained from the ' 
 King of Denmark for claims of some twenty years standing and 
 long continued intercession on our part without the slightest change 
 of circumstances and by other instances of early success in our for- 
 eign affairs. 
 
 These prosperous negotiations so soon after its inauguration, 
 doubtless added greatly to the strength and credit of the new ad- 
 ministration, but its highest and most enduring honors were won 
 bj' the wisdom and successful prosecution of its domestic policy. 
 The leading points in that policy were: 
 
 First, the removal of the Indians from the vicinity of the white 
 population and their settlement beyond the Mississippi ; 
 
 Second, to put a stop to the abuses of the powers of the Fed- 
 eral Government in regard to internal improvements and to re- 
 strict its action upon the " subject to measures both useful and con- 
 stitutional ; 
 
 Third, to oppose as well the re-incorporation of the existing 
 National Bank, as the establishment of any other equally unauthor- 
 ized by the Federal Constitution, and to substitute, in lieu of the aid 
 which had been derived from such institution in the management of 
 the fiscal affairs of the Government, an agency which whilst consist- 
 ent with its authority would promise greater safety and greater 
 success in that branch of the public service ; and 
 
 Fourth, to arrest as far as possible the abuses that had crept into 
 the legislation of Congress upon the subject of protecting duties and 
 to restore it to the footing upon which it was placed at the commence- 
 ment of the Government by imposing no duties beyond what was 
 necessary for revenue and by assessing those in a way best adapted to 
 encourage our own labor. 
 
 These, tho' not the only, were the most prominent of the domestic 
 objects to which President Jackson, from the first moments of his 
 elevation to power, directed his attention and for the accomplishment 
 of which he sedulously employed the powers with which the People 
 had clothed him. He entered forthwith upon the execution of this 
 programme, kept it constantly in view, and labored to the end for 
 its completion with the energy and perseverance that formed so large 
 a part of his nature. Few men had less reason than himself to com- 
 plain that his official acts were not fairly appreciated by the great 
 body of the People for whose benefit they were performed. Seldom 
 if ever had he to contend, as is so often the case with public men, 
 with that lurking suspicion, common and perhaps natural to the 
 
 ■' MS. Ill, p. 95, 
 
276 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATIOK, 
 
 public mind, that the most zealous and seemingly the most earnest 
 efforts for the public good have their origin in motives of personal 
 ambition or self interest. In the great transactions of his life the 
 masses doubted not that his only end and aim was their welfare and 
 happiness. Even those who dissented from the wisdom of his meas- 
 ures were, with limited exceptions, ever ready to admit that he was 
 honest and meant well. 
 
 The almost invariable consequence was a full share of public 
 applause for the advantages he had the good fortune to secure to the 
 Country in the course of his official career. Yet I have always 
 thought and still think that the credit which has been awarded to 
 him for the effective aid he rendered to his Country by his policy 
 in respect to Indian Affairs and by the success with which it was 
 executed has fallen far short of his deserts. 
 
 Certainly no other subject was of greater importance than this, 
 whether we regard the extent to which were involved in its treat- 
 ment either the interests of humanity, our national character and the 
 character of our political institutions, Or the peace and prosperity of 
 the Country. 
 
 It is not requisite here to enter on the question how far our first 
 encroachments upon th© red men may be allowed to shelter them- 
 selves under the plea of a struggle between Civilization and Bar- 
 barism and to find excuse or palliation in the savage cruelties which 
 characterized the resistance made by the latter to the advance of 
 the former. By the events of the War of 1812 they had been re- 
 duced from powerful tribes or nations to absolute and otherwise 
 hopeless dependence upon the clemency and justice of the United 
 States. At the close of Mr. Monroe's administration they num- 
 bered some three hundred thousand souls, less than half of whom 
 occupied reservations and other lands within our national bounda- 
 ries, lying within nineteen different States and Territories. Altho' 
 the most untiring efforts had been made to that end yet all past ex- 
 perience had demonstrated not only that any exertions of the Gov- 
 ernment to fit them for incorporation with the whites as citizens, 
 thro' instruction and civilization would prove abortive, but that the 
 course which had been pursued, that of buying their lands in detail 
 and thus bringing them in closer contact with the white man, tended 
 to hasten their demoralization and extinction. Under these adverse 
 circumstances the thinking and truly philanthropic minds of our 
 Country were directed to and their hopes for the future centered 
 upon the plan for their removal and permanent establishment upon 
 the most generous terms, on the public domain west of the Missis- 
 sippi, and beyond the bounds of the States and Territories, for assist- 
 ing them in forming a suitable Government, and for securing to 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 277 
 
 them ample protection against both domestic feuds and encroach- 
 ments from without. 
 
 To the execution of this policy there were obstacles of the gravest 
 kind ; not the least of these being that several of the tribes claimed 
 and exercised the absolute right of self-government within the 
 bounds of the States in which they resided. They founded this 
 claim upon the fact that the U. S. Government at early periods in 
 it's existence had treated with them as with foreign powers and 
 upon the character of the Treaties it had made with them. This 
 claim was actually asserted and enforced only in the States of 
 Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, but if well founded it was of 
 equal efficacy in all the States in which any of the tribes were 
 situated. These States had all been admitted into the Union with 
 defined boundaries, including the Indians, and the sovereign author- 
 ity reserved to the States by the Federal Constitution over all within 
 their respective borders had been recognised and guaranteed by 
 the' Federal Government ; and, to increase the complications of the 
 subject, the latter had also, in some instances, bound itself for valu- 
 able considerations to extinguish the Indian titles within the state 
 as soon. as that could be done on reasonable terms. It is not neces- 
 sary to enter upon an examination of the validity of the claim re- 
 ferred to on behalf of the Indians, as neither the Federal Govern- 
 ment, nor any Department of it entrusted with its powers ever con- 
 templated a removal of the tribes against their will, or the employ- 
 ment of force against them in any form, other than to subject them 
 to the laws of the several States to the same extent to which other 
 citizens were subjected to them. To do the latter it had solemnly 
 bound itself and it was always quite apparent that no serious at- 
 tempt could be made by it to sustain the Indians in their claims to 
 the right of self government by the exertion of military power 
 without producing a forcible collision between the General and 
 State authorities which might lead to the destruction of the con- 
 federacy and more surely to the extirpation of the Indians. 
 
 Mr. Monroe, in his last annual Message, referred to the desirable- 
 ness of their removal and pointed out, for their location, the terri- 
 tory they now occupy, which was then and has ever since been re- 
 garded as particularly well adapted to that purpose, and a little 
 more than a month before the termination of his presidency he sent 
 to Congress a special Message advancing many sound and philan- 
 thropic arguments in favor of this policy, accompanied by a full 
 report, from the Secretary of War, of the facts necessary to safe 
 and judicious action by the Legislature. No farther steps were 
 taken towards the execution of the proposed plan and circumstances 
 unhappily soon occurred which threw increased difficulties in its 
 way. The Georgia Indians were divided upon the general question 
 
278 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and a large and influential portion of them decided to remain where 
 they were, never to sell any more of their lands to the Government, 
 and to live, for the future, under laws of their own enactment. The 
 representatives of that State, at the close of the same session at 
 which Mr. Monroe's extra-message was sent in, charged, on the 
 floor of Congress, that this state of things had been brought about 
 by the intrigues of the officers of the General Government and 
 openly questioned the good faith of the administration in the mat- 
 ter. These suspicions were doubtless increased and the excitement 
 of the parties in respect to them unduly inflamed by the hostile 
 feelings which had arisen between the Secretary of War (Mr. 
 Calhoun) and his numerous friends in South Carolina, on the one 
 part, and many of the prominent and influential public men of 
 Georgia, on the other; feelings which retained their bitterness for 
 many years and extended their disturbing effects to other portions 
 of the Confederacy. 
 
 Such was the untoward condition of this great question when 
 Congress adjourned and the Chief Magistracy of the Country de- 
 volved on Mr. Adams. Of his desire to do what he thought best 
 as well for the Indians as for the United States, and, making due 
 allowances for his habitual distrust of the doctrine of State rights, 
 for the States also, there can be no doubt; but there is every reason 
 to believe that the policy of the plan of removal to the west of the 
 Mississippi, of which I have spoken, was, at that time at least, un- 
 favorably regarded by him. In the first three of his four annual 
 messages the subject was not even referred to. The Secretary of 
 War, Gov. Barbour, wrote ° a letter to the Chairman of the Com- 
 mittee on Indian Affairs,^ in answer to its application for aid and 
 advice upon the general subject, in which he discoursed at length 
 and eloquently upon the depressed condition to which the Indian 
 Tribes had been reduced and the strength of their claims on our 
 justice and generosity, and sketched a plan for their removal pur- 
 suant to the suggestions made in Mr. Monroe's message. But no 
 one could read his letter without seeing that its entire drift was, 
 not to promote such removal, but to throw obstacles in the way of 
 anything like an effectual execution of that policy. It nowhere 
 appears that that letter was nut sanctioned by Mr. Adams and his 
 Cabinet, and, during the second year of that administration, the 
 Country was seriously threatened, as should have been foreseen, 
 with a hostile collision between the Federal and State authorities 
 upon the subject. — 
 
 This mode of dealing with the matter, this ominous silence in 
 respect to it on the part of the new President, who had himself 
 
 " MS. Ill, p. 100. 
 
 ' Feb. 3, 1826. Amer. State Papers, Indian Affairs, v. 2, No. 231, p. 646. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAST BUREN. 279 
 
 occupied a position next to Mr. Monroe in the preceding adminis- 
 tration, the severe denunciation by the Secretary of War of the 
 only way in which the Indians could, in all human probability, 
 be induced to remove, when added to the encouragements to remain 
 which Mr. Forsyth, who was too wise and. too honest to deal in 
 false surmises on so grave a subject, openly announced on the floor 
 of Congress that they had received from the under officers of the 
 late administration, induced, as it was natural to expect from their 
 influence, large portions of the Indians, sufficiently numerous and 
 powerful to defeat that policy, to decline all further overtures upon 
 the subject. 
 
 The result was a confederacy, openly formed between the power- 
 ful tribes of Creeks and Cherokees, scattered over the states of 
 Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, to prevent the sale of any more 
 lands by the members or officers of their respective tribes, and to 
 establish themselves permanently within those States. 
 
 Other circumstances exasperated the feelings of the parties more 
 immediately concerned to a height which threatened the peace of 
 the Country. During the last year of Mr. Monroe's administration 
 a treaty was made with the Creeks in Georgia, by which their title 
 to all the lands they occupied within that State was extinguished. 
 A portion of them believed to have been encouraged by the disposi- 
 tions manifested toward them on the part of men in power, made 
 various objections to that treaty and resisted its execution. To 
 allay these dispositions a new treaty was made, during the first 
 year of the government of Mr. Adams, by which the former treaty 
 was declared to be annulled and some two or three hundred acres 
 of the land released by it were left out of the new treaty. Georgia 
 was of course greatly dissatisfied with this proceeding, not so much 
 on account of the value of the land attempted to be given back to 
 the Indians as because it defeated the policy of their removal from 
 the State for which she was most solicitous. She insisted that she 
 possessed a right to the soil and jurisdiction over the lands in the 
 occupancy of the Indians, subject only to the power of Congress 
 "to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes that she had a right 
 to legislate for them in all cases not within that exception ; that all 
 the right to them ever held by the Indians was legally extinguished 
 by the first treaty; that that extinguishment enured to her benefit 
 and that the Federal Government could not, without her consent, an- 
 nul that treaty after it had been fully ratified. The dissenting 
 Indians contested all these points and claimed that Georgia had no 
 jurisdiction over them and that they could not be affected by any 
 acts of her legislation. 
 
280 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The legislature of Georgia passed a law in the form prescribed 
 by her Constitution, directing a survey of all the lands to which 
 the Indian title was extinguished by the first treaty. Learning that 
 the surveyors under the direction of the Governor of the State had 
 entered upon the execution of the duties assigned to them by the 
 law referred to, the Little Prince and other dissenting Chiefs of 
 the Creek Nation sent to the surveyor's camp a manifesto signed 
 by them, ordered the surveyors "not to stretch a chain over their 
 lands" and, upon the attempt of those fimctionaries to proceed, 
 caused them to be arrested, and communicated the facts to the 
 President with a demand for the protection of the Federal Govern- 
 ment against further encroachment of the part of the state of 
 Georgia. 
 
 In the year 1802 Congress passed an act to regulate trade and 
 intercourse with the Indian tribes and to preserve peace on the 
 frontiers. It provided that if any citizen or other person, resident 
 in the LTnited States, should make a settlement on lands belonging 
 to any Indian tribe, or should attempt to survey such lands, he or 
 they should forfeit one thousand dollars and be liable to impris- 
 onment for. a period not exceeding six months. It furnished several 
 summary and very efficient means of enforcing the penalties for 
 such acts ; 1st by civil process to be executed when necessary by the 
 Military power of the LTnited States, in any state of the Union 
 where the offender could be found, and his trial and pimishment 
 where found ; and 2d, by making it the duty of the military forces 
 of the Federal Government to arrest all persons found on such 
 Indian lands in violation of that act and to deliver them to the 
 Civil authorities of the United States in any one of the three ad- 
 joining states for trial and punishment. 
 
 The facts submitted to the I'resident by the Creek Chiefs pre- 
 sented several very grave questions for his consideration in the first 
 instance viz : 1st, whether the case was of the character contemplated 
 by the act of 1802, and 2d, whether the claims set up by Georgia were 
 valid and whether there was anything peculiar to the conditions of 
 the Indians which exempted their lands from a liability to the au- 
 thority of the States that could not be questioned in regard to lands 
 owned by any other of her citizens. 
 
 The President took it upon himself to dispose of both of these 
 questions, decided then in favor of the Indians and informed Con- 
 gress, in a message, that he had no doubt of his authority to use 
 the military force in the case presented to him, but that he had 
 abstained from doing so in the first instance because the surveyors 
 ought not perhaps to be considered as solitary transgressors but 
 as the agents of a sovereign state, who would be sustained, it had 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 281 
 
 been intimated, by her utmost power, and thus a violent collision 
 might have occurred between the authorities of the two Govern- 
 ments if he had immediately used the military resources entrusted 
 to him. But he stated distinctly that, if the laws of the Union 
 remained unaltered,, and the state of Georgia persevered in her en- 
 croachments upon the Indian territory, "a superadded obligation, 
 even higher than that of human authority, would compel the Ex- 
 ecutive of the United States to enforce the laws and fulfill the 
 duties of the nation by all the force committed for that purpose 
 to his charge." 
 
 He submitted to Congress whether any further legislation was 
 necessary to meet the emergency. None was suggested by him or 
 thought proper or necessary by Congress, but the excitement pro- 
 duced in that body by the Message was intense and the debates 
 were unusually bitter but without any results in the way of legisla- 
 tion. In the Senate the select Committee to whom the Message 
 was referred, composed in part of supporters of the Administra- 
 tion, unanimously reported a simple resolution, "that the Presi- 
 dent be respectfully requested to continue his exertions to obtain 
 from the Creek Indians a relinquishment of any claims to lands 
 within the state of Georgia," which passed without a dissenting 
 voice. But in the House, where the power of the Administration 
 was far greater, the debate and proceedings were intemperate on 
 both sides. The Committee appointed by the Speaker reported 
 against Georgia on all points and concluded with resolutions to 
 the effect that " it was expedient to obtain a cession of the Indian 
 lands within the limits of Georgia," but that .until a cession is pro- 
 cured, the laws of the land as set forth .in the Treaty of Wash- 
 ington (the second treaty) ought to be maintained by all neces- 
 sary constitutional and legal means. This report was made on the 
 last day of the session, too late, of course, to be acted upon, but was 
 ordered to be printed. 
 
 The Administration relieved itself before the next session of 
 Congress from all further embarrassments upon that particular 
 branch of the subject, greatly complicated by the President's incon- 
 siderate Menage and the ground apparently taken by the House 
 Committee in his support, by another "treaty, extinguishing the 
 Indian title to the residue of the lands embraced in the first treaty 
 and excluded from the second. Treaties providing for their removal 
 to a limited extent were occasionally made with Indians willing to 
 go, but nothing very material was effected. Those who were unwill- 
 ing were, on the contrary, persevering in their efforts to induce their 
 brethren to remain. The Cherokees, a pow,erful tribe, composed to 
 
 ■' MS. Ill, p. 105. 
 
282 AMERICAK HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 a con^derable extent of whites, some of them educated and instructed 
 in business affairs, taking the lead in carrying into effect the prin- 
 ciples for which they contended, proceeded to the establishment of 
 an Independent Government, framed as they insisted upon republi- 
 can principles, within the bounds of Georgia, and, at page 198 of 
 the 35th volume of Niles' Eegister, will be. found a Message from 
 the principal Chiefs to the General Council of the Nation, after the 
 manner of the official communications from, the President of the 
 United States. In it they recommended to the Council, as the imme- 
 diate representatives of the People, to send a memorial to Congress 
 advising that body to redeem its obligations to Georgia in some other 
 way than one based on the anticipation of further cessions of land 
 from them. 
 
 The conflicts thus occasioned between the state of Georgia and 
 the Cherokees can easily be conceived. These continued down to the 
 Presidential election in which Mr. Adams was defeated. In his last 
 Message he seems to have viewed the matter in a far different light. 
 " When we have had," he says, " the rare good fortune of teaching 
 them (the Indians) the arts of civilization and the doctrines of 
 Christianity we have, unexpectedly found them forming in the midst 
 of ourselves communities claiming to be independent of ours and 
 rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the members of the 
 Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be pro- 
 vided which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children 
 of nature, may secure to the members of our federation the rights 
 of sovereignty and of soil," and for an outline of a project to that 
 effect he recommends to the consideration of Congress the report 
 of the Secretary of War. Turning to that document the reader 
 will find that the Secretary, Peter B. Porter, a sensible, practical 
 man, conversant with the Indian character and with Indian affairs, 
 recommends substantially the policy contended for "by those who 
 supported the claims of Georgia, including the subjection of "all 
 who remain to the municipal laws of the State in which they re- 
 side." 
 
 This Message of Mr. Adams was prepared shortly, after the elec- 
 tion in which his political fortunes had been wrecked and when 
 whatever hopes or plans he subsequently cherished, he considered 
 his public life as closed. He had, as we have seen strongly com- 
 mitted himself to different views. His friends in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, where they constituted a majority, had sustained those 
 views in an able and animated report, they had converted the sub- 
 ject into a material for political agitation in the Presidential 
 canvass and had found it, at least so far as respected him, unavail- 
 ing. He nbw looked upon it with the eyes of a Statesman sincerely 
 desirous to set himself right with the Country and with posterity 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAHTIN VAN BtTEEH'. 283 
 
 in regard to a matter which he could not but feel was one of the 
 deepest import, and thus considering it, it was impossible that he 
 should have failed to arrive at right conclusions. He directed his 
 attention to the point of greatest prominence and of greatest hazard — 
 the safety of the Union. There was a plausibility, founded exclu- 
 sively on the loose character of our dealings with the Indians dur- 
 ing the early period of our Government, in the pretension to politi- 
 cal power set up by them and on their behalf. He found our sys- 
 tem already an imperium, in imperio, perhaps the most complicated 
 in the World, and pf course requiring the utmost care and fore- 
 bearance in the administration of each, subjected in two of the 
 States to the establishment within their bounds of a third Govern- 
 ment claiming sovereign and independent political power, and, not 
 only so, but that we were menaced with the immediate establishment 
 of similar Governments in one or two other States, and exposed, if 
 these succeeded, to the erection of others like them in a dozen more, 
 and in alj these cases one branch of the tripartite sovereignty was to 
 be lodged in savages and half-breeds. The question presented to his 
 mind by this state of facts was as to the probability not to say possi- 
 bility of our existing national confederation being upheld under 
 such a process — a confederation so essential not only to the welfare 
 and happiness of the peoples of the United States but in a very grea-t 
 .degree, to the interests of human liberty and the hopes of its con- 
 siderate friends throughout the world, and to the escape of, the In- 
 dians themselves from ultimate certain annihilation. Such was the 
 question, stripped of immaterial issues and mystifying verbiage 
 about which no sensible man, looking only to the good of the whole, 
 could it would seem, hesitate for a moment. Mr. Adams was satisfied 
 that the great hazards which environed it ought not to be encoun- 
 tered for the sake of a claim so immature and defective as that of the 
 Indians to self-government, and the language in which he admon- 
 ished Congress in his last Message of the necessity of a remedy for 
 the great evils with which the Country was threatened was that 
 of an enlightened and patriotic statesman. 
 
 Secretary Porter, in the report referred to by Mr. Adams said: 
 "If the policy of colonization be a wise one, and of this I believe 
 no one entertains a doubt, why not shape all our laws and treaties to 
 the attainment of that object, and impart to them an efficiency that 
 will be sure to effect it," and advised that all of the Indians who- 
 would not emigrate should be subjected to the municipal laws of the 
 States. 
 
 If the President and his Secretary of War had spoken thus at 
 the commencement of his Administration and if he and his Cabinet 
 had done all in their power to shape the laws and treaties of the 
 Government to the promotion of the policy of Colonization, that great 
 
284 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 work would have been accomplished in their day. But we have seen 
 that they did neither, and it was now too late to secure its success 
 under their auspices. When the Constitution makers of France 
 strove to reconcile the first Napoleon to an abridgment of his im- 
 mediate power by proposing to confer upon him authority to direct 
 what should be done after his decease he promptly refused the offer 
 for the reason that "a dead man was nothing in respect to power 
 whatever or whoever he may have been when alive." The same may 
 be said of a President whom a few short months will dispossess 
 of his station in obedience to the decree of the People. The sceptre 
 had departed from Mr. Adams when he promulgated the words 
 which I have quoted, the hopes of the supporters of his administra- 
 tion for restoration to power were then already turned to another 
 and their decision to the course they would take upon a question, in 
 respect to which the public mind was so liable to be excited, was for 
 partizan reasons, held in abeyance. 
 
 Substantially in the state which I have described, these matters 
 stood until Gen. Jackson, then President elect, became President in 
 fact; a state most unpromising for the colonization policy. He 
 forthwith devoted his utmost efforts to the remedy of this great 
 public evil and no man ever entered upon the execution of an of- 
 ficial duty with purer motives, firmer purpose or better qualifications 
 for its performance. It seemed a task providentially reserved for 
 one so admirably fitted for it by the elements of his character and 
 by his past experience. 
 
 Except perhaps the single subject of slavery there could not have 
 been one more liable to seizure and appropriation to their own 
 purposes by political and partizan agitators than that now under our 
 consideration. As the Christian religion had been the greatest 
 agent of civilization throughout the world, the Government could 
 not, in attempting to extend its blessings to the Indians, omit to 
 invoke the co-operation of the Christian ministry. Clerical mis- 
 sionaries were accordingly sent among them and the Country from 
 time to time heard of the great success which had attended their 
 labours of love. Clergymen are not over liberal as partners in 
 power over a subject to the management of which their agency 
 is admitted and they soon assumed the principal guardianship of 
 the Indians, holding themselves to protect them against oppression 
 whether it might proceed from individuals or from the Government 
 and authorized to weigh the measures of the latter and to condemn 
 them if they considered them worthy of censure. Accountability 
 to what is sometimes called the religious commmnity — a class ° 
 among us easily instigated to meddle in public affairs and seldom 
 free, on such occasions, from a uniform' political bias, had thus 
 
 " MS. Ill, p. 110. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUEEN. 285 
 
 become one of the responsibilities under which the President acted. 
 The Society of Friends was another large interest which claimed 
 the right to speak and seldom failed to make itself heard, in re- 
 spect to every movement of the- Government that related to the 
 Indians and they too entertained apprehensions in regard to the 
 course to be expected from the "unbridled democracy" of which 
 President Jackson, was ia their estimation, the favored leader. 
 
 It had become manifest that the removal of the Indians could not 
 be brought about by any measures of which the extension of the" 
 laws of the State, with the approbation of the Federal Govern- 
 ment, over those who remained, after all proper means had been 
 exhausted to provide for their welfare in a suitable and safe new 
 home, did not form a part. That such measures would be disap- 
 proved of by the powerful classes of whom I have spoken was posi- 
 tively certain, and it had therefore become indispensable to their 
 success that their execution should devolve upon a man who was 
 willing, in the performance of his duties, to encounter that opposi- 
 tion — a qualification which had not yet been found in any President 
 after the necessity for such measures had occurred. It was scarcely 
 less necessary that he should be one whom experience had made 
 thoroughly conversant with the Indian character, not only knowing 
 them but being also well known by them as one who would do what 
 be promised, whether it was an act of liberality or of severity and 
 as one who, tho' not disposed to withhold from them any favors 
 that would promote their welfare and that could be extended con- 
 sistently with the safety of our institutions, would not fail, at the 
 same time, to exert all the means lawfully within his reach to accom- 
 plish his object. 
 
 Gen. Jackson entered upon the consideration of this important 
 subject at the earliest practicable moment and strove for the accom- 
 plishment of his policy as long as there was reason to hope for suc- 
 cess, regardless of obstacles which would have discouraged less san- 
 guine minds. For the first time, I believe, since the establishment of 
 the Government, the subject of Indian affairs was s]f)ecifically noticed 
 in the Inaugural Address. As he [the President] was emphatically 
 a practical man and felt that the matter must constitute one of the 
 leading concerns of his administration he thought the sooner public 
 attention was directed to it the better. Within three weeks after his 
 Inauguration having occasion to send a " talk " to the Creeks, in rela- 
 tion to the murder by some of their people of a white man. he intro- 
 duced to their consideration the subject of removal. He told them 
 that he had been made President and that he now addressed them as 
 their father and friend. He reminded them that in his talk to them 
 many years before he had spoken of the Country west of the Missis- 
 sippi as one where alone they could be preserved as a great nation 
 
286 AMEEICAK HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and he now advised them to go there. He assured them, however, 
 that if they chose to remain in Alabama, and to come under the laws 
 of that State, they might rely on his protection, that their lands 
 should be set off to them and their families in fee, and that they should 
 be secured in all the rights and privileges enjoyed by the white peo- 
 ple ; that his whole course towards them should be stamped with the 
 frankness and sincerity by which his dealings with the tribes had 
 always been distinguished and which a full experience had satisfied 
 hitn was the most likely to be successful in the end. He next caused 
 "the Indians in Georgia and Alabama to be officially informed that the 
 project of establishing independent Governments within the States 
 in which they resided would not be countenanced by the Executive. 
 This notice was, he said, due to them, and would, he hoped, have 
 the effect to nip in the bud the movement in that direction which 
 commenced in Mississippi, and to discourage such undertakings, if 
 they were contemplated, in the other States having Indians within 
 their bounds. 
 
 When Congress met he made to that body the most unreserved 
 communication of his views upon the whole subject in his Annual 
 Message. He placed the claims of the Indians upon our considera- 
 tion and favor on the grounds he thought they deserved to occupy, 
 and avowed his readiness to promote 'all constitutional and practi- 
 cable measures for their gratification. He then gave his reasons for 
 holding that their pretensions in respect to the organization of sep- 
 arate governments were unfounded, demonstrated their impracti- 
 cability, foreshadowed the ruinous results to our confederation that 
 would inevitably result from any attempt to establish such a right 
 in them by the power of the Federal Government, and concluded his 
 explanations with the following equally specific recommenda- 
 tions : — ^ 
 
 ' The MS. here directs the inclusion of the following : As a means of effecting this 
 end, I suggest, for your consideration, the propriety of setting apart an ample district ' 
 West of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any State or Territory, now formed, 
 to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes, as long as they shall occupy it ; each tribe having 
 a distinct control over the portion designated for Its use. There they may be secured 
 in the enjoyment of governments of their own choice, subject to no other control from 
 the United States than such as may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier, and 
 between the several tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to teach them the arts 
 of civilization ; and by promoting union and harmony among them, to raise up an inter- 
 esting commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race, and to attest the humanity and 
 justice of this Government. 
 
 This emigration should be voluntary : for it would be as cruel as unjust to compel 
 the aboriginees to abandon the graves of their fathers, and seek a home In a distant 
 land. But they should be distinctly informed that, If they remain within the limits of 
 the states, they must he subject to their laws. In return for their obedience, as indi- 
 viduals, they will, without doubt, be protected in the enjoyment of those possessions 
 which they have improved by their industry. But It seems to me visionary to suppose 
 that, in this state of things, claims can be allowed on tracts of country on which they 
 have neither dwelt nor made Improvements, merely because they have seen them from 
 the mountain, or passed them in the chase. Submitting to the laws of the States, and 
 receiving, like other citizens, protection In their persons and property, they will, ere 
 long, become merged in the mass of our population. — Jackso;i's 1st Annual Message. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BUKEN". 287 
 
 With the manly and unequivocal recantation by his predecessor 
 of the erroneous views he had at first entertained, and his virtual 
 adoption of the recommendation of his Secretary of "War in favor 
 of the very measure Gen. Jackson now proposed, before him, and 
 considering that the political party from which alone he had any 
 reason to apprehend opposition to his policy had not only brought 
 the previous Administration into being but was yet fresh from a 
 great battle, for its continuance in power, it is not surprising that 
 a. man of Jackson's training, unversed in the ways of politicians, 
 should have counted upon a general concurrence in the praiseworthy 
 views he had disclosed upon a subject so interesting to humanity 
 and so important to the public interest. But he was soon furnished 
 with ample reasons to convince him that any hopes and anticipa- 
 tions of that character were mere delusions. That party knew, 
 as well as any future event of that nature could be known, of the 
 great contest with him on the Bank question which impended, and 
 eagerly seized the tempting opportunity presented by the Indian 
 difficulties to cripple his Administration in advance. Without sug- 
 gesting anything of their state in respect to the other branch of 
 the divine injunction, those partisans were certainly not as harm- 
 les's as doves, and knowing full well that we had not as yet had no 
 President possessed of sufficient moral courage to deal with that 
 subject in the way in which alone it could be wisely treated they 
 were slow to believe that this unfledged Statesman would be able 
 to do so successfully, and they determined not to forego the ad- 
 vantages it seemed to offer. 
 
 The first step was the passage of a law clothing the Executive with 
 adequate powers if the Indians consented to remove and the next 
 to obtain their consent to its execution. Without success in the 
 latter openly and fairly obtained, Gen. Jackson did not desire it in 
 the general object however important he considered it to the public 
 welfare. 
 
 The Committees on Indian Affairs in both Houses reported a 
 Bill, short, simple and comprehensive and then followed the death 
 struggle for its passage, for such, especially in the House of Eepre- 
 sentatives, it emphatically was. The Bill authorized the President 
 to cause so much of the territory of the United States, west of the 
 Mississippi, as he might judge necessary to be divided into a suit- 
 able number of Districts for the reception of such tribes or nations 
 of Indians as might choose to exchange the lands on which they 
 then resided and to remove there; to exchorige such districts with 
 any tribe or nation, then residing within the limits of any State or 
 Territory, with which the United States had existing treaties, and 
 where the lands were owned by the United States or where the latter 
 
288 AMERICAIT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 were bound to the States to extinguish, the Indian title; to make 
 compensation to the Indians for their improvements, and to pro- 
 vide all necessary aid for their removal and for their support for 
 one year afterwards, with suitable clauses securing the guarantee 
 and protection of the Unite3 States as recommended by the Presi- 
 dent in his Message. 
 
 When this Bill was taken up in the Senate, the body in which the 
 subject was first acted upon, Mr. [Theodore] Frelinghuysen, of New 
 Jersey, moved to add to it the following section : 
 
 Sec. 9. That until the said tribes or nations shall choose to remove, as by 
 this act is contemplated, they shall be protected in their present possessions, and 
 in the enjoyment of all their rights of territory and government, as heretofore 
 exercised and enjoyed, from all interruptions and encroachments. 
 
 The clause attempted to mark the nature and extent of the right 
 of self-government proposed to be reserved to the Indians by assum- 
 ing as a fact what was denied" that it was a right they had " there- 
 tofore exercised and enjoyed." But the design in the use of the 
 phraseology employed was to make the proposition appear less rank 
 than it w(5uld if the right intended to be reserved was simply and 
 plainly set forth in the additional section. It was meant, as fully 
 appears from the debate, to test the principle as to the right of the 
 Indians to maintain independent political Governments within the 
 States in which they resided, under the belief that the movement 
 would involve the fate of the colonization policy and, if successful, 
 defeat it, as no one would for a moment believe that the Indians 
 would remove as long as the power of Congress stood pledged to sup- 
 port them in the exercise of that degree of sovereignty. 
 
 The Whig party (as the opposition was then ca,lled) rallied with 
 perfect unanimity in favor of Mr. Frelinghuysen's amendment and 
 against the Bill. A more persevering opposition to a public measure 
 had scarcely ever been made. Few men would now venture to 
 deny that it was a factious opposition waged to promote the in- 
 terests of party at the expence of the highest interests of the 
 Country, upon grounds which were not tenable and for avowed pur- 
 poses which were not practica^ble, — or, if practicable, could only 
 become so thro' the agency of the U. S. Army and the probable de- 
 struction of the Confederacy. The subject was discussed with brief 
 intermission, from the 9th to the 26th April, when the additional 
 section, offered by Frelinghuysen, was rejected, every ^hig Sen-^ 
 ator voting in favor of it as did also the only Jackson Senator from 
 Pennsylvania, and the Bill passed the Senate by a small majority 
 that Senator finally voting in its favor. The opposition did not 
 ejcpect to defeat it in the Senate. The debate and proceedings in 
 that body having been principally designed for the effect they 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 115. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAW BUBEN. 289 
 
 might produce on the public mind and, through that source, on the 
 popular branch of Congress. It was to the House of Kepresenta- 
 tives that they looked as the theatre of triumph and the result 
 shewed that they had very strong grounds for the confidence they 
 entertained of such a result. The majority of what were called 
 Jackson men in that body was sixty five, but it was in a great 
 degree composed of gentlemen who had shortly before professed 
 different politics from the mass of his supporters and thus were not 
 only new in the republican fellowship, but many of them not over 
 well instructed or very deeply imbued in the principles of the party 
 they had joined. This class of the General's friends were pecul- 
 iarly liable to be influenced by the dread of giving offence to 
 the Quakers and to the religious communities, and were prone 
 to communicate their apprehensions to their new associates. The 
 influence of this feeling was strikingly exhibited in the vote of the 
 delegation from Pennsylvania which, tho' more exposed than others 
 to a Quaker panic, was in other respects more relied upon on ac- 
 count of the very general and very strong attachment of her People 
 to General Jackson who, in a great degree, staked the success of his 
 administration upon this measure. Of her twenty six members (of 
 whom all but one were elected as Jackson men) only six voted for 
 the Bill, three of those subsequently voted against the previous 
 question because it would cut off an amendment, which went to 
 defeat the measure in a round about way, two of them were with 
 difficulty brought to the final vote, and such men as [James] | 
 Buchanan and [George G.J Leiper, the latter representing a Quaker 
 district, felt themselves constrained to shoot the pit. The same in- 
 fluences produced similar effects upon the representatives of other 
 States and the result was that after a debate as protracted and ex- 
 cited as any that had ever before taken place in that body, and not- 
 withstanding the large nominal preponderance in favor of the Ad- 
 ministration, the measure recommended by the President was carried 
 in the House by a majority of only four on a preliminary vote and of 
 five on its final passage.^ 
 
 Congress had performed its duty by the enactment of the law, and 
 the Constitution as well as his oath of office imposed upon the Pres- 
 ident the obligation to see to its execution. Another opportunity was 
 thus presented to the opponents of his Administration to shew by 
 their actions that they placed a higher value upon the interests of 
 the Country and the welfare of the Indians than upon party con- 
 quests. But unfortunately for those interests and for thgir own 
 highest good, altho' defeated in respect to the passage of the Bill, 
 
 »An act to provide for ^n exchange of lands with the Indians * * * and their 
 removal west of the river Mississippi, Approved, May 28, 1830. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 19 
 
290 AMEBICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 they were too much encouraged by their extraordinary success in 
 making converts in the House of Representatives to heed such con- 
 siderations. They foresaw as they thought the political advantages 
 of the struggle which had been fomented by their unfounded pre- 
 tension to culminate in their triumph at the ensuing Presidential 
 election, aU unconscious of the utter overthrow of their hopes which 
 was gathering strength in the sober second thoughts of the People. 
 They set every engine in motion to throw obstructions in the way of 
 the President, and received a full measure of cooperation from their 
 usual auxiliaries in great crises, the Press, the Courts of law and, 
 last tho' far from least in power and influence, the Church. 
 
 If the question had been one of power simply the President 
 would have soon settled it, but he could not act effectively, nor did 
 he desire to do so, without the consent of the Indians and he was 
 both too wise and too just to take any steps to obtain that consent 
 which the good sense and good feeling of the Country would not 
 finally approve. Those who understood his character soon became 
 satisfied of this, but those who did not hoped to drive him to acts 
 of violence which would destroy his popularity. Hence they blamed 
 every thing he did, and responded to every act of resistance on the 
 part of the Indians and by such measures of co-operation as were 
 suited to the habits of civilized life. 
 
 The Cherokees refused to meet the President in Council to nego- 
 tiate upon the subject of their lands, and answered his invitation by 
 a legislative act denouncing the penalty of death against any one 
 of their nation who should attempt to sell their lands without the 
 assent of the National Council. In their Memorial to Congress, 
 rising in their pretensions, from the encouragement they received, 
 they claimed to be a Sovereign State independent ag well of the 
 Federal Government as of Georgia, and as such one of their Chiefs 
 undertook to stop the mail on its passage over their lands and re- 
 sisted the exercise of criminal jurisdiction by that State [Georgia] 
 within their bounds. 
 
 Those portions of the Press favoring tlie pretensions of the In- 
 dians to the right of self-govenment were at the same time filled 
 with encomiastic accounts of the prudence of the Cherokees and of 
 their capacity for the discharge of its duties and denunciations of 
 tlie conduct of Georgia and of the President. 
 
 Chief Justice Marshall issued a Citation to the State of Georgia 
 to appear 'before the Supreme Court, pursuant to a Writ of Error, 
 to shew cause why a judgment of a Superior Court of that State 
 against- an individual for murder committed within the bounds of 
 that State, but on Cherokee territory, should not be corrected and 
 speedy justice done to the parties. The citatipn was communicated 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJRBN. 291 
 
 to the Legislature by the Governor of Georgia with a declaration 
 that orders from the Supreme Court interfering with the decisions 
 of their State courts in such a matter, would so far as related to the 
 Executive Department, be disregarded and any attempt to enforce 
 them resisted with all the force the laws had placed at his command. 
 Thus were the pacific relations between the Federal Government 
 and one of the States of the Confederacy a second time endangered 
 by high functionaries of the former, but the danger was avoided 
 noWj,?as at the first, by the firmness of the State authorities and an 
 abandonment of their avowed iutentions on the part of the former. 
 
 Nothing further was done with the Writ of Error, but proceed- 
 ings to the same end were instituted in a different form. A Bill was 
 filed by Mr. Wirt, in the same Court, in favor of "The Cherokee 
 Nation against the State of Georgia," praying an injunction to re- 
 strain that State from executing the laws of the State within the 
 Cherokee territory. 
 
 Georgia refund to appear to the Summons or to have anything 
 to do with the proceedings. The hearing was therefore ex parte, 
 but the application was notwithstanding argued at great length 
 and, as, the newspapers said, with great ability, by Messers. Wirt 
 and Sergeant, of course for the Cherokees. The Suit was brought 
 by them, claiming to be a " Foreign State " under the article of the 
 Federal Constitution, defining the extent of the judicial power of 
 the Federal Government. The Supreme Court held, unanimously, 
 that their claim to be so regarded was manifestly untenable.^ Thus 
 ruling, there was, of course, an end of the proceeding. As the plain- 
 tiffs had no right to appear in that Court in the character they had 
 assumed for the purpose, they had no right to ask its opinion on 
 any poiut in the case they had presented. But Chief Justice Mar- 
 shall, who delivered the opinion of a majority of the Court, whilst 
 concun*ing with the Whole Bench that the Plaintiffs had no right 
 to bring the suit, went on notwithstanding, as he did in the famous 
 case of Marbury and Madison, to deliver an ea^tra-judicial opinion, 
 upon one of the material points presented by the case, and declared 
 that " so much of the argument of counsel as was intended to prove 
 the character of the Cherokees as a State, as a distinct political 
 Society, separated from others, capable of managing their own 
 affairs, and governing itself ^^ has, in the opinion of a majority of 
 the Judges, been completely successful." He intimated also that 
 " the mere question of right to their lands might perhaps be decided 
 by the Court iu a proper case with proper parties ", but as the Bill 
 asked them to do more &c they could not interfere. Not content 
 
 1 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Peters, 5, 1-80. 
 
292 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOGIATIOIT. 
 
 with this he was pleased to add that " if it was " true that wrongs 
 had been inflicted on the Cherokee nation, and- that still greater 
 were to be apprehended, that was not the jxibunal to redress the 
 past or to prevent the future." 
 
 Jvistices Baldwin and Johnson ^ delivered separate opinions,, con- 
 curring in the only point the Court was competent to decide, but dis- 
 senting from all that was said beyond. Mr. Peters, the Reporter, 
 decided to publish the case immediately, separately froTn the volume 
 in which it would appear in the ordinary ccmrse, amd to give (to use 
 his own language) "J/r. WirPs great argument in behalf of the 
 Cherokees, which had been taken down by stenographers employed 
 for the purpose! " 
 
 Is it possible for an intelligent mind to doubt that the design of 
 these extraordinary proceedings, as well the extra-judicial decision 
 of the Court as the electioneering pamphlet gotten up by its Ee- 
 porter, was the same, or that that design was to operate upon the 
 public mind adversely to Georgia and to the President ? 
 
 The Cherokees, as they well might do, regarded the opinion of the 
 Court, on the great point in controversy between them and Georgia, 
 as expressed in their favor, and contended that the President was 
 bound by it and said so in an Address by their Chiefs and Head Men 
 to the People of the United States, which, with Mr. Peters' Report, 
 was published and scattered over the whole Country. 
 
 To sustain this suit it was necessary that two points, independent 
 of its merits, should be decided in their favor: 1st, that the Chero- 
 kees were a foreign State, in the sense of the Constitution, and, 2nd, 
 that the Supreme Court was competent so far to exercise the political 
 power as to enjoin the action of a State Government in the highest 
 exercise of its sovereignty. It required an extraordinary stretch of 
 charity to believe that their learned and intelligent counsel could 
 have entertained the slightest confidence in the tenability of either 
 position. The fact that the majority of a Court composed of their 
 political friends, honorable men but cherishing sympathies in favor 
 of the cause in which the great abilities of the counsel were em- 
 ployed as strong as their own, rejected both propositions without 
 hesitation, makes overwhelmingly against the good faith in which 
 the proceedings were instituted. They could not therefore complain 
 that their political opponents, as well as the cool judgment of many 
 who were not politicians, regarded the whole proceedings as ficti- 
 tious, not to say factious, and designed for political effect; and it 
 was a source of deepest mortification that those who moved in it had, 
 in the course of its prosecution, succeeded in obtaining the indi- 
 rect countenance and aid of the Court thro' its expression, or, to 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 120. > Henry Baldwin and William Johnson. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIKT VAK BITRElir. 293 
 
 speak more correctly, thro' the expression by a majority of its mem- 
 bers of an extra-judicial and partizan opinion, than which the dif- 
 fusion of Peters' report and Wirt's eloquent speech in favor of the 
 "poor Cherokees" (altho' objectionable as attempts to prostitute 
 judicial proceedings to electioneering purposes,) was far less painful. 
 But the political aid derived from impressions systematically 
 made on the religious community by the continued and deceptive agi- 
 tation of this matter was still greater. Missionaries had been sent 
 into the Cherokee' Country, during the Administration of Mr. Adams, 
 by the American Board of Foreign Missions, who were to some 
 extent regarded as Agents of the Federal Government, and, as 
 such, exempted from the laws of Georgia forbidding white men 
 from residing among the Cherokees without a license from the 
 Governor. These men, partaking of the feelings which actuated 
 their friends at home, and not indisposed to acquire the notoriety 
 of political martyrdom in a political cause, busied themselves in the 
 question of removal. The Governor of Georgia asked for their 
 withdrawal and they were disavowed- by the Federal Government 
 as persons in its service, but they nevertheless remained at their 
 posts. They were informed of the law and requested to depart, 
 and, on their refusing to do so, were arrested. Declining all offers 
 of accommodation which involved their leaving the Cherokee ter- 
 ritory, they were subjected to the operation of the law under which 
 they were convicted and imprisoned. It is scarcely possible now, 
 when the delusion has passed ajway, and when all see that the 
 course adopted was the wisest and best for the Indians, to realize 
 the extent to which many of our religious societies were agitated 
 and disturbed by the imprisonment of those missionaries, and there 
 was no doubt that not less than eight or ten thousand voters, in 
 the state of New York alone, were controlled at the succeeding Pres- 
 idential election in the bestowal of their suffrages by that single 
 consideration. Gen. Jackson and myself were then candidates for 
 the offices of President and Vice-President and I cannot perhaps 
 give a more striking illustration of the force of that excitement 
 than by relating an occurrence which fell under my observation. 
 Passing, previous to the election, thro' the western part of our 
 state, where the pro-Cherokee feeling had been lashed to a great 
 height, I stopped for a night at the residence of a near and very 
 dear relative of my own — a lady of remarkable intelligence and 
 strength of character, and deeply imbued with religious feeling. 
 After I had retired to my room she entered it and after a kind 
 introduction and welcome soon proceeded to a spirited denuncia- 
 tion of our proceedings (for she associated me with the President) 
 towards the Cherokees in general and the Missionaries in particu- 
 
294 AMERICAN- HISTOMCAL ASSOCIAWOIT. 
 
 lar, with the utmost severity consistent with what was due to her 
 sex and to her respect for myself, neither of which was she capable 
 of overlooking. Well aware of the tenacious grasp with which 
 her opinions, in matters of conscience, were held — a feature of 
 her character doubtless, in some degree, derived from the Huge- 
 iiotish blood which flowed in her veins, — and thinking the hour 
 unsuitable for the argument, I made but little answer to her charges, 
 and, on leaving the room, she said, yet holding the door in hand, 
 ''Uncle! I must say to you that it is my earnest wish that you 
 may lose the election, as I believe that such a result ought to fol- 
 low such acts!" 
 
 Wlien such feelings were in this way produced on such a mind 
 towards a relative for whose welfare she cherished a solicitude as 
 ardent and as sincere as she did for any other human being, her 
 parents having been both, long before, removed from this world and 
 she having neither brother nor sister, it is not difficult to imagine 
 how strong must have been the influence of this subject in other cases. 
 
 Many other incidents of this great struggle, not less interesting 
 than those of which I have spoken, crowd upon my recollection, but 
 I do not feel at liberty to extend the space already appropriated to 
 the subject. It was my intention, in particular, to have set forth 
 more fully than I have yet done the admirable bearing and sound 
 statesmanship displayed by Gen. .Jackson throughout this period, his 
 sincere and persevering efforts to bring the Cherokees into council, 
 his meetings with the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes, many of whom 
 had fought by his side in the war of 1812, his renewal to them and to 
 the Creeks of the advice he had given to the latter on the very point 
 under consideration, immediately after the disastrous battle of the 
 Horse Shoe, the restoration of the confidence of the tribes in the sin- 
 cerity of his friendship for them, his success in prevailing upon them 
 to conform to the policy of the Government by removing to the West, 
 and his influence upon the excited Georgians inducing them to ex- 
 hibit a mildness and a conciliatory spirit in their acts which became 
 matter of comment and surprise to their and his opponents. But I 
 must forego this design. 
 
 The day of election came on, not only under the unfavorable 
 circumstances I have described, but subject to the adverse and im- 
 pure influences of the Bank question and the excitement produced 
 by the President's veto. Gen. Jackson was notwithstanding re- 
 elected by an immense majority and the Councils of the nation so far 
 as their members could, under the Constitution, be reached by that 
 election, were replenished to overflowing with sincere friends to his 
 administration. The voice of the People produced what reason, 
 justice, and policy had demanded in vain. Defense, encouragement 
 
AITTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 295 
 
 and support of the Cherokees in their political pretensions were no 
 longer insisted on by the anti-Jackson party. The idea of small 
 Indian sovereignties swayed by savage customs and councils, within 
 the borders of certain states of our confederacy, was exploded. The 
 laws of the States according to the recommendation of Secretary 
 Porter, were shaped without hindrance, to the promotion of the 
 only rational policy — ^that of removing the Indians beyond the reach 
 of the bad influences inevitable from association and contention with 
 the white men. ° The President, forgetting or. overlooking the ob- 
 stacles that had been thrown in his way, pursued his policy with his 
 accustomed energy and perseverance, and his labors were ultimately 
 crowned with complete success. I say his labours for that great work 
 was emphatically the fruit of his own exertions. It was his judgr 
 ment, his experience, his indomitable vigour and unresting activity 
 that secured success. There was no measure, in the whole course of 
 his administration of which he was more exclusively the author than 
 this. His Secretary of War assisted to the extent of his power, he 
 advised freely with me on all occasions and gave such weight to my 
 advice, relating chiefly to the manner of doing what he thought 
 ought to be done, as he thought it deserved, which was never less 
 but frequently more than it was really entitled to, but his were the 
 .mind, hand and spirit that controlled throughout. 
 
 Gen. Jackson's success exfited as it deserved the .admiration and 
 applause of the wise and the good. He has received a large share of 
 the gratitude and praise of the American People for the acts of 
 his life, both in the military and civil service of his CSountry, but, 
 in my opinion, there were none better entitled to such rewards than 
 those which affected the important subject of which I have spoken. 
 I may have considered it in more detail and at greater length than 
 was necessary, but I have been influenced by views which I thought 
 entitled to much force. The fact that what was done in this matter 
 was more exclusively his own doing than could be said of any other 
 measure of his administration and therefore furnishes a most 
 reliable illustration of his character, and the inadequacy of the 
 credit which these services have as yet received have been already 
 noticed. But there are higher motives for a thorough review of the 
 whole subject. Unlike histories of many great questions which agi- 
 tated the public mind in their day, the account I have here given 
 of the action of the Government and of political parties relates 
 to one which will, in all probability endure, in many important 
 general features, as long as the Government itself and which must 
 in all that time occupy and interest the minds and feelings of our 
 people; to one, moreover, in respect to which we are, as a nation 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 125. 
 
296 AMERICAN HISTOmcAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 responsible, in foro conscientiae, to the opinions of the great family 
 of nations, as it involves the course we have pursued and shall pursue 
 towards a people comparatively weak, upon whom we were perhaps 
 in the beginning unjustifiable aggressors but of whom, in the progress 
 of time and events, we have become the guardians and, as we hope, 
 the benefactors. It has appeared to me that those to whose care 
 the character and interests of the United States as connected with 
 this subject, may hereafter be conamitted, cannot fail to be deeply 
 interested in if not materially benefitted by a true account of the 
 views, motives and transactions of their predecessors in regard to 
 it on an occasion so critical as was that which I have reviewed. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The next and scarcely less important subject to which President 
 Jackson gave his attention was that of internal improvements 
 under the authority of the Federal Government. Questions in 
 regard to it had constituted the staple of a very large proportion 
 of the debates in Congress for many years before his accession to 
 the Presidency; indeed, this had been the case, with brief inter- 
 missions, since the termination of the War of 1812. A race of 
 younger Statesmen, as has been before intimated, full of talents, 
 commendably ambitious to secure the confidence and not indis- 
 posed to enjoy the favors of the People, had assigned to it a prom- 
 inent position among the blessings with which they promised to 
 improve and adorn the Country. 
 
 Mr. Gallatin,^ in 1808, in obedience to a resolution of the Senate, 
 at the preceding session, offered by Mr. Worthington,^ of Ohio, 
 made an elaborate report embracing the outlines of a general sys- 
 tem of internal improvements, and the subject was again referred 
 to by Mr. Jefferson in his next and last message. Having, in a 
 previous message, declared the necessity of an addition to the 
 enumerated powers of Congress to authorize such works, he now 
 spoke of the disposition of a surplus revenue, the accoimulation 
 of which he deemed probable, and asked whether it should be suf- 
 fered to remain unproductive in our vaults, be reduced, or be 
 " appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals, rivers, educa- 
 tion and other great foundations of prosperity and union under 
 the powers we may already possess, or such amendments of the 
 Constitution as might be approved by the States." Mr. Calhoun 
 is entitled to the credit, be that what it may, of having been the 
 first to bring the vexed question of Constitutional power before 
 Congress for its immediate decision. A glance at the then state 
 of the question in respect to the power of Congress over the sub- 
 ject will here be neither out of place nor without interest. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, if not the sole author of the principle of 
 implied powers, stood at the head of those whose doctrines in regard 
 to the construction of the Constitution were considered the most 
 latitudinarian. His opinion in favor of the Bank of the United 
 States and his report on manufactu'res were the ample fountains 
 from which most if not all of these heresies proceeded. Without 
 their aid lie regarded the Constitution as utterly impracticable and 
 
 » Albert Gallatin. = Thomas Worthingrton. 
 
 297 
 
298 AMEBICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 he therefore stretched his fertile imagination to the utmost to render 
 that principle as efficient as possible. Yet he disclaimed in express 
 terms powers in Congress to construct roads and canals, within the 
 States, with or without their consent. If there was ever room for 
 doubt upon that point, which there could not well be after his re- 
 port on manufactures, it has been fully cleared up by recent devel- 
 opments. By that report he carried the money power of the Gov- 
 ernment to an extent which did not admit of enlargement, and defined 
 it in terms so felicitously as to satisfy the wildest theorist. Speaking 
 of other powers, the exercise of which would be useful, he gave a 
 marked prominence to that we are considering : " Symptoms of atten- 
 tion to the improvement of inland navigation which had," he said, 
 " lately appeared in some quarters must fill with pleasure any heart 
 warmed with a true zeal for the prosperity of the Country. These 
 examples, it is to be hoped, will stimulate the exertions of the Gov- 
 ernment and citizens of every State. There can certainly be no ob- 
 ject more worthy of the cares of the local administrations, and it were 
 to be wished that there was no doubt of the power of the national 
 Government to lend its direct aid on a comprehensive plan,'''' and he 
 then proceeds to shew why the thing could be better done by the 
 latter. 
 
 Such language coming from a man of his known dispositions can 
 receive but one construction, and in his letter to Mr. Dayton,^ eight 
 years afterwards, in which he drew up a programme of the steps 
 that ought, in his judgment, to be taken by the party in power, he 
 uses the following language: "an article ought to be proposed to 
 be added to the Constitution for empowering Congress to open 
 canals in all cases to which it may be necessary to conduct them 
 thro' two or more States or through the territory of a State and of 
 the United States." This letter, which has now, for the first time, 
 come to light thro' the publication of Hamilton's private papers 
 brings our knowledge of his opinion to the point of absolute cer- 
 tainty,. He was not the man to go to the People or the States for 
 additional power if he believed that a claim to that which he de- 
 sired was at all tenable under the Constitution as it stood. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun's Bonus Bill, introduced at the first session after the 
 peace proposed to set apart and pledge the Bank Fund Bonus as a 
 " fund for constructing roads and canals and improving the navi- 
 gation of water courses in order &c. &c.", and in his introductory 
 speech he treated the question of power as indubitable. Referring 
 to the circumstance that no measure of the kind had been ever before 
 introduced he attributed the omission to the adverse state of the 
 Country in regard to the finances and other causes and regarded 
 
 1 Jonathan Dayton, 1799, In Hamilton's Works, edited by John C. Hamilton (N. Y,, 
 1851) V. 6, p. 383. 
 
AUTOBlOdmAi'HY OF MAMiN VAN BtTEElir. S99 
 
 his, as it in truth was, as a pioneer project. " To perfect the com- 
 munication from Maine to Louisiana, the connexion of the Lakes 
 with the Hudson Eiver, to connect the great commercial points on 
 the Atlantic, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, 
 Charleston and Savannah with the "Western States and to perfect 
 the intercourse between the West and New Orleans" were among 
 the objects he contemplated. Even Timothy Pickering, altho' he 
 had no difficulty in finding excuses for supporting Mr. Calhoun's 
 Bill, could not refrain from expressing his dissent from the views 
 the latter had taken of the Constitution, which he thought too lati- 
 tudinarian : — " he did not admit the latitude ° of construction given 
 by the gentleman from South Carolina to the terms of the Constitu- 
 tion. He had quoted that part of the Constitution which said that 
 Congress had power '' to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports and 
 excises" — ^for what purpose?, in order — ^"to pay the debts and pro- 
 vide for the common defence and general welfare", and hence the 
 gentleman had inferred that as roads and canals would provide for 
 the common defence and general welfare therefore Congress had 
 power to make roads and canals. If this interpretation of the Con- 
 stitutTon be correct then the subsequent enumeration of powers was 
 superfluous, for the terms "to provide for the general welfare" 
 would embrace the following enumerated powers and every other 
 imaginable power the exercise of which would promote the general 
 welfare." 
 
 Mr. Clay, then Speaker, congratulated Mr. Calhoun on the honor of 
 having introduced the subject, and his Country on the advantages 
 she could not fail to derive from the measure proposed, and expressed 
 an unequivocal opinion in favor of its constitutionality. The Bill 
 was ably opposed by several and particularly that honest man and 
 pure patriot, Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, by arguments which 
 Messrs. Clay and Calhoun in vain attempted to refute. It was, not- 
 withstanding, passed by a small majority in the House and a larger 
 in the Senate, after a specious amendment requiring the assent of the 
 States to the expenditure of the money within their respective bounds. 
 
 Mr. Madison, ill at ease, I cannot doubt, from having just before 
 given his assent to the re-establishment of a Bank, an act at variance 
 with principles vital to the Constitution, of which he, above all other 
 men, was entitled to the credit of having been their enlightened 
 expounder but which he had felt himself constrained to desert be- 
 cause he thought doubtless honestly, that the abuse cyf those principles 
 upon that point had acquired too'deep and too strong root to be dis- 
 turbed, promptly interposed his veto. He did so perhaps the more 
 readily under an apprehension that this additional encroachment 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 130. 
 
300 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 upon the Constitution might have originated in his own f orgetf ulness 
 of the past. In his veto Message, with the chastity and felicity of 
 expression in which he had no equal, he placed the unconstitution- 
 ality of the measure and the insufficiency of the veil which had been 
 thrown over its character by the Senate, in the plainest possible 
 points of view. His message deprived the Bill of the majority it 
 had obtained in the House, in which it originated, but it did not 
 convince Clay, Calhoun or Webster, all of whom voted for it not- 
 withstanding the veto. Indeed Mr. Clay was so eager to place him- 
 self on record in favor of the abstract proposition of Constitutional 
 power that, altho' not obliged, as Speaker, to vote, there being no tie, 
 he claimed the right to do so in that case. Mr. Calhoun was soon 
 after appointed Secretary of War by Mr. Monroe and retired from 
 Congress. In his first Report in that capacity he ^ 
 
 At the first session of the succeeding Congress the subject was 
 again brought forward by a Report from Professor Tucker,^ Chair- 
 man of the Committee on Roads and Canals, a representative of the 
 State of Virginia, tho' not an adherent of her prevailing politics. 
 His Report sustained the constitutionality and expediency of such 
 measures as that which Mr. Madison's veto had defeated and con- 
 cluded with a Resolution in accordance with the Report. Mr. Clay, 
 in an elaborate and able speech supported the positions he had 
 before taken. This debate also brought more conspicuously into 
 public view William Lowndes, of South Carolina, a man whom from 
 the beginning of his public life, all regarded with much favor. Sev- 
 eral distinct resolutions were finally offered by Mr. Lowndes as a 
 substitute for that reported by the Committee. That which claimed 
 the right to appropriate money for the construction of post roads, 
 military and other roads and to malce canals and for the improvement 
 of water courses passed by a majority of 15 in 164 votes. Those 
 which asserted a power to construct roads and canals necessary for 
 commerce between the States, to construct canals for military pur- 
 poses, were severally rejected by small majorities. Other proposi- 
 tions were presented but Mr. Lowndes, observing that the sense of 
 the House had been fully expressed in favor of the right to appro- 
 priate money for the construction of roads and canals and had thus 
 removed obstructions to propositions emibracing that object, moved 
 to lay the rest of the Report on the table, which motion prevailed. 
 
 " A pencil note here states that space Is feft " for Calhoun's recommendations of 
 Internal Improvements in his first Report as Secretary of War." Van Buren's recol- 
 lection Is at fault. Calhoun's first report as Secretary of War was very brief and did 
 not discuss this subject. His last annual I'eport, December, 1824, dealt with the matter 
 in considerable fullness. For a good general account see Meigs' Life of Calhoun (N. T., 
 1917), v^ 2, 246-51 and, in the Works of Calhoun, his" letter to Henry Clay, Speaker of 
 the House of Representatives, Jan. 14, 1819, Vol. V, pp. 40-54; also ibid., pp. 142-6. 
 
 2 Henry St. George Tucker. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN, 301 
 
 Mr. Lowndes views were throughout characterized by modesty, 
 candour and sincerity which commanded the respect of all and con- 
 ciliated for their author the esteem of those even who dissented from 
 their correctness. He admitted that public works, such as were 
 referred to, would in all probability be more economically and better 
 constructed when the fruit of individual enterprise', or when made 
 under the authority of the States, but roads and canals had, he said, 
 been objects of attention to Government in all Countries and they 
 were, in his opinion, necessary works of that description that would 
 never be constructed unless by the Federal Government, and sincerely 
 believing that Congress possessed the requisite power he was in favor 
 of having them made under its authority and at the expense of the 
 nation. 
 
 He was unhappUy obliged to retire from public life at the age of 
 forty one and died, in January, 1823 on his way to Europe in pursuit 
 of health,- lamented by all who had known him and having by his 
 honorable, just and distinguished tho' unobtrusive career impressed 
 the public mind with a very general belief that his chances for the 
 Presidency would have been, but for his early death, better than 
 those of any of his cotemporaries. 
 
 In respect to the extreme power over the subject of internal im- 
 provements — ^that of construction — this great effort in its behalf 
 resulted in its complete overthrow. Even in respect to the power of 
 appropriation, the movement notwithstanding Mr. Lowndes' attempt 
 to swell the majority beyond its legitimate limits, could scarcely 
 be otherwise regarded than as a defeat or in any the most favourable 
 view, as a barren triumph. 
 
 Mr. Monroe, at the same session, re-affirmed, in his annual Mes- 
 sage, his adherence to the Virginia doctrines upon the question of 
 the power of Congress to construct roads and canals, and informed 
 that body in advance, very much to the annoyance of Mr. Clay, 
 whose position at the moment was one of quasi-opposition to the 
 Administration, that if they pressed a law for such a purpose he 
 would be constrained' to object to its passage. But he did not say 
 or intimate, neither was there any reason to apprehend, nor is it 
 probable that he had changed his views in respect to any other por- 
 tions of those doctrines. A majority of only fifteen in a represen- 
 tation numbering more than two hundred, with a minority moved 
 by a single and sacred motive — ^to protect the Constitution — against 
 those who were in great part seeking the advancement of local ob- 
 jects which were in themselves well calculated to engender rivalries 
 and divisions, and with the impending danger of a Presidential 
 veto, offered but slight temptation to efforts for the establishment 
 of a system of internal improvements under the patronage of the 
 Federal Government. 
 
302 AMBRICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOBT. 
 
 This view is fully sustained by the action of Congress from the 
 period when these proceedings took place. During these four years 
 the establishment of a plan for internal improvements under the 
 authority of the General Government was not advanced a step, nor 
 was the power of appropriation, asserted by the only resolution 
 that was pressed, exerted on a single important occasion. Those 
 who, whilst friendly to such improvements were too solicitous for 
 the preservation of the Constitution in its purity to authorize their 
 construction without constitutional authority, had reason to infer, 
 from the course of events, that their objects would be accomplished 
 by individual enterprise acting under the authority of and aided as 
 far as practicable by the State Governments. But occurrences dur- 
 ing the winter of 1822 were well calculated to put and in the sequel 
 did put a very different face upon the matter. The patience of 
 Congress having been exhausted by the perpetual drain upon the 
 Treasury for the repairs of the Cumberland Road, the -House of 
 Eepresentatives passed a Bill authorizing" the erection of gates 
 upon it and the'exaction of tolls from those who used it — ^the avails 
 to be applied to keeping the Road in good condition. It passed the 
 Senate and was sent to the President for his approval. 
 
 Mr. Monroe, committed unqualifiedly by the declarations in his 
 first annual Message expressive of his views, which we have no evi- 
 dence that he even desired to change, objected to the Bill upon the 
 principles he had avowed in that document, and it was rejected. 
 He accompanied his' -ye^o-Message with, or rather sent to Congress 
 a day or two afterwards a voluminous essay ^ upon the constitutional 
 question, setting forth the arguments on which the opinion he acted 
 upon was founded and which he had, he said, from time to time, 
 as they occurred to him, reduced to writing. At the conclusion of 
 this exposition he avowed his conversion to the doctrine that Congress 
 possessed, under the Constitution, an unlimited power to appro- 
 priate money in aid of the construction of roads and canals when 
 constructed by others. The Virginia doctrine as expounded by 
 Madison's Report upon the Alien and Sedition Laws, and thence- 
 forth constituting a portion of the political creed of the republican 
 party, was that Congress not only had no right to construct such 
 works but that the Constitution did not authorize that body to apply 
 money to any such purpose, — ^that the power of Congress to ap- 
 propriate the national revenue was limited to objects which it was 
 authorized to undertake and that the principle which denied the 
 power to construct such works necessarily denied the right to pay 
 for them. Those who wish to read a felicitous exposition of this 
 
 ' MS. Ill, p. 135. ' Dec. 2, 1817, on Internal improvements. 
 
. AtTTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUEEN. 308 
 
 doctrine will find it in Mr. Philip P. Barbour's speech in the great 
 discussion of 1818. 
 
 Mr. Monroe admitted that such was the doctrine of 1798, and 
 that it was founded on views of the Constitution which he had 
 before sustained, but said that he had changed his opinion upon 
 the point, and went into an elaborate argument to shew the sound- 
 ness of his present theory. The time had been when such a declara- 
 tion coming from Mr. Monroe would have been received with amaze- 
 ment by his old political associates who yet adhered to the faith 
 whicHThad long received their common support. But antecedent and 
 cotemporaneous passages in his oflB.cial career had gradually paved 
 the way for such an occurrence and consequently lessened their sur- 
 prise when it was developed. This took place towards the middle 
 of his second term, after he had received all the electoral votes, save 
 one, of his old political opponents and when he was doing openly all 
 that a man of his habitual prudence and circumspection could be 
 expected to do to promote the amalgamation of parties and the 
 overthrow of that exclusive and towering supremacy which the 
 republican party had for many years maintained in our national 
 councils. A diminished zeal for the support of its pure and self- 
 denying principles was the natural consequence of a diminished, 
 might Lnot say an extinguished solicitude for its continued as- 
 cendency. It was almost inevitable that efforts to destroy the 
 republican organization should lead to the gradual abandonment 
 of the principles it sustained. Other causes contributed to give 
 that direction to his feelings. At the head of his Cabinet stood Mr. 
 John Quincy Adams, the latitudinarianism of whose Constitutional 
 views extended beyond those of any of his cotemporaries, and su- 
 perior to him in influence tho' inferior in grade was the recognised 
 favorite of its (Shief, Mr. Calhoun, who had taken the lead in sup- 
 port of the principle that Congress had power to make roads and 
 canals as well as to pay for them, who had established the right 
 of paternity towards such measures and would assert it wherever 
 they were successful. Neither Mr. Wirt, nor Mr. Southard ^ had ever 
 shewed themselves fastidious in regard to the powers of the Federal 
 Government or prone to dissent from the views of the associates 
 to whom I have referred, and the only Cabinet officer, Mr. Craw- 
 ford, from whom, on account of his position in other respects, oppo- 
 sition to this great change in the action of the President might 
 have been expected, a sincere and ardent republican, was so far 
 from being a strict constructionist that he had supported the Bill 
 for the extension of the old Bank charter against which Mr. Clay 
 made the great speech of his Jife. 
 
 1 Samuel L. Southard. 
 
304 AMEBICAIT HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION', 
 
 But whatever may have been the origin of this change in Mr. Mon- 
 roe's constitutional views there was no room for question in respect to 
 its extent. The principles of the party in which he had been reared 
 had been commended to his preference not only by the circumstances 
 of his location and the character of his early associates, but by his 
 own habits of circumspection. Honest and considerate in his conduct 
 he was never the slave of momentary impulses but arrived at his con- 
 clusions by proverbially slow degrees after long and careful delibera- 
 tion. Mr. Webster exemplified his dispositions in this respect by an 
 amusing anecdote. It was, he said, the President's habit to write 
 on a slate the names of the candidates for prominent places, and after 
 the lists were completed, to rub out one name every day until only 
 one remained, when the slate, of coBrse, was sent to the proper office 
 to have the commission made out, 
 
 Festina lente having thus been the rule of his life, he seemed on 
 the occasion of which we are now writing, to have passed in the 
 twinkling of an eye from one extreme to another. The doctrine set 
 forth in the manifesto that accompanied his veto-Message on the 
 Cumberland Eoad Bill, in regard to the power of Congress to appro- 
 priate the national revenue, embraced all that Alexander Hamilton 
 had ever contended for. In his famous Eeport upon Manufactures 
 the latter in substance thus defines the power of the Federal Govern- 
 ment to raise money : 
 
 These three qualifications excepted, (viz : that all duties, Imposts and excises 
 shall be uniform throughout the United States, that no direct tax shall be laid 
 unless in proportion to the federal numbers of the different States and that no 
 tax or duty shall be laid on exports) the power to raise money is plenary and 
 Indefinite, * * * and there seems to be no room for a doubt that whatever 
 concerns the general interests of learning, of agriculture, of manufactures and 
 of commerce comes within the sphere of the national cound^ as far as regards 
 an application of money. 
 
 Mr. Monroe explained his new position substantially as follows: 
 
 It is contended on the one side that as this is a Government of limited powers 
 it has no right to expend money except in the performance of acts' authorized 
 by the other specific grants according to a strict construction of their powers ; 
 * * * To this construction I was inclined in the more early stage of our 
 Government; but on further reflection and observation my mind has under- 
 gone a change for reasons I will frankly unfold. 
 
 Then after speaJiing of the unqualified character of the power to 
 declare war and other powers, he says : 
 
 The power to raise money by taxes, duties. Imposts and excises is alike un- 
 qualified, nor so do I see any check on the exercise of It other than that which 
 applies to the other powers — the responsibility of the representative to his 
 constituents. * * * If we look to the other branch of this power — the 
 appropriation of the money thus raised, — ^we find that It is not less general 
 and unqualified than the power to raise it. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAW BTJREIT. 305 
 
 He proceeds with an endeavour to prove, by a course of reason- 
 ing which he would once have himself pronounced more specious 
 than solid, that the framers of the Constitution, as well as those by 
 whom it was adopted, designed that both powers should be unquali- 
 fied. Few persons will contend that, in respect to the power to 
 raise and expend revenue, Hamilton went one iota farther than 
 Monroe. The language of the former was more graceful and capti- 
 vating but the latter took especial care that it was not more general 
 or far reaching. 
 
 ■Who, in former days, could have contemplated the possibility that 
 a Virginia President, one of the first members of the old republican 
 party and elected as such, would ever be brought to establish, so far 
 as an act of the Executive branch of the Federal Government was 
 capable of esta:blishing it, one of the most ultra and, in practice, 
 likely to be one of the most dangerous principles ever advocated by 
 Alexander Hamilton, and that the individual thus acting would be 
 James Monroe between whom and Hamilton ° political differences 
 had ripened into personal hostility extending to the brink of per- 
 sonal combat? How strong must have been the influence which 
 could work such a change ! The laxness of the times, in respect to 
 political consistency, in a great degree brought about by the agency 
 of Mr. Monroe himself, doubtless had much to do with it, but I have 
 always thought that political rivalry was not without its influence 
 in producing a result so remarkable and so much to b© deprecated. 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 140. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 20 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 When the Message and the accompanying papers were sent to Con- 
 gress little had been said of Gen. Jackson in connection with the 
 question of succession to Mr. Monroe and, especially in the early 
 part of the canvass, Mr. Adams' claims were but lightly regarded. 
 In 1817-18 Clay and Calhoun were most prominent among the heirs 
 apparent. Altho' exercising his usual prudence in the matter, Mr. 
 Monroe was notwithstanding well understood to prefer Mr. Calhoun. 
 The general conviction doubtless influenced to some extent Mr. Clay's 
 course towards the Administration. He first threw cold water on 
 the efforts to bring about an amalgamation of parties, and satirized, 
 with considerable severity, in one of his speeches, the attentions re- ' 
 ceived by the President, on a Northern tour, from the old federalists. 
 The Administration in turn for some time gave an equally inhospita- 
 ble reception to Mr. Clay's endeavours to bring about the recogni- 
 tion of South American Independence; but when, by the progress 
 of events, and the indications of public sentiment, efforts to arrest 
 that measure had become unsafe, it exerted itself to take the matter 
 out of Mr. Clay's hands by means of a virtual recommendation of it 
 by the President himself. I well remember Mr. Calhoun's exulting 
 remark when the Message on this subject and this effect of it were 
 alluded to : " Yes ! the fruit has now become ripe and may be safely 
 plucked ! " It was in this way that Mr. Clay was, as he supposed, 
 deprived of the credit he hoped to have acquired by his championship 
 of South American Independence. His was not a temperament long 
 to brook hostility open or covert. His deep dissatisfaction with the 
 President's course in announcing in advance in his Annual Message 
 in December 1817, that he could not approve of a Bill authorizing the 
 construction of roads or canals, has been noticed. He spoke of it in 
 his great effort on that occasion as a step which if taken by the 
 Crown would have been regarded in England as a breach of the 
 privileges of Parliament and said that it deserved to be considered 
 here, whatever might have been the President's motive, as an attempt 
 to dictate to Congress. Altho' he treated the President throughout 
 with the respect due tO' his station he evidently did so at the sacrifice 
 of deeply seated feelings of a different character. When it is I'ecoH 
 lected that the resolutions asserting the power of Congress on that 
 occasion were rejected by very small majorities he might well at- 
 tribute their defeat as he did to this out of the way tho' not posi- 
 306 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUEEN. 307 
 
 lively irregular step of the President. The introduction by Mr. 
 Clay's alter ego, Mr. Trimble,^ of the Bill authorizing the establish- 
 ment of toll-gates on the Cumberland Road may have originated 
 solely, or even chiefly in the impatience of Congress at the expences 
 of that Eoad and in a natural desire to relieve the Treasury from 
 further appropriations of money to keep it in repair: but I con- 
 fess that I did not see the movement in that light. To compell Mr. 
 Monroe, with the sanction of his Cabinet, not less than three of 
 whose members were contestants in expectancy for the Presidency, to 
 apply the the general principle to which he had volunteered an 
 avowal at the preceding session, of his continued adherence to the 
 pet public work of the West, or, by omitting to do so, to admit its 
 unsoundness, was a temptation too strong for a man like Mr. Clay 
 to resist. He had been baffled by the Administration in an object 
 in which I have no doubt that his feelings were earnestly engaged 
 and upon his success in which he had made large calculations and 
 his retort could hardly be regarded as a reckless one. 
 
 By the provisions of the Bill, which was carried through under 
 the lead of^Mr. Trimble, — ^]\Ir. Clay having retired for one Congress, 
 but I need not add, having his eye on Washington, — ^the Adminis- 
 tration was driven to the alternative I have described. I am con- 
 fident that Mr. Monroe and the principal members of his Cabinet so 
 understood the movement. In resisting it Messrs. Adams, Crawford 
 and Calhoun acted as a unit, for altho' in regard to their political 
 aspirations each engineered for himself they were equally opposed to 
 Mr. Clay's pretensions. Nor was there then much difference in the 
 character of their personal relations with him, these not being in 
 either case very cordial; perhaps the least so between Mr. Adams 
 and himself in consequence of their then recent and angry corre- 
 spondence in regard to occurences at Ghent. The movement was 
 met, as was to have been expected from men of their calibre, by 
 an act of a strong stamp, the extent and bearing of which Mr. Clay 
 can hardly have foreseen. The veto was promptly interposed, and 
 so far the Administration was successful, but by the accompanying 
 Presidential manifesto, Mr. Monroe, changing the opinions of his 
 whole previous life, exposed the national treasury to appropriations 
 to any extent for the construction of roads and canals and internal 
 improvements of every description. 
 
 Mr. Clay was not in a situation to take advantage of this re- 
 markable somersault of his opponents, for he at that time permitted 
 no man to go beyond him in latitudinarian constructions of the 
 Constitution. Of this the Administration was well aware, but it 
 forgot that he was not the only or the principal observer of its 
 
 ^William A. TrimWe, of Ohio. 
 
308 AMEKICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 course. It overlooked the circumstance in the eagerness of the 
 struggle, that there was yet a large segment of the old republican 
 party sufficient to form the nucleus for a subsequent successful rally, 
 which had not been carried away by the "era of good feeling," 
 which tho' perhaps not much surprised, was sorely grieved by an 
 act of such flagrant backsliding on the part of the President of 
 their choice and who saw in it the fulfilment of the forebodings 
 which had been excited by his previous dalliance with the opposi- 
 tion. By the utter loss of the confidence of this class Mr. Monroe 
 and those for whose advancement he was desirous, doubtless sin- 
 cerely and honestly, sustained a far greater injury than any tem- 
 porary advantage over Mr. Clay could make good. 
 
 The veto was interposed near the close of the session and nothing 
 further was done upon the general subject but the struggle was re- 
 sumed at the earliest practicable moment. 
 
 Mr. Hemphill ^ as Chairman of the Committee on Eoads and Canals 
 had, at the same session, reported a Bill to procure plans and surveys 
 preparatory to the establishment of a general system, but it was 
 not acted upon. At the beginning of the next he had that Bill 
 committed to the Committee of the Whole. It was considered, 
 and a motion by Mr. Barbour to strike out the first section, on con- 
 stitutional grounds, failed under the influence of the veto, and 
 the Bill would have passed but for a new move upon the political 
 chess board that prevented it. The legislation of Congress was 
 obviously upon the point of receiving the direction which was 
 designed to be given to it by Mr. Monroe's veto and the accompany- 
 ing expositions of his new opinions. The policy of the Adminis- 
 tration, that of abandoning the power of construction and of con- 
 fining the agency of the Federal Government to appropriations of 
 money in aid of Works constructed by the States, or by individuals 
 under their authority, — ^was on the point of triumphing over the 
 policy of Mr. Clay, which went far beyond it, when the Bill was 
 tabled on the motion of Mr. Hardin,^ of Kentucky, a friend of Mr. 
 Clay, and a motion to take it up afterwards refused by the strong 
 vote of 111 to 42, on which division seven of the nine Kentucky 
 members, all ardent advocates for internal improvements by the 
 General Government, together with several prominent Clayites from 
 the West, and from other parts of the Union, voted against further 
 action upon the subject; and nothing further was done during the 
 session of 1822-3. 
 
 In his annual Message, at the next° session, 1823-4, President 
 Monroe came to the aid of the policy which his communication to 
 
 the previous Congress had been designed to install and which the 
 
 ^ ^ I 
 
 1 Joseph Hemphill, = 3enjaiiiin Harflin, ° MS. Ill, p. 146. 
 
AtTTOBlOGRAPHY OF MAHTIN VAN BtJREN. ' 309 
 
 closing movement on the subject at the last session seemed destined 
 to check, and reiterated his opinion in favor of the' power of Con- 
 gress, recommending an appropriation for the employment of the 
 requisite number of Engineers to make the necessary preparatory 
 examinations for Canals connecting the Ohio with the Chesapeake 
 and also for connecting the waters of the Ohio with Lake Erie. Mr. 
 Hemphill reported his Bill and it was elaborately discussed. Mr. 
 Clay, who had been re-elected and again chosen Speaker, presented 
 himself at the very threshold of the debate, denied in toto the doc- 
 trines of the -weto-Message, insisted that if Congress had not the 
 right to cause those works to be constructed, it had no right to pay 
 for .them or to appropriate money in aid of their construction, 
 claimed that the Constitutional question upon that point arose upon 
 this Bill and would be decided by it, &c. &c. Mr. Hemphill, still 
 Chairman of the Committee on Koads and Canals, concurred in the 
 views expressed by Mr. Clay and advocated the passage of the Bill 
 on the same grounds. The discussions were still more elaborate than 
 those of 1818, and drew out the power of the House. That pure and 
 inflexible sentinel on the ramparts of the Constitution, Philip P. 
 Barbour, moved again to strike out the first section of the Bill, on 
 the ground of a want of power in Congress to construct and a 
 consequent want of power to appropriate money for surveys. His 
 motion failed by a vote of 109 to 74, and the Bill was finally passed. 
 Nothing more was done upon the subject at that session, and so the 
 matter stood at the time of the Presidential election of 1824. 
 
 Making all reasonable allowance for the possibility that the ad- 
 mitted ardour of my political life may continue to influence my judg- 
 ment more than I imagine it does, I feel confident that no well 
 balanced mind can review the facts and circumstances to which I 
 have referred, — established as they are by the recorded testimony of 
 the actors themselves — ^without admitting the justness of my con- 
 clusion that the important principle contended for by the advocates 
 of internal improvements by the Federal Government was used by 
 its professed supporters as a political shuttle-cock which they tossed 
 backward or forward according to the feelings and exigencies of the 
 moment. Advancing, receding or standing still, the acts of the 
 parties plainly appear now, when passion has subsided and when 
 their projects have been either abandoned or jostled aside by the 
 march of time and events, to have been controlled by partisan views 
 under cover of loud professions for the public good. ITor can this 
 charge be limited to those of whom we speak. It is a vice inseparable 
 from political conflicts that in a large majority of cases the interests 
 of parties and of those whose public fortunes they desire to advance 
 •are consulted before those of the Country. It would perhaps not 
 
310 AMERICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 be going too far to say that the exceptions are only when such a 
 course would so palpably disclose the real motive to the general pub- 
 lic as to defeat its purpose or when the direction of affairs falls to 
 the hand of a man who takes particular pride in the adoption of 
 measures commonly considered unpopular when he can satisfy his 
 own mind that he is promoting the public interest. 
 
 The People having failed to elect a President, Mr. Adams was 
 raised to the head of the Government by the House of Representa- 
 tives, and Mr. Clay was placed at the head of his Cabinet. They 
 both held that Congress had power to cause to be constructed and 
 paid for out of the national revenue all such internal improvements 
 as would, in its judgment, be conducive to the common defence and 
 general welfare and we have never had reason to believe there was 
 a single dissentient from that opinion in the new Cabinet. There 
 was therefore no constitutional restraint upon the action of Con- 
 gress in this matter other than that which might be expected from 
 members of the old republican party who yet adhered to the prin- 
 ciples of their predecessors, but who constituted minorities in both 
 branches of the national Legislature. The results of this state of 
 things may well be imagined, especially by all who have had op- 
 portunities to observe the facility with which members of Congress 
 come to regard everything that can be carried home from the pub- 
 lic treasury as lawful spoil and the zeal with which they struggle 
 to secure the expenditure in their own districts of whatever can 
 be extracted from it. The execution of Hemphill's act, authoriz- 
 ing the President to cause surveys and plans for public works to 
 be made, exhibited a striking view of the character and tendency 
 of this disposition on the part of the representatives and jtheir con- 
 stituents. So difficult was it for the War Department to satisfy 
 itself for the purpose of discrimination of the real character of dis- 
 tant claims to notice and so pressing the solicitations that every 
 corner of the Country was fast being surveyed preparatory to im- 
 provements of some kind, for the most part of a purely local char- 
 acter, and so flagrant did these abuses become that the wisest friends 
 of the system insisted, in its defence, that the law should be so al- 
 tered as to make a specific act of Congress necessary in each case. 
 
 The condition of things at the period of Gen. Jackson's elevation to 
 the Presidency was thus described in one of his annual Messages. 
 Speaking of the claim of power in Congress to make internal im- 
 provements within a State, with the right of jurisdiction sufficient 
 for its preservation, he says : 
 
 Yet, we all know that notwithstanding these grave objections, this dangerous 
 doctrine was at one time apparently proceeding to its final establishment with 
 fearful rapidity. The desire to embarlj the Federal Government in works of* 
 Internal Improvement prevailed in the highest degree during the first session 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEBN. 311 
 
 of the first Congress that I had the honor to meet in my'present situation, and 
 when the Bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the United States for 
 stock in the Maysville and Lexington turnpike company passed the two Houses, 
 there had been reported by the Committees on Internal Improvements, Bills 
 containing appropriations for such objects, inclusive of those for the Cumber- 
 land Road, and for harbours and light houses, to the amount of about one 
 liundred and six millions of dollars. In this amount was included authority to 
 Ihe Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe for the stock of different companies 
 to a great extent and the residue was principally for the direct construction of 
 lloads by this Government. In addition to these projects which had been 
 presented to the two Houses under the sanction and recommendation of their 
 respective Committees on Internal Improvements, there were then still pending 
 before the Committees, and in memorials presented, but not referred, different 
 projects for works of a similar character, the expense of which cannot be 
 estimated with certainty but may have exceeded one hundred millions of 
 dollars.^ 
 
 Among the Bills referred to was one to authorize the construction 
 of a road from Buffalo to New Orleans which failed by a majority of 
 only fifteen, and was reconsidered by a majority of eight less than 
 two weeks before the interposition of the veto; besides numerous 
 other cases of corresponding magnitude 
 
 ' Sixth annual message, Dec. 2, 1834. 
 
CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 The points in our domestic concerns which at this time occupied 
 the largest share of President Jackson's personal attention were 
 the Bank and the removal of the Indians. The engrossing char- 
 acter of the latter has been already described and that of the 
 former will be exhibited in its turn. Having for several years 
 made the subject of Internal Improvements by the Federal Gov- 
 ernment my study, apprehensions of the evils their prosecution, 
 as the Constitution stood, might entail upon the Country had be- 
 come grave, and sincerely believing that the adverse current which 
 had set in that direction might and could only be arrested thro' 
 the General's extraordinary popularity I early and assiduously 
 pressed the matter upon his consideration. He embraced my sug- 
 gestions not only with alacrity but with that lively zeal with which 
 he received every proposition which he thought could be made 
 conducive to the public good. I propose to give a succinct account 
 of the steps that proceeded from our . conversations ; and I will 
 first briefly notice some of the General's characteristic qualities by 
 which their advancement was essentially promoted. It is however 
 far from my intention to attempt a complete portraiture of indi- 
 vidual character. I am conscious that such attempts often, not 
 to say generally, manifest the" ambition of the author to shew 
 his skill in depicting a perfectly good or an albsolutely bad char- 
 acter instead of a desire to portray his subject as he really was, 
 and that the picture, when finished is thus a reflection of his 
 imagination rather than a reliable representation of real life. I 
 hope to make the world better acquainted with the true character 
 of Andrew Jackson than it was before, but I design to do this 
 chiefly by correct reports of what he said and did on great occasions. 
 
 Although firm to the last degree in the execution of his resolution 
 when once formed, I never knew a man more free from conceit, or 
 one to whom it was to a greater extent a pleasure, as well as a 
 recognized duty, to listen patiently to what might be said to him upon 
 any subject under consideration until the time for action had arrived. 
 Akin to his disposition in this regard was his readiness to acknowl- 
 edge error whenever an occasion to do so was presented and a 
 willingness to give full credit to his co-actors on important occasions 
 without ever pausing to consider how much of the merit he awarded 
 was at the expense of that due to himself. In this spirit he received 
 
 ■" MS. Ill, p. 150. 
 
 312 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 313 
 
 the aid of those associated with him in the public service in the 
 preparation of the public documents that were issued under his name, 
 wholly indifferent in regard to the extent to which their participation 
 was known, solicitous only that they should be understood by those 
 to whom they were addressed as a true record of his opinions, his 
 resolutions and his acts. That point secured he cared little either as 
 to the form of words in which they were expressed, or as to the 
 agency through which the particular exposition was concocted. 
 
 Neither, I need scarcely say, was he in the habit of talking, much 
 less of boasting of his own achievements. Content with the part he 
 hhd actually taken in the conduct and solution of any important 
 public question and never having reason tO' complain of the opinions 
 formed and expressed of his acts by a large majority of his Country- 
 men he had neither a desire nor a motive to parade his own or to 
 shine in borrowed plumes. I have already spoken of Gen. Jackson'8 
 early preference for the self-denying theory and strict-construction 
 doctrines of the old republican school and have also, I believe, 
 noticed the circumstance that when quite a young man and a younger 
 politician he chose rather to expose himself to the odium of recording 
 his name against a vote of confidence in and thanks to Gen. Wash- 
 ington than to suffer himself to be caught in the trap set for him 
 and his republican associates by Fisher Ames and company.^ The 
 design of that artifice was so to connect an approval of the measures 
 which the federalists in Congress had sustained and which the repub- 
 licans had opposed with an expression of the favorable sentiments 
 universally entertained towards Gen. Washington and his motives 
 in all things, as to put it out of the power of the latter to stand by 
 their avowed opinions without refusing to concur in that expression. 
 They snapped the cords with which it was thus attempted to fetter 
 them and Gen. Jackson's vote on that occasion was urged against him 
 when he became a candidate for the Presidency, some thirty years 
 after. 
 
 But the principle of internal improvements by the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, so far from being acted upon when he was first in Con- 
 gress, was, as has been seen, disavowed by the great leader of the 
 administration, and a large share of Gen. Jackson's time was spent 
 in the camp whilst the subject was debated by the rising men of the 
 day from 1816 to 1823, when he re-appeared on the floor of Con- 
 gress. There was besides a peculiarity in his position at the latter 
 period which, tho' it could not — ^as nothing could — ^lead him, to do 
 wroiig when it became necessary to act, was nevertheless well calcu- 
 lated to lessen somfiwhat, for the moment at least, his active partici- 
 pation in this particular branch of legislation. To give to that 
 
 iFov an account of this see Parton's Ufa of Jackson (N. Y., 1860), v. 1, 205-212. 
 
314 AMERICAN HISTOKICAX, ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 peculiarity the weight to which it was entitled the reader must bear 
 in mind the influence exerted by Pennsylvania in bringing Gen. 
 Jackson forward for the Presidency, an influence which will not I 
 think be over-estimated when it is regarded as having controlled the 
 result ; and this consideration deserves to be constantly remembered 
 whilst canvassing the merits of his subsequent course upon several 
 very important points. 
 
 Pennsylvania is in every sense of the word a great state and 
 worthy of high respect — great in her material resources and great in 
 the constant industry, the morality and general intelligence of her 
 People. When to the credit she derives from these sources is added 
 that which has naturally accrued from the moderate and sound 
 character of her general course it will be seen how well she has 
 deserved the honor shewn her by her sister States in the title with 
 which they have distinguished her of " the key stone of the arch of 
 the Union." 
 
 It is nevertheless true that she has for a long time presented a 
 favorable field for the agitation of political questions which ad- 
 dress themselves to special interests in the communities upon which 
 they are pressed. Internal Improvements by the Federal Govern- 
 ment, a high protective tariff and a Bank of the United States had, 
 for many years before Gen. Jackson's accession to the Presidency, 
 been regarded as favorite measures with the good people of Penn- 
 sylvania. In respect to the first, which is now the subject of our 
 consideration, both of the great Eeports of the Committees on Eoads 
 and Canals, at the period when it embraced a large share of the 
 attention of Congress, were from Pennsylvanians, — Mr. Wilson ^ and 
 Mr. Hemphill. Yet these measures and the question of the removal 
 of the Indians, which had so strongly excited their misdirected sym- 
 pathies, were destined to be the principal domestic subjects on which 
 Gen. Jackson's Administration, if he succeeded in the election, was 
 to be employed. With the two last, (the Bank and the Tariff) he 
 had made himself familiar and as to them his course was fixed ; and, 
 foreseeing the necessity he would be under upon those points to 
 run counter to the wishes of his Pennsylvanian friends at the very 
 threshhold of his administration, it was natural' that a man of his 
 generous temper, and of whose character fidelity to friendship was 
 the crowning grace, should have been desirous to avoid any addition 
 to the issues between himself and his no less generous supporters, as 
 far as that could be avoided without dereliction of duty. " 
 
 It was under such circumstances, and never having made the 
 constitutional question in relation to the power of Congress over 
 the matter a subject of critical examination, that he voted in 
 
 » H«nry Wilson. 
 
AtJTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BTJRBN. 315 
 
 1823-4 and 5, in favor of the acts "to provide for the necessary sur- 
 veys for roads and canals ", and " authorizing a subscription to the 
 stock of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company " and a few 
 other propositions of similar import, which votes were vehemently 
 urged, by his opponents, against his subsequent course. 
 
 My debwt in Congress had not been free from a like discrepancy. 
 The bill providing for the erection of toll-gates on the Cumberland 
 Eoad came before us a few months after I had taken my seat in the 
 Senate of the United States and I gave a silent vote in favor of it. 
 Mr. Monroe's veto, which would have shed enduring honor on his 
 name, if he had suffered it to stand alone, brought me to instant and 
 thorough examination and reflection. It did not take me long to 
 satisfy myself that I had acted under a grave mistake and I em- 
 braced an early opportunity to acknowledge my error on the floor of 
 the Senate. Convinced also of the inexpediency as well as uncon- 
 stitutionality of the construction of works of internal improvement 
 under the direct or indirect authority of the Federal Government, so 
 long as the Constitution remained as it was I became earnestly 
 solicitous not only to arrest the course of legislation on the subject, 
 which was then making fearful progress, but to devise some way by 
 which it could be placed on a better and a safer footing. My name 
 will be found recorded against all the Bills which the General voted 
 for and I believe against every similar proposition subsequent to the 
 act to erect toll-gates on the Cumberland Road. I have now care- 
 fully examined the Journals of Congress and reviewed my official 
 acts to the close of my public life, and can, I think, safely challenge 
 . a comparison with the straitest of the strict-construction sect in 
 regard to° a faithful adherence to the principles of that school, with 
 the single exception of which I have spoken. When I recall the 
 names of the many good and pure men who made themselves hon- 
 orably conspicuous in the support of those principles, particularly 
 among the Statesmen of Virginia and North Carolina, I am sensible 
 of the boldness of this proffer, but even then do not shrink from it. 
 Not content with steadily voting against all unauthorized measures 
 of the character referred to, and fearing from what was daily pass- 
 ing before my eyes, that it would not be long in the power of those 
 who were faithful to the principles of the Constitution to arrest or 
 even to check the torrent of reckless legislation which had set in so 
 powerfully, I proposed an amendment of the Constitution, the object 
 of which was to make that lawful which was then illicit and to pro- 
 tect the public interest against abuses by wholesome constitutional 
 restraints, and which I insert here, with the brief remarks with which 
 1 introduced it: 
 
 "■ MS. Ill, p. 155. 
 
316 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCUMON. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren rose, in pursuance of notice given on Wednesday last, to 
 ask leave to introduce a joint resolution, proposing an amendment to the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, on the subject of the power of Congress to make 
 roads and canals. He said he was as much opposed as any man to frequent 
 alterations of the form of government under which we live, but he would make 
 no apology for bringing this matter before the Senate, in so imposing a form 
 as that of an amendment to the Constitution. He would now do so, because he 
 was entirely convinced that no one could dispassionately consider the present 
 state of the question, to which his resolution relates, without feeling the im- 
 perious necessity of some Constitutional provision on tlie subject. It was 
 not his intention, at this time, to enter into the discussion of the matter; he 
 would only submit one or two general remarks in relation to it. Of the im- 
 portance of the question, it was not necessary to speak. Suffice it to say that, 
 in its scope, it embraces the funds of the nation to an unlimited extent, and 
 in its result must affect, as far as the agency of the Federal Government was 
 concerned, the future internal improvement of a great and flourishing country. 
 Is the power to make roads and canals, within the States, now vested in the 
 Federal Government? Individuals, said Mr. V. B., may give their impres- 
 sions, with their reasons for the various ingenious constructions they put 
 upon the different parts of the Constitution, to make out that this power exists ; 
 but all candid men will admit that there are few questions more unsettled. 
 Whilst, in some States, the power is universally conceded, and its exercise 
 loudly required, in others, its existence is as generally denied, and its ex- 
 ercise as ardently resisted. Is there cause to believe that, as the Constitution 
 now stands, a construction will obtain, which will be so far acquiesced in 
 as to be regarded and enforced as one of the established powers of the General 
 Government? He thought there was not. For about twenty years, this sub- 
 ject had been one of constant and earnest discussion. Efforts have at various 
 times been made in Congress to exercise the pov^er in question. They have 
 met sometimes with more, and sometimes with less, favor. Bills, containing 
 the assertion, and directing the exercise of this power, have passed the two 
 Houses, and been returned, with objections, by two successive Presidents, and 
 failed for want of the Constitutional majority. The last Congress and the 
 Executive were arrayed against each other, upon the question, and as far as 
 a recent vote of the other House may be regarded as evidence of the present 
 opinion of Congress, there is every reason to believe that such is now the case. 
 
 The Government has now been in operation rising of thirty years; and al- 
 though the subject has always been a matter of interest, no law clearly em- 
 bracing the power has ever yet been passed. There is, therefore, but little 
 reason to hope that, without some Constitutional provision, the question will 
 ever be settled. If the General Government has not now the power, Mr. V. B. 
 said that he for one thought that, under suitable restrictions, they ought to 
 have it. As to what those restrictions ought to be, there might, and probably 
 would, be diversity of opinion. But, as to the abstract proposition, that as 
 -much of the funds of the nation as could be raised, without oppression, and 
 as are not necessary to the discharge of existing and indispensable demands 
 upon the Government, should be expended upon internal improvements, under 
 restrictions regarding the sovereignty and securing the equal Interest of the 
 States, he presumed there would be little difference of opinion. He could not 
 but hope, that those who think the better construction of the Constitution is, 
 that Congress now have the power, would also consent to some amendment. 
 They must, at all events, admit that it is far from being a clear, and cer- 
 tainly not a settled matter, and in view of the danger always attending the 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BTJEEN. 317 
 
 exercise of a doubtful right by the Federal Government against the persevering 
 opposition of the several States, they would decide vyhether, instead of con- 
 testing this matter as it has been done for so many years, it would not be more 
 for the interest of the nation, as well as the credit of the Government, to place 
 the matter on well defined ground. There were many strong reasons why he 
 thought this course ought to be pursued, and which, at the proper time, he 
 would take the liberty to urge. For the present, he would simply add that, 
 independent of the collisions of State interests, which this power is more likely 
 than any other to produce, the exercise of it in the present state of the Con- 
 stitution, and with an Executive whose reading of it should be different from 
 that of the present and the two who last preceded him, could not fail to be 
 grossly unequal among the States; because it is well known that there were 
 some States who have invariably, and who will, as long as they prefer the 
 inviolability of the Constitution to their local interest, continue to oppose the 
 exercise of this power with them. Without, therefore, the ability to prevent, 
 they would be excluded from the benefits of its exercise. The course now pro- 
 posed had been earnestly recommended to the last Congress by the present 
 Executive, and, when the subject came up for discussion, he would endeavor 
 to show that its adoption was called for by the best interests of the nation. 
 
 Leave was then granted, and Mr. Van Buren offered the following resolu- 
 tion, which was read, and passed to a second reading : 
 
 "^ Resolved, do., That the following amendment of the Constitution of the 
 United States be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States : 
 
 " Congress shall have power to make roads and canals ; but all money appro- 
 priated for this purpose shall be apportioned among the several States accord- 
 ing to the last enumeration of their respective numbers, and applied to the 
 making and repairing of roads and canals within the several States, as Con- 
 gress may direct ; but any State may consent to the appropriation by Con- 
 gress of its quota of such appropriation in the making or repairing of roads 
 and canals, without its own limits ; no such road or canal shall, however, be 
 made within any State, without the consent of the Legislature thereof, and all 
 such money shall be so expended under their direction." * 
 
 In December, 1825, I submitted to the Senate, as a substitute for 
 the previous proposition, the following motion and the remarks that 
 follow : 
 
 " Resolved, That Congress does not possess the i)ower to make Roads and 
 Canals within the respective States. 
 
 " Resolved, That a select committee be appointed, with instructions to pre- 
 pare and report a Joint Resolution, for an amendment of the Constitution, 
 prescribing and defining the power Congress shall have over the subject of 
 Internal Improvements, and subjecting the same to such restrictions as shall 
 effectually protect the sovereignty of the respective States, and secure to them 
 a just distribution of the benefits resulting from all appropriations made for 
 that purpose." 
 
 In Introducing these resolutions — 
 
 Mr. Van Buren said, that it would be recollected that he had, some days 
 since, given notice of his intention to ask for leave to introduce a joint resolu- 
 tion, proposing an amendment of the Constitution on the subject of the power 
 of Congress over the subject of internal improvements. Upon the suggestion 
 of gentlemen who feel an interest in the subject, and think the principal object 
 can, in that way, be better effected, he had consented so far to change the 
 
 ' Jan. 22, 1824,— Annals of Congress, 18tli, 1st, Vol. I, p. 134, 
 
318 AMBRICAII]' HISTOKICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 course originally contemplated, by substituting resolutions expressive of the 
 sense of the Senate on the Constitution, as it now is, and proposing the appoint- 
 ment of a select committee to report upon the subject, under such iustruction 
 as the Senate may think proper to give. Such resolutions he would now take 
 the liberty of submlLting. Ke did not, of course, wish to press their immediate 
 consideration, but would call them up at as early a day as would comport with 
 the state of public business and the ordinary course of proceeding in the 
 Senate. He hoped he would be excused for expressing an earnest wish that the 
 conceded importance of the subject would induce gentlemen to turn their atten- 
 tion to it as soon as they conveniently could, to the end that, when it was taken 
 up, it might be carried to a speedy decision, and not exposed to those unprofit.- 
 able delays and postponements which had heretofore attended measures of a simi- 
 lar character, and ultimately prevented an expression of the sense of the Senate 
 on their merits. He deceived liimself, if there was any matter in which, at this 
 moment, their constituents felt a more intense interest, than the question of 
 the rightful and probable agency of the General Government in the great work 
 of Internal Improvement. Whilst, in the States, measures of that description 
 had been harmonious in their progress, and, as far as the means of the States 
 would admit of, successful in their results, the condition of things here had 
 been of a very different character. From the first agitation of the subject, the 
 constitutional power of Congress to legislate upon the subject had been a 
 source of unbroken, and, frequently, angry and unpleasant controversy. The 
 time, he said, had never yet been, when all the branches of the ^Legislative 
 Department were of the same opinion upon the question. Even those who 
 united in the sentiment as to the existence of the power, differed in almost 
 everything else in regard to it. Of its particular source in the Constitution, 
 its extent and attributes, very different views were entertained by its friends. 
 There had not been anything in the experience of the past, nor was there any- 
 thing in the prospect of the future, on which a reasonable hope could be 
 founded, that this great subject could ever be satisfactorily adjusted by any 
 means short of an appeal to the States. The Intimate connexion between the 
 prosperity of the country and works of the description referred to, would always 
 induce efforts to induce the General Government to embark in them, and there 
 was but little reason to believe that its cl.iim of power would ever be abandoned. 
 As little reason was there, in his judgment, to expect that the opposition to it 
 would ever be given up. The principles upon which that opposition is founded ; 
 the zeal and fidelity with which it has hitherto been sustained, preclude such 
 an expectation. If this view of the subject was a correct one, and it api)eared 
 to him that it was, he respectfully submitted it as a matter of imperious duty, 
 on the part of Congress, to make a determined effort to have the question 
 settled in the only way which can be final — an amendment of the Constitution, 
 prescribing and defining what Congress may, and what they shall not do, 
 with the restrictions under which what is allowed to them shall be done. It 
 appeared to him that not only every interest connected with the subject, but 
 the credit, if not safety, of our enviable political institutions, required that 
 course; for it must be evident to all reflecting men, that the reiterated com- 
 plaints of constitutional infraction must tend to relax the confidence of the 
 People in the Government, and that such measures as may be undertaken upon 
 the subject must be constantly exposed to peril from the fluctuations of tlie 
 opinion of successive Legislatures. The subject, he said, had been viewed in 
 this light by some of the best and ablest men the country has produced. As 
 early as 1808, the propriety of an appeal to the States upon the point in ques- 
 tion, had been suggested by Mr. Jefferson, in his last message to Congress. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BURBN. 319 
 
 The same course had been recommended by Mr. Madison, and the recommenda- 
 tion repeated by Mr. Monroe. 
 
 As yet, no decided effort to effect this great object had been made; he per- 
 mitted lilmself to hope that such effort would now be made. It was true, he 
 said, the subject had not been referred to by the present Executive, and the 
 reasons why he had not done so were apparent, from the communications he 
 has made to us. From those, it appeared that the President entertained opin- 
 ions, as to tlie power of Congress, which removed all difficulties upon the 
 subject. But Mr. V. B. said that, although thiit circumstance might possibly 
 diminish, It certainly did not obviate the necessity of now acting upon the 
 subject, as the Senate were not left to conjecture as to the fact, that there 
 existed a discordance of opinion between the Executive and portions, at least — 
 how large time would shew — of the other branches of the Legislative Depart- 
 ment. Jlr. V. B. said that, entertaining such views upon the subject, he had 
 felt it his duty to bring the subject thus early before the Senate, and when 
 the proper period for discussion arrived, would avail himself of their indul- 
 gence to assign his reasons for the course proposed.' 
 
 These movements excited the attention and received the appro- 
 bation of Mr. Jefferson and raised for the moment the drooping 
 spirits of many sincere State-rights men. It soon, however, be- 
 came evident that there was no reasonable hope, for their success. 
 It was obvious that the Virginia and Kentucky doctrines of Ninety 
 Eight had been too successfully derided and contemned to leave, 
 at that moment the slightest ground of confidence in the adoption 
 of any such proposition. I therefore, after postponing its considera- 
 tion from year to year in the hope of more favorable indications, 
 suspended further efforts of that nature. But it will be seen that I 
 was not idle, and that my failure wa^ not my fault. I prepared, 
 after much reflection and laborious examination a 'brief'^ for the 
 discussion of the subject, in which I take mora pride than in any 
 of my speeches and which, under the sincere tho' too probably mis- 
 taken belief that I have not formed a partial estimate of it, I have 
 directed to be published with such of my speeches as those who 
 come after me may deem worthy of so much notice. If the mad 
 schemes of that day should ever be revived those who take a part in 
 defeating them may perhaps find in these notes useful suggestions. 
 They will at all events prove the deep interest that I took in the 
 matter and what follows will shew that in all probability they ex- 
 erted, altho' in a way very different from the one originally intended 
 for them, a salutary influence upon the great measure of relief to 
 the Country from the evils ,of spurious legislation upon this great 
 subject. 
 
 None but the men who were active and conspicuous in the serv- 
 ice of the Federal Government at that day, and of these now few 
 
 iDec. 20, 1825. — Debates in Congress, 19th, 1st, Vol. II, p. 20. 
 
 2 This brief is not found either in the Van Buren or the Jackson Papers in the Library 
 of Congress. 
 
320 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 remain amongst us, can form any adequate opinion of the power 
 and influence which those who had embarked their political for- 
 tunes in attempts to commit the General Government irretrievably 
 to the promotion and construction of Internal Improvements, had 
 acquired both in Congress and among the most alert and enter- 
 prising portions of the People. The wild spirit of speculation, to 
 whose career our ever growing and ever moving population and 
 our expanded and expanding territory offered the -fairest field, be- 
 came wilder over the prospect before it and the wits of Congress- 
 men were severely tasked in devising and causing to be surveyed and 
 brought forward under captivating disguises the thousand local 
 improvements with which they designed to dazzle and seduce their 
 constituents. It required an extraordinary degree of resolution in a 
 public man to attempt to resist a passion that had become so ramp- 
 ant, but this consideration might stimulate but could not discour- 
 age Gen. Jackson so long as he was convinced, that the course 
 presented for his consideration was the path of duty. He was 
 unfeignedly grateful to Pennsylvania for what she had done for 
 him, he knew well that upon this question as upon those of the 
 removal of the Indians and of the Bank she had taken a lead in 
 the wrong direction, he was extremely loth to add another to the 
 great points upon which his duty would compel him to throw 
 himself in the way of her gratification, but for all and against 
 all such appeals and motives he promptly opposed the sugges- 
 tions of right, and the ever present and ever operative sense of an 
 official obligation superior to personal feeling. 
 
 He appreciated to their full extent the arguments in support of 
 the inexpediency of the legislation which he was asked to arrest, 
 whilst the Constitution remained unaltered, but preferred to meet 
 the question on constitutional grounds. No Cabinet councils were 
 called: not another member of the Cabinet was consulted before 
 his decision had become irrevocable. It was understood between us 
 that I should keep an eye upon the movements of Congress and 
 bring to his notice the first Bill upon which I might think his in- 
 terference would be preferable, and that when such a case was pre- 
 sented, we would take up the question of Constitutional power and 
 examine it deliberately and fully. 
 
 The Bill authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Maysville, 
 Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike-road Company ap- 
 peared to me to present the looked for occasion. Its local character 
 was incontestably established by the fact that the road commenced 
 and ended in the same State. It had passed the House and could 
 undoubtedly pass the Senate. The road was in Mr. Clay's own State 
 and Mr. Clay was, the General thought — whether rightfully or not 
 is now immaterial, — pressing the measure and the question it in- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAST BUREN. 321 
 
 volved upon him rather for political effect than for public ends, and 
 it was his preference, in accordance with a sound military axiom to 
 make his enemy's territory the theatre of the war whenever that was 
 practicable. 
 
 I brought the subject to the President's notice during one of our 
 daily rides, immediately after the passage of the Bill by the House 
 and proposed to send him on our return the brief of which I have 
 spoken and of which I had before promised him a perusal. I had 
 myself no hesitation in respect to the course that ought to be pur- 
 sued and spoke of it accordingly. He received my suggestions favor- 
 ably, appeared sensible of the importance of the proposed step and 
 at parting begged me not to delay sending him the brief — which was 
 done as soon as I got to my house. 
 
 Within five days after the passage of the Bill by the House of 
 Representatives I received from him the following note. 
 
 (Private.) 
 
 Mat 4th, 1830. 
 My Dear Sib, 
 
 I have been engaged to day as long as my head and eyes would permit, poring 
 over the manuscript you handed me ; as far as I have been able to decipher it 
 I think it one of the most lucid expositions of the Constitution and historical 
 accounts of the departure by Congress from its true principles that I have ever 
 met with. 
 
 It furnishes clear views upon the constitutional powers of Congress. The 
 inability of Congress under the Constitution to apply the funds of the Govern- 
 ment to private, not national purposes I never had a doubt of. The Kentucky 
 road bill involves this very power and I think It right boldly to meet it at the 
 threshold. With this object in view I wish to have an interview with you and 
 consult upon this subject that the constitutional points may be arranged to bear 
 upon it with clearness so that the people may fully understand it. 
 Can I see you this evening or Thursday morning? 
 Your friend 
 
 Andeew Jackson 
 Mr. Van Btxeen. 
 
 Those who take the troublejto refer to the manuscript will be able 
 to decide for themselves on the justice of the encomiums bestowed 
 upon it by the President. I returned the following answer with 
 which I have been furnished by Mr. Blair, to whom the General's 
 papers were entrusted by his will.^ 
 
 ° To THE PBESIDENT. 
 
 My deae Sie. 
 
 I thank you for your favorable opinion of the notes. This matter has for a 
 few days past borne heavily on my mind, and brought it to the precise con- 
 clusion stated in your note. Under this Impression I had actually commenced 
 throwing my Ideas on paper to be submitted to you when I should get through, 
 
 1 These papers are now in the Library of Congress. ° MS. Ill, p. 160. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 21 
 
322 AMEBICAW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 to see whether it is not possible to defeat the aim of our adversaries in either 
 respect, viz ; whether it be to draw you, into the approval of a Bill most em- 
 phatically local, and thus endeavor to saddle you with the latltudinarian 
 notions upon which the late administration acted, or to compel you to take a 
 stand against internal improvements generally, and thus draw to their aid all 
 those who are Interested in the ten thousand schemes which events and the 
 course of the Government for a few past years have engendered. I think I 
 see land, and that it will be in our power to serve the Country and at the same 
 time counteract the machinations of those who mingle their selfish and am- 
 bitious views in the matter. We shall have time enough ; the Bill has not yet 
 passed the Senate and youi have, you know, ten days after that. ' 
 
 I want to see Mr. McDuffie this evening upon the subject of the outfits and 
 may not, therefore, call. I should prefer too to complete first the arrangement 
 of my ideas, and then we can take up the subject more satisfactorily. 
 
 Yours truly 
 
 M. Van Bubbn 
 
 W. May 4tJi 18S0. 
 
 I requested him some days after to obtain from the Secretary of 
 the Treasury the financial statement which accompanied the veto- 
 Message, and received in reply the following spirited note. 
 
 Peivate. 
 
 May 15th, 1830 
 Deae Sie, 
 
 Your note is received. I am happy that you have been looking at the pro- 
 ceedings of Congress. The appropriations now exceed the available funds in 
 the Treasury, and the estimates always exceed the real amount available. I 
 have just called upon the Secretary of the Treasury for the amount of the 
 estimated available balance on the 1st January 1831. 
 
 The people expected reform retrenchment and economy in the administration 
 of this Government. This was the cry from Maine to Louisiana, and instead of 
 these the great object of Congress, it would seem, is to make mine one of the 
 most extravagant administrations since the commencement of the Government. 
 This must not be; The Federal Constitution must be obeyed, State-rights 
 preserved, our national debt must he paid, direct taxes and loans avoided and 
 the Federal union preserved. These are the objects I have In view, and regard- 
 less of all consequences, will carry into effect. 
 
 Yr. friend ^ j 
 
 Mr. V. B. Sec. of State. 
 
 Let me see you this evening or in the morning. 
 
 Notj one out of twenty of the opposition members believed that 
 President Jackson, notwithstanding his proverbial indiiference to 
 the assumption of responsibility, in respect to measures he believed 
 to be. right, would venture to veto an act for the internal improve- 
 ment of the Country in the then state of public opinion upon the 
 subject and after the votes he had so recently given in favor of 
 such acts. If they had thought otherwise they would not have 
 presented him a Bill so purely local in its character. Apprehensive 
 that they would, when his designs became known to them, change 
 their course in that respect, and avail themselves of the selfish 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUEEN. 323 
 
 views and unsettled opinions of a sufficient number of those who 
 had been elected as Jackson men to substitute a Bill for a work more 
 national in its pretensions, I was extremely solicitous that nothing 
 should be said upon the subject until it should be too late for such 
 a step, and pressed that point upon the Gei^eral. It was the only 
 one, I knew, that required to be pressed and it was, moreover, that 
 which I was persuaded would be the most difficult for him. He 
 was entirely unreserved in his public dealings — the People, he 
 thought, should know every thing and " give it to Blair " (or Blar 
 as he pronounced it) — ^was almost always his prompt direction when 
 ever aiiy information was brought to him which affected or might 
 affect the public interest. Apropos of which I was once told by 
 Major Donelson that, in relation to all affairs in which men were 
 alone concerned, the General was inveterately opposed to secrecy 
 excepting only when a duel was in the wind, on which occasions he 
 was a " counsellor — ^most still, most secret and most grave." Indeed 
 we were often alarmed at the exposed manner in which he kept his 
 letters and other private -papers on his table, and ventured to remon- 
 strate with him on the subject, assuring him that for ten dol- 
 lars could induce a very clever but sinister looking mulatto in 
 
 the President's service to carry them to him over night; to which 
 
 suggestion the General replied "If will come here he shall 
 
 have the perusal of them for half the money." An occasion was soon 
 presented on which his habit in this respect involved him in some 
 embarrassment. 
 
 Col. Johnson,^ of Kentucky, was induced by Western members, 
 who had been alarmed by floating rumors, to sound the President 
 and if he found that there existed danger of such a result to re- 
 monstrate with him, in their names and his own, against a veto. 
 At the moment of his appearance the President and myself were 
 engaged in an examination of the expose of the state of the Treas- 
 ury to which I have referred, and alone. After a delay natural to 
 a man possessed as the Colonel was of much, real delicacy of feel- 
 ing and having an awkward commission in hand, he said that he 
 had called at the instance of many friends to have some conver- 
 sation with the General upon a very delicate subject and was de- 
 terred from entering upon it by an apprehension that he might 
 give offense. He was kindly told to dismiss such fears, and as- 
 sured that as the President reposed unqualified confidence in his 
 friendship he could say nothing oii any public matter that would 
 give offense. He then spoke of the rumors in circulation, of the 
 feelings of the General's Western friends in regard to the sub- 
 ject of them, of his apprehensions of the uses that Mr. Clay would 
 make of a veto, and encouraged by the General's apparent interest, 
 
 ^ Richard M. Johnson. 
 
324 AMERICAN- HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK-. 
 
 and warmed by his own, he extended his open hand and exclaimed 
 " General ! If this hand were an anvil on which the sledge hammer 
 of the smith was descending and a fly were to light upon it in. 
 time to receive the blow he would not crush it more effectually 
 than you will crush your friends in Kentucky if you veto that 
 Bill ! " Gren. Jackson evidently excited by the bold figure and 
 energetic manner of Col. Johnson, rose from his seat and ad- 
 vanced towards the latter, who also quitted his chair, and the fol- 
 lowing questions and answers succeeded very rapidly : " Sir, have 
 you looked at the condition of the Treasury — at the amount of 
 money that it contains — at the appropriations already made by 
 Congress — at the amount of other unavoidable claims upon it?" — •' 
 "No! General, I have not! But there has always been money 
 enough to satisfy appropriations and I do not doubt there will 
 be now!" — ^"Well, I have, and this is the result," (repeating the 
 substance of the Treasury exhibit,) " and you see there is no money 
 to be expended as my friends desire. Now, I stand committed be- 
 fore the Country to pay off the National Debt, at the earliest prac- 
 ticable moment; this pledge I am determined to redeem, and I 
 cannot do this if I consent to encrease it without necessity. Are 
 you willing — are my friends willing to lay taxes to pay for internal 
 improvements? — for be assured I will not borrow a cent except in 
 cases of absolute necessity !" — ^" No ! " replied the Colonel, " that 
 would ibe worse than a veto! " 
 
 These emphatic declarations delivered with unusual earnestness 
 and in that peculiarly impressive manner for which he was remark- 
 able when excited quite overcrowed the Colonel who picked up the 
 green bag which he usually carried during the "session and mani- 
 fested a disposition to retreat. As he was about to leave I remarked 
 to him that he had evidently made up his mind that the General 
 had determined to veto the Bill at all events, but that when he re- 
 flected how much of the President's earnestness was occasioned by 
 his own strong speech and how natural it was for a man to become 
 excited when he has two sets of friends, in whom he has equal confi- 
 dence, urging him in different directions, he would be less confident 
 in his conclusion. Reminded by this observation that he had suf- 
 fered the guard which he had imposed on himself to be broken down 
 by the Colonel's sledge-hammer, the General told him that he was 
 giving the matter a thorough investigation and that their friends 
 might be assured that he would not make up his mind without 
 loking at every side of it, — ^that he was obliged to him for what 
 he had said and wished all his friends to speak to him as plainly, 
 &c. &c. The Colonel with his accustomed urbanity deported himself 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 166. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIIT VAN BUEBN. 325 
 
 as if reassured and appeared to consider the case not so desperate 
 as he had at first imagined, but his manner was assumed for the 
 purpose of quieting my apprehensions which he perceived and under- 
 stood. When he returned to the House he replied to the eager 
 enquiries of his Western friends that the General had thanked him 
 and assured him that he would thoroughly examine the subject, but 
 his private opinion decidedly was that nothing less than a voice from 
 Heaven would prevent, the old man from vetoing the Bill, and he 
 doubted whether that would ! 
 
 Still so strong was the impression derived from Gen. Jackson's 
 habit of never concealing his views upon a subject on which his 
 mind was made up, that the incredulity of the members was but 
 slightly removed by the Colonel's report : what he would do in the 
 matter remained an open question to the last. The consequence was 
 that the importunities of his friends were increased, but as the 
 detailed account of Col. Johnson's embassy discouraged direct re- 
 monstrances with the President they were addressed to me, and 
 in my efforts to keep both sides quiet by statements of the difficulties 
 with which the subject was environed by reason of the conflicting 
 struggles of the friends of the Administration, I exposed my own 
 course to some suspicion or affected suspicion in the end. The Gen- 
 eral told me, on my return from England, that one of the charges 
 brought against me by Mr. Calhoun's friends, to justify the rejec- 
 tion of my nomination as Minister, was that I had been opposed 
 to the veto and had tried to prevent him from interposing it. He 
 named, in particular, Mr. Carson,^ of North Carolina, a peppery 
 young man, ardently attached to Mr. Calhoun and, for no other 
 reason that I knew of, very hostile to me, as one who had circulated 
 that report, and said that to silence him, he one day, took up a 
 pamphlet-copy of the veto-Message and holding it before him asked 
 him to look at it closely and see whether he could not discover my 
 likeness on every page. 
 
 The impression among the General's Western friends,* that he 
 would destroy his popularity by a veto, was universal and prevailed 
 also extensively among those from the North. The Pennsylvania 
 members generally were rampant in their opposition and most of 
 them voted for the Bill after the veto was interposed. Being with 
 him to a very late hour the night before the Message was sent up, he 
 asked me to take an early breakfast with him, as Congress was on 
 the point of breaking up, and would therrfore meet at an early hour. 
 In the morning I found our friends, Grundy, Barry, Eaton,^ and 
 Lewis ^ at the table, wearing countenances to the last degree despond- 
 
 1 Samuel P. Carson. 
 
 " Felix Grundy, William T. Barry, and John H. Eaton. 
 
 "WiUiam B. Lewis. 
 
326 AMBKICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ing, occasioned, as I well knew, by their convictions of the injurious 
 effects that must result from the step about to be taken. On going 
 up stairs to his office, he leaning on my arm on account of his ex- 
 treme physical weakness, I observed that our friends were frightened. 
 " Yes," he replied, — •" but don't mind that ! The thing is here " 
 (placing his hand on the breast-pocket of his coat)" and shall be 
 sent up as soon as Congress convenes." 
 
 It was sent up that morning and a scene ensued that baffled all our 
 calculations. If there was any sentiment among our opponents which 
 we knew to be universal, before the reading of the veto-Messa,ge, it 
 was that it would prove the political death warrant of the Adminis- 
 tration and we were prepared to hear denunciations against the vio- 
 lence and destructive effects of the measure and the reckless insult 
 offered to the House by the President in sending it. But no such 
 clamor arose, aJid the first and principal objection that was made 
 against the Massage, when the reading was finished, and which was 
 persevered in to the end, was that it was " an eleotioneeringr docu- 
 ment" sent to Congress for political effect ! — ^and that the ^^hcmd of 
 the magician^^ was visible in every line of it ! 
 
 It was indeed received with unbounded satisfaction by the great 
 body of the disinterested and genuine friends of the Administration 
 throughout the Country. At a public dinner given by the republi- 
 cans of Norfolk to John Randolph on the occasion of his departure 
 for Russia, the following toast was drunk standing and with cheers 
 three times three: — '"The rejection of the Maysville Road Bili it 
 falls upon the ears like the music of other days." Some, whose 
 friendship for the Administration, if not completely alienated, had 
 certainly been greatly abated, felt obliged to praise it. Col. Hayne, 
 of South Carolina, at the great Charleston dinner given to inaugu- 
 rate nullification, and thro' its means to put that Administration to 
 the severest tibial that any had ever been exposed to in our Country 
 spoke of the veto as "the most auspicious event which had taken 
 place in the history of the Country for years past." I refer but to 
 one other of those acceptable exhibitions of public feeling which per- 
 vaded the Union, tho' less imposing in form not less gratifying. 
 Col. Ramsay,^ one of the Representatives from Pennsylvania, an 
 excitable but honest man and true patriot, irritated almost beyond 
 endurance by the veto, followed us from the Capitol to the White 
 House, after the close of the session, and, presuming on the strength 
 of his friendship for the General, fairly upbraided him for his 
 course. The latter bore his reproaches, for such they really were 
 altho' intended only as a remonstrance which he thought allowable 
 in a devoted. friend, with a degree of mildness that excited my ad- 
 miration, begging the dissatisfied representative to say no more upon 
 
 ' Robert Ramsay. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUBEN. 327 
 
 the subject until he had seen his constituents and venturing to 
 prophesy that he would find them pleased with the veto. The 
 worthy Pennsylvanian received the intimation as an additional in- 
 jury and parted from us in an exceedingly had humor. A short 
 time afterwards, as I was one day approaching the President he 
 held up to me in an exultant manner, a paper which proved to be 
 a letter from our good friend Ramsay in which he announced the 
 confirmation of the General's prediction and acknowledged that, in 
 that case at least, the latter had known his constituents better than 
 he himself had known them. 
 
 And yet this measure, was but the entering wedge to the course 
 of action by which that .powerful combination known as the In- 
 ternal Improvement party was broken asunder and finally an- 
 nihilated. I have already given an extract from the President's 
 Message descriptive of its ramifications and extent at the period of 
 the veto. The power which a combined influence of that descrip- 
 tion, addressing itself to the strongest passion of man's nature and 
 wielded by a triumvirate of active and able young statesmen as a 
 means through which to achieve for themselves the glittering prize 
 of the Presidency, operating in conjunction with minor classes of 
 politicians, looking in the same general direction and backed by a 
 little army of cunning contractors, is capable of exerting in com- 
 munities so excitable as our own, can easily be imagined. The 
 danger in offending and the difficulty of resisting such an influence 
 were equally apparent. The utmost prudence was required in re- 
 spect to the ground that should be occupied by the President in the 
 first step that he was to take in the prosecution of the great reform 
 that he had in view. His own past course increased the necessity 
 of great circumspection at the start. The votes he had given for 
 the survey-bill and for the appropriation in aid of the Chesapeake 
 and Delaware Canal, with his letter to the Governor of Indiana, 
 written during the canvass and referring to those votes as exponents 
 of his opinions were fresh in the recollections of the People. His 
 name was, in very deed, a tower of strength," but prudence as well 
 as sound principle dictated that their partiality should not be put 
 to an unreasonable test by the ground he now took, on an occasion 
 of intense interest, in a document which, as we all well knew, would 
 have to pass through the severest scrutiny. 
 
 In view of this state of things the ■iJefo-Message assumed the 
 following positions : — 
 
 1st. The construction of Internal Improvements under the author- 
 ity of the Federal Government was not authorized by the Consti- 
 tution. 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 170. 
 
328 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOOIATIOK. 
 
 2nd. Altho' the true view of the Constitution in regard to the 
 power of appropriation was probably that taken in Madison's Re- 
 port concerning the alien and sedition laws, by which it was con- 
 fined to cases where the particular measure which the appropriation 
 was designed to promote was within the enumerated authorities 
 vested in Congress, yet every Administration of the Government 
 had, in respect to appropriations of money only adopted in practice 
 (several cases of which were mentioned) a more enlarged construc- 
 tion of the power. This course, it was supposed, had been so long 
 and so extensively persisted in as to render it difficult, if not im- 
 practicable, to bring the operations of the Government back to the 
 construction first referred to. The Message nowhere admitted that 
 the more enlarged construction which had obtained so strong a 
 foothold, was a true exposition of the Constitution, and it conceded 
 that its restriction against abuse, viz., that the works which might 
 be thus aided should be "of a general, not local — ^National, not 
 State" character, a disregard of which distinction would of neces- 
 sity lead to the subversion of the Federal System, was unsafe, arbi- 
 trary in its nature and inefficient. 
 
 3d. Although he might not feel it to be his duty to interpose the 
 Executive veto against the passage of Bills appropriating money 
 for the construction of such works as were authorized by the States, 
 and were National in their character the President did not wish 
 to be understood as assenting to the expediency of embarking the 
 General Government in a system of that kind at this time; but he 
 could never give his approval to a measure having the character of 
 that under consideration, not being able to regard it in any other 
 light than as a measure of a purely local character; or if it could 
 be considered National no further distinction between the appro- 
 priate duties of the General and State Governments need be at- 
 tempted, for there could be no local interest that might not, under 
 such a construction, be denominated, with equal propriety. Na- 
 tional. 
 
 His veto was placed on that specific ground, and the rest of the 
 Message was principally taken up in discussing the propriety and 
 expediency of deferring all other action upon the subject, even of 
 appropriations for National works until the Public Debt should be 
 paid and amendments of the Constitution adopted by which such 
 appropriation could be protected against the abuses to which they 
 were exposed. 
 
 These positions, fairly interpreted, were not inconsistent with the 
 votes which Gen. Jackson had given in the capacity of Senator dur- 
 ing the Canvass of 1823-4. The Survey-Bill was in terms limited 
 to roads and canals which the President should deem of National 
 importance. Mr. Calhoun's Bonus Bill proposed to set aside a fund 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIIn' VAN BtTEfiN. S29 
 
 for the construGtion of roads and canals, and still both he and Mr. 
 Clay contended that the constitutional question did not arise before 
 the specific bill was presented for the action of Congress. With 
 much more propriety could that be said of the Survey Bill. The 
 appropriation in aid of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was 
 sustained on the ground of its being a work of national importance 
 and the Maysville veto did not expressly deny the constitutionality 
 of such appropriations. Whether that was one of such a character 
 or not was a question in respect to which, in the absence of consti- 
 tutional regulation, Gen. Jackson was obliged to exercise his discre- 
 tion. He did so in that case and voted for the Bill — ^he did the same 
 thing in the case of the Maysville Road and vetoed it. The pro- 
 piety of the veto was therefore reduced to the single question as to 
 the character of the road — was it national or local? — an issue on 
 which his opponents could not sustain themselves for a moment. 
 He was thus enabled to go to the Country with his views in favor 
 of suspending action even upon works of national importance until 
 the public debt was paid and constitutional amendments obtained, 
 to guard against otherwise unavoidable abuses, unembarrassed by 
 side issues of any description other than that to which I have last 
 referred and upon which his position was absolutely impregnable. 
 
 It was the consciousness of the soundness of the positions taken 
 in the ■z^eto-Message that produced the raving debates in the House 
 when it was first presented, to that body, and it was doubtless a 
 similar consciousness that forced Mr. Clay in a speech on the Mes- 
 sage delivered at Cincinnati, shortly after its appearance, so far to 
 forget the proprieties of his position to compare the Message to 
 the paper sent by George III, during his insanity, which, tho' it 
 had his name attached to it, could not be said to have spoken his 
 sentiments, and to exclaim that he could not read it without hav- 
 ing the name of Talleyrand! Tallyrand! Talleyrand! continually 
 recurring to his mind. He could hardly have been aware of the 
 weight of testimony he bore in the latter exclamation in favor of 
 the Message on the score of talent and power. The reader will 
 judge for himself as to the degree of success with which the views 
 sketched in my note to the President of the 4th of May, before given, 
 were carried out. 
 
 A great step had been taken towards removing from Congress an 
 incubus which had for years weighed upon it in the shape of un- 
 availing effort to establish a useful system of internal improvement 
 under its auspices and by its authority. Whilst the time of that 
 body wasi wasted in unfruitful debates and its capacity for use- 
 fulness in the channels designed for its action by the Constitution 
 impaired, every thinking and fair minded man saw that to es- 
 tablish such a system previous amendments to the Constitution were 
 
330 AMERICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 absolutely indispensable. A step in advance had been taken but 
 we loiew very well that more was to be done and that other posi- 
 tions must be assumed to make that step available, and we devoted 
 ourselves without delay to a consideration of their character. Neither 
 of us laboring, it is but truth to say it, under vain conceits of 
 our self-sufficiency, I with the approbation of the President, sought 
 the best counsel that the Country afforded by opening a corre- 
 spondence on the subjeclT with Mr. Madison. In his recent veto- 
 Message, the President had given a construction to Mr. Madison's 
 veto of Mr. Calhoun's Bonus Bill, of which we ^thought it fairly 
 suspectible altho' not with absolute certainty of our position. I 
 am free to admit that a floating impression existed in my mind 
 throughout that Mr. Madison might, altho' I could not well see 
 how, disavow that construction. I sincerely wished for such a 
 result and the wish was doubtless father to the thought. I there- 
 fore sent him an early copy of the General's veto-Mess&ge, in a 
 way best calculated to elicit an expression of his views upon the 
 point without asking them. His first note shews the result and 
 as the residue of the correspondence explains the reasons for its 
 continuance I will make no apology for inserting all the letters 
 here. What such a man as Mr. Madison has said upon a subject of so 
 much importance cannot be too carefully preserved and there is 
 clearly no reason for a continuance of the confidence in which his 
 letters were written and which has hitherto been observed. 
 
 From Me. Madison.' 
 
 J. Madison has duly received the copy of the President's Message forwarded 
 by Mr. Van Buren. In returning his thanks for this polite attention, he re- 
 grets the necessity of observing that the Message has not rightly conceived 
 the intention of J. M. in his Veto in 1817 on the Bill relating to Internal 
 Improvements. It was an object of the "Veto to deny to Congress as well as 
 the appropriating power, as the executing and jurisdictional branches of it, 
 and it is believed that this was the general understanding at the time, and 
 has continued to be so, according^ to the references occasionally made to the 
 document. Whether the language employed duly conveyed the meaning of 
 which J. M. retains the consciousness is a question on which he does not 
 presume ° to judge for others. 
 
 Relying on the candor to which these remarks are addressed he tenders to 
 Mr. Van Buren renewed assurances of his high esteem and good wishes. 
 
 Montpelier, June 3, 1830. 
 
 To Mb. Madison. 
 
 Washington June 9th, 1830 
 Deae Sib, 
 
 I have shewn your note of the 3rd inst. to the President who requests me to 
 express his regret that he has misconceived your intentions In regard to your 
 veto on the Bill for Internal Improvements In 1817. ~As far as opportunities 
 
 ' Madison's draft is in. the Madisou Papers In the Library of Congress. 
 » MS. Ill, p. 175. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUEBN. 331 
 
 place it in liis power to correct the error in informal conversation lie will 
 not fail to do so, and should an occasion occur on which a more formal cor- 
 rection would be pertinent it will give him pleasure to make it, if advised 
 that that course would be preferred by you. 
 
 Will you excuse me for troubling you again upon this interesting and per- 
 plexing subject? I am deeply sensible of the necessity of repose to one of 
 your advanced age and of the claims to its enjoyment which are founded 
 upon your past usefulness, but deriving confidence from your ready ac- 
 quiescence in my wishes on a former occasion I venture to intrude once 
 more upon your retirement. You have had some experience of the injurious 
 tendency of legislation upon this subject by Congress, but no one can have 
 an idea of the demoralizing effect which for years past it has had upon 
 their proceedings without being on the spot and forming a part of the Gov- 
 ernment. The President is deeply impressed with the importance of arrest- 
 ing its further progress and very willing to incur whatever responsibility he 
 can properly take upon himself to promote that object. You have seen the 
 ground he has taken and can appreciate fully the position he occupies. It is 
 unnecessary for me to say to you that the matter cannot rest here but that 
 it will be necessary for him to go farther at the next session of Congress. 
 
 Among the points which will then come up for consideration will be the 
 following : 1st, the establishment of some rule which shall give the greatest prac- 
 ticable precision to the power of appropriating money for objects of general 
 concern ; 2d, a rule for the government of grants for light houses and the im- 
 provement of harbors and rivers which will avoid the objects which it is de- 
 sirable to exclude from the present action of Government and at the same 
 time to do what is imperiously required by a due regard to the general com- 
 merce of the Country; 3d, the expediency of refusing all appropriations for 
 Internal improvements, (other than those of the character last referred to if 
 they may be so called,) until the national debt is paid, as well on account of 
 the sufficiency of that motive, as to give time for the adoption of some con- 
 stitutional or other arrangement by which the whole subject may be placed on 
 better grounds, — an arrangement which will never be seriously attempted as 
 long as scattering appropriations are made and the scramble for them thereby 
 encouraged ; 4th, the strong objections which exist against subscriptions to the 
 stock of private companies by the United States. 
 
 There is no man more willing to hear with patience and to weigh with candor 
 the suggestions of those in whom he has confidence than the President. The 
 relation in which I stand to him will give him the right to be furnished with 
 my views upon these matters and I need not say how much I would be bene- 
 fitted in forming and fortified in sustaining them by your friendly advice. I 
 ask it in confidence and will receive whatever your leisure and inclination may 
 induce you to say upon the subject under the same obligation. 
 
 Wishing to be kindly remembered to Mrs. Madison, I am dear Sir, 
 
 Very truly yours,i 
 
 Madison to Van Buben.'' 
 
 MoNTPELLiEE, July 5, 18S0. 
 
 Deab Sie. — ^Your letter of June 9th came duly to hand. On the subject of 
 
 the discrepancy between the construction put by the message of the President 
 
 on the veto of 1817, and the Intention of Ita author, the President will of 
 
 course consult his own view of the case. For myself, I am aware that the 
 
 'Van Buren'B draft is In the Van Buren Papers, the letter sent Is In the Madison 
 Papers. 
 2 Copies are in both the Madison and Van Buren Papers. 
 
332 AMERICAN HISTOEICAli ASSOCIATIOKT. 
 
 document must speak for itself, and that that intention can not^be substituted 
 for the established rules of interpretation. 
 
 The several points on which you desire my ideas are necessarily vague, and 
 the observations on them can not well be otherwise. They are suggested by 
 a respect for your request, rather than by a hope that they can assist the 
 object of it. 
 
 " Point 1. The establishment of some rule which shall give the greatest prac- 
 ticable precision to the power of appropriating money to objects of general 
 concern." 
 
 The rule must refer, it Is presumed, either to the objects of appropriation, 
 or to the apportionment of the money. 
 
 A specification of the objects of general concern in terms as definite as may 
 oe, seems to be the rule most applicable; thus Roads simply, if for all the 
 uses of Koads; or Eoads, post and military, if limited to those uses; or post 
 roads only. If so limited : thus. Canals, either generally, or for specified uses : 
 so again Education, as limited to a university, or extended to seminaries of 
 other denominations. 
 
 As to the apportionment of the money, no rule can exclude Legislative dis- 
 cretion but that of distribution among the States according to their presumed 
 contributions; that is, to their ratio of Representation in Congress. The ad- 
 vantages of this rule are its certainty, and its apparent equity. The objec- 
 tions to It may be that, on one hand. It would increase the comparative agericy 
 of the Federal Government, and, on the other that the money might not be 
 expended on objects of general concern; the interests of particular States not 
 happening to coincide with the general interest in relation to improvements 
 within such States. 
 
 " 2. A rule for the Government of Grants for Light-houses, and the improve- 
 ment of Harbours and Rivers, which will avoid the objects which It is desirable 
 to exclude from the present action of the Government; and at the same time 
 do what Is imperiously required by a regard to the general commerce of the 
 Country." 
 
 National grants In these cases seem to admit no possible rule of dl-scrlmlna- 
 tlon, but as the objects may be of a national or local character. The difficulty 
 lies in all cases where the degree and not the nature of the case, is to govern. 
 In the extremes, the jndgment is easily formed ; as between removing obstruc- 
 tions in the Mississippi, the highway of commerce for half the nation, and a 
 like operation, giving but little extension to the navigable use of a river, itself 
 of confined use. In the intermediate cases, legislative discretion, and, conse- 
 quently, legislative errors and partialities are unavoidable. Some controul is 
 attainable In doubtful cases, from preliminary investigations and reports by 
 disinterested and responsible agents. 
 
 In defraying the expense of internal improvements, strict justice would re- 
 quire that a part only and not the whole should be borne by the nation. Take 
 for examples the Harbours of New York and New Orleans. However important 
 In a commercial view they may be to the other portions of the Union, the States 
 to which they belong must derive a peculiar as well as a common advantage 
 from improvements made in them, and could afford therefore to combine with 
 grants from the- common treasury, proportional contributions from their own. 
 On this principle it Is that the practice has prevailed in the States (as it has 
 done with Congress) of dividing the expense of certain improvements, between 
 the funds of the State, and the contribution of those locally interested In them. 
 
 Extravagant and disproportionate expenditures on Harbours, Light-houses 
 and other arrangements on the Seaboard ought certainly to be controuled as 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 333 
 
 much as possible. But It seems not to be sufficiently recollected, that in rela- 
 tion to our foreign commerce, the burden and benefit of accommodating and 
 protecting it necessarily go together, and must do so as long and as far as the 
 public revenue continues to be drawn thro' the Customhouse. Whatever gives 
 facility and security to navigation, cheapens imports; and all who consume 
 them wherever residing are alike interested in what has that effect. If they 
 consume they ought as they now do to pay. If they do not consume, they do 
 not pay. The consumer in the most inland State derives the same advantage 
 from the necessary and prudent expenditures for the security of our foreign 
 navigation, as the consumer in a maritime State. Our local expenditures have 
 not of themselves a correspcmdent operation. 
 
 " 3. The expediency of refusing all appropriations for internal improvements 
 (other than those of the character last referred to, if they can be so called) 
 until the national debt is paid; as well on account of the sufficiency of that 
 motive, as to give time for the adoption of some constitutional or other arrange- 
 ment by which the whole subject may be placed on better grounds ; an arrange- 
 ment which will never be seriously attempted as long as scattering appropria- 
 tions are made, and the scramble for them thereby encouraged." 
 
 The expediency of refusing appropriations, with a view to the previous dis- 
 charge of the public debt. Involves considerations which can be best weighed 
 and compared at the focus of lights on the subject. A distant view like mine 
 can only suggest the remark, too vague to be of value, that a material delay 
 ought not to be incurred for objects not both important and urgent ; nor such 
 objects to be neglected in order to avoid an immaterial delay. This is, indeed, 
 but the amount of the exception glanced at in your parenthesis. 
 
 The mortifying scenes connected with a surplus revenue are the natural off- 
 spring of a surplus ; and cannot perhaps be entirely prevented by any plan of 
 appropriation which allows a scope to Legislative discretion. The evil will 
 have a powerful controul in the pervading dislike to taxes even the most Indi- 
 rect. The taxes lately repealed are an index of It. Were the whole revenue 
 expended on internal improvements drawn from direct taxation, there would be 
 danger of too much parsimony rather than too much profusion at the Treasury. 
 
 " 4. The strong objections which exist against subscriptions to the stock of 
 private companies by the United States." 
 
 The objections are doubtless in many respects strong. Yet cases might 
 present themselves which might not be favored by the State, whilst the con- 
 curring agency of an Undertaking Company would be desirable In a national 
 view. There was a time it is said when the State of Delaware, influenced by 
 the profits of a Portage between the Delaware and Chesapeake, was unfriendly 
 to the Canal, now forming so Important a link of internal communication be- 
 tween the North and the South. Undertakings by private companies carry with 
 them a presumptive evidence of utility, and the private stakes in them, some 
 security for economy in the execution, the want of which is the bane of public 
 undertakings. Still the importunities of private companies cannot be listened 
 to with more caution than prudence requires. 
 
 I have, as you know, never considered the powers claimed for Congress over 
 roads and canals, as within the grants of the Constitution. But such improve- 
 ments being justly ranked among the greatest advantages and best evidences of 
 good government ; and having, moreover, with us, the peculiar recommendation 
 of binding the several parts of the Union more firmly together, I have always 
 thought the power ought to be possessed by the common Government; which 
 commands the least unpopular; and most productive sources of revenue, and 
 can alone select improvements with an eye to the national good. The States 
 
334 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION', 
 
 are restricted in their pecuniary resources ; and Roads and Canals most im- 
 portant In a national view might not be important to the State or States pos- 
 sessing the domain and the soil ; or might even be deemed disadvantageous ; and 
 on the most favourable supposition might require a concert of means and regu- 
 lations among several States not easily effected, nor unlikely to be altogether 
 omitted. 
 
 These considerations have pleaded vsfith me in favour of the policy of vesting 
 in Congress an authority over internal improvements. I am sensible at the 
 same time of the magnitude of the trust, as well as of the difficulty of executing 
 it properly and the greater difficulty of executing it satisfactorily. 
 
 On a supposition of a due establishment of the power in Congress, one of 
 the modes of using it might be, to apportion a reasonable share of the dis- 
 posable revenue of the United States among the States to be applied by them 
 to cases of State concern ; with a reserved discretion in Congress to effectuate 
 improvements of general concern which the States might not be able or not 
 disposed to provide for. 
 
 If Congress do not mean to throw away the rich fund inherited in the public 
 lands, would not the sales of them, after their liberation from the original 
 pledge, be aptly appropriated to objects of internal improvements; and why 
 not also, with a supply of the competent authority, to the removal to better 
 situations of the free black as well as red population, objects confessedly of 
 national importance and desirable to all parties? But I am traveling out of the 
 subject before me. 
 
 The date of your letter reminds me' of the delay of the answer. The delay 
 has been occasioned by interruptions of my health ; and the answer such as it is, 
 is offered in the same confidence in which it was asked. 
 
 With great esteem & cordial salutations. 
 
 James Madison. 
 
 Mr. Van BtrBEN. 
 
 Feom Mk. Madison. 
 
 MONTPELLIEB, Oct. 9, 1830. 
 
 Deab Sib 
 
 I rec'' your letter of July 30th " in due time but have taken advantage of the 
 permitted delay in answering it. Altho' I have again turned in my thoughts 
 the subjects of your former letter " on which any further remarks from me 
 would be acceptable ", I do not find that I can add anything material to what 
 is said either in my letter of July 5th or in preceding ones. The particular 
 cases of local improvements or establishments having immediate relation to 
 external commerce and navigation will continue to produce questions of diffi- 
 culty, either constitutional, or as to utility or impartiality, which can only be de- 
 cided according to their respective merits. No general rule, founded on pre- 
 cise definitions, is perhaps possible; none certainly that relates to such cases 
 as those of Light Houses, which must depend on the evidence before the com- 
 petent authority. In procuring that evidence it will, of course be incumbent 
 on that authority to employ the means and precautions most appropriate. 
 
 With regard to the Veto of 1817 I wish it to be understood that I have no 
 particular solicitude ; nor can the President be under any obligation to notice 
 the subject, if his construction of the language of the Document be unchanged. 
 My notice of it, when acknowledging the receipt of the Message you politely 
 enclosed to me, was necessary to guard my consistency against an inference 
 from my silence. 
 
 a I have not kept a copy, it appears, of my letter of July 30. I must have again 
 referred to the subject of the President's misconstruction of the veto of 1817. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIK VAN BURBN. 335 
 
 With a regret that I cannot make you a more important communication, I 
 renew the assurances of my great esteem and my cordial salutations. 
 
 James Madison. 
 Mr. Van Buken. 
 
 Having carefully observed the course of public opinion and being 
 satisfied that it had settled down decidedly in favor of the policy 
 of postponing all appropriations for works of internal improvement, 
 even for such as might fairly be deemed of a national character 
 until the public debt was paid, as he had suggested in his veto- 
 Message, the President was prepared to take his own position upon 
 that point in his second annual Message in December of the same 
 year.^ Justice cannot be done to him without accompanying this 
 view of those important transactions with explanations which might, 
 under other circumstances be considered unnecessary. He first took 
 notice of the vote he had given, whilst Senator, in favor of the Chesa- 
 peake and Delaware Canal of which he spoke as follows : 
 
 In speaking of direct appropriations I mean not to Include a -practice which 
 has obtained to some extent, and to which I have, in one instance, in a different 
 capacity, given my assent — ^that of subscribing to the stock of private associa- 
 tions. Positive experience, and a more thorough consideration of the subject, 
 have convinced me of the impropriety as well as inexpediency of such invest- 
 ments. AU improvements effected by the funds of the nation for general use 
 should be open to the enjoyment of aU our fellow citizens, exempt from the 
 payment of tolls, or any° imposition of that character : The practice of thus 
 mingling the concerns of the Government with those of the States or of indi- 
 viduals is inconsistent with the object of its institution, and highly impolitic. 
 The successful operation of the federal system can only be preserved by confin- 
 ing It to the few and simple but yet important objects for which it was designed. 
 * * * The power which the General Government would, acquire within the 
 several States by becoming the principal stockholder in corporations, con- 
 trolling every canal and each sixty or hundred miles of every important road, 
 and giving a proportionate vote in all their elections, is almost inconceivable 
 and, in my view, dangerous to the liberties of the people. 
 
 Having thus acknowledged with characteristic frankness the 
 change which his opinion had undergone on the point referred to, he 
 spoke with the same freedom of the general subject, and said, among 
 other things: 
 
 In my objections to the bills authorizing subscriptions to the MayavlUe and 
 Rockville Road Companies, I expressed my views fully in' regard to the power 
 of Congress to construct roads and canals within a State, or to appropriate 
 money for improvements of a local character. I, at the same time, intimated my 
 belief that the right to make appropriations for such as were of a national 
 character had been so generally acted upon and so long acquiesced in by the 
 Federal and State Governments, and the constituents of each, as to justify 
 its exercise on the ground of continued and uninterrupted usage; but that it 
 was nevertheless, highly exi)€dlent that appropriations, even of that character, 
 should, with the exception made at the time, be deferred until the national 
 
 1 Madison's draft is in the Madison Papers. ' 1830. ° MS. Ill, p. 180. 
 
336 AMEEICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIOIir, 
 
 debt is paid, and that, in the meanwhile, some general rule for the action of 
 the Government In that respect ought to be established. 
 
 These suggestions were not necessary to the decision of the question then 
 before me; and were, I readily admit, intended to awalie the attention and 
 draw forth the opinions and observations of our constituents, upon a subject 
 of the highest importance to their interests, and one destined to exert a power- 
 ful influence upon the future oi)eratlons of our political system. I know of 
 no tribunal to which a public man in this Country, In a case of doubt and 
 diflBculty, can appeal with greater advantage or more propriety than the judg- 
 ment of the people; and although I must necessarily. In the discharge of my 
 official duties, be governed by the dictates of my own judgment, I have no de- 
 sire to conceal my anxious wish to conform, as far as I can, to the views of 
 those for whom I act. 
 
 All irregular expressions of public opinion are of necessity attended with 
 some doubt as to their accuracy; but, making full allowance on that account, 
 I can not, I think, deceive myself in believing that the acts referred to, as 
 well as the suggestions which I allowed myself to make, in relation to their 
 bearing upon the future operations of the Government, have been approved 
 by the great body of the people. That those whose immediate pecuniary in- 
 terests are to be affected by proposed expenditures should shrink from the ap- 
 plication of a rule which prefers their more general and remote interests to 
 those which are personal and immediate, is to be expected. But even such 
 objections must, from the nature of our population, be but temjMjrary in their 
 duration ; and if it were otherwise our course should be the same ; for the 
 time is yet, I hope, far distant when those intrusted with power to be exercised 
 for the good of the whole will consider it either honest or wise, to purchase 
 local favors at the sacrifice of principle and general good. 
 
 So understanding public sentiment and thoroughly satisfied that the best in- 
 terests of our common Country imperiously require that the course which 
 T have recommended in this regard should be adopted, I have, upon the most 
 mature consideration, determined to pursue it. 
 
 It is due to candor as well as to my own feelings that I should express the 
 reluctance and anxiety which I must at all times experience in exercising the 
 undoubted right of the Executive to withhold his assent from bills on other 
 grounds than their constitutionality. That this right should not be exercised 
 on slight occasions, all will admit. It is only in matters of deep interest, when 
 the principle involved may be justly regarded as next in importance to infrac- 
 tions of the Constitution itself, that such a step can be expected to meet with 
 the approbation of the people. Such an occasion do I conscientiously believe the 
 present to be. In the discharge of this delicate and highly responsible duty I 
 am sustained by the reflection that the exercise of this power has been deemed 
 consistent with the obligations of official duty by several of my predecessors; 
 and by the persuasion too, that whatever Uberal institutions may have to fear 
 from the encroachments of Executive power, which has been every where the 
 cause of so much strife and bloody contention, but little danger is to be appre- 
 hended from a precedent by which that authority denies to itself the exercise of 
 powers that bring in their train influence and patronage of great extent ; and 
 thus excludes the operation of personal interests, every where the bane of 
 official trust. I derive, too, no small degree of satisfaction from the reflection, 
 that if I have mistaken the interests and wishes of the people, the Constitution 
 afCords the means of soon redressing the error, by selecting for the place their 
 favor has bestowed upon me a citizen whose opinions may accord with their 
 ovm, I truet, in the mean time, the interests of the nation will be saved from 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 337 
 
 prejudice, by a rigid application of that portion of the public funds which might 
 otherwise be applied to different objects to that highest of all our obligations, 
 the payment of the public debt, and an opportunity be afforded for the adop- 
 tion of some better rule, for the operations of the Government in this matter, 
 than any which has hitherto been acted upon. 
 
 After his re-election, and in his sixth annual Message he repeated 
 the views he here expressed and took a final leave of the subject in 
 the following emphatic terms: 
 
 So far, at least as it regards this branch of the subject, my best hopes 
 have been realized. Nearly four years have elapsed, and several sessions of 
 Congress have intervened, and no attempt, within my recollection has b^en 
 made to induce Congress to exercise this power. The application for the con- 
 struction of roads and canals, which were formerly multiplied upon your 
 files, are no longer presented ; and we have good reason to infer that the cur- 
 rent of public sentiro.ent has become so decided against the pretension as effec- 
 tually to discourage its reassertion. So thinking, I derive the greatest satis- 
 faction from the conviction that thus much at least has been secured upon this 
 important and embarrassing subject. 
 
 From attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects which are con- 
 fessedly of a local character we cannot, I trust, have any thing further to 
 apprehend. My views in regard to the expediency of making appropriations 
 for works which are claimed to be of a national character, and prosecuted under 
 State authority, assuming that Congress have the right to do so, were stated 
 in my annual message to Congress in 1830, and also in that containing my ob- 
 jections to the Maysville Road bill. 
 
 So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations ought to be 
 made by Congress, until a suitable constitutional provision is made upon 
 the subject, and so essential do I regard the point to the highest interests of 
 our Country, that I could not consider myself as discharging my duty to my 
 constituents in giving the Executive sanction to any bill containing such an 
 appropriation. If the people of the United States desire that the public Treasury 
 shall be resorted to for the means to prosecute such works, they will concur 
 in an amendment to the Constitution, prescribing a rule by which the national 
 character of the works is to be tested, and by which the greatest practicable 
 equality of benefits may be secured to each member of the confederacy. The 
 effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in preventing unprofitable 
 expenditures, in securing our legislation from the pernicious consequences of a 
 scramble for the favors of Government, and in repressing the spirit of 
 discontent which must inevitably arise from an unequal distribution of 
 treasures which belong alike to all. 
 
 From this declaration he excepted appropriations for the im- 
 provement of our harbors and for the removal of partial and tem- 
 porary obstructions in our navigable rivers, for the facility and 
 security of our foreign commerce, as standing upon different grounds. 
 
 For seven years of General Jackson's administration was the gen- 
 eral subject thus banished from the halls of Congress and by my 
 election as his successor that virtual interdict (if it may be so termed) 
 was extended to eleven years. It was in consequence of the steps 
 of which I have spoken that, the project of a system of Internal 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 22 
 
338 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT, 
 
 Improvements by the Federal Govermnent was — ^there is every 
 "reason to believe — forever withdrawn from the action of that Gov- 
 ernment. Not that any such consequence can be attributed to the 
 opinion or action of any man who may for a season be placed at 
 its head, for no one conversant with human nature or with the course 
 of political events will ever expect with confidence such a result 
 froni such causes. The opinion I have expressed is founded on 
 more potent considerations. Every effort in the direction referred 
 to was certainly suspended for eleven years and other fields of exer- 
 tion in behalf of such works were soon found and occupied. To 
 a people as impulsive as ours eleven years of denial and delay are 
 almost equivalent to an eternal veto, and those who maintained 
 that the passion for Internal Improvements, so rampant at the seat 
 of the Federal Government at the commencement of the Jackson 
 administration, would seek other and constitutional directions for 
 its gratification, if that could be perseveringly denied to it there 
 for even a shorter period, stand justified by the event. All of the 
 works of that character which it was ever hoped might prove safe 
 and useful to the Country, have been made by or under the au- 
 thority of the State Governments. All motive for enlisting the 
 interference of the National Government for generations to come, 
 has thus been superseded. In the cases of wild and unprofitable or 
 speculative projects, losses, to the extent of many millions, which 
 the Treasury would have sustained if these works had been con- 
 structed under Federal authority, have fallen with a weight dimin- 
 ished by the vigilance inspired by private interest and by State 
 supervision, upon the shoulders of those who expected to make money 
 by them, instead of emptying the national coffers, to be recruited 
 by taxes collected from the mass of the people who would have de- 
 rived no exclusive advantages from their success. 
 
 We have had two administrations of the Federal Government whose 
 politics were of the Governmental-improvement stamp, but none 
 of the old projects have been brought forward — ^resolutions in favour 
 of Internal Improvements have been dropped from the partisan plat- 
 forms of the party that suported those administrations. The theory 
 and the practice — except as to cases not involved in the general ques- 
 tion — are both exploded as regards the action of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment and the signal advantages which the Country has reaped 
 from this result so far as they have not been now ref ered to wUl be 
 elsewhere noticed. 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 185. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 I have once or twice incidentally mentioned, an affair, under the 
 name of the Eaton-imbroglio, which, tho' in no proper sense politi- 
 cal, exerted perhaps a more injurious influence upon the management 
 of public affairs than could be ascribed to any of the disturbing ques- 
 tions of the excited period of which I write. Breaking out at the 
 very commencement of the administration, kept alive by feelings of 
 the bitterest character and soon directed to the acomplishment of 
 political as well as personal objects it maintained for two years a 
 foothold at the seat of the Federal Government,^ a plague to social 
 intercourse, destructive in many instances of private friendship, de- 
 ranging public business and for a season, ait least, disparaging the 
 character of the Government. Except perhaps the disreputable 
 scenes that were witnessed in England, occasioned by the quarrel 
 between George IV and his unfortunate Queen, there has not been 
 seen in modern times so relentless and so reckless a foray upon all 
 those interests as that to which I refer. There, as here, time has 
 somewhat effaced the remembrance of scenes which, as a general rule, 
 are never so well treated as when they are delivered over to its de- 
 vouring tooth. That this should be the common fate of transactions 
 which reflect no credit on the living or the dead is certainly desirable, 
 but the gratification of such a wish is subject at all times to well set- 
 tled and unavoidable restrictions. History asserts her right — ^always 
 within the limitations of truth and decency — to make the follies, 
 vices, and crimes of an epoch, as well as its virtues and meritorious 
 achievements subservient to her high calling, which is to warn suc- 
 ceding generations as well as to attract them by examples; and indi- 
 viduals who defend themselves against attempted implication in 
 transactions which she must condemn or their friends who recognise 
 the duty of protecting their memories when they can no longer 
 speak for themselves, have at all times a right to probe such affairs 
 to their most secret depths in the pursuit of their objects. 
 
 Most gladly would I pass this subject without notice if the circum- 
 stances under which I write would permit me to do so. Altho' drawn 
 against my will into the very focus of the excitement and from first 
 to last exposed to its fury, I at no time regarded it with any other 
 feelings than those of pain and disgust; pain produced by daily 
 witnessing the anguish it caused to the President and disgust at the 
 uses made of a private matter as to which the general community 
 should have been left to the uninterrupted maintenance of its rights 
 
 339 
 
340 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'. 
 
 and to the performance of its own duties. But standing in the rela- 
 tion of closest friendship to General Jackson whilst he lived, and 
 revering his memory I cannot be insensible to the unfavourable infer- 
 ences and surmises which would inevitably follow, if whilst profess- 
 ing to give a faithful account of his administration, I were to pass 
 over in silence an affair of which the immediate effect was to break 
 up his family circle, which in its consequences contributed largely to 
 the dissolution of his Cabinet, and for the part he took in which he 
 was arraigned before his constituents with much formality but with 
 undisguised rancor. Reasons against such a course thus urgent in 
 his case, have become imperative in regard to myself. Not only was 
 my responsibility for what was done in the matter held by my oppo- 
 nents to be at least co-extensive with that of the President, but in 
 addition to attacks thro' the public press and on the floor of the 
 Senate, which were visited upon both of us, a resolution was offered 
 to the latter body by Mr. Holmes, a Senator from the State of Maine, 
 for the appointment of a Committee to examine into my conduct in 
 the premises with authority to send for persons and to compel the 
 introduction of papers. It is true that the Senator offering it soon 
 abandoned his resolution for reasons the utter f rivolousness of which 
 afforded abundant evidence of the uijworthy motives by which he 
 had been governed in its introduction — a demonstration quite unnec- 
 essary to convince me, who had wintered and summered with him 
 and well understood the stuff of which he was made, that such was 
 its real origin and character. But his resolution stands upon the 
 record and would if there were no other reasons effectually preclude 
 me from omitting, in a sketch of my own life and times, a faithful 
 account of my course in the matter and as much of the conduct of 
 others as may be necessary to make that entirely intelligible. This 
 I shall endeavour to do with proper respect to every consideration 
 entitled to it and bearing upon the subject. 
 
 The dissatisfaction caused by Gen. Jackson's iCabinet arrange- 
 ments has been already referred to. This discontent was not con- 
 fined to a particular class, neither was it in all cases, occasioned by 
 precisely the same causes. Major Eaton was the son of a highly re- 
 spectable lady of Tennessee, a widow at the time of which I write, 
 much esteemed by Gen. Jackson, and her son also had strongly in- 
 gratiated himself in his regard and was the author, I think, of the 
 first formal history of the General's life. Major Lewis, Eaton's 
 brother-in-law, had long been an intimate personal friend of the 
 General, came with him to Washington and was for many years an 
 inmate of his family. The cast of the Cabinet carried a suspicion 
 to the minds of many of General Jackson's Tennessee friends, in- 
 cluding a majority of the representatives of that State in Congress,' 
 that Eaton and Lewis had exerted a preponderating influence in its 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXTEEN. 341 
 
 construction. Their amwr pro'prius was offended by this as they 
 thought it evinced an undeserved preference, and jealousies and en- 
 mities accordingly sprang up among his supporters in Tennessee 
 many of which were never healed. Major Donelson, a nephew of 
 Mrs. Jackson, whose wife was also her neice, and who had been from 
 his infancy a member of the General's family — a man moreover of 
 much more ability than he had credit for — ^partook largely of this 
 feeling. The seeds of dissatisfaction with and opposition to the 
 first act of the President were thus extensively and deeply sown not 
 only in his own State but in his immediate household. 
 
 There was another, perhaps I should say a higher class — a class 
 at all events moved by higher considerations and looking to graver 
 objects — ^which shared freely in the prevailing discontent. When 
 these latter came to canvass the materials of which the new Cabinet 
 was composed §ind the circumstances under which it was formed 
 they thought they saw in them the evidence of a design on the part 
 of ° the President-elect to counteract Presidential aspirations which 
 his popularity had caused to be suspended, but the realization of 
 which at the end of his first term, was confidently anticipated. 
 
 The hostile feelings towards the new Cabinet, at its start, enter- 
 tained by these branches of malcontents were, in variously modified 
 forms, extended to the President himself and, in the sequel, espe- 
 cially to the individual whose advancement was supposed — ^how cor- 
 rectly will be hereafter seen — ^to have been the main object in its 
 formation. It was not long before they found vent and thro' the 
 same channel.* Major Eaton,^ the new Secretary of War had mar- 
 ried a young widow "" of much beauty and considerable smartness 
 in respect to whose relations with himself before marriage, and 
 whilst she was the wife of another, there had been unfavourable 
 reports. A question was on that account raised as to her fitness 
 for the social position otherwise due to the wife of a member of 
 the Cabinet, her unworthinefes alleged, with various degrees of pub- 
 licity, and her exclusion from fashionable society insisted on. The 
 President whilst willing and at all times avowedly ready to open 
 the door to the severest scrutiny as to the facts, but confiding in 
 her innocence with a sincerity that no man doubted,\ resented these 
 doings, with the spirit and resolution natural to him on all occa- 
 sions, but especially when feeling called upon to defend his friends. 
 An issue was in this way and thus early formed between him and 
 respectable, numerous and very powerful portions of his supporters 
 which, independently of any question as to the wisdom, justice or 
 propriety of the ground assumed on either side, could not possibly 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 190. 
 
 iJohn H. Eaton. 
 
 * Margaret [Peggy] O'Neale, widow of Purser J. B. Timljerlake, U. S. N. 
 
342 AMERICAN HISTOEICAIi ASSOCIATIOHr. 
 
 fail to generate ill-will and speedily to sever the amicable relations 
 which had until that time existed between them. 
 
 Congress was fortunately upon the eve of its adjournment when 
 this struggle commenced, and the President, the neW Cabinet, the 
 officers of Government and the good people of Washington, or, per- 
 haps more correctly speaking, the fashionable society of Washing- 
 ton, with temporary visitors to the seat of Government, — not an in- 
 considerable number at the commencement of a new administration — 
 were the principal persons, before whom and by whom the question 
 of Mrs. Eaton's eligibility was in the first instance discussed and 
 acted upon. Reaching Washington some two months after the con- 
 troversy had commenced, and my appointment having in no degree 
 contributed to its occurrence, I was entirely uncommitted on my 
 arrival, but finding the traces of the feud too plain not to be intelli- 
 gible, in walks which it was my duty to frequent, ai^d too disturbing ■ 
 in their character to be disregarded, I felt the necessity of deciding 
 upon the course I ought to take in respect to it without unnecessary 
 delay. After looking at the matter in every aspect in which I 
 thought it deserved to be considered I decided, for reasons not now 
 necessary to assign, to make no distinction in my demeanour towards, 
 or in my intercourse with the families of the gentlemen whom the 
 President had, with the approbation of the Senate, selected as my 
 Cabinet associates, but to treat all with respect and kindness and not 
 to allow myself, by my own acts, to be mixed up in such a quarrel. 
 That others would do the latter office for me I thought not im- 
 probable but that I could not help ; I could only take care, and that 
 I resolved upon, that they should have no good grounds for their 
 impeachments.. A' very eligible opportunity was soon presented to 
 make my intentions understood by Major Eaton and his particular 
 friends. An office-holder under the new regime, of no mean degree, a 
 clever fellow, in both the Yankee and the English sense of that word, 
 who by his own ionhommie and the social popularity of his amiable 
 family, by his generous tho' unostentatious hospitality, it is fair to 
 add by his qualifications for his official duties and last, tho' not 
 least, by his facile politics has succeeded in retaining his place (with 
 a single and /short interruption) for the thirty years that have 
 passed since that day, paid me an early and somewhat significant 
 visit. He sided warmly with the lady and with her husband and 
 their friends and proceeded to enlighten me on the state of the 
 controversy, with full descriptions of the sayings and doings on 
 both sides of it. When he had freely unbosomed himself and well 
 nigh exhausted his budget of news I asked him, with unusual seri- 
 ousness to listen attentively to what I had to say to him. This, with 
 evident surprise, but politely and kindly he agreed to do. I then 
 remarked in substance that it had been my good fortune to be absent 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 343 
 
 when the disturbance to which he alluded was first developed, that 
 I was therefore in a better condition to control my feelings and 
 actions in regard to it than most of my associates in the Govern- 
 ment ; that I sorely regretted its existence not only on account of its 
 tendency to destroy the pleasures of social intercourse between many 
 of us, but in view of what was far more important, its inevitable 
 effect to mar the success and security of the administration; that I 
 knew nothing, nor had I heard of anything which would, in my 
 opinion, require on my part the line of conduct that was pursued (as 
 I was informed) by others in respect to Mrs. Eaton; that so long as 
 I continued to view the matter in that light I would treat the Secre- 
 tary of War and his family with the same respect and cordiality 
 that I manifested towards the other members of the Cabinet and 
 their families; that I should always stand ready to do anything in 
 my power to allay and if possible eradicate the bad spirit that un- 
 happily prevailed, but that I did not want to hear what was said 
 and done in the matter and finally I desired that he should under- 
 stand me as preferring not to talk about it. 
 
 My visitor was clearly disappointed by the character of my 
 observations and seemed to think, altho' this idea was expressed 
 obscurely and with becoming respect, that I evinced a degree of 
 lukewarmness, in the matter, quite unexpected and perhaps not 
 justified by the circumstances, or else a want of confidence in him. 
 Understanding fully what was passing in his mind I first en- 
 deavoured to disabuse him of any suspicion of that kind by avow- 
 ing the favourable opinion I sincerely, entertained of him. person- 
 ally, and then remarked that there were occasions when a man 
 should reserve the exclusive right of judging in relation to his 
 proper course and conduct, that the one now the subject of our 
 conversation was of that nature, in my opinion, so far as I was 
 at all concerned, and that my conclusions in regard to it were 
 such as I thought due to my own self-respect and to my official 
 position. A man of the world an<i of good sense himself, he ap- 
 peared, as I thought, inclined to change his impressions and left 
 me in good humor. 
 
 I soon found, although nothing was said to me about it, that 
 he had communicated our conversation to the Secretary of War 
 and his immediate friends and especially to the President, from 
 whose manner of treating the subject, whenever it was introduced 
 in my presence, I inferred with pleasure his approbation of the 
 course I had marked out for myself. 
 
 The female members of the President's family were Mrs. Donel- 
 son, the wife of his private Secretary, and her cousin. Miss Easton, 
 both nieces of Mrs. Jackson and both excellent and highly esteemed 
 
344 AMBRIOAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ladies. Unaffected and graceful in manners, amiable and purely 
 feminine in disposition and character, and bright and self possessed 
 in conversation, they were fair representatives of the ladies of Ken- 
 tucky and Tennessee. Both alas! are now no more. On an occa- 
 sion when the name of Mrs. Eaton was accidentally and harmlessly 
 introduced, and which was shortly after my interview^ above de- 
 scribed, Mrs. Donelson, in the presence of her cousin, expressed her 
 surprise that whilst almost every tongue in the city was canvassing 
 that lady's merits and demerits she had never heard me say any- 
 thing upon the subject, a remark the tone of which rather than the 
 substance conveyed, tho' gently, a complaint of my reserve. I was 
 under an engagement which called me away and had only time to 
 assure her that my silence had not arisen from an unwillingness to 
 talk with them upon the subject and that with her permission I 
 would do so upon the first favorable occasion. She took me at my 
 word and we fixed the time when I was to call upon them for that 
 purpose. When we met I was happy to be immediately relieved 
 from the embarrassment that seemed inseparable from the ° parties 
 to and the nature of our discussion, by a statement from Mrs. Don- 
 elson of the grounds on which she justified the coi^rse she was pur- 
 suing, which was a marked one and decidedly adverse to the lady 
 in question. She spoke of her as possessing a bad temper and a 
 meddlesome disposition and said that the latter had been so much 
 increased by her husband's elevation as to make her society too dis- 
 agreeable to be endured. She did not allude to any rumored impu- 
 tations upon her fame ; she might not have believed them, she might 
 have omitted to notice them from motives of delicacy, or she might 
 have thought allusion to them unnecessary on account of the suf- 
 ficiency of those which she frankly acknowledged. Whether influ- 
 enced by the one or the other motive I had no desire to inquire but 
 took the matter up on the grounds on which she had placed it* For 
 the sake of the discussion only, I agreed, after a moment's reflec- 
 tion, to admit that she was right in her views of Mrs. Eaton's char- 
 acter and disposition and proceeded to impress upon her that al- 
 though her reasons would excuse her from cultivating a close in- 
 timacy with that lady they neither required nor would justify her, 
 having regard to her position as the female head of her Uncle's 
 family, to decline her society to the extent to which she had gone, 
 and to caution her against being controlled in her course by persons 
 whom she esteemed, and who were entitled to her respect and regard, 
 but whose opinions upon that particular subject as I thought — in- 
 deed, as I was certain — were unduly influenced. It is unnecessary 
 to recapitulate my arguments; they were, in some respects, to her 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 195. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 345 
 
 at least, of a more serious character than any that she had previously 
 allowed to be taken into her consideration ; they related to the situa- 
 tion of her Uncle, whom she dearly loved, to the difficulties he had 
 to contend with in the performance of his public duties, to the value 
 he placed upon the peace and harmony of his family and the misery 
 he suffered in seeing them destroyed by an affair in respect to which 
 she certainly knew that he acted a sincere part, and to the extent 
 to which her course sanctioned imputations of a graver character 
 both upon the lady in question and upon himself for sustaining her, 
 which were used by his enemies to injure him; &c. &c. Before I 
 had concluded Miss Easton who had sought to hide her emotions 
 by gradually withdrawing herself from sight in the embrasure of 
 the window, sobbed aloud, and I preceived that Mrs. Donelson be- 
 sides being deeply agitated was also offended by my allusions to the 
 probability that she had ^een unduly influenced by others upon 
 such a subject. I rose from my seat, begging her to excuse whatever 
 I might, under the excitement of the moment, have said to hurt her 
 feelings, but perfectly satisfied that they were too far committed to 
 be reached by anything I could urge, and I asked her permission to 
 drop the subject. To this she assented, acknowledging that she had 
 been momentarily ruffled by some of my remarks but assuring me 
 that she was not offended with me. 
 
 Our conference did not produce the slightest change in our sub- 
 sequent relations. I stood, upon her invitation, as one of the spon- 
 sors in baptism of her daughter, and her bearing towards me con- 
 tinued respectful and kind to the day of her lamented death. 
 
 I became convinced that Mrs. Donelson's earnest feelings on this 
 occasion and in reference to this affair were less the effects of any- 
 thing that she had heard or believed than of natural sympathy 
 with her husband who was deeply interested in the quarrel — dif- 
 fering widely in opinion and feeling from his Uncle, the Presi- 
 dent. As evidence of his great excitement at this time he after- 
 wards told me that his dislike to me during the progress of these 
 transactions had become so strong that " he could have drowned me 
 with a drop of water." The relations between the General and 
 his family grew every day more complicated and embarrassed until 
 Major Donelson and his family quitted the White House and re- 
 turned to Tennessee and his place as private Secretary was supplied 
 by the appointment of Mr. N. P. Trist. 
 
 It is a fact worthy of notice that altho' I was well acquainted 
 with Major Donelson's views and sentiments 'in respect to the Eaton 
 matters and his temporary leaning towards Mr. Calhoun and his 
 friends I never suspected him of having entertained feelings of 
 personal hostility towards myself until I received from him the 
 letter which follows, many years afterwards and heard from his 
 
346 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 own lips the explanations of its import which I have given above. 
 Desiring to offer some proof of my great respect and sincere es- 
 teem to the General at parting and having the opinion of the Major's 
 talents which I have already expressed, I decided, soon after my 
 election to offer the latter a place in my Cabinet, and apprised them 
 both of that intention. But having consulted a discreet and dis- 
 interested friend from the same quarter of the Union in respect 
 to the opinion likely to be formed there of the propriety of such a 
 step I was led to doubt its expediency. My friend doubted neither 
 the Major's capacity nor his integrity but thought that the appoint- 
 ment would cause a surprise on the part of the public and would 
 be regarded as an advancement disproportioned to the stations he 
 had before occupied. I suggested the doubt to the General (who had 
 -not asked the appointment) and found that the same idea had 
 passed through his own mind, but that, he had not felt himself at 
 liberty, under the circumstances, to suggest it. I inmiediately wrote 
 to the Major that I had changed my mind, giving frankly the rea- 
 son for it, and received in reply the following manly letter which, 
 it will be seen, refers to the state of his feelings towards me during 
 the first term of the General's Presidency, of which also, he after- 
 wards spoke to me, as I have mentioned. 
 
 Fbom Majoe Donelson. 
 
 Nashvuxe, February Slst 18S7 
 Deas Sib, 
 
 Your letter post marked the 8th inst. has just reached me. I shall set out 
 in an hour or two for Washington under the hope of joining the General before 
 he leaves the city and with the intention of accompanying him to the Hermitage 
 if I can be of service to him. 
 
 I am grateful for the kindness manifested in your letter and no one can be 
 more sensible than I am that the views it expresses respecting the policy of 
 my being placed in a responsible situation near you are correct. So strong 
 were my convictions on this subject that I thought it my duty some eight or 
 ten days ago to write such a letter to the General as would induce you, even if 
 the judgment of mutual friends had created any doubt in your mind, to come 
 to the decision which has been adopted. 
 
 I cannot value too highly your friendship. It is the reward of a long 
 acquaintance manifesting much forbearance and generosity on your part. I 
 went to Washington full of misconception of your character and deeply biassed 
 by many of the circumstances that attended the first four years of General 
 Jackson's canvass for the Presidency." It will be my endeavour to make some 
 amends for the injustice done you by doing all I can in my humble sphere 
 to make your true character known to those who are willing to credit me. If 
 in no other respect I may in this do some good to the Republican cause by 
 adding to the number of those who will judge your administration impartially. 
 
 Although I am about to start to Washington I prefer to send this letter by 
 
 « This Is a slip of the pen. The intended reference was to the first four years of the 
 General's Presidency. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BTJEEN. 347 
 
 the same stage, Imperfect as it Is as an expression of my grateful feelings 
 towards you, to risking the chances of my not being able to see you before the 
 4th of March. 
 
 Remember me iiindly to your sons and believe me sincerely 
 
 Tour friend, 
 
 A. J. DONELSON 
 
 The nature of the personal feelings which the state of things 
 I have described was calculated to engender among those connected 
 with the Government and residing at Washington may be easily 
 inferred. All were more or less affected iby it and it was under 
 its adverse influences that we worked through the spring, summer 
 and the first months of the autumn. Those feelings grew every 
 day more and more bitter because they were to a great degree 
 smothered as no opportunity was presented for their open indul- 
 gence on the part of the leading officials. The entertainment given 
 to the Diplomatic Corps in the spring was a dinner-party of gentle- 
 men ° only and passed off without embarrassment. A Cabinet din- 
 ner, to which the ladies of the families of the members who com- 
 posed it would have to be invited was not even spoken of in my 
 hearing before the month of November. That subject was then intro- 
 duced by the President in one of our rides, which, when the weather 
 permitted, were almost of daily occurrence and gradually length- 
 ened as presenting the best opportunities for consultation left to us 
 by the press of visitors and other preoccupations. He had, he said, 
 been led to postpone his Cabinet dinners to so late a period by an 
 undefined apprehension that the violent feelings of the members on 
 both sides of the social problem out of which our difficulties had 
 arisen, and of which he had not been suffered to remain ignorant, 
 might lead to unavoidable acts on his part with which he thought 
 it would 'be more difficult for an Administration to deal in its in- 
 fancy, than after it had been some time under way and been 
 allowed opportunities to advance itself in the favor of the people. 
 Public 'business, he remarked, must always be attended to when the 
 occasion for its performance arises, but with matters of ceremony, 
 like that under consideration, he thought a greater latitude was 
 allowable. As the session of Congress was however near at hand, 
 when this matter should not rest undisposed of he thought the 
 sooner it was entered upon the better. 
 
 I had entertained similar apprehensions and had therefore omitted 
 to allude to the subject in our familar conversations — embracing, 
 from time to time, almost every other subject. But I never expected 
 an outbreak upon the President's invitation, believing rather that the 
 public explanations of the stand which I did not doubt was con- 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 200. 
 
348 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 templated by a portion of the Cabinet would be reserved for mine, 
 which would naturally follow. I expressed that opinion to him with 
 much confidence and it was decided that his invitations should be 
 forthwith sent out. 
 
 There were no absentees at the President's Cabinet dinner, and 
 no very marked exhibitions of bad feeling in any quarter, but there 
 were nevertheless sufficient indications of its existence to destroy 
 the festive character of the occasion and to make it transparently 
 a formal and hollow ceremony. The President escorted the wife 
 of the Secretary of the Treasury to the table and I gave my arm 
 to Mrs. Donelson. The disposition of the others I have forgotten, 
 but I will remember the care with which the arrangement of the 
 parties was made. The general was as usual courteous and affable 
 altho' suffering much from bad health and more from mortification 
 at what was passing before his eyes. My young friend and partner 
 for the entertainment summoned up spirits enough to call my atten- 
 tion chiefly by glances, to the signs of the hour and following the 
 movements of our host, we left the table with the ladies after which 
 the company dispersed sooner than usual. I had intended to spend 
 a few moments with the President after they were gone but soon 
 perceived that the return he had received for all his sacrifices of 
 old friendships and his unhesitating confrontal of enemies in the 
 formation of the Cabinet which had just left him had overcome 
 his feelings, and commending him to his pillow I also took my leave. 
 
 The display I had witnessed would have been sufficient to put me 
 on my guard in respect to my own contemplated entertainment if that 
 had been needed. But without such warning I understood too well 
 the motives which pointed to that occasion as one best adapted for a 
 kind of semi-official notification of the rule by which some of my 
 associates intended to be governed, to fail of circumspection in my 
 movements. That they would decline my invitation I had no doubt, 
 but whether in so doing, they would only assert and exercise their 
 own rights without offense to me, or whether they would go farther 
 could only 'be known by the sequel. It was my business to be pre- 
 pared for either contingency. 
 
 According to the established forms of society in "Washington it 
 would have been my office as host to give the highest position and 
 the most marked attention to the wife of the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury, if no ladies were present except those of members of the Cabi- 
 net. Mrs. Ingham was an excellent and estimable person, 'but excit- 
 able and especially stirred up upon the vexed question which agi- 
 tated the official and social circles of the Federal Capital. I was 
 entirely willing to pay all the honors due to herself and to her posi- 
 tion. [I was nevertheless quite confident that she would decline, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 349 
 
 and I was not disposed to make the vacancy occasioned by that event 
 conspicuous by filling it with a lady of inferior rank.]^ But Mrs. 
 Randolph, the widow of Gov. Thomas Mann Randolph, of Virginia, 
 and the only surviving child of President Jefferson, in all respects 
 one of the worthiest women of America, was then residing at 
 Washington, a lady with whom and with her family consisting of an 
 unmarried daughter and of Mr. and Mrs. N. P. Trist, the latter also 
 her daughter, my relations were cordial and intimate. I waited upon 
 her in person, informed h^- of my intention to invite the Cabinet to 
 dine with me and of my desire to combine with that official cere- 
 mony an act of respect towards her which had been already too long 
 delayed and requested her to name the day if she was willing to do 
 me the honor to attend. 
 
 She cheerfully agreed to my proposition, the day was fixed and 
 the invitation extended to all the members of her family. I need 
 scarcely say at least to those acquainted with the ways of Wash- 
 ington, that it would have been quite impossible to prevent this 
 proceeding on my part from becoming known without any agency 
 of hers to the other invited guests who were thus apprised of my 
 intention to give the precedence to Mrs. Randolph. As my dinner 
 party was to fee what in common parlance is called a ladies' dinner 
 I was desirous that there should be no lack of ladies and anticipat- 
 ing further declensions I invited several military gentlemen and 
 their wives, who all attended. I was obliged to omit my highly 
 esteemed and amiable friend the Commander in Chief,^ because 
 Mrs. M. (who was his second wife) had made herself — ^more to 
 his amusement than annoyance, for he took such things lightly — 
 a conspicuous party to the war which raged around us; but I re- 
 member well the presence of the veterans, Hull and Chauncey and 
 of Commodore Warrington' and of the wives of all three who 
 were among the most agreeable as they were also the leading 
 members of the society of Washington. 
 
 Never having been very careful or orderly in securing even my 
 important papers and having especially exposed them by frequent 
 changes of residence to be lost or mislaid, it is a curious instance 
 of the accidental escape of such trifles from destruction that I 
 have still in my possession the answers of the Secretary of the 
 Navy and of the Attorney General to my invitation on this occa- 
 sion. I suppose that they were originally kept in anticipation of 
 a rupture of some sort in our relations. They lie before me as I 
 write — ^recalling the minutiae of the scenes and events, great and 
 small, of thirty years ago, which I am describing. 
 
 > Words in brackets were stricken out in the MS. 
 
 " MaJ.-Gen. Alexander Macomb. 
 
 « Isaac Hull, Isaac Cbauncey, and Lewis Warrington, 
 
350 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Mr. Branch ^ writes that he " will avail himself of the honor of 
 dining with Mr. Van Buren" on &c. but that he is requested to 
 say in behalf of Mi-s. Branch' and the young ladies that " circum- 
 stances unnecessary to detail will deprive them of the pleasure " &c. 
 Mr. Berrien presents his respects but pleads a " conditional engage- 
 ment to leave the city" for his own declension . and "her state of 
 health" for that of his daughter. According to the best of my 
 recollection Mr. Ingham ^ accepted for himself, and Mrs. Ingham 
 certainly declined. The other two members of the Cabinet, Major 
 Eaton and Mr. Barry,' brought apologies from their wives, who 
 were faithful allies and who it appeared had also resolved to remain 
 behind their batteries. Thus it resulted that at the second Cabinet 
 dinner of the season to which all the ladies of the family of its 
 members were invited not one of them "assisted", and the party 
 being freed from any kind of embarrassment their joy was uncon- 
 fined. Mrs. Eandolph especially manifested the greatest gratifica- 
 tion, to the satisfaction of all my guests who reverenced her almost 
 as much as I did; to come quite up to that mark required a more 
 intimate knowledge of her admirable qualities than they had en- 
 joyed opportunities to acquire. 
 
 It may as well be said here as anywhere that nfeither in their 
 answers to my successive invitations, nor in their angry correspond- 
 ence with others nor in their excited appeals to the public, aU of 
 which I have now taken the trouble to re-peruse, did Messrs. Ingham 
 and Berrien impute to me a blameable act or motive in respect to 
 these transactions, although the latter papers were written under 
 very excited feelings. These facts speak a language that cannot 
 be misunderstood as to the sense in which they felt obliged to regard 
 my whole demeanour in the affair now under consideration," and 
 are more than sufficient to repel any unfavorable inferences that 
 can be drawn from the introduction of a resolution of enquiry by 
 a proverbially indecorous Senator — ^a resolution which even he aban- 
 doned. Of Gov. Branch's course I am not quite so certain. On 
 the evening before my resignation and that of Major Eaton were 
 published, but when the facts were known, and indeed, after he 
 had himself resigned, the President and myself were invited to 
 attend the wedding of his daughter. He [Branch] took me apart, 
 spoke of our resignations, acknowledged that he had been at first 
 somewhat annoyed but was now entirely reconciled to the proceeding 
 as the necessary result of causes which we could not control, and en- 
 couraged me to hope that the whole matter would settle down as 
 
 » John Branch. ' WlUiam T. Barry. 
 
 ' Samuel D. Ingham. ° MS. Ill, p. 205. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BUREN. 351 
 
 quietly as all the letters of resignation and acceptance gave the public 
 a right to expect. From that day to the present I have never seen 
 him save, once and for a moment. I heard, from time to time, of 
 his making violent speeches against me and others, but I never saw 
 them nor had I any desire to see them. I believed him to be an 
 honest man and knew him to be in general influenced by just and 
 generous impulses, but made of inflammable materials which were 
 easily ignited by others; indeed, but a few days after our meeting 
 and conversation referred to I heard that h.e had been thus excited. 
 I knew, however, that he would say and do. what was right when 
 his feelings were sobered down, and in the course of time they ar- 
 rived at that condition, he " conquered his prejudices " against Presi- 
 dent Jackson, paid a brief visit to the White House during his 
 second term, when I saw him for a few moments and exchanged 
 respectful and kind salutations with him. Major Donelson, whose 
 brother had married his daughter, informed me afterwards that 
 the Governor had expressed to him the mortiflcation he had expe- 
 rienced in being treated with so much urbanity by a man of whom 
 he had said so many hard things. I begged the Major to assure 
 him that he need give himself no uneasiness on that head because 
 I had never read his speeches and certainly would not think of 
 doing so now. 
 
 Determined to go thro' with the matter in hand, so far as I was 
 myself concerned, and to have done with it, I sent out invitations 
 shortly after my Cabinet dinner and after Congress had assembled, 
 for a large evening party. With some modifications my pfficial asso- 
 ciates held to their previous course, and to add fuel to the flame a 
 communication appeared in the Washington Jowrnal newspaper, over 
 the signature of " Tarquin," ( ! ) charging me with an attempt, in 
 conjunction with Sir Charles Vaughan, the British Minister, to force 
 a person upon the society of Washington who was not entitled to its 
 privileges and calling upon those who had been invited to resent the 
 outrage by refusing to be present. The circles of Washington how- 
 ever quite naturally declined to be instructed in the proprieties and 
 moralities of social intercourse by a " Tarquin " and no party of the 
 season was attended more numerously or enjoyed more hilariously. 
 
 Suffering at the time from ill-health and much exhausted by the 
 reception I availed myself of the moment when the attention of my 
 guests was attracted by the commencement of dancing to retire to a 
 sofa in a lower room for rest. I had not been there long before a 
 friend entered and said, in a jocular tone, "Are you here, Sir ! — You 
 ought to be above if you wish to prevent a fight ! ", and answered my 
 look of enquiry by the information that Mrs. Eaton and Mrs. M. 
 had jostled each other, doubtless accidentally, in the crowd, and that 
 
352 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'. 
 
 the collision had provoked manifestations of mutual resentment suffi- 
 ciently marked to attract attention and to excite general remark. 
 I received his story as a jest, which it probably was in a measure, and 
 begged him to see fair play in my behalf and to leave me to my 
 repose. 
 
 I have described more particularly than they would appear to 
 deserve these two entertainments, but for a brief season they ob- 
 tained much consequence as incidents of a campaign in which social, 
 political and personal feuds were so mixed up that all of them 
 were more or less affected by every movement, and the gossips had 
 looked forward to the arrangement of my parties as the occasion 
 and the field for a general engagement. When they were over it was 
 found that they had not materially contributed to the development 
 of hostilities, and I confess that I experienced all the complacency 
 naturally inspired by the consciousness of having passed unscathed 
 thro' an ordeal as difficult and as severe as could be devised by a 
 conspiracy of excited women and infuriated partisans. But the 
 outbreak was not long delayed. At a ball given by the Russian 
 Minister, Baron Krudener, in the absence of Mrs. Ingham, led Mrs. 
 Eaton to supper, as ranking next to her, and Madame Huygens, the 
 ^wife of the Dutch Envoy, was assigned to the Secretary of Wax. 
 Madame Huygens was reported to have been highly offended by 
 the arrangement and to have declared that she would retaliate by 
 giving a party to which Mrs. Eaton should not be invited and that 
 her example would be followed by Messrs. Ingham, Branch and 
 Berrien. Major Eaton was a man of moderate intellectual capacities, 
 but justly distinguished for the kindness, generosity and unobtru- 
 siveness of his disposition and demeanour. If he had done the wrong 
 before his marriage which was imputed to him, as to which I knew 
 and sought to know nothing, he had also done all that a man could 
 do to remedy the evil and there was no reason even to suspect that 
 the life of the lady after marriage was not, in that respect at least, 
 free from reproach. A reverend gentleman had indeed carried 
 rumors to the President to the effect that her conduct had been ex- 
 ceptionable on a visit to the Northern cities. The Greneral insisted 
 that his informer should go immediately and sift the stories thor- 
 oughly, assuring him that if his report sustained them by reliable 
 facts no one would have reason to complain of his own course in 
 the matter. The mission was accepted, the Cabinet, except Major 
 Eaton was called together in the evening to hear the report but it 
 was found to amount to nothing. 
 
 A man of the temperament I have ascribed to Eaton was likely, 
 under any circumstances, to have warm and sympathizing friends. 
 The number in his case, was of course greatly increased by the pat- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BXJEBN'. 363 
 
 ronage at his disposal and by the favour with which he was re- 
 garded by the President. These pressed upon the latter the Major's 
 grievances with much earnestness and their appeals found favorable 
 responses in his own 'breast; The alleged threat of Madame Huygens 
 and the three parties which certainly followed— whether she actually 
 threatened them or not — supplied ample and stirring materials for 
 such complaints. The President sent for me at an early hour one 
 morning and I went to him before breakfast. I found him deeply 
 moved by communications that had been made to him on the pre- 
 vious evening. His eyes were blood-shot and his appearance in other 
 respects indicated that he had passed a sleepless night, as he indeed 
 admitted had been literally the case. He was however unexcited in 
 manner. The stories so often told of his violent and furious style 
 on occasions of great anger or deep feeling, so far as my observation 
 extended, had no other foundation than this that when he thought 
 he could in that way best influence anybody to do his duty — of 
 which I have given some instances and shall give others — ^he would 
 assume an earnestness and an emphasis much beyond what he really 
 felt. To me he always appeared most calm when he felt most in- 
 tensely. On the occasion of his very narrow escape from assassina- 
 tion, at the funeral of Warren E. Davis, I followed him to the White, 
 House, inamediately after the rites of burial were concluded, and 
 found him sitting with one of Major Donelson's children on his lap 
 and conversing with GLeneral Scott, himself apparently the least 
 disturbed person in the room. 
 
 He presented, with deliberation and clearness, the reasons which 
 led him to regard the proceedings to which I have referred as an 
 attack upon himself designed to be made effectual thro' a combina- 
 tion between members of his Cabinet and the wife of one of the 
 Foreign Ministers, and stated, in the same manner, the course which 
 he thought it would become him to pursue, which was — if his views 
 should prove to be well founded to dismiss his own Ministers and 
 to send Mr. Huygens his passports. 
 
 His immediate object was to attend to the latter, and to that end 
 he had sent for me to obtain my counsel and co-operation. My per- 
 sonal relations with Chevalier and Madame Huygens were of a 
 friendly and indeed intimate character. I had no reason to doubt 
 that she felt hurt as was represented, hy the occurrences at Baron 
 Krudener's, but deemed it quite unlikely that she would have given 
 expression to her feelings in the way which had been reported 
 to the President. If, however, the information of the latter was 
 correct, I could not for a moment doubt the propriety of the course 
 he suggested, in that direction, and declared this opinion to him 
 without hesitation. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 23 
 
354 AMEEICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 » 
 
 As soon as I reached my office I informed Chevalier Huygens 
 by note that I desired to see him on business, and that as it would 
 also be necessary to communicate with Madame Huygens I would 
 call at his house at a named hour. For reasons, not necessary to 
 be stated, they anticipated the object of my visit and received me 
 with their usual kindness. After declining their invitation to the 
 pipe and schiedam, notwithstanding the appropriateness of these 
 preliminaries to a Dutch negotiation," I stated explicitly that the 
 President disclaimed all right or desire to meddle with their social 
 relations or with the question of whom they invited or whom they 
 omitted to invite to their house, but that declarations had been at- 
 tributed to Madame Huygens and communicated to the President 
 which went beyond the exercise of the rights which belonged to them, 
 and I described the impressions which the possibility of the cor- 
 rectness of his informatito had made upon his mind. Madame 
 Huygens assured me solemnly that she had never used the expres- 
 sions attributed to her or any of similar import — ^that she had been 
 too long connected with diplomatic life, and understood too well 
 what belonged to her position, to meddle in such matters and that 
 she had only pursued the path I conceded to her without advising 
 •with others or troubling herself about their course. The Chevalier 
 united earnestly in the views she expressed, and avowed his con- 
 viction of the accuracy of her recollections, and my mission was 
 thus satisfactorily concluded. As we had -no desire to pursue the 
 enquiry further I reported the result to the Pi-esident who received 
 the information with unaffected pleasure for he sympathized heartily 
 with the respect and regard I entertained for the Dutch Minister 
 and his estimable family. 
 
 As the matter in some sense bore on our relations with a Foreign 
 Government I thought it desirable that I should possess some evi- 
 dence of the statement upon which I had proceeded, and so wrote 
 to the President from whom I received immediately the following 
 reply: 
 
 Fbom the President. 
 (Private.) 
 My Deae Sib 
 
 Your note was rec'd, of this evening, when I liad company, and so soon 
 as they have left me I have hastened to reply — The story is this — Shortly 
 after the party at Baron Krudener's it was stated that Madame H. was 
 piqued at something that took place there and said she would give a party 
 and would shew society that she did not recognize Mrs. E. as a fit associate 
 and would not invite her to it. The Heads of the Det)artments, say the 
 gossips, would follow suit and Mrs. E. and the Major would be put out of 
 society. This came to the ears of some members of Congress, and the attempt 
 thus, by a Foreign Minister's family, to put out of society the family of a 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 210, ' ~~' 
 
AUTOBIOGBAPHY OP MAKTIN VAN" BUEEN. 355 
 
 member of my Cabinet was thought to be such an attack upon me, who had 
 invited this member to come into it, that it aroused their feelings and the 
 communication was made to me. The three parties that followed, given by the 
 three Heads of Departments, were well calculated to give credit to the story 
 of a combination headed by Madame H. to put Major Eaton and his family 
 out of society and thereby to assail my character for inviting him into it. These 
 are the tales and I am happy Madame H. has stated they are not true as far 
 as she is concerned. This is the substance. 
 
 Yrs. 
 "* Andbew Jackson. 
 
 Jan't 24th 1830. 
 
 It was probably on the following day — certainly before the 27th 
 of that .month, that I had, at his instance, a conference with the 
 President upon the subject of the relations between him and the 
 members of his Cabinet and the effect upon them of the matters 
 related. Nothing was then done upon the subject, but a year and 
 a half later and after the war had broken out between him and 
 the portion of his Cabinet with whose course he had been offended, 
 and I had left Washington and was awaiting the sailing of the 
 packet from New York, he applied to me for my recollections of this 
 branch of the general subject. I retained a copy of so much of my 
 letter as related to it, which was never published, but will now be 
 given at the proper place. According to my then recollection it' 
 appears that he showed me, at that interview, a paper contain- 
 ing ^e basis of a communication which he intended to address 
 to those gentlemen and that I expressed the opinion that he did not 
 by it sufficiently guard himself against the imputation of enter- 
 taining a desire to control the domestic and social intercourse of 
 their families and advised a personal interview with them for which 
 a paper more carefully constructed might be prepared and shewn 
 to them in preference to a formal correspondence; that he dis- 
 claimed any such intention or desire and agreed not only to such 
 a modification' of the paper but also to the substitution of a per- 
 sonal interview for a letter. I added that such a p^per as I rec- 
 ommended may have been prepared by me on the spot from the 
 materials before me, to be copied by him and reserved for the 
 use contemplated — ^the course which I am quite confident was pur- 
 sued. He then informed me that he had held some conversation 
 on the subject with Col. Richard M. Johnson who was very desirious 
 of an interview with the gentlemen alluded to before any communi- 
 cation was made to them on his part in the hope of being able 
 to quiet existing difficulties. Knowing the Colonel's character and 
 disposition perfectly and that witk proved and undoubted courage 
 he united qualities admirably adapted to the office of peace-maker, 
 but that from his unsuspicious temperament he was not always 
 as guarded in conversation as might be desirable in such a case, 
 
356 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 I begged the General, if he consented to his interference in the 
 matter, to be "careful that he should be fully possessed of his views, 
 and su'ggested the propriety of reading to him, before he entered 
 upon the business, the paper already prepared, and that the char- 
 acter in which he acted should also be clearly understood. 
 
 The Colonel had his conferences with Messrs. Ingham, Branch 
 and Berrien, and the President his interview with them in which 
 he spoke to them of the alleged combination and attempt to drive 
 Major Eaton from the Cabinet and I always supposed that he 
 shewed them the paper referred to, but whether he did or did not 
 do this they were aU satisfied that he did not claim any such right 
 as that which was described in it, and altho' the principal matter 
 remained substantially on the footing on which it stood before, 
 those gentlemen remained in the Cabinet a year and a half longer. 
 , During that period the Eaton affair was eclipsed in importance 
 and soon divested of any agency in mischief or disturbance by 
 two occurrences — ^Mr. Calhoun's" ftcmiumoiomiento and, some two 
 or three months later, the resignations of Major Eaton and my- 
 self, drawing after them the resignations of all the members of 
 the Cabinet except Postmaster General Barry. The latter, altho' 
 he adhered throughout to his friends, the Batons, pursued the 
 tenor of his way so unobtrusively and noiselessly as to give no 
 offense to the other parties to the quarrel. 
 
 The outbreak between the President and the gentlemen who had 
 formed a part of his Cabinet assumed a very violent character after 
 I left Washington. Those who have the curiosity to look into the 
 matter will find that the dissolution of the Cabinet had been to all 
 appearance, amicably accomplished. There was some little demur 
 on the parts of the Secretaries of the Treasury and Navy to sending 
 in their resignations, but in the end the correspondence, on its face 
 imported a friendly settlement. All were to remain at their posts 
 until their successors were appointed and their official business placed 
 in the state in which they desired to leave it. The resignations, ex- 
 cept Mr. Berrien's, who was absent till June, were in April, and the 
 final retirement of the Cabinet was delayed until June. With the 
 single exception of a few enigmatical givings-out by the Secretary of 
 the Navy as to the existence of a "malign influence" everything 
 seemed to be going on to a favorable issue. The hopes of those who 
 felt an interest in the character of the Government and thought that 
 it had been prejudiced by the quarrel, and of those who desired the 
 success of General Jackson's administration began to revive. It was 
 believed that the functions of Gt>A5ieirnment were no longer to be per- 
 formed in an atmosphere tainted by private scandal, and that the 
 State was relieved from the defiling clutch of the gossips. In this 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 357 
 
 condition of things I feft Washington, but had scarcely reached my 
 own State when the disease with which the Capital had so long la- 
 bored broke out afresh and with redoubled fury. It is not easy to 
 determine precisely who was most to blame for this new outbreak. It 
 is certain that the fault was not altogether on either side. The JJ . S. 
 Telegraph newspaper, referred to the course pursued by the families 
 of the three Cabinet Ministers towards the family of Major Eaton 
 in an offensive way. This was indefensible and proved to be very 
 mischievous. The Major, claiming to hold those gentlemen in some 
 sense responsible for the course of the Telegraph in that matter, pub- 
 lished an article in the Globe, obviously designed to bring Mr. 
 Branch, who had left the city, to a fight. Eaton also copied the 
 article from the Telegraph, in which " the course said to have been 
 pursued by their families was described as that of the gentlemen 
 themselves, and sending the extract to Messrs. Ingham and Berrien, 
 called upon them to avow or disavow its contents. His notes and 
 extracts were in terms the same, and both admitted of no other con- 
 struction than that the proceedings were intended as preliminary 
 to a duel with each in certain events. This was also wrong. He 
 had no right to hold them responsible for the publication in ques- 
 tion and the assumption of such a responsibility was plainly a pre- 
 tence thro' which to revive with them, in another form, a quarrel 
 from which he had suffered much and to which he saw there was to be 
 no end. Mr. Berrien answered his note on the basis of the article, 
 as explained in an issue subsequent to the original publication, and 
 by which its application was limited to the course of the families of 
 members of the Cabinet, disclaimed his responsibility in explicit 
 terms, but wisely decided to make a reply to the Major's alleged 
 grievance. He did this coolly and admirably and in a way which 
 obliged Eaton, whose good nature never entirely deserted him, to 
 enter a nolle proseqm as respected the Attorney General, without the 
 slightest sacrifice of character or dignity on the part of either. 
 
 Mr. Ingham, unhappily in a great rage, for which he certainly 
 thought he had abundant cause, adopted the extract in the shape 
 given to it originally and as it was sent to him, and replied to Ea- 
 ton's demand that the latter " must be not a little deranged " to call 
 upon him to disavow what all the inhabitants of Washington knew, 
 and perhaps half the people of the United States believed to be true 
 to wit: that he had refused to associate with his (Major Eaton's) 
 family. A challenge was the consequence, and, that not being ac- 
 cepted, preparations for a personal -assault followed. Amidst dem- 
 onstrations offensive and defensive connected with such an opera- 
 tion the time arrived which the ex-Secretary of the Treasury had 
 
 ° MS. Ill, p. 215. 
 
358 AMERICAN" mSTORIOAL ASSOCIATION", 
 
 fixed upor. for his departure from Washington, and after having 
 as he thought sufficiently exposed himself in the streets, accompanied 
 by the gallant Col. Towson, a friend or two and his son, the latter 
 and himself, armed, he left the city. 
 
 If no blood was spilled — ^which is somewhat remarkable in a 
 quarrel upon so exciting a subject and kept on foot for two years — 
 a sufficient quantity of ink certainly was shed upon the subject. 
 The Telegraph charged the President with having seventeen months 
 previously thro' a distinguished member of Congress, required the 
 members of his Cabinet to associate with Mrs. Eaton, at least so 
 far as to invite her to their large parties, on pain of dismissal. This 
 was presented as a great abuse of office, as it certainly would have 
 been. The Globe denied this charge, stigmatized it as a calumny 
 and defied its author to the proof. No attempt to establish it being 
 made the latter went further and declared that the member of Con- 
 gress referred to was admitted to be Col. Eichard M. Johnson, a 
 man of proverbial benevolence, great bravery and undoubted verac- 
 ity, that the Colonel denied the truth of the charge in the fullest 
 manner, and that Mr. Berrien had, in his correspondence with 
 Major Eaton, admitted the falsity of the charge. This brought 
 out Mr. Berrien, who, after some parleying in respect to a promise 
 he had made to Col. Johnson (who was at his home in Kentucky) 
 to wait until an opportunity could be afforded to all the parties to 
 compare recollections before publications were " made, if any should 
 be found necessary, denied the admission. Mr. Blair rejoined by set- 
 ting forth the following declaration of Mr. Berrien to Major Eaton 
 when speaking of his interview with the President in January 
 1830 : — ■'■ In the interview to which I was invited by the President, 
 some few days afterwards, I frankly exposed to him my views on 
 the subject, and he disclaimed any disposition to press such a requisi- 
 tion." This Mr. Blair construed into an admission such as he had 
 claimed in the Oldhe. Mr. Berrien, in answer, insisted "that a 
 disclaimer of an intention to fVQSs a requisition was a wholly dif- 
 ferent thing from a denial of ever having made it," and here the cor- 
 respondence between the.se parties, in which there had been a good 
 deal of sharp shooting, terminated. But Messrs. Berrien, Ingham, 
 Branch and Eaton all came out with impassioned and elaborate 
 appeals to the public upon this question. The alacrity and zeal 
 with which the authors of the charge entered upon its support and 
 the labor and formality given to those quasi-State papers, denote 
 the confident expectation of ov.erthrowing the President by its in- 
 fiuence. Mr. Berrien in his voluminous publication — embracing 
 the correspondence between himself and Major Eaton, his and Mr. 
 
 ° MS. Book IV, p. 1. 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BTJREK. 359 
 
 Ingham's letters to Col. Johnson and Mr. Ingham's statement made 
 from notes taken at the time, — ^spoke of the subject as one " of awak- 
 ening interest to all." They affirmed that Col. Johnson came to them 
 as from the President and representing his views and that he 
 required, in his behalf, that they should invite Mrs. Eaton to their 
 large parties on pain of dismissal. They denied that the President 
 had shown them the paper of which I have spoken and which had 
 been brought before the public by Mr. Blair, upon the authority 
 of the President, who declared then that he had read it to them or 
 made them acquainted,with its contents, but Mr. Berrien stated that 
 he did not question the intention of the President to have shewn 
 this paper to him nor his belief that he did so, and they admitted 
 that he had waived, in Mr. Berrien's language, had not " pressed," 
 the requisition of which they charged that Col. Johnson had been the 
 bearer, but understood this as a change of position brought about 
 through 'the intervention of his Tennessee friends. 
 
 Col. Johnson met these charges and statements by two letters ad- 
 dressed to Messrs. Ingham and Berrien, separately, in reply to the 
 letters they had written before their appeals to the public. His 
 letters were published in the National Intelligencer, newspaper; and 
 the following is a brief extract from that to Mr. Berrien : — 
 
 Oakland, (Kt.) JuJy 20th, 18S1. 
 Deab Sik: 
 
 Your favor of the 7th- instant has been received. I find that you under- 
 stood me to say that the President would at least expect the invitation of 
 Mrs. Eaton when you gave large and general parties. The President never 
 did, directly or indirectly, express or intimate such an expectation. He in- 
 formed me that he had been induced to believe that a part of his Cabinet had 
 entered into a combination to drive Maj. Eaton from it, by excluding him 
 and his family from society; that he had been also informed that the succes- 
 sive parties to which you allude was a link in the chain ; that attempts had 
 been made even upon foreign ministers to exclude Maj. Eaton from their par- 
 ties; and such a state of things gave him great distress; that he was deter- 
 mined at all hazards to have harmony in his Cabinet. He then read a paper 
 containing the principles upon which he intended to act. In my conversation 
 with you I referred to this paper. No doubt it is now in existence. It dis- 
 claimed all intentions, on the part of the President, to regulate in any man- 
 ner whatever, the private or social intercourse of the members of his Cab- 
 inet. As a mutual friend I called upon you, and as a peacemaker, my object 
 was to make the above communication in the most delicate manner possible. 
 During our conversation, in the anxiety of my heart to serve my friend and 
 my Country, it was I alone, upon my own responsibility, who made the sugges- 
 tion or proposition or rather enquiry whether you could not, at those large and 
 promiscuous parties, invite Maj. Eaton and his family. From the total social 
 non-intercourse pf the members of the Cabinet the want of harmony was in- 
 ferred, more than from any other circumstance ; and my. desire was to remedy 
 that evil by the suggestion or inquiry which I made. It would have been an 
 absolute unqualified and total misrepresentation of his views if I had repre- 
 sented the President as making any such demand. 
 
360 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlf. 
 
 From Col. Johnson's letter to Mr. Ingham I extract as follows: — 
 
 Blue Spkings, July 31, X831. 
 Deae Sie — 
 
 Yours of the 16th instant was this day received, accompanied by a statement 
 which, it seems, you liave prepared for the public, purporting to contain separate 
 conversations, with the President and myself, relative to an allegation made in 
 the public journals that General Jackson had authorized a member of Congress 
 to require of Messrs. Berrien, Branch, and yourself, and your families, to asso- 
 ciate with Major Eaton, and his family under the penalty of being dismissed 
 from office. You refer to two articles in the Globe to justify your appeal to the 
 public, previously to receiving my answer, in which it appeared that I had de- 
 nied the above allegation, if it had any allusion to me. After the publication of 
 this accusation against General Jackson, I received a letter from a friend, in- 
 timating that I was the member of Congress to whom allusion was made, and 
 requested to know if I had ever made such a communication. In my answer I 
 confined myself to the specific accusation thus publicly made against the Presi- 
 dent, and which is attributable to yourself, and most unequivocally denied that 
 General Jackson ever made such a requisition through me, and as positively de- 
 nied having ever made such a statement to you. On the contrary I asserted and 
 now repeat, I did inform you, in each and every interview that the President 
 disclaimed any right or intention to interfere in any manner whatever with the 
 regulation of your private or social intercourse. 
 
 Thus in a matter in which I was engaged to serve you, and other friends, 
 in a matter of a delicate and highly confidential nature, and in which I suc- 
 ceeded, unexpectedly I found myself presented in the public journals as a 
 witness impeaching one of those friends, and ascribing to him declarations 
 which he never made; and placed in that attitude by you, self respect and 
 self defence called upon me to correct that erroneous statement. I cannot, 
 therefore, agree with you, that I did in any degree change my view of the 
 subject in considering it improper in any of the parties to come before the 
 public without the opportunity of comparing our different recollections. 
 But if you feel under any obligations of a personal or political character 
 to come before the public previously, you will find me as ready as yourself 
 to meet any responsibility or difficulty which such a course may produce. 
 I now come to the material point in controversy — ^whether Gen. Jackson, 
 through me, required of you to Invite Major Baton and his family to your 
 large parties. This suggestion was made upon my own responsibility, with 
 an anxious desire more effectually to reconcile the then existing difficulties. 
 But Gen. Jackson never did make such a requisition, in any manner what- 
 ever, directly or indirectly, nor did I ever intimate to you that he had made — 
 such a demand. The complaint made by Gen. Jackson against this part of his 
 Cabinet was specific, that he had been informed, and was Induced- to believe, 
 that they were using their Influence to have Major Baton and his family ex- 
 cluded from all respectable circles, for the purpose of degrading ° him, and 
 thus drive him from office; and that the attempt had been made even upon 
 the foreign ministers, and in one case had produced the desired effect. He 
 proposed no mode of accommodation or satisfaction, but declared expressly that 
 if such was the fact he would dismiss them from office. He then read to me 
 a paper containing the principles upon which he intended to act; which dis- 
 claimed the right to interfere with the social relations of his Cabinet. 
 
 " MS. IV, p. 5. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTEBN. 361 
 
 Such was the issue between the President and the three ex-Secre- 
 taries, and such were their respective allegations and proof. It 
 was never pretended that the requisition referred to had ever been 
 made upon them by the President in person or thro' any other chan- 
 nel than Col. Johnson. In the only conversation they had had with 
 him upon the subject, seventeen months before they resigned, they 
 say he did not press it — ^he says he disclaimed it in the most un- 
 equivocal terms. Col. Johnson's statement is the only evidence that 
 was introduced and notwithstanding the formality and confidence 
 with which this grave accusation had been brought forward and 
 the zeal with which it was supported by the entire opposition of the 
 Country, the public judgment was so clear and so decided that in 
 the General's canvass for re-election, which took place the very 
 next year, wlien everything else was raked up, it was never alluded to. 
 
 A few words more in respect to myself. Whilst at New York and 
 on the eve of sailing for England I received a letter from the Presi- 
 dent inquiring as to my recollections upon this branch of the general 
 subject, which I gave him in a letter, dated August 14th, 1831, the 
 whole of which together with the letter to which it was a reply, will 
 be found in the Correspondence.^ 
 
 My statement was never published as the President, I was happy 
 to find, adopted the advice I gave him. 
 
 The following extract emljraces what relates to the present matter : 
 
 I will in the first place answer your queries In regard to the interview be- 
 tween Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien & yourself upon the subject of their 
 course towards Mr. & Mrs. Eaton. Neither with those gentlemen, nor with 
 Colonel Johnson have I had any conversation, confidential or otherwise, upon 
 that subject. I recollect your sending for me one morning & that when I ar- 
 rived I found you sensibly affected by an impression which had been made 
 upon your mind that Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien were taking measures 
 in concert to exclude Mrs. Baton from the society of Washington. You stated 
 to me in a general way the grounds upon which that impression was founded, 
 referring to several successive parties which had been given by those gentle- 
 men, & to information which had been given to you by others without warn- 
 ing them, and declared that you felt it to be your duty & had made up your 
 mind to interfere in a prompt & efficacious manner & put an end to the pro- 
 ceedings of which you complained. You then shewed me a paper which, ac- 
 cording to my recollections, was in the form of a letter addressed to those 
 gentlemen, expressive of your views & feelings on the subject. 
 
 I do not remember to have seen that letter since & cannot undertake to state 
 with certainty its form or contents. In one respect, however, I can, from the 
 circumstance I am about to state, speak with more precision. I recollect that 
 upon reading the paper, it appeared to me that the manner in which you ex- 
 pressed yourself might Be construed into an attempt on your part to control 
 those gentlemen in their personal associations, which I believed to be foreign 
 
 •Jackson's letter of Aug. 8, 1831, and Van Buren's autograph signed reply, Aug. 14, 
 are In the Van Buren Papers. 
 
362 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 to your wishes, and under that impression I suggested to you the propriety of 
 being altogether explicit upon that point. You at once disclaimed such a wish 
 & expressed a readiness so to modify the paper as to disavow any such 
 intention, and to confine your complaint in terms to the supposed concert 
 on the part of those gentlemen to effect the object referred to, a course of 
 conduct which you regarded as not only unjust towards Mr. & Mrs. Eaton, but 
 as being a direct attack upon yourself for continuing in your Cabinet a gentle- 
 man towards whose family such steps could be deemed justifiable. Expressions 
 to that effect were introduced in the paper which were I thought sufficient to 
 prevent misapprehensions with regard to your views. It is my impression that 
 I took the further liberty of suggesting to you the propriety of substituting a 
 personal interview & a frank & free communication of your sentiments in 
 preference to a formal correspondence upon the subject, adding that you might 
 in that case also have the grounds you intended to take previously stated in 
 writing, that there might be less room for misapprehension upon a point which 
 we both regarded as one of great delicacy. 
 
 I left you, according to my best recollection, either positively decided or at 
 least strongly Inclined to adopt that course. It may be that the paper was 
 drawn up whilst I was with you & that my observations were founded upou 
 your declarations as to what you intended to say,— but my best recollection is 
 as I have stated. Since that time I have not seen the paper referred to, nor 
 have I, my dear Sir, the slightest recollection that the subject was at any time 
 afterwards made matter of observation between us. It is quite natural to 
 suppose that such may have been the case, but I have, before as well as since 
 the receipt of your letter, thought much upon the subject & I cannot call to 
 mind anything that passed between us in regard to your Interviews with 
 Messrs. Ingham, Branch & Berrien, after they had taken place. It may well 
 be that you informed me of what had transpired at them — ^but if you did it has 
 certainly escaped my recollection ; and my belief is that the matter being, as 
 you hoped, finally disposed of & influenced by a vnsh, which you have always 
 manifested, not to press the general subject unnecessarily upon my attention, 
 you thought it best to drop it altogether. 
 
 I do not pretend to be accurate as to words but believe that I am right as 
 to the substance of what I have stated. It is quite possible that I may have 
 forgotten some things & that I am mistaken in others; & under the pressure 
 of public duties in which I was then engaged it would not be strange if it 
 were so ; but I give it to you as I have it — wishing only to be excused for the 
 confused manner in which it is done, & which the circumstances under which 
 I write render almost unavoidable. 
 
 One word more upon this subject. The anxiety of your friends that you 
 should not suffer yourself to be drawn into a newspaper controversy upon 
 it is intense & universal. They regard it as incompatible with your station & 
 uncalled for by anything that has appeared. The time may come when you 
 can with propriety say upon the subject what you may deem necessary, and 
 the discussion of the question, whether your statement or that of the other 
 parties, in regard to the paper having been shown to them, is correct, may 
 with entire safety be deferred to that period. That is not the question at 
 issue — but a mere circumstance; that question is whether you did or did not 
 attempt to regulate & control their private and social intercourse, & upon 
 that point how does the case stand? Neither of the gentlemen assert that you 
 either made such an attempt in your pensonal interviews with them or either 
 of them, or that you admitted that you had done so through Col. Johnson, — and 
 he, the only person who can speak to the point, acquits you in the most solemn 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIIT VAN BUEEK. 363 
 
 and emphatic manner of any such act or design. Can a reasonable & enlight- 
 ened community require more? I think not. 
 
 The sequel of Major Eaton's career presented an instructive com- 
 mentary on the past and fully justified the opinion I had formed in 
 regard to the effect of my resignation in commending him to the 
 favor of those by whom he and his had been so unsparingly con- 
 demned. His lax political notions, for they could scarcely ever be 
 said to have risen to the dignity of opinions, vt^ith his easy dis- 
 positions in respect to most things, were well calculated to expose 
 him to the sinister intrigues of a class .of habitual hangers-on at 
 the seat of Government, whose business it is to practice upon the 
 credulity of public functionaries and to serve, in their way, an 
 administration or a party which will countenance, patronize or em- 
 ploy them; of course they prefer the pa^ty which uses the most 
 money and which is most tolerant of politicians of easy virtue. 
 When the Democratic party is in power and its representative at 
 the head of the government is a democrat in fact as well as in 
 name, acting always in the spirit of its simple, just and abstemious 
 precepts that the world is governed too much, and that the benefits 
 and burdens of "necessary Government should be distributed 
 equally and impartially, doctrines favored by farmers and me- 
 chanics, who constitute a vast majority of the party, — when he 
 duly appreciates his proud position as the Chief Magistrate of a 
 Government founded on public virtue, whose duty it is to suppress 
 indirections of every description, a wall of separation has always 
 stood between this class and the administration. Such was em- 
 phatically the case at the time of which we are speaking. Presi- 
 dent Jackson's well understood principles and the struggle in which 
 he was engaged with the Bank and with other selfish and corrupt 
 interests in the Country .served to range that political brother- 
 hood unanimously on the side of the opposition to his administra- 
 tion. Their attention was forthwith directed towards Major Eaton, 
 backed by the arts and appliances which they so well understand, to 
 seduce him from the relations in which he had before stood towards 
 his party and friends. Their first movement in this direction was 
 to cause him to be appointed President of the Ohio and Chesapeake 
 Canal Company, This appointment was the more easily obtained 
 in consequence of the desire of the Company to obtain assistance 
 from the Federal Government and their hope of deriving increased 
 facilities to that end by the installation of a personal friend of the 
 President at the head of their board of directors. But the ground 
 taken by General Jackson in regard to the agency of the Federal 
 Government in the promotion of internal improvement, which be- 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 10. 
 
364 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 came in the end an immovable position upon the subject, soon cut 
 off all expectations of that nature. 
 
 Major Eaton was not a man of business in any department. The 
 qualities neither of his head nor of his heart were such as to give 
 value to his superintendence of a concern like that which had been 
 committed to his charge. Another place was therefore sought for by 
 his friends — ^new and old. The extreme sympathy at one time felt in 
 his position and fate and in those of his family by General Jackson 
 had doubtless been considerably weakened, but the wane of his for- 
 tunes was a sufficient motive with the General to befriend him, and 
 he, without hesitation, nominated Eaton to the Senate for the office of 
 Governor of Florida ; and that body, in which the -opposition had 
 th^h a majority of ten — the same which rejected the nomination of 
 the accomplished and upright Taney, as Secretary of the Treasury, 
 by a vote of 28 to 18, and that of Andrew Stevenson, as Minister to 
 England, — ^promptly and without division confirmed the nomination. 
 
 Was it possible that gentlemen who sincerely thought Mrs. Eaton 
 unfit for the society of Washington could deem it proper to place her 
 at the head of that of one of our territories — certainly not the least 
 polished or moral of our communities ! Two years afterwards Eaton's 
 name is again sent to the Senate to represent the Country abroad as 
 Envoy Extraordinary & Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of 
 Spain and in the circles of Madrid and again confirmed by the Sen- 
 ate, without a division — a Senate of which Messrs. Clay, Calhoun and 
 Webster were members. Are not these striking commentaries upon 
 the hue and cry that was raised against this couple when they were 
 the supposed favorites of Gen. Jackson, and suspected of favoring my 
 elevation to the Presidency, whose fate it was after all to bear the 
 brunt of their hostility ? 
 
 I found Major Eaton in possession of the Spanish Mission when I 
 became President, in 1837, and concluding that the interests of the 
 Country might be promoted by a change I decided to recall him in 
 183 — , but, desiring to give as unexceptionable a form to the proceed- 
 ing as possible I directed the Secretary of State to reply to an unan- 
 swered application for leave to return by giving the permission asked 
 for, and by requesting the Minister to fix the period when it would 
 be convenient for him to leave his post to the end that I might pre- 
 pare to supply his place. He asked that the period might be left to 
 his discretion, which was declined, and he returned forthwith. He 
 paid me a visit soon after his return and reported himself to me as a 
 recalled Minister. I asked whether his description of his position 
 was precisely correct, and he said at once that he had no purpose in 
 view in thus expressing himself — that it was my right and duty to 
 recall him if I thought the public interest would be thereby advanced. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 365 
 
 and that he had neither the right nor" the disposition to complain of 
 the steps I had taken to that end — ^whether they should be considered 
 a recall or permission to return on his own application. But he had, 
 he said, suffered a grievance of no ordinary character of which he had 
 good reason to complain. An order had issued, as he stated, from the 
 State Department, purporting to be by my direction, by which he 
 had been deprived of the right always enjoyed by our Ministers, to 
 draw at their discretion upon our bankers at London, without spe- 
 cific authority from the Department, for any sums to which they 
 believed themselves entitled from the Government, subject to a settle- 
 ment of their accounts under its authority. Of this he complained 
 that he had been suddenly deprived, by which a stigma had been 
 attached to his credit, and thro' which he might have been exposed 
 to serious embarrassments. I admitted that the order had been issued 
 by my direction — ^that its necessity had been shown by the fact that 
 one of his predecessors, who was named to him, had overdrawn his 
 account to an extent which would make a suit at law necessary to 
 recover the excess, — ^that the order was general and equally appli- 
 cable to all our Ministers abroad, and I insisted that it was proper in 
 itself as their convenience could be easily provided for by seasonable 
 applications to the Department of State, and that the only fault was 
 the omission on the part of Mr. Forsyth to apprise him that the order 
 was a general one fpunded on general principles and not on any dis- 
 trust of him, and that the necessity of its observance had been pointed 
 out by experience. 
 
 With these explanations and accompanying assurances of my 
 entire confidence in his integrity he seemed satisfied. I have doubt- 
 less seen him since (altho' I have no recollection of the occasion) 
 but I have never conversed with him, with this exception, or with 
 Mrs. Eaton, since their return from Spain. His tendency politically 
 had been for taany years in the direction of the opposition, into 
 whose ranks he gradually fell, and his new associations led to acts 
 and declarations on his part which entirely alienated from him 
 the friendship of Gen. Jackson, who silently closed the trouble- 
 some relations that had existed between them by turning to the 
 wall the face of his portrait, which hung in the drawing room at 
 the Hermitage. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 The following announcement in the ^'■National Intelligencer — 
 "On Wednesday last a subscription was handed about for signa,ture 
 in the House of Representatives, by the messengers of the House, 
 which ran thus : "Proposals for publishing, hy subscription, by Duff 
 Green, a correspondence between Gen. Andrew Jackson and John 
 C. Calhovm,, President and Vice President of the Urdted States, on 
 the subject of the course of the latter in the deliberations of the 
 Cabinet of Mr. Monroe, on the occurrences in the Seminole War. 
 52 pages; price six dollars a hund/red" — ^heralded the approach of 
 the quarrel which broke out in 1831 between Calhoun, Jackson, 
 Crawford and others and which produced unparalleled excitement 
 in the public mind. 
 
 Professing to act strictly on the defensive, Mr. Calhoun solemnly 
 invoked the protection of his constituents, the People of the United 
 States, against the injustice which he claimed to have suffered from 
 the impeachment by President Jackson of his official acts in one of 
 the most important occasions of his life. By the same appeal he 
 called for their indignant condemnation of a plot which he under- 
 took to lay bare and which he said had been devised for his destruc- 
 tion by William H. Crawford, aJid others acting thro' him, and 
 which he regarded as a part of the same movement. ,Gen. Jackson 
 was in terms excluded from an intentional participation in the plot, 
 and Mr. Crawford's agency, tho' alleged to have been great, was, 
 on account of his misfortunes and physical infirmity, referred to 
 more in sorrow than in anger. The whole affair 'was presented 
 by Mr. Calhoun as "a political manoeuvre, in which the design was 
 that he (Gen. Jackson) should be the instrument, and himself (Cal- 
 houn) the victim, but in which the real actors were carefully con- 
 cealed by an artful movement," and against these he professed to 
 direct his greatest resentments. 
 
 The " real actors " thus spoken of were not named, but such views 
 were presented of the transactions complained of as to leave no doubt, 
 and it was intended to leave none, that he referred to me not only as a 
 principal " actor " in it but as the individual for whose benefit the 
 plot had been devised. 
 
 Of this expose and of the transactions which it professes to describe 
 it becomes my duty to speak in so far as they may be supposed to 
 have had a bearing upon my own acts. The questions put at issue 
 366 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 367 
 
 between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun as to what Mr. Calhoun's 
 course in respect to the General, in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet, really was, 
 and whether it was justifiable or otherwise, were discussed, in part, 
 in the life time of the parties. In his last letter to Mr. Calhoun, of 
 the correspondence here referred to, the General said, " In your and 
 Mr. Crawford's dispute I have no interest whatever, but it may 
 become necessary hereafter, when I shall have more leisure and the 
 documents at hand, to place the subject in its proper light, to notice 
 the historical facts and references in your communication, — ^which 
 will ^ve a very different view to the subject * * * Understand- 
 ing you now no further communication with you is necessary." He 
 left behind him an " exposition " of the whole affair, a document of 
 considerable length and great power, which, with a brief statement 
 of the circumstances under which it is there published, will be found 
 in Benton's Thirty Year's View, vol. 1, p. 169. My own case stands 
 upon a different footing. The " Card " published by me a few days 
 after the appearance of Mr. Calhoun's appeal is the only publication 
 from me upon the subject heretofore ; pursuing in that instance the 
 course which I have always preferred, that of living down calumnies 
 unsupported by proof, instead of attempting to write them down. 
 Altho' not aware that I have, upon the whole, suffered from its adop- 
 tion on that occasion, it is, of course, palpable that a sketch of my 
 life would be incomplete if ° it included no more extended notice of 
 a subject on which I was widely and violently assailed than I chose 
 to take of it when the phrensy and prejudices of the hour were 
 unfavorable to its candid and dispassionate examination. 
 
 I pass by the letter from Mr. Crawford to Mr. Balch ^ of the 14th 
 December, 1827, advising opposition to Mr. Calhoun's election as 
 Vice President, as solely intended to bring into view the fact that 
 ' Mr. Cambreleng ^ and myself, in our trip to the South, in the spring 
 of that year, visited Mr. Crawford at his home in Georgia. That 
 letter was certainly not necessary to establish the fact that hostile 
 relations then existed between Calhoun and Crawford, for that was 
 a matter known to the whole Country and equally notorious were the 
 efforts of the latter to prevent the support of the former on the same 
 ticket with Gen. Jackson; still less could it be of use to implicate 
 me in Crawford's opposition to Calhoun, as my support of him, was, 
 wherever I was myself known, as notorious as the fact of his elec- 
 tion and to none was it better known than to himself and by none 
 more highly appreciated. It was not referred to for the purpose of 
 injuring Mr. Crawford, for all desire to do so, as well as everything 
 of that character, is again and again disclaimed, and Mr. Crawford 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 15, ' Alfr^ Balch of NashTille. ' Churchill C. Cambreleng. 
 
368 AMEEICAW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIir. 
 
 is treated as a man hors de combat. But to make me chiefly respon- 
 sible for all the grievances complained of, for what was done as well 
 by Mr. Crawford, who is brought forward as the first, altho' not the 
 principal actor in the drama, as by all the minor performers, my 
 visit to him, at that time, at his remote residence in Georgia, was a 
 circumstance too portentous to be overlooked in the preparation of an 
 impeachment which was, of necessity, to be made of shreds and 
 patches. Recollecting the fact of his opposing the support of Mr. 
 Calhoun at that time, I have referred to Mr. Crawford's letters and 
 find one, which if not necessary for any other purpose, will shew 
 that I held the same language to Mr. Calhoun's enemies in Georgia 
 and South Carolina that I held at home. In this letter, dated Dec. 
 21st, 1827, a week after his letter to Balch, he says : " Soon after 
 you left Gen. Williams — (Gen. David R. Williams, of South Caro- 
 lina, one of the most distinguished men of that State, but an early 
 and consistent opponent of Mr. Calhoun,) — ^last spring, I received a 
 letter from him thanking me for my supposed influence in procuring 
 him the pleasure of a visit from you. In that letter he expresses 
 much pleasure with the visit, but he expressed regret that you ap- 
 peared to him disposed to let Mr. Calhoun remain in his present posi- 
 tion." Of that, not disposition only but deteimination, so far as re- 
 lated to my own action, Mr. Crawford was himself also explicitly 
 and definitely informed by me in reply to a letter from him urging 
 me to support Mr. Macon, of North Carolina. 
 
 The following narrative will, I think, present a fair view of the 
 remainder of the case upon which Mr. Calhoun predicated his grave 
 charges. In respect to facts there is little room for mistake, as they 
 are principally derived from original papers published at the time ; 
 for motives we must rely on the declarations of the'parties tested by 
 natural inferences from acknowledged facts. 
 
 James A. Hamilton, Esq. of New York, at the time my personal 
 and political friend, was appointed by the Tammany Society one of 
 the Delegates to represent that Society at the celebration of the 
 Eighth of January in New Orleans, at which Gen. Jackson was to be 
 present. He accompanied the General and his suite to that city, and 
 informs us that on their way down there was much conversation 
 among them in respect to the charges which had been made at the 
 preceding election against the General and which were or might be 
 revived in the canvass then in progress ; and amongst other matters, 
 as to the course pursued against him by Mr. Crawford, in Mr. Mon- 
 roe's Cabinet, on the question of Gen. Jackson's conduct in the Semi- 
 nole War, and on the proposition supposed to have been then made to 
 arrest him. Mr. Hamilton says that an attack upon the General, 
 upon that point, was anticipated and as it was understood that he 
 intended to pass thro' Georgia on his return and to visit Mr. Craw- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREN. 369 
 
 ford he either was asked by Major Lewis or he offered to ascertain 
 truly what passed in the Cabinet on the occasion and upon the point 
 referred to, and to inform him (Lewis) of the result. The motives 
 for this step, he says, were to enable the General's friends to repel 
 the attack if made, " but, above all, if possible, to produce a perfect 
 reconciliation between those gentlemen (Jackson and Crawford) and 
 their friends." 
 
 " Finding it inconvenient, on reaching Georgia, to visit Mr. Craw- 
 ford, he wrote to Mr. Forsyth, asking him to obtain the desired infor- 
 mation and to send it to him at New York. He kept no copy of this 
 letter, but it was subsequently produced and published by Mr. For- 
 syth. As this was the opening movement in the supposed conspiracy 
 it deserves a more particular notice. After mentioning his intention 
 to have paid Mr. Crawford a visit and his regret at not having been 
 able to do so, he said : 
 
 I wish you would ascertain from him and communicate to me whether the 
 propriety or necessity for arresting or trying Oen. Jackson was ever presented 
 as a question for the deliberation of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet. I understand Mr. 
 Southard (who was a member of the Cabinet) in his swppressed correspond- 
 ence has asserted that to have been the fact. I want the information, not to 
 be used, but in order that I may in the event of a publication, which may 
 come from a high quarter, know where to look for information on this subject. 
 Of course nothing would be published without the consent of Mr. Crawford 
 and yourself. 
 
 This was the whole letter. 
 
 No question was asked in regard to what Mr. Crawford had done 
 or what Mr. Calhoun had done and none which was calculated to 
 draw out a comparison between their respective acts. It would 
 not have been an easj' matter, it strikes me, to have framed a letter 
 which would, on its face, have been more in harmony with a bona 
 fde prosecution of the professed object of the enquiry, viz : to en- 
 able the friends of Gen. Jackson to repel an attack on him by Mr. 
 Southard charging that he had stood in the attitude described be- 
 fore Mr. Monroe's Cabinet and had been, perhaps, suffered to escape 
 thro' the forbearance of its members. Mr. Hamilton took Washing- 
 ton on his way home and staid for a day or two at the same house 
 with Mr. Calhoun, and being anxious to obtain the information 
 he had thus far failed to get from Mr. Crawford, he requested an 
 interview with the former at which he asked him "whether, at any 
 meeting of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet, the propriety of arresting Gen. 
 Jackson for anything done by him during the Seminole war had 
 been discussed," Mr. Calhoun replied "Never! — such a measure 
 was never thought of, much less discussed. The only point before 
 the Cabinet was the answer to be given to the Spanish Government." 
 On being further asked whether he desired that his answer should be 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 24 
 
370 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 regarded as confidential lie said that he did not. Mr. Hamilton 
 says that at that time he had not the slightest knowledge of the 
 course Mr. Calhoun had considered it his duty to pursue in the 
 Cabinet on the occasion referred to, and that his impressions re- 
 ceived from the conversations of which he had spoken were that 
 Mr. Calhoun had been in favor of, and Mr. Crawford adverse to 
 Gen. Jackson. The perfect similarity in substance, and bearing, of 
 the question put to Mr. Calhoun to that proposed to Mr. Crawford, 
 through Mr. Forsyth, cannot fail to be perceived. 
 
 Hamilton left Washington on the following morning and on the 
 19th of February, 1828, being the second- day after his arrival at 
 New York, he wrote a letter to Major Lewis of which the following 
 was given as an extract — ^the letter having been tendered but never 
 called for or produced : 
 
 "I did not see Mr. Crawford, as I intended to do, because his 
 residence was seventy miles out of my way; but the Vice President 
 (Mr. Calhoun), who, you know, was the member of the Cabinet 
 best acquainted with the subject, told me Gen. Jackson's arrest was 
 never thought of, much less discussed." To this letter he received 
 a reply from Major Lewis in which he said — ^"I regret that you 
 did not see Mr. Crawford. I was desirous you should see him and 
 converse with him on the subject of his former misunderstanding 
 with the General. I have every reason to believe that the informa- 
 tion given to you by Calhoun is correct, for Mr. Monroe assured 
 me, nearly nine years ago, such was the fapt. It follows then that 
 Mr. Crawford must have been vilely slandered by those whose ob- 
 ject was to fan a flame their interest required should not be ex- 
 tinguished." All still in harmony with the professed objects of the 
 enquiry, viz ; to be able to repel the charge referred to, if made, and 
 to conciliate still further the friends of Mr. Crawford who, where 
 they were most numerous, in Virginia, North and South Carolina 
 and New York, had already taken ground in favor of Gen. Jackson. 
 Believing that the information might become useful at Nashville 
 where almost every day produced a new charge against the General, 
 Hamilton, on the 25th of February, wrote to Mr. Calhoun, setting 
 forth what had passed at their interview, as 1° have already stated 
 it, telling him that he was thus particular in seeking to obtain his 
 confirmation of it to enable him to confirm Major Lewis, a confi- 
 dential friend of Gen. Jackson, of its truth; not with a view to 
 enable him to make a publication on the subject but to be prepared 
 to repel an apprehended attack founded on events connected with 
 the Seminole campaign. On the 28th of February he received a 
 letter from Mr. Forsyth, in reply to the one he had addressed to 
 him from Savannah, in which Mr. F. informed him that Mr. Craw- 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 20, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 371 
 
 ford had been a few hours on the previous day at Milledgeville, the 
 place of Mr. Forsyth's residence, that he had conversed with him 
 on the subject referred to in Hamilton's letter, and was authorized 
 to say — " that at a meeting of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet to discuss the 
 course to be pursued towards Spain, in consequence of Gen. Jack- 
 son's proceedings in Florida during the Seminole War, Mr. Calhoun, 
 the Secretary of the War Department, submitted to and urged upon 
 the President the propriety of arresting and trying Gen. Jackson : 
 that Mr. Calhoun had previously communicated to Mr. Crawford 
 his intention to present the question to Mr. Monroe; an intention 
 Mr. Crawford approved " (Mr. Crawford subsequently corrected 
 this statement by saying that Mr. Forsyth had misunderstood him — 
 that Mr. Calhoun's proposition in the Cabinet was that Gen. Jackson 
 should be punished in sonie form or reprimanded in some form, 
 he was not positively certain which : as Mr. Calhoun did not propose 
 to arrest Gen. Jackson he felt confident that he could not have made 
 use of that expression in his conversation with Mr. Forsyth. 
 
 After the receipt of Mr. Forsyth's letter he (Hamilton) received 
 Mr. Calhoun's reply to his letter of the 25th of February. This 
 reply was dated March 29th and said that as Mr. Hamilton had 
 not, at the time of their interview, stated the object of his enquiry 
 he had supposed it was designed only to meet mere general rumour 
 falsely put out to influence the result of the Presidential election; 
 that his answer had been predicated on such an assumption, was 
 intended to meet assertions unsupported by any name in the same 
 general manner without name and to be limited, even with that 
 view, to a denial of what was falsely stated to have occurred on that 
 occasion. Mr. Calhoun then repeated Hamilton's object as stated 
 in his letter of the 25th of February, and said that he had, under 
 that aspect of the subject, deliberately considered how far he could, 
 with propriety, speak of the proceedings of the Cabinet at all and 
 had come to the conclusion that a duty of a very high and delicate 
 character imposed silence upon him; that entertaining such views 
 he declined the introduction of his name in any shape as con- 
 nected with what passed in the Cabinet on the occasion referred to. 
 To this Hamilton answered on the 10th of March, that Mr. Cal- 
 houn's reasoning as to the confidence which ought to be observed 
 in regard to occurrences in the Cabinet was clear and conclusive, 
 and that he had written to Major Lewis, that day, that his (Mr. 
 Calhoun's) name should not be used in any manner with the denial, 
 should a publication be called for, which he did not believe to be 
 the case, — adding that the subject had derived increasing interest 
 from a communication he had received sifice he had written to Mr. 
 Calhoun. This brought a reply from Mr. Calhoun in which he 
 said that it had appeared to him desirable, on several accounts, that 
 
372 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 if an attack on Gen. Jackson was meditated, in the manner sup- 
 posed, he (Mr. Calhoun) should be put in possession of the facts 
 from which it was inferred: that his knowledge of the facts might 
 enable him to ascertain from what quarter the blow might be ex- 
 pected and to take measures to parry it: that if he (Hamilton) 
 should concur in that view and felt himself at liberty to communi- 
 cate what he knew it might ultimately prove serviceable to the cause 
 and should be received in strict confidence, Hamilton replied, on 
 the 26th March, that he regretted to say that he did not feel him- 
 self at liberty to disclose what he knew of the matter referred to in 
 Mr'. Calhoun's letter, that the information he had received was not 
 declared to be confidential,- nor was it necessarily so, yet, as it was 
 communicated to him only because he could be instrumental in ob- 
 taining the means of resistance, having done so he felt that he ought 
 to consider himself as no longer in possession of it. Having in good 
 faith pursued thus far the business he .had undertaken to perform 
 and which, I am confident, had no other aims than those which were 
 professed, Hamilton's eyes were opened by the contents of Forsyth's 
 letter and by the abrupt closing of the door to further disclosures 
 by Mr. Calhoun, upon a subject in respect to which he had before 
 been so ready to speak and so unreserved in his answers, to the 
 depth of the waters into which he was plunging and the stirring 
 character of the investigation he had entered upon and to an appre- 
 ciation of the troubles to which he might expose himself by a wish 
 to make himself useful to a cause in which he had become suddenly 
 conspicuous and perhaps somewhat by a passion, not uncommon 
 with young men, to take "part in important and exciting public 
 transactions in which the prominent actors are the most distin- 
 guished men of their day; and he decided to draw off. Hence his 
 ready acquiescence in Mr. Calhoun's reasons against the propriety of 
 answering a question which he had just before put to Mr. Crawford, 
 standing precisely in the same situation, and his instructions to 
 Major Lewis not to use Mr. Calhoun's name in any form touching 
 the matter. His steps were well directed to the end he now aimed 
 at, if we except the intimation to Mr. Calhoun that he was in pos- 
 session of a further communication which had given to the whole 
 matter a deeper interest, which produced in the latter an anxiety to 
 learn the character of that communication; his decision to disen- 
 tangle himself was a wise one and if he had acted upon it from the 
 spring of 1828 till the autumn of 1829, during which period Mr. 
 Forsyth's letter remained on his own files and was not, as he says, 
 shown to any body, he would have saved himself much anxiety and 
 his friends much trouble. 
 
 In the fall of the latter year, however, eighteen months after For- 
 syth's letter had been written and when the sulbject had substan- 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUEEN. 373 
 
 tially passed from the minds of all who had taken a part in it, he 
 read that letter to Major Lewis at his own house in New York. But 
 even this step would in all probability have produced no disturbing 
 results had the principal parties remained in their original position 
 towards each other which was very far from the case, the friendly 
 relations which had existed between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun 
 having 'been by that time seriously impaired through the agency of 
 the Eaton imbroglio, and giving place soon after to open hostility. It 
 was not probably until the latter period that Lewis, who sympathized 
 in the Greneral's feelings throughout, informed him of the contents 
 of Forsyth's letter, and this was, I verily believe, the first reliable 
 information he had ever received as to Mr. Calhoun's precise course 
 in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet in regard to his conduct in Florida— a sub- 
 ject on which the General's feelings were always keenly sensitive. 
 He had never before even suspected that that course had been hostile 
 to him. Hamilton says that he became acquainted with the contents 
 of the letter but does not say how. My statement that it was com- 
 municated by Major Lewis is an inference only, but I have no doubt 
 that it is a just one, and that the Major would, without hesitation, 
 confirm it. Of course. General Jackson demanded to see the letter. 
 He would have done so if he and Mr. Calhoun had remained friends, 
 and was less likely to omit it under their hostile relations. This 
 was in the month of. May, 1830, more than two years after the pro- 
 ceedings of which we have been speaking had taken place and until 
 that time I had never received the slightest intimation, from any 
 source, of their occurrence. It was after Gen. Jackson had demand- 
 ed a sight of Forsyth's letter that Hamilton for the first time gave 
 me a general statement of its contents ag the ground of a request 
 for my advice in regard to the answer he should make to the Gen- 
 eral's application. I instantly decided to have nothing to do with 
 the affair and declined to express my opinion upon the question he 
 submitted to me. He then applied to Mr. Forsyth to give to the 
 President directly the information that he (Forsyth) had commu- 
 nicated to him in the letter referred to. Mr. Forsyth was not a 
 friend of Mr. Calhoun — ^none of Mr. Crawford's friends in Georgia 
 stood in that relation towards him ; the feuds between the chiefs had 
 been of too long standing and too bitter to admit of very friendly 
 feelings between their respective adherents; but he was a man of 
 truth and honor unquestioned by Mr. Calhoun or by any other. This 
 is his account, given in February, 1831, of what passed in regpect to 
 Hamilton's application: 
 
 A word or two of explanation, in the further agency I have had In this 
 afCair, is justly due to Mr. Crawford. I heard nothing of my correspondence 
 with Major Hamilton, and the subject was scarcely thought of until during 
 
3Y4 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 last winter that gentleman came to the Senate Chamber, and requested me to 
 give to the President, if not improper in my judgment, the Information I had 
 given to him. I asked him if he ° had not my letter. He answered that he 
 had. I then said Mr. Crawford spoke to me and speaks to everybody of this 
 affair, with the same indifference that he does of every other incident in his 
 political life. I am sure he does not care what you do with the letter. You 
 may give the President a copy of it. Major Hamilton declined doing so from 
 a motive of delicacy. He stated that he had conversed, or corresponded, I do 
 not recollect which, with Mr. Calhoun on this subject, and that the statements 
 of Mr. Cravsrford and Mr. Calhoun did not agree. He was, therefore, unwill- 
 ing to Interfere, further than to comply with the President's wish in asking of 
 me the information. On this statement I was determined not to give the 
 Information without Mr. Crawford's express assent. The information was no 
 longer a matter of indifference, and I did not choose to give it to the President 
 without apprising Mr. Crawford that he and Mr. Calhoun differed in their 
 account of the transaction and without submitting to him my statement of our 
 conversation for correction, if it was, in any respect, erroneous. I obtained 
 for that purpose, and enclosed to him a copy of my letter to Major Hamilton. 
 His answer is before the public. I found, to my surprise, that I had erred in 
 repeating what he had said, and to avoid the possibility of any other mistake, 
 I deemed It safest to send to the President a copy of my letter to Major 
 Hamilton and Mr. Crawford's letter to me. In making 'this communication, 
 from respect to the personal delicacy of Major Hamilton, his name was kept 
 out of view. 
 
 On the 12* May 1830, Mr. Forsyth delivereid. to the President both 
 of the letters spoken of by him, viz : that from him to Mr. Hamilton 
 of the 8'" Feb. 1828, and that to him from Mr. Crawford, of the SO* 
 April, 1830, containing Mr. C's account of what was done in Mr. 
 Monroe's Cabinet in respect to Gen. Jackson's conduct in the Semi- 
 nole War, and which was given in Mr. Calhoun's appeal. This let- 
 ter was on the following day sent by Gen. Jackson to Mr. Calhoun, 
 inclosed with the following:'- 
 
 Mat 13, 1830. 
 Sib: 
 
 That frankness which I trust has always characterized me through life 
 towards those with whom I have been in the habit of friendship, induces me to 
 lay before you the enclosed copy of a letter from William H. Crawford Esq., 
 which was placed in my hands on yesterday. The submission you will perceive 
 is authorized by the writer. The statements & facts it presents being so dif- 
 ferent from what I had heretofore understood to be correct, requires that it 
 should be brought to your consideration. They are different from your letter 
 to Governor Bibb, of the 18th. May, 1818, where you state " General Jackson is 
 vested with full power to conduct the war in the manner he may judge best," 
 and different too from your letter to me at that time which breathed throughout 
 a spirit of approbation & friendship, & particularly the one in which you say, 
 " I have (*ie honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 20th. ultimo, 
 and to acquaint you with the entire approbation of the President of all the 
 
 -MS. IV, p. 25. 
 
 • Calhoun's answer dated May 13, 1830, is in the Jackson Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAN BXJEElf. 3Y5 
 
 measures you have adopted to terminate the rupture with the Indians." My 
 object in making this communication is to announce to you the great surprise 
 which is felt & to learn of you whether it be possible that the information given 
 is correct; whether it can be under all the circumstances of which you & I 
 are both informed, that any attempt seriously to affect me was moved & sus- 
 tained by you in the cabinet council, when, as is known to you, I was but 
 executing the wishes of the Government, and clothed with the authority " to 
 conduct the war in the manner I might judge best." 
 
 You can, if you please, take a copy ; the one enclosed you will please return 
 to me. 
 
 I am. Sir, very respectfully, your humble servant, 
 
 Andeew Jackson. 
 
 The Hon. J. O. Calhoun. 
 
 The enquiry and the only enquirjr made of Mr. Calhoun by this 
 letter -was whether any attempt seriously to affect Gen. Jackson was 
 moved and sustained by him in the Cabinet council of Mr. Monroe. 
 If the General had stopped here the course pursued by Mr. Calhoun 
 in reply might well have been regarded as an uncalled for extension 
 of the matter in controversy, designed as was alleged by Mr. Craw- 
 ford, to get rid of a fact which he could not frankly and distinctly 
 deny by attempting to prove a negative by argument. But the let- 
 ter went further and claimed that the acts referred to were justified 
 by instruction received from the War Department, at the head of 
 which Mr. Calhoun then stood, and approved by the President. Mr. 
 Calhoun was thus invited if not necessarily called to the considera- 
 tion and discussion of so much of the acts of the War Department 
 and the President as was claimed by Gen. Jackson to have con- 
 ferred upon him authority to capture and hold for a season the 
 Spanish Posts in Florida if he should think it necessary to the pro- 
 tection of the frontier and of our people against the inroads of 
 Indians. He at least considered such to be the position in. which 
 he was placed by the General's letter, and undertook in an elaborate 
 reply, covering many sheets, extracts included, to prove that the 
 General's orders did not authorize the occupation by him of St. 
 Marks and Pensacola, taking in those respects the ground that had 
 always been taken by Crawford, his friends, and the opposition in 
 Congress, and also that the General had, at the time, been fully 
 informed that such were his views of the matter. He answered 
 the General's specific enquiry in the following terms : — 
 
 As Secretary of War I was more immediately connected with questions 
 whether you had transcended your orders, and, if so, what course ought to be 
 pursued. I was of the impression that you had exceeded your orders and had 
 acted on your own responsibility; but I neither questioned your patriotism 
 nor your motives. Believing that, where orders were transcended, investiga- 
 tion, as a matter of course, ought to follow, as due in justice to the government 
 and the officer, unless there be strong reasons to the contrary, I came to the 
 meeting under the impression that the usual course ought to be pursued in this 
 
376 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOST. 
 
 case, which I supported by presenting fully and freely all the arguments that 
 occurred to me.^ 
 
 This altho' rendered a little less harsh by the language employed 
 amounted, in substance, to an admission of the correctness of Mr. 
 Crawford's staitement — as punishment of some sort would, in the 
 usual course, follow conviction. Crawford said, "Mr. Calhoun's 
 proposition in the Cabinet was that Gen. Jackson should be pun- 
 ished in some form, or reprimanded in some form, I am not posi- 
 tively certain which." The General's question was therefore answered, 
 and was, doubtless, intended to be understood as answered affirma- 
 tively. Mr. Calhoun's reply was, I think, sent to the President on 
 the evening before the adjournment of Congress, in May, 1830. The 
 first I saw of it was on the day of the adjournment. After my return ' 
 from the Capitol with the President and the other members of the 
 Cabinet, who are usually in attendance on the last day of the session, 
 Major Lewis came to my house and laid upon the table at which I was 
 sitting a file of papers, saying " There is Calhoun's letter. The Gen- 
 eral begs you to read the papers attentively and when you have had 
 time to do so he will be glad to see and advise with you upon the 
 subject." Hajnilton having, as I have stated, apprised me of the 
 general bearing of the correspondence, I required no time to reflect 
 upon my answer to this application. I told the Major that I was 
 quite sure the General would not have sent the papers to me if he 
 had reflected on the impropriety of my taking a part in any contro- 
 versy between himself and Mr. Calhoun and on its liability to mis- 
 interpretation, and apprising him of the answer I had given to Hamil- 
 ton, requested him to take them back and to report what I had said 
 to the General. He did so, and the General embraced an early oppor- 
 tunity to assure me that I was altogether right, and apologized very 
 earnestly for what he called his " carelessness " in the matter. He 
 sent a brief reply to Mr. Calhoun, of which I have given the substance 
 in the introduction to this review, but which I did not see, neither 
 was I apprised of its contents until the appearance of Mr. Calhoun's 
 pamphlet.^ 
 
 There the matter rested until the next winter. The gossips of 
 Washington got hold of the fact that there had been a correspond- 
 ence and some of the newspapers gave loose and contradictory 
 accounts of its contents. Mr. Calhoun did not arrive at Washington 
 until some weeks of the following session of Congress had elapsed. 
 Attempts were subsequently made (and perhaps before) by gentle- 
 
 1 This letter, dated May 29, 1830, an A. L. S. of Calhoun's, is 48 pp. long. It is in the 
 Jackson Papers. 
 
 2 Correspondence between Gen. Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun * • • on the 
 subject of the course of the latter, in the cabinet of Mr. Monroe, on the occurrences in the 
 Seminole War. Washn. Printed by D. Green, 1831. A copy is in the Library of Congress. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREK. 377 
 
 men who claimed to be friends of both the President and Vice Presi- 
 dent to bring about a reconciliation between them. Mr. Samuel 
 Swartwout was particularly active in that direction. Gen. Jackson 
 apprised me of those efforts and I advised him, earnestly and sin- 
 cerely, to consent to any amicable arrangement of the subject that 
 would be consistent with his honor. I was° sitting with him, one 
 day, in one of the rooms of the White House which had been appro- 
 priated as a studio by his friend Col. Earle, who was painting his 
 portrait, when a servant announced that Mr. Swartwout was in his 
 office and requested to see him for a moment. He went out and, on his 
 return, told me that the whole affair was settled. He gave me the 
 substance of the terms, but my recollection upon the subject is not 
 distinct enough to justify me in undertaking to state them. I 
 expressed my gratification at the result. He did not appear entirely 
 satisfied with what he had agreed to, but said the matter was done 
 -with and he would think no more about it. 
 
 The adjustment of the whole affair, was for several days pub- 
 licly spoken of. Information of the fact was communicated to 
 persons out of the city and I received letters in which the pacifica- 
 tion was spoken of as undisputed. But Mr. Calhoun's publication 
 appeared notwithstanding. No explanation of the failure of the 
 negotiation has, to my knowledge, been given on either side. Two 
 attempts were subsequently made — the last immediately before Mr. 
 Calhoun's ' appeal ' appeared — ^to give that paper a character and 
 to have it published in a way which would be satisfactory to Gen. 
 Jackson and to prevent him from replying to or taking any notice 
 of its contents. Col. E.icha,rd M. Johnson and Senator Grundy, 
 recognised and warm friends of Mr. Calhoun, as they were also of 
 Gen. Jackson's called (as he now informs me) on Mr. F. P. Blair, 
 with whom they enjoyed a cordial intimacy, and whose feelings 
 were then personally favorable to Mr. Calhoun, and made a labored 
 effort to persuade him to publish it in the Globe with comments 
 indicating that it was neither in fact, nor in intention an attack 
 upon Gen. Jackson. He resisted their solicitations to the end, in- 
 sisting that the paper could not be so qualified as to avoid a rupture 
 with the General which must be the ruin of Mr. Calhoun. Mr. 
 Blair does not now recollect whether any, or, if any, what com- 
 munications took place between him and General Jackson in respect 
 to the proposition, or whether, indeed, he was permitted to talk 
 to him on the subject. Failing in this overture a negotiation of 
 the same character was instituted by Mr. Grundy with Major Eaton, 
 whose interest in a general pacification need not be enlarged upon. 
 
 " MS. IV, p. 30. 
 
378 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 I 
 
 Its character and results are fully set forth in the following publi- 
 cation : — 
 
 [From " the Globe " of March 26, 1831.J 
 
 [We have been favored with the following communication from the Secre- 
 tary of War, which will show the groundlessness of the intimation conveyed 
 by a late Telegraph (newspaper) that the intimate friends of Gen. Jackson, 
 If not the General himself, were satisfied with Mr. Calhoun's address, &c., 
 before it appeared in public] 
 
 Recently it had been stated in the U. S. Telegraph, that the appeal of Mr. 
 Calhoun to the public, previous to Its publication, had been submitted to and 
 approved by a confidential friend of the President. The allusion is to myself. 
 I perceive not the force of the argument which would make this circumstance 
 to operate beneficially or otherwise; but as it has been mentioned, I take 
 occasion to present the agency particularly that I had in this business, and 
 how and why it was occasioned. 
 
 Previous to the publication being made I received a request from Mr. Grundy 
 to see me. I afforded him the Interview he sought. He informed me the 
 Vice President had concluded certainly to make publication of the correspon- 
 dence; and that his (Mr. Grundy's) • great anxiety was that the appeal in- 
 tended to accompany it should be so framed as that the President might not 
 feel himself called upon, by any thing it should contain, to offer a reply. If 
 the President should adopt this course he entertained the opinion that the 
 matter would soon pass away, and every thing of party excitement be avoided. 
 Such was the nature of our conversation and I readily accorded with him 
 in his frank desire. 
 
 Mr. Grundy expressed the opinion that it would be in his power to obtain 
 the assent of the Vice President to show me the remarks which Mr. Calhoun 
 intended to present to the public. Shortly after dark the next evening I went 
 to his lodgings. Arriving, I was told by the servant at the door that Mr. 
 Grundy was not at home but had gone to Mr. Ingham's. I. directed him to go 
 there and say that I wished to see him. He soon returned, and shortly after- 
 wards Mr. Grundy came in, and we sat down together, and alone, in his bed 
 room. 
 
 He observed it had been permitted to him to show me the paper of which 
 he had before spoken; and after some cursory remarks, such as he thought 
 it would now do, and that I would, as he read it, note any exception which I 
 might consider exceptionable, proceeded to read It. Whenever a remark 
 occurred which I thought calculated to excite, or which, by possibility, might 
 be misconceived, I offered suggestions agreeably to the invitation which Mr. 
 Grundy had tendered ; of all which he made notes. I kept none myself and 
 hence cannot say that all were adopted. I do not doubt about it however, 
 as Mr. Grundy afterwards informed me that they had been adopted. 
 
 Having read through the appeal, Mr. Grundy observed, "Well, if the sug- 
 gestions and illustrations we have made, shall be approved, do you think the 
 President will feel himself called upon to reply, or to notice, himself, any 
 thing that the appeal contains?" My answer was, I thought not, and my anx- 
 ious desire was that he would not; but without doubt the newspapers would 
 take hold of and canvass the matter, and to what a course of that kind in the 
 end might lead, time only could determine. 
 
 We were about to separate when Mr. Grundy observed, — "Will you see Gen. 
 Jackson and explain to him what has taken place? I will see Mr. Calhoun, 
 and if the course we have taken be approved you shall be informed." But I 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY bF MAETIN VAN BXIKEN. 379 
 
 did not communicate the subject to the President, because, upon reflection, I 
 thought it improper to do so. From Mr. Grundy I received a note the next 
 day, stating that all was right, which I understood to mean that the sugges- 
 tions offered had been adopted. 
 
 The evening preceding the day when the correspondence made its appear- 
 ance, a printed copy was enclosed to me, with a request that I would submit^ 
 that too to the President. This also I declined to do. 
 
 Ill health has prevented me from making this communication earlier. 
 
 That the accuracy of this statement was assented to by Mr. Grundy 
 necessarily results from the relation in which they both stood to- 
 wards Gen. Jackson and from the facts that Mr. Grundy was on 
 the spot at the time it was made and that he did not question it. It 
 is further confirmed by the declaration of Mr. Ingham, in his ad; 
 dress to the President, of July 26, 1831, that " the preface to the cor- 
 respondence" (which was the 'appeal') "had been previously re- 
 vised by the President's particular friend, and every expression 
 which he thought might be personally offensive to the President had 
 been erased at the suggestion of that friend." Mr. Grundy, having 
 informed Major Eaton the next day, by note, "that all was right" 
 by which, the latter understood that the suggestions offered had been 
 adopted, and hearing nothing to the contrary, inferred, of course, 
 that the Major had carried into effect the arrangement made between 
 them and that the General had assented to it. 
 
 This inference, which no steps on the part of Eaton counteracted, 
 was confirmed by the circumstance that a copy of the pamphlet 
 was sent to him the, evening before it was issued to the public to 
 be laid before the President, so that the latter might read it before 
 it came out, of which also Eaton took notice. He does not say 
 who sent it, but it is not to be supposed that it would have been 
 so sent without the approbation of Mr. Calhoun, or under any 
 other impression than that the arrangement had been found satis- 
 factory and acceptable to Gen. Jackson. That the ' appeal ' was 
 ushered to the people under a full belief that such was the real 
 state of the case it is impossible to doubt, and conversant as I was 
 with the then condition of things as affecting that point I can 
 very well conceive that, but for that mistake, and the publication 
 which was its first, consequence, Mr. Calhoun might have been 
 raised to the Presidency. If the terms of the settlement, which 
 fell through in his hands, were of the character described by Mr. 
 Calhoun's confidential and most efficient friend, in the address 
 already referred to, (and of that I can now say nothing with 
 certainty) viz: that the correspondence was to be destroyed, that 
 Mr. Calhoun was to leave his card for the President; to be invited 
 to his table and no further notice was to be taken of the contro- 
 versy, every thing would have tended, in all probability, to that 
 
380 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOir. 
 
 result. It was a strong feature in Gen. Jackson's nature that an 
 interest in the welfare, and a desire to be instrumental in pro- 
 moting it, of those with whom he had been at variance quickly 
 sprung up in his breast upon an amicable adjustment of differences. 
 My own feelings at that time in respect to the succession, of which 
 I will speak more particularly hereafter, would have interposed 
 no obstacles to Mr. Calhoun's advancement if that had become the 
 wish of our party. On finding, as he would have found ° that I 
 had no more to do with the proceedings of which he complained 
 than the man in the moon, the friendly relations that had arisen 
 between us before the election would have been restored and I see 
 no good reason to doubt that the end which I have intimated would 
 have resulted. But unfounded jealousy and consequent ill will 
 towards myself, with bad advisers, decreed otherwise. 
 
 The direct consequence of the success of the Grundy and Eaton 
 arrangement would have been to throw the brunt of the war-— where 
 it was, from a very early period, if not from the first conception of 
 the ' plot,' intended that it should fall ultimately, — on my shoulders. 
 No man of sense, familiar with the characters and events of that day, 
 can read Mr. Calhoun's ' appeal,' and its supplements, without per- 
 ceiving the two principal objects of its construction — ^viz : self excul- 
 pation in the matter of his course in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet towards 
 Gen. Jackson— now for the first time made known to the latter — and 
 the implication of myself in a plot from which I could not escape 
 and for really engaging in which I would have deserved the political 
 destruction prepared for me. Altho' my name was carefully and 
 with some manifest labour kept out of both the ' appeal ' and its 
 addenda, yet the fact of its being aimed at me was conveyed without 
 the possibility of failure to the apprehension of the political reader. 
 When speculation had been suffered to work upon it for a season the 
 Editor of the Telegrafh, with well painted horror, disclosed the 
 secret (!) as to the intended application of the reference to " con- 
 cealed actors." In the copy of the letter from Mr. Crawford to Mr. 
 Forsyth, which was sent by the latter to the President, and by him 
 enclosed to Mr. Calhoun, blank spaces were in two or three instances 
 substituted, for a name, (as Mr. ,) which substitution was sub- 
 sequently explained, thus by Mr. Forsyth, as heretofore quoted, — 
 " from respect to the personal delicacy of Major Hamilton his name 
 was kept out of view." But the eagerness and energy with which 
 Mr. Calhoun, under the influence of his passions, seized upon these 
 luckless blanks would have been amusing, if the distortions of a really 
 great mind could be tkus ever regarded. He referred to Mr. Craw- 
 ford's letter sent to him by Gen. Jackson as " a copy with important 
 
 " MS. IV, p. 35. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKBN, 381 
 
 blanks " demanded by what rule of justice he was deprived of evi- 
 dence material to his defense — of a statement of the conversation and 
 correspondence of the two individuals whose names are in blank " ; — 
 "Why not" said he "inform me who they are? Their testimony 
 might be highly important, and even their names alone (so italicised 
 in the original) might throw much light on this mysterious affair." 
 Again " this whole affair is a political manoeuvre in which the de- 
 sign is that you (Gen. Jackson) should be the instrument and my- 
 self the victim, but in which the real actors are carefully concealed 
 by an artful movement ; a naked copy, with tlie names referred to in 
 blank, affords slender means of detection, * * * the names which 
 are in blank might of themselves through their political associations 
 point directly to the contrivers of this scheme." Apparently for the 
 purpose of preventing my escape from the full force of his onset under 
 cover of a divided responsibility for the ' plot,' he proceeds to separate 
 this " blow " from that " meditated " by Hamilton's application in 
 1828, in which he did not then suspect me of participation. He says — 
 " several indications forewarned me long since that a blow was medi- 
 tated against me : / will not say from the quarter from, which this 
 comes; but in relation to this subject, more than two years since, I had 
 a correspondence with " &c.^ describing his correspondence with Ham- 
 ilton. 
 
 The mysterious blanks were at once, and to the great disappoint- 
 ment of those who expected, not to say hoped, differently, explained 
 by Mr. Forsyth as referring in each instance to the same person, viz : 
 to Mr. Hamilton, of whose agency in the matter Mr. Calhoun was 
 fully aware. 
 
 Was it uncharitable to attribute to this anxiety to implicate and 
 consequently to destroy me politically the failure of the accommoda- 
 tion between the two highest oiScers of the Government generally 
 supposed to have been successfully negotiated by Swartwout, and the 
 substitution of a mode of bringing the matter before the Country 
 which might accomplish both results ? 
 
 Before I go further I must say a word, in justice to my own feel- 
 ings, in relation to the parts taken in this affair by Col. Johnson and 
 Mr. Grundy. Johnson was the friend of the human race and all who 
 needed his services in any honorable way could have them. In ren- 
 dering them thus readily and thus liberally it sometimes happened 
 that in serving one he unintentionally injured another — a not uncom- 
 mon fate of such a disposition. He was an old friend of Mr. Calhoun, 
 not only willing but anxious to serve him. From my knowledge of 
 him I am quite confident that the idea of the injurious effect which 
 
 » This and the preceding quotations are from Calhoun's letter of May 29, 1830, In the 
 Jackson Papers. 
 
382 AMERICAN' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 his success in the proposed arrangement with Mr. Blair might have 
 upon me never occurred to him. I cannot in candour say as much 
 for Grundy. He had too strong a taste for political manceuvreing — 
 within allowable boundaries — and was too experienced a tactician to 
 have failed in seeing the bearing of the whole thing. My intercourse 
 with him before this period had been in comparison with Mr. Cal- 
 houn's very limited. He was several years later: a member of my 
 'Cabinet and I became much attached to him. He was a man of 
 liberal and just feelings and quite devoted where he took a liking. 
 He and Mr. Calhoun served together in Congress during the War of 
 1812 and formed with each other friendly relations which were, I 
 believe, never entirely obliterated notwithstanding the confidential 
 position in which he was subsequently placed in respect to Gen. Jack- 
 son and the enmity that arose between the latter and Mr. Calhoun. 
 One of the most amusing scenes I witnessed in the Senate, during my 
 long service in that body, was produced by Mr. Clay's attempting to 
 implicate Mr. Grundy in Mr. Calhoun's nullification scheme. The 
 bantering vivacity and persistency of the arraignment, with the 
 earnestness and vigour of the defense, and the invincible good nature 
 ■ of the parties called out frequent bursts of applause and laughter. 
 The accused described with his^ finger an imaginary line between 
 himself and Mr. Calhoun, who sat quite near him, declared in the 
 strongest terms his warm regard for that gentleman, referred with 
 satisfaction to the many political battles they had fought, side by 
 side, against the federalists during the war, then, pointing to the line 
 of nullification as he had indicated it, admitted that he had s(yne 
 times been found near it but affirmed with great solemnity and obvi- 
 ous sincerity that he had never in a single instance passed it, and 
 challenged Mr. Clay to produce a particle of proof to the contrary. 
 This position he very successfully sustained to the end of the debate 
 to the great entertainment and amusement of the Senate, not except- 
 ing Mr. Calhoun himself. / 
 
 \ Mr. Grundy was also unreservedly loyal to the friendship he 
 professed for Gen. Jackson. He knew very little, at that time, as 
 I have said, of me but I doi not believe that his feelings towards 
 me were ever positively unfriendly and the general amiability of 
 his disposition (which extended to all his acquaintances except his 
 colleague Judge White,'^ whom he cordially disliked, chiefly because 
 he had good reason to know that the Judge disliked him) would 
 have inclined him, I doubt not, to draw us all out of the quarrel 
 if he could ; as that however would have defeated the main purpose 
 he was not permitted to do it and hence his efforts were confined 
 naturally to the side of his two old friends and he left me to the 
 buffetings of the storm which he saw approaching. 
 
 > Hugh^Jjawson White, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 383 
 
 It has been by such considerations, with the knowledge I sub- 
 sequently acquired of his fondness for the strategical branch of 
 political warfare, to which I may again have occasion to refer, that 
 my feelings in regard to his agency in the present matter have been 
 controlled. 
 
 Admitting the truth of every thing said in Mr. Calhoun's pam- 
 phlet of 52 pages about Gen. Jackson and himself in regard to 
 the question in dispute between them there was nothing that would 
 or should have impaired the confidence of the American people in 
 the General's patriotism or integrity. Mr. Calhoun admitted in the 
 correspondence that he had never questioned either. The General 
 had passed through an active campaign before Congress and having 
 fought his battles over again before that body in respect to the 
 same matters had come out of the contest confirmed in full pos- 
 session of the favor and' confidence of the people. His case was 
 strengthened by that very correspondence in bringing, for the first 
 time, to the loiowledge of the Country the ° facts that he had 
 written a private letter to President Monroe telling him that if the 
 Administration appreciated as he did the indispensable necessity of 
 occupying temporarily the Spanish posts and wished him to take 
 them without positive instructions, they had only to give a hint to 
 some confidential member of Congress — (say "Johnny Ray") 
 [Rhea] and the General would take possession of them on his own 
 responsibility, and that no answer had ever been returned to that 
 letter, thereby leaving him a fair excuse at least for regarding the 
 silence of the President as furnishing the suggested hint. What 
 the General had done, whether within the line of his instructions 
 or not, had been done to protect the lives of oiir people against the 
 savages led on by renegades from all nations who were indirectly, 
 at least, fostered and encouraged from the places upon which he 
 had seized. All admitted the purity of his motives and a majority 
 of his countrymen were satisfied that the high necessity of his act 
 was sufficiently apparent to justify the exercise of the authority 
 with which he had been clothed and of the power he held. Upon 
 the same overruling principle of the safety of the people, he con- 
 fessedly exceeded his instructions at New Orleans, and by his con- 
 duct on that occasion not only closed the War of 1812 in a blaze 
 of glory, but attracted to himself the attention .and support of the 
 people for the elevated civil position to which he succeeded. 
 
 Gen. Jackson's personal inducements to fight his Seminole cam- 
 paign still another time in the newspapers were very slight, but 
 thinking that he saw in the whole proceeding a design to strike 
 down a man whom he knew to be innocent and who was moreover 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 40. 
 
384 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir, 
 
 his intimate friend and constitutional adviser he indignantly re- 
 fused to sanction the arrangement that had been been devised, and 
 to suffer that assault to be made over his shoulders. My situation 
 was however very different. The offence charged against me was 
 in every respect a heinous one. If I could so far have forgotten 
 ■what was due to my position and to my own honour as to have 
 revived that old and forgotten affair for the purpose of producing 
 a quarrel between the President and Vice President, who had never 
 quarrelled about it before, in the hope of thereby promoting my 
 own political advancement, there was scarcely a depth of public 
 scorn and reproach to which I would not have richly deserved to 
 sink. It would have been difficult to conceive of a case better calcu- 
 lated to excite the unmeasured condemnation of all good citizens. 
 The welfare of the people, the character of the Government, so far 
 as that depends upon the conduct of its highest officials, and the 
 peace of mind of an old and care worn public servant, yet bearing 
 on his shoulders the gravest responsibilities of the State, with many 
 other scarcely less important interests would all have suffered out- 
 rage through such an intrigue on my part. 
 
 That the main object of the publication was to fasten that offence 
 upon me was clearly indicated by the ' appeal,' was the public under- 
 standing of the matter and shortly after it was published ceased to 
 be denied in any quarter. The developments of time have furnished 
 specific proof of this design. Ool. Benton in his work already fre- 
 quently referred to, describing the origin of the "<?Zci6e" newspaper 
 makes the following statement:" 
 
 At ai Presidential levee In the winter of 1830-31, Mr. Duff Green, Editor of 
 the " Telegraph ", newspaper, addressed a person then and now a respectable 
 resident of Washington city (Mr. Jf. M. Duncanson) and invited him to call 
 at his house, as he had something to say to him which would require a con- 
 fidential interview. The call was made and the object of the interview dis- 
 closed, which was nothing less than to engage his (Mr. Duncanson's) assistance 
 in the execution of a scheme in relation to the next presidential election, in 
 which Gen. Jacljson should be prevented from becoming a candidate for re- 
 election and Mr. Calhoun should be brought forward in his place. He informed 
 Mr. Duncanson that a rupture was impending between Gen. Jackson and Mr. 
 Calhoun ; that a correspondence had taken place between them, brought about, 
 (as he alleged) by the intrigues of Mr. Van Buren; that the correspondence 
 was then in print, but its publication delayed until certain arrangements could 
 be made; that the democratic papers at the most prominent points in the 
 States were to be first secured; and men well known to the people as demo- 
 crats, but in the exclusive interest of Mr. Calhoun, placed in charge of them 
 as editors; that as soon as the arrangements were complete the Telegraph 
 would startle the Country with the announcement of the difflculty (between 
 Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun) and the motive for it; and that all the secured 
 presses, taking their cue from the Telegraph would take sides with Mr. Cal- 
 houn, and cry out at the same time; and the storm would seem to be so uni- 
 
 » Benton's Thirty Years' View ; vol. 1, p. 129. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAST BUREK. 385 
 
 versal, and the indignation against Mr. Van Buren would appear to be so great 
 that even Gen. Jackson's popularity would be unable to save him. 
 
 Mr. Duncanson was invited to assist by taking charge of the 
 Kentucky Argus and, notwithstanding flattering inducements, de- 
 clined, and subsequently caused Gen. Jackson to be informed of the 
 overture who thereupon took measur&s to establish the Globe. 
 
 The effects produced were certainly, for a short period in fair 
 proportion to the odious nature of the jcharge, the artful disguises 
 which had been thrown over the transactions out of which it was 
 constructed, and the machinery so cunningly devised to help it 
 to do its work. To show the nature and extent of those effects I 
 content myself with the insertion here of a single letter selected 
 from the numerous anxious communications I received on the sub- 
 ject. It proceeded from the capital of a State lying comparatively 
 near the seat of the Federal Government — a State which always 
 bestowed more earnest and busy attention upon national questions 
 than was given by any of her sister States and which, I may add, 
 then at least exerted a greater influence than any others, upon the 
 general sentiment of the Country. Mr. Ritchie possessed my un- 
 limited confidence, and had been encouraged to communicate his 
 opinions upon all public subjects in which I was concerned without 
 reserve — a privilege which he exercised, on stirring occasions, in 
 its broadest latitude. 
 
 This letter bears the following endorsement: '■'•recemed on the 
 day that my Card appeared and after its appearance'''' The letter 
 and the Card passed each other that day on the Richmond route. 
 
 Deab SlE, 
 
 You know me too well to suppose that I would intrude upon your valuable 
 time without some strong reason. I have always treated you with frankness, 
 and I think it due to you to address you in the same spirit on the present 
 occasion. I will address you as I candidly did Mr. Crawford in 1824, when, 
 without being personally acquainted with him, I requested a particular friend 
 to visit Washington specially, with a confidential letter, to request an explana- 
 tion upon a point of fact, in which he might be supposed to be deeply com- 
 promitted. He met the matter with the utmost possible frankness — explained 
 all the circumstances, and removed every doubt and apprehension. 
 
 But to the p6int at once ; — I refer to Mr. Calhoun's Correspondence. It is in 
 vain for him to disclaim any " allusion to one particular individual " — he does 
 intend you, and so every man who reads the publication will suspect. I will 
 go further. The prompt declaration of the President has not been sufficient 
 to clear you from the imputation. Many do believe it who were your friends 
 and his. One of your mutual friends at Washington (who is in the President's 
 confidence, I know) assured me, three weeks ago, that he knew all the cir- 
 cumstances and that you had had no agency at all in this affair. My friend 
 Campbell, to whom I wrote six or seven weeks ago upon this wry pnint, with 
 the privilege of showing my letter to the President and to yourself informed 
 me in reply that you had no hand in it. I know not whether he showed you 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 25 
 
386 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 my letter. I really wish he had. But this information is not in such a shape 
 as to be given to the Public, and it wants your own stamp to make it more 
 decisive. 
 
 I need not inform you that this matter is the subject of universal conversa- 
 tion among us. Many of our friends have expressed their doubts and fears, 
 some, very vehemently: and a forcible article is° already put into my hands, 
 by a warm friend of the administration, explaining the attitude in which he 
 thinlis this Correspondence places yourself. 
 
 Discussion is inevitable. It struck me from the first and I am now more 
 strongly satisfied of it. Will you then excuse me for asking your attention 
 to the subject — for asking frankly whether you were concerned or consulted 
 in bringing up this difference between the President and Vice President, and, 
 moreover, for suggesting that you * should take the same public course which 
 the Vice President has taken — ^now that he has taken It — ^and make it clear 
 to the Nation that his allusions to you are without foundation. All the evidence, 
 which my Correspondent at Washington wrote me was in the possession of 
 your friends, ought to be at once and fully produced, — every atom of it, with 
 the most perfect and nnblenching frankness. It is due to yourself and I am 
 confident, to the Administration. 
 
 I address you Sir, without any circumlocution or intermediation. But if 
 you have no objection I would take it as a favor that you show my letter to 
 Cten. Jackson. I address you, too, with the sincerest wishes that you may be 
 able to demolish every doubt, every apprehension, every political enemy. I 
 trust that the thing may be made out as clear as a ray of light from Heaven. 
 It has been my gratification to wi'ite you more agreeable letters, but never one 
 that was dictated in a franker or more friendly spirit. 
 I am, dear Sir, Resp^ yours, 
 
 Thos. Hitciiijs, 
 Richmond, Fei. 21, 183X. 
 
 As soon as all the persons of 'this drama had come forward — Mr. 
 Calhoun with his pamphlet, Gen. Jackson with a few authorized 
 statements in the Globe, and Messrs. Crawford, Forsyth, and Hamil- 
 ton with their letters and explanations, I published this Card: 
 
 [Prom the U. States Telegraph, Feb. 26.] 
 
 Mb. Van Buben to the Editoe of the Telegraph. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren transmits the enclosed to the Editor of the United States' 
 Telegraph for insertion in his paper of tomorrow. 
 Pebruai-y 25th, 1831. 
 
 Mr. Van Bnren desires us, in relation to the correspondence between the 
 Vice President and various other persons which has recently appeared, to 
 make the following statement in his behalf. 
 
 He observes that an impression is attempted to be made upon the public mind 
 that certain applications by James A. Hamilton, Esq., of New York, to Mr. 
 Porsythe, the one in February 1828, and the other last winter, and a similar 
 one to the Vice-President, for information in regard to certain Cabinet transac- 
 
 - MS. IV, p. 45. 
 
 • I correct my expressions. I would not have you rush into the newspapers, if some 
 person, who Is conversant with all the facts, would frankly come forth with all the ex- 
 culpatory evidence, Id the cslmest lt)ut most ingenuous terms, 
 
AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BXJREW. 387 
 
 tions during the administration of Mr. Monroe and whicli are referred to by the 
 latter gentleman, were so made by Mr. Van Buren's advice or procurement, 
 leaving the motives and objects of those applications to those who may deem 
 it necessary to notice them, Mr. Van Buren avers that they and each of them 
 were not only made without agency of any description on his part, but also 
 without his Isnowledge; and that he has at no period taken any part in the 
 matters connected with them. — He desires us further to say that every assertion, 
 or insinuation, which has for its object to impute to him any participation in 
 attempts, supposed to have been made in the years 1827 and 1828 to prejudice the 
 Vice President in the good opinion of Gen. Jackson, or at any time, is alike 
 unfounded and unjust. He had no motive or desire to create such an impres- 
 sion, and neither took, advised nor countenanced, directly or indirectly, 
 any steps to effect that object. For the correctness of these declarations he 
 appeals, with a confidence which defies contradiction, to all who have been actors 
 in the admitted transactions referred to, or who possess any knowledge on the 
 subject. 
 Washington, Feb. 25, 1831. 
 
 I have known few more striking instances in public life of a 
 strong current of prejudice and suspicion arrested not only, but 
 turned back upon those who started it, by an exposition so simple 
 and so brief. Its effects were no less visible in their faces than in 
 their conduct, and beyond the reckless invectives of the Telegraph 
 no serious efforts were made further to uphold the plot. Many of 
 my friends, roused from the stupor into which the apparent diffi- 
 culties of the time had thrown them, urged me to go on and sus- 
 tain my denial by the use of documents, some of which were then 
 . in my possession, and by the direct testimony of every person who 
 had been named as principals or agents and who were all ready 
 and anxious to come forward. Hamilton, as will be seen by his let- 
 ter to Lewis, was somewhat miffed that he was not called upon to 
 exculpate me. Gen. Jackson could not forbear, years afterwards, 
 when he heard of the reconciliation between Mr. Calhoun and my- 
 self, to send me a not only unsolicited but entirely unexpected letter 
 testifying to my innocence,^ of which he was, of all others, the best 
 informed because he was the man whom I was charged with attempt- 
 ing to prejudice and inflame against Mr. Calhoun. Two or three of 
 these papers are inserted here, * * * but at the time I refused to 
 go a. step beyond my Card. I opposed to the charges and insin- 
 uations of my enemies a defiant contradiction and a character which, 
 tho' long and vilely traduced, had never been successfully im- 
 peached. Before these the ' plot ' exploded, aided as they were by 
 the utter unsoundness of the materials oitt of which it was con- 
 structed which became more and more manifest to the apprehensions 
 of men as the excitement subsided. 
 
 The preliminary steps, relied upon as evidence of its. original con- 
 coction and design, occurred in the years 1827 and 1828 ; the year pre- 
 
 1 1840, July 31. In the Vatt Burejj Papers, 
 
388 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ceding the Presidential election in which Gen. Jackson was chosen, 
 and the year of that election. The immediate object of the plotting 
 was (it was said) to obtain evidence that Mr. Calhoun had acted an 
 unfriendly part in Mr. Monroe's Cabinet towards the General touch- 
 ing his conduct in the Seminole war. This would have been proof of 
 ill will on the part of Mr. Calhoun of which it was conceded the Gen- 
 eral had never been informed and of the existence of which he never 
 even suspected. Cui hono — such an operation?^ 
 
 The friends of Mr. Crawford, who had supported him at the pre- 
 vious election, were, in Virginia, in New York, indeed in most of the 
 States, save perhaps somewhat less cordially in Georgia, rallying to 
 the support of Gen. Jackson, on the same ticket with whom, as candi- 
 date for the Vice Presidency, and bound to the support of that ticket 
 by interest and I doubt not by feeling also, stood Mr. Calhoun. The 
 ascertainment of any fact which might place the relations between 
 Mr. Crawford and Gen. Jackson upon a more cordial footing and by 
 that means stimulate the comparatively sluggish support" of the 
 Georgians, an object avowed by the so called ' conspirators ' and dis- 
 cussed on the trip to New Orleans, would have been a sensible move- 
 ment. But what could be said or thought of an attempt to ferret out 
 a fact which would have then inevitably produced, as it did produce 
 when it came to light, hostility perhaps outbreak between Gen. Jack- 
 son and Mr. Calhoun and a dismemberment of the ticket? Would 
 not Lewis and Hamilton and their advisers, if they had any, have 
 deserved to be called mad men if they conceived or entered upon such ' 
 a scheme? Suppose, for the sake of meeting every ground of sus- 
 picion or of imputation that their object was to obtain information 
 to be used at some distant day, after the election, to bring about the 
 desired alienation between their candidates — ^would they then have 
 gone directly to Mr. Calhoun and thus putting him on the track of 
 their machinations have addressed to him the question the prosecu- 
 tion of which was to bring to light the evidence of his hostility to 
 Jackson on a certain occasion, the precise question put to Crawford 
 and then not yet answered ? Would they not rather have waited for 
 the desired information which Mr. Crawford's well known enmity to 
 Mr. Calhoun authorized them to expect speedily from him? No! 
 The notion of a design " to extract from him, if possible, some hasty 
 and unguarded expression respecting the course of the Cabinet on the 
 Seminole question," by which he might be " entangled " will be 
 found, on looking at the facts as afterwards stated by Mr. Calhoun in 
 his ' appeal ' unsustained by a single circumstance or feature of the 
 case, and the simple solution of the matter is doubtless this: — ^Mr. 
 
 " A good presentation of this affair will be found in Bassett's Life of Andrew Jackson, 
 (N. Y„ 1911) chap, xxlv, vol, 2, p, 497 et seq. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTREN, 389 
 
 Calhoun's reflections satisfied him that in the account which he had 
 given to Hamilton of the proceedings in the Cabinet he had made a 
 mistake which, if published, would in all probability render necessary 
 a further and unreserved disclosure of those proceedings in their 
 integrity, like that which, in the sequel, he felt himself constrained ° 
 to give in his ' appeal.' The certain consequence of such a step would 
 have been, as he could not doubt, to involve him then in a quarrel 
 with Gen. Jackson, as it did involve him when it was afterwards 
 taken by the publication of the ' appeal.' This he was for obvious 
 reasons anxious to avoid — for which purpose the only resource (if 
 any existed) was the interdiction of the publication of what he had 
 already said and the refusal to add further disclosures, on the ground 
 of the sanctity due to Cabinet proceedings. By this course the reve- 
 lation of the disturbing proceedings would, at the worst, be left to 
 chance, and if Hamilton, after it had slept for two years, had not 
 shown Forsyth's letter to Lewis manifestly as a matter of curiosity, 
 that revelation might never have been made. 
 
 This was the construction ultimately placed by most disinterested 
 and fair minds upon all the assertions and inuendoes, statements and 
 counterstatements in the case, and the conviction became general that 
 what plotting there was had been directed by other hands and aimed 
 at the destruction of a different individual. In all my subsequent po- 
 litical contests the charge of concocting and engineering that famous 
 conspiracy was never revived against me, unless the vague and remote 
 allusions on the occasion of the rejection of my nomination as Minis- 
 ter to England — ^when the use of the charge was in keeping with its 
 original object, may be considered such a revival. 
 
 I did not see any of the papers contained in Mr. Calhoun's pam- 
 phlet before its public appearance in February 18S1, but had, in the 
 way I have described, received general impressions in respect to their 
 contents. Our intercourse, consequently, became daily more and more 
 formal and ceased altogether after I had read that work. From that 
 time until the extra-session of Congress in September 1837, a period 
 of between six and seven years, our relations were those of undis- 
 guised hostility. At that session he supported the principle and the 
 recommendations of my Message to Congress openly, ably, and with- 
 out reserve. This was no holiday determination, promising recrea- 
 tion and ease. The doctrines to the support of which he thus com- 
 mitted himself unavoidably involved him in the internecine war with 
 the Money-Power of the Country — a power by which he had been as 
 well in the early as in the later periods of his political career, not a 
 little petted — and he encountered the hazards and toils of that strug- 
 gle upon the official invitation of a President with whom he was not 
 
 " MS. IV, p. 50. 
 
390 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and had not been for nearly seven years upon speaking terms. I 
 s appreciated and expressed, on all fitting occasions, my respect for 
 and admiration of his noble bearing. But it could work no change 
 in our personal relations, until the gulf which he had created, as has 
 been described, between us should be bridged by a satisfactory con- 
 cession of the injustice which had been done to me. No one under- 
 stood better than he or was more sensible of the propriety of my 
 course in avoiding the slightest advance towards a 'personal recon- 
 ciliation. Altho' prepared in his feelings to take the first step in 
 that direction himself he deferred doing so for more than two years 
 for reasons which he assigned on the fioor of the Senate in reply to 
 Mr. Clay's insinuations upon the subject which shall be hereafter 
 noticed. At the session of 1839-'40, soon after my Message had been 
 sent in, William H. Eoane, one of the Senators from Virginia and a 
 worthy son of Spencer Roane, Jefferson's confidential and devoted 
 friend, asked an interview for the special purpose of conversing with 
 me upon the subject of the existing personal relations between Mr. 
 Calhoun and myself. The substance of his communication was that 
 on their way to Washington Mr. Calhoun had told him that he 
 thought the time had arrived to put an end to the non-intercourse 
 which had so long existed between us and that he had outlived his 
 prejudices against me and was ready to make proper advances to that 
 end, — ^that agreeing in politics and engaged as we both were in the 
 support of a great public question such a course, in respect to our 
 personal relations, was in his judgment demanded by public consid- 
 erations of an imperative character,— -that altho' he did not expect to 
 find anything in it to change his views he would prefer to see my 
 forthcoming Message before any step was taken in the matter, but 
 after that he wished Mr. Roane, if not otherwise instructed, to com- 
 municate to me what had passed between them, and if the course 
 referred to was agreeable to me, he and Mr. Eoane would make me 
 a friendly visit, and, in that way, accomplish the object in view, and 
 he thought this would be best done without referring to the past. 
 I accepted the proposition with unaffected cordiality, and named the 
 time at which I would receive them. They called and as we shook 
 hands, Mr. Calhoun, in a few well chosen terms, repeated what he 
 had said to Mr. Roane, which, being replied to in the same spirit, was 
 succeeded by general conversation upon the topics of the day. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun's separation from the party at the head of which 
 stood Clay and Webster after having so long acted with them in 
 opposition to Gen. Jackson's Administration, excited their ill-wUl, 
 as is usual in such cases. He was fiercely attacked for his course 
 by Mr. Clay on two occasions. The first was in February 1838, 
 when the Independent Treasury Bill passed the Senate, and the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BtrREN, 391 
 
 next in December 1839, when the personal reconcilation between Mr. 
 Calhoun and myself became publicly known. The debates on both 
 occasions have been carefully and impartially reported by Col. 
 Benton in the second volume of his Thirty Year's View, and are un- 
 usually interesting, the lines of attack and defence extending to 
 the entire political lives of both Senators and exhibiting on both 
 sides thorough preparation and extraordinary ability. 
 
 On the first occasion the previous personal relations between 
 Mr. Calhoun and myself had been harshly commented upon, as 
 respected the former, at the very threshhold of the debate but the 
 reconciliation had not then talfen place. When that became pub- 
 lic Mr. Clay forthwith lugged it into the discussions of the Senate. 
 
 Mr. Calhonn brought forward a Bill authorizing the cession 
 of certain portions of the public lands, which he had introduced 
 before any of the occurrences here referred to, notwithstanding 
 which fact, Mr. Clay enquired of him whether the measure now 
 brought forward was favored by the Administration and based 
 the enquiry upon the rumored change which had recently taken 
 place in the personal relations that had so long existed between 
 the Senator and the President. This was followed by a succes- 
 sion of thrustings and parryings upon various points, spirited, and 
 not wanting in an undertone of bitterness. After some protesting 
 against the indecorum of Mr. Clay's course in dragging his per- 
 sonal relations before the Senate, Mr. Calhoun felt himself con- 
 strained by his persevering personality to enter into an explana- 
 tion of what had taken place between us so far as that had any 
 public bearing, and it is due to him that I should give it in his 
 own words. 
 
 1 will assure the senator, if there were pledges in his case, there were none 
 in mine. I have terminated my long-suspended personal intercourse with the 
 President, without the slightest pledge, understanding, or compromise, on 
 either side. I would be the last to receive or exact such. The transition 
 from their former to their present personal relation was easy and natural, 
 requiring nothing of the kind. It gives me pleasure to say, thus openly, that 
 I have approved of all the leading measures of the President, since he took 
 the Executive chair, simply because they accord with the principles and policy 
 on which I have long acted, and often openly avowed. The change, then, in 
 our personal relations, had simply followed that of our political. Nor was it 
 made suddenly, as the senator charges. So far from it, more than two years 
 have elapsed since I gave a decided support to the leading measure of the 
 Executive, and on which almost all others since have turned. This long in- 
 terval was permitted to pass, in order that his acts might give assurance 
 whether there was a coincidence between our political views as to the principles 
 on which the government should be administered, before our personal relations 
 should be changed. I deemed it due to both thus long to delay the change, 
 among other reasons to discountenance such idle rumors as the senator 
 alludes to. That his political course might be judged (said Mr. Calhoun) by 
 the object he had in view, and not the suspicion and jealousy of his political 
 
392 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 opponents, he would repeat what he had said, at the last session, was his 
 object. It is, said he, to ohliterate all those measures whieh had originated 
 in the national consolidation school of politics, and especially the senator's 
 famous American system, which he believed to be hostile to the constitution 
 and the genius of our political system, and the real source of all the dis- 
 orders and dangers to which the country was, or had been, subject. This done, 
 he was for giving the government a fresh departure, in the direction in which 
 Jefferson and his associates would give it, were they now alive and at the helm. 
 He stood where he had always stood, on the old State rights ground. His 
 change of personal relation, which gave so much concern to the senator, so 
 far from involving any change in his principles or doctrines, grew out of 
 them.' 
 
 ° The declaration of Mr. Calhoun that he was induced to sustain 
 my Administration, then in the third year of- its existence, the 
 course of which he had minutely watched under the influence of 
 extreme prejudice, by his desire to co-operate in a system of meas- 
 ures designed and well calculated " to obliterate all measures which 
 had originated in the National Consolidation school of politics," 
 which he believed to be ''the real source of all the disorders and 
 dangers to which the Country was or had been subject," and "to 
 give the Government a fresh departure in the direction in which 
 Jefferson and his associates would give were they now alive and 
 at the helm," was certainly a compliment of great value coming 
 from such a source. My motives in settling and promoting its 
 course could not have been more ably or truly delineated. Nor was 
 the same debate wanting in a marked expression of personal respect 
 from Mr. Clay towards myself even whilst he censured Mr. Calhoun 
 for supporting my policy. At the very commencement of his ar- 
 raignment of that gentleman for his desertion of the Whig party, 
 after repeating some violent speeches about me which he charged 
 upon him, he thus spoke for himself : 
 
 Who, Mr. President, are the most conspicuous of those who perseveringly 
 pressed this bill upon Congress and the American people? Its drawer is the 
 distinguished gentleman In the white house not far off (Mr. Van Buren) ; its 
 indorser is the distinguished senator from South Carolina, here present. What 
 the drawer thinks of the indorser, his cautious reserve and stifled enmity 
 prevent us from knowing. But the frankness of the indorser has not left us 
 iu the same ignorance with respect to his opinion of the drawer. He has often 
 expressed it upon the floor of the Senate. On an occasion not very distant, 
 denying hiin any of the noble qualities of the royal) beast of the forest, he 
 attributed to him those which belong to the most ci-afty, most skulking and 
 the meanest of the quadruped tribe. Mr. President, it is due to myself to say, 
 that I do not altogether share with the senator from South Carolina in this 
 opinion of the President of the United States. I have always found him, in 
 his manners and deportment, civil, courteous and gentlemanly ; and he dispenses, 
 in the noble mansion which he now occupies, one worthy the residence of the 
 
 ' Extract from Calhoun's speech, 1838, In the debate between Clay and Calhoun. 
 Benton's Thirty Years' View, 2, 120. 
 " MS. IV, p. 55. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTREN. 393 
 
 chief magistrate of a great people, a generous and liberal hospitality. An ac- 
 quaintance with him of more than twenty years' duration has inspired me 
 with a respect for the man, although, I regret to be compelled to say, I detest 
 the magistrate.^ 
 
 The word 'detest' expressed without doubt the Speaker's dis- 
 approbation of my official conduct with exaggerated emphasis as 
 an offset, for the gratification of his followers, to the personal com- 
 pliment; which latter seems indeed a bold and hazardous exploit 
 when one recalls the descriptions of the desperate wickedness of 
 my political designs with which Mr. Clay and his associate orators 
 had long labored to excite the Country. It is apparent that he 
 felt the political necessity of taking back with one hand what he 
 bestowed liberally and genially with the other. 
 
 I invited Mr. Calhoun to my table and he and his family fre- 
 quently broke bread with me, our intercourse at once assuming a 
 friendly and familiar footing. I felt that he had made me the 
 amende honorable in the face of the Country and in a way wholly 
 free from exception. The prejudices I had naturally imbibed 
 against him on account of previous transactions were as effectually 
 wiped from my mind as if they had never existed. He supported 
 my Administration during the residue of my term and his State 
 gave its vote in favor of my reelection — ^that being the first time in 
 twelve years that she had voted for the Democratic candidate. With- 
 drawn from Washington by the loss of the election I never saw Mr. 
 Calhoun again, but nothing occurred to give a character to our per- 
 sonal relations different from that which we had ourselves given to 
 them, until the time approached for the designation of the Demo- 
 cratic candidate for President for the election of 1844. 
 
 It was perhaps not surprising that Mr. Calhoun should, under 
 the circumstances I ha,ve narrated, not only have thought himself 
 entitled to the nomination but have also thought that I ought not 
 to permit my name to be brought forward in opposition to him. 
 He was slightly my senior in age and altho' not earlier in the 
 political field had much sooner become conspicuous in Federal poli- 
 tics than myself and had been twenty years before supported for 
 the Presidency by a respectable section of the party. If for a 
 season at variance with a majority of its members, he had returned 
 to its support at a critical period and was then in full communion, 
 and had, what I assumed to have been, his own sense become the sense 
 of our political friends generally, I would not have felt disposed 
 to interpose obstacles in the way of its gratification. Indeed I do 
 not hesitate to say that I should very decidedly have preferred his 
 nomination to that which was finally made. But whilst nobody 
 
 » Extract from Clay's speech, 1838, in the debate between Clay and Calhoun. Ben- 
 ton's Thirty Years' View, 2, 101. 
 
394 AMBMCAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 then thought of the latter save as a busy applicant for the second, 
 few evinced a preference for Mr. Calhoun's nomination for the 
 first place. It turned out, on the contrary, that the mass of the 
 party — certainly two thirds and probably three fourths of its mem- 
 bers — considering that they had, in 1840, with absolute unanimity, 
 approved the principles upon which I had administered the Gov- 
 ernment, and had, with equal accord, nominated me for re-election, 
 and that I had been defeated almost without reference to the 
 soundness or unsoundness of those principles but thro' the instru- 
 mentalities and debauncheries of a political Saturnalia, in which rea- 
 son and justice had been derided, deemed it due to the honor of 
 their cause that the reproach of that defeat should be effaced, when 
 they had recovered their ascendancy in the popular vote, under an 
 organization similar to that which had been subjected to it, and 
 that this desirable object required my nomination. In their avowals 
 of that opinion personal preferences appear to have had little 
 weight. They were the expression of the conviction of a great 
 party in respect to what was due to its own character and im- 
 portant to its future usefulness and such a decision was entitled 
 to respect and acquiescence on the part of the minority. I had no 
 right to withhold my consent to the action by which it proposed 
 to effect that object when satisfied that its course had been deter- 
 mined upon fairly and its wishes unmistakably pronounced. A 
 letter was addressed to me at an early period in the canvass by 
 Mr. Henry Horn, a distinguished democrat from Pennsylvania, 
 calling for my decision of that very question. My answer was, 
 and it could have been no other, that, whilst I wovdd take no steps 
 to promote my own nomination, I would not deny the use of my 
 name to the Democratic party if it was required. This answer 
 was published.^ 
 
 Mr. Calhoun was opposed to my renomination, and at once took 
 the field to defeat it. The first intimation I had of his determina- 
 tion was derived through a family affair and was not on that ac- 
 count less convincing to my mind. In the winter of 1842 I visited 
 the South and was engaged to pass a few weeks at the residence 
 of Col. Singleton, in South Carolina; that gentleman being the 
 father-in-law of my eldest son and standing in the same relation 
 to Mr. McDuffie, the early and abiding friend of Mr. Calhoun. On 
 the invitation of Col. Singleton, Mr. McDuffie, who had, in letters 
 written to me for that purpose, applauded the course of my Ad- 
 ministration in the strongest terms, agreed, long before I left home, 
 to meet me on the occasion of my visit, but he did not come altho' 
 
 » Horn's letter of 1841, Nov. 13, and Van Buren's reply, Nov. 26, are in the Van Buren 
 Papers. The reply was printed In the Nashville Union, 1842, Feb. 6. 
 
, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 395 
 
 expected from day to day and his non-arriA'al gave rise to much 
 disappointment and to various conjectures as to its cause. I did 
 not think proper to enlighten my worthy host, altho' I well under- 
 stood the circumstance to be an evidence of Mr. Calhoun's deter- 
 mination, and however I might and did deprecate a new rupture 
 in that quarter I could only regret it. Mr. Calhoun's friends in 
 Charleston, in addition to many other acts of unaffected personal 
 kindness, united with some gentlemen who were politically well 
 disposed towards me, independently of his views, in inviting me 
 to a public dinner which I declined, in conformity with my in- 
 variable practice. He continued his opposition in various ways, 
 one of which will necessarily be referred to in speaking of another 
 matter, until my name was withdrawn from the National Conven- 
 tion when his friends, who had until that time attended it as spec- 
 tators, had their names entered as delegates from South 'Carolina 
 and took part in its action. 
 
 Whilst it would be idle to deny that the agreeable feelings excited 
 by the reconciliation which had succeeded to many years of enmity, 
 between Mr. Calhoun and myself, were somewhat blunted by these 
 transactions I still do myself the justice to say that they were not 
 eradicated. I could hot with justice impute to him much blame, 
 after his long and, having regard to what is considered the ultima 
 Thule of political life, advert career, for wishing to prevent a 
 nomination the defeat of which ° might enure to his own advance- 
 ment, and I knew of no steps taken by him to promote his wishes 
 the employment of which would not, as the world goes, have been 
 deemed allowable. I saw therefore no cause of personal hostility 
 in his course neither was any such feeling engendered in my breast, 
 although, from 1844 to the period of his death, there was no inter- 
 course between us. 
 
 This whole affair was perhaps as satisfactorily disposed of as 
 could be expected among eager and excited politicians. All that 
 remiains to be done in respect to it and to kindred matters of a 
 common origin, such as nullification and the rejection of my nom- 
 ination as Minister to England, none of which would, /in all prob- 
 ability, have ever arisen, certainly not at that time, but for the 
 Eaton imbroglio, and in most of which Mr. Calhoun was a promi- 
 nent actor, is that the facts in respect to them should be well ascer- 
 tained and correctly recorded. 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 60. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 These transactions and questions possess an interest beyond the 
 actors in them and the times in which they arose. That of whioh 
 I am now writing was a political quarrel between the highest officers 
 of the Republic in which, altho' an attempt was made on one side 
 to make its injurious consequences fall on an humbler head, the 
 principals appeared in proper person, and it involved a review of 
 the conduct of a public war in respect to acts of grave importance 
 affecting the rights and, as it was supposed, the honor of a third 
 Power. Another — ^South Carolina nullification — ^brought to the test 
 the construction of the Federal Constitution upon a point vital to 
 the existence of the Government and from the desperation of the 
 contest to which it gave birth exposed the Federal Union to greater 
 peril than any which it has at any other time encountered. The 
 next was an attempt by a controlling part of one of the great 
 branches of the Federal Government to humiliate and degrade its 
 representative at one of the first Courts in Europe, performing his 
 official duties in the presence of similar representatives from all 
 the civilized States of the world — ^to do this upon pretences which 
 not only were discountenanced, as will be seen, so far as was allow- 
 able, by the Government to which he was accredited and condemned 
 by all just and liberal foreigners whose attention was directed to 
 them, but were denounced by a majority of the People "of the United 
 States, by whom the intended victim was raised to the first place 
 in the Government whilst the authors of the attempt were ever 
 afterwards excluded from their confidence when they acted in their 
 highest function of selecting the Chief Magistrate of the Republic. 
 
 These things occurred in the face of the world. They belong to 
 history and those who from time to time are moved to carry for- 
 ward the work of history will pay their respects to them whether 
 the actors or their representatives do so or not. We have seen in 
 our day that the power of truth and the progress of liberal ideas 
 have broken down the barriers behind which it was the custom to 
 keep hidden the secrets of States and Statesmen, and have established 
 the rule that they shall at proper times, and having regard to the 
 feelings of the actors, be broughtinto view, and that accordingly the 
 private papers of our public men, which were deemed to possess any 
 interest, have been unreservedly given to the public. When these 
 sheets see the light, if they ever do so, the time will have arrived 
 for the application of these principles to the transactions of which 
 396 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUREN. 397 
 
 I am speaking, without ground of complaint on the part of any. 
 Altho' my narrative combines the disadvantages 'of being told by a 
 party interested in the scenes I describe, with the advantages of 
 having been a contemporary and eye witness, I aim only to do justice 
 on all sides under the guidance of the first and fundamental law of 
 history as declared by Cicero, that " it should neither dare to say 
 anything that is false, nor fear to say anything that is true." 
 
 The " Plot " having exploded, the hrocJmre got up by the Con- 
 gressional printer (Duff Green) and hawked about by Congressional 
 messengers, lay on public and private tables a Caput mortuum 
 exciting little feeling other than pity for the weakness in which 
 it was engendered. I might be pardoned a momentary feeling of 
 exaltation when I saw my bitter and remorseless enemies struggling 
 in the toils which they had prepared for my destruction ; I certainly 
 had reason to rejoice that so fitting an opportunity had been pre- 
 sented to place my conduct — such as it really had been on an occasion 
 which might have offered strong temptations to an intriguing poli- 
 tician — fairly before the Country and to contrast it with the un- 
 tiring machinations against me. This was a point of peculiar 
 importance, as the efforts to fasten impressions upon the popular 
 mind of a capacity and disposition on my part for political intrigue 
 had met with a greater degree of success than had attended other 
 calumnious assaults upon my character, and to have the falsity of 
 charges of this description so satisfactorily demonstrated at a mo- 
 ment when those impressions were upon the point of doing me the 
 greatest harm was both useful and gratifying. 
 
 Nor was the prospect of the personal and political advantages to 
 be derived from my continuance in office without allurements. The 
 Eaton affair, which had been the plague spot of Administration dur- 
 ing two years past, had lost its interest or suffered eclipse, and offered 
 no further embarrassment which might not be ended, if it became 
 expedient, by sending the immediate parties on a foreign mission, as 
 was afterwards done, and the so considered refractory members of 
 the Cabinet might have been left in possession of the pageantry of 
 their official positions so long as they did not, by complicity with its 
 enemies, obstruct the course of the Administration, or they might 
 have been dismissed, without the slightest disturbance, when they 
 did so. 
 
 There seemed, indeed, no insurmountable obstacle so far as related 
 to the Executive branch of the Government to the further prosecu- 
 tion of the idea to which I have before referred as one which had 
 taken full possession of my thoughts from the time I became thor- 
 oughly acquainted with Gen. Jackson's qualities and with his power 
 over the public mind, namely, to essay how far the political capital 
 thus furnished— the greater, all things considered, than had been 
 
398 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 possessed by any previous Administration — ^might be successfully 
 employed in the acquisition of public advantages which, under less 
 potential auspices I would have justly regarded as hopeless. Never- 
 theless the interval, between the publication of Mr. Calhoun's Corre- 
 spondence and ' appeal ' and my resignation of the office of Secretary 
 of State was clouded by doubt and anxiety in regard to my future 
 course. Through the transactions of which I have spoken and the 
 strong emotions excited by them in the breast of Gen. Jackson my 
 position had become, in the phrase of the day, that of heir apparent 
 to the succession. I needed no more than my experience for the past 
 two years, confirmed by that of Messrs. Adams and Clay, to satisfy 
 me of the great evils to which an Administration was exposed whose 
 chief Cabinet officer occupied that position. They were of a nature 
 impossible to escape the eyes of any but the foolhardy and blindly 
 ambitious. It was not safe to found hopes of exemption from them 
 on the examples of success in such situations furnished by the earlier 
 periods of the Government. In those days the selection of candi- 
 dates was confined to comparatively few individuals and the repub- 
 lican party was not the theatre for Presidential intrigues upon any 
 thing like the same scale as that since in vogue. No degree of absti- 
 nence or discretion on the part of the Minister plausibly suspected 
 of aiming at the succession could protect an Administration thus 
 encumbered from the assaults to which he would inevitably expose it. 
 Whether he availed himself of his position to intrigue for his 
 advancement or not he would be charged with doing so by thousands 
 who would believe him guilty of it and by other thousands in the 
 ranks of the supporters of the Administration who would think 
 themselves interested in spreading such a belief. Thus the design of 
 working for my own elevation at the expiration of Gen. Jackson's 
 first term was freely imputed to me whilst I solemnly affirm that I 
 had been a steady advocate of his re-election and was exerting myself 
 at the time to put down movements that were attempted in my behalf. 
 Near the close of the first year of the Administration, in reply 
 to some givings out in my favor by Major Noah, of the New York 
 Courier and Enquirer — an editor proverbially imprudent and who 
 in the sequel became worse — ^the Telegrapli stated as follows : " We 
 KNOW that no one is more opposed to the agitation of that question 
 [that of the succession] than Mr. Van Buren, and that he permits 
 no fit opportunity of discountenancing and discouraging it to pass 
 by unimproved." Without enquiry into the motives of this appar- 
 ently friendly statement, the course of events makes it proper to 
 say that it was made before the estaiblishment of the "(7?»&e" and 
 before matters were ripe for an attack on me — perhaps before such 
 g, step was contemplated. It was at all events, at a time when the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 399 
 
 editor of the Telegra/ph hazarded nothing in ° saying about me what 
 he honestly believed to be true, but no sooner had war been declared 
 in form by Mr. Calhoun than my desire to precipitate the question 
 in regard to the succession and my intrigues to secure my own ele- 
 vation at the end of Gen. Jackson's first term were his daily themes. 
 When I come to speak of my first nomination for the Presidency 
 I will have occasion to refer to circumstances which will place my 
 entire course upon this subject beyond the reach of cavil. Altho' 
 it was not in his power to lay his hand upon a shred or semblance 
 of evidence to show that my conduct upon the point in question had 
 varied in the slightest degree, yet his views of his own interests 
 having changed and the period having arrived for the development 
 of projects which had been for some time in preparation, the ab- 
 sence and indeed non-existence of proof made no difference and I 
 knew that it would make no difference in future either with him 
 or with the afiiliated presses of which he spoke to Mr. Duncanson, 
 or with the opposition press in general. That was the vantage 
 ground from which the attacks of all were to be made to the end 
 of the war, which if the general should be re-elected and should 
 live so long, was to last for a period of six years; a ground the 
 strength and efficacy of which were likely to be constantly in- 
 creased during that interval by the addition of new aspirants to 
 the Presidency from our own ranks and to be brought to bear upon 
 Congress, the press, the people and wherever else such aspirants 
 might hope to discover recruits. In my cordial aversion to being 
 made the cause of such a warfare upon the Administration of that 
 honest old man who had devoted the remnant of his life and 
 strength to the public service and upon the interests of the Country 
 committed to his charge, the idea originated of resigning the high 
 office to which I had been appointed. My inquietude was doubtless 
 increased sensibly by the reflection that I had been the object of 
 similar assaults before I came to Washington, and that I had hoped 
 by the change in my field of action to throw off the hounds by whom 
 personal character is hunted down. I was for many years, while 
 in the service of my state persistently charged with influencing the 
 action of the appointing power for my own advancement when I 
 was thoroughly conscious that there was not one among my cotem- 
 poraries who estimated as lightly as I did the advantages of such 
 appliances, or who was more disinclined by taste and by judgment 
 than myself to meddle in them. Such incessant defamation added 
 to the thousand vexations to which official station is otherwise ex- 
 posed wore upon my health and spirits to an extent which would 
 now be deemed incredible by such of my associates as judged only 
 
 ' MS. IV, p. 65. . 
 
400 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 from what they saw of me in public, but which nevertheless made 
 me at times heartily sick of public life; so much so that I often 
 determined, during successive winters, to throw up the offices I held, 
 in the spring and to confine my future exertions to my profession. 
 These resolutions as they were from time to time formed were the 
 subject of discussions in my family and occasionally communicated 
 to my friends; the latter however did not believe in them, and I 
 had perhaps no right to expect them to do so as, thro' causes more 
 easily appreciated than described, I myself had so often contra- 
 dicted my professions by my action when the time arrived for 
 carrying them into effect. They were notwithstanding always sin- 
 cere. Of the frequent occasions on which I was thus 'seriously 
 inclined ' one occurs to my recollection as I write to which I will 
 refer. Whilst holding the offices of State Senator and Attorney 
 General, I was one afternoon about to return to Albany from 
 Schenectady whither I had been called by business. I found Colonel 
 Aaron Burr at the hotel enquiring for a conveyance to Albany and 
 as I travelled in my own carriage I offered him a seat. The period 
 was after his. return from Europe and when his fortunes were at 
 their lowest ebb. Our drive occupied us till a late hour of the even- 
 ing during which I was entertained much by his free, caustic and 
 characteristic observations. Whilst sounding me in regard to my 
 political expectations, of which he was pleased to say complimen- 
 tary things, I surprised him by the remark that I thought of giving 
 up politics and of devoting myself to my profession and that with 
 that view I meant to resign my place in the Senate in the ensuing 
 spring. He was curious to know my reasons ajid I gave them in the 
 spirit I have here indicated. After a brief reflection he answered, 
 " Sir ! you have gone too far to retreat. The only alternative left 
 tosyou is to kick or to be kicked, and as you are not fool enough 
 to prefer the latter you will not resign !" 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 My career in State politics had been in general successful and in the 
 end signally such. After competing for a quarter of a century, the 
 greater part of the time as the undisputed leader of my party in my 
 County and State, with such men as De Witt Clinton, Ambrose 
 Spencer, Abraham Van Vechten, William W. and William P. Van 
 Ness, Elisha Williams, Thomas P. Grosvenor, Thomas J. Oakley, 
 John Duer, Chancellor Jones, David B. Ogden, Harry Croswell, 
 Solomon Southwick and William Colden, mutatis mutandis, I left 
 the service of the State for that of the Federal Government with 
 my friends in full and almost unquestioned possession of the State 
 Government in all its branched, at peace with each other and over- 
 flowing with kindly feelings towards myself, and not without hope 
 that I might in the sequel by good conduct be able to realize similar 
 results in the enlarged sphere of action to which I was called. I 
 soon found, however, that in respect to the practicability of carrying 
 into effect the best intentions there was a peculiar difference be- 
 tween the two systems, which young Statesmen will do well to bear 
 in mind. Whilst the public functionary connected with the State 
 Government acts almost under the eyes of and in constant inter- 
 course with those who are the judges of his actions and consequently 
 has full opportunity to enable them to appreciate his motives, under 
 the General Government the actions of the official are, with very 
 few exceptions, to be passed upon by men a vast majority of whom 
 can have no personal knowledge on the subject and who must weigh 
 his conduct at a distance and decide from report. Having learned 
 to estimate at its true value this important distinction and con- 
 vinced by experience and observation of the aggravated effects which 
 it promised to long continued harping upon the old theme, even 
 false as it was, I felt that my success was at least doubtful. It should 
 be borne in mind that in the days when this conclusion was arrived 
 at respect was yet maintained for the obligation of Government to 
 preserve the purity of the elective franchise, or as declared by Pres- 
 ident Jackson in his Inaugural address, to eschew " bringing the 
 patronage of the Government into conflict with the freedom of 
 elections." My apprehensions might well be, derided at the present 
 time when the contrary practices are indulged in by all parties with 
 a license that contemns both right and decency and which threatens, 
 if not seasonably arrested, to subvert our institutions. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2— 20 26 401 
 
402 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Having accepted a high and responsible official trust, I was duly 
 conscious that I was not at liberty to permit personal considerations 
 to control my course in resigning it, and I certainly did not design 
 to do so. The success of Gen. Jackson's Administration and his 
 own tranquillity and comfort were to be promoted, in my judgment, 
 by that step, nevertheless views and considerations of self obtruded 
 themselves in all my deliberations in regard to it; it was not pos- 
 sible to exclude them altogether and to say how far I was influenced 
 by them would require a greater proficiency in self-knowledge than 
 I pretend to. They at all events mitigated the sacrifice involved in 
 the course on which I decided when stimulated afresh by the plots, 
 intrigues and calumnies by which I had been for two years sur- 
 rounded, I recurred to my often formed and often abandoned reso- 
 lution to retire from the political field. 
 
 This is as full and as correct a view as it is, at this late day, in 
 my power to give of the opinions and feelings under which I re- 
 signed the office of Secretary of Statfe, a step which, from its being 
 at the time entirely unexpected, produced much excitement, which 
 my opponents found or affected to find impossible to comprehend, 
 and which my friends did me the honor to regret. It has seemed 
 to me, under present circumstances, proper to give it, whether it 
 may be deemed of a nature to attract approval or disapproval, to 
 qualify, or to confirm the opinion heretofore formed of my conduct 
 on the occasion. 
 
 The only inmate of my household at the time, besides the servants, 
 was my son Colonel Van Buren, to° whom alone I confided my in- 
 tention and who after hearing my reasons, unhesitatingly concurred 
 in them, notwithstanding the professional and social advantages 
 which he derived from my official position and residence and which 
 surrounded him with strong inducements to regret the step I was 
 about to take. A fit occasion to break the matter to the President 
 was only waited for and that I looked to find during one of our 
 frequent rides. Several however occurred and passed by without 
 my having had the heart to broach the subject and as I returned 
 from each with the business undisposed of I was received with a 
 good humoured laugh at my expense by my son. My hesitation 
 arose exclusively from my apprehension, I may say consciousness 
 of the pain the communication would give to the General. On one 
 occasion we were overtaken by a severe thunder storm which com- 
 pelled us to take shelter in a small tavern near the race course, and 
 to remain there several hours. His spirits were on that day much 
 depressed and on our way out he spoke feelingly of the condition 
 to which he had been reduced in his domestic establishment. Major 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 70, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEBN. ' 403 
 
 Donelson and the ladies and children, of whom he was exceedingly 
 fond, having, some time before, fled to Tennessee to avoid the Eaton 
 malaria, leaving Major Lewis his only companion in the Presi- 
 dential Mansion. I have scarcely ever known a man who placed 
 a higher value upon the enjoyments of the family circle or who 
 suffered more from interruptions of harmony in his own; feelings 
 which are more striking in view of the fact I have mentioned before 
 that not a drop of his own blood flowed in the veins of a single mem- 
 ber of it. But they were generally the near relatives of a wife whose 
 memory he revered. Observing his unusual seriousness I said little 
 to him during our detention and spent much of the time in an ad- 
 joining room conversing with an intelligent farmer of the neigh- 
 bourhood who had been driven to the same shelter by the storm. 
 When the rain ceased we remounted, and, as the weather was still 
 lowering, soon took to a brisk canter. We had not gone far when 
 his horse slipped on the wet road and threatened to fall or to throw 
 his rider. I was near enough to seize the bridle and thus to assist 
 him in regaining his footing. As he recovered his seat, the General 
 exclaimed quickly " You have possibly saved my life. Sir !" I said 
 that I did not regard the danger he had escaped in so grave a light, 
 yet congratulated myself on the service whatever might have been 
 its degree, to which he answered in broken and half audible sen- 
 tences which I understood to import that he was not certain 
 whether his escape from death, if it was one, was, under existing 
 circumstance, worthy of much congratulation. Neither the in- 
 cidents of this day nor the General's frame of mind invited me 
 to make the communication which I stiU kept in store for him. 
 
 We subsequently started earlier than usual and with charming 
 weather bent our course up the Potomac river. After passing George- 
 town I missed one of my gloves and begging him to go on returned 
 to look for it. On remounting after finding it, and putting my horse 
 to a gallop to overtake my companion I resolved that I would break 
 the subject of my resignation to him forthwith. We were just turn- 
 ing from the Potomac road towards Tenally Town and he was ex- 
 pressing a more cheerful and sanguine view of our prospects of re- 
 lief from domestic broUs, saying, with confidence that " we should 
 soon have peace in Israel," when I replied " No ! General, there is 
 but one thing can give you peace." He asked quickly "What is that. 
 Sir ? " to which I answered — ■" My resignation ! " Thirty years have 
 passed since that day and still I recall to mind the start and the 
 earnest look with which he received the words as vividly as if the 
 Scene had occurred yesterday. " Never, Sir ! " he said solemnly, 
 " even you know little of Andrew Jackson if you suppose him capable 
 of consenting to such a humiliation of bis friend by his enemies." 
 
404 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 I was myself not a little confused by the warmth and vehemence 
 of his exclamation, but after a few moments of silence to recom- 
 pose my thoughts I returned to the subject. His expressions applied, 
 as it was natural they should in the first instance, to the personal 
 aspect and bearing of the suggestion. The idea presented to his 
 mind was that of sacrificing his friend to appease the clamor of his 
 enemies than which nothing could be more revolting to his feelings. 
 I therefore hastened to say that my faith in the extent and sincerity 
 of his friendship had no limits — ^that I knew as well as I knew any- 
 thing that he would sooner endure any degree of personal or official 
 injustice and persecution thah consent to my leaving the Cabinet for 
 any object or for any reasons save such as were by the obligations of 
 honor and of patriotism made binding upon both of us; that he 
 would immediately perceive that our personal feelings and interests 
 were not worthy of consideration, imder the circumstances in which 
 we found ourselves, when compared with the greater question of 
 what we both and especially what, from the higher character of the 
 trusts he had assumed, he owed to the Country and to the people 
 whose agents we were. Undoubtedly there were many and important 
 points to be calmly and carefully reviewed before we could hope to 
 arrive at a correct conclusion on the main question, and I assured 
 him that I had not ventured to disturb his feelings by the suggestion 
 I had made without having long and anxiously considered it in 
 every possible aspect and that, if he would give me a patient hearing, 
 I thought I could satisfy him that the course I had pointed to was 
 perhaps the only safe one open to us. He agreed to hear me but 
 in a manner and in terms affording small encouragement as to the 
 success of my argument. I proceeded for four hours, giving place 
 only to brief interrogations from him, to present in detail the rea- 
 sons upon which my suggestion was founded, extending to a careful 
 and, as far as I was able, a clear review of the public interests and 
 of our own duties and feelings involved in the matter. In the course 
 of it we passed without notice the Tenally Town gate, always before 
 the limit of our rides in that direction, and did not reach home until 
 long after our usual dinner hour. He heard me throughout not only 
 with patience but with deep interest. In returning he asked me what 
 were my own views, as to the future, if he should accept my resigna- 
 tion. I replied that I would return to the practice of my profession, 
 but he instantly declared that such a result, or any that would be 
 matter of triumph to our enemies would be an insuperable objection 
 with him whatever might be his conclusion on the views of the prin- 
 cipal question which I had presented to him and by which he con- 
 fessed that his first impressions had been weakened. In this connec- 
 tion the English Mission was spoken of as probably the best means 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 405 
 
 of carrying out his wishes if he should persist in them, and either 
 then or subsequently I brought to his notice my understanding of the 
 acceptance of that appointment as a virtual abandonment of any 
 expectation or hope my friends might otherwise entertain on the 
 subject of my accession to the Presidency. I begged him not to 
 speak of my proposed resignation to any person, not excepting 
 Lewis and Eaton, as it would be very undesirable to have it known, in 
 case of failure, that such a wish had been entertained. He took my 
 hand, at parting, and said that I had given him mnch to think of 
 and that I must come over after dinner and discuss the subject 
 again deliberately. 
 
 I had an engagement for the evening but promised to see him 
 in the morning. When I called at the White House, on the follow- 
 ing day my mind was not free from serious misgivings. The Presi- 
 dent had from the ingenuousness of his nature seemed to yield to 
 the obvious force of the truth as I had spread it before him, but 
 his concessions had been so evidently against his inclinations that 
 I feared they would not be found to have kept their ground thro' 
 the watches of the night. I had no sooner entered his room than 
 I saw a confirmation of my apprehensions in the usual signs of a 
 sleepness night, and on my expressing a hope that the propriety of 
 my suggestion the previous day had been strengthened in his opinion 
 by subsequent reflection he regarded me with an expression of coun- 
 tenance not indeed indicative of anger or excitement but on the con- 
 trary unusually formal and passionless, and said " Mr. Van Buren, 
 I have made it a rule thro' life never to throw obstacles in the way 
 of any man who, for reasons satisfactory to himself, desires to leave 
 me, and I shall not make your case an exception." Without giving 
 him time to say more, I rose from my chair and standing directly 
 before him replied in substance that the matter had taken the turn 
 I most feared and the apprehension of which had so often deterred 
 me from broaching it; that he had allowed himself under the ex- 
 citements and embarrassments of the moment to suspect that I was 
 influenced by anticipations of the failure of his Administration and 
 by a wish to escape in season from the consequences ; that in this 
 he had wronged my disposition and entirely misconceived my mo- 
 tives; ° that I had never felt wish more strongly than I wished then 
 that I had a window in my breast through which he, might read 
 my inmost thoughts, but as that was vain and as words on such 
 an occasion would have little value I could only oppose my actions 
 to his distrust. "Now, Sir!" I concluded, "Come what may, I 
 shall not leave your Cabinet until you shall say, of your own motion, 
 and without reference to any supposed interests or feelings of mine, 
 
 "" MS. IV, IK 75. 
 
406 AMERICAET HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 that you are satisfied that it is best for us to part. I shall not only 
 stay with you, but, feeling that I have now performed my whole 
 duty in this particular, I shall stay with pleasure and perform with 
 alacrity whatever it may become proper for me to do." He seized 
 my hand, and exclainied " You must forgive me, my friend, I have 
 been too hasty in my conclusions — 1 know I have — say no more about 
 it now, but come back at one o'clock — ^we will take another long 
 ride and talk again in a better and calmer state of mind." I found 
 him with his usual punctuality already mounted at the hour ap- 
 pointed. We went again over the whole subject — ^he taking the parol 
 and I contenting myself with full answers to his inquiries but 
 pressing nothing. On our return he asked my permission to con- 
 sult with Post Master General Barry to which I agreed adding a 
 similar consent in respect to Major Eaton and Lewis. On the follow- 
 ing day he told me that they had considered the matter together 
 and had all come to the conclusion that I was right ; that they were 
 to be with him in the evening and he wished me to join them. Before 
 leaving home I ordered supper to be prepared intending to bring 
 them back with me, and after an hour or two with the President 
 we adjourned to my house. Up to this time the idea of Eaton's 
 resignation had not been thought of by any one as far as I 
 knew or had reason to believe. It was a consummation devoutly to 
 be wished but one I would have assumed to be hopeless and for that 
 reason, I suppose, had never given it a moment's entertainment, and 
 such would have continued to be the case if my attention had not been 
 called to it by himself. Moreover I never doubted, as I have else- 
 where said and as the result proved, that my resignation would 
 disarm hostility to him and would thus answer every necessary 
 purpose. On the way to my house the Secretary of War suddenly 
 stopped us and addressed us nearly in these words : " Gentlemen, 
 this is all wrong ! Here we have a Cabinet so remarkable that it has 
 required all of the General's force of character to carry it along — 
 there is but one man in it who is entirely fit for his place, and we 
 are about consenting that he should leave it !" Eaton's open hearted 
 disposition and blunt style left no doubt that he said exactly what 
 he thought, but the only answer he received was a loud laugh from 
 the rest of the party. After getting within doors he recurred to 
 the matter and asked " Why should .you resign ? I am the man 
 about whom all the trouble has been made and therefore the one 
 who ought to resign." His remarks again passed without particular 
 notice, as the subject inthat view of it was not free from delicacy. 
 
 At supper, however, he spoke of it again and, appearing some- 
 what hurt that his previous observation had not produced a re- 
 sponse from either of us, sq,id that he was so well satisfied that 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 407 
 
 he was the person who ought to resign, if any one, that he would 
 do so in any event. I then excused myself for having omitted 
 to notice his pluvious intimations on the ground that as his resig- 
 nation had not been spoken of or thought of before, I had regarded 
 his remark as a matter of civility to myself, but it being now 
 evident that he was in earnest I said he must permit me to ask, 
 Avhilst knowing that he would do in the business what he thought 
 proper, what Mrs. Eaton would think of such a movement as he 
 proposed. He answered promptly that he knew she would highly 
 approve of it. We then discussed the President's probable dis- 
 position in regard to it, and it was upon my suggestion, arranged 
 that we should meet again at supper, at my house, the next evening 
 and that Major Eaton should in the mean time talk the matter over 
 with his wife and report to us. His report fully confirmed his 
 statement and it was forthwith agreed that we should both resign 
 with General Jackson's consent, which was obtained on the fol- 
 lowing day. Eaton's resignation was dated before mine because 
 he preferred to have it so, but this is a correct, narrative of the 
 entire proceedings. I promised the President to accept the English 
 Mission if I did not after consulting with my friends, give him 
 satisfactory reasons for declining it, and among my correspondence 
 will be found some letters from them upon the subject. In my 
 letter of resignation^ I placed the step upon the grounds herein 
 set forth, saying in effect that the difficulties and emibarrassments 
 which I described could in no way be gotten rid of save by my 
 resignation, or disfranchisement — ^that was by declaring, in a man- 
 ner to obtain belief and to secure compliance, that I would under 
 no circumstances accept the office of President, declarations which, 
 all other considerations apart, I did not think it becoming in me 
 to make: — a statement which my opponents affected to find difficult 
 to comprehend. 
 
 Some time after our resignations were published — according to 
 my recollection just before my departure from Washington and long 
 enough after her husband's relinquishment of office to make her sen- 
 sible of the change in her position, the President and myself having 
 extended our walk as far as the residence of Mrs. Eaton, paid her a 
 visit. Our reception was to the last degree formal and cold, and 
 what greatly surprised me was that the larger share of the chilling 
 ingredient in her manner and conversation fell to the General. Since! 
 my first acquaintance with her there had been no time when such a 
 change towards myself would have very much astonished me. We 
 staid only long enough to enable us to judge whether this exhibition 
 
 ^Apr. 11, 1831, autograpli draft is in the Van Buren Papers. Jackson's acceptance 
 of the resignation, dated Apr. 12 is also in the Van Buren Papers. 
 
408 AMEEICAN' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 was that of a passing freak or a matured sentiment, and after we had 
 fairly quitted the house, I said to my companion — ■" There has been 
 some mistake here." His only reply was "It is strange" with a 
 shrug. As the topic was obviously not attractive it was dropped, 
 but I was satisfied that our brief interview had been sufficient to 
 convince him that in his past anxiety on her account he had at least 
 overrated her own sensibilities. 
 
CHAPTEK XXX. 
 
 Among the interesting and critical questions encountered by the 
 Administration of Gen. Jackson, altho' not disposed of before I left 
 Washington, the most important was that involved in the principle 
 of nullification set up by South Carolina and acted upon by that 
 State to an alarming extent but finally abandoned in consequence of 
 the firm stand taken by the Federal Government under the direction 
 of the President. To do justice to the principal actors on both sides 
 of that profoundly exciting question it is necessary to look back not 
 only to the opening scenes of the Administration but to a still earlier 
 period. Mr. Calhoun was without doubt deeply moved on the subject 
 of the tariff laws and particularly so during the year 1828, which 
 was that of the election of Gen. Jackson to the Presidency and also 
 of the extravagant tariff bill passed the preceding winter. I had 
 opportunities to witness the extent and to become satisfied of the 
 sincerity of his solicitude. He walked me again and again around 
 the Capitol and through the streets of Washington, after it was 
 known that I intended to resign my seat in the Senate to become a 
 candidate of the office of Governor of New York, pressing the sub- 
 ject on my attention and evincing, as I thought, a morbid sensibility 
 in regard to it. 
 
 With my hands tied by the instructions and well understood 
 sense of my State, notwithstanding my individual repugnance to the 
 whole system I oould only inculcate patience and forbearance, advice 
 which it was very evident fell upon unwilling ears. He was doubt- 
 less at that time brooding over some energetic movement by which 
 the then course of legislation might be arrested in a way in which 
 he would be less harassed by difficulties arising from his own past 
 action on the subject. 
 
 Democratic Administrations have always found the tariff a per- 
 plexing question. The protective system was not in harmony with 
 the unbiased feelings of a large majority of the democratic party 
 but portions of it too important to be neglected were so hampered 
 by the pressure and clamor of local and special interests as to make 
 decided hostility to it on their part very hazardous and in some 
 instances necessarily fatal to their power. These considerations 
 whilst they promised advantage to the opposition in the agitation 
 
 409 
 
410 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 of the subject, induced those Administrations to move with uniform 
 caution, and if nothing had occurred to disturb the harmony exist- 
 ing previous to the election between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun 
 they would have exerted, without doubt, a restraining influence 
 upon" the movements of the latter, coming into his office of Vice 
 President as the expected successor of the former, the light in which 
 Col. Benton affirms, as of his own knowledge, that Oen. Jackson 
 then regarded him. But unfortunately for every interest grounds of 
 difference between them arose at the threshold of the General's gov- 
 ernment. These, altho' comparatively slight at first, received a 
 gradual but steady increase from well known causes until they pro- 
 duced a thorough estrangement and in the sequel supplanted with 
 undisguised hostility a once ardent friendship. Mr. Calhoun's in- 
 terest in the success of the Administration grew every day less until 
 a state of things arrived under which his chance for the succession 
 seemed only practicable through the overthrow of the power which 
 he had been instrumental in bringing into existence, and this con- 
 sideration doubtless influenced, perhaps controlled his action at the 
 moment. Having as he thought, and as I thought, justifiable ground 
 for the persevering emplojTnent of all constitutional methods for the 
 overthrow of a system which at that period had reached the sum- 
 mit of injustice he resolved to accomplish its destruction at all events 
 and by all the means he could command. 
 
 In the state of mind to which he had been brought by long brood- 
 ing over the evils which, in his opinion, oppressed his section of 
 the country, and which seemed to become every day more intol- 
 erable, and unrestrained for the reasons I have given by the con- 
 templation of the hazards to which violent measures would expose 
 his political prospects, he declined to continue the discussion of the 
 points involved in the protective policy before the people, avowedly 
 hopeless of convincing the majority of its injustice and inexpe- 
 diency, but pronounced the argument exhausted and that the only 
 remedy, short of revolution, was to be found in State action under 
 a construction of the Federal Constitution devised for the occasion 
 but which was claimed to have been acted upon before. He as- 
 sumed that no remedial measure could be worse than longer sub- 
 mission to the course of legislation on the subject. I need not say, 
 in the light of our subsequent experience, how wrong was this view 
 and how unwise this action. The prospect of success by persever- 
 ance in the argument was certainly not very encouraging, but it was 
 not hopeless. The right side of many previous important public 
 issues had worn even more unpromising aspects before the truth 
 finally prevailed. With so good a cause, addressing himself directly 
 
 " MS. IV, p. 80. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BtTKEN. 411 
 
 to the principles of equity and the feelings of fraternity which were 
 then still strong in the breasts of his countrymen and easily stirred 
 to action, and confining his exertions within peaceful and consti- 
 tutional limits he had no right to despair of accomplishing his 
 object and he could not have failed to acquire high honor and 
 durable fame by his efforts. Fair success has since crowned such 
 efforts here, whilst in England it has been more signal still — the 
 protective policy, which was there, at the time, deemed as well set- 
 tled as the principles of Magna Charta and an integral part of the 
 British Constitution, having been completely overthrown and dis- 
 placed by free trade under the lead of a Statesman of genius and 
 energy far inferior to Mr. Calhoun, and using only the weapons of 
 Constitutional agitation of clear and practical demonstration an^ 
 of sincere and manly appeal. 
 
 But in that direction there was a lion in Mr. Calhoun's path 
 which he did not possess the right sort of courage'to overcome. His 
 labours of the character suggested were liable to be enfeebled by the 
 consciousness that he was at every step obliged to eat his own words — 
 an employment specially unpleasant to one who prided himself 
 upon his consistency. There were not many of his contemporaries 
 who had done more to secure for the policy of protection a dura- 
 ble footing in our system than Mr. Calhoun. The proof of this 
 fact is abundantly furnished in our public archives. In this re- 
 spect he stood prominent among those referred to by Mr. Hammond, 
 
 of South Carolina, in a late speech delivered at — ^ a truly 
 
 great speech, discreet and true, honest and bold beyond any delivered 
 in modern days by a Southern man — ^when he said " the injuries 
 inflicted on the South have been mainly inflicted by her own am- 
 bitious factions and divided public men." Those ' injuries ' have 
 been — or have been so considered by herself — ^the Bank, Internal 
 Improvements by the Federal Government, the Protective system 
 and Slavery Agitation. The first and most disastrous, the Bank, 
 was brought forward by Mr. Calhoun, advocated by Gheves and 
 Lowndes ^ and other Southern leaders, and finally sanctioned by Mr. 
 Madison after it had, as was hoped, received its quietus by the 
 glorious casting vote of a Northern man — George Clinton. The 
 policy of Internal Improvement by the Federal Government was 
 indebted for its introduction into the legislation of Congress almost 
 exclusively to the persevering efforts of Southern men. It origi- 
 nated with Mr. Calhoun ardently backed by Mr. Clay; the latter, 
 in his zeal for its prosecution trying to rob the former of his thun- 
 der by engrafting Internal Improvements upon his American sys- 
 
 1 James H. Hammond at Barnwell Courthouse, S. C, Oct. 29, 1858. 
 
 2 William J. Lowndes. 
 
412 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOH. 
 
 tem. Tucker,^ a Southern man, was Chairman of the Committee 
 by which it was brought before Congress with so much eclat in 
 1818. Lowndes and a host of inferior Southern lights, sustained it, 
 and President Monroe yielded, after a struggle, his early and bet- 
 ter principles for its advancement. Of their agency in behalf of the 
 protective system, quite as much may be said and of Slavery agi- 
 tation we shall have a more appropriate place to speak, when it will 
 be seen that even there the force of Mr. Hammond's declaration will 
 not be found to fail. 
 
 If Mr. Calhoun had been blessed in a larger degree with that great- 
 ness of soul which finds gratification in the acknowledgment of 
 error — ^if he had said, openly and frankly, to his Northern brethren, 
 J contributed to the introduction of this principle of protection into 
 our legislation, believing that it would work to the general advantage, 
 but experience has shown that your section of the Country derives 
 advantages from it to which ours can never attain, that it, on the 
 contrary, enures to our injury, and that it bears within itself facilities 
 for its abuse not at first foreseen but which the love of money will 
 always induce those interested to seize upon to make bad worse, — if 
 with such declarations, the truth of which could not have been contro- 
 verted, he had appealed to the justice and fraternal feelings and obli- 
 gations of the North, perseveringly, in season and out of season, as 
 Cobden appealed to the landed interest of England, he must have 
 established for himself an enviable renown and for his cause the full 
 assurance if not the immediate enjoyment of triumph. But he seemed 
 to attach as much importance to being consistent as to being right — 
 perhaps more, and a large and an unprofitable share of his time, I 
 say it with deference to his conceded and unquestionable abilities, was 
 spent in defending his successive positions by showing their con- 
 sistency with each other. For these and other reasons he was indis- 
 posed to trust himself in the beaten track but sought for a more 
 enterprising as well as a more striking course, one which would over- 
 top all pa§t discussions and processes relating to this subject. In 
 this frame of mind his attention was naturally attracted to the mem- 
 orable proceedings of Jefferson, Madison, Taylor of Oaroline,Nicho- 
 las^ and their compeers of Virginia and Kentucky in respect to the 
 alien and sedition laws, and his ambition, [was] as naturally, fired 
 by Inflection upon the fame and influence which they contribute 
 even to those illustrious names. There is indeed no doubt that in 
 addition to a sincere desire to relieve his section from an offensive 
 tariff Mr. Calhoun's action was strongly stimulated by an eager 
 emulation, on behalf of himself, his political friends and the State 
 of South Carolina, of the honors awarded for those proceedings 
 
 'Henry St. George Tucker. 
 
 a John Taylor and Wilson Cary Nicholas. 
 
AITTOBIOGBAPHY 0¥ MABTIN VAN BXJREN. 413 
 
 to the Statesmen and to the States I have named, and if he and 
 his associates had adhered to the model by which they claimed to 
 be guided that laudable ambition might have been abundantly 
 gratified. 
 
 The anniversary of the birth-day of Thomas Jefferson, a most 
 appropriate day if such had been his design, was selected for the 
 commencement of the movements he had in view. The circum- 
 stances under which that day was, for the first time, seized upon 
 for special commemoration; the extent of the preparations that 
 were set on foot to give to the proposed festival extraordinary 
 celebrity and the names of the men most prominent in those prep- 
 arations contrasted with the ominous suddenness of their reverence 
 for the memory of Jefferson combined to attract the attention of 
 well informed bystanders and especially of those whose province 
 it was to see to the faithful execution of the laws. Neither the 
 President nor myself were inattentive observers of these signs, but 
 made them the subject of frequent conversations. Weighing them 
 in connection with the" ambiguous intimations t« me and morbid 
 speculations of Mr. Calhoun in 1828, my mind was strongly im- 
 pressed with a belief that some irregular and unauthorized pro- 
 ceedings were contemplated which might menace the stability of 
 the Union. We were slow to believe that gentlemen with whom 
 the Virginia principles of Ninety Eight had, until quite recently, 
 been in very bad odor would have become on the instant cordially 
 disposed to carry them out in the pure and catholic spirit in which 
 they were originally adopted by that noble old Commonwealth, and 
 the suspicion was therefore irresistible that it was designed to use 
 the Virginia model and a mask or stalking horse, rather than as an 
 armor of defence; and we doubted the ability, even conceding the 
 desire, of some of Mr. Calhoun's associates, who shared largely in 
 his cotmcils and who would be likely to take the lead when acts 
 of violence became the order of the day, to preserve sufficient self 
 control to keep themselves within the pale of the Constitution. 
 
 The subject was one which in every aspect required the utmost 
 prudence and circumspection on the part of the President, and 
 having both accepted invitations to the Dinner we agreed to meet 
 first at his oiEce to consider the course proper for him to pursue 
 on the occasion. Major Donelson was the only other person present 
 at that meeting and became fully advised of every thing that was 
 said and determined. The safety and propriety of virtually as- 
 suming by the character of the toast to be proposed by the President 
 that the proceedings and ceremonies of the day were portentous 
 of danger to the Union, and the question whether any advantage 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 85. 
 
414 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 might be anticipated from his abrupt and defiant presentation of 
 himself as its ready guardian and Champion, were deliberately 
 considered and affirmatively decided. The form of his toast was 
 accordingly agreed upon and my own, which was expected to be 
 the third volunteer, was so constructed as to follow suit with his 
 in spirit and tenor. Thus armed we repaired to the dinner with 
 feelings on the part of the old Chief akin to those which would have 
 animated his breast if the scene of this preliminary skirmish in 
 defence of the Union had been the field of battle instead of the 
 festive board. 
 
 Less knowledge of the political characters of the men engaged in 
 getting up this drama and a very small degree of sagacity in the 
 interpretation of their movements would have been enough to satisfy 
 us of the justice of our suspicions that the convocation had been 
 designed for the advancement of a particular measure — ^that of nulli- 
 fication, rather than for the object that had been avowed, to wit, the 
 promotion of the general interests of our party. The prominent 
 features in the plan, as disclosed to the perception of any well in- 
 formed observer, were 1^' to identify the principles of the measure 
 yet in embryo — ^but fore-shadowed in the toasts and proceedings — 
 with those of Virginia in her resistance to the alien and sedition 
 laws, and thus to arouse in their support the enthusiasm of her 
 representatives and people and of the advocates of the same princi- 
 ples in other States, and 2'^'^ to conciliate Georgia with which State 
 South Carolina had long nourished hostile relations, by professing 
 to adopt principles upon which she had recently acted and by panegy- 
 rizing her public men. 
 
 A Virginian was placed in the Chair.- Of the twenty-four regular 
 toasts all but six or seven spoke of Virginia and of Jefferson — ^refer- 
 ring to, describing and embracing political principles which he had 
 at different times avowed and to others which were -known to consti- 
 tute parts of the political creed of the State. Gen. Hayne,^ of South 
 Carolina, spoke long and eloquently of the glorious stand taken by 
 Virginia in regard to the alien and sedition laws, based the resist- 
 ance made by his State to the protective policy upon the 'ground 
 that the old republicans had always sustained and pointed particu- 
 larly to the course pursued by the State of Georgia in defence of the 
 same principles. Alluding to her controversy albout the Indians he 
 said that she had " planted upon her bordei-s, under the guidance 
 of one of the noblest of her sons, the standard of State-rights, and 
 had achieved a great and glorious victory." 
 
 The President and Vice President were seated near the Chair ; my 
 position being at the foot of the second table, under the care of my 
 
 • Robert y. Hayne, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BURBN. 415 
 
 subsequently warm friend Grundy whose feelings were then evidently 
 enlisted on the side of the nuUifiers altho' he took great care to avoid 
 identifying himself with their doctrines. When the President was 
 called upon for his toast I was obliged to stand on my chair to get 
 a distinct view of what passed in his vicinity. There was no misun- 
 derstanding the effect it produced upon the company neither could 
 any sentiment from another have occasioned a tithe of the sensation 
 that was witnessed throughout the large assemblage. The veil was 
 rent — ^the incantations of the night were exposed to the light of day. 
 Gen. Hayne left his seat and ran to the President to beg him to in- 
 sert the word " federal," so that the toast should read " Otje Fed- 
 eral Union — ^it must be preserved!" This was an ingenious sug- 
 gestion as it seemed to make the rebuke less pungent, although it 
 really had no such effect. The President cheerfully assented because 
 in point of fact the addition only made the toast what he had origi- 
 nally designed it to be — ^he having rewritten it, in the bustle and 
 excitement of the occasion, on the back of the list of regular toasts 
 which had been laid before him, instead of using the copy in his 
 pocket, and having omitted that word inadvertently. 
 
 The affair proceeded but the feeling of the guests was plainly 
 manifested that the game was blocked. 
 
 Gen. Hayne followed up his advances to Georgia by the following 
 volunteer toast: 
 
 "The State of Georgia. By the firmness and energy of her Troup 
 she has achieved one great victory for State , rights, — the wisdom 
 and eloquence of her sons will secure her another proud triumph in 
 the Councils of the Nation." 
 
 Gov. Troup ^ remained silent — ^notwithstanding that Gen. Hayne 
 went to him and, as I inferred from the manner of both — for I was 
 too far off to hear — surged him to speak. The omission was 
 thought deserving of explanation and Mr. Wayne,^ of Georgia, 
 now on the bench of the Supreme C!ourt, attributed his silence to 
 the fact that he was individually mentioned in the toast : a circum- 
 stance cominonly regarded as furnishing a necessity for spealring. 
 I did not at the time understand the explanation as giving the real 
 clue to his silence. Governor Troup was a remarkable man; an 
 earnest, well instructed, radical State-rights politician — ^inflexible 
 and in no slight degree impracticable. He was an eUve of the 
 severe school of Jackson and Baldwin,^ of his own State, being the 
 adopted son of one of them, and having imbibed strong prejudices 
 against the politicians of South Carolina, of the Calhoun School, 
 he had been a party in feeling, if not in act, to the spirited warfare 
 
 ^ George Mcintosh Troup. ^ James Moore Wayne, " Abrsiham Baldwin, 
 
416 AMEKICASr HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 that was for a long time carried on between the ^'■Georgia radicals^'' 
 as they were called, on one side, and the '"''South Carolina latitu- 
 dmari^ms" on the other, through the medium of certain articles in 
 a Georgia newspaper over the signature of " Trio," and the strictures 
 in reply attributed to the pen of Mr. McDuffie, a noble hearted 
 man who carried to his grave the injuries received in a duel grow- 
 ing out of this contest. 
 
 The nature of the discussions and of the principles advocated by 
 the contending parties may be inferred from the following extract 
 from the papers attributed to Mr. McDuflFie: 
 
 The States as political bodies have no original Inherent rights — ^that they 
 have such rights is a false, dangerous and anti-republican assumption, which 
 lurks at the bottom of all the reasoning in favor of State-rights. 
 
 Gov. Troup saw and understood what was going on around him 
 and recognized the hand by .which the wires were moved, and doubt- 
 less his silence was caused by an indisposition, to use a homely 
 phrase, to train in that company. But when called upon from the 
 Chair for a toast, he was ready and prompt to show that in devotion 
 to State-rights and in distrust and dislike of the Federal Govern- 
 ment there was not one among the new or old professors of that faith 
 who went beyond him. He gave 
 
 The Government of the United States : With more limited powers than the 
 Eepublic of San Marino, it rules an Empire more extended than the Koman 
 with the absoluteness of Tiberius, with less wisdom than Augustus and less 
 justice than Trajan or the Antonines. 
 
 ° The first three volunteers were : 
 
 — By President Jackson. 
 
 Our Federal Union — it must be preserved. 
 
 — By Vice President Calhoun. 
 
 The Union — next to our liberty the most dear; may we all remember that 
 it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States and distributing 
 equally the benefit and burden of the Union. 
 
 — By myself. 
 
 Mutual forbearance and reciprocal concessions ; thro' their agency tie Union 
 was established — the patriotic spirit from which they emanated will forever 
 sustain it. 
 
 The common point at which all these toasts were directed — ^the 
 Union— -is significant of the prevalence and strength of the impres- 
 sion that the celebration was a movement having special reference 
 to that great interest. Some of the opposition presses commented 
 upon the President's object with unusual accuracy. Walsh ^ said — 
 " The President has taken the bull by the horns," and the National 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 90. • Robert Walsh. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREW. 417 
 
 Intelligencer that " it was as much as to say, in reply to the authors 
 of some of the preceding sentiments, — ^"you may complain of the 
 tariff and perhaps with reason, but so long as it is the law it shall as' 
 certainly be maintained as my name is Andrew Jackson ' — ." If we 
 change the address so as to make it applicable to the principal getters 
 up of the meeting that was precisely what the President's toast was 
 designed to say. To that end was it concocted and for that purpose 
 was it given. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 27 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 The appointment as Envoy to Russia of John Randolph, of 
 Virginia,, or, as he described himself "of Roanoke" — ibecame too 
 conspicuous a feature of the early years of the Jackson Admin- 
 istration to ibe passed by without notice. Early in the autumn of 
 1829 the President and myself rode out to Arlington to pay a 
 visit to Mr. and Mrs. Custis and the conversation whilst we were 
 there, turned to the subject of Mr. Randolph, whose name had 
 been casually introduced. As we were returning I told my com- 
 panion that I had a suggestion to make to him which would sur- 
 prise him and that his astonishment would probably be much 
 increased when I assured him in advance that the step I was about 
 to propose was one which I would neither take myself if I were 
 in his place nor recommend to any other President, but which I 
 thought he might take altho' not without hazard. To his puzzled 
 look and demand for information I replied — " It is to give John 
 Randolph., of whom we have just been talking, a foreign mission ! " 
 He acknowledged his astonishment but expressed a willingness to 
 hear my reasons .for the suggestion. These I here repeat briefly : 
 they referred to the high estimation in which Mr. Randolph was 
 held by the masses of the old republicans of Virginia, to his identi- 
 fication with that party from its commencement and his a;biding 
 attachment to it growing out of his active participation in its early 
 contests, to the imposing manner in which he had discharged his 
 duties as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means during 
 Mr. Jefferson's first term, and finally to his quarrels with Jefferson, 
 Madison, Monroe and Adams which would if he died without some 
 further opportunity to exert beneficially the remarkable capaci- 
 ties, intelligence, sagacity and loiowledge of men which he possessed 
 leave the world in the opinion that he had 'been an impracticable 
 and unprofitable man. I thought that if he were to serve under a 
 President with whom he would be very unlikely to quarrel he might 
 render useful services and be enabled to avert from his memory 
 the reproach which would otherwise settle upon it. An object so 
 humane and so praiseworthy might, I thought, be appropriately 
 41S 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREN. 419 
 
 aiid hopefully attempted by Gen. Jackson, to which I added a 
 strong expression of the satisfaction I would derive from having 
 made myself in any degree instrumental in its accomplishment. 
 
 My reference to the early struggles of the republicans at a time 
 when he was himself in Congress and when he had, as I have before 
 described, firmly voted with them against the answer to President 
 Washington's speech because Fisher Ames and his co-adjutors had 
 so worded it as to compel an endorsement of measures of which 
 they disapproved, evidently touched a responsive chord in the breast 
 of the President who replied significantly that if he could be satis- 
 fied that he could be made useful to the Country he would gladly 
 confer an office on " Jack Eandolph " that being the appellation by 
 which the latter had been familiarly known in those early days. 
 The General asked me what we had to offer him; I answered the 
 Kussian Mission, which, altho' it would expose him to an unfavor- 
 able climate, was on other accounts to be preferred; our relations 
 with that Government being simple and friendly little harm would 
 be done if it should turn out that we had made a mistake in the 
 selection of the Minister. I added that a commercial Treaty was 
 to be made between us in the negotiation of which there could not 
 be any difficulty and when that was accomplished our Envoy would 
 probably want to come home. To the question whether he would 
 accept, I replied that I believed he would notwithstanding his having 
 declared that he would never vote for a man for President who used 
 silver forks or who had been a foreign Minister; and whether he 
 accepted or not he would be highly gratified by the offer. 
 
 In a letter to him the President placed the offer of the mission 
 upon as favorable a footing as the truth would bear, saying that 
 he would be charged with an important negotiation which would 
 require his early attention, and he accepted the appointment with 
 a good grace. 
 
 Before the occurrences which I have described the President 
 had decided to recall the actual Minister, Mr. Middleton,^ on the 
 sole ground that the duration of his official residence in Eussia 
 had already extended beyond what he considered a proper limit, 
 and being willing to make the manner of his return agreeable to 
 him, he now communicated his decision to his friend and neigh- 
 bour in Tennessee, Col. Eutledge,^ who was Mr. Middleton's brother- 
 in-law and to Gen. Van Ness,' also a family connection, and left 
 it to them to afford Mr. Middleton an opportunity to terminate his 
 mission on his own applicajtion. It was In this way that Mr. Ean- 
 dolph's formal appointment was delayed until the summer of 1830. 
 
 » Henry, son of Acthur Middleton. 
 ' 2 Henry M. (?) Rutledge. 
 » John P. Van Ness. 
 
420 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 I prepared his instructions and a draft of a Commercial Treaty 
 to which, it was morally certain that the Russian Government would 
 agree, and met him, at Norfolk, the port from which he sailed, to 
 furnish him with such parol, explanations as I thought might be 
 useful. His friends gave him a public dinner at which he appeared 
 to great advantage and he left the Country in unusual spirits. 
 His whole demeanor and conversation during our interview at Nor- 
 folk, served to justify my anticipations of his good conduct when 
 he should be placed before the Country in a responsible position like 
 that in which he now stood and inspired me with the strongest 
 confidence that his Mission would be a successful one. 
 
 But these pleasant expectations were destined to meet with a sad 
 disappointment. Distressed by the dangerous illness of his favorite 
 Juba and alarmed about his own health, he left St. Petersburgh, 
 panic-struck by its climate, for London shortly after his arrival 
 at his post, and never returned to it. Other consider^ions and 
 feeling may and very probably did contribute to produce this result, 
 but it would now be worse than useless to speculate about them. 
 "We did not even then "think it profitable to enquire about them re- 
 garding the denouement as conclusively proving his unfitness for 
 the diplomatic service and our mistake in selecting him. Smarting 
 under a consciousness of the responsibility he had incurred by his 
 precipitate retreat and apprehensive or being abandoned by his 
 government in the face of Europe he resorted to an expedient to 
 prevent such a result to which I believe nothing but a morbid 
 condition of mind and body would have tempted him — ^he essayed by 
 means of a confidential letter to the President to create discord 
 between the latter and myself. This we could only regret — but 
 it did not occupy our time or relax, in any degree, our disposition 
 to do him all the good we could. The flood-gates of denunciation 
 and defamation were of course opened upon the Administration by 
 the opposition ; they had however more ground than usual for their 
 assaults and we had no right to expect that they would ° forego 
 the opportunity to profit by our blunder. Our attention was di- 
 rected to the discovery of a way by which it might, as far as pos- 
 sible, be rectified. It was necessary that he should be sustained, 
 at least for the time, in order to guard from prejudice the character 
 of our foreign service and, by consequence, of our Government and 
 fortunately the facts enabled us to do so with effect. The meeting 
 of Congress was near at hand when the news of his flight from St. 
 Petersburg reached Washington and the subject was thus noticed 
 in the Annual Message : 
 
 ° MS. ly, i>. 85. 
 
AXJTOBIOGEAFHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTEEN. 421 
 
 Our relations with Russia are of the most stable character. Respect for that 
 Blmplre and confidence In its friendship towards the United States have been so 
 long entertained on our part and so carefully cherished by the present Emperor 
 and by his illustrious predecessor as to have become incorporated with the 
 public sentiment of the United States. No means will be left unemployed on 
 my part to promote these feelings and the improvements of which the com- 
 mercial intercourse between the two Countries is susceptible and which have 
 derived increased importance from our Treaty with the Sublime Porte. 
 
 I sincerely regret to inform you that our Minister lately commissioned to 
 that Court, on whose distinguished talents and great experience in public 
 affairs I place great reliance has been compelled by extreme indisposition to 
 exercise a privilege which, in consequence of the extent to which his constitu- 
 tion had been Impaired in the public service, was committed to his discretion, — 
 of leaving temporarily his post for the advantage of a more genial climate. 
 
 The high, expectations of the opposition as to the trouble this 
 Eandolphian escafcude would cause to the Administration were evi- 
 dently not a little lowered by this treatment of it. I have not for- 
 gotten the frankly avowed gratification which it afforded to old 
 Mr. Brent/ who had filled for many years the responsible office of 
 Chief Clerk of the State Department. He had, he said, pondered 
 much on the question of what could be said upon the point by the 
 President that would relieve the anxieties of his friends, without 
 coming to any satisfactory solution, and he complimented me by 
 adding that that part of the Message reminded him of Mr. Madison 
 who, he thought, understood the use and value of words better than 
 any other man. This wasi a great deal to be said by a man who 
 idolized John Quincy Adams and doubtless the declaration was in 
 some degree drawn from him — whatever may be thought of his 
 opinion — by a grateful recollection of my having kept him in his 
 place, as I did to the end, thorough old federalist as he was, against 
 the remonstrances of many of the supporters of the Administration. 
 His gentlemanly manners and the truthfulness and integrity of his 
 character were especially invaluable in the circle of duties he had 
 long and well discharged. 
 
 Wlien Mr. Randolph read the Message, in London, he set himself 
 to work to annoy me nearly as much by his kindness as he had doiie 
 before by the opposite conduct. His grateful impulse found vent 
 in a way thus described in a letter from Washington published in the 
 N. ¥. Jovmal of Commerce, of March 14"' 1831 ; — 
 
 We have been much amused to day by the appearance among us of the well 
 known Juba, of Roanoke, who brought with him a fine young horse, a present 
 to the Secretary of State from John Randolph. 
 
 In the course of our friendly association Eandolph had frequently 
 spoken to me of his stud of blooded horses, numbering at the time 
 
 ' Daniel Brent. 
 
422 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 of his death more than a hundred, and almost as often pressed me 
 to allow him to send me one or a pair. More than a year before this 
 occurrence, in answer to one of these requests, I told him that I had 
 taken to severe horseback exercise and that if he would send me a 
 good saddle horse I might accept it, but I heard no more of the 
 matter, until the tooming referred to in the above extract when I 
 was awakened by my servant with the information that a man was 
 at the door with a horse for me from Mr. Eandolph. When I came 
 down I found his man Johnny — the successor of Juba, — with a letter 
 from Judge Leigh^, Eandolph's friend and agent, informing me 
 that he had received instruction from Mr. Randolph from London, 
 to send me one of his five year old colts, which he had done. Having 
 had no communication with him since his confidential letter to the 
 President I was not a little irritated by this additional complication 
 in our relations, and directing Johnny to be taken care of until I 
 might have time to decide upon my proper course, I walked over to 
 the President and stated the case to him, proposing to return the horse 
 to Judge Leigh with a kind note to the effect that I could not con- 
 sent under existing circumstances to receive the animal. Referring 
 to Eandolph's letter to him I said that altho' I had, on public ac- 
 counts, concluded that it was best to take no notice of his conduct as 
 it related to me personally, and in reality felt no ill will towards 
 him, I could not think of accepting a present from him. Perceiving 
 I suppose my excitement he talked earnestly upon the matter and 
 with his usual good sense. He thought I attached too much im- 
 portance to it — saying that I had done right in regarding what had 
 been written in the letter to him as the splenetic effusion of a man 
 suffering under mental and bodily disease, whose future conduct 
 might render a cessation of personal intercourse unavoidable but 
 that it would not be wise to precipitate such a result as I certainly 
 would do by refusing to accept a present from him. He finally ad- 
 vised me to write a proper note to Judge Leigh — to put the horse 
 in my stable and to trouble myself no further about it ; part of which 
 I. did and all of which I tried to do. The General wrote a friendly 
 letter to Randolph in answer to one he had recently received from 
 him, in which he expressed a kind concern for my welfare, and in 
 forwarding the reply thro' the Department I took the occasion to 
 thank him for both the horse and the good wishes. 
 
 When I met Mr. McLane at New York — he being on his return 
 from and I on my way to England — ^he gave me a lively descrip- 
 tion of Randolph's enmity and of his severe speeches against me in 
 London and prognosticated much trouble in my future relations 
 with him. As he drew to a close I placed in his hand the foUow- 
 
 1 Benjamin Watkins Leigh. 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 423 
 
 ing letter ^ from that gentleman which came out in the same packet 
 with himself and which had only reached me on the previous day. 
 He was, of course, a good deal confounded and proceeded to make 
 asservations of the accuracy of his statements which I assured him 
 were quite unnecessary and suggested that the givings out to which 
 he referred had probably occurred before the President's Message 
 reached London, which he admitted to have been the case. 
 
 " I am not aware that Mr. Randolph, at any subsequent period, 
 spoke unkindly of me unless his saying, shortly before his death, 
 when he had been brought very low by disease, that " as we must 
 have a Bank he would rather have the existing one at Philadelphia 
 than a Van Buren Bank at New York" would be so considered by 
 others. I did not take it in that sense myself. He left England 
 sooner than he intended, arriving at New York in the autumn of 
 1831 and proceeded directly to his home on the Eoanoke, by the 
 way of Richmond. 
 
 'In November of that year he addressed his constituents confining 
 himself mainly to explanations in regard to his mission and to re- 
 marks upon the great falling off in- the prosperity, power and influ- 
 ence of their State. From that period until Februray 1833 he re- 
 mained at home suffering from disease and from real and fancied 
 
 1 London, June Sd,. ISSI. 
 
 MS DEAR SlE, 
 
 A few days ago I received your very acdeptable letter of the IS*"" of April, &) today I 
 am informed of your retirement from office, which notwithstanding the intimation with 
 which you concluded I was quite unprepared for. At this distance & with my imperfect 
 knowledge of the course of events at home, it may be presumptuous in me to express 
 an opinion — but by such lights as I have, the step which you have taken appears to be 
 worthy of you as it regards your own character, your friendship for that illustrious & 
 most admirable man, whom I pray God to continue at the helm of our vessel of State, 
 & the preservation of the political party by whom he has been supported. I read the 
 letters which passed between you on that occasion with intense interest, & with a 
 feeling that I find myself unable to describe. The course which you have prescribed to 
 yourself & the resignation of the other members of the Cabinet will render a reconstruc- 
 tion of that body a matter of difficulty as well as delicacy : presuming as I do that the 
 exclusion of such as have pronounced opinions in regard to the succession will be a 
 leading principle in the formation of the new Ministry. Whatever may be the result I 
 do most fervently pray that it may contribute to the honour and repose of Gen'. J. and 
 to the welfare of our common country. 
 
 Of the state of Europe or even of England it would be impossible to give a correct 
 impression in a. letter. I must refer you to the admirable Journals of London which 
 no doubt you duly receive. The heroic Poles still hold out. They have been the 
 means of preserving Peace for the rest of Europe, which tamely and most ungratefully 
 beholds the unequal conflict between them & their gigantic foe. 
 
 1 am glad that you are pleased with the horse. If you see our friend Mr. Cambreleng 
 present me most kindly & cordially to him. It is possible that the very wretched state 
 of my health may detain me another winter in Europe. I need not say that I shall 
 be most happy to hear from you & to learn that the disastrous state of things at home 
 has taken a change for the better. You can in a few lines give me more insight into 
 the real state of things than I could glean from the toilsome & disgusting perusal of 
 files of our filthy newspapers. 
 
 With my best wishes, believe me Dear Sir your faithful serv*. & friend 
 
 J. R. OP Roanoke. 
 
 To Maetin Van BnREN Esq. 
 
 (This letter is in the Van Buren Papers.) 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 100. 
 
424 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 misfortunes in the management of his affairs. The President's Veto 
 of the Bank Bill infused in him a momentary vigor and drew forth 
 expressions of the warmest approbation, but the Proclamation in 
 regard to the South Carolina affairs brought him once more into 
 the political field to oppose what he regarded as its constitutional 
 heresies in relation to the character and construction of the Federal 
 Government, and to denounce President Jackson with unmeasured 
 violence. He attended large meetings at Charlotte Court House and 
 again at Buckingham, fifty miles from his home, in so weak a con- 
 dition that he could not stand to speak but was obliged to address 
 them from his chair. 
 
 Without intending to express here any opinion in respect to the 
 principles of construction which they advance, of some of which I 
 mean to say something hereafter, I cannot refrain from inserting 
 the resolutions which he alone prepared and which were adopted 
 at those meetings. I do not believe that it was in the power of any 
 one of our public men then on the stage of action to set forth the 
 principles therein advocated in a manner so precise, lucid, and 
 statesmanlike as distinguished those resolutions, and he was then 
 only four months from his grave, sinking to it with gradual and 
 constant decay. They are a remarkable instance of the exhibitions 
 of the ruling passion strong in death. 
 
 On the 4th inst. there was a public meeting at Charlotte court 
 house, within Mr. Randolph's district, at whiph he attended, appar- 
 ently in a feeble state of health, against General Jackson's course in 
 relation to South Carolina, and offered the following resolutions, 
 which were adopted with great unanimity. 
 
 EESOLTJTIONS. 
 
 Resolved, That while we retain a grateful sense of the many great and val- 
 uable services rendered by Andrew Jackson, esquire to the United States, we 
 owe it to our country, and to our posterity to make our solemn protest against 
 many of the doctrines of his late proclamation. 
 
 Resolved, That Virginia " is, and of right, ought to be, a free, sovereign and 
 independent state," that she became so by her own separate act, which has 
 since been recognized, by all the civilized world.^nd has never been disavowed, 
 retracted, or in any wise impaired or weakened by any subsequent act of hers. 
 
 Resolved, That when, for purposes of common defense and common welfare, 
 Virginia entered into a strict league of amity and alliance with the other 
 twelve colonies of British North America, She parted with no portion of her 
 sovereignty, although from the necessity of the case, the authority to enforce 
 obedience thereto, was, in certain cases, and for certain purposes, delegated 
 to the common agents of the whole confederacy. 
 
 Resolved, That Virginia has never parted with the right to recall the authority 
 so delegated, for good and sufficient cause, nor with the right to judge of the in- 
 sutRciency of such cause, and to secede from the confederacy whenever she 
 shall find the benefit of union exceeded by its evils, union being the means 
 of securing happiness, and not an end to which they should be sacrificed. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 425 
 
 Resolved, That the allegiance of the people of Virginia is due to her — that 
 to her this obedience is due, while to them she owes protection against all the 
 consequences of such obedience. 
 
 Resolved, That we have seen with deep regret, that Andrew Jackson, esquire, 
 president of the United States, has been influenced by designing counsellors to 
 subserve the purposes of their own guilty ambition, to disavow the principles 
 to which he owed his elevation to the chief magistracy of the government of 
 the United States, and to transfer his real friends and supporters, bound 
 hand and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra federalists — ultra 
 bank — ultra tariff — ultra internal improvement and Hartford convention men — 
 the habitual scoffers at state rights, and to their instrument, the venal and 
 prostiiuted press, by which they have endeavored, and but too successfully, to 
 influence and mislead public opinion. 
 
 Resolved, That Virginia will be found her own worst enemy, whenever she 
 consents to number among her friends, those who are never true to themselves, 
 but when they are false to their country. 
 
 Resolved, That we owe it to justice, while denouncing this portentous coni- 
 hination between general Jackson and the late unhallowed coalition of his and 
 our enemies, to acquit them of any dereliction of principle, and to acknowledge 
 they have hut acted in their vocation. 
 
 Resolved, That we cannot consent to adopt principles which we have always 
 disavowed, merely because they have been adopted by the president, and al- 
 though we believe that we shall be in a lean and proscribed minority, we are 
 prepared again to take up our cross, confident of success under that banner, 
 so long as we keep the faith, and can have access to the public ear. 
 
 Resolved, That while we utterly reprobate the doctrine of nullification as 
 equally weak and mischievous, we cannot for that reason give our countenance 
 to principles equally unfounded and in the highest degree dangerous to the 
 liberties of the people. 
 
 Resolved, That we highly approve of the mission of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, 
 not only as in itself expedient and judicious but as uniting upon the man the 
 best qualified, whether for abilities, integrity and principles, moral and polit- 
 ical, beyond all others in the commonwealth, or in the United States, for the 
 high arduous, and delicate task which has been devolved upon him by the 
 unanimous suffrage of the assembly, and as we believe the people, and which 
 he alone is perhaps capable, from all these considerations united in his per- 
 son of discharging with- success, and restoring this confederate republic to its 
 former harmony and union. 
 
 (Signed) John Randolph, of Roanohe, chairman.' 
 
 In the same feeble condition he caused himself to be carried to 
 Philadelphia by way of Richmond and Washington. At Eichmond 
 he made a long speech sitting in his chair, praising Watkins Leigh 
 and denouncing Thomas Eitchie and Daniel Webster. At Washing- 
 ton he did not of course after his severe denunciations call upon 
 President Jackson, but opened a correspondence with him demand- 
 ing the return of several letters which he had written to him severely 
 assailing nullification and nuUifiers and speaking of me in a way 
 by no means designed to be complimentary. General Jackson re- 
 fused to return them and after another equally ineffectual effort 
 
 1 Niles' Register, 43, 422. 
 
426 American historical association'. 
 
 thro' his friend, Mr. Goldsborough [Charles W.], of the District, 
 Randolph abandoned the pursuit. Col. Benton pressed me to call 
 upon him assuring me that he had expressed an earnest desire to see 
 me. I did so and was conducted to his bed side by his faithful Johnny. 
 He received me apparently, and I could not doubt sincerely, with cor- 
 dial kindness. Altho' very ill he could always talk without doing 
 himself injury and we conversed for some time principally about 
 England and the English people ; his life long interest in all things 
 having equine relations, whether near or remote, valuable or trivial, 
 shewing itself unabated in the course of our interview by his^ ani- 
 mated praises of English saddles and by the expression of a hope 
 that I had brought home with me a supply of them. We shook 
 hands at parting and I never saw him again. He caused himself 
 to be moved to the Capitol where he also took a kind farewell of Mr. 
 Clay, telling him that he was a dying man, and he went on to Phil- 
 adelphia, hoping to be able to take the packet for England, but he 
 died in that city, a few days after reaching it. 
 
 Mr. Randolph was an inscrutable man — ^the most so I ever knew. 
 His Indian descent, of which, as I have elsewhere said, he was un- 
 affectedly proud, was in nothing else, not even in his looks, so 
 strongly displayed as in his inflexible resistance to every thing like 
 attempts to read his motives or thoughts on particular occasions 
 or to acquire a general knowledge of his idiocrasy. Diametrically 
 opposite to that frank disposition which takes pride in ready dis- 
 closure of itself in perfect sincerity to whomsoever may have an 
 interest in knowing it was the sentiment which influenced him in 
 shrouding himself, his motives, his acts, and even his movements 
 in mystery, and to resent any attempts, however friendly or well 
 intended, to penetrate it or to understand his character. He was, 
 notwithstanding, always a study to me and on one occasion, during 
 our long and close intimacy, I endeavoured to avail myself of some 
 incident not of course to pry into his secrets but to obtain a glimpse 
 of the inner chambers of the man's real constitution who was on 
 occasions so great a puzzle. He suddenly turned upon me, as if of- 
 fended, saying " I understand you, Sir ! You are ambitious to look 
 deeper into my dispositions than I am inclined to let you — ^you think 
 you understand me already, but you are mistaken, you know noth- 
 ing at all about me! There has been but one person in the world 
 who understood me perfectly — ^but one who comprehended my char- 
 acter and that person* was not of the earth, earthy." The person 
 he alluded to was his worthy mother, of whom he often spoke and 
 always with the utmost love, and veneration; but even here he 
 adopted ° a mode of expression to prevent me from certainly know- 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 105. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 427 
 
 ing to whom he alluded by avoiding a description of his or her 
 sex. I was naturally not disposed to inquire further either upon 
 that or upon the principal point. In a similar spirit -he guarded 
 the knowledge of the state of his health as much as possible from 
 others. While it formed a principal staple of his daily conversation, 
 no person, however well acquainted with him, could ascertain any- 
 thing very definite or reliable in regard to it. Altho' this was 
 partly a consequence of its variable character it was also in a great 
 degree an affair of policy. Strange as it may appear to those who 
 were not well acquainted with this strange man his health was one 
 of his weapons of war in the contentions in which he was all his 
 life involved. It served as a cloak for omissions which he could not 
 otherwise satisfactorily excuse and its fitful character put it out 
 of the power of his enemies ever to calculate safely upon his ab- 
 sence or his presence among them on any particular occasion. When 
 he was confined to his bed and to all appearances in the extremity 
 of suffering from disease, there was scarcely ever a certainty that 
 he would not suddenly repair to the hall of the Legislature and 
 take a part in the debates, especially if they concerned a matter 
 in which he was interested or in which he could make himself 
 felt. 
 
 That he was a man of extraordinary intelligence, well educated, 
 well informed on most subjects, thoroughly grounded in the history 
 and rationale of the Constitution and of the Government that was 
 formed under it, eloquent in debate and wielding a power of invective 
 superior to that of any man of his day is unquestionable, but with 
 all these liberal endowments he lacked a balance-wheel to regulate 
 his passions and to guide his judgment. This grand deficiency 
 which the whole course of his previous life had given us strong 
 reason to suspect was deplorably demonstrated by the trans- 
 actions of which we are speaking. Few men had enjoyed better 
 opportunities during ten preceding years to form an opinion of his 
 character and capacities than myself and the error into which I fell 
 betrayed, therefore, an inadequacy of observation or a weakness of 
 judgment which I could not too much regret. My mistake was as 
 I have said, considering the relation in which I stood to the appoint- 
 ment, a fair subject for the animadversion of my political adver- 
 saries. They used it to the utmost of their power, tho' embarrassed 
 by the difficulty of assigning any improper motive for the act, or 
 any other ground of attack than an administrative blunder. The 
 usual and ready imputation of a design to make political capital 
 for myself out of the arrangement would have been preposterous 
 in view of Eandolph's utter destitution of political influence and 
 it was never made. I might offend one or more of the prominent 
 
428 AMEBICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 men of Virginia, who controlled the politics of the State, with every 
 one of whom he was more or less — generally the former — at variance, 
 by giving him the preference but in no quarter could any influence 
 be gained by it or hoped for by any sensible man. I made no efforts 
 to avoid the political consequences of the act to myself, but my friend 
 the President when it became, at a later day, understood that a trio 
 of the leading minds of the Country had combined their influence 
 and power to break me down and when charges against me of all 
 marketable material were in immediate and active demand, author- 
 ized one of his friends to say on the floor of Congress that I was, 
 in no degree, responsible for the appointment of Mr. Eandolph, and 
 that the fault, if fault there was, lay exclusively at his own door. 
 Certainly, in a constitutional sense, the appointment was his alone, 
 notwithstanding my agency in bringing it about, and Gen. Jackson, 
 in such matters, acted, throughout his official service upon the prin- 
 ciple to which I have before referred that all preliminary steps 
 on the part of officers subject to his direction were to be thrown out 
 of view, so long as he was himself satisfied with their conduct, and 
 that the exclusive responsibility for the results rested upon himself. 
 But wherever the blame attached it could not amount to much in 
 a case where no selfish intent was discoverable and where so many 
 palliating circumstances existed. 
 
 Mr. Eandolph had grown grey in the public sendee. Of the 
 forty four years which, at his death, had elapsed since the organi- 
 zation of the present Federal Government, he had, I believe, served 
 thirty four in one or other House of Congress, and all but one or two 
 of them in the popular branch to which the election was biennial. 
 Whatever may have been his shortcomings, by reason of bad health 
 and other deficiencies more or less beyond his control, in making his 
 exertions effectual, the political doctrines and principles which he ad- 
 vocated were well adapted to the support of a system like ours — ^in- 
 deed those only by which we can hope to uphold it in its integrity. 
 The first year of his service as Chairman of Committee of Ways and 
 Means, during the first term of Mr. Jefferson's Administration had 
 illustrated his abilities and his patriotism. It was difficult to doubt 
 that a man of his pride and force of intellect, whose perceptions 
 were of such sparkling clearness, would fail to improve a fitting 
 opportunity to atone for his intermediate failures and to make the 
 closing scenes of his public life as creditable as possible and how- 
 ever hazardous the event proved it to have been it was at least a 
 humane and liberal part to furnish him with that opportunity. To 
 one of the inducements to this act of favor which influenced both 
 Gen. Jackson and myself — ^but more strongly the former, from the 
 circumstance of his having been sooner in the political field than 
 myself, — I have already referred, viz: to that suggested by Ran- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 429 
 
 dolph's early identification with the old republican party and his 
 active participation in its memorable struggles. The history of that 
 period, the accounts given by both sides, are replete with evidence 
 of the efficient part taken by him in the contests of the day and the 
 sacrifices to which he was exposed from their violence. The dur- 
 able impressions made by his speeches upon the mind of old John 
 Adams, whose conduct and character were the constant subject of 
 his scorching invective, and who, years afterwards, spoke of "the 
 brilliant wit, fine imagination and flowing eloquence of that cele- 
 brated Virginian," afford perhaps the most striking illustration of 
 these truths. However Gen. Jackson's partizan cohesiveness might 
 have been for a time relaxed by his military pursuits and by the 
 seduction of Mr. Monroe's " Era of good-feeling," his ingrained 
 republicanism reasserted its influence on resuming the political har- 
 ness and opened his heart to every appeal to the memcary of the 
 trying scenes and fast associations of his early political life. I also, 
 tho' but a tyro in the school compared with the men of his day, 
 remembered well the interest with which, as a precocious politician 
 of sixteen, I had read Randolph's eloquent assaults upon the war 
 against France, the provisional army, the alien and sedition laws, and 
 the far famed Yazoo frauds. I had in addition, as I have said, 
 enjoyed a personal friendship and constant personal intercourse for 
 ten years with him as close and confidential as could be permitted to 
 one who was ten years his junior or as was practicable with a man 
 of his temperament. My then personal and afterwards also political 
 friend, Harmanus Bleecker, of Albany, gave me a letter of intro- 
 duction to Mr. Randolph when I first went to the Senate of the 
 United States. I met him, for the first time, at Georgetown where 
 we happened to be making at the same time a morning visit to Har- 
 rison Gray Otis and to the interesting ladies of his family. I told 
 him of my letter promising to call and deliver it which I did not- 
 withstanding his insisting that the rule of etiquette required the rep- 
 resentative to make the first visit to the senator. From that time 
 until I left Congress we were very much together, especially whilst 
 traversing in the saddle the roads about Washington. Altho' a de- 
 voted equestrian I fell far short of him who was as much at home 
 on horseback as an Arab. 
 
 I felt myself complimented by his attentions; indeed, notwith- 
 standing his peculiar ways, there were very few who were not 
 pleased to receive acts of courtesy from him. Undoubtedly he had 
 the misfortune to quarrel sooner or later with most of his familiar 
 associates, but I escaped altho' I came occasionally very near such 
 a catastrophe. ° The thinning out of the Senate whilst he was 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 110. 
 
430 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Speaking, until no quorum remained, which I have elsewhere de- 
 scribed, and which gradually became more common, he took very 
 seriously to heart. I have before explained to what extent and 
 under what blameless circumstances I once contributed to this opera- 
 tion, but I thought nevertheless that I could perceive after that 
 occurrence faint symptoms of an alienation of feeling on his part, 
 and as no one knew the absence of unfriendly design in me better 
 than himself I was forced to attribute his pettishness to an obliquity 
 of his nature which rendered him unable to judge fairly any fea- 
 tures of a matter which had resulted injuriously to him and to 
 which the action of his friend had innocently contributed. As I 
 one day passed the open door of one of the Committee rooms of 
 which he had, according to his custom, taken possession to write 
 his letters and so forth, he called me in, declaring that he had some- 
 thing to say to me. After a few general remarks he took* up a 
 letter from his nephew, Dr. Dudley, which proved to treat of 
 family difficulties into which he proposed to initiate me. He pro- 
 ceeded to read a sentence or two and then to make what he had 
 read the subject of protracted comment. I informed him several 
 times that business was to come up that day in the Senate to which 
 I was bound to attend and proposed a postponement of the residue 
 until another occasion, but neither my suggestion nor my impatience 
 had the slightest effect upon him. I submitted until the idea that 
 he was in this way punishing me for my conduct in the other matter 
 seized my mind so strongly that I rose abruptly from my seat and 
 said, with some warmth perhaps, "Mr. Randolph, I must leave you !" 
 He had turned the key of the door to prevent intrusion but now 
 promptly unlocked it and stretching himself to the full height of 
 his gaunt figure, said, in a measured tone, " Good morning, Sir !" 
 I returned the salutation with about equal stiffnessi and repaired 
 to the Senate chamber where I found that I had been waited for. 
 At night I received from him a formally sealed and directed en- 
 velope, covering letters from my boys, and other papers which he 
 had asked to be allowed to read, without note or word of any kind 
 from himself, which I considered as denoting the cessation of our 
 intercourse. A day or two elapsed before I saw him again, except 
 at a distance, but when we did meet he approached me with ex- 
 tended hands and a smiling countenance as if nothing had hap- 
 pened to disturb our relations. My intercourse with him as a whole 
 was very gratifying and the source of agreeable reflections. Though 
 occasionally melancholy and irritable he was generally lively and at 
 times remarkably fascinating. His friendly notes were frequent 
 and amusing. 
 
 I was a good listener, a character which Randolph liked and I was 
 not a cross-examiner which he detested ; at least not so much of the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 431 
 
 latter as lawyers often become in society from professional habit, 
 and of what remains of it I had when I became acquainted with him, 
 he did much to cure me. If during our frequent and long rides the 
 subjects of conversation were ordinarily of his own selection and 
 if his was much the larger share this was because I was scarcely 
 ever otherwise than pleased with his discourse and therefore in- 
 disposed to interrupt it and not because of any unreasonable lo- 
 quacity on his part. He avoided, as a general rule, the subjects 
 under discussion in Congress, apparently glad to drop them and to 
 recreate his mind in fresh fields, except when something of unusual 
 piquancy was afoot, and, when left to himself, Virginia, her public 
 men of earlier days, her people and her past condition, the character 
 and life of his deceased brother Richard, with England and the 
 English, were commonly the themes on which he talked better than I 
 ever heard another man talk. Nothing could be more inteTesting 
 than his descriptions of the former prosperity of the Old Dominion, 
 the extent and magnificence of the baronial establishments, as he 
 called them, especially on the James Eiver and the Appomatox, the 
 honorable pride and splendid hospitality and true quality of their 
 proprietors and the contrasts he depicted between those halcyon days 
 and the times in which he spoke. Those who only met him in the 
 fields of political contention where harsh or railing censure and 
 stinging sarcasm seemed his natural and vital atmosphere could not 
 have been made to believe the degree of sensibility sometimes rising 
 to the silent tear, which he was wont to manifest when dwelling 
 on these topics. 
 
 A notice of a remarkable scene in the early life of Randolph, 
 which seems appropriate here, renders necessary a reference to the 
 political course of Patrick Henry, to whose character and con- 
 duct before and during our struggle for independence history has 
 done full justice. To dwell now upon his admirable bearing at the 
 latter period when his heroick spirit in behalf of public liberty and 
 his efficient efforts to set in motion the ball of revolution established 
 claims upon our respect and gratitude which nothing short of posi- 
 tive dishonor could ever obliterate, would be merely to repeat les- 
 sons with which our school-boys are familiar. Clear, straightfor- 
 ward and unflinching in his every act, his course in those days of 
 imminent peril and of fearful responsibility was in every respect 
 such as left no room for doubt or question in the breast of any one 
 among his applauding countrymen. The stand he took in the Vir- 
 ginia Convention called to decide upon the ratification of the new 
 Constitution was no less spirited, unequivocal and firm, but not 
 so unanimously approved by those for whom he acted. His dis- 
 satisfaction with the plan proposed by the Federal Convention was 
 unqualified and his hostility to it unmitigated. Others opposed it 
 
432 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 because it was in their judgment calculated to lead to a consolidated 
 government — ^he regarded it as a consolidation ex vi termini. He 
 avowed his preference for the old Articles of Confederation and 
 opposed the new " plan with the ardor and vehemence that belonged 
 to his nature and denounced its incompatibility with the rights of 
 the States and the liberties of the People in terms which reminded 
 his hearers of the eloquence of earlier days. He exerted all his 
 power to prevent its ratification and failing in that he went into 
 the succeeding Legislature where the popularity of his course in 
 the Convention made his power supreme, defeated the election of 
 Mr. Madison as U. S. Senator (who had foiled him in the Con- 
 vention) and secured the election of two gentlemen as Federal 
 Senators, whose sentiments in respect to the Constitution corre- 
 sponded with his own. By this course he drew down upon him- 
 self the hatred of the federal party to the utmost extent and was 
 held up to public odium. as "a cunning and deceitful Cromwell 
 who, under the garb of amendments, sought 'to destroy the Consti- 
 tution, break up the Confederacy and reign the tyrant of popularity 
 in his own devoted Virginia." "^ 
 
 The state of mind in which he left the Convention was that with 
 which he retired from politics and devoted his time and attention 
 to the improvement of his fortune. From that period 'till about 
 the year 1795 he was regarded as a member of the republican party, 
 a favorite of the old anti-federalists who constituted more than 
 three fourths of that party, and like them, tho' dissatisfied with and 
 distrustful of the new Constitution, was not disposed to throw 
 obstacles in the way of a fair execution of its provisions. 
 
 The first surmise to be found in the writings of the republican 
 leaders of any attempts to withdraw him from, their ranks is con- 
 tained in a letter from Mr. Jefferson to Col. Monroe, of July 10th, 
 1796, in which he says, — ^"Most assiduous court is paid to Patrick 
 Henry. He has been offered every thing which they knew he would 
 not accept. Some impression is thought to be made but we do 
 not believe it is radical." (Jefferson's Works.^ Vol. 4, p. 148.) 
 I have elsewhere referred to the enquiries L made of Mr. Jeffer- 
 son in respect to the cause of the great change which had taken 
 place in Mr. Henry's politics, and to his seeming inability or in- 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 115. 
 
 » Note. — In a letter to Mr. Short ' Mr. Jefferson says that Henry's influence in the 
 Legislature was omnipotent — that Mr. Madison, in consequence of his powerful support 
 of the Constitution, was defeated for U. S. Senator and that Mr. Henry, to prevent him 
 (Madison) from being elected to the House of Representatives, had. In framing the Con- 
 gressional Districts, tacked Orange (Mr. Madison's residence) to other counties in which 
 he, Henry, had great influence. 
 
 1 Feb. 9 1789. In the Jefferson Papers and printed In part in Writings of Jefferson 
 (Washington, 1853), 2, 273. 
 
 2 Washington edition, 1854. Original is in the Moni-oe Tapers and a press copy In the 
 Jefferson Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 433 
 
 disposition to enter into explanations upon the subject. That Henry 
 was much fascinated with Hamilton's financial policy and that in 
 the latter part of his life the acquisition of wealth became with 
 him a more absorbing passion than politics were nevertheless views 
 of his position that I received — the former certainly and the latter 
 I believe — from Mr. Jefferson, and are considerably strengthened by 
 the following extract from a report made to Washington by his 
 confidential friends, Edward Carrington and John Marshall, of the 
 manner in which they had executed the commission which he had 
 entrusted to them to judge of the propriety of offering to Mr. 
 Henry the appointment of Secretary of State, with authority so to 
 offer it if they thought best. 
 
 " We know too," they say, " that he is improving his fortune fast 
 which must additionally attract him to the existing Government 
 and order, the only guarantee of property. Add to this that he has 
 no affection for the present leaders of the opposition in Virginia." 
 
 Had Mr. Jefferson lived until after the publication of the " Writ- 
 ings of Washington " he would have been able to speak more under- 
 standingly on the subject and have seen the extent of the mistake 
 under which he laboured at the period of his letter to Col. Monroe. 
 He would have learned that as many as three years before the date 
 of that letter a plan Was set on foot by Gen. Harry Lee, an active 
 and very zealous federal partizan, and' at the time Governor of 
 Virginia, to withdraw Mr. Henry from the republican ranks — that 
 it was unremittingly presevered in until the spring of 1799, when 
 for the first time and an occasion of intense interest to be presently 
 noticed, the latter unveiled himself to the people of Virginia, 
 repudiated his State-rights doctrines and avowed himself the friend 
 and supporter of the administration of John Adams, the alien and 
 sedition laws inclusive. 
 
 The history of these proceedings is derived from the following" 
 sources: viz; a letter from Henry Lee to President Washington, 
 dated August 17th, 1794, to be found in the appendix to the 10th 
 vol. of the Writings of Washington, by Sparks, page 560; the 
 answer of Washington, same volume, p. ^431 ; a second letter from 
 Lee to Washington, same appendix, p. 561; Patrick Henry to H. 
 Lee, ditto, p. 562; a private and confidential letter from Washing- 
 ton to Edward Carrington, vol. 11th p. 78; Washington to Patrick 
 Henry, same vol. p. 81; report of Carrington and Marshall, ditto, 
 pages 80 & 81, and a confidential letter from Washington to Henrj' 
 of Jan. 15th, 1799, same vol. p. -387, urging him to offer for the 
 State Legislature at the approaching election, with the nomination 
 of Mr. Henry as Special Envoy to France by John Adams a few 
 weeks after Washington's last letter, 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 28 
 
434 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOST. 
 
 I will not go into details in respect to the contents of these 
 papers or trace the progress of Gen. Lee's undertalring from its 
 inception to its final consummation. Those who feel interest or 
 curiosity in the subject will read the documents and draw their 
 own inferences. Their principal theme was the bestowment of 
 office upon Mr. Henry ; but I must not for a moment be understood 
 to suggest or to countenance the idea that he was capable of barter- 
 ing his principles for office. I have no doubt that he was far above 
 such meanness and that if any proposition to that effect had been 
 understandingly presented to him he would have spurned it with 
 the same spirit with which he would have spurned an offer of 
 pardon from the Crown for his course in the revolution. Carring- 
 ton and Marshall knew as well as such a thing could be known 
 that he would not accept the office of Secretary of State which 
 they in pursuance of a discretionary authority from President 
 Washington, tendered to him. All the actors in these transactions 
 felt assured that he could not, from domestic considerations, take 
 any place that would require a residence at the seat of Government 
 or near any foreign Court. But if Mr. Adams had offered him the 
 seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court which became vacant only 
 two months before the offer of the place of Envoy to France there 
 is no room to doubt that he would have accepted it. The papers 
 to which I have referred show that during the latter years of his 
 life a concern for the good opinion of his old Commander in Chief, 
 as he was in the habit of calling Washington, engrossed his feel- 
 ings. The strong solicitude he had once cherished for the sover- 
 eignty of the States, his dread of consolidation, his 'first prin- 
 ciple,' as he termed it, — ^"that from the British we have every 
 thing to dread when opportunities for oppressing us shall offer" — 
 seemed to have given place to his anxiety upon that point. He 
 had been made to believe that Gen. Washington considered him 
 as " a factious, seditious character," and that belief was in the 
 estimation of Lee the only hindrance to his joining the friends of 
 the Administration. No existing political difference between him 
 and it was ever referred to, in the long confidential conversation 
 Lee says he had with him, as an obstacle to such a course. It was 
 hence, with high satisfaction that he learned from Washington's 
 letter to Lee that the President's opinion and feelings in respect to 
 him had been misrepresented and that the former remembered with 
 gratitude Henry's friendly course in the matter of the Conway 
 intrigue during the war. From similar considerations he received 
 with unaffected satisfaction the offer of a high place from the 
 General, altho' it was one that he conld not accept. Mr. Henry 
 yielded to these flattering testimonials of respect and confidence. 
 Jn pursuance of Gen. Washington's |sce,ssing aoKcitetion, backed 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 435 
 
 as it was by the appointment of Envoy to France, for which Mr. 
 Adams nominated him within a few weeks and before the time 
 had arrived for making his decision upon the proposition submitted 
 to him, he consented to become a candidate for the General Assembly 
 of Virginia and presented himself at the Charlotte Court House 
 in that character. 
 
 " Few spots have been rendered more famous in the annals of 
 party warfare than Charlotte Court House. Randolph's numerous 
 displays of oratorical power contributed largely to its celebrity as 
 well before as subsequent to his great contest with John W. Epps, 
 Mr. Jefferson's son-in-law, who had moved into that district for the 
 sole purpose of ousting him from his seat in Congress, on account 
 of his opposition to the War of 1812, and who succeeded in his ob- 
 ject — that having ibeen the only instance in the course of his pro- 
 tracted public life in which Randolph was abandoned by his inrnie- 
 diate constituents; but on the occasion of which we are now speak- 
 ing it was made forever memorable as the scene of the last speech 
 of Patrick Henry, in a political discussion between him and John 
 Randolph, a beardless youth eligible only by a few months, under 
 the Constitution, to the seat in Congress for which he was a candi- 
 date at that his first appearance on the political stage, — a discussion 
 which was, as is now known, the consequence of a direct interference 
 by Gen "Washington, then Conmiander in Chief of the American 
 Army, in party politics. 
 
 Mr. Wirt, the distinguished author of the Life of Patrick Henry, 
 and Mr. Garland, the accomplished editor of the Life of John Ran- 
 dolph, have each given vivid sketches of the interesting proceedings 
 of that day. That of Mr. Garland is the latest and the one upon 
 which the most attention has been bestowed. This has doubtless arisen 
 in no small degree from the consideration that while the occurrences 
 of the occasion could not, in respect to Mr. Henry, have been re- 
 garded by any as adding to the lustre of his previous career, they 
 presented on the part of Randolph, certainly the most interesting 
 and perhaps also the most imposing exhibition of himself in his 
 whole life. I am not aware that there are any material differences 
 between their statements in regard to facts, and as to the reported 
 speeches, Mr. Henry's was taken by Garland from Wirt whilst that 
 of Randolph had not been perpared when Wirt wrote. 
 
 It is from Garland, therefore, that the following extracts have 
 been taken : 
 
 MAECH COITRT THE RISING AND THE SETTING SUN. 
 
 - It was soon noised abroad that Patrick Henry was to address the people at 
 March. Court. Great was the political excitement — still greater the anxiety 
 
 ° MS, IV, p. 120. 
 
436 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOH". 
 
 to hear the first orator of the age for the last time. They came from far and 
 near with eager hope depicted on every countenance. It was a treat that many 
 had not enjoyed for years. Much the largest portion of those who flocked together 
 that day had only heard from the glowing lips of their fathers the wonderful 
 powers of the man they were about to see and hear for the first time. The 
 college in Prince Edward was emptied not only of its students but of its pro- 
 fessors. Dr. Moses Hogue [Hoge], John H. Rice, Drury Lacy, eloquent men 
 and learned divines, came up to enjoy the expected feast. The young man who 
 was to answer Mr. Henry, if indeed the multitude suspected that any one would 
 dare venture on a reply, was unknown to fame. A tall, slender, effeminate 
 looking youth was he;' light hair combed back into a well adjusted cue — 
 pale countenance, a beardless chin, bright, quick, hazel eye, blue frock, bufE 
 small clothes, and fair-top boots. He was doubtless known to many on the 
 court green as the little Jack Randolph they had frequently seen dashing by 
 on wild horses, riding d, la mode Anglais, from Roanoke to Bizarre and back 
 from Bizarre to Roanoke. A few knew him more intimately, but none had 
 ever heard him speak in public or even suspected that he could make a speech. 
 " My first attempt at public speaking," says he in a letter to Mrs. Bryan, his 
 niece, " was in opposition to Patrick Henry at Charlotte March Court, 1799 ; 
 for neither of us was present at the election in April, as Mr. Wirt avers of 
 Mr. Henry." The very thought of his attempting to answer Mr. Henry seemed 
 to strike the grave and reflecting men of the place as preposterous. " Mr. Tay- 
 lor," said Col. Reid, the clerk of the county, to Mr. Creed Taylor, a friend and 
 neighbor of Randolph, and a good lawyer, " Mr. Taylor, don't you or Peter 
 Johnson mean to appear for that young man to day?" "Never mind," replied 
 Taylor, " he can take care of himself." His friends knew his powers, his 
 fluency in conversation, his ready wit, his polished satire, his extraordinary 
 knowledge of men and affairs ; but still he was about to enter on an untried 
 field and all those brilliant faculties might fail him as they had so often 
 failed men of genius before. They might well have felt some anxiety on his 
 first appearance upon the hustings in presence of a popular assembly and in 
 reply to a man of Mr. Henry's reputation. But it seems they had no fear 
 for the result — he can take care of himself. * * * There also was Pow- 
 hattan Boiling, the other candidate for Congress, dressed in his scarlet coat — 
 tall, proud in his bearing and a fair representative of the old aristocracy 
 wWch was melting away under the subdivisions of the law that had abolished 
 the system of primogeniture. * * * But the candidates for Congress were 
 overlooked and forgotten by the crowd in their eagerness to behold and admire 
 the great orator whose fame had filled their imagination for so many years. 
 "As soon as he appeared on the ground," says Wirt, " he was surrounded by 
 the admiring and adoring crowd, and whithersoever he moved the concourse 
 followed him." 
 
 Presently James Adams rose upon a platform that had been erected by the 
 side of the tavern porch where Mr. Henry was seated, and proclaimed — "O yes ! 
 O yes! Colonel Henry will address the people from this stand, for the last 
 time and at the risk of his life ! " The grand jury were in session at the mo- 
 ment, they burst thro' the doors, some leaped the windows and came running 
 up with the crowd that they might not lose a word that fell from the old man's 
 lips. While Adams was lifting him on the stand " Why Jimmy " said he, " you 
 have made a better speech for me than I can make for myself." 
 
 • He was then in his 26th year, a few months beyond the age required ty the Constitu- 
 tion to malre him eligible to the House of Retiresentatives. 
 
ATJTOBIOGBAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 437 
 
 Mr. Wirt's report of Henry's speech is short. He referred to the- 
 recent proceedings of the Legislature of Virginia, declaring the alien 
 and sedition laws unconstitutional and therefore null and void, and 
 said that the resolutions of that body had filled him with apprehen- 
 sion and alarm and had drawn him from his retirement. He insisted 
 that by their adoption the legislature had transcended the power 
 that belonged to the State under the Constitution. The enforcement 
 of the acts by military power would, he feared, be the consequence 
 of those proceedings. He painted to the imaginations of his audience 
 Washington at the head of an army inflicting upon them military 
 execution and asked where are our resources to meet such a conflict 
 and where tlie citizen who will dare to lift his hand against the 
 father of his Country? A man in the crowd, (described as being 
 drunk,) throwijig up his arm and exclaiming "I dare!" — ^"No!" 
 answered Mr. Henry, rising aloft in all his majesty, " you dare not 
 do it; in such a parriciddl, attem/pt the steel would drop from your 
 nerveless arm?'' 
 
 Proceeding, he asked "whether the county of Charlotte would 
 have any authority to dispute an obedience to the laws of Virginia, 
 and he prontnmced Virginia to he to the Union what the county 
 of Charlotte was to her." Of the laws in question he said that his 
 private opinion was that they were good and proper, but whether 
 acceptable or otherwise the remedy, he insisted, was "by petition." 
 He closed with a warm appeal to the people in behalf of union and 
 forbearance. 
 
 " When he concluded his audience were deeply affected ; it is said 
 that they wept like children so powerfully were they moved by the 
 emphasis of his language, the tone of his voice, the commanding 
 expression of his eye, the earnestness with which he declared his 
 design to exert himself to allay the heart burnings and jealousies 
 which had been fomented in the State Legislature, and the fervent 
 manner in which he prayed that, if he were deemed unworthy to 
 affect it, it might be reserved to some other and abler hand to entend 
 "^this blessing over the community. As he concluded he literally 
 sunk into the arms of the tumultuous throng; at that moment John 
 H. Eice exclaimed, " the sun has set in all his glory." 
 
 " Kandolph rose to reply. For some moments he stood m silence, 
 his lips quivering, his eyes swimming in tears; at length he began 
 a modest tho' beautiful apology for rising to address the people in 
 opposition to the venerable father who had just taken his seat; it 
 was an honest difference of opinion and he hoped to be pardoned 
 while he boldly and freely, as it became the occasion, expressed his 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 125. 
 
438 AMERICAN HISTORICAX, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 .sentiments on the great questions that so much divided and agitated 
 the minds of the people." 
 
 The disposition which it will best become me to make of this 
 speech is a question not free from difficulty. Mr. Wirt's version 
 of Henry's speech is, as I have said, very short, embraces a few 
 prominent points of which at least partial cotemporaneous accounts 
 may have been found and is therefore free from serious doubt in re- 
 gard to its authenticity. Such is not, in all respects, the case with 
 that which Mr. Garland attributes to Eandolph. With candour and 
 unaffected modesty he says that he does not pretend to give the lan- 
 guage of John Eandolph on that occasion; "nor is he certain that 
 the thoughts are his." Unless the traditions of Virginia and of that 
 vicinity especially are grossly fabulous the speech actually made 
 by Eandolph was one of remarkable power. I knew Mr. Garland, 
 who died while yet a young man, well, and knew him to be a man 
 of rare abilities — one fully equal to the task of preparing a speech 
 adapted to the occasion, like that which he has credited to Eandolph, 
 and which meets ably and conclusively all the points presented by 
 Mr. Henry. 
 
 Perhaps the most that can be said in favor of its authenticity is 
 that it is just suoh a speech as a man of the capacity subsequently 
 exhibited by Eandolph would in all probability have made on such 
 an occasion, that it is harmonious with the doctrines and principles 
 he professed thro' life and that in respect to its Constitutional ex- 
 position it tallies admirably with the resolutions he prepared and 
 offered at the same place more than thirty years afterwards, which 
 I have republished in this work. It is very certain that if the ac- 
 tual speech displayed as much ability as that which is, with proper 
 and honorable explanation, put forth as its representative, the effects 
 must have been overpowering upon a mind so sensitive as Henry's 
 was known to be. Under the circumstances I shall limit myself to 
 a single extract from that three hours speech, during which time, we 
 are told, the people " hung with breathless silence on the lips " of the 
 orator, and refer my reader for the rest to Mr. Garland's most 
 interesting book. He tells us that Eandolph's "youthful appear- 
 ance, boyish tones, clear, distinct and thrilling utterance, his grace- 
 ful action, bold expressions, fiery energy and manly thoughts 
 struck his hearers with astonishment," and that, when he concluded, 
 Mr. Henry, turning to a by-stander, said : "I haven't seen the little 
 dog before since he was at school ; he was a great atheist then," and 
 subsequently taking Eandolph by the hand, he said: "Young man, 
 you call me father ; then, my son, I have somewhat to say unto thee 
 (holding both his hands) — keep justice^ keef truths and you will live 
 to think differently." 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN" BtfRBW. 43S 
 
 Mr. Henry, by his declaration that Virginia was to the Union 
 what Charlotte county was to her, surrendered every pretence of 
 "* sovereignty in the State, a concession which it is only necessary to 
 state to ensure its condemnation. Eandolph spoke at length of the 
 character and tendency of this extraordinary doctrine; but in re- 
 gard to that as well as to everything Henry had said he treated him 
 with a degree of respect and deference which excited the sympathies 
 of the people. " I have learned my first lessons in his school," he 
 said ; " he is the high priest from whom I received the little wisdom 
 my poor abilities were able to carry away from the droppings of the 
 political sanctuary. He was the inspired Statesman who taught 
 me to be jealous of power, to watch its encroachments and to sound 
 the alarm on the first moments of usurpation." But to my extract, 
 being the principal part of what he said on the subject of the sedi- 
 tion law: 
 
 And what is that other law that so fully meets the approbation of my 
 venerable friend? It is a law that makes it an act of sedition, punishable by 
 fine and imprisonment, to utter or vsTite a sentiment that any prejudiced judge 
 or juror may think proper to construe into disrespect to the President of the 
 United States. Do you understand me? I dare proclaim to the people of 
 Charlotte my opinion to be that John Adams, so called President, is a weak 
 minded man, vain, jealous and vindictive; that Influenced by evil passions 
 and prejudices and goaded on by wicked counsel, he has been striving to force 
 the Country into a war with our best friend and ally. I say that I dare re- 
 peat this before the people of Charlotte and avow it as my opinion. But let 
 me write it down and print it as a warning to my Countrymen. What then? 
 / subject myself to an indictment for sedition! I make myself liable to be 
 dragged away from my home and friends and to be put on my trial in some 
 distant Federal Court, before a judge who receives his appointment from the 
 man that seeks my condemnation ; and to be tried by a prejudiced jury, who 
 have been gathered from remote parts of the Country, strangers to me and 
 any thing but my peers, and have been packed by the minions of power for 
 my destruction. Is the man dreaming! do you exclaim? Is this a fancy 
 pictTire he has drawn for our amusement? I am no fancy man, people of 
 Charlotte ! I speak the truth — I deal only in stern realities ! There is such a 
 law on your Statute Book, in spite of your Constitution — in open contempt 
 of those solemn guarantees that insure the freedom of speech and of the 
 Press to every American citizen. Not only is there such a statute, but. with 
 shame be it spoken, even England blushes at your sedition law. Would tliat 
 I could stop here and say that, tho' it may be found enrolled among the public 
 archives, it is a dead letter. Alas ! alas ! not only does it exist, but at this 
 hour is most rigidly enforced, not against the ordinary citizen only, but against 
 men in official stations, even those who are clothed by the people with the 
 sacre(^ duties of their representatives — men, the sanctity of whose persons 
 cannot be reached by smj law known to a representative Government, are 
 hunted down, condemned and incarcerated by this odious, tyrannical and un- 
 constitutional enactment. At this moment while I am addressing you, men 
 of Charlotte ! with the free air of Heaven fanning my locks and God knows 
 how long I shall be permitted to enjoy that blessing — a representative of 
 the people of Vermont — Matthew Lyon his name — lies immured in a dungeon, 
 
440 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 not six feet square, where he has dragged out the miserable hours of a pro- 
 tracted winter, for daring to violate the royal maxim that the King can do 
 no wrong. This was his only crime — he told his people, and caused it to • 
 be printed for their information, that the President, " rejecting men of age, 
 experience, wisdom and independency of sentiment," appointed those who 
 had no other merit but devotion to their master ; and he intimated that 
 " the President was fond of ridiculous pomp, idle parade and selfish avarice." 
 I speak the language of the indictment. I give in technical and official 
 words the high crime with which he was charged. He pleaded justifica- 
 tion — I think the lawyers call it — and offered to prove the truth of his allega- 
 tions. But the Court would allow no time to procure witnesses or counsel; 
 he was hurried into trial all unprepared ; and this representative of the people, 
 for speaking the truth of those in authority, was arraigned like a felon, con- 
 demned, fined and imprisoned. These are the laws the venerable gentleman 
 would have you believe are not only sanctioned by the Constitution, but de- 
 manded by the necessity of the times ! &c, &c. 
 
 To describe the errors of Patrick Henry is no attractive task, and 
 I will dismiss that branch of this retrospect with a single question : 
 is there at this day, or has there been for fifty years past, during 
 which we have seen as much of party violence as was ever before 
 seen, one responsible man to be found, within the boundaries of 
 this wide Republic, who would deny the right of a State to express, 
 thro' its Legislature, the opinion of its people against the constitu- 
 tionality of an act of Congress, or who would propose the reenact- 
 ment of the alien or sedition law ? 
 
 The right of the historian to canvass without reserve and without 
 offense the acts and characters of deceased Statesmen ° is too well 
 established and has been too extensively acted upon to 'be called in 
 question, and in regard to them, the restraints of the maxim de mor- 
 tuis &c. are complied with when the right is exercised in a way 
 and at a time to avoid giving pain to surviving relatives and friends ; 
 but in the case before us no occasion is presented for an inquiry 
 into the boundaries of this right. How muchsoever those who have 
 succeeded to Patrick Henry may dissent from the views he ex- 
 pressed, or disapprove of the course he pursued on a particular oc- 
 casion, all right minded Americans will forever gratefully cherish 
 the recollection of his overshadowing ser\dces to their country, and 
 rejoice in the conviction that nothing in his life or character at- 
 tached dishonor to his name or can cause a blush on the cheeks of 
 his descendants. The apparently inexplicable circumstance that a 
 man whose early sympathies in the cause of human rights were so 
 much deeper and stronger than those of most of the leading 'men 
 of his time should, in after life, have become blind to the tendency 
 of the measures he then approved, or insensible to their effects upon 
 that cause is an enigma which will doubtless in the progress of time, 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 130. 
 
ATJTOBIOGBAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUREN. 441 
 
 when faxjts are more fully disclosed and better understood, be solved 
 in a way consistent with the undisputed integrity of his character. 
 Light tending to that result has already been shed upon the subject 
 thro' successive developments of traits in the personal disposition 
 and habits of Mr. Henry not before so publicly known or properly 
 appi'eciated. Of those best acquainted with him personally and with 
 his public career, Mr. Jefferson ranked among the first and sur- 
 vived him longest, and of all Henry's contemporaries it is due to 
 Mr. Jefferson to say that there has not been one more active in the 
 promulgation of facts which redounded to his fame, or, as I had 
 myself an opportunity to Observe, more indisposed to enter into 
 disquisitions on the subject of such parts of his public life as he 
 (Mr. Jefferson) could not have approved, notwithstanding his general 
 willingness to answer questions upon any subject and to tell not 
 only the truth but the whole truth. A large share — ^I may say the 
 largest — of the statements so creditable to Mr. Henry were derived 
 from letters written to him^ by Mr. Jefferson. 
 
 When asked by Mr. Wirt for some account of Mr. Henry's mind, 
 information and manners in 1759-60, when Mr. Jefferson first became 
 acquainted with him, the latter thus replies : 
 
 We met at Nathan Dandridge's in Hanover about the Christmas of that winter, 
 and passed a fortnight together at the revelries of the neighborhood and season. 
 His manners had something of tlie coarseness of the society he had frequented ; 
 his passion was fiddling, dancing, and pleasantry. He excelled in the last and 
 it attached every one to him. The occasion, perhaps, as much as his idle dispo- 
 sition prevented his engaging in any conversation which might give the measure 
 either of his mind or information. Opportunity was not wanting, because Mr. 
 John Campbell was there, who had married Mrs. Spotswood, the sister of Col. 
 Dandridge. He was a man of science and often introduced conversations on 
 scientific subjects. Mr. Henry had a little before brolien up his store, or rather 
 it had broken him up, and within three months after he came to Williamsburgh 
 for his license and told me, I think, he had read law not more than six weeks.' 
 
 Again Mr. Jefferson said, towards the close of his life, to Mr. Levitt 
 Harris, an American Consul at St. Petersburgh, in the presence of 
 Nicholas P. Trist, who noted it down at the time, 
 
 Wirt says he (Henry) read Plutarch's Lives through once a year. I don't 
 believe he ever read two volumes of tnem. On his visit to Court he used alioays 
 to put up with me. On one occasion of the breaking up in November, to meet 
 again in the Spring, as he was departing in the morning he looked among my 
 books and observed " Mr. Jefferson I will take two volumes of Hume's Essays 
 and try to read them this winter." On his return he brought them, saying that 
 he had not been able to get half way into one of them. (Jefferson's Complete 
 Works, Vol. VI, p. 487.), 
 
 His great delight was to put on his hunting-shirt, collect a parcel of overseers 
 and such like people and spend weeks together in the piny woods, campaigning 
 
 1 Meaning WlUlam Wirt? 
 
 2Je£Eerson to Wirt, Aug. 5, 1815. In the Jefferson Papers and printed in Jefferson's 
 Writings (Washington, 1854), VI, 483. 
 
442' AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOOIATIOW. 
 
 at night and cracking jokes round a light-wood fire. It was to him that we were 
 indebted for the unanimity that prevailed among us. He would address the 
 assemblages of the people at which he was present, In such strains of native 
 eloquence as Homer wrote in. I never heard anything that deserved to be 
 called by the same name with what flowed from him; and where he got that 
 torrent of language is inconceivable. I have frequently shut my eyes while he 
 spoke, and when he was done asked myself what he had said without being able 
 to recollect a word of it. He was truly a great man, however — one of enlarged 
 views. (Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol. 1, p. 40.) 
 
 Mr. Henry was not a student in any sense and all accounts concur 
 in describing him as a man who, in all probability, read less than 
 any other in his State occupying anything like the same position in 
 society. That with the tastes, habits and proverbial ionhonvmie 
 ascribed to him he should devote sufficient time to study and reflec- 
 tion upon the principles of the structure and a/dministration of 
 Governments to lead him to adhere to his opinions with a fidelity 
 proportioned to the strength of his convictions of their truth and 
 wisdom, was not to be expected and did not happen. Instead there- 
 fore of regulating his movements by a professed political system, 
 for the formation of which he was rendered incompetent by the laws 
 of his nature, he became a man of impulse and suffered his course to 
 be shaped by the feelings of the moment. These were always honest 
 and if the questions that produced them were of an exciting character 
 he executed his resolves with a spirit and power rarely equalled. 
 The revolution and the stirring scenes to which it gave birth pre- 
 sented the great occasions of his life. Stung almost to madness by 
 the unjust pretensions of the Mother Country — by her deafness to 
 remonstrances which for ability, eloquence and conclusiveness of 
 argument were never excelled by the State papers of any Country, 
 and by the remorseless cruelty with which she sought to enforce her 
 wantonly oppressive demands, he threw his whole soul into the con- 
 test, pressed forward in debate and by his fiery and vehement native 
 eloquence roused and invigorated the spirit of the Country and 
 crowned his name with unfading laurels. The question as to the pay- 
 ment of the British debts excited .kindred feelings. Moved by the 
 impoverished condition to which the American debtor, his neigh- 
 bours and friends, had been reduced thro' the tyranny of the British 
 Government, and thinking it morally right that the author of the 
 debtor's inability should be driven to assume his responsibilities, he 
 again embarked in the discussions which grew out of that disturbing 
 question with something of the ardour that characterized his exer- 
 tions in the cause of the revolution of which this was an outshoot, 
 and acquired a degree of fame by his oratorical displays second only 
 to that awarded to his splendid services in that cause. 
 
 In the Virginia Convention called to decide upon the ratification 
 of the Federal Constitution he was, to all appearance, quite as 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 443 
 
 deeply agitated, and, in the opinion of the patriotic, but, in respect 
 to the questions before that bod}', misjudging anti-federalists, ac- 
 quired almost as much credit as was allotted for his part i'h the 
 revolutionary drama. With all my respect for that class of poli- 
 ticians, founded on convictions of the purity of their motives and 
 of their great usefulness at that and subsequent trying periods in 
 our history, I have never been able to draw any such impression 
 from reading the debates of the Virginia Convention. Mr. Henry 
 wielded against the sacred instrument which he had devoted to 
 destruction the saone weapons that he had employed during the revo- 
 lution, but with vastly different results. His efforts were favored 
 neither by the state of the times nor by the nature of the cause. An 
 attempt by .a powerful monarch to enslave his Country was an oc- 
 casion when noble daring in resisting was demanded by the fearful 
 exigencies of the hour — ^when inspiriting appeal, trenchant sarcasm 
 and thundering invective were as useful and as necessary in the 
 council as tlie trumpet, the sword and the cannon in the field, — as 
 acceptable to the hearts and judgments of an excited people, who, 
 in their desire for vigorous measures in great crises, are always 
 in advance of their representatives. But the Convention was de- 
 signed to be a conclave of grave Statesmen, convened at a period 
 of profound peace, to deliberate upon a question indeed of the first 
 importance but of a local character, undisturbed by the interfer- 
 ence of foreigners; a question in which all who participated in its 
 settlement had an equal interest, and which was not so clear, on 
 either side, as not to admit of honest differences of ° opinion, which 
 were to be decided by the weight of argument. Whilst every thing 
 that fell from the orator of the E«volution, which breathed the 
 right spirit and was well directed against the common enemy, Avas 
 consecrated, in the estimation of his sympathizing hearers, by the 
 occasion and by the circumstances under which it was uttered, the 
 arguments, the illustrations, and the advice addressed to the Con- 
 vention were all maturely considered, applied to the important busi- 
 ness to be acted upon and digested by calm and capable men. 
 
 I repeat with deference and with unaffected reluctance that T 
 have never been able to rise from the perusal of Mr. Henry's 
 speeches in the Virginia Convention, and I have tried it more than 
 once, with an opinion in their favor when compared with those 
 of the men opposed to him. It is to impressions that must have 
 been made upon the mind of Washington by those discussions thai* 
 I have attributed his cautious, tardy and confessedly distrustful 
 proceedings in respect to Henry at a time when he was, beyond all 
 doubt, disposed to compliment him highly if he could do so safely. 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 135. 
 
444 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 It is not, I think, possible that the former can have read the male- 
 dictions poured out upon an instrument which bore his name, which 
 was recommended for adoption over his signature and for the suc- 
 cess of which he was so solicitous, and can have reflected upon the 
 reasoning by which they were attempted to be justified — ^to some 
 extent, at least, incoherent and to a much greater, inconclusive, — 
 without forming an opinion of the most durable character adverse 
 to Mr. Henry's adaptation to the discharge of highly responsible 
 official duties. He had, as he avowed, strong personal inducements 
 to treat him kindly, Henry having in a very creditable spirit stepped 
 forward in defence of Washington at the time of the Conway in- 
 trigue — an occasion always remembered by the latter with intense 
 interest. The political affinities once so close between Henry and 
 Jefferson had been sundered, a circumstance unhappily not un- 
 palatable to Washington, as we have a right to infer from the 
 manner in which the fact was communicated to him by his confi- 
 dential friends; and yet six years were suffered to elapse before 
 the pressing solicitations of Lee were crowned with success and 
 even then the remarkable circumspection he observed and the se- 
 curities taken against mistakes — safeguards of themselves well cal- 
 culated to defeat the contemplated negotiation — go far to sustain 
 my impression of the real state of Washington's mind. 
 
 But I pursue this point no farther. If the latter years of Mr. 
 Henry's political career were not in harmony with those which pre- 
 ceded them it is enough that they furnish no ground of impeach- 
 ment of his integrity, and that he lived to disprove the censures cast 
 upon his principles in early life by those with whom he was, at 
 the time of his death, in full political communion. It is enough for 
 his fame-— for the fame of any man to be known and remembered by 
 his admiring countrymen as the companion and co-adjutor in our 
 revolutionary struggle of Washington, Jefferson and the Adamses, 
 who, if he was prevented by peculiar and uncontrollable traits of 
 temperament and constitution from rising to their level as a useful 
 statesman, did not fall below any of those illustrious men in pure, 
 intelligent and devoted patriotism. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 I sailed from New York on the^execution of my English mission on 
 the 16th August, 1831, in the packet ship President, accompanied 
 by Mr. Aaron Vail, the Secretary of Legation, and by my son Mr. 
 John Van Buren. There were only three other passengers, among 
 them an apparently amiable and certainly modest and retiring young 
 gentleman who was a son of the celebrated Duke of Otranto. 
 
 Suddenly and I may say unexpectedly transferred from the tur- 
 moil and contentions of Washington — ^never perhaps more rampant 
 than at that moment — ^to the quietude of a midsummer Ocean, I 
 experienced sensations which tho' well remembered I would not find 
 it an easy matter to describe. For more than a quarter of a century 
 preceding the day on which I stepped on the deck of the " Presi- 
 dent " there had scarcely been one during which I had been wholly 
 exempted from the disturbing effects of partisan agitation, too often 
 of the most bitter description. Whether as a subordinate and 
 doubtless, at times, over-zealous member of the political party in 
 which I had almost literally been reared from childhood, or as its 
 leader for many years in my State, or as a Senator in Congress, active 
 and ardent in Federal politics, or in the Cabinet of Gen. Jackson, 
 first in point of rank and second to none in the confidence of its 
 Chief, the responsibility and anxiety growing out of my successive 
 positions, tho' varying in form had always absorbed my time and 
 my faculties. During the two years immediately preceding my depar- 
 ture there had been few working days which had failed to bring their 
 load of care to my door; the laborious occupation required by the 
 details of the President's Message, the political and oifieial demands 
 upon my attention regularly and plentifully emptied upon my table 
 from the mail-bags with the spoken alarms of timid croakings of 
 complaining and rarer congratulations of satisfied friends by which 
 every public man, resident at the seat of Government, is doomed to 
 be beset — ^these were but new representations upon an enlarged scale 
 of the same general features which had characterized my whole pre- 
 vious life. These constantly recurring sources of excitement had 
 now, one and all, been suddenly closed. The first morning at sea 
 came unaccompanied by any fresh supplies of the stimulating ail- 
 
 445 
 
446 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 merit to which my mind had been accustomed, and one tranquil day 
 followed another only to carry me further from the sight and the 
 sound of the political strife and labour in which I had been so 
 ceaselessly and prominently participant. 
 
 AVhen the first mixed feelings produced by this sudden and great 
 change had sufficiently subsided my attention was naturally directed 
 to a careful review of the more recent stirring scenes thro' which I 
 haxi passed and of the steps which I had thought it proper to take 
 to meet them. The result of this retrospect was an unhesitating 
 conviction that the course I had pursued had been the wisest with- 
 in my power — ^that which was best adapted to do the greatest at- 
 tainable justice to every interest which it was my duty to respect. 
 The momentary inconvenience to which I had exposed one of the 
 truest friends man ever had by my resignation, my sense of which 
 had been quickened by the scenes thro' which I had passed with 
 him in its progress, was a source of sincere regret. That act had 
 also led to other consequences, more particularly applicable to my- 
 self and to some extent injurious; but both seemed to me to have 
 been unavoidable results of a step which was imposed upon me by 
 considerations I was not at liberty to disregard, and I was confident 
 that they would be more than made good by the advantages of my 
 action to other and higher interests. Strengthened by this convic- 
 tion and satisfied with the past, the time and the situation seemed 
 favorable to a definite settlement of my future course. I have al- 
 ready said that by accepting the mission to England I regarded 
 myself as having virtually a;bandoned whatever chance I might 
 have acquired of reaching the Presidency, and that I had so in- 
 formed Gen. Jackson. Reason and experience forbade the expecta- 
 tion that any political party would voluntarily encounter the risk 
 of selecting as its candidate an individual peculiarly obnoxious to 
 its adversaries and of whom strong jealousies were cherished by 
 rival leaders within its own camp, after he had himself released it 
 from even the appearance of obligation imposed by previous mutual 
 relations and had left those rivals in undisputed possession of the 
 field of competition. In the calmer moments I now enjoyed I 
 could think of no aspect in which that opinion could be considered 
 that would cast a doubt upon its correctness. To have maintained 
 the advance towards the Presidency at which I had arrived when 
 I threw up the office of Secretary of State, the effectual course would 
 have been to have retired absolutely from all public employment 
 and to have entered upon the practice of my profession axid the life 
 of a private citizen. The disinterestedness of my motives would 
 thus have been placed above the reach of cavil, and a majority of 
 the people, eagerly attached to the President and indignantly re- 
 senting the injustice he was made to suffer, would, at the proper 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUREK. 447 
 
 time, have demanded my elevation as the suitable reward for the 
 sacrifices I had made to relieve him and to promote his success. 
 
 The dispassionate reconsideration of the "subject, in my then 
 favourable position for making it, only confirmed these first im- 
 pressions ; and to discard, totally and forever, the idea of becoming 
 President became therefore the fixed and settled purpose of my 
 mind. 
 
 That I was able to come to that conclusion with perfect equanim- 
 ity was attributable in some degree to impressions in regard to 
 the advantages and disadvantages, the pleasures and annoyances 
 of public life derived from a full experience, of which I have often 
 spoken. This was in truth the state of my mind at the time, however 
 hard of belief it may seem to those among my contemporaries who 
 are still on the stage of life and who regarded me as the " magician " 
 I was called — ^never so much in my element or so happy as when 
 employed in concocting and advancing political intrigues. I must 
 not be understood by anything I have here said as imdervaluing the 
 honor, dignity and usefulness of the Presidential office. No Ameri- 
 can citizen can fail to regard that position as, in every respect, the 
 most exalted as it is the most responsible public trust that can be 
 conferred on man, for the acquisition of which no sacrifices, on the 
 part of one competent to discharge its duties, can be deemed too great 
 which do not include the sacrifice of honor or morality. But the 
 extent to which personal happiness and enjoyment will be promoted 
 by its possession is a question to be solved by the taste and tempera- 
 ment of the incumbent. There are men, and not a few, who derive 
 so much pleasure from the mere possession of great power that any 
 degree of dissatisfaction caused by its exercise is not too dear a 
 price for the coveted indulgence, and the personal adulation which 
 is sure to follow the footsteps of authority while it lasts fills the 
 measure of their satisfaction. Those better regulated minds, how- 
 ever, whose gratification on reaching that high office is mainly 
 derived from the consciousness that their countrymen have deemed 
 them worthy of it and from the hope that they may be able to 
 justify that confidence and to discharge its duties so as to promote 
 the public good, will save themselves from great disappointments 
 by postponing all thoughts of individual enjoyment to the comple- 
 tion of their labors. If those whose sense of duty and whose dis- 
 positions are of the character which alone can fit them for that 
 station look to secure much personal gratification while swaying the 
 rod of power they will find in that as in all other human calculations 
 and plans " begim on earth below," that 
 
 The ample proposition that hope makes 
 Fails in the promis'd largeness. 
 
 ' MS. IV, p. 140. 
 
448 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 At the very head of their disappointments will stand those in- 
 separable from the distribution of patronage, that power so dazzling 
 to the expectant dispenser, apparently so easily performed and so 
 fruitful of reciprocal gratification. Whatever hopes they may in- 
 dulge that their cases will prove an exception to the general rule 
 they will find, in the end, their own experience truly described 
 by Mr. Jefferson when he said that the two happiest days of his 
 life were those of his entrance upon his office and of his surrender 
 of it. The truth of the matter may be stated in a word: whilst 
 to have been deemed worthy by a majority of the People of the 
 United States to fill the office of Chief Magistrate of the Eepublic 
 is an honor which ought to satisfy the aspirations of the most am- 
 bitious citizen, the period of his actual possession of its powers and 
 performance of its duties is and must, from the nature of things, 
 always be, to a right minded man one of toilsome and anxious 
 probation. 
 
 In these opinions and feelings I had become more than ever 
 confirmed before the termination of my voyage. Under their in- 
 fluence I resolved to limit my future public life to a residence for 
 a few years at the Court to which I was accredited, in the per- 
 formance of public duties entirely congenial with my habits and 
 disposition, and which I hoped to make useful to my Country and 
 creditable to myself, and after their expiration to return to my 
 home, if permitted by Providence and to the pursuits in which 
 my last years have been employed and from which I have derived 
 more true happiness than I have ever before enjoyed. It was in 
 the full belief that such was to be the chart of my future life that 
 I landed in England and with such views I would', in all probability, 
 have returned to my native land but for a transaction already al- 
 luded to and which will unavoidably become the subject of further 
 comment hereafter. 
 
 My reception by the King and his Ministers was cordial — as it 
 then appeared to me, particularly so. But the latter impression is 
 not uncommon on the minds of our Ministers arriving at European 
 Courts. Eemoved as we are from the rivalries and consequent jeal- 
 ousies and, in some cases, ill will which are always more or less 
 affecting their relation with each other, they have more seldom rea- 
 son to qualify the exhibition of entire cordiality in the reception 
 of our diplomatic representatives. In England this is perhaps espe- 
 cially the case, and I doubt whether in any other Country the great 
 body of the people enter as largely into the policy of their Govern- 
 ment by exertions to produce upon the representatives of foreign 
 Governments favorable impressions towards their own. In addition 
 to the good dispositions thus common and creditable to the Govern- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 449 
 
 ment and people of England there had been features in the past 
 relations between them and Andrew Jackson which served, at the 
 time of my mission, to give increased earnestness to those feelings as 
 regarded him. 
 
 In the Presidential election of 1824, Gen. Jackson was far from 
 occupying a definite position in relation to the antagonistic political 
 principles by which the two great parties in the Country had profess- 
 ed to be governed. The large vote he received was mainly produced 
 by a general admiration of his military character and a wide 
 spread conviction of his integrity in all things. To these consid- 
 erations were added dissatisfaction with the influence of the caucus 
 system which had acquired considerable force in all quarters. His 
 first vote was therefore, to a greater extent than had ever before 
 occurred, a mixed one given by former adherents of all parties. But 
 the- political chaos thus produced, altho' increased by other causes, 
 was much sooner arrested than was anticipated. Justly alarmed by 
 the latitudinarian doctrines advanced by Mr. Adams as the basis of 
 his Administration, the supporters of Mr. Crawford, constituted of 
 the main body of the old republican organization, adopted Gen. 
 Jackson as their candidate — ^Mr. Crawford's continued bad health 
 and probable future incompetency removing every personal ob- 
 stacle to the adoption of that course on his account, and the prin- 
 ciples avowed by Gen. Jackson, in the earlier periods of his public 
 life, affording them strong political encouragement to pursue it. One 
 of the consequences of this step was a withdrawal from his side of 
 most of the old federalists who had at first embraced it with much 
 zeal and, with the exception of the particular friends of Mr. Clay, 
 a very general reorganization of those who had supported Jefferson 
 and Madison against Mr. Adams's administration and in favor of 
 the election of Jackson. 
 
 The Money Power of the Country saw in this conjuncture an un- 
 yielding opposition to its supremacy, and the Bank of the United 
 States, especially, a like resistance to the extension of its charter. 
 With the promptitude which characterizes the movements of that 
 Power in every field of exertion it therefore determined to antici- 
 pate that question, as well as the adoption of Gen. Jackson's can- 
 didacy by the united democracy, and to take the necessary steps 
 to defeat his election. A large portion of the stock of the Bank 
 was held in England, principally by bankers and by the gentry, 
 including noblemen of distinction, many of whom had free access 
 to the Government and were capable of influencing its action in 
 a not inconsiderable degree. This interest, by reason of the danger 
 to which it was alleged to be exposed from the election of Gen. 
 Jackson was regarded as a store-house from which, with the en- 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 29 
 
450 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 couragement and sympathies of the entire monied interest in Eng- 
 land, the Bank might expect effective aid in the struggle upon 
 which it had resolved forthwith to enter. Accordingly it commenced 
 its labors, thro' the medium of its English friends and portions of 
 the English press, to prejudice the ministry and the public mind 
 of Great Britain against Gen. Jackson, and to cause it to be be- 
 lieved throughout the kingdom that his election would be the pre- 
 cursor of much "trouble and possibly of war between the two 
 Countries. These efforts were, in the first instance, quite successful, 
 and in various ways exerted an extensive influence upon the can- 
 vass. Not all the selfish schemes and intrigues and immoral in- 
 fluences however, which could be set in motion and brought to 
 bear under the auspices of the Money Powers of both Countries 
 could resist the wide spread and deep seated popularity of Jackson. 
 His election produced great alarm in England but the forebodings 
 out of which it sprung were speedily and happily falsified by legit- 
 imate means. England was, fortunately, represented, at the time, 
 near our Government by Sir Charles R. Vaughan, a practical, in- 
 telligent and thoroughly honest man, who, altho' sympathizing, as 
 almost all foreign ministers do here, with the party then in oppo- 
 sition, was too sensible a man to act upon the representations that 
 had been made to him in respect to the new President's general 
 feelings towards England at the moment when his election was 
 secured and when his foreign policy was about to be authentically 
 indicated by himself. Steps already referred to were taken at the 
 earliest practicable day after the complete organization of the new 
 Cabinet to bring the whole diplomatic corps in communication with 
 the President elect and to afford them more relia;ble opportunities 
 and better facilities to measure his dispositions as well as his capaci- 
 ties than could be derived from hostile sources. These Sir Charles 
 embraced with a sincere desire to arrive at the truth and it did 
 not take him long to become convinced of the extent to which the 
 General's character and temper has been misrepresented, or to sat- 
 isfy himself that as long as his Government confined its claims to 
 what was right it could desire no better man to deal with than 
 President Jackson. These views he lost no time in communicating 
 to his Government and I need not add that they produced decided 
 and gratifying effects. The early apprehensions of the British 
 Government, the process by which they had been suspended and 
 finally dissipated and the gratification experienced on finding them 
 to have been unfounded were freely referred to in my interviews, 
 with the King and his ministers, and always with unaffected satis- 
 faction. On the occasion of my last visit to him at Windsor, 
 
 ° MS. IV, p-. 145. 
 
AXJTOBIOGEAPHy OF MABTIN VAN BUREN. 451 
 
 King William took me aside and described to me the extent to 
 which all classes of his subjects had been alarmed by the news of 
 the General's election. " But ", he said, " I kept myself free from 
 those alarms, for I have made it a rale thro' life never to condemn 
 an untried man, and, in respect to such matters, I regarded Mr. 
 Jackson" (so he called him) "as placed in that position. I said 
 to those who expressed to me their apprehensions, I will judge Mr. 
 Jackson by his acts; I have done so and I am satisfied that we 
 shall have no reason to complain of injustice at his hands." 
 
 When such feelings enter the breast of John Bull either towards 
 foreign Governments or towards their subjects or citizens it is not 
 in his nature to suppress them. Nor did the disposition evinced by 
 the King and by the people to acknowledge Gen. Jackson's justice 
 and magnanimity appear to be in any degree weakened either by a 
 recollection of the severe encounters which had taken place between 
 us in the War of 1812, or by the animosities and events of an older 
 date. A people less generous and highminded might allow them- 
 selves to be thus affected, but I did not on any occasion witness the 
 exhibition of such prejudices on their part. I have, on the contrary, 
 often heard them speak of the triumphs which the fortune of war 
 had given to our arms at their expense in the way in which a brave 
 nation, conscious of its strength, could afford to speak of those by 
 whom it had been occasionally defeated ; a .concession in our case 
 doubtless made less difficult and less unpalatable by the considera- 
 tion of the extent to which we were descended from a common an- 
 cestry. The Duke of Richmond, speaking of the battle of New 
 Orleans, told me that his regiment was engaged in that action, hav- 
 ing been transferred to the United States immediately after the 
 termination of the war on the Continent, and that he had been 
 accidentally prevented from accompanying it, as it had been his 
 intention to do, in which case, he added, with a hearty laugh, he 
 would probably have never enjoyed the pleasure of taking me by 
 the hand in England. He said " it cannot be denied that you flogged 
 us there, but we do not think the worse of you for that ! " He spoke 
 on that occasion, I doubt not, the feelings of his Countrymen gen- 
 erally ; I am sure that he did so far as my observation extended. 
 
 Sincere respect for the character of Gen. Jackson, and an earnest 
 desire that liberal and friendly intercourse should be cultivated 
 between the two Countries were not only prevailing but active feel- 
 ings on the part of the Government and people of Great Britain 
 at the period of my arrival, and consideration of the close rela- 
 tions existing between the General and myself, of which they were 
 well informed, doubtless had its influence, before they knew any- 
 thing of me personally, in securing the marked courtesy and kind- 
 ness with which I was treated during my entire stay in that Country. 
 
452 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 The question of the North Eastern boundary had just been de- 
 cided by the umpire, and there was nothing to be done at the time, 
 at London, in regard to it save to obtain some explanations and 
 avowals on the part of the British Government which the President 
 thought might facilitate his own action upon the subject, and 
 which were promptly made on my application. Beside the ordinary 
 and constantly accruing business there was no point of special im- 
 portance in our national relations that demanded attention except 
 that of Impressment, a subject which was, on both sides, regarded 
 as possessing a degree of importance not subsequently realized.- It 
 had been, before and after the war of 1812, elaborately discussed 
 in several successive negotiations by some of the ablest minds of 
 both Countries but without satisfactory results. The effect of our 
 increase in numbers, reputation and all elements of national strength 
 since that period, and of the certainty of war upon the first exer- 
 cise of the right claimed, in removing apprehensions of future 
 trouble from that source were not then foreseen. The negotiation 
 of a satisfactory arrangement in respect to it, often before attempted, 
 was made the leading point in my instructions. The President 
 had allowed me a liberal participation in their preparation, and, 
 believing that non-essential obstacles in the way of former nego- 
 tiations had been removed, I entertained strong hopes of success 
 in that on which I proposed to enter. Several interviews took place 
 between Lord Palmerston, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and 
 myself, in which the whole subject was talked over with much free- 
 dom and candor. Views equally liberal in their general bearing 
 with those recently acted upon by the British Government in re- 
 gard to the right of search question, were expressed in those inter- 
 views by his Lordship in the sincerity of which I placed entire 
 confidence. That the preservation of pacific and cordial relations 
 between the two countries was an object of more importance to 
 the welfare of both than the claim of either in relation to the 
 subject matter under consideration was a starting point in our 
 deliberations and we did not doubt that a way could be devised by 
 which the rights of both to the services of their seamen in time 
 of peace could be secured without a resort to irritating proceed- 
 ings of any description, and thus a prolific source of contention 
 be removed. All that seemed necessary to the fruition of these 
 expectations was a more eligible condition in the affairs of England 
 to prosecute the negotiation. The conferences of the representa- 
 tives of the principal powers of Europe, upon whose deliberations 
 the question of peace or war was supposed to depend, hardly less 
 than England herself were convulsed by the fierce agitation of the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BURBN. 453 
 
 great measure of Parliamentary Reform brought forward by Lord 
 Grey's administration. The extent to which this subject employed 
 the time and required the active attention of the Ministry can 
 well be imagined. They consequently desired to delay definitive 
 action upon any other the immediate settlement of which was not 
 matter of pressing necessity. It was moreover apprehended that 
 it would be neither safe nor expedient to bring .before the Coun- 
 try, at a period of such violent excitement, a measure in respect 
 to which its sensibilities had been on previous occasions " deeply 
 moved, and with which large portions of its people believed its 
 naval supremacy intimately connected. It was feared that no proj- 
 ect in relation to a question so liable to be made a disturbing one, 
 however wisely devised and right in itself, could escape, if brought 
 forward at the moment, the general vortex of partisan prejudices or 
 would be judged upon its own merits. These considerations were 
 introduced with suitable delicacy by Lord Palmerston as furnish- 
 ing reason for postponing further action upon the subject of our 
 consulation until after the settlement of the Reform Question, and 
 perceiving their weight and fully believing that the Government 
 would be successful in the great domestic controversy which im- 
 pended, and would thus be enabled to act in our matter with less em- 
 barrassment, I concurred in the suggestion for delay. 
 
 Lord Palmerston afterwards informed' me that the King had 
 commanded him to express his satisfaction with the course I had 
 pursued upon the subject, and I have never doubted that my utmost 
 wishes would have been realized if their success upon the reform 
 question had been unqualified and if I had remained at the post 
 assigned to me. The rejection of my nomination by the Senate 
 within a month or two presented imperative reasons for abandoning 
 the negotiation. The news of that rejection reached London during 
 the evening before the Queen's first Drawing Room of the season, 
 and was published the next morning in the newspapers. The fact 
 that the proceedings of the Senate had been carried on with closed 
 doors was stated in a way which considered in connection with the 
 similarity of the accounts in the different journals justified the 
 inference that the original had been prepared in the United States 
 and had been mischievously concocted. Those who were not aware 
 that the executive business of the Senate is always thus transacted 
 would naturally infer that the charges upon which its decision had 
 been founded imputed crime or, at the least, some offence partaking 
 of that character. I had strong reason for suspecting the agency 
 of an American, then in London, in the contrivance, but as my 
 proof was not positive I do not mention his name. Finding myself 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 150. 
 
454 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 quite unwell in the morning I had determined not to attend the 
 Drawing Room and to keep to my bed for the day and had directed 
 my mail to be brought to my bed room. Struck by the unusual 
 number of my letters, I selected, from among several on which I 
 recognised a handwriting familiar to me, one from my trusty friend, 
 Churchill C. Cambreleng, then a representative in Congress from 
 the city of New York which first informed me of the action of the 
 Senate in these terms : 
 
 Washington, 37 Jan'y. 18S2. 
 My Dear Fkiend, 
 
 I most sincerely congratulate you on your rejection by the Senate — ^23 to 23 
 and by tlie casting vote of the Vice President ; Tazewell & Tyler voting for you 
 and Hendriclss, of Indiana, Hayne, Miller, Poindexter and Moore, of Alabama, 
 against you — Bibb & Prentiss not present, both I presume consulting their own 
 inclinations.'- 
 
 I consider this as a providential interposition in your favor. A more reckless 
 act was never committed by men in their senses — Indeed, altho' I had ardently 
 desired it, I could not persuade myself to believe that their passions would 
 drive them Into a measure the Inevitable result of which might have been seen 
 by a schoolboy. You may imagine how admirably they were drilled when 
 Ruggles, Tomlinson, Johnston, Seymour and Robbins ^ voted against you. The 
 votes were precisely as they should have been— we could not have had them 
 better. — Poor Hayne had laid himself on the grave of Calhoun — and Webster & 
 Clay die in each other's arms. The former conducted his opposition with 
 dignity — the latter with something of violence — ^the abuse came from Miller, of 
 So. Caro. one of Calhoun's barkers ; but the thing is admirable— you will be our 
 V. P. in spite of yourself — and you will ride over your adversaries, or rather 
 you will drag them after you & I'Acfiille. In the midnight of the Senate they 
 have done the deed — but "Birnam wood will come " &c. &c. 
 
 Come back as quick as you can — we have no triumphal arches as in ancient 
 Rome, but we'll give you as warm a reception as ever Conqueror had. 
 Sincerely yr. friend 
 
 C. C. Cambreleng. 
 
 1 placed implicit confidence in the source of this communication 
 and whatever was wanting in it to complete the picture of the whole 
 transaction my knowledge of men and things at home was sufficient 
 to supply. I rose instantly and, at least temporarily, relieved from 
 my indisposition by the stimulus administered by such news, I joined 
 Mr. Washington Irving, who then resided with me, and the Secretary 
 of the Legation at the breakfast table. They had read the accounts 
 in the journals and were, of course, not a little disturbed by them. 
 I handed Mr. Cambreleng's letter to Mr. Irving, referred to the in- 
 formation given him by the servant of the state of my health but 
 said that I thought it would notwithstanding now be necessary that 
 
 > Littleton W. Tazewell and John Tyler of Virginia ; William Hendricks ; Robert T. 
 Hayne and Stephen D. Miller of South Carolina ; George Poindexter of Mississippi ; Ga- 
 briel Moore ; George M. Bibb of Kentucky, and Samuel Prentiss of Vermont. 
 
 2 Benjamin Ruggles, of Ohio ; Gideon Tomlinson of Connecticut ; Josiah S. Johnston 
 of Louisiana ; Horatio Seymour of Vermont, and Asher Robbins of Ohio. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 455 
 
 I should attend the Drawing Eoom. He considered it desirable if it 
 was possible and would not involve a too great sacrifice of feeling. 
 The necessary orders were accordingly given and we proceeded to 
 complete the reading of a budget of letters, most of them from 
 friends at home and similar in sincerity and spirit to that which I 
 have inserted above. 
 
 On my arrival at the Palace I unexpectedly found Lord Palmerston 
 in the room set apart for the use of the Diplomatic Corps engaged in a 
 conversation with those who had arrived of which I was the subject. 
 He immediately took me by the hand, and, leading me into a recess, 
 told me, in substance, that having received on the previous evening 
 a despatch from Mr. Bankhead, the English Charge at Washington,' 
 informing him of what had taken place there in respect to myself, 
 he at once transmitted it to the King who had sent for him at an 
 early hour and commanded him to see me before the commencement 
 of the ceremonies of the day and to communicate to me the views 
 he had taken of the affair. It was, he said, far from His Majesty's 
 habit or desire to meddle in any way in the proceedings of foreign 
 Governments in respect to matters which did not affect his own Coun- 
 try, nor was it his intention to do so on the present occasion; but 
 being satisfied from the information he had received that the pro- 
 ceedings of the Senate had been extensively founded on political and 
 partisan considerations and established nothing that ought to im- 
 pair the respect he entertained for me, he thought it due as well to 
 the President as to myself that he should say so at the earliest practi- 
 cable moment. To this the King had been pleased to add that I had 
 been long enough in England to know that no class of her public 
 men were exempted from experiencing the excesses of party spirit, 
 and that they thus became the more capable of understanding and 
 duly appreciating them when they occurred elsewhere. What His 
 Majesty desired was that I should feel neither disquietude nor em- 
 barrassment but rest entirely at ease in regard to my standing with his 
 Government and himself. I was of course highly gratified by these 
 seasonable and considerate proceedings on the part of the King and 
 by Lord Palmerston and thus expressed myself in terms which I 
 thought called for by the occasion. 
 
 The reigning Sovereign with the members! of the Koyal Family 
 occnpy at Levees and Drawing Kooms, a stationary position before 
 the throne. The company, preceded by the Diplomatic Corps, enter 
 the Throne Eoom in procession and exchange salutations with the 
 Eoyal Circle in passing and go out at another door, except such as 
 are entitled to remain in the Presence, as it is called, and these, 
 (Consisting of the Ministers of foreign and the home Governments 
 and a stated few beside form in group in front. The only occasions 
 
456 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 on which any of the unprivileged company stop in their progress 
 before the Royal Circle are when presentations are to be made or 
 other permitted duties to be performed, or when any individual is 
 addressed by the Sovereign, in which latter case the movement 
 of the procession is arrested until the conversation is closed by an 
 appropriate bow on the King's part. He detained me long enough 
 to express in very kind terms his regret at what had happened 
 affecting me and a hope that I would remain in England for some 
 time ° after the expiration of my mission, and so forth. The Duke of 
 Sussex, standing some distance from me, but towering in his hercu- 
 lean proportions above all the company, exclaimed in a loud voice — 
 " What is this, Mr. Van Buren, that I have read in the papers ! I 
 hope it is not true ! " I was too far from him to reply in words and 
 could only assent to the authenticity of the news he referred to by 
 motions on which he added — " all I can say is that I am very sorry 
 for it." Similar assurances of good will were expressed by the 
 Queen and by other members of the Royal Family, which with 
 friendly salutations from various other sources made the morning 
 pass more agreeably than I could have anticipated. 
 
 Nor were the exhibitions of such feelings confined to the Gov- 
 ernment to which I had been accredited, and to those attached to it. 
 Several gentlemen of the opposition, whose acquaintance I had 
 not before made, stepped forward to shew me civilities. Sir Rob- 
 ert Peel, with whom I had as yet had no intercourse, left a card 
 for me the next day and, as soon as I returned it, sent me an invi- 
 tation to dinner which I accepted. The Earl of Westmoreland, one 
 of his political friends, did the same and informed me, thro' his 
 son, that Sir Robert would meet me at his house if I could accept 
 his invitation, and that he would be pleased to present me to other 
 gentlemen with! whom he thought it would be agreeable to me to 
 become acquainted before I left England; but my engagements for 
 the short period I intended to remain put it out of my power to 
 avail myself of the Earl's friendly attentions. 
 
 Not content with his previous acts of kindness the King, at my 
 audience of leave, expressed a desire that I would pay a visit to 
 the good Queen and himself at Windsor Castle before my departure 
 from the Country. The severe illness of a near relative of the Queen, 
 then on a visit to the Court, put it out of his power to receive me 
 at that moment, but if her health should improve in season Lord 
 Palmerston, he said, would apprise me of the fact and of the time 
 when my visit would be acceptable. This was done and I spent two 
 days at the Castle upon as easy and familiar a footing with its in- 
 mates as could have been the case in any private family. Lord 
 
 "MS. IV, p. 155. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 457 
 
 Palmerston was requested to attend the King during my stay and 
 dined with us both days, remaining over the night of the first, and 
 the King had also the goodness to direct the attendance of my friend, 
 for such he truly was, Sir Charles Vaughan, who, by his command, 
 continued during my visit at the Castle and returned with me to 
 the city. His Majesty also took the keys and shewed me many of 
 the most interesting parts of that venerable and noble pile. The 
 Queen went with us to Virginia water, and on the morning of our 
 departure, the King on foot and the Queen in her carriage, took 
 us to the cottage on the slope — a building planned by themselves 
 and finished throughout according to the Queen's taste, and they 
 directed my attention to its simplicity in comparison with what the 
 King called the magnificent structures of "his luxurious brother, 
 George IV." It was on this occasion that he made to me the com- 
 munication, before referred to, concerning the impressions which 
 had at one time generally prevailed about Gen, Jackson, and his own 
 course in respect to them. To this spot my carriage had been sent 
 and there we took leave of our royal host and hostess after a few 
 words from the King expressing, for himself and for the Queen, 
 the best wishes for my safe return to my native Country and for 
 my future welfare. In my carriage I found four handsome colored 
 engravings representing the Castle, the different points from which 
 the views had been taken being noted in pencil, in the Queen's 
 handwriting, at the foot of each, and on one of them the window 
 of the room I had occupied being marked, a circumstance to which 
 she had directed my attention while at the Cottage. After the 
 King's death she sent me, thro' Lady Wellesley, a sketch of his life 
 with a full account of its closing scenes. 
 
 I was told by some of my diplomatic brethren after my return 
 that an invitation to the Castle, as a visitor, was a mark of respect 
 which had before been confined to members of the rank of Am- 
 bassador and the representative from Hanover, and that they thought 
 mine the first case of departure from that rule. How this was I 
 know not; — ^I allude more particularly to these matters than I 
 might otherwise have done, not only because they were, under the 
 existing circumstances, peculiarly grateful in themselves but also 
 as marking the signal failure of the designs of my enemies so far 
 as they were aimed at my personal humiliation at the Court to 
 which I had been sent. 
 
 On the day the news of the rejection of my nomination appeared 
 in the journals Prince Talleyrand sent me an invitation to meet 
 a, few friends at his home in the evening. I found a small and 
 select party, and among them Lord Auckland, then a member of 
 the Cabinet and subsequently Governor General of India. He ex- 
 tended his hand to me very cordially and congratulated me upon 
 
458 AMBKICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the treatment I had received from the Senate. I remarked that 
 altho' myself inclined to regard the affair in the light he suggested 
 I could hardly have expected such a view to be taken of it by a 
 stranger and at so great a distance from the theatre of action, to 
 which he replied, promptly — ^" Yes, yes, I take the right view of 
 it! In all my experience I have seldom known the career of a 
 young man in your position crowned with marked success who had 
 not been made, in the course of it, the subject of some such 
 outrage!" 
 
 Apropos of this mention of Prince Talleyrand, a circumstance 
 occurred in our intercourse which perhaps may amuse my reader 
 as much as it amused me and which may be not without some use 
 in estimating the character of that celebrated man. Perceiving as 
 I thought, a disposition to treat me with marked kindness I visited 
 his house as often as the habits of society in relation to persons in 
 his position would justify, and was always received with cordiality 
 by himself and his agreeable niece the Duchess de Dino. His con- 
 versation was, I need hardly say, an unfailing source of high grati- 
 fication, only qualified by the necessity we were under of troubling 
 his niece with the office of interpreter as he did not speak English, 
 nor I French. I was so much struck by the extraordinary circum- 
 stance that a diplomatist so distinguished and constantly in service 
 should not have acquired the language of a Country with which 
 his own was in juxta-position and where so much of his time had 
 been spent as to express my surprise to Lord Palmerston and to 
 ask him whether this ignorance was not in some degree assumed, 
 and I ventured at the same time to make some enquiries as to the 
 extent to which the Prince's mind had been affected by his great 
 age. To my first question Lord Palmerston answered that in all 
 his intercourse with him they invariaJbly spoke in French, and that 
 they did so on the assumption that it was made necessary by the 
 Prince's ignorance of the English language. He added that the 
 idea suggested by me had not infrequently occurred to himself, 
 and he thought it quite likely that the old diplomatist, in requiring 
 the exclusion of the latter medium of communication from their 
 discussions, looked, in a degree at least to the advantages, undoubt- 
 edly considerable, to be derived from having his negotiations con- 
 ducted in his own tongue. On the other point he was decidedly 
 of opinion that, tho' already an octogenarian, Talleyrand's mental 
 faculties had not yet suffered the slightest deterioration. His 
 sagacity, quickness of apprehension and the piquancy of his wit 
 seemed rather to increase with his years and were, he said, con- 
 stantly and strikingly displayed in the National Conferences in 
 which they were then engaged. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 6V MAETIN VAN BUKEN. 459 
 
 I was present at a debate in the House of Lords when the Marquis 
 of Londonderry made a violent attack upon Talleyrand, He had 
 no sooner taken his seat than the Duke of Wellington rose and, with 
 animation and fluency quite unusual with him, said that the ob- 
 servations of the Marquis, on account of the friendly relations ex- 
 isting between them and the general accord in their political 
 opinions, made it necessary that he should without delay disavow 
 the slightest participation in the sentiments which had fallen from 
 his friend. He had, the Duke said, been associated with the dis- 
 tinguished man, who had been so harshly spoken of, in transactions 
 of the gravest character, involving the tempoi'al ° interests of man- 
 kind to as great an extent as any that had ever been acted upon and 
 he felt no hesitation in saying that he had never been called to act, in 
 the management of public affairs, with a man who had discharged 
 the duties imposed upon him with a more liberal or faithful spirit. 
 He had found him indeed assiduous in his efforts to obtain what he 
 conceived to be due to his own Country but never wanting in respect 
 for the rights and interests of other Nations. Satisfied that his 
 friend had unwittingly done great injustice to the eminent stranger 
 then discharging highly responsible public duties in England, he 
 felt it to be his duty to correct the mistake into which his noble 
 friend had unhappily fallen, as far as his own experience and capac- 
 ity to estimate the characters of public men enabled him to do so. 
 Entertaining a strong confidence in the integrity and candour of 
 the Duke this declaration, made with a warmth and earnestness by 
 which his hearers were greatly excited, went far to remove from my 
 own mind unfavorable impressions in regard to Prince Talleyrand's 
 sincerity and good faith in which I had participated in common 
 with a large portion of the world. I will here, also, take occasion 
 to mention that this improved view was greatly strengthened by a 
 conversation had long after, at my own house, with Marshal Bert- 
 rand, who had been Napoleon's close companion and friend, both 
 at Elba and St. Helena, remaining with him till his death and en- 
 joying his fullest confidence to the last. That upright and every 
 way worthy man, notwithstanding the strong distrust in regard to 
 Talleyrand which Napoleon carried to his grave and recorded in 
 his will, entertained opinions favorable to the honesty and sin- 
 cerity of the former similar to those avowed by the Duke of Well- 
 ington, and expressed them frankly and freely. 
 
 But I am perhaps wandering too far from my promised anecdote 
 —which however is a short one. Having received from the worthy 
 captain of the " President " two saddles of American venison, as I 
 was about leaving England, I sent one to the Duke of Sussex and 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 160. 
 
460 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the other to Prince Tallyrand. Returning to the Audience Cham- 
 ber, after taking leave of Lord Palmerston, I found the Prince its 
 sole occupant. He looked around, obviously, in search of some per- 
 son on whom he might call to interpret between us, but, seeing no 
 one, he smiled and, without the slightest embarrassment aJid in very 
 tolerable English, entered into conversation on various subjects, con- 
 cluding by thanking me for the venison and inviting me to dine 
 with him next day and partake of it. I had made my arrangements 
 to leave in the morning and was therefore obliged to decline but 
 promised to call upon the Duchess de Dino and himself for leave- 
 taking in the evening, which I did, but without again having the 
 pleasure of hearing him talk English. 
 
 A year's residence in a Country, however great the facilities en- 
 joyed to that end, is, at least, an inadequate period for the formation 
 of entirely reliable opinions of its public men. It is therefore not 
 without real diffidence and much hesitation that I say even the little 
 that I do say about those who came more particularly under my 
 observation. But as the opinions I formed, however hasty, were 
 quite unprejudiced deductions from what I saw and heard I ven- 
 ture on the expression of them, trusting that they will be indulgently 
 suflFered to pass for what they are worth. 
 
 Lord Grey, whose charactei' as a Statesman has been the subject 
 of much observation, was at the time Prime Minister. I saw him 
 under circumstances better calculated perhaps to exhibit his true 
 character and to give the measure of his capacities than any that 
 had occurred in his previous career. I allude to his conduct of the 
 Reform Question, and his leadership in the debate upon the Reform 
 Bill in the House of Lords. I chanced to be present when he made 
 his celebrated appeal to the Bench of Bishops and denounced with 
 much eloquence and unsparing severity sentiments which he charged 
 to have been uttered by the partisan Bishop of Exeter. In his open- 
 ing speech the Earl entreated the Right Reverend Prelates to con- 
 sider what their condition would be before the Country if a measure 
 on which the Nation had fixed its hope should be rejected by but a 
 slim majority of the lay Peers and its fate be consequently decided 
 by the votes of the heads of the Church. Those Right Reverend 
 Prelates had, he said, shown that they were not indifferent or inat- 
 tentive to the signs of the times by their introduction of measures 
 for effecting some salutary reforms in matters relating to the tem- 
 poralities of the Church. In this they had acted with a wise fore- 
 thought and evinced their consciousness of the fact that the eyes of 
 the Country were upon them, as well as a proper sense of the neces- 
 sity of setting their house in order and preparing to meet the coming 
 storm. He implored them to follow on the present occasion the same 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 461 
 
 prudent course. This earnest and polished invocation was made to 
 include a scarcely concealed menace of the gravest character by which 
 the Prelates were profoundly moved. It had, as was alleged, drawn 
 from one of them, the fiery Bishop of Exeter, a declaration — whether 
 on that floor or in a pastoral letter or in some other public form 1 
 do not now remember — ^that the course pursued by his Majesty's Gov- 
 ernment in their support of the Reform measure was of a character 
 well fitted to expose the stability of the Crown to danger. This im- 
 puted avowal was brought to the notice of the Lords by Earl Grey, 
 during an excited stage of the debate, — I believe on the night before 
 the final division on the Bill in the House of Lords. He denounced 
 it vehemently and in scorching terms as eminently disloyal in its ten- 
 dency, inconsistent with the allegiance due to the Throne from the 
 Et. Eev. Prelate, as amounting, substantially to an invitation to 
 insurrection, as a kind of moral treason and exhibited with elo- 
 quence and power the shocking impropriety of such a sentiment from 
 one of the heads of the Church. The Bishop's bench was, at that 
 time, directly behind that of the Ministers. Lord Grey soon turned 
 round, thus facing the former and standing within a few feet of 
 them, with the Marquis of Lansdowne on one side of him and the 
 Duke of Richmond on the other, both members of the Cabinet and 
 both doing what they could to increase the excitement, by cries of 
 hear! hear! which were re-echoed by the supporters of the Govern- 
 ment and retorted by the opposition. The aroused Bishop had risen 
 from his seat and without symptom of flinching gave back to the Earl 
 the fiercest glances of resentment and defiance. 
 
 This scene occurred at a late hour of the night — or rather an 
 early hour of the morning — ^whilst I stood on the steps of the 
 Throne, near the bench of the Bishops, the place assigned to the 
 foreign ministers, and a more exciting one I have never witnessed. 
 
 Earl Grey was a man of noble stature and dignified address. 
 My colleague in the United States Senate, Mr. RufusKing, had 
 previously described him to me as being, upon the whole, the most 
 imposing and impressive speaker he had heard in England. Such 
 was also the conclusion at which I arrived and altho' to my mind 
 his ideal of an ultimate .and superior obligation to his " order " — 
 however chivalrous and unselfish the sentiment in him, the occasion 
 of its utterance considered, — compromised the strict integrity of 
 his whig principles, he was, without doubt, always and under all 
 circumstances a patriot and an honest man. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington was not in power during my residence 
 in England, and my intercourse with him was limited to a formal 
 introduction and interchange of personal civilities when we hap- 
 pened to meet. He was nevertheless to me, of course, a subject of 
 
462 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 much interest and observation. His unqualified stand against the 
 Reform. Bill, with the best reasons to believe that its passage or 
 that of something very much like it was desired by a large majority 
 of the Nation, and the firmness and fortitude with which he sus- 
 tained the popular rebuke were of themselves, aside from his dis- 
 tinguished military carreer sufficient to attract to him the attention 
 of foreigners. That he was sincere in his opinion that neither the 
 welfare of his Country nor the happiness of its inhabitants would 
 be promoted by that measure no intelligent and unprejudiced ob- 
 server of his character and conduct could doubt. Yet in settrag up 
 and adhering to that opinion against the will of the Nation, con- 
 stitutionally expressed, he made himself for a season exceedingly 
 odious to the masses. 
 
 ° The usual demonstrations of popular discontent in England, such 
 as breaking his window, pelting his carriage with mud, and so forth, 
 were directed against him without stint but without shaking his 
 nerves or producing the least effect upon his spirit or i-esolution to 
 maintain the position he had assumed. It was not untilhis judg- 
 ment was satisfied that farther attempts to resist the popular will 
 thro' the power of the Crown must endanger the peace of the Coun- 
 try, if not the stability of the Throne, that he declined the honor'? 
 tendered to him by the King and, retiring from the field, advised 
 his Sovereign to give the reins of Government into the hands of his 
 opponents. 
 
 I returned to England at that critical moment, and just before the 
 Duke abandoned his attempt to construct a "new administration upon 
 the principles he espoused. 
 
 The decision of a majority of the House of Commons is the only 
 constitutional expression of the opinion and wishes of the people of 
 England. That expression is not binding either upon the Crown or 
 upon the House of Lords except so far as is provided by the Consti- 
 tution which concedes to each of them rights and powers placed 
 above the control of the Commons. But its opinion is nevertheless 
 the recognised constitutional exposition of the popular will, and that 
 branch of the Government, representing the numerical ajid physical 
 strength of the Nation, had unequivocally- pronounced in favor of a 
 material change in the representation of the people in the House of 
 Commons. The Duke, acting as the First Minister of the Crown, 
 had on a former occasion declared, in substance, that there should 
 be no such reform and it was now proposed by the King, to restore 
 him to the power of which he had been divested through the exercise 
 of the popular will with the avowed intention of counteracting and, 
 defeating that will thro' the instrumentality of the powers vested 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 165. 
 
autobiogea;^h¥ op mabtin van buben. 463 
 
 in the other two branches of the Government. The issue thus pre- 
 sented to the people of England was a grave one — ^being nothing less 
 than one of absolute submission to the despotic control of those de- 
 partments of the Government in the choice of which they had no 
 vote or a resort to the extreme remedy, in which the existing system 
 found its origin, forcible resistance. I had already seen much to 
 respect in the character of that people but nothing so impressive as 
 their noble bearing at this fearful crisis. On occasions of ordinary 
 excitement, when dangers to their liberties were seen at a distance, 
 public meetings, violent resolutions, clamor and rioting Were the com- 
 mon channels thro' which popular discontent showed itself to nien 
 in power; but now that the necessity for immediate and effective 
 action was imminent — indeed, at hand — ^none of these exhibitions of 
 an offended public sentiment were to be seen or heard. The streets 
 were quiet and, to an unusual extent, abandoned. Silence prevailed 
 in the coffee-rooms and in all places of public resort. The press spoke 
 in measured terms, the House of Lords, lately the object of violent 
 denunciation, was not spoken of at all, and almost the only open dis- 
 play of the condition. of the public mind was the notice, placarded 
 on numerous respectable houses, " no taxes paid here." Nor could any 
 public demonstrations have been equally significant or so effectually 
 convinced anti-reformers of the nature of the crisis which had at 
 last been reached. The Duke saw it as clearly as any one and met it 
 like an honest man. By his express advice to the King Lord Grey and 
 his Cabinet were recalled and the danger passed away. 
 
 As a public speaker the Duke of Wellington possessed few at- 
 tractions to casual or inattentive hearers. His language was plain, 
 even common-place, his gestures awkward and his delivery marred 
 by painful repetitions. Yet he had oratorical qualifications of a 
 high value by means of which he seldom failed to make his speeches, 
 on great occasions, remarkably effective. These were a clear head, 
 a sound discriminating mind and a love of truth, of the sincerity 
 of which no ingenuous auditor could remain unsatisfied. No man 
 that I ever heard seemed to me more scrupulously attentive to the 
 wholesome advice given to orators, never to rise except they had 
 something to say and to resume their seats when they had said it. 
 I listened always with interest and seldom without profit to his ap- 
 parently confused speeches. They contained clear and closely con- 
 densed statements of facts, frequently including some that were 
 very material but had been overlooked by previous speakers, and 
 fresh and original views of the subject with additional arguments 
 in favor of such as had been already urged; the whole being pre- 
 sented briefly and with an obviously equitable aim and left to make 
 its way to the sense and reason without an effort to enlist the imag- 
 
464 AMEBICAlir HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATIOlSr. 
 
 ination or the passions of his audience. He was consequently heard 
 by those who were in pursuit of the right and truth of the case with 
 much attention, and his speeches, backed by his well understood 
 integrity and truthfulness, generally told upon the decision with 
 much force. There were many points in which he and Gen. Jackson 
 resembled each other. In moral and physical courage, in indiffer- 
 ence to personal consequences and in promptness in action there 
 was little if any difference in their characters. The Duke was better 
 educated and had received the instruction of experience upon a 
 larger scale, but the General in native intellect had, I think, been 
 more richly endowed. 
 
 The effects of Sir Eobert Peel's oratory were, as it appeared to 
 me, much weakened by the formal and somewhat ostentatious man- 
 ner in which he threw himself into the debate — a certain something 
 that seemed to say here am I! Yet I never saw anything, either 
 in his familiar intercourse with the members of the House, or in his 
 manners or conversation out of it, to countenance the idea that he 
 was capable of indulging in any such assumption or that he 
 entertained a vain conceit of his own capacities or importance. It is 
 far more likely that I misjudged as to the habit I speak of, altho' 
 I was struck by the appearance of it and often referred to it at the 
 time. Sir Eobert impressed his contemporaries with a high opinion 
 of his elocution and he figured in an age of great men. Lord Macau- 
 lay, a competent judge, altho' certainly sometimes extravagant if not 
 careless in his conclusions ranks him among the successors of Pitt, 
 the justness of whose reputation as an orator has long ceased to be an 
 open question, and this classification has not been dissented from, nor 
 as far as I know, received with distrust. It may be regarded there- 
 fore as having met with general approbation. Nevertheless, with a 
 verj' good opinion of Sir Eobert Peel's capacities as a public speaker, 
 I must say that he at no time appeared to me equal, as a skilful de- 
 bater, to what Lord Derby was when I knew him as Lord Stanley, 
 or comparable, as an orator, to Daniel Webster ; neither ia my judg- 
 ment, did his greatest strength lie in that direction. His career 
 disclosed commendable traits of character and he succeeded in the 
 accomplishment of important objects, but by means among which 
 his speeches, useful tho' they were, were not the most effective. The 
 son of a cotton-spinner he attained, under, the adverse influences of 
 monarchical and aristocratical institutions a power in the Govern- 
 ment and a social position very rarely surpassed, under similar cir- 
 cumstances, and not often equalled. He bore a good fortune of so 
 marked a character as a man of sense and in a manner to which 
 I believe no exception has ever been made in any quarter, and to 
 which I am confident none could be made with truth. This, as the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUEEN. 465 
 
 world goes, is a very high merit, well calculated to advance a man 
 in its estimation. But it was not by far his strongest claim upon the 
 respect of his countrymen. He was the favorite, I may say the pet 
 of the landed aristocracy of England: few commoners ever stood 
 higher in its favor or were more caressed by its chiefs. These he 
 sorely offended by the efficient support he gave to Catholic emancipa- 
 tion, and, with perfect knowledge of the consequences he cut him- 
 self off forever from their confidence and favor by exerting an active 
 and powerful influence in behalf of free trade. There have been in 
 our time few greater movements than these movements in which 
 success required the deracination of commercial habits and ideas 
 that had been incrusted by ages, and the conf rontal of overgrown 
 and bigoted prejudices which had long been intrenched in power. 
 This success, it was well known, could not be achieved without ex- 
 posure to the severest penalties and Sir Eobert i-eadily encountered 
 the danger and endured the penalties," contributing largely, perhaps 
 the largest, to the victory. Those movements were designed only 
 to subserve the happiness and welfare of the masses, and he deserves 
 to be regarded as having staked his political fortunesi upon their 
 success because he placed a higher value upon the interests of 
 humanity and the thanks of posterity than upon the plaudits and 
 caresses of the great and powerful among the living. 
 
 My acquaintance has been more intimate and my official inter- 
 course more extensive and varied with Viscount Palmerston than 
 with any other of the public men of England. He became Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs under the Melbourne Administration whilst I 
 held the office of Secretary of State, charged with corresponding 
 duties under that of President Jackson* He occupied the same post 
 during my residence as the representative of my Country in Eng- 
 land and until the end of my official term as President of the United 
 States. 
 
 During that time, embracing a period of about eleven years, there 
 did not arise a single important question between our respective 
 Governments with the superintendence of which he was not charged 
 or in which I did not take a direct part, or over the disposition of 
 which I did not exert a material influence either as Secretary of 
 State, Minister to England, as the confidential counsellor of Presi- 
 dent Jackson, always consulted on such occasions, or as President, 
 chiefly responsible for the manner in which the duties of the Gov- 
 ernment in respect to them were discharged. Among those ques- 
 tions were that of the North Eastern Boundary between us and Great 
 Britain, in the worst and most menacing aspects which that subject 
 ever assumed, and that presentepl by the mutually disturbing and 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 170. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 30 
 
466 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 irritating occurrences growing out of the Canadian Rebellion and 
 the unauthorized participation of our citizens in its prosecution, in- 
 cluding the affair of the Caroline and the case of McLieod.^ 
 
 I have seen, with regret, that an impression has, to some extent 
 at least, secured a lodgment in the public mind here that Lord 
 Palmerston has imbibed prejudices against this Country which have 
 made him less disposed than other British statesmen to do us jus- 
 tice. I feel bound to say that with the! opportunities I have had, 
 perhaps as full as those of any other person, I have seen nothing 
 to justify this notion but much to disprove its correctness. In the 
 course of the exciting and truly important discus-sions in which we 
 have been involved I never had occasion to suspect him of profess- 
 ing opinions he did not sincerely believe to be well founded, as a 
 sanction to groundless pretences or as a cover to resistance of claims 
 the justice of which he could not honestly controvert — an artifice 
 unhappily too common in diplomacy — ^but to this day I retain a 
 gratifying and abiding recollection of the constant occasion I found 
 to admire the candour and integrity of his conduct and of the facili- 
 ties for the performance of oiRcial duties which were afforded by 
 his genial and conciliatory dispositions. During my recent visit to 
 England, twenty five years later than the period of which I am 
 writing, I saw much of him and was pleased to find him at the head of 
 the Government. I discussed public affairs with him, including those 
 of our own Countries, with the same freedom which characterized 
 our former intercourse and perceived no change in his dispositions 
 or apparently in his capacities other than such as must follow the 
 unavoidable but, in his case, gentle touch of time. 
 
 Lord Palmerston can scarcely be regarded as an orator of the 
 first class — in the highest but restricted sense of the term. Altho' 
 prepared by the study and stored with the extent of general knowl- 
 edge deemed indispensable to the constitution of an accomplished 
 statesman, his parliamentary life has not been distinguished by 
 elaborate speeches indicating extensive research or profound medi- 
 tation. Yet there are, certainly, or have been few of his contempo- 
 raries whose careers as leaders of the House, from time to time, on 
 the side either of the Government or of the opposition, have been 
 more successful than his. For the accomplishment of a result so 
 grateful to public men he has called into action powers of the mind 
 more humble in pretension and less dazzling in appearance but, as 
 experience has often proved, far more effective in the end than the 
 most brilliant oratory when not sustained by them. These have 
 consisted of unfailing judgment in pressing his measures upon the 
 
 i Alexander McLeod and the burning of the steamer Caroline by the British in 1837, in 
 American waters. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 467 
 
 House at the proper time, wEen its members were in the best mood 
 to regard them favorably and the auspices in other respects favor- 
 able to success; of the keen sagacity with which he has been accus- 
 tomed to find the weakest point in the position of his adversary and 
 the promptitude and perseverance with which he has applied all 
 the means within his command to overthrow him at that point, 
 without engaging in mere oratorical or comparatively extraneous 
 debate, whereby time and opportunity might be afforded to his 
 opponent to recover from mistakes or to take a new position; of 
 so arranging not only the form of the specific questions thro' which 
 the sense of the House upon the whole subject is to be collected 
 and its disposition controlled, but the order in which they are to 
 be proposed, as to force to the surface and to turn to his advantage 
 latent diversities of feeling and opinion on points either not at all 
 or only remotely bearing upon the principal subject, and of that 
 habitual control by which he has saved himself from being led into 
 attempts to attain objects which were indeed beyond his reach, — 
 a fault into which indiscreet politicians, however sincere, are apt 
 to fall in the ardor of success. Lord Palmerston's career is a strik- 
 ing illustration of the advantages that may be reasonably expected 
 from the observance of these and other rules, which might be re- 
 ferred to, of parliamentary government, taught by the school of 
 which he was an early disciple and has become so distinguished a 
 master, and in connection with his moral courage, his alertness and 
 his remarkable industry they disclose the secret of his great 
 prosperity. 
 
 A fine opportunity was presented for the display of his proficiency 
 in that school on the occasion of the attacks made, in the summer of 
 1855, upon the Administration of which he was the Chief, on ac- 
 count of the course it had pursued in respect to the breaking up of 
 the Congress of Vienna and its alleged spirit and policy in relation 
 to the prosecution of the war with Eussia. The original notice of 
 a motion which would bring the subject before Parliament was 
 given by Mr. Milner Gibson, a member of the Queen's Privy Coun- 
 cil and an earnest friend to peace, but his notice had been virtually 
 withdrawn in consequence of the answer of the Premier to questions 
 which, it was insinuated, had been coUusively put to him by promi- 
 nent Peelites, friends of Mr. Gibson. The hostile movement was 
 however started afresh and pressed to a vote by Mr. Disraeli, the 
 Conservative leader in the House; and the position of the Ministry 
 in the conflict by which it was attempted to be overthrown was thus 
 described by the Attorney General : " It was attacked," he said, " in 
 front, flank, and rear by adversaries whose assaults, owing to their 
 conflicting opinions, it was difficult to meet." 
 
468 AMEBICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 This was doubtless a true description of Lord Palmerston's con- 
 dition on the occasion and it is one to which Parliamentary leaders 
 are always exposed and from which no order of talent can be made 
 so effectual for defence as that I have ascribed to him. It was my 
 good fortune to be able to attend those debates for two nights, on 
 both of which they were continued into the 'small hours' of the 
 morning. I was present at their close, having had occasion to ad- 
 mire the judgment, circumspection and talent displayed by Palmer- 
 ston throughout, and I rejoiced in his success. He triumphed in 
 a House a majority of the members of which were, at heart, de- 
 sirous of his overthrow. The Conservative leaders, under the in- 
 fluence of disappointed feelings, insinuated, as I have said, collu- 
 sion between the Premier and prominent Peelites, but I, sitting 
 near the gentlemen alluded to, needed no other proof of the un- 
 founded nature of those imputations than was to be found at the 
 conclusion in their countenances and whole demeanor. If I " had 
 been called upon to indicate the two members who appeared to take 
 the result most heavily to heart I should have pointed, without 
 hesitation, to Sir James Graham and Mr. Gladstone. Disraeli was 
 perhaps more resentful but evidently not quite as unhappy. And 
 yet the final vote, which confirmed and strengthened the Ministry 
 in their seats, had been unanimous — or, without a division ; so skill- 
 fully had the propositions and debates been governed by the master 
 spirit of the occasion.* 
 
 Whilst engaged with this part of my task, a friend without being 
 aware of my particular occupation at the moment, has placed in my 
 hand Macaulay's sketch of the life of William Pitt in which I find 
 
 -MS. IV, p. 175. 
 ' ' I have elsewhere referred to like successful efforts on the part of Mr. Madison in the 
 first Congress following the adoption of the Constitution, when he availed himself of 
 the diversities in opinion and feeling between the federal and anti-federal members to 
 secure the adoption of amendments, otherwise unattainable, which gave to that In- 
 valuable Instrument a vitality without which it must long since have perished. More- 
 over these and all other similar resorts of genius and talent since the days of Saint Paul 
 have been but reproductions of the admirable skill with which that great Apostle saved 
 himself from the malice of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had banded together for his 
 destruction, by adroitly mingling the momentous and overshadowing subject of the Resur- 
 rection of the Dead with the questions by which his life was endangered, as thus de- 
 scribed by St. Luke : 
 
 " But when Paul perceived that the one part was Sadducees and the other Pharisees, 
 he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee : of 
 the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. 
 
 "And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and Sad- 
 ducees : and the multitude divided. 
 
 " For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit : but the 
 Pharisees confess both. 
 
 "And there arose a great cry : and the scribes that were of the Pharisees part arose, 
 and strove, saying. We find no evil in this man ; but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken 
 to him let us not fight against God. 
 
 "And when there arose a great dissension, the chief Captain, fearing lest Paul should 
 have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded to soldiers to go down, and to take him 
 by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle." 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTREN. 469 
 
 Adews so opposite to those I have expressed as to make it, in some 
 sense, niy duty to notice them. He describes the subject of his 
 Memoir as " the greatest master of^ the whole art of parliainenta.ry 
 government thdt has ever existed — a greater than Montagu or Wal- 
 pole, a greater than his father Chatham or his rival Fox, a greater 
 than either of his illustrious successors Canning and Peel." 
 
 Having accorded, with a degree of justice which I am neither pre- 
 pared nor disposed to question, this eminent distinction to Mr. Pitt, 
 he proceeds to a description of the length of time during which the 
 " art," or power referred to has existed in England and of the im- 
 mense advantages she has derived from its exercise, to a definition of 
 that power and to his view of the qualifications which are sufficient 
 to enable its possessor to wield it with success. Upon the latter point 
 he thus expresses himself: — 
 
 Parliamentary Government is Government by speaking. In such a Govern- 
 ment the power of speaking is the most highly prized of all the qualities vs^hich 
 a politician can possess ; and that power may exist, in the highest degree, with- 
 out judgment, without fortitude, without skill in reading the characters of 
 men, or the sign of the times, without any knowledge of the principles of legis- 
 lation, or of political economy and without any skill in diplomacy or in the 
 administration of war. Nay it may well happen that those very intellectual 
 qualities which give a peculiar charm to the speeches of a public man may be 
 incompatible with the qualities which would fit him to meet a pressing emer- 
 gency with promptitude and firmness. 
 
 Lord Macaulay names several who have auquired the reputation of 
 great orators who were, in his opinion, thus deficient, but he does 
 not include Mr. Pitt in the number, nor is it fairly inferable from 
 what he says of him in that connection that he so regarded him. The 
 proposition he states was more probably designed as a general one 
 expressing his dissent from the commonly received idea of the quali- 
 fications indispensable to the constitution of a master, in the highest 
 degree, of the art of Parliamentary Government. I cannot assent 
 to the position assumed by him in this regard notwithstanding my 
 admiration of his abilities and accomplishments as a public writer, 
 without ignoring the teachings of a long public life, a large portion 
 of which has been spent in legislative bodies of a character quite well 
 calculated to test the capacities requisite to their government. The 
 comparison that he institutes between the relative powers which 
 Charles Townshend or Mr. Windham, on the one hand, were [pos- 
 sessed of] or which such men as Oliver Cromwell, who, he says, 
 talked nonsense, and William the Silent, who did not talk at all, 
 would have been capable of exercising in the Government of the 
 Plouse of Commons, can scarcely be regarded as a happy or a safe 
 illustration of the value of qualifications in a parliamentary leader, 
 which he deems unnecessary. A more reliable solution of the latter 
 question would I think be reached by comparing the probable effi- 
 
470 AMERICAN HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 ciency of such men as Windham and Townshend without the qual- 
 ifications referred to with that of the same gentlemen in the pos- 
 session of them. If the difference would be without doubt very di- 
 cided it would seem impossible to make a greater-^much less "the 
 greatest" — master of the whole art of parliamentary government out 
 of one who does not possess such qualifications. 
 
 A public speaker, on particular occasions and under adventitious 
 circumstances, may be able to rivet the attention and enlist the feel- 
 ings of his hearers for the moment, or carry erroneous conclusions 
 to their minds, without the aid of such auxiliary qualifications as 
 have been named, but to establish himself in the government of such 
 a body as the English House of Commons, it is, at least, indispensa- 
 ble that he should acquire and retain the deep seated and habitual 
 confidence of a majority of its members, and how that can be ac- 
 complished by a leader "without judgment, fortitude or skill in read- 
 ing the characters of men or the signs of the times, and without 
 any knowledge of the principles of legislation," is beyond my com- 
 prehension. 
 
 The history of our public men affords an instance sufficiently im- 
 portant and applicable to supply conclusive reasons to prove the 
 incapacity of a great orator to govern parliamentary or legislative 
 bodies who is deficient in a portion only of the qualifications de- 
 scribed. I allude to the case of Alexander Hamilton. The assump- 
 tion may excite surprise in the minds of those who have known 
 nothing personally of that eminent man, but it may be well doubted 
 whether his native Ck>untry — England^ — ^has ever produced one 
 who was, at all points, a more finished orator. He was well edu- 
 cated, well supplied with knowledge especially applicable to the 
 duties of a statesman, graceful and winning in gesture and in his 
 delivery, a man of comprehensive and elevated views, an eager and 
 earnest patriot in the sense of opinions sincerely and honestly held, 
 powerful, tho' diffusive, in debate, and withal supremely eloquent. 
 Yet this man thus lavishly furnished with faculties and oppor- 
 tunities as a public speaker never acquired a corresponding, much 
 less a controlling influence in any public body of which he was a 
 member. His failure in this regard tho' doubtless, in part, "at- 
 tributable to a defective judgment as well in the construction of his 
 public measures as in the means employed in their support, was 
 owing more to his having been "without skill in reading the char- 
 acters of men or the signs of the times." The consequences of these 
 defects were seen and felt by his coadjutors as well as by his op- 
 
 ' Van Buren was apparently misinformed or looked upon the West Indian colonial as a 
 native Englisliman. 
 ° MS/ IV, p. 180. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY Or MARTIN VAN BIJREN. 471 
 
 ponents in the old Congress, and one of them has already been re- 
 ferred to in these pages. But they were more strikingly displayed 
 in the Convention for the formation of the Federal Constitution, 
 in which his influence as the sole representative of a State of the 
 first importance and as the greatest orator in the body was totally 
 destroyed by the errors and indiscretions of a single speech, and 
 that his first and principal performance of that kind. 
 
 Whilst such were the results of Hamilton's parliamentary efforts,^ 
 his friend Madison, who partook largely of his political heresies in 
 one or two particulars, who was not equal to him as a,n orator and not 
 more than equal to him in general intellectual power, left inefface- 
 able traces of his ^eat success and usefulness in both bodies. Other 
 considerations doubtless aided in causing this difference in the 
 results of their labors but it is not to be doubted that it was princi- 
 pally occasioned by the possession and vigilant exercise on the part of 
 the latter of the qualifications referred to and which the former 
 lacked. A more reliable judgment would have impressed Hamilton 
 with a proper sense of the importance of ascertaining his ability to 
 obtain the assent of the Convention at least to a system of Govern- 
 ment like that he desired, — ^to wit: one which would favor the ulti- 
 mate introduction of monarchical institutions — ^before he ventured 
 to avow his preference for such institutions as unreservedly as he 
 did in the speech alluded to. A still more advanced step in wisdom's 
 way would have been the mature consideration of the probability of 
 his being able to secure the concurrence of the States in the establish- 
 ment of such a system before he attempted its passage in the Conven- 
 tion and of the ruinous consequences to his political friends, to him- 
 self and to his Country, that must follow his failure. A large por- 
 tion of the members of the Convention, probably a majority, were 
 his friends, and could have had no motive to conceal their purposes 
 from him. If he had possessed but moderate skill in reading the 
 characters of men and judgment sufficient to appreciate the import- 
 ance of the information, he would have found but little difficulty in 
 satisfying himself that, however much disposed some of his col- 
 leagues might be to wish success to his views, there was, in all prob- 
 ability, not one ready to encounter the responsibility which he boldly 
 faced and to risk their reputations and positions by openly sustain- 
 ing the preference he was about to avow, much less by any attempt to 
 carry it into effect. Washington, the President of the Convention 
 and his friend, if pressed with the earnestness which the occasion 
 would have justified, would not have hesitated to say to him that, 
 however strong might be his own apprehensions as to the final suc- 
 cess of Eepublican Government in this Country, he would feel it his 
 duty to peril his life in support of the attempt to uphold it until its 
 impracticability should be demonstrated by the fullest experience. 
 
472 ' AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 If BUimilton had been capable of understanding the temper and 
 dispositions of the people whose cause he had gallantly espoused, 
 or of reading the signs of the times, he would have seen and 
 felt the impossibility of obtaining the concurrence of even a ma- 
 pority of the states, notwithstanding occasional symptoms, under 
 the influence of adverse circumstances, of luke-warmness and back- 
 wardness in their devotion to free institutions, in the establishment 
 of a system which was liable to the suspicion merely of having been 
 designed to sap the foundations upon which Eepublican Govern- 
 ment could alone be sustained. But being, as he was, " without skill 
 in reading the characters of men or the signs of the times," and 
 absorbed in the egotism and attendant vanity which have been the 
 lot of great orators in all ages, he thought only of his own ideas, 
 of the opinions which were the fruit of his own meditations, and 
 thus made blind to all that was passing around him, he threw 
 himself headlong upon the Convention and recklessly proclaimed 
 sentiments at variance with what he ought then to have believed 
 and what experience has since shown to be the rivetted feeling of 
 the American people, rendering his subsequent success as a public 
 man impossible and casting a cloud of suspicion over the policy 
 and principles of the political party of which he had been from 
 the beginning the idol, which could never be dissipated and under 
 which it perished. 
 
 Lord Brougham's fame was at its highest point at the time of 
 which I am speaking. He held the first office in the kingdom ac- 
 cessible to a subject, with acknowledged talents and acquirements 
 scarcely second to any contemporary and with the most eligible 
 opportunities for their display from the woolsack, on the floor of 
 the House of Lords and in the High Court of Chancery. To add 
 to the value of these possessions came the consciousness that they 
 had not been conferred upon him through favor — ^were not the 
 fruits of rewards of obsequiousness or subserviency to rank and 
 power. It was, on the contrary, well understood that in raising 
 him from the condition of a private subject to the high dignity he 
 reached, his Sovereign had only bestowed upon him a tribute justly 
 due as well for his instrumentality in commending to the favor of 
 the Nation a great principle, long depressed, but which was vitally 
 important to its welfare, as for the ability and moral courage he 
 had exhibited and the responsibilities he had encountered in sus- 
 taining its unfortunate Queen against the bitter resentment and 
 arbitrary pretension of her reckless husband and Sovereign. These 
 were considerations which when connected with his unquestioned 
 capacity to discharge its onerous and responsible duties in a manner 
 useful to the Country, while creditable to himself, were calculated 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUBEN. 473 
 
 to confer and did confer unusual eclat on his elevation to the oiEce 
 of Lord High Chancellor of England. 
 
 I made his personal acquaintence at one of Prince Talleyrand's 
 delightful round-table dinners in which the company was restricted 
 to nine. On that occasion it consisted besides our host and his niece, 
 the Duchess de Dino, of Lord and Lady Holland, Lord and Lady 
 Sefton, — ^both ladies, like their husbands, veteran politicians, — ^the 
 Lord Chancellor, Lord Auckland and myself. I had seen the Chan- 
 cellor in his robes but did not recognize him in the plain dress he 
 wore, nor was I presented to him before dinner. Placed between 
 him and Lord Auckland, with whom I was well acquainted, I asked 
 of the latter the name of my neighbour, and was, to my surprise, 
 introduced to Chancellor Brougham. I met him frequently after- 
 wards, was invariably treated by him with kindness and respect, 
 neither saw nor heard of anything, save what I am about to speak 
 of, that should have impaired his claim to mine and yet, as I am 
 now, when I feel myself better informed almost ashamed to say, I 
 left England, in 1832, with strong prejudices against his personal 
 character. These arose exclusively from an impression, erroneous 
 as I ultimately discovered it to be, in regard to certain effects, pro- 
 duced upon him by his sudden and great elevation from the rank of 
 a private subject to the highest office in the gift of the Crown, and 
 to the Peerage. 
 
 I have seldom observed in the habits of any people a more striking 
 and commendable feature, or one which has afforded me more satis- 
 faction, than the equanimity with which the higher classes of the 
 English nobility enter upon the successive advancements in rank and 
 dignity to which at intervals sometimes long delayed, they succeed by 
 inheritance, and the simplicity in respect to personal appearance and 
 demeanor with which they wear their new honors. This trait in 
 their character is so general as to constitute a rule, in the truth of 
 which no one who has an opportunity to test it will be disappointed, 
 that the higher the ranlcs of its aristocracy the more will the ob- 
 server be obliged to acknowledge not merely the modesty and sim- 
 plicity of manner, which distinguish the gentleman in all degrees 
 of society, but the absence of all assumptions of superiority or merit 
 on the score of birth. It is doubtless to these features in their dispo- 
 sition and conduct, almost always visible in their intercourse with 
 other classes, rather than to any different cause that the remarkable 
 freedom from envious or jealous feelings towards them, on the part 
 of those who occupy lower places in the established social scale, is to 
 be attributed, and they present in this regard a happy model ° for 
 those who are not born and have, consequently not been trained to the 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 185. 
 
474 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 possession of like distinctions but have succeeded to them through 
 their own merits and by the favor of their Sovereign. Right-minded 
 men thus placed will seldom fail to appreciate the proprieties as well 
 as the general duties of their position. They will think themselves 
 made neither better nor worse by becoming the recipients of such dig- 
 nities, but regarding the power and rank which have been conferred 
 upon them as a trust only for the advancement of the public good, the 
 possession of which entitles them to no more respect and confidence 
 than are the legitimate fruit of the able and faithful performance of 
 public duties, while serving their Country they will also reflect honor 
 upon their class and present examples worthy of being imitated by its 
 future members. 
 
 There have been illustrious instances of this description among 
 the public men of England and they have received the reverence 
 and gratitude of their countrymen. But the enlightened views of 
 . public policy which have led, from an early period, to the bestow- 
 ment of these distinctions, under a monarchy, without regard to 
 birth — ^though contrary to the genius of such a Government — ^have 
 not, in all cases, been rewarded with equal success. They have been 
 at times conferred on men whom their possession has only served 
 to inflate with vanity and arrogance. 
 
 As an American citizen, interested in the spread of free govern- 
 ment, I was, of course, solicitous for Lord Brougham's success in his 
 able support of the great principle involved in the question of Par- 
 liamentary reform, his devotion to which lay at the foundation of 
 his advancement and which was still dependent for its full develop- 
 ment and security on his continued efforts. I accordingly leaned 
 to his side in all his contests with his opponents and naturally wished 
 him well in all things. Nevertheless every thing I saw of him on 
 the woolsack, on the floor of the House of Lprds, or in the High 
 Court of Chancery led me to place him in the category of those 
 spoiled children of fortune whose heads are turned by their pros- 
 joerity and whose dispositions instead of being softened are made 
 haughty and assuming by the amplitude of their powers. It would 
 now be no less disagreeable than useless to recall the particular acts 
 and circumstances which served to ripen that impression into a 
 painful conviction. It is enough to say that the latter was as sin- 
 cere as it was unwelcome and kept its hold upon m.&, when I came 
 home. I acknowledged it without reserve to my friends when the 
 opinions I had formed of the public men of England were asked, 
 altho' never unnecessarily or by way of reproach. During my sec- 
 ond visit abroad many years later, I was thrown in a closer in- 
 timacy with Lord Brougham and, with nearer views of the man, 
 became fully satisfied that my former opinions of him had been 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIN" VAN, BUREW. 475 
 
 most unjust. The addition of more than a score to the number of 
 his years and the change which had taken place in his political posi- 
 tion, I am aware( were enough to work a great change in a man's 
 feelings but, in the natural course of such things, this change would 
 have been the other way. The disease which, in 1831, I believed to 
 be upon him in its acute form, would, if such had been his condition, 
 have become chronic in 1854. But there were no such Indications. 
 I never, on the contrary, saw a man who, after passing thro' so dis- 
 tinguished a public life, was more at ease with the world, less prone 
 to carp at the management of public affairs by others — the besetting 
 infirmity of retired Statesmen — less restive under the neglects with 
 which the worshippers of the rising sun regard his setting or more 
 cheerfully acquiescent in the conclusions at which the great com- 
 munity of which he is a member had obviously arrived that the day 
 for his active and useful participation as chief in the weightier mat- 
 ters of the Grovernment has passed away forever ; a judgment which 
 communities have a right to form and express according to their own 
 pleasure and from which rational men, with faculties really unim- 
 paired, will not be disposed to appeal. 
 
 As far as I had opportunities for forming an opinion, and these 
 were not few or unfavorable, he seems envious of or dissatisfied 
 with no man or set of men and, forgetful of former prejudices, 
 devotes the remnant of power and influence that are left to him 
 to the improvement of the various public institutions of his Country 
 and a libelral share ofl his leisure hours to social enjoyments, par- 
 taking of them, with equal zest and satisfaction, with friends and 
 foes of former days. Such would not have been the evening of a 
 life the meridian of which had been deformed by passions of the 
 character I had supposed — a sad error on my part the correction 
 of which will always stand among the most cherished recollections 
 of my last visit to Europe. 
 
 Lord Derby, the present first Minister, was then a member of 
 Lord Grey's Administration, holding the office of Secretary for 
 Ireland. I thought him the readiest and keenest debater in the 
 House of Commons. A thorough comprehension of his subject and 
 a happy condensation of its most material parts, a perspicuous 
 presentation of the questions growing out of it, with pointed but 
 uncrowded illustrations and legitimate deductions going to strengthen 
 the side he espoused, expressed with a remarkable clearness and 
 delivered in a peculiarly graceful manner, were among the striking 
 features of his speeches. They were always listened to with interest 
 and on great occasions rarely failed to elicit the admiration of all 
 who- heard them. But they did not, in general, produce a corre- 
 sponding effect upon the vote of the House. This discrepancy 
 
476 AMEBICAN HISTOEIGAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 was not understood to arise as much from an aversion to his views 
 of the subject under debate or from any defects in his arguments 
 as from the apparently imperious spirit with which they were en- 
 forced. Whatever may have been the true character of his feelings — 
 of which I was not well enough acquainted with him to judge — ^he 
 always seemed to me more intent upon harassing than upon convert- 
 ing his adversary. Presenting himself in that attitude, as I cannot 
 but thinlf he did to others as well as myself, his assaults and replies, 
 tho' always couched in civil and parliamentary language, generally 
 assumed a harsh and irritating character. His dislike to Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, with whom he was often brought in contact by the nature of 
 his official duties and, doubtless by a sincere belief that he was ren- 
 dering the Comitry a service by keeping him in check, led him to 
 indulge frequently in such displays and strengthened a habit to 
 which he was naturally not disinclined. In respect to him, at least, 
 1 was quite sure that I was not mistaken in assuming that he acted 
 from system and not upon the impulse of the hour, and succeeded 
 in producing the desired effect. Certain it was that O'Connell 
 seldom commenced an altercation with him which could have been 
 avoided and when one was forced upon him he appeared desirous 
 to get rid of him as soon as he could. The sparrings between them 
 were among the most spicy proceedings of the House and therefore 
 attracted more of my attention. 
 
 By the side of the Secretary for Ireland, sustaining the same 
 Administration, but in one respect, at least, in striking contrast 
 with him, sat his associate in the Cabinet, the late Earl Spencer, 
 then Lord Althorp and Chancellor of the Exchequer. It would be 
 doing Lord Althorp injustice to say that he was a dull speaker 
 for he was a man of excellent sense, highly respectable in his ac- 
 quirements and of exemplary probity, who avoided unnecessary 
 altercations, confined his attentions very much to the duties of his 
 office and was assiduous in their performance. What such a man 
 says upon a subject the investigation of which is made his special 
 duty is always listened to with g-espect and confidence. In other 
 respects the Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed to his hearers — 
 especially to bystanders — an uninteresting speaker. Still more de- 
 cided was this impression when his speeches were contrasted with 
 the severe invectives and brilliant sallies displayed in those of his 
 more impetuous as well as more piquant associate Lord Stanley. 
 Lord Althorp bore the honors he possessed and the contemplation 
 of those to which he was destined, in the natural course of things 
 to succeed, with remarkable humility. He affected no superiority " 
 over those with whom he acted, was scrupulously careful not to 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 190. 
 
AXJTOBIOGKAPHY 03? MARTIN VAN BTJKBN. 477 
 
 offend the feelings of any one and gave his reasons for his support 
 of or objection to any measure before the House plainly, modestly 
 and with sufficient clearness. So consistent had been, as I was in- 
 formed, the manifestation in his parliamentary career of these ad- 
 mirable features that never, in its whole course, had the prejudice 
 or ill-will of his associates in the public service been excited against 
 him. The difference between the degrees of influence which these 
 gentlemen were capable of exerting in support of the measures 
 committed to their superintendence was not inconsiderable, and I 
 confess the comparison struck me as favorable to the superior use- 
 fulness of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 There was an occurrence in the House at the session to which I am 
 referring so well calculated to illustrate the character of the upright 
 and unassuming Lord Althorp as to justify me in noticing it. An 
 error to the ext^t of a million in a matter connected with the duties 
 of his office was claimed to have been discovered by an opposition 
 member — 1 believe Mr. Croker — and brought before the House with 
 much formality. The mistake was not pointed out with Sufficient 
 distinctness, to preclude discussion, and one of the Chancellor's 
 friends. Lord Palmerston, I think, rose and replied to what had been 
 said with much apparent success. Lord Althorp, being more familiar 
 with the subject, became sooner apprised of the correctness of the 
 allegation and attempted to arrest the discussion; as soon as his 
 friend resumed his seat, thanking the latter for the promptness with 
 which he had come to his aid he acknowledged the mistake imputed 
 to him, with his usual ingenuousness and explained to the House how 
 it had occurred. Hearty and prolonged cheering forthwith fol- 
 lowed from both sides of the House creditable to the opposition for 
 its magnanimity and to Lord Althorp as an indication of his per- 
 sonal standing among his countrymen of every political denomina- 
 tion. 
 
 Lord John Russell was, I believe, the youngest of this trio of 
 junior members of Lord Grey's Cabinet who took active part in the 
 proceedings of the Commons at this time, and did much to lay the 
 foundations of their subsequent eminence in the Councils of the 
 Nation, A promising scion of the House of Bedford, the respect and 
 good will of the people were tendered to him in advance as a testi- 
 monial of the veneration they cherished for the virtues of its illus- 
 trious founder. Lord John was Paymaster of the Forces and Leader 
 of the House of Commons. To him was committed the responsible 
 and highly honorable trust of preparing and introducing into that 
 House the Eeform Bill of 1831, and of superintending its passage. 
 Those duties he performed with much parliamentary tact, sound 
 judgment and great success. Altho' he did not perhaps in a single 
 instance make what might be called a brilliant speech, he seldom, if 
 
478 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ever, failed to say what was necessary or to say it at the right time. 
 The abuses of the existing system and the probable advantages of the 
 improvements proposed by his Bill were set forth by him plainly, 
 concisely and forcibly. Everything he said served to satisfy his 
 hearers that, although zealous in his support of the great principle 
 upon which it proceeded, he was not disposed to push the enforce- 
 ment of that principle to an extent that would betray indifference 
 to the security and stability of the important interest that would 
 unavoidably be affected by its passage, for good or for evil, or a want 
 of respect that was due to opposing opinions. On the contrary he 
 avowed and acted upon the conviction that the reform of a system 
 of so long continuance, to which so large a share of the intelligence 
 and wealth of the Country was opposed, to be safe and useful should, 
 at least, be gradual and maturely considered at every step. He was 
 accordingly desirous, throughout, to carry the Eefot-m principle, in 
 the first instance, only far enough to shew and to afford a reasonable 
 illustration of the advantages of the proposed improvement and to 
 enable the Country to regulate its future action upon the subject by 
 the light of experience. By such a course he thought the complaints 
 of those who felt aggrieA^ed by the abuses of the existing system 
 would be fairly respected without doing unnecessary violence to the 
 opinions and feelings and supposed interests of their opponents. 
 Thus wise and statesmanlike in his views, all England, I verily be- 
 lieve, tho' greatly divided upon the main subject and also in regard 
 to the most expedient way of dealing with it, was well satisfied with 
 the manner in which he discharged his responsible and difficult 
 duties. 
 
 He has since shared liberally in the confidence and favor of his 
 Country and for a long time occupied the distinguished post of 
 Premier Minister. His reputation for morality, integrity, personal 
 and official, and for political constancy is deservedly held in high es- 
 teem by all his countrymen without distinction of party. He is a 
 sensible, well informed painstaking gentleman and in every sense 
 trustworthy, and I cannot but think that it has been owing more 
 to the general consciousness of the existence of these valuable fea- 
 tures in his character, in connection with the particular transaction 
 of which I have spoken, than to supposed intellectual superiority 
 over contemporary statesmen that his public career has been so 
 much more successful than that of many of them. 
 
 I became well acquainted with the venerable member from Mid- 
 dlesex, Mr. Joseph Hume, and with his amiable family and repeat- 
 edly partook of their hospitality. Altho' not greatly distinguished as 
 a public speaker he always possessed himself fully of the merits of 
 the questions upon which he addressed the House, explained his 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 479 
 
 views clearly, and advocated them -with earnestness and obvious 
 sincerity. A large part of his usefulness consisted in his vigilant 
 watch of power and of the abuses engendered by its possession, his 
 devotion to liberty and his readiness to make sacrifices'for its sup- 
 port in whatever shape they might be presented. For very many 
 years a constant object of abuse from- those Avhose selfish aims and 
 projects he resisted he lived down the calumnies and sneers that were 
 heaped upon him, enjoyed during the latter years of his life the 
 esteem and respect of all parties and died, during my last visit to 
 England, mourned as a 'brother by honest men and true lovers of 
 their Country. 
 
 Mr. Denniston,^ now Speaker of the House of Commons, and Mr. 
 Labouchere, still a prominent member of that body, were, at that 
 early period of their political career, already prominently dis- 
 tinguished as among the most useful of its members, a promise they 
 have very fully redeemed. Neither Mr. Bright nor Mr. Cobden, who 
 had acquired so much celebrity in Parliament at the period of my 
 second visit, were members in 1831. But I made the acquaintance 
 of both during my last visit and was much pleased with the liber- 
 ality of their sentiments in regard to the United States. It was not 
 my good fortune to hear Mr. Cobden speak but Mr. Bright I heard 
 several times — on one occasion when the question was one of deep 
 interest and his effort, in my estimation, fully sustained the wide 
 spread reputation he has acquired as an orator and statesman. In 
 the course of his I'emarks he treated our Country and her institu- 
 tions with that justice and respect which have often been heard in 
 his public speeches and which have rendered his name a highly 
 cherished one in America. Mr. Cobden has recently paid us a visit 
 which I understand he has employed in careful and unprejudiced 
 enquiries into our condition and into the workings of our political 
 systems. State and National. I had not the pleasure of meeting 
 him but I am happy to learn from an intelligent and purely patri- 
 otic source that in his! respect for our Government and people as 
 well as in his desire for the success of both he in no degree falls 
 behind his friend and political coadjutor, Mr. Bright. 
 
 > Jolm Evelyn Denison. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 I have said that my residence in England was too short for the 
 formation of the most reliable estimates of her public men and this 
 may even more truly be predicated of my opinions in regard to the 
 character of her people and to the effects of her political institu- 
 tions upon their happiness and welfare. Nevertheless my observa- 
 tions were made under circumstances not otherwise unpropitious and 
 the effect of them was greatly to increase my favorable impressions 
 in both respects. Our own people have received from their ancestors 
 a protest against her frame of- government — a protest sealed with 
 the° blood of those who made it and to which it is to be hoped 
 their descendants to the remotest generation will faithfully adhere 
 because it was founded on a just respect for the rights and the 
 dignity of man. But it should not be forgotten that the decision 
 thus solemnly pronounced was made for and, in respect to its bind- 
 ing influence, became obligatory only upon themselves, and that the 
 right of a people to " lay the foundations of their Government on 
 such principles and to organize its powers in such fonn as to them 
 shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness " was as 
 freely conceded to other nations as claimed for their own. No one 
 doubts, no one can doubt that the form of Government recognized 
 by the English Constitution is as much the choice of her people as 
 that under which we have the happiness to live is the choice of ours. 
 1'he system of Government under which the respective nations pre- 
 fer to live being therefore a matter for the exclusive decision of each 
 and in respect to the disposition of which no foreign interference is 
 allowable, it is against reason and propriety that differences of opin- 
 ion concerning the wisdom of such disposition should be made a 
 source of inter-national discord or heartburnings of any descrip- 
 tion. Both Great Britain and the United States have inducements 
 of the strongest nature to a faithful observance of the duties which 
 flow from these sound and acknowledged general rules. A fair com- 
 jjarison of our respective systems, with reference to the securities 
 they provide for the most essential of the rights of man, will show 
 that we may, in that regard, be said with much truth to be indeed 
 brethren in principle. To name a few of the most prominent which 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 195. 
 480 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 481 
 
 are common to both; liberty of speech and of the press— to canvass 
 freely the acts of men in power and to express such opinions of 
 them as we may think useful and as truth will justify — liberty of 
 conscience in matters of religious faith — securities and safeguards 
 for the enjoyment of personal liberty, such as the writ of habeas 
 corpus, trial by a jury of the vicinage &o — ^the right and protection 
 of property: what candid American will claim that there are any 
 very essential differences in these respects between our condition and 
 that of the people of England. The fact that the sovereignty, the 
 supreme power in every branch of our Government rests with the 
 great body of the people, whilst in that Country only that which 
 is exercised by the House of Commons is placed in a more limited 
 portion of theirs, constitutes indeed a valuable and honorable dis- 
 tinction in favor of our unequalled Constitutiom Yet, it deserves 
 to be taken into consideration that the advantages we derive from 
 this superiority are not so much obtained by the actual exercise of 
 their sovereign power by the people as by the influence exerted upon 
 their representatives by the important fact of their possession of it 
 and by its exercise on stated occasions, and so regarded, the differ- 
 ence in our respective conditions will, upon reflection, be found not 
 so great as may be at first supposed. In point of fact the power of 
 public opinion in England and, more especially, that expression of 
 it which is pronounced by their people through their House of 
 Commons is as potential and, in certain respects, more so, in con- 
 trolling the action of the remaining branches of the Government as 
 is the right of the people here to displace them all at stated inter- 
 vals. I have watched the character and course of that power with 
 much interest, regarding its condition as a safe test of the relative 
 progress of the conflicting principles of Government embraced in 
 the English system.— monarchical and republican. My visits to and 
 temporary residence in that Country on two occasions, with an 
 interval of a quarter of a century between them and on both under 
 circumstances favorable to distinct and useful observation, have 
 afforded me facilities of which I have not failed to avail myself for 
 arriving at correct conclusions on this interesting point, and they 
 have brought me to that here stated ; a conclusion which wiU, I am 
 well aware, be at first somewhat startling to my republican country- 
 men, but which is nevertheless a true one. I could, if I had room 
 for them, which I have not, refer to many circumstances which fell 
 under my observation, on my second visit, indicative of the great 
 change that had taken place in the habits and feelings of the people 
 in 'favor of principles in the administration of their Government 
 altogether liberal in character and which, tho' carried out under a 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20—31 
 
482 AMBKICABT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 plausibility and force than I had supposed his positions would 
 effects. An incident or two, in which I was more immediately con- 
 cerned, must suffice to illustrate this position. 
 
 When I first left the United States my predecessor, Mr. McLane, 
 put in my hand a letter of introduction, somewhat special in its 
 terms, to Sir Robert Inglis, one of the members for Oxford, a gen- 
 tleman of whom, I am sure, every Englishman acquainted with him 
 will concur with me in saying that he was a man of as much public 
 and private worth as any man in the kingdom. In politics he was 
 then called in the language of the day and without exaggeration an 
 inveterate Tory. He received me kindly, spoke warmly of the good 
 qualities of my predecessor and expressed an earnest wish to continue 
 with me the friendly and social relations which had grown up be- 
 tween them. Accordingly he, for a season, treated me with marked 
 attention, but, without the occurrence of a single disturbing inci- 
 dent of a personal character, gradually but as markedly cooled until 
 our intercourse assumed a distant altho' always respectful character, 
 and thus continued until I left the Country. Appreciating correctly 
 the good and pure qualities of Sir Robert's character, the existence 
 of which could be read in his face and traced in his every step, I was 
 neither at a loss to understand nor offended by his course, attributing 
 it altogether, and, as I had subsequent reason to know, correctly, to 
 the radical difference he found between Mr. McLane's political feel- 
 ings and my own. 
 
 On my recent visit to London Sir Robert called on me immediately 
 after my arrival, declared his satisfaction at meeting me again and 
 tendered various civilities in the most cordial terms. I met him very 
 often as well in England as on the Continent, passed many agreeable 
 hours in his company at Turin and was treated by both Lady Inglis 
 and himself with uninterrupted kindness till the close of his life 
 which unhappily occurred shortly before my final departure from 
 Europe. During our intercourse on these occasions, except in regard 
 to the distinctive features in the outlines of the systems of our re- 
 spective Governments, we found but little to differ about. Still rep- 
 resenting the same constituents whose confidence he had so long en- 
 joyed without anything like a formal change in his political position 
 I yet found his views as liberal and his feelings as unprejudiced and 
 generous in respect to public questions as I could desire. 
 
 During the discussion of the Reform Bill on the occasion of my 
 first visit to England I listened with much interest to an elaborate 
 and, as I considered it, the ablest speech I heard, in either House, 
 against that measure, from the Earl of Harrowby. It took through- 
 out the ultra conservative grounds and mainta,ined them -^ith more 
 plausibility and force than I had supposed his positions would 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 483 
 
 admit of. When last in London I breakfasted with Sir Robert 
 Inglis and amongst the company present was Lord Harrowby, son 
 of the Earl, then deceased, to whose speech I have referred. I 
 found the present Lord Harrowby a gentleman of good intelligence 
 and a decided liberal. Mr. Monckton Milnes, a distinguished mem- 
 ber of the House of Commons, whose political opinions were of the 
 same stamp, was also present. The conversation becoming general 
 I alluded, in the course of it, to the obvious increase of the power 
 of public opinion in their country, and in noticing my remark he 
 said, in substance, that the Government of England, notwithstanding 
 its monarchical form, which he hoped would never cease to dis- 
 tinguish it, was rapidly becoming in its practical operation, as 
 liberal and as much under the influence of public opinion as one 
 ° could be that was republican in all its features; that he looked 
 upon such a destiny with complacency and only regretted that the 
 Government were not more, actively employed in preparing the 
 Country for the change which its Constitution was undergoing by 
 a more general diffusion of knowledge and education among the 
 people. 
 
 Among the various systems which have been devised and are now 
 in force for the Government of mankind it is in those only of 
 England and the United States that adequate provisions are to be 
 found for the security of personal liberty and the just rights of 
 inan; they are eminently significant of the community of character 
 and origin of the citizens and subjects in whose behalf they have 
 been established, and they constitute their birthright inalienable and 
 indefeasible save by their own acts. As in no other Nation are those 
 rights so well protected, so in no other is their safety watched with 
 anything like the same spirit. The Constitutions of some of the new 
 republics on this Continent profess to provide for the preservation 
 and enjoyment of them but these are, in the main, merely paper 
 institutions productive of few practical results. Long continued 
 abuses have taken too deep root to be speedily extirpated and the 
 people over whom these new Governments were established have 
 been too much enfeebled by past debasements to be able to assert 
 their individual rights with the vigor indispensable to their perma- 
 nent establishment. Considerable advances have been made by Sar- 
 dinia towards the promotion of liberal principles in the administra- 
 tion of government in that monarchy, but this is a speck upon the 
 political horizon of Europe. In regard to most of its States and 
 especially to the large and controlling ones of the Continent the 
 principle of arbitrary government is at this time, to all appearance, 
 as firmly established and possesses as much power as at any previous 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 200. 
 
484 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 period within the present century. It has for the last few years 
 gained strength instead of losing it and that in a quarter which, 
 from the geographical position of the nation which has been sub- 
 jected to it, makes this advance more alarming. The free institutions 
 of Great Britain and the United States serve as a standing reproach 
 to most of the Governments of Europe and as sources of mortifica- 
 tion and discontent to such among the people subject to the latter as 
 are capable of understanding their position — effects which those Gov- 
 ernments cannot but regard as a constant menace to their ill-gotten 
 power. That they do not attempt to suppress by violence at the 
 present moment, the spirit fostered by free institutions is alone at- 
 tributable to the material strength with which that spirit is armed 
 Jind to the hazards of the collision in other respects. 
 
 England still maintains the relations she has heretofore cher- 
 ished with the monarchical and despotic governments of Europe, 
 but, as they well know, the Throne has long ceased to be the con- 
 trolling element of power in that Country, and that conviction is 
 constantly and naturally exerting a corresponding effect upon the 
 character of their relations. A line of separation, as yet not fully 
 disclosed, has thus been drawn between England and America, on 
 one hand, and the antagonistic systems of the old world, on the other, 
 which promises to endure as long as anything that depends upon 
 the will or the action of man, and thus interests of the greatest mag- 
 nitude have become the subject of common and equal concern to the 
 two former Nations. Every assault upon those interests, whether 
 immediately directed against them in Great Britain or in the United 
 States, must be regarded as an attack upon both and will, it is to be 
 hoped, be met with equal spirit by both. The motives for such a 
 struggle and the reasons for its outbreak are continually gaining 
 strength and will become every day more and more imperative. The 
 precise time of its occurrence God only knows. A very intelligible 
 approach in that direction was made at the period of the Holy Alli- 
 ance. What might have been then attempted we may surmise but 
 perhaps shall never know if Mr. Canning had not threatened that 
 reckless body with calling into existence a legion of free States on 
 this Continent, alluding to the recognition of the independence of 
 the South American States, to assist in resisting the encroachments 
 of the spirit of despotism and had not the arbitrary powers taken, 
 alarm at the feeling exhibited upon the subject in America and at 
 the opportune re-appearance of Napoleon on the stage of action, 
 threatening their actual possessions. We do, however, know by ex- 
 perience that Nations under control of the will of individuals can 
 never stand still but are destined to continual change by a natural 
 and irj;esistible law. To recognize this trutia we have only to look 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIW VAN BUKEN". 485 
 
 at the fluctuations of the last few years in Europe. It was but yes- 
 terday when France and England marched side by side against 
 Russia with common indignation at the neutrality of Prussia and at 
 the suspicious halting of Austria. To day the hostile relations be- 
 tween France and Sardinia favored by Russia on one side and Aus- 
 tria on the other threaten the peace of the "world, whilst England 
 and Prussia, whose international relations have undergone a great 
 change, stand as neutrals certain if the war endures and if their neu- 
 trality is preserved, to incur, in their turn, the reproaches and resent- 
 ment of the belligerents. What complications will tomorrow pro- 
 duce? 
 
 Of one thing alone we may be assured. The contest between 
 despotic government and free institutions will continue to be 
 waged to the end of the world. Until the people of England and 
 of the United States, or those of one or the other Country cease 
 to respect the rights acquired by their ancestors at the greatest 
 sacrifices and prove false to the principles they have long pro- 
 fessed and maintained they will be found on the same side in that 
 struggle, liable to be affected by the same causes and fortunate in 
 being able to apply their best efforts for their common safety. It 
 would seem impossible that the intelligent inhabitants of two 
 Nations thus situated should be blind to their true interests in this 
 regard or to the vitaL importance of providing in season for their 
 mutual security by the cultivation and preservation of cordial re- 
 lations with each other. With Nations who consider that their 
 respective positions make it for their interest to bind themselves 
 to mutual support in specified cases, a treaty of alliance, offensive 
 and defensive, is the usual mode by which that object is accom- 
 plished. But experience has greatly weakened the confident re- 
 liance of mankind upon such safeguards. When the crisis arrives 
 it has been found that Nations are disposed to be governed by their 
 apparent interests at the moment, and if those have undergone 
 a material change, unfavorable to the performance of their engage- 
 ments, they will disregard or evade them, whatever may have been 
 the solemnity with which such alliances have been entered into. 
 The United States thus acted themselves in respect to the treaty 
 of alliance with France, during the administration and conform- 
 ably to the suggestion of Washington, a Chief Magistrate as up- 
 right as any to whom the guidance of national affairs was ever 
 entrusted, and in relation to engagements that were assumed under 
 circumstances and from motives eminently calculated to render them 
 sacred and inviolable ; a most instructive example. From the largest 
 to the smallest, whether under national or municipal organizations, 
 communities are on critical occasions too prone to disregard obli- 
 
486 AMERICAN HISTOEICAX, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 gations the non-performance of which would, in situations other- 
 wise corresponding, be deemed too dishonorable to be thought of in 
 the concerns of individuals. Engagements of the character de- 
 scribed are moreover against the established policy of our Govern- 
 ment — a policy which it is to be hoped will never be abandoned. 
 The parting recommendation of Washington never to quit our own 
 to stand upon foreign ground through entangling alliance is sound 
 in itself, sacred on account of its source and has, let us trust, sunk 
 too deep in the hearts and minds of our people to be forgotten or 
 disregarded. A more auspicious and more reliable course will be 
 to cultivate, with our best ability, friendly and liberal relations 
 between our respective Countries whose political condition is so 
 different from that of the rest of the world and all whose interests 
 favor such a course. There have been, it is true, times when the 
 maintenance of such relations might well have been looked upon 
 as hopeless. Our forcible separation from the Mother Country, 
 with the incidents of a seven years war excited resentments on both 
 sides too fierce to be reasoned with and which only time and for- 
 tunate chances could eradicate. The intercourse between the two 
 Countries for ten years after the recognition ° of our independence, 
 perhaps naturally, but certainly unfortunately, was of a character 
 ill adapted to appease those asperities. It was only less unfavorable . 
 than would have marked a state of actual war. Blood was not shed, 
 nor were any positive attempts made by Great Britain to reclaim 
 over us the sovereignty of which we had divested her, but to us, 
 at least, her disposition appeared as hostile and her aggressions 
 were as oppressive as they had ever been. In some instances we 
 were doubtless mistaken as to facts and in our interpretation of 
 them; but making every allowance for possible errors of this kind 
 we were yet warranted in regarding as we did regard the conduct 
 of the British Government towards us during the whole of that 
 period as alike arrogant and unjust. 
 
 In respect to the aggressive character of her course there were 
 during that period of our national humiliation and suffering but 
 slight differences of opinion among us. None of our public men 
 for a season dared to excuse her. Washington, Hamilton and all 
 their particular friends — Pickering perhaps alone excepted — openly 
 denounced her conduct and if they differed at all with others upon 
 the subject such differences related only to the best methods of re- 
 sistance. But this happy unanimity among our leading Statesmen 
 and among those who were influenced by their opinions was un- 
 fortunately broken up by the war between England and France and 
 by the transactions to which it gave rise. The latter power, before 
 
 ° MS. IV, p. 205. 
 
ATJTOBIOGKAPHY OF MAfiTiN VAN BUEEN. 481 
 
 that period our best friend, alleging that we submitted volun- 
 tarily to practices and pretensions on the part of her enemy which 
 were injurious to her, set up like pretensions in her own behalf, 
 and perpetrated outrages against us but little, if anything, less 
 injurious than those of Great Britain. 
 
 So far from uniting as a band of brothers in resistance to these 
 aggressions and to the pretenses by which they were attempted to 
 be justified — ^both alike iniquitous — as it became an independent 
 Nation to do, our public men allowed themselves to be involved in 
 discussions in respect to the degrees and purposes of the hostility 
 of the belligerents respectively, and our public functionaries, too, 
 instead of presenting a united front against both and meeting every 
 hostile movement, whether proceeding from France or England, 
 with equal alacrity, wasted their time and exhausted their powers 
 in a similar dispute as to which was the worst enemy of the two, 
 and in reciprocal and bitter denunciations of each other for im- 
 puted subserviency to one or the other of the oppressors of their 
 Country. The feelings by which they were influenced were soon 
 communicated to the masses and the Country divided, according 
 to our own accounts, into French Jacobins and English Tories. 
 Whilst the public men and the people of the United States were 
 employing themselves in these disgraceful wrangles enormous depre- 
 dations were committed upon our commerce and obstructions thrown 
 in the way of our infant marine, by both England and France, thro' 
 which the Country was impoverished! and that important interest, 
 which in after time did so much to restore our character and to ad- 
 vance our fame, was brought to the brink of destruction. These 
 aggressions on our rights and this mode of treating them con- 
 tinued, with but slight interruptions, until the war of 1812 with 
 Great Britain. The extent to which the state of things I have 
 sketched served to impede our advance to that rank in the family of 
 Nations to which we were well entitled, and to which we have at 
 last attained, may be readily conceived. The injurious consequences 
 to our means of defence, great as they were, in point of importance 
 fell far short of those inflicted upon our character as an inde- 
 pendent people. The glories of the Eevolution were dimmed by the 
 ignominious recriminations of the period that followed, in which 
 the brave men who had achieved them were held up to the world, 
 in pictures drawn of each other, as minions and tools of foreign 
 powers fit only to be governed by foreign masters. If anything 
 were wanting to fix the odium of these mutual criminations and' 
 recriminations it is furnished by the fact, now more than ever ap- 
 parent, that they were in the main and substantially without founda- 
 tion. Those, who, with Patrick Henry, -in the early part of his 
 political career, regarded Great Britain as standing first in her 
 
488 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 hostility to us, were doubtless more or less disposed to palliate 
 the conduct of France and to look to the former power as the prin- 
 cipal source of our difficulties, and so vice versa; but these ebulli- 
 tions of passion, the effects of momentary excitement, were not 
 such exhibitions of public or private opinion as were fit to be 
 made the foundation of so grave imputations and the subsequent 
 publications of the private papers of the leading men of that period 
 have shown how little else there was to justify those aspersions and 
 how much to disprove them. 
 
 The strongest proof of an undue — ^I might say an unpatriotic 
 leaning towards either of the belligerents, which those publications 
 have brought to light, is the suggestion of a treaty with England 
 offensive and defensive, made by Pickering to Hamilt6n in March 
 1798, as a step he was obviously prepared to take if Hamilton had 
 approved of it, and the reply of the latter in which he says : 
 
 I am against going immediately into alliance with Great Britain. It is my 
 opinion that her Interests will insure us her cooperation to the extent of her 
 power, and that a treaty will not secure her further. On the other hand a 
 treaty might entangle us. Public opinion is not prepared for it. It would 
 not fail to be represented as to the point to which our previous conduct was 
 directed; * * * The desideratum is that Great Britain could be engaged 
 to lodge with her Minister here powers commensurate with such arrangements 
 as exigencies may require a*nd the progress of opinion permit. I see no good 
 objection on her part to this plan. It would be good policy in her to send 
 to this Country a dozen frigates, to pursue the directions of this govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Yet with this striking illustration of his great partiality towards 
 England before us I do not in the least doubt that Hamilton would, 
 as I have elsewhere said, have repelled and resisted unfounded pre- 
 tensions of that Country, prejudicial to his own, with the same 
 firmness and zeal that he had before displayed. The motive by 
 which he and most of his political associates were influenced was 
 rather to impair the power of France than to increase that of Great 
 Britain, by which policy they thought our safety would be best 
 promoted. This was doubtless a great mistake but it was quite 
 different from one that would have led them to take the part of 
 England in a contest with their own Country. It was in all prob- 
 ability thro' the influence of the views' I have indicated that he 
 was brought to the point of resorting to so unwise a measure as an 
 alliance with England whenever public opinion might have become 
 prepared to tolerate it. 
 
 But the true condition of the public mind upon the point of which 
 I speak was distinctly shown by the clamor raised against sucli a 
 project when its existence was only suspected, and Hamilton's sense 
 
 " Note. — Works of Hamilton. Vol. \I, p. 278. 
 
AtTTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUBBN, 489 
 
 of that condition by his pains to guard himself against the injurious 
 •effects of its being known or thought that he had been a party to it. 
 
 Looking at these ever to be regretted transactions retrospectively 
 by the light of subsequent developments and of reflections unclouded 
 bv the bitter prejudices of the day, we cannot help altho' there 
 were without question peculiar faults to be condemned on both 
 sides, considering them in a body as among the worst excesses to 
 which we have ever been exposed of the spirit of party, from 
 whose occasional intemperate working no free Country can expect 
 to be exempted. 
 
 It was not until after the peace with England in 1815 that the 
 management of public affairs in this Country was relieved from the 
 adverse effects of these disreputable altercations. During the war 
 then just terminated imputations of subserviency to a foreign power, 
 of a desire to war with England in conformity to the will and 
 to promote the interests of France, with efforts to paralyze the 
 energies of their own Government, were again resorted to. They 
 had increased ° in violence, like other vicious practices, through 
 past impunity, and made their last a,ppearance amid the congenial 
 proceedings of the Hartford Convention. The people of the United 
 States, as soon as their foreign foe was disposed of, made it their 
 business to sit in judgment upon the character of those proceedings 
 and upon the conduct of the political party by which they had been 
 countenanced. They pronounced the former treasonable and placed 
 the latter under the ban of public opinion as unworthy of confi- 
 dence. The sentence was a righteous one and executed without re- 
 serve ; nay more, if not its justice, the necessity, at least, of submit- 
 ting to this fiat of public opinion was acquiesced in by the federal- 
 ists themselves. A great party, whose origin was coequal with the 
 establishment of the Government, was in consequence of it, and by its 
 own consent, forever withdrawn from the political field. Opponents 
 of the democratic party of the Country have been since that period, 
 convoked under the names of federal republicans, whigs, republicans, 
 Americans et cetera but a gathering of self acknowledged federalists, 
 pure and simple, has not been ventured upon for more than thirty 
 years. This solemn judgment of the Country has been as salutary 
 in its effects as it was just. We have been engaged in another war 
 but we have not been exposed to similar practices on the part of 
 the opposition to the Administration. "We have had difficulties with 
 France, with England and with other Nations, which have been 
 discussed with the publicity characteristic of our institutions. We 
 have differed among ourselves in respect to the best way of treat- 
 ing them, and they have been disposed of according to the will 
 
 ' MS. IV, p. 210. 
 
490 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 of the majority, but the imputation of foreign influence has never 
 since been heard in our Houses of Legislation, in the press or among 
 the people. ' Such humiliating and degrading elements have been to 
 all appearances forever excluded from our partisan contentions. And 
 this was not, by far, the only advantage our Country derived from 
 the war of 1812. There was one in particular of great irapbrtance 
 which has a direct bearing upon the general subject before us. What 
 I have before said is sufficient to show that whatever else we gained 
 by the peace of 1783 with Great Britain we did not succeed in 
 securing her good will. It is impossible to review the character 
 of our relations between that event and the war of 1812 without 
 becoming sensible of the great extent to which the prejudices en- 
 gendered by the Revolution had retained their bitterness and pre- 
 vented the just influence of our conduct in that struggle in extort- 
 ing her respect towards us as a nation. She taunted us with our 
 weakness, railed at our fir-built frigates, lightly estimated our 
 prowess and our resources and despised our reiterated declarations 
 of a necessity and a determination to resort to arms for a redress of 
 wrongs. Those who are familiar with the events of that period 
 know that this is not an exaggerated description of the then ac- 
 tual state of things. It became one too humiliating to be longer 
 borne by a people who cherished a proper self respect and drove 
 us to a declaration of war before we had completed our prepara- 
 tions. Great Britain embarked in it under an exulting sense of 
 the disparity, favorable to her, between the contest then before 
 her and that by which our independence had been rescued from 
 her grasp, when she was under the necessity of transporting large 
 armies to a distant shore and to support them there for a period 
 as indefinite as that required not only to subdue but also to secure 
 continued dominion over a brave people distributed over thirteen 
 States and animated by an almost universal determination to be 
 free. Chastisement, not conquest was now the object, and that could 
 be abundantly accomplished by sweeping our commerce from the 
 ocean, by the annihilation of our comparatively feeble navy and 
 by setting the torch to a few of our principal towns. Of her ability 
 to inflict these injuries with comparatively little loss to herself 
 she did not entertain the slightest doubt; perhaps no Government 
 ever entered upon a similar undertaking with more unbounded as- 
 pjirance. Of the military operations of that war it is sufficient for 
 the purpose for which the subject is introduced to say that they 
 terminated in the disappointment of her confident expectations. The 
 results of the battles that were fought, on sea and land, so far from 
 furnishing matter of satisfaction and exultation to the Govern- 
 ment and people of England filled them with amazement not unac- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 0]? MAKTIN VAU BUREN, 491 
 
 companied by at least some degree of apprehension in regard to the 
 future. She had driven us to the display of skill and capacities 
 for naval warfare of which we were ourselves scarcely conscious 
 and which plainly foreboded danger to that dominion of the seas 
 on which she had so long and with so much reason prided herself. 
 She was too sagacious to remain insensible to the possible con- 
 sequences of forcing a people like that with which she found her- 
 self thus involved — a people by which so much had been done in 
 so short a period, and whose persevering spirit she became inclined 
 to measure by her own — ^to a further and accelerated development 
 of its resources and its powers. 
 
 Peace was concluded upon terms neither humiliating nor dis- 
 creditable to either nation, a peace which promised far more ad- 
 vantages to both than a further prosecution of the war. The Mother 
 Country at length recognized her kindred, and feelings long dor- 
 mant were wanned into action by a lively admiration of the gal- 
 lantry which had been displayed by her stubborn offspring. A new 
 era in the character of our international relations was inaugurated. 
 Eespect, high and well deserved, was substituted for feelings which 
 had savoured too much of contempt to breed, in return, any other 
 than those of hatred. On our side antipathies were ameliorated by 
 the consciousness of having forced our late and unnatural enemy at 
 least to think better of us and by the confident anticipation that 
 she would, in future, treat us with the consideration to which we 
 felt ourselves entitled. We could therefore better afford and were 
 in better mood to judge her future course with less unfavourable pre- 
 dispositions, and for nearly half a century which has elapsed since 
 that day the temper of the English mind and the conduct of Eng- 
 land in respect to the people of the United States have been weighed 
 by us in different scales. The progress of conciliation has not been, 
 perhaps, as rapid as could have been desired, but John Bull, altho' 
 proverbially slow, is at the same time sure, and we have doubtless 
 grown more punctilious as we have grown older and stronger, but 
 our intercourse, since the war, has been full of occurrences indica- 
 tive of the nascent improvement in the reciprocal feelirtgs of the 
 two Countries. The liberal views expressed to me twenty seven 
 years ago, in behalf of Lord Grey's Administration, the strongest 
 and purest whig ministry that England had seen for fifty years, 
 upon the subject of impressment, were significant of a determination 
 to remove, to the greatest practicable extent, all irritating questions 
 in our public relations and the voluntary abandonment by the Ad- 
 ministration of Lord Derby — one which in former days would have 
 been denominated high tory, — of the right of search shows with 
 equal clearness that the same disposition not only still exists but 
 
492 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 that it has extended itself to both of the great political parties of 
 that Country. In short the feelings of the English people of all 
 ranks towards us have, I am thoroughly satisfied, become as nearly 
 right as can ever be expected to animate one powerful nation towards 
 another which is in many respects a rival. They may not consent 
 to give up or even to modify their long cherished establishment of 
 King, Lords and Commons to satisfy our democratic scruples, or 
 to surrender to us anything that we have not a right to ask, but I 
 am quite certain that there is nothing in reason that they would 
 not do to preserve our friendship and it should be the earnest desire 
 of every well wisher to his Country among us that we should not 
 be backward in reciprocating this disposition to the fullest extent.* 
 
 I cannot refrain from expressing at this place (and in this form), 
 nearly a year aifter the text was written the satisfaction I have de- 
 rived from seeing in the course pursued by so influential a paper as 
 the London Times in respect to and against the efforts of the aboli- 
 tionists to dissolve our blessed Union, the strongest proof of the 
 sure progress in England of the sentiments I have been pressing 
 upon the favorable consideration of my countrymen. The assur- 
 ance coming from so imposing a quarter, that the interest of Great 
 Britain in the United States is to England second only in impor- 
 tance to our own, and that for the very reasons upon which I have 
 touched. These noble sentiments are rendered the more gratifying 
 and made more likely to be useful in consequence of the general and 
 to a great extent well founded belief here that this disturbing senti- 
 ment, after it had been reduced to a low ebb in this country had 
 been resuscitated and in a great degree strengthened by the coun- 
 tenance its members received at Exeter Hall. 
 
 No intelligent and tolerably unprejudiced American can be long 
 in England without witnessing exhibitions of character and feeluigs 
 in all classes with which he will be pleased because of their recalling 
 similar traits among his own countrymen. Those whose contempla- 
 tion is engrossed with the pageantry inseparable from monarchical 
 and aristocratic institutions may be unable to comprehend this state- 
 ment, but it is nevertheless true. My memory is full freighted with 
 recollections of that description which go far to show an active sym- 
 pathy on many important points between us devoted republicans and 
 those fast adherents of a Kingly Government. Of these it was my 
 intention to speak, but this subject has be^n already and in a maimer, 
 unconsciously, so -much extended that I must forbear. I saw many 
 things in England, in the organization of her Government, in the 
 classifications of society which that organization has produced and 
 in the disparity of personal privileges its members respectively enjoy, 
 
 »Feby 5, 1860. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 498 
 
 the establishment of which here I would deprecate with all my heart 
 and resist by every possible means. I have a deep and abiding sense 
 of the superiority of our own political institutions and of their social 
 effects. But these are questions, as I have already said, which, upon 
 our own principles, each nation has the right to determine for itself. 
 They do not complain when we express our opinions upon these sub- 
 jects abroad with the freedom with which we treat them at home 
 because they are not thin-skinned and no man whose opinions are of 
 any consequence will express them officiously or for the purpose of 
 annoyance. As a people, taking them all and in all, it cannot be 
 denied that they possess, in a very eminent degree, the qualities which 
 conduce to individual respectability and usefulness and which consti- 
 tute the elements of a powerful and magnanimous nation. It is for 
 this, among many reasons, the interest of the United States to culti- 
 vate the most liberal and friendly relations with them and the duty 
 of those who are, from time to time, entrusted with the management 
 of our external concerns, to make it their business to promote that 
 object by all the means in their power that may consist with justice 
 and with national honor. 
 
 ° This it will be easier to effect in the future than it has been in the 
 past. Distrust of the friendliness of England, with the prejudices 
 natural to that feeling, have constituted from the beginning a promi- 
 nent and distinguishing trait of the old-republican, now democratic 
 party. To arrest, present and to guard against future violations of 
 the Federal Constitution, to secure to the people the full enjoyment 
 of the republican institutions contemplated by that instrument and 
 to protect the Country against the evils that were apprehended from 
 an undue partiality for England were the principal objects designed 
 to be accomplished by its formation, and the distrust and prejudice to 
 which I have referred retained their prominence and influence in the 
 action of that party until the War of 1812. That war was its act. Its 
 political opponents had neither part nor lot in declaring or in sup- 
 porting it. The peace of 1815 was also its measure. It was in its 
 bosom, and there alone, that a change of feeling was necessary to 
 establish friendship between the two Countries. The effects produced 
 by the peace and the altered disposition of the Government and people 
 of England towards us which I have described have been to me a sub- 
 ject of deep in'terest and gratifying observation. What I say of the 
 political organization in which I have been reared and which has 
 never ceased to be with me an object of love and admiration doubtless 
 will be received by the general reader cmm grcmo saMs: I expect no 
 less. 
 
 °MS. Book V, p. 1. 
 
494 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 If the old republican party, whether known by that or by its 
 present name, has not been able to live up to the divine injunctions 
 to love our neighbour as ourselves or to do unto others as we would 
 have them do unto us, it may I think with truth, be said to have 
 desired invariably and sincerely to treat all nations as they treat 
 us. That was a shibboleth of its foreign policy at its organization 
 and I think has always since distinguished it. The old federal 
 party charged it with partiality to France and the charge was re- 
 torted in respect to federal preference for England. It is now 
 l^erhaps too late to determine that issue even if it were necessary. 
 As far as the sense of the Country is conclusive evidence of the truth 
 it has been decided against the federal party. 
 
 The application of the principle of reciprocity in the commercial 
 intercourse of nations, which originated with Mr. Jefferson, was 
 supported by Mr. Madison at the commencement of our present Gov- 
 ernment and has thenceforward constituted an article in the creed 
 of the political party of which they were leaders, furnishes a prac- 
 tical illustration of their views and perferences in regard to inter- 
 national relations. The relaxation of prejudices against England 
 and a cordial reciprocation of every liberal measure she might adopt 
 became accordingly a duty which they performed thoroughly tho' 
 somewhat tardily as their disposition and determination to do in the 
 end what was required of them were closely accompanied by caution 
 and perhaps clogged by distrust. 
 
 The accession to power of the republican party at a period when 
 their prejudices against England were the strongest, and their pos- 
 session of it by large majorities for more than half a century, had 
 given to those prejudices the appearance of a national sentiment 
 and it has been amusing to witness the extent to which the conceded 
 existence of this feeling has served as a lure to aspiring politicians, 
 and particularly to those who have had their eyes upon the Presi- 
 dency, tempting them to seek to appropriate its influence by profes- 
 sions of peculiar sensibility on the subject of the injustice we have 
 suffered from England. That game in politics has been, perhaps not 
 exclusively but chiefly, played by gentlemen a principal part of 
 whose previous lives had been spent in the ranks of the old federal 
 party, but who, nevertheless, consulting the chances of success, deemed 
 it indispensable to bring themselves into harmony with the demo- 
 cratic sentiment of the Country in this regard. Mr. John Quincy 
 Adams was the first of his class who undertook to extract political 
 capital for a Presidential canvass from this matter, and his earliest 
 movement, after entering upon his duties as Secretary of State, — 
 a post then looked upon as a necessary step to that of President — was 
 to astound the Federal Capitol with his fiery denunciations of the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 495 
 
 conduct of England towards these States, ^-^t'^^o' in the main an 
 upright Statesman, no man studied more closely than he the cur- 
 rents of political opinion or was more willing to avail himself of 
 their influence. He was well aware of the strong prejudices against 
 his family that existed in the rank and file of the old republican 
 party and of the necessity of their amelioration, before his elevation 
 to the Presidency could be deemed practicable, and no less conscious 
 that this could not be effected thro' common efforts but only by those 
 of the boldest character adequate to command the attention of the 
 masses and to stir up and direct their passions. His Fourth of Ji^ly 
 Oration at Washington, delivered by the leading Member of the 
 Cabinet during the first year of Mr. Monroe's Presidency and con- 
 sidering the actual state of public feeling, he believed to be such an 
 effort. The scorn of propriety exhibited in this harangue in view 
 of the ofiicial position of the author and of the presence, as a part of 
 his audience, of the Diplomatic Corps, including the English Min- 
 ister, and the extreme violence with which he arraigned the conduct 
 of the English Government accomplished at least one of his objects — 
 "that of creating a great sensation in this Country, which was, with 
 reason, believed to have exerted considerable influence on his ulti- 
 mate advancement to the summit of his ambition. His success gave 
 fascination ta his example. Among the first to follow it was the 
 worthy and amiable gentleman Mr. Lewis Cass — ^in his early years 
 an ardent admirer of Mr. Adams, his family and their politics, even 
 to mounting the black cockade, if his old federal friends told the 
 truth of him at a time when they thought he was growing, as Hamil- 
 ton said of Jefferson, "too much in earnest in his republicanism." 
 Long a resident of the far West, where ancient antipathies between 
 the two Countries have not equally felt the subduing influences of in- 
 creasing commerce and intercourse and where they are yet supposed 
 to retain a portion of their former violence, he allowed his sense of 
 the injuries we have received from Great Britain and his consequent 
 denunciation of her to be inflamed in the ratio of the improvement 
 of his chances for the Presidency. His sensibilities upon this point 
 had become so sharpened and his expression of them so strong and 
 notorious as to convey the impression to some of his cotemporaries 
 of monomania, and not a few were, on that accoimt solely, appre- 
 hensive of disturbing effects upon the existing relations between 
 the ° two Countries which might follow his selection as Secretary of 
 State by Mr. Buchanan. Aware of the existence and spread of this 
 idea I requested my friend Mr. Alexander Duncan, who was desirous 
 that I should meet the English Envoy, Lord Napier, at his house on 
 his first arrival in this Country, to call the attention of the latter 
 
 °MS. V, p. 5. 
 
496 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to it and to assure him from me that if he entertained such appre- 
 hensions he would soon be undeceived; that on the contrary the Sec- 
 retary was the last man to press to extremities any point in our 
 relations with England in which we were not manifestly right and 
 that even there he would find him a peacemaker. With the accept- 
 ance, at his advanced age, of the office he now fills with credit to 
 himself and usefulness to the Country Gen. Cass doubtless renounced 
 every thought of ever reaching the higher and cherished aim of his 
 previous life and with that resolution has discontinued his wonted 
 invectives against England. 
 
 President Buchanan himself, tho' habitually a more cautious man 
 than his Secretary of State, has played a scarcely less plain and far 
 more successful part in the same game. Like him his early not 
 proclivities only but open and responsible action were on the federal 
 side. He too felt the expediency not to say necessity, of making his 
 change of position more effectual by taking conspicuous ground on 
 some point in favor of which the feelings of the party to which he 
 transferred his political hopes were supposed to be especially high- 
 strung — ^to pass through a political baptism of sufficient efficacy 
 to wash away somewhat inveterate prejudices. Attracted perhaps 
 by the success which had crowned Mr. Adams' movements he fol- 
 lowed in his footsteps in one respect, and clothed hiipself with the 
 anti-English grudge to- which he has adhered through the subsequent 
 periods of his public life and amidst repeated disappointments with 
 the tenacity of purpose characteristic of his race, and a steadiness 
 that does as much credit to his perseverance as to his patriotism. If 
 more discreet than his Secretary in the exhibition of his feelings 
 in this regard he has taken special care that they should never be 
 for a moment misunderstood. His appointment as Envoy to Eng- 
 land by President Pierce was nothing more or less than the re- 
 moval of a rival believed to be dangerous to a point where it waa 
 thought he could do the least harm to the interest of the incumbent 
 in the question of the succession. Doubtless the public interest was 
 not lost sight of but its promotion was plainly not the special object 
 of the selection. It was considered a shrewd movement which how- 
 ever worked injuriously to the interest it was designed to subserve, 
 as such arrangements are apt to do. Whatever may have been the 
 effect of Mr. Buchanan's elevation to the Presidency and of the 
 possession of its overshadowing powers upon himself, he was, as- 
 suredly, before that occurrence, a cautious, circumspect and sagacious 
 man, amply endowed with those clear perceptions of self interest 
 and of duties as connected with it that are almost inseparable from 
 the Scotch character. If he, supposed that his rivals in the Gov- 
 ernm^it allowed themselves to hope that his known anti-English 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 497 
 
 feelings would lead him to do or to omit some act by which his 
 position at home might be impaired, that of itself would have de- 
 termined him to disappoint them; but he had higher and wiser in- 
 ducements to keep his official course free from just exceptions and 
 he did so keep it decidedly and indisputably. At the same, time 
 he took care that his bearing at the English Court should not be 
 such as to cause him to lose cast with the Democracy at home by 
 aifording them reason to suspect that any Royal or social blandish- 
 ments had weakened his cordial sympathy with that anti-English 
 prejudice which he believed to be still vigorous in the democratic 
 breast. Accordingly in his personal intercourse with the social 
 circles of London he produced a very general impression that 
 England and the English were not much esteemed by him — a 
 point not a whit clearer to the parties concerned than he desired 
 it to be; consequently his relations other than official, with the 
 Court and with the general society in which he moved were 
 rendered perhaps in a small degree less agreeable. To a man 
 of his temperament and time of life this was a minor annoyance, 
 especially as foreign ministers are invariably treated at that Court 
 with an outward courtesy and consideration, without reference to 
 personal feelings towards the individual, and as what was under- 
 stood to be his standing with the English Court and society was 
 having in his opinion, a compensating effect at home. I spent a 
 month or two in London not long before his return and had abundant 
 opportunities to enable me to speak with certainty in regard to 
 the points I have touched upon, and to discover the general belief 
 that England had something to apprehend from Mr. Buchanan's 
 elevation to the Presidency and the consequent general, tho' quiet, 
 deprecation of such an event. It would not be proper to describe 
 more particularly the extent of the knowledge which I happened 
 to acquire as to the prevalence of this solicitude or as to the high 
 quarters to which it reached. I gave to inquirers the assurances which 
 •I repeated to Lord Napier, in respect to Gen. Cass, and referred 
 to Mr. Buchanan's official action upon the subjects which had been 
 and were then under discussion between the two Governments to 
 satisfy them that their apprehensions of special danger from the 
 result referred to were without adequate foundation. 
 
 Mr. Webster, also, amazed at the superior advancement in popu- 
 lar favor of men whose capacities he naturally regarded as inferior 
 to his own, seemed at one time to have arrived at the conclusion 
 that the disparity was attributable to the greater zeal they mani- 
 fested in resisting the aggressions of Great Britain; under the im- 
 pulse of which impression he resolved to make another effort to 
 reach an object which no man in the Country ever pursued with 
 127483°— -VOL a— 20 82 
 
498 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 more eagerness or with less prospect of success but which he once 
 dreamed of achieving by the manifestation of grief and rage, as 
 uncontrollable as they were sudden, excited in his breast by the 
 hostility of England towards the United States. An occasion for 
 his first appearance in this character was soon presented. 
 
 The British North American Colonies charged encroachment by 
 our fishermen upon waters from which it was claimed that they 
 were excluded by the Convention of 1800 between Great Britain 
 and the United States, and presented complaints to the Home Gov- 
 ernment. The Colonial Secretary issued a Circular in reply to their 
 memorial in which he intimated the intention of the Government 
 to send out a naval force sufficient to compel the exclusion of the 
 American fishermen from the waters in question. This Circular, 
 on its publication in the Colonial newspapers, produced a great 
 ferment in the New England States, and, instead of pursuing the 
 usual course of a call upon the British Minister here for explana- 
 tions, Mr. Webster published in the newspapers also, a formal an- 
 nouncement from the Department of State, over which he presided, 
 under date of July 6, 1852, to the fishermen and all concerned, of 
 the designs of the British Government, with such comments as he 
 thought the occasion called for and which were calculated to in- 
 crease the excitement. A meeting was thereupon called in the 
 neighbourhood of his residence, in Massachusetts, at which spirited 
 resolutions denouncing the course pursued by England were passed 
 and a delegation was appointed to meet Mr. Webster, on his ar- 
 rival at Marshfield, where he was expected in a few days, to wel- 
 come him and to communicate with him on the subject of their 
 proceedings. On the 25th of the same month he met that delegation 
 lit his own house and made a speech to them from which the fol- 
 lowing are extracts: 
 
 The flshermen [he said] might b6 assured that their interests would not be 
 neglected by the Government. They shall be protected in all their rights of 
 property and in all the rights of occupation. To use a Marblehead phrase 
 they shall be protected "hooTc and line — bob and sinker" — and why should they 
 not? They employ a vast number; many of our people are engaged in that 
 vocation. There are perhaps among you some who have been on the Grand 
 Banks for ten successive years and there hung on to the ropes in storm and; 
 wreck. 
 
 The most potent conseauences are involved in this matter. Our fisheries 
 have been the very nurseries of our navy * * * in the first place the sud- 
 den interruption of the pursuits of our ° citizens which had been carried on 
 more than thirty years that they have pursued the fishing in the same writers 
 and on the same coast, in which and along which notice has now come that they 
 should be no longer allowed their privileges. Now this cannot be justified 
 without notice. A mere indulgence of too long continuance, even if the privi- 
 
 " MS. v, p. 10. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 499 
 
 lege were an Indulgence, cannot be withdrawn at this season of the year, when 
 our people, according to their custom have engaged in the business, without 
 just and reasonable notice. I cannot but think the late despatches from the 
 Colonial oflSce had not attracted to a. sufficient degree the attention of the 
 principal Minister of the Crown; for I see matter in them quite inconsistent 
 with the arrangement made in 1845 by the Earl of Aberdeen and Edward 
 Everett. Then the Earl of Derby, the present Minister, was Colonial Secre- 
 tary. It could not well have taken place without his knowledge, and, in fact, 
 without his concurrence and sanction. I cannot but think therefore that its 
 being overlooked is an inadvertence. The treaty of 1818 was made with the 
 Crown of England. If a fishing vessel is captured by one of her vessels of 
 war and brought in for adjudication, the Crown of England is answerable, and 
 then we know whom we have to deal with. But it is not to be expected that 
 the United States will submit their rights to be adjudicated upon by the petty 
 tribunals of the Provinces or that they vnll allow our vessels to be seized 
 by constables and other petty officers, and condemned by municipal courts of 
 Canada and New Foundland, New Brunswick or Noval Scotia ! No, No, No ! 
 
 Upon its appearance in England the British Annual Register, in 
 the moderate and guarded language common to that journal accom- 
 panied the publication of the preceding extract with the following 
 comments, to the force of which we would not find it easy to refuse 
 our assent: 
 
 This was, to say the least, very imprudent language to be held by a Minister 
 of State while negotiations were pending for settling the dispute in an ami- 
 cable manner. Happily no collision of any kind took place. 
 
 The proceeding on Mr. Webster's part bore unmistakable marks 
 of a scene got up for effect ; nor was the public mind for a moment 
 in doubt either as to the fact that such was its true character or 
 in regard to the particular effect aimed at. The success of this 
 stroke of policy, by means of which he hoped to enlist in his favor, 
 in the then approaching Presidential canvass, whatever of national 
 ill-will towards England there yet remained among us would, to 
 a considerable extent, depend upon the manner of its reception in 
 that Country. If her public men had allowed themselves to become 
 greatly excited by the challenge he had with so little ceremony and 
 so much peremptoriness thrown before her and had sent back an 
 equally belligerent missive against him and those he represented, 
 as weaker men might have done, Mr. Webster's game woilld have 
 opened auspiciously and there is no saying to what height he might 
 not have been elevated in the leadership he coveted. But they, for- 
 tunately for the interests of both Countries, were men of sense and 
 had found and improved ample occasions to make themselves ac- 
 quainted with Mr. Webster's character as a public man. They had 
 seen him at the Court of their King and hobnobbed with him, also, 
 in social enjoyments to which neither were indifferent. Their lead- 
 ing men of business, who. from their natural acuteness and their 
 
500 AMERICAN HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATIOB". 
 
 unequalled opportunities to gain experience afforded by an ex- 
 tensive intercourse with all nations, have established a world-wide 
 reputation for sagacity and discernment, had taken his professional 
 advice in respect to transactions partly public and partly private, 
 and of great importance, and their Minister had carried on weighty 
 negotiations with him and thro' him here. It would, under such 
 circumstances, have been strange indeed if they had failed thor- 
 oughly to inform themselves of his character and dispositions, his 
 strength and his weaknesses. They had not so neglected their duty. 
 Their Ministers understood him perfectly and took no offence at 
 the hrawado in which he had indulged. They placed the same con- 
 struction upon his belligerent speech to his Marshfield neighbours 
 • that was readily placed upon it here — that of a device, a weak one 
 as we knew it to be, to seduce prejudiced and precipitate democrats 
 into his support for the Presidency; a post they desired him above 
 all others to occupy for they had already dealt with him while he 
 substantially wielded its powers, but they had too much self respect, 
 I may well add too much respect for the Country, to play into his 
 hands by making themselves a party to the artifice in which their 
 cooperation was invited, and they therefore allowed this flare up 
 of the Secretary of State to pass mb silerdio. 
 
 But the English press, acting under less responsibility and in its 
 usual and creditable straight forward character, spoke without hesi- 
 tation or reserve and painted the transaction in its true colors as a 
 coup de theatre, struck for political effect. This representation from 
 the other side, according with the conviction immediately produced 
 on this, of course robbed the whole matter of its serious elements, and 
 when remembered at all, it is now familiarly spoken of as the occa- 
 sion of Mr. Webster's " bob and sinker " speech. The fruits, in the 
 Presidential canvass, of his anti English ebullition and of his equally 
 sudden and radical change of position on the slave question, as it was 
 presented at the time, both movements indicating an ignorance of 
 the real character and disposition of our people, were witnessed in 
 the votes given in the National Convention of his party which fol- 
 lowed for the nomination of a Presidential candidate, and which 
 were thus divided : Scott, 159, Fillmore, 112, Webster, 21.^ 
 
 > Whig Convention at Baltimore, whicli convened, June 16, 1852. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Few of our public men were more identified, in the earlier periods 
 of his public life with the national resentments towards England 
 than Mr. Clay, or did more to fasten them in the popular heart. He 
 commenced his career in the Federal Government in the Senate of 
 the United States in 1806, was subsequently transferred to the House 
 of Representatives and was several times Speaker of that body. Con- 
 tinuing his public service in one or the other position till the break- 
 ing out of the war between us and England in 1812 he exerted great 
 influence in preparing the public mind for that event and in pro- 
 ducing its declaration by Congress with the sanction of the ExeculAve. 
 
 In these preliminary scenes, in his support of the cause of his 
 country during the progress of the war and in the negotiation of 
 the peace that followed it Mr. Clay passed by far the brightest peri- 
 ods of his public life. His vehement denunciations o£ British ag- 
 gression and of those among us who would have extenuated them 
 and his eloquent appeals to his countrymen to prove themselves 
 equal to the exigencies of the crisis served to stimulate the feelings 
 of which we are speaking, and with which he was still more thor- 
 oughly associated by his residence in the patriotic State of Kentucky, 
 among whose heroic citizens the justifiers and supporters of the war 
 found a cordial sympathy. But after the change in his political 
 position, which took root at the peace and was regularly progressive 
 until he became the facile princeps of the successors of old federal- 
 ism, appeals to that antipathy towards England which he had 
 helped to plant so deeply in the breasts of his fellow citizens would 
 have been awkward and out of place to say nothing of other and 
 higher motives which I am willing to believe induced him to abstain 
 from them. In one instance which was the only one I can call to 
 mind and in itself trivial and only good naturedly mischievous, he 
 seemed inclined to try a small pull upon the old string for election- 
 eering purposes. After my return to Washington from the English 
 mission, our first meeting occurred in public in the Hall of the Repre- 
 sentatives under circumstances which will be hereafter noticed, and 
 was marked by very hearty salutations on his part. On leaving me 
 he returned to the Senate Chamber and, throwing himself into the 
 debate which happened to be going on with his usual facility of 
 bringing out what he wanted to say, a pro-pos of anything or noth- 
 
 501 
 
502 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 ing wound up his other observations, more or less pertinent, with this, 
 or something like it : " By the bye, I have just had the pleasure of 
 shaking hands in the other House with our late Minister to England, 
 Mr. Van Buren, and was gratified to find him in excellent health 
 and appearing to great advantage in° his English dress:" — a good 
 humored description intended for the western market. 
 
 But I have perhaps given too much space and time to this topic. 
 Suffice it that the game I have alluded to has been played out. The 
 good sense and good feeling of our people will no longer tolerate 
 appeals to prejudices which the conduct of both Countries has shown 
 that both have long since determined to bury and to forget. 
 
 The vote of the Senate upon my nomination gave rise to two 
 questions upon which it became necessary that I should decide at 
 London, and in respect to which different opinions were entertained 
 among my friends. The excitement of the occasion and a naturally 
 augmented anxiety about my political fortunes made those differ- 
 ences more earnest and importunate than they might otherwise have 
 been. They related to the period of my return and the most expe- 
 dient course to be adopted to secure my future advancement. Mr. 
 McLane, who, from the close intimacy that had long existed between 
 us and the marked solicitude I had shown for his promotion, was 
 extensively regarded as among the warmest and most cordial of my 
 friends, took immediate and very decided ground upon both points. 
 He thought that I ought to return immediately — ^that my , friend 
 Mr. Dudley should be asked to resign his seat in the Senate of the 
 United States to enable the Legislature of New York, then in ses- 
 sion, to appoint me to his place and that I should come to Washing- 
 ton before the adjournment and challenge a review of the decision 
 which had been made by that body. Mr. McLane had, it appeared, 
 applied to a number of my friends to sanction his advice, altho' I 
 do not find by my papers nor have I any recollection that he pro- 
 posed it directly to me. Several of them dissented earnestly, and 
 some with manifest impatience, from the course thus indicated, 
 and among these were some who had sustained me from the begin- 
 ning and in whose discretion I placed the highest confidence. Pres- 
 ident Jackson, after having been twice applied to by Mr. McLane, 
 sent for my friend Mr. Cambreleng who communicated the result of 
 the interview, with his own opinion, in the following letter : 
 
 Washington, 28th Jan. 1832. 
 My deab Sib, 
 
 I was last evening at McLane's, who told me (hat he had hit upon the very 
 plan for you, which, he further said, had met the approbation of all with whom 
 he had conferred — viz : for you to come immediately back & come Into the 
 Senate &c. &c. &c., to all which I simply answered that I non-concurred. This 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 15. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTRBN. 503 
 
 morning I had a message from the President that he wished to see me — and 
 found that our friend had consulted with the P., and I presume it was at 
 McLane's suggestion that he sent for me. I told him that I was decidedly 
 opposed to Mr. McLane's plan of having you hurry home to pop into the Senate 
 at the tail of the session for no earthly purpose which may be not ten times bet- 
 ter effected in another way. The old gentleman said that you had more common 
 sense and good judgment than any man in the world, and that be would leave it 
 entirely to yourself. 
 
 My plan is that you should not arrive till about the time of (the third Mon- 
 day in May) or rather a week or two after the meeting of the Baltimore Con- 
 vention. YoTi will be greeted by thousands — ^you will be received in triumph, 
 and you will have the finest opportunity imaginable to address the whole 
 Union — and after all the speeches, reports, &c., &c., have been made in Congress 
 on the tariff (about which we shall do nothing) — and appear among us as a 
 mediator on that great & momentous question. Leave your adversaries to strut 
 on their own dung-hill — to all their dirty honors — carry yourself above them — 
 do not sully yourself by even coming in contact with them. This scheme of 
 McLane's will remind you that small heads may manage — but give me a large 
 head for judgment ; if he had had that he never would have made his Report at 
 such a crisis. What earthly advantage you are to gain by jumping into the 
 Senate to discuss a question of adjournment, I cannot possibly conceive — for I 
 look upon the last three weeks of the session as nothing for debate — or for 
 anything that can serve you. No good can come out of it — harm might. Ad- 
 dress us on your return — address the American People (before whom you will 
 then be a candidate) and not the Senate of the U. States. 
 
 Sincerely yours 
 
 0. 0. Cambbeleng 
 
 The opinions and advice of Mr. Cambreleng were fully concurred 
 in by Mr. Silas Wright and by Senator Marcy, and the latter com- 
 municated other grave and conclusive considerations in their favor. 
 Altlto' I then gave McLane entire credit for being actuated by 
 friendly motives I did not entertain a doubt as to the course proper 
 for me to pursue in justice to my position both in England and at 
 home, which was to stay at my post until men's opinions had been 
 formed in respect to the conduct of my opponents and to postpone 
 my return to the United States until after the Democratic National 
 Convention, which, it was supposed, would take some action upon 
 the subject, had been held. I so decided, and communicated that 
 decision to my friends in my answer to a letter received from the 
 democratic citizens of the city of New York.^ 
 
 The attention of my friends, with few exceptions, in considering 
 the best mode of meeting the violence of my enemies, was directed 
 to the Vice Presidential office, and a strong desire was formed that 
 I should be nominated for election to it. I received several letters 
 to that effect one of which was from my friend William L. Marcy ,^ 
 then at Washington discharging the duties of a Senator. This' was 
 not the first time that the same course had been proposed to me, 
 
 1 1832, Feb. 24, in the Van Buren Papers. ' 1832, Feb. 12, iUd. 
 
504 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and better justice will be done to my reply to Mr. Marcy's letter 
 by going back to the transaction to which I refer, by which means 
 also a fitting opportunity will be presented to explain another fea- 
 ture in my public life already casually alluded to in these pages 
 and hitherto but imperfectly understood. 
 
 Mr. Ingham,^ appointed by President Jackson as Secretary of 
 the Treasury, was I am quite certain the only member of his Cab- 
 inet who entered it with anything like a decided wish in respect 
 to the succession. Nothing was more unfounded than the impres- 
 sion extensively made upon the public mind that the President had 
 formed his Cabinet with a view to promote a particular design 
 upon this subject by which to gratify either a preference or an 
 antipathy. Mr. Calhoun, unfortunately for himself, took up the 
 opposite idea and never abandoned it, viz: that his exclusion and 
 my advancement were the objects which the General intended to 
 further. On the other hand Colonel Benton, claiming to speak 
 as one who knows, says that down to the time of his election the 
 General looked to Mr. Calhoun as his successor. Nothing ever came 
 to my knowledge either to confirm or to disprove this statement, 
 but if it was correct it may safely be assumed that no circumstance 
 had occurred between the period mentioned and that of the selec- 
 tion of his Cabinet of a nature to change his views upon that point. 
 
 Mr. Ingham possessed a sound discriminating mind and had 
 furnished it with useful knowledge especially applicable to many 
 of the branches of the public service committed to his supervision. 
 Although he cannot be said to have acquired a very marked dis- 
 ,tinction in the performance of any of them during the short* time 
 that he was in office his administration of the important Depart- 
 ment over which he presided was in a general way creditable and 
 it was, without question, conducted by him with a strict regard 
 to the public interest. Devotedly attached to Mr. Calhoun, with 
 whom he had long served in Congress, he was very desirous to 
 secure his nomination at the time when General Jackson became 
 the choice of the great body of the republican party, including Mr. 
 Ingham's own State — Pennsylvania. He supported the General's 
 election with fidelity, but, I have no doubt, with an undiminished 
 desire to see Mr. Calhoun thus elevated and with a firm purpose 
 to continue to exert himself, within the limits of propriety, to' pro- 
 mote his chances for the succession. The gratification of that ° wish 
 became a passion with him and to it he eventually sacrificed the 
 influential position he had for many years occupied in the politics 
 of Pennsylvania. His nomination to the Treasury Department was 
 
 ' Samuel D. Ingham. ° MS. V, p. 20. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAK BURBN. S05 
 
 the result of a united and unusually pressing request to the Presi- 
 dent from the delegation in Congress from that State. He par- 
 took largely of Mr. Calhoun's suspicions in regard as well to the 
 President's designs as to ray own aspirations, and was determined 
 to do what he could, without any culpable failure in duty, to 
 thwart both. To this end, whilst giving me no cause for personal 
 offense, he set himself, quietly but resolutely, to watch the move- 
 ments of the Administration, to. obstruct steps which he thought, 
 tended in the obnoxious direction, and to avoid making himself a 
 party to any act by which he might be embarrassed when the time 
 should arrive to take open ground against my advancement. This 
 purpose and these feelings were manifested in a thousand ways. 
 One of them, and perhaps the first that excited my attention, I have 
 already spoken of in connection with the appointment of Swart- 
 wout as Collector of the Customs at the port of New York. As to 
 all measures that did not fall within the purview of this by-play 
 on his part there was a remarkable concurrence of opinion between 
 us, whilst in respect to all that did so fall our relations resembled 
 more those of fair but decided opponents than those which would 
 be expected to exist between leading members and co-adjutors in 
 an Administration in the success of which we had a common in- 
 terest. Estimating his conduct in connection with speculations 
 and schemes which soon came to occupy large spaces in men's minds 
 and in the public press I could not, of course, long be at a loss in 
 regard to his thoughts or motives. 
 
 It was plain that, looking upon me as a rival of Mr. Calhoun for 
 the succession, he desired to maintain with me, in the situation in 
 which we, for the time being, were placed, a kind of armed neu- 
 trality, or rather an aimistice to terminate in a certain and inexo- 
 rable resumption of hostilities, and I felt no disposition to balk his 
 wishes. Yet, now — ^when there can be no possible motive for the 
 suppression or misrepresentation of facts — I solemnly declare that 
 he was entirely mistaken in the belief upon which he acted. When 
 I went to Washington the idea of becoming Gen. Jackson's suc- 
 cessor had never acquired the slightest lodgement in my mind. If 
 the expediency of taking steps to aid in the accomplishment of that 
 object had been at that early period, brought to my consideration, I 
 would unhesitatingly have taken ground against them as incon- 
 sistent with the relation in which I looked upon myself as stand- 
 ing with the President and as altogether premature in respect to 
 my own interests. I will go further and say that if the rupture 
 between the President and Mr. Calhoun, and the consequent schism 
 in the republican ranks, had not taken place there would not have 
 been one of our contemporaries who would have more readily than 
 
506 AMEKIOAN HISTOSICAL ASSOClATlOlf. 
 
 myself acquiesced in the accession of the latter to the Presidency 
 after the expiration of Jackson's second term. My being subse- 
 quently placed in a different position on this question was entirely 
 owing to the events which I have just now referred to and 
 to the bitter attacks that were made upon me under the same er- 
 roneous impressions by which Mr. Ingham was influenced. But 
 for them President Jackson would, I am now quite confident, have 
 suffered the question to pass to its settlement without any intsr- 
 ference on his part. I am, at all events, entirely certain that he 
 did not arrive at the conclusion to favor my election to the Presi- 
 dency until some time after the occurrences to which I have referred. 
 I remember well the first time this subject was introduced by him. 
 It was during one of our rides over the Georgetown Hills, in the 
 autumn of 1830, some six or seven months after the receipt of Mr. 
 Calhoun's letter to him about the Seminole transaction, and after 
 the United States Telegrafh newspaper, which was well understood 
 to reflect the political sentiments of the latter, had given unmistak- 
 able indications of a rupture with and open opposition to the Ad- 
 ministration on the part of Mr. Calhoun's friends and himself dur- 
 ing the next session of Congress. He spoke of the resolution he had 
 formed at the period of his election to serve only one term and, 
 referring to the seemingly insurmountable obstacles which had since 
 arisen to the fulfillment of this intention and to the proba;bility of 
 the early developments of the opposition against his administration 
 which had for some time been in course of preparation, said that 
 his thoughts had been turned to the selection of some middle course 
 by which his wish for an early retirement might be gratified without 
 hazarding the accomplishment of the measures he had entered upon 
 and the success of which he deemed essential to the national welfare. 
 He had not, he added, been able to hit upon any plan so promising as 
 that I should stand for the Vice Presidency on the ticket with him at 
 the next election and, if successful, that he should resign in one year, 
 or, if it should be necessary, at the expiration of the second year of 
 his new term. The feelings with which this proposition was received 
 are as fresh in my recollection as they were at the moment it was 
 made. I could neither be ignorant of, nor insensible to the large 
 share of personal kindness towards myself which had given birth 
 to this suggestion beside his constant desire to promote the public 
 interest; and that consideration, in addition to the earnestness with 
 which he habitually embraced propositions which occupied his mind 
 for some time before he brought them forward, demanded great cir- 
 cumspection in giving the requisite answer to~ it. But I could see 
 nothing but danger to myself in the proposition and, as I thought, 
 to his own great popularity, and was deeply sensible of the necessity 
 of giving to it a prompt negative. I thanked him for the kindness 
 
AUTOBlbGEAPHt OP MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 507 
 
 he had evinced towards myself personally in a way which fully satisr 
 fied him that I appreciated it as I ought. I did not affect indiffer- 
 ence to the end his proposition looked to — that of my ultimate eleva- 
 tion to the Presidency, admitted it to have become an object within 
 the scope of my ambition, but appealed to him for the truth of the 
 declaration that I had never said or done anything whilst I had been 
 associated with him in the public Service which could give him or any 
 one reason to think that my mind was occupied in the promotion of 
 that object by any other means than by the faithful performance 
 of my official duties. To tJiis appeal he responded warmly and satis- 
 factorily. I then placed before him all the objections that occurred 
 to me at the moment against the adoption of the course he suggested. 
 Doing full justice to the purity of his own motive, I spoke of the 
 construction that would be placed upon the step by our enemies. 
 "Whilst he was moved by considerations of a public character, look- 
 ing chiefly to the perfection of the great public measures he had in 
 contemplation and upon some of which he had already entered, they 
 would stigmatize the proceeding as a selfish intrigue designed to 
 smuggle me into the Presidency and to gratify his own resent- 
 ments against those to whose elevation he was opposed; to these 
 I added many other reasons and reflections and concluded with . 
 an earnest declaration that altho I rightly valued the high dis- 
 tinction of the Presidential office, I could not for a moment hesitate 
 between the instant and perpetual relinquishment of it and an at- 
 tempt to reach it through a channel so liable to misconstruction. He 
 was strongly moved by the course of my remarks, but in no degree ° 
 apprehensive of any imputations upon the step, so far as they might 
 be designed to affect himself. The people in whose good sense and 
 right feeling he had never been disappointed, would, he said, do 
 justice to his motives; but he acknowledged that he had not suffi- 
 ciently considered the difference between his own situation and mine. 
 They might perhaps, he thought, with feelings of equal kindness to 
 ourselves be induced to apply a different rule in respect to the 
 motives of such a step, as between the man who by means of it was 
 divesting himself of great honor and with him who was receiving it. 
 
 The General's letter to me of the — day of 183 ,^ which was 
 
 before the rejection of my nomination will be found to contain a 
 virtual reference to this conversation, in speaking of the probability 
 of my being made a candidate for the office of Vice President against 
 my will. 
 
 The idea was abandoned aaid although he throughout cherished 
 a sincere desire to lay down his office at the earliest practicable 
 moment, his resignation was not again proposed, nor was he ever in 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 25. > Dec. 6, 1831, in the Van Buren Papers. 
 
508 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 a situation to make it with propriety. It will be borne in mind that 
 wihen I agreed to accept the English Mission I expressed to the 
 General my opinion that the step I was about to take could not be 
 and should not be regarded in any other light than that of a re- 
 linquishment of any pretensions my friends might think I possessed 
 to succeed him in the Presidency, and that I inferred from his 
 silence that he felt constrained to believe that such would be its 
 effect. But he soon changed that opinion, or never adopted it in 
 the sense I did. As early as the 5th of September, 1831, within 
 eight weeks after I left him, he wrote as follows : 
 
 Notwithstanding the high opinion I entertain of the talents and worth of 
 ay present Cabinet and the confidence I have in them, still there appears a 
 vacancy by your absence and our faithful Baton, that is not filled. Mr. Mc- 
 Lane's mind Is a host to me and with him and Barry,* In whom I know I can 
 under any circumstances confide — ^with the goodness and amiability and high 
 talents of the others, I have no doubt we shall steer the national vessel into a 
 safe port. Still I cannot but regret your absence. We have been so fortunate 
 with our foreign relations hitherto that I would regret [that] any faux-pas 
 should occur hereafter. I cannot close without again^ repeating that I hope 
 circumstances will occur to enable me to return to the Hermitage in due season 
 and set an example worthy to be followed and give an evidence to my country 
 that I never had any other ambition than that of serving my country when 
 she required it, and, when I know it could be better served by others, to open 
 the door for their employment ; you will understand me.^ 
 
 Nothing having occurred that required me to deviate from the 
 the course which circumstances had pointed out for me, I took no 
 notice of these suggestions, as will be seen by my reply to this letter. 
 But he did not allow my silence to prevent him from returning to 
 the subject frequently and in his letter of the 17th of Decemberj 
 1831, he expressed himself thus: 
 
 I cannot close, altho' It is now late, without naming to you confidentially a 
 subject which is constantly on my mind ; It Is this : — If I am reelected and you 
 are not called to the Vice Presidency I wish you to return to this country in 
 two years from now, if it comports with your views and wishes. I think your 
 presence here about that time will be necessary. The opposition would, if 
 they durst, try to reject your nomination as Minister, but they dare not, — ^they 
 begin to know if they did that the people in mass would take you up and elect 
 you Vice President without a nomination. Was it not for this, it is said Clay, 
 Calhoun & Co. would try It. 
 
 You know Mr. Livingston is anxious to go abroad and I am as anxious to 
 have you near me, and it would afford me pleasure to gratify both. * * * 
 
 I would not be surprised if, contrary to your declared wishes, you should 
 be run for Vice-President; as sure as the Senate make the attempt to re.iect 
 your nomination. I am told It vnW be done. This will bring you back in 
 twelve months. If not, then I wish, if reelected, to bring you back as inti- 
 mated.' 
 
 1 William T. Barry, Postmaster General. 
 
 » In the Van Buren Papers. The answer, dated Oct. 11, 1831, Is also In the Van Buren 
 Papers. 
 » In the Van Buren Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 509 
 
 The rejection of my nomination followed soon after and in the 
 General's estimation cleared the field from all obstacles. That the 
 party ought to nominate me and that I was bound to accept were 
 points too clear to him for discussion and this he avowed on all 
 suitable occasions. 
 
 The proposal of my friends that I should consent to fun for the 
 office of Vice President being wholly disconnected from the sug- 
 gestions of the President in respect to his ulterior views I felt myself 
 in a situation, after the treatment I had received to accept of the 
 nomination consistently with the principles upon which I had acted, 
 and concurred moreover in the opinion expressed by the President 
 that I was, under the circumstances, bound to do so if it should 
 be presented to me. 
 
 Entertaining such views of the subject I sent the following answer 
 to Mr. Marcy's letter: 
 
 London, March IJfth, 18SS. 
 Mt Deab Sir : 
 
 I have received your kind letter announcing the desire which has been mani- 
 fested that I should be a Candidate for the Vice Presidency, and suggesting 
 the propriety of an expression of my feeling on the subject to some one of my 
 friends in Washington. 
 
 Of the strong aversion which I have uniformly entertained to this measure 
 you, as well as many others, were fully informed before I left the United 
 States. My private feelings on the subject are unchanged. I cannot regard 
 the possession of that post as in any wise likely to promote my happiness or 
 welfare. But whatever may be my individual repugnance, I cannot but feel 
 the justice of the opinion, expressed as it appears, by a large portion of my 
 Fellow Citizens, that recent events have materially changed the condition of 
 the question. The President in the recess of Congress had nominated me 
 to a foreign and important trust ; I had left my native land, and entered, among 
 strangers, upon the conspicuous functions of that trust ; a majority of the Sen- 
 ate have rejected the nomination of the Executive, and publicly divested me 
 of my employ when I was executing it in the presence of Europe & America. In 
 so doing they have ° sought to bring discredit upon the act of the President, 
 and to disgrace me personally in the eyes, not merely of my Fellow Citizens 
 but of foreign nations. If the Republicans of the U. States think my elevation 
 to the Vice Presidency the most effectual mode of testifying to the world their 
 sentiments with respect to the act of the President and the vote of the Senate, 
 I can see no justifiable ground for declining to yield to their wishes. 
 
 Should a knowledge of this acquiescence on my part be deemed absolutely 
 necessary to the harmonious operation of our friends, you are at liberty to 
 state it ; but not otherwise. 
 
 I would sedulously avoid any act or agency that might appear calculated 
 or designed to bring about the result referred to. My paramoimt desire is that 
 my future fate be left to the unbiased decision of the people. 
 
 Overwhelmed as I am with the generous sympathy manifested by my coun- 
 trymen, I hope & trust, I shall not be thought to meet their confiding frank- 
 ness with fastidious reserve. There is a degree of reserve forced upon me, 
 however, by the nature of the question, by the peculiarly delicate situation in 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 30, 
 
510 AMEBIOAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 which I have been placed In regard to it, and by the wanton & persevering mis- 
 representations of the whole subject with which the public ear has been abused. 
 
 I am Dr. Sir 
 Very truly yours 
 
 M. V. B. 
 
 Wm. L. Mabct, Esq. 
 
 Having possessed myself of the published debate which took place 
 in the Senate on the occasion, and of all necessary documents, I de- 
 voted a sufficient portion of the brief period of my remaining in 
 Europe to a critical examination of the grounds that had been as- 
 sumed by the opponents of my nomination in the Senate and an ar- 
 rangement of the materials in my hands which were abundantly 
 sufficient to demonstrate their fallacy/ Of these I intended to avail 
 myself on my public reception at New York, of the design of which 
 I had been notified. Finding the city, on my arrival heavily af- 
 flicted by Cholera, I superseded the arrangements that had been 
 made for receiving me by hastening to shore and proceeding imme- 
 diately to Washington. My contemplated speech was of course not 
 delivered. Perceiving that the public mind was wholly engrossed 
 with questions arising upon the President's veto of the Act for the 
 recharter of the U. S. Bank, and by other topics of deep interest, and 
 assured by friends in whose judgment and coolness I placed implicit 
 confidence that the objections to my nomination to the English 
 Mission, founded on the instructions to Mr. McLane, were already 
 regarded by all my countrymen, who were not blinded by prejudice 
 or by political scheming, as unfounded pretences seized upon by 
 partizan Senators to mask a blow aimed at a political opponent, I 
 was induced to regard further notice of the affair at that time as 
 a matter of supererogation. I need scarcely say that the opinions 
 of my friends in respect to the state of public opinion upon the 
 subject were fully sustained as well by my election as Vice-President 
 which followed my arrival almost immediately, as by that which 
 raised me to the Presidency. 
 
 The notes of my intended speech are now before me and a dis- 
 cussion of the questions involved, with the field to myself, might 
 well be considered an occupation both justifiable and inviting. 
 But I am not satisfied that, under existing circumstances, I ought 
 to indulge myself in that gratification or that there can be many 
 unprejudiced minds with impressions of the whole affair other 
 than those which have been stamped upon it by the repeated ver- 
 dicts of the American People. Satisfied with the vindication my 
 character received from these and other sources I will not now 
 carry out the arguments they sustained or even publish them. They 
 
 '■See Defense of the Administration's action resulting in Van Buren's rejection as Min- 
 ister to England, an autograph draft, 118 pp. under date of 1832, in the Van Buren 
 Papers, 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 511 
 
 were submitted to Chief Justice Taney and to Col. Benton who 
 were highly pleased with them and the latter speaks approvingly 
 of them in his " Thirty Years in the Senate." 
 
 I will content myself with some general views of the matter. 
 These will be given not at all with the disposition to cast odium 
 on the memory of the principal actors in those scenes, but 'because 
 it is due tO' historical truth, that the main features of a great public 
 transaction such as that, carried on in the face and appertaining to 
 the concerns of two great nations, should at least be preserved. 
 
 The assumed ground on which it proceeded was, it will be re- 
 membered, the character of the instructions under which Mr. Mc- 
 Lane acted in obtaining the restoration of the West India trade, 
 and the alleged extent to which those instructions sought to ad- 
 vance partizan aims at the expense of the honor and interests of 
 the nation. Now it so happened that the same subject came before 
 the Senate but a short time before and was discussed in a similar 
 aspect during the administration of Mr. Adams. 
 
 Among my speeches will be found one delivered by me in that 
 body in which the subjects of the character of the trade, the inter- 
 ests of the United States in its maintenance and the steps by which 
 it was lost are fully discussed. The questions arose upon a bill re- 
 ported by the Chairman of the Committee of Commerce, Mr. John- 
 ston, of Louisiana, a supporter of Mr. Adams' administration and 
 Mr. Clay's particular and devoted friend; the latter being then 
 Secretary of State. The bill contained a proposition which the 
 Administration thought best adapted to relieve the subject from the 
 embarrassments in which it was involved and the passage of which 
 thro' Congress it anxiously desired. I was then, in the general 
 sense of the term, an opponent of the Administration, but, whilst 
 I pointed out the errors by which the trade had been lost, I sup- 
 ported the measure under consideration. Mr. Johnston, in reply, ad- 
 mitted that the amendment I proposed did not differ in substance 
 from the bill reported by the Committee, indeed in his opinion, only 
 as to the mode of doing the same thing. " The gentleman from New 
 York" said he, " has given a clear statement of the origin and prog- 
 ress of this question ; he has stated it evidently with a strong lean- 
 ing, he has made some errors and omissions in his facts, and he has 
 given too much weight to the suggestions in regard to the course 
 pursued by his own Country. But he has arrived, no matter by 
 what course of reasoning, to the true conclusion, which is the end 
 of all debate ; to wit : that the interdict must follow. He thinks it 
 should be created by the act of the President ; we, by the law. Hav- 
 ing agreed in the main object, I shall not stickle about the mode." 
 
 Occupying the position I did in respect to the Administration, I 
 deemed it proper to speak freely of the obligations of public men 
 
512 AMERICAN' HISTORICAL AS^OCIATIOK. 
 
 to forego party feelings when acting upon matters in issue between 
 their own and foreign nations. As few will probably be disposed to 
 wade thro' the full discussion of a spent question I venture to trans- 
 fer to this place some of the concluding sentences of my speech which 
 were substantially confined to this point: 
 
 I trust, sir, there is no disposition in any part of this House to throw 
 the responsibility of their own acts upon those by whom they were opposed, 
 and shun the consequences which they had themselves produced. The motives 
 which led to the rejection of the bill were doubtless pure; and although tha 
 promised gelat of an adjustment, through Executive instrumentality, so 
 tempting to a new administration, may have had Its weight, yet that this was a 
 controlling consideration, it is far from my intention to aflBrm. 
 
 In the prosecution of this inquiry, it is not necessary, I am sure, to urge 
 upon this Senate the adoption of those measures only which are demanded 
 by the honor and interests of our country, and the exclusion from our coun- 
 cils of every consideration less worthy of our regard. The humiliating spec- 
 tacle of a foreign and adverse government, speculating upon the advantages 
 vchich it aay derive from, our dissensions, vnll, I fervently trust, never again 
 be the reproach of the American People. In a Government like ours, founded 
 upon freedom in thought and action, imposing no unnecessary restraints, and 
 calling into exercise the highest energies of the mind, occasional differences 
 of opinion are not onlyr to be expected, but to be desired. They rouse the 
 sluggish to exertion, give increased energy to the most active intellect, excite 
 a salutary vigilance over our public functionaries, iJnd prevent that apathy 
 which has proved the ruin of Republics, like the electric spark, they dispel 
 from the political atmosphere the latent causes of disease and death. But 
 these conflicting opinions should be confined to subjects which concern our- 
 selves. In the collisions which may arise between the tJnited States and a 
 foreign Power, it is our duty to present an unbroken front; domestic differ- 
 ences, if they tend to give encouragement to unjust pretensions, should be ex- 
 tinguished or deferred; and the cause of our Government must be considered 
 as the cause of our country.^ 
 
 The views expressed in this speech in respect to the superiority of 
 the claims of the country over those of party were the unalterable 
 sentiments of my heart when the instructions to our Minister to 
 England were prepared by me as Secretary of State and those upon 
 which I acted to the best of my abilities. 
 
 That the idea of the rejection of my nomination was first started 
 by the friends of Mr. Calhoun is quite certain, whether" upon his 
 suggestion or made his by adoption, I have no means of knowing. 
 The U. S. Telegraph, the editor of which was his devoted friend and 
 an incessant advocate for his elevation to the Presidency, of a date 
 shortly after the nomination was amiounced, contained the following 
 article : 
 
 We make no pretension to prophesy, but, judging from the face's within our 
 knowledge, we incline to the opinion that Mr. Van Buren's nomination will be 
 
 1 Register of Debates, Feb. 24, 1827, vol. Ill, 477 and 478. The Autobiography con- 
 tains the injunction to " Take in extracts " but the particular extracts are not designated, 
 " MS. V, p. 85, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 513 
 
 rejected by the Senate. Certain we are that it will be if the part he has acted 
 since he came to Washington is fully examined. His rejection, under such cir- 
 cumstances, can excite no sympathy and will consign him to everlasting retire- 
 ment. Indeed we have our doubts whether he will not yet affirm his own con- 
 demnation by declining the mission and thus escape the severe ordeal. 
 
 This article has nothing of the characteristic style of the editor but 
 resembles observations of Mr. Calhoun made on the floor of the 
 Senate as related by Col. Benton. Mr. Calhoun's successive hostile 
 movements against me were uniformly without cause, always injuri- 
 ous to his own advancement and on but one occasion, — ^the Presiden- 
 tial nomination in 1844, — fatal to mine; and even then the very 
 means to which he was driven to defeat my nomination, as will be 
 more fully seen hereafter, extinguished the last hope for the realiza- 
 tion of his own life-long aspirations. 
 
 Our personal relations commenced under the most favourable 
 auspices. He called on me within a few hours after my arrival 
 at Washington as Senator in 1821, and soon made advances towards 
 a familiar and friendly social intercourse, which I cordially recip- 
 rocated. He was at that period of his life a very fascinating man 
 and I enjoyed his society greatly. His residence was very near 
 my lodgings and I spent many of my evenings at his house, where I 
 found many of his friends invited, as I was, to talk, and play whist. 
 The Presidential election was more than two years off, but the gen- 
 eral attention of politicians was already actively directed to the 
 subject. He was an avowed candidate, and from the beginning, 
 openly and earnestly against a continuance of the caueiis system. 
 In one of our conversations he went so far as to say that if a caucus 
 was held and if it should offer the nomination to him, without con- 
 ditions, he would feel obliged to decline its support, in that form. 
 Upon this point we differed widely, nor was that the only difference 
 ia our political opinions. His views in regard to the construction 
 of the Federal Constitution were latitudinarian in the extreme. Of 
 these he gave us a striking and aJarming illustration in his report 
 as Secretary of War in favour of internal improvements by the 
 general government, pursuant to the ground he had previously 
 taken in Congress, as we have seen. He was out of patience with 
 Virginia politics and with the never ceasing harping by her poli- 
 ticians upon the "doctrines of '98." If I had selected my Presi- 
 dential candidate from personal preferences I might have chosen 
 Mr. Calhoun, but the particular doctrines thatlvere then so dis- 
 tasteful to him were in perfect harmony with my opinions and 
 feelings. They constituted the creed of a political party to which 
 I had belonged from the beginning and in whose ranks I hoped to 
 remain to the last. I could not therefore go for him or with him 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 33 
 
514 AMERICAS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and gave the preference to Mr. Crawford with whom my intercourse 
 had been much more restricted. The rest is known. Mr. Calhoun 
 was elected Vice President running on the same ticket with Mr. 
 Adams and General Jackson respectively, both of whom, as well as 
 his own election, I opposed. Hard feelings arose during the can- 
 vass but an open rupture was avoided. I had given him early and 
 frank notice of the course I intended to pursue, with my reasons, 
 which more than excluded a personal exception, and social estrange- 
 ment of a marked character had thus been prevented. We met in 
 the Senate, he as its President and I on the floor. Old associations 
 were soon renewed and old feelings revived. In the same winter 
 that good and true gentleman Patroon Van Eensselaer and myself 
 spent the holidays with him in Virginia at the residence of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Fitzhugh, of Ravenswood, his particular friends, and our 
 most agreeable and hospitable hosts. Our time passed delightfully 
 and the visit has ever been remembered by me as a green spot in 
 the pilgrimage of life. 
 
 He gradually cut loose from whatever of political fraternity had 
 existed between himself and the supporters of the Adams' ad- 
 ministration and we united heart and hand to promote the election 
 of General Jackson. To reconcile past differences we agreed, in 
 advance of that election, to go at the next Presidential election for 
 a nomination by a national Convention. In pursuance of a private 
 understanding between us I prepared the letter to Mr. Ritchie in 
 favour of that step which appears in the correspondence and sub- 
 mitted it to him, and to his friend Mr. Ingham. They agreed to it 
 without alteration and it was forwarded. I do not now remember 
 that I submitted it to any other person although it is probable that 
 I did. Before I left Washington we had an animated discussion, 
 at his house in Georgetown, concerning the press at Washington by 
 which the opposition to the administration should be represented. 
 He was for continuing the Telegraph already in existence under 
 the direction of Gen. Green and I was desirous to make an effort to 
 prevail on Mr. Ritchie to move to Washington. After I reached 
 home I enclosed to him a letter from Mr. Cambreleng on the same 
 subject to which he made the following reply. I have no copy of 
 my letter which it will be seen by the answer embraced other sub- 
 jects. The omitted paragraphs of the letter relate to the questions 
 in regard to the power of the Vice President to call to order. The 
 whole letter shows how cordial were the existing relations between 
 us at that time. 
 
 Washington, '7th July, 18Z6. 
 My Dear Sib, 
 
 Several causes have conduced to suspend my correspondence for the last 
 fortnight, and among others the dangerous indisposition of my little son, who 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 515 
 
 was sick when you left us. He is still very low, and I fear his recovery is very 
 doubtful. The physician recommends traveling, and we have concluded to go 
 South, so soon as the state of his health will permit. Our residence in Carolina 
 is near the mountains in a delightful and healthy climate. 
 
 I rejoice that your prospect in the State is so good. I am of the opinion, 
 that the administration here are at a loss how to act as it regards Mr. Clinton. 
 Mr. Clay will undoubtedly be opossed to his election. Humour says that Mr. 
 Adams is favourable, but I think it very doubtful. Great pains are undoubtedly 
 taken to impress Mr. Clinton with the belief, that his only hope is to unite 
 with Mr. Adams, to effect which Mr. Clay is represented to him to be 
 utterly prostrated in publick opinion, and that the whole influence of Mr. 
 Adams will ultimately be thrown into his scale, unless he should take part 
 against him. I have no doubt but this is one of the points on which the 
 feelings of Mr. Adams and Clay ° do not accord, but I am of the impression that 
 the former will be compelled to support Mr. Sanford, should he be nominated, 
 or at least not to take part against him. I entirely concur with you as to 
 our course. Our liberty and happiness depend on maintaining with inflexible 
 firmness, but with moderation and temper, republican grounds and republican 
 principles. In such a course, success cannot be doubted. Our people are 
 essentially republican, and it would be strange indeed, if those who acted in 
 the spirit of the system, and in accord with the temper of the community, 
 should fail. * * * 
 
 I know not what to say on the subject to which Mr. C. refers. I do not 
 doubt the importance of a general concurrence to support, by due encourage- 
 ment, an able paper here, and that young Mr. C. from representation is well 
 qualified. It is to be regretted that some united move had not been made last 
 winter. In the absence of such, accident, as will almost always happen, gov- 
 erned. A paper is already in existence, and it does seem to me that two on the 
 same side must distract and excite jealousy. Each will have Its partisans. To 
 make a new arrangement on the existing establishment is not without difHculties. 
 The consent of the proprietor must be had. He has entered with zeal on his 
 duties, and i^ sanguine of success. The circulation of his paper is said to 
 be rapidly increasing. On the whole, it seems to me, that nothing ought to 
 be done, but with general assent, which, in any event, cannot be obtained 
 before the next winter. 
 
 I would be glad to hear from you before I leave here. I do not frank, as 
 my name on the back of the letter might excite an impertinent curiosity. 
 
 With great respect, 
 I am &c. &c. 
 
 J. C. Calhoun. 
 
 Hon. M. Van Buebn. 
 
 The Convention was held, and he and General Jackson were 
 nominated ; the latter for President, and himself for Vice President. 
 He had numerous and strong opponents in Georgia, South Caro- 
 lina and other Southern States, who by,the course we had respectively- 
 taken in thei preceding Presidential election had become my warm 
 political friends. It has been seen how earnestly they, with Mr. 
 Crawford at their head, remonstrated with me against supporting 
 Mr. Calhoun, but I did support him notwithstanding. The fol- 
 lowing letter will show the character of our relations at that period 
 
 " MS. V, p. 40. 
 
516 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 personal as well as political. I give it in full to show, as an act 
 of justice to him, how earnest he was, at that time, against the pro- 
 tective policy and what is here said is consistent with what he said 
 to me at the previous session, and always subsequently during the 
 continuance of our friendly relations. 
 
 Pendleton, Sep'r, 1828. 
 My Deab Sik. 
 
 I am delighted with the prospect in your State. It exceeds my most san- 
 guine anticipations, and is decisive of the great struggle. This favourable 
 state of things is, no doubt, to be attributed in a considerable degree to the 
 goodness of the cause, but much is due to the consummate prudence and judg- 
 ment with which all of your measures have been taken. 
 
 I regret to learn that circumstances may compel you to permit your name 
 to be placed on the gubernatorial ticket. It Is a position of great importance, 
 but in the present state of things, it seems to me desirable, that there should 
 be as much experience and talents as possible in the service of the nation. 
 The coalition has so neglected and distracted all of our relations, foreign and 
 domestick, as to require the greatest skiU & prudence to preserve peace and 
 harmony; yet, if your name be necessary to avoid the hazard of defeat in 
 N. York, it will leave you no option. I sincerely regret that our old friend 
 the Judge should put himself into so injurious and disagreeable a situation. 
 It indicates a want of political judgment, which really surprises me. I can 
 attribute it only to inattention to the events of the last four years. We are 
 so one-sided here, that I csin have no information on the Presidential contest to 
 communicate. If we were more divided on that, there might, perhaps, be less 
 excitement on another question, in regard to which I observe much misrepre- 
 sentation in some of the northern papers. Deep as is the excitement, I think 
 I may truly say there is no class in favour of disunion. That I think is not 
 the danger. You know my sentiment from conversation. I see nothing to 
 change it since the adjournment. Unless something can be done to put the 
 question out of the system, I fear there wil be no end to distraction, -which 
 must ultimately open wide the door of political corruption. On this point the 
 broken forces of the coalition vyill endeavor to rally after their overthrow. 
 
 With sincere respect, 
 I am &c. &C. 
 
 J. C. CiuLHotrs. 
 
 Hon. M. Van Bueen. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 We succeeded in the election and I accepted the office of Secretary 
 of State, an office, as will be seen by the preceding letter, Mr. Cal- 
 houn desired me to occupy. He continued of that mind till the 
 appointment was made so far as I know or have-any reason to be- 
 lieve. It has already been seen that before the end of the second 
 year of General Jackson's administration a line of separation was 
 established between us which seemed destined to be permanent. It 
 has also, I trust, been satisfactorily shown that drawing that line 
 was his act, not mine, and that however sincere he may have been 
 in the conclusions under which he acted, these were, nevertheless, 
 altogether unfounded. I have, here and elsewhere, said perhaps all 
 that is necessary in respect to the course I pursued towards Mr. Cal- 
 houn and his friends whilst I was in General Jackson's Cabinet. I 
 am led, however, by my anxiety to be correctly understood upon 
 that point, to select for insertion here from the bundle of letters I 
 have bearing upon it the following from myself to General Williams, 
 of South Carolina, with his reply. In respectability, wealth and 
 influence Gen. Williams ranked among the first citizens of his State ; 
 he had supported Mr. Crawford and was, from an early period, an 
 opponent of Mr. Calhoun. He had retired from our National Coun- 
 cils before I entered them and I first made his acquaintance at his 
 own house in 1828. The severity of his denunciations against Mr. 
 Calhoun would have induced me to withhold his letter if their hos- 
 tile relations and unfavorable opinions of each other were less 
 notorious, neither do I give a place here without reluctance and 
 apology to his extravagant estimate of my services to General 
 Jackson ; but I do not wish to garble his letter, the object for which 
 I use it being evident and, under the circumstances, an ample justi- 
 fication of such use. 
 
 (Confidential.) 
 
 Washington, Dec. 22, 18S9. 
 Mt Deab Sik, 
 
 I received, your kind letter with much pleasure, and am justly proud of the 
 favorable opinion it expresses in regard to myself. I hope you have seen 
 enough of me to be satisfied of my sincerity, ° when I assure you that there are 
 few men upon whose friendship I place a higher value than upon yours. In 
 
 °MS. V, p. 45. 
 
 517 
 
518 AMERIOAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 regard to the principal subject of your letter, I can for the present only- 
 say that until Gen'. Jackson distinctly announces his wishes in respect to 
 the next election, It would be improper for one standing in the relation to 
 him that I do to meddle in any form in the question of his successor. I 
 have therefore laid down for myself a rule upon that point consistent with 
 this opinion from which I have not yet departed & do not intend in future 
 to depart. 
 
 Whenever circumstances are changed it will give me much pleasure to 
 communicate vnth you in the same spirit of frankness which distinguishes 
 your letter and forms an interesting feature in your character. In the 
 meantime I can with great confidence assure you that there is no disposition 
 on the part of the President to exercise a partiality in whatever relates to 
 South Carolina injurious to your friends. Upon this head you will be (if 
 you have not already been) doubtless fully advised by such of them as are 
 here & have opportunities of judging. You wiU have seen by the public 
 papers that the one measure you proposed wag not an open question when 
 your letter was written. The other cannot be effected for reasons which I 
 know will be satisfactory as well to yourself as to Judge Smith. At a 
 proper time you shall know all that belongs to it. 
 
 It will always give me sincere pleasure to hear from you. Remember me 
 kindly to Mrs. Williams & your son, and believe me to be 
 
 Very sincerely your friend 
 
 M. Van Buren. 
 
 Gen. D. R. Williams. 
 
 To Mabtin Van Btjeen, Esq. 
 
 Society Hill, Slst Jan. 18S0. 
 My Deak Sir: 
 
 Your favor of the 22d of Dec. last reached me in due course of mail. I have 
 reflected much on its contents & cannot but express my deep regret that cir- 
 stances prescribe* to you a course of conduct eminently calculated to place 
 your friends, in this quarter, entirely in the background. When I say this I 
 wish distinctly to be understood as not objecting to the propriety of your reso- 
 lution, much less do I wish to attempt its revocation ; that certainly you can 
 best judge of ; and it is no part of friendship to embarrass you with counter 
 propositions. Perhaps it is insuperable, in a contest between intrigue & laud- 
 able ambition, that the last shall never occupy the vantage ground in all re- 
 spects. While your determinations remain suspended, your arch opponent has 
 every muscle distended to its utmost to gain the object he looks to, & therefore, 
 so far as South Carolina is concerned, it is not difficult to anticipate the result. 
 Nor do I feel quite so easy about the impartiality of a great personage ; accord- 
 ing to my perception of the favors, he has received, he owes you everything & 
 the other nothing. , 
 
 Of this enough. My sole object in writing now is to acknowledge yours, & to 
 say I am perfectly satisfied (if that be not too strong an expression) with what 
 you have been pleased to communicate ; for in truth I hold I scarcely have a 
 right to an opinion on the subject, while your course necessarily precludes me 
 from all exertion in your behalf. 
 
 In the event of an altered state of things it will give me pleasure to struggle, 
 even against the prospect of defeat ; for against the obliquities and tergiversa- 
 tions of your opponent's course I desire to be considered at perpetual war. 
 
 Accept the personal esteem of 
 
 yours &c. 
 
 David R. Williams. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJEBN. 619 
 
 There is no view that can be taken of Mr. Calhoun's conduct in 
 this affair to render it otherwise than highly censurable. If it be 
 admitted that he sincerely believed that I had acted an unfriendly 
 or an unworthy part towards him — so much so as to give his previous 
 hostility the character of justifiable retaliation, still the step I had 
 now taken should have caused him to pause. By my enemies gener- 
 ally as well as by myself that step was regarded as placing me out 
 of the line of competition for the Presidency, and I was about to 
 leave the Country upon a mission which would, in all probability, 
 but for the interference he contemplated, have kept me abroad for 
 several years. Almost any other man would have seen in this con- 
 juncture a sufficient reason for at least reviewing the grounds of past 
 animosity and confirming, himself of their truth and sufficiency. The 
 simplest enquiry either of General Jackson or of myself, thro' any 
 respectable man, would have resulted in satisfying him that the 
 stories and surmises upon which he acted were, one and all, fabulous 
 and baseless ; that I had never before that time taken a single hostile 
 step against him, or any in which he was concerned that was not 
 strictly in self-defence. He took such a course five years later, con- 
 vinced himself of his error and did all in his power to atone for it. 
 The same result would have followed if he had taken it at the time 
 of which I am speaking ; by which also many harsh and unprofitable 
 proceedings and much uneasiness of mind would have been saved.^ 
 
 But Mr. Calhoun was, it is to be feared, a most implacable man. 
 To persist in differing with him in politics was to encounter an 
 enmity which would be satisfied with nothing less than the utter 
 overthrow of its object; his political career, governed by this spirit 
 enforcing the scriptural admonition that those who live by the 
 
 » Eival aspirants for the superiority of position in their own ranks have always and 
 everywhere been the bane of political organizations, disturbing their peace and impairing 
 their efSciency, and will continue to be so as long as the nature of man remains what it 
 is. These carry on their internecine quasi-warfare according to their respective tempera- 
 ments, the dispositions these engender, and the best Judgment they can form in regard 
 to the probable efficiency of their separate efforts. Whilst some are led by their disposi- 
 tions to act only on the defensive, to watch the course of their rivals in all matters 
 which they think designed for their detriment, and to content themselves with counter- 
 acting the designs of their rivals by means the least calculated to disturb the Councils 
 by impairing the harmony of their party, there are those who are never satisfied with- 
 out the total overthrow and destruction of their rivals, at whatever cost to their 
 political association ' that gratification is to be obtained. A review of the history and 
 fate of parties and factions will shew that it has been those who pursued the former 
 course, who refrained the most from suffering their personal feelings from being in- 
 flamed by their political rivalries and were most willing to leave the question of their 
 individual advancement to the quiet and friendly arbitrament of their political associ- 
 ates have in the end been the most successful. Mr. Calhoun has, it must be admitted, 
 occupied a prominent position in the latter class and hence the bitter feuds in his own, 
 State and upon a larger scale between him and members of his own party with which 
 his political life has been checkered from its very commencement and hence also its 
 disastrous termination. Thus adding an additional point to the many afforded by the 
 history of man of the truth of the moral, that those who live by the sword die by the 
 Bword. 
 
520 AMEEIOAN HISTOEICAX, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 sword shall perish 'by the sword. It is only on this theory, which 
 is sustained by the character of his political wars in his own and 
 in the neighbouring state of Georgia, from beginning to end, and 
 the lamentable results of them, that I can explain proceedings 
 otherwise inscrutable. The circumstantial annunciation of the de- 
 sign to cause the rejection of my nomination — ^published in the 
 Telegraph, and heralded thro' the Country by the coalition press — 
 was followed up by Mr. Calhoun to its consummation with un- 
 disguised bitterness. The contemplated foundation and, on the 
 part of those whose views and interests were represented by the 
 Telegraph, the only foundation for the movement was the part I 
 had acted "since he (I) came to Washington" — ^that is to say, in 
 the Eaton affair, in the quarrel between President Jackson and Mr. 
 Calhoun, and in the disruption of the Cabinet. It was in respect 
 to these matters that I was to be compelled to pass through a 
 "severe ordeal." The ground finally assumed by those who made 
 the movement effectual — that of my instructions in regard to the 
 West India Trade negotiation — ^was probably not then dreamed of 
 by any one, certainly not by the Senators represented by the Tele- 
 graph. That was the result of different councils — ^the device of an- 
 other brain. The former did not at any time (it is fair to infer from 
 the published discussions) adopt it. [John] Holmes, of Maine, 
 then a reckless inebriate, altho' I am happy to add that his habits 
 were subsequently amended, was at that time prepared to shoulder^ 
 the load of an attempt to sustain their charges against me, but in 
 the end, as has been seen, he shrank, ingloriously from his own 
 resolutions. Senator Hayne, from South Carolina, who may well 
 be looked to as the index of their views, does not even allude to 
 any other matter as a ground for my rejection than those which I 
 have stated as included in the notice given in the Telegraph. Of 
 the miserable generalities in which he avowed his belief (upon 
 which belief he acted) and which I never read until recently, I 
 have only to say that there was not a particle of truth in a single 
 one of the inferences and surmises on which he based his action, 
 so far as they were assumed to impeach my conduct, — ^thus stamped, 
 one and all of them, by Mr. Calhoun himself by the honorable 
 course he pursued when better informed. 
 
 Neither Mr. Clay, inclined by his nature to higher flights in the 
 pursuit of his game, nor Mr. Webster, too sagacious to permit him- 
 self to be drawn before the Country with no better defence of his 
 course than could be found in those sources, were content with 
 the grounds of justification suggested by the Telegraph. The latter 
 therefore, as will be seen hereafter, as soon as he had made up his 
 mind to incur the proposed responsibility, set his evil genius, al- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREW. 521 
 
 ways prompt and active in the work of injuring a democrat, to de- 
 vise a foundation which might elevate the action of the Senate and 
 give more eclat to its decision. 
 
 "This, under its promptings, he undertook to construct out of 
 my instructions to Mr. Mc Lane. The history of that and of all 
 previous negotiations in relation to the subject, tho' spread over a 
 long series of years, may be given in a few words. Its adjustment 
 was the object of some six or seven negotiations between the two 
 governments, and of accumiulated retaliatory legislation. Many of 
 the most prominent statesmen of both Countries — for instance Can- 
 ning and Huskisson, for England, and Eush, Gallatin, Adams and 
 Clay, on our side, had taken prominent, parts in it ; Mr. Adams as 
 Secretary and again as President, and Mr. Clay as Secretary of 
 State under him. In 1825 the British Parliament established by 
 law the terms upon which alone other Countries should be allowed 
 to trade with her West Indian and other enumerated Colonies. 
 These they publicly offered to all nations who should accept of them 
 within a given time. The British Government subsequently issued 
 an Order in Council which averred that the United States had not 
 in all things conformed to the conditions but still tendered the trade 
 in question to them provided they did so conform by a named day ; 
 if not then embraced, this Country to be excluded from it. The 
 vexations attendant upon the protracted negotiations had unfortu- 
 nately exhausted the patience of some of the gentlemen engaged in 
 them ; they had allowed their amor propHi to take offence and their 
 feelings to become soured, a weakness to which public men of all 
 Countries are occasionally subject. Thro' some such cause our Gov- 
 ernment, with its eyes open to the consequences, suffered the time 
 to expire within which they were to comply with the English Act 
 of Parliament and Order in Council, and a total interdict of the 
 trade to take effect against the United States. Becoming satisfied 
 that he had committed an error, perhaps that he had given too loose 
 a rein to his feelings, Mr. Adams sent Mr. Gallatin as special Min- 
 ister to England with instructions, prepared by Mr. Clay under his 
 directions, containing explanations and excuses, and finally author- 
 izing the Minister to engage that the United States would yet do 
 what was required by the Act of Parliament to entitle them to the 
 trade, and to conclude an arrangement for the disposition of the 
 whole subject upon that basis. 
 
 The British ministry resented (for that is not too strong a term) 
 what they chose to regard as the contumacy of our Government 
 in refusing what they had offered, and now in their turn declined, 
 in express terms, allowing to us, their best and most convenient cus- 
 
 " MS. V, p. 50. 
 
522 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 tomers, a trade to which they freely admitted all other nations. Mr. 
 Gallatin was then instructed to bring the subject again before the 
 British Government and to renew our application to be admitted 
 to the trade under the Act of Parliament, and as an inducement 
 to that Government he was authorized to accompany his applica- 
 tion with a concession never before offered; to wit : " that the Presi- 
 dent acquiesced in the decision taken by the British Government 
 that the Colonial trade shall be regulated by law" — ^that being a 
 point we had before contested, preferring negotiation. His appli- 
 cation was a second time unceremoniously refused and he returned 
 from his fruitless mission. Not content with this Governor Bar- 
 bour was instructed to renew Mr. Gallatin's proposition and it was 
 again refused. Then followed diplomatic fulminations on our part 
 and finally a recommendation to Congress from President Adams, 
 in his Annual Message, to put an end to the trade by Act of Con- 
 gress, reciprocating the British interdict.^ In respect to this Act, 
 altho' not ranked among the friends of the Administration I sup- 
 ported, as has been seen, the President's recommendation upon 
 grounds which have also been seen in part. This took place in 1827, 
 and from that time until the coming in of Gen. Jackson's Admin- 
 istration, the trade was lost to both Countries because their respec- 
 tive ministers altho' agreed as to the terms upon which it should 
 be established, could not be brought to act together in carrying 
 that agreement into effect. The first step taken after the election 
 of President Jackson was the passage of an Act by Congress, framed 
 upon the principles contained in the instructions from Mr. Clay 
 to Mr. Gallatin under the previous Administration, setting forth 
 specifically the terms upon which we were willing to open our ports 
 to carry on the trade in question — which terms were those offered 
 by the British Act of Parliament before referred to and the ac- 
 ceptance of which had been omitted on our part. The Act of Con- 
 gress provided that whenever the President was satified that the 
 Government of Great Britain was willing to extend the trade to 
 us upon those terms he should be authorized to put an end to our 
 interdict by a Proclamation to that effect. Of that Congress the 
 Senators from New England, who figured so largely in the denun- 
 ciations of what was subsequently done, were members and to that 
 Act they gave their assent — ^nay they were desirous of its passage 
 as their immediate constituents were the largest sufferers from the 
 interdict. The duty of conducting a negotiation to obtain the con- 
 sent of Great Britain contemplated by the Act not only devolved 
 upon the President under the Constitution but he was expressly 
 
 ' The act to regulate the trade between the United States and the colonies of Great 
 Britain tailed of passage Mar. 3, 1827, but a subsequent act for the same purpose, amend- 
 ing the acts of 1818, 1820 and 1823, was passed and approved May 29, 1830. 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEBN. 523 
 
 requeste'd to institute one by Congress. President Jackson appointed 
 a new Minister to that Court, Mr. McLane, and sent him out under 
 instructions thro' which he hoped to satisfy the Government of 
 Great Britain that it was neither just nor expedient in her longer 
 to persist in denying to the United States commercial privileges 
 which she freely offered and extended to all the world. The desired 
 application was made and it was granted upon the conditions speci- 
 fied in the preparatory Act of Congress, passed May 29th, 1830, 
 which conditions, it has been seen, had received the concurrence 
 of all parties in Congress. 
 
 The news of Mr. McLane's success reached the United States dur- 
 ing the session of Congress, the President's Proclamation issued in 
 October and a new Order in Council in November, 1830 — revoking 
 the interdict and conceding the trade to the United States. The 
 trade was secured to our Eastern brethren and to all our people, 
 to the various extent of their interest in it; the propositions which 
 had been tendered to the previous Administration and declined, 
 which the latter had then urgently offered to accept and been thrice 
 repulsed, were now carried into effect by Great Britain and in con- 
 formity in all respects with the Act of Congress which had been 
 passed by common consent to pave the way for a renewal of the 
 trade and to regulate the terms upon which such renewal should 
 be asked. 
 
 Well might President Jackson expect that he would receive thanks 
 instead of denunciations especially from the representatives of our 
 Eastern people. But his reward and the reward of at least one of 
 those by whom he had been assisted was of a very different charac- 
 ter. The session of Congress continued for three months following 
 but nothing was then said upon the subject. The agreement for the 
 restoration had it is true, been entered into between the two gov- 
 ernments, but it had not been executed. To that end, farther official 
 acts were necessary ; on the part of this Government, the proclama- 
 tion of President Jackson to revoke our interdict, and a new Order 
 in Council on the part of Great Britain to annul' theirs. There was 
 still room for "a slip between the cup and the lip," and it would not 
 have comported with the well known sagacity of the "down Easters" 
 to raise a hue and cry against a measure of the Government by which 
 they were to be the greatest gainers, before its establishment had been 
 placed beyond the reach of contingencies. At the commencement 
 of the next Session of Congress these steps had been taken, by both 
 Governments and everything had been done to show that the trade 
 in question upon the required terms was entirely safe, and not liable 
 to be endangered by agitation. The administration was besides gain- 
 ing a degree of credit for its success which its opponents desired to 
 
524 AMEEICAN- HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 arrest, and what was worse than all, at least a share, perhaps a con- 
 siderable share, of that credit might be awarded to the Secretary 
 of State whom they believed to be the General's designated successor. 
 
 The coast being at length cleared of danger to the interests of their 
 constituents, these very representatives entered the field to disparage 
 if possible the administration of President Jackson, and to destroy 
 the political prospects of a hated aspirant by a desperate onslaught 
 on the measure itself, and on all who had aided in securing it, save 
 only the Minister who had gladly accepted and zealously sustained 
 the negotiation with a full knowledge of the instructions under 
 which he had acted, and, as will be seen, with ° more than that. 
 
 The Senators from Massachusetts, Webster and Sprague,^ and 
 Holmes, of Maine, came forward as the champions for the fight. 
 They charged that the trade was worth nothing, and that the char- 
 acter of the country had been degraded by the instructions under 
 which the Minister had acted. The support of the former imputa- 
 tion was committed to Holmes and Sprague,— 'Webster at the proper 
 time, assumed that of the latter. The two Houses were scarcely 
 organised before Holmes offered his resolution of enquiry,^ preceded 
 by a speech of condemnation, and, after occupying the attention of 
 the Senate, off and on, with incoherent and reckless invectives against 
 the President and the late Secretary of State until he exhausted its 
 patience, then dropt the subject without pressing or even having de- 
 signed to press a vote. Senator Spra^e, the erring descendent of an 
 honored democratic stock, though scarcely less bitter, was less gross 
 and made a clumsy, laborious and certainly most inconclusive speech 
 upon some proposition he had introduced in relation to the arrange- 
 ment that had been effected, the object of which was to show that 
 the trade was of no value. He, like his co-adjutor Holmes, occupied 
 the time of the Senate for several days, and then, like him, quitted 
 the subject. Webster made no formal speech either on Holmes' or 
 Sprague's propositions, but briefly signified his full concurrence in 
 their views.' He persisted in treating the arrangement for securing 
 the trade in the same way on several subsequent occasions, always 
 seemingly intent upon finding an excuse for his course in respect to 
 my nomination through impeachments of the negotiation. To show 
 the partisan and purely factious character of these proceedings it is 
 only necessary to say that this valuajble trade has been carried on by 
 this country for nearly thirty years under that arrangement ; and, as 
 I know from competent sources, without essential alterations, and 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 55. 
 
 » Peleg Sprague, Senator from Maine, not Massachusetts. 
 sDec. 20, 1831. 
 
 = These speeches are reported in Congressional Debates, vol. VIII, pt. 1, pp. 19, 24, 685, 
 709, 710, 711, 740, 766 and 939. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 525 
 
 that Mr. Webster, though twice Secretary of State since that period, 
 has never even made an attempt to improve it. 
 
 A straight-forward man who had no sinister object to accomplish, 
 but who thought he saw in the instructions under which the West 
 India trade had been concluded features which would render it 
 improper for him to vote for the confirmation of the nomination of 
 their author for another office, would have suspended his interfer- 
 ence until the question came before him officially, and would then 
 have stated his reasons with manly candour and, having done so, 
 would have founded upon them the act which, when he did perform 
 it, he professed to be a painful duty. More especially would he 
 have done so when that author was a member of the same honorable 
 profession with himself, one who had been associated with him in 
 the performance of professional duties of high importance, who 
 had been a member with him of the same dignified body in which 
 he was to perform that unwelcome duty, who was absent in a for- 
 eign land when the information of the step he felt himself con- 
 strained to take would reach him, in the presence of distinguished 
 men from all parts of the world, and who was withal a gentleman 
 whom his heart must aquit of having ever, in their long acquaint- 
 ance and extensive intercourse in various capacities, treated him 
 with incivility or unkindness of any description. But a course so 
 decorous, so becoming to our past relations and so well calculated 
 to soothe feeling which might be excited by his official action was 
 not to Mr. Webster's taste. A noiseless, unostentatious performance 
 of his painful duties, confined to the closed-door sessions of the 
 Senate, — ^the usual course on such occasions, — ^was not "the enter- 
 tainment " to which he invited himself. He desired, that his grati- 
 fication might be complete, to arouse the public interest and curiosity 
 in respect to the sacrifice he was aibout to make and, to this end, 
 he seized the occasion of a debate upon the resolution of his friend 
 and coadjutor. Holmes, in a few significant remarks, to fore- 
 shadow it and to summon the attention of his followers. Having 
 made this demonstration he forthwith, Jaefore the debate would ap- 
 pear in the regular course, prepared an article for the National 
 IntelUffencer giving a sketch of what he had said. I say he pre- 
 pared it, because what he in that sketch is supposed to have said 
 is evidently not taken from the notes of their reporter which will 
 be found in the volume. The article, as it appeared in the Intelli- 
 gencer, is in the following words : 
 
 The British 'Negotiation. — In tlie course of some incidental debate in the 
 Senate on Mr. Holmes's resolution proposing to call upon the executive for cer- 
 tain further information concerning the West India trade, Mr. Webster made 
 
526 AMERICAK HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 remarks to the following effect, the bearing of which induces us to state It, 
 though the rest of the debate does not appear : 
 
 From the close of the late war down to a very recent period, it has been 
 the object of the several administrations to secure a reciprocity not only to 
 the navigation, but to the commerce, the traffic in commodities of this country 
 with England. Since the recent period alluded to, that purpose has been 
 abandoned, and an arrangement has been completed, in confoi-mlty with in- 
 structions given by the government here to the Minister at the court of St. 
 James given, Sir, in terms and in a temper which may very properly become 
 the subject of public examination and comment here; I say, Sir, of public 
 examination and comment. 
 
 This was immediately transferred to Niles' Register, puMished in 
 the adjoining city, where, to guard against its not being under- 
 stood, it received the following prefatory interpretation : * * * 
 
 Mr. Van BtrsEN. It has been extensively believed that certain parts of the 
 instructions to Mr. McLane, on his mission to England, by Mr. Van Buren, 
 while Secretary of State, would become a subject of pointed discussion in the 
 Senate of the United States, which we now clearly understand will take place 
 from the follovnng significant paragraph in the National Intelligencer of 
 yesterday.' 
 
 From the Register it went the rounds of the opposition press, and 
 thus was the country, in a few days, forewarned of the great public 
 debate that was in due time- to come off in the Senate of the United 
 States upon the character of my instructions tQ Mr. McLane, my 
 nomination as Minister to England being then before that body 
 for confirmation. 
 
 Now if anything were necessary, beyond the character and habits 
 of this Senator in such affairs and the circumstances by which the 
 transaction was surrounded to indicate the true source and nature of 
 this clap-trap annunciation, and to show that the objection to the 
 instructions thus ostentatiously heralded to the Country was a hollow 
 pretence, it would, I should think, in the estimation of all ingenuous 
 minds, be found in the fact that these instructions had been volun- 
 tarily communicated ° to Congress, published and laid upon the tables 
 of the members for their information and for such consideration as 
 they might think the subject .required on the 3rd of January, 1831 — 
 within one week of a year before this notice in respect to them was 
 paraded before the public — that Congress remained in session three 
 months after they were so laid before it, that they were publishad 
 in many of the public papers, (in Niles' Register I know,^ and in the 
 National Intelligencer, I believe), and that neither in Congress nor 
 in the public prints, nor, as far as I know or believe, anywhere 
 else was a single word said about this degradation of our national 
 character, so loudly and, I may well say, so audaciously put forth, 
 
 1 Niles' Register, Dec. 24, 1831, 41, p. 297. 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 60. 
 
 ' Jan. 15, 22 and 29, 1831, 39, pp. 363-68, 369-80, 390-96. 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIK VAN BUKEN. 527 
 
 until I had been nominated a,s Minister to England and when it was 
 found expedient to set them up as a pretense for a predetermined 
 rejection of my nomination. 
 
 No steps were indeed taken by Congress in respect to the arrange- 
 ment, but it was because none were necessary. The President issued 
 his proclamation on the express understanding that the arrangement 
 was in precise conformity to the intention of Congress, as that was 
 set forth in the Act of the month of May preceding. He approved 
 of the arrangement because it was so, and because the negotiation 
 had been fairly conducted and upon principles consistent with the 
 honor and best interests of the Country. To enable Congress to 
 judge for itself whether or not all this was so he, without solicitation, 
 sent in all the papers necessary to the formation of its judgment and, 
 at the head of them, these very instructions. If the arrangem^it was 
 deficient upon either point it was its duty to say so, and to arrest its 
 execution, as it was, in various ways in its power to do ; but above 
 all if it was, in the judgment of the members of the National Legis- 
 lature or in the judgment of any portion of them, obtained through 
 disreputable concessions or explanations or representations, by which 
 the honor of the Country was tarnished, it was their bounden duty 
 so to declare at the threshold and to call upon the President to pro- 
 ceed no farther in its execution. It was not allowable by any rule 
 of right or decency, that a body of men, such as these ought to have 
 been, and as the great portion of them were, should accept the wages 
 of their Country's degradation one year, and the next to prom.ote 
 'Other ends, should raise this false clamor against the transaction of 
 which they had thus availed themselves. 
 
 What was the President to do ? His predecessor had, for the time 
 being, lost a great interest to the country, through the wiles of 
 diplomacy, by backing and filling in his positions in respect to it. 
 Those who had elevated him to power had charged this very delin- 
 quency, among others, upon him and laboured for his removal ; they 
 had succeeded, and put another in his place to redress their rights in 
 this and other respects — ^the Congress that was elected with the new 
 President asked him to seek the restoration of this trade upon the 
 terms which the administration they had turned out had, tho' agree- 
 ing to them, lost by their remissness. 
 
 How was Andrew Jackson, the frank old soldier, to approach 
 the British Ministry with such an application? Was he to speak 
 to them with a double tongue, was he to mince his words, and, as 
 diplomatists often do, talk much without saying anything, or was 
 he to speak to them as he did? — ^to say, with the discussions and 
 altercations that took place between you and my predecessors I 
 desire to have as little to do as possible; we have had our differ-- 
 
528 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ences about them among ourselves — ^it is sufficient for you that the 
 claim set up by them was by themselves withdrawn, and is not re- 
 vived by me; you have a right to refuse what we ask if you think 
 it against your interest to concede it, but you have no moral right 
 to refuse us privileges which you grant to other nations, and none 
 at all to ground such refusal on past differences between you and 
 my predecessors and I admonish you, therefore, respectfully but 
 firmly, of the effect which such a course is calculated to exert upon 
 the feelings and dispositions of the people of the United States. 
 That was, in substance, what he said, and it was the only language 
 he could consent to use. It is the language which all nations sim- 
 ilarly situated employ. It is the only way in which Countries in- 
 juriously affected by the quarrels of diplomatists can hope to rectify 
 their errors. It is the straight forward honest way. An instance 
 of a similar recourse is described in a letter from Mr. [Edward] 
 Everett, our Minister to England, to Mr. Webster himself, whilst 
 Secretary of State, as follows : 
 
 Me. Hvekett to Me. Wbbstee. 
 
 Legation or the United States, 
 
 London, December S8th, ISlfl. 
 I received on the 23rd instant a note from Lord Aberdeen, on ttie African 
 seizures, in reply to one addressed to him by Mr. Stavenson,^ in the last hours 
 of his ^residence in London, and which, as it appears, did not reach Lord Aber- 
 deen's hands till Mr. Stevenson had left London. As some time must elapse 
 before I could give a detailed answer to this communication, I thought it best 
 at once to acknowledge its receipt, to express my satisfaction at^lts dispassionate 
 tone, and to announce the purpose of replying to it at some future period. The 
 President, I think, will be struck with the marked change in the tone of the 
 present ministry, as manifested in this note and a former one addressed by 
 Lord Aberdeen to Mr. Stevenson, contrasted with the last communication from 
 Ijord Palmerston on the same subject. The difference is particularly apparent 
 in Lord Aberdeen's letter to me of the 20th inst. Not only Is the claim of 
 Great Britain relative to the right of detaining suspicious vessels stated in a 
 far less exceptionable manner than it had been done by Lord Palmerston, but 
 Lord Aberdeen expressly declines being responsible for the language used by his 
 predecessor. * * * 
 
 A question had been long under discussion between the English 
 Government and that of the United States, a very important ques- 
 tion which might any day disturb the peace of the two countries, 
 involving the right of search, recently so satisfactorily disposed of. 
 Lord Palmerston, Minister of foreign affairs in the administration 
 of Lord Melbourne, had claimed that right in his correspondraice 
 with Mr. Stevenson. Under a change of Ministry, in both coun- 
 tries, that correspondence was continued, and Lord Aberdeen, occu- 
 pied the same position under the administration of Sir Eobert 
 
 * ^4rew Stevenson. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 529 
 
 Peel, " when," we are told, " a great change had occurred in the 
 tone of the English Ministry." Lord Aberdeen had, in the language 
 of Mr. Everett, " not only stated the claim of Great Britain rela- 
 tive to the right of detaining suspicious vessels in a far less ex- 
 ceptionable manner than that in which it had been asserted by Lord 
 Palmerston, but expressly declined being responsible for the la/n- 
 guage used hy Ms predecessor.'''' In our case there had been ex- 
 citing differences in regard to the claim ° at one time set up by 
 President Jackson's predecessor upon the subject in dispute; this 
 claim, though subsequently withdrawn,Hlad with its attendant cir- 
 cumstances, broken off the negotiation. President Jackson not re- 
 viving the claim that had been set up and waived by Mr. Adams, 
 and being himself the selected exponent of different views on the 
 part of those for whom he acted, refused in the negotiation he in- 
 stituted, to be held responsible for what had been done by his pred- 
 ecessor. Where is the difference between the two cases? None can 
 be shown. It is not to be doubted that the diplomatic archives of 
 every nation are full of similar proceedings. 
 
 Mr. Webster saw nothing extraordinai-y in the conduct of Lord 
 Aberdeen, nor would the instructions to Mr. McLane have ever 
 been regarded in a different light if their author, subsequently to 
 their being laid before Congress, had not been nominated Minister 
 to England. 
 
 These remarks have already been extended far beyond what was at 
 first intended, but I trust feeling minds will excuse me for such a result 
 when they reflect how deeply a review of such scenes must excite 
 one upon whose character and public career they were intended to 
 exert a fatal effect, A few more observations and the subject will be 
 dismissed. 
 
 There was one feature in those transactions never heretofore 
 known to the public which,, though it neither made the instructions 
 better or worse, nor is entitled to weight in reviewing the decision 
 of the Senate, because that body did not know of it, may perhaps 
 be deemed to possess suflScient interest to justify a brief notice. Mr. 
 McLane was not directed but permitted, in his discretion, to present 
 to the British Ministry the views of the subject, to which objections 
 have been made. This was done upon his own suggestion. I re- 
 quested him, as soon as he was appointed, to obtain for me statistical 
 information from practical men engaged in the trade and, at the 
 same time, informed him that if he was enabled by the acquaintance 
 he had made with the subject whilst in Congress, where it was often 
 discussed, to make any suggestions in regard to his instructions which 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 65. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 34 
 
530 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 he thought might be useful, they would be received with pleasure. 
 He obtained the information I desired and in the letter communi- 
 cating it he made suggestions of the character I have named, the 
 most prominent of which was the following : 
 
 Now it seems to me clear, that after the concessions already made by this 
 government, and in the situation in which the late Administration has left 
 this subject, we are precluded from opening the negotiations upon any basis, 
 assumed prior to 1826 ; and that the only object left is to acquire a participa- 
 tion in this trade according to the terms and to the extent proposed by the 
 British act of 1825. The probability of obtaining this must depend upon 
 the temper and interest of the British Government; upon their domestic 
 condition, the state of affairs in Europe, and the effect of their Colonial policy 
 upon their own Islands. And these are obviously to be used according to cir- 
 cumstances not now to be clearly foreseen. * * * 
 
 I incline to the opinion, therefore, that the best mode of reviving the nego- 
 tiation on this point will be delicately, but with candour and firmness to 
 gradually disconnect the present Administration of the American Government 
 from the errors and pretensions of the past ; to disconnect the past from the 
 interests and temper of the American People; to show that the policy pursued 
 bj the late executive was in opposition to the great mass of the American 
 People, who, having applied the only constitutional corrective in this country, 
 have selected an Administration with better views, and a different policy ; 
 that the present appeal to the liberality and justice of Great Britain, being 
 on behalf of the People, that Government will find its interest in this con- 
 cession, in encoiiraging this effort, in availing Itself of this crisis, to subdue 
 inveterate prejudices, and, by a reasonably conciliating temper, lay the founda- 
 tion of future harmony in our relations, and of just reciprocity in our trade. 
 
 If these considerations fail, especially if judiciously pressed, as occasion 
 may warrant, in connection with the details of the whole subject, I see no 
 other course open * * * This Government will have performed its duty, 
 and will be well sustained by the People.* 
 
 This suggestion was carried out by the instruction in the fol- 
 lowing words: 
 
 If the omission of this Government to accept of the terms proposed, when 
 heretofore offered, be urged as an objection to their adoption now, it will be 
 your duty to make the British Government sensible of the injustice and inexpe- 
 diency of such a course. 
 
 The opportunities which you have derived from a participation In our public 
 councils, as well as other sources of information, will enable you to speak with 
 confidence (as far as you may deem it proper and useful so to do) of the respec- 
 tive parts taken by those to whom the administration of this Government is now 
 committed, in relation to the course heretofore pursued upon the subject of the 
 colonial trade. Their views upon that point have been submitted to the people 
 of the United States ; and the counsels by which your conduct is now directed 
 are the result of the judgment expressed by the only earthly tribunal to which 
 the late administration was amenable for its acts. It should be sufficient that 
 the claims set up by them, and which caused the interruption of the trade in 
 ' question have been explicitly abandoned by those who first asserted them, and 
 are not revived by their successors. If Great Britain deems it adverse to her 
 interests to allow us to participate in the trade with her colonies, and finds 
 
 1 McLane to Van Buren, June 11, 1829, in the Van Buren Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIlSr YAK BUEEST. 631 
 
 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 the late administration as the cause of forfeiture 
 of privileges which would otherwise be extended to the people of the United 
 States, would, under existing circumstances, be unjust in itself and could not fail 
 to excite their deepest sensibility. The tone of feeling which a course so unwise 
 and untenable is calculated to produce would doubtless be greatly aggravated by 
 the consciousness that Great Britain has, by order in Council, opened her colonial 
 ports to Russia and France, notwithstanding a similar omission on their part to 
 accept the terms offered by the act of July, 1825. 
 
 You cannot press this view of the subject too earnestly upon the consideration 
 of the British Ministry. It has bearings and relations that reach beyond the 
 immediate question under discussion.* 
 
 It is due to the Senate to say that they were ignorant of this 
 circumstance when they unanimously confirmed the nomination of 
 Mr. McLane for the office of Secretary of the Treasury. They only 
 knew that he had undertaken the duties assigned to him and had 
 entered upon their performance with a full knowledge of the in- 
 stiuctions which they condemned me for writing. But it is also 
 due to truth to say that they would not, in all probability, have 
 acted differently if their information had embraced the fact I 
 mention. The motives that prevailed in the vote for my rejection, 
 motives which had in reality nothing to do with the instructions, 
 did not reach Mr. McLane, and if they had, his nomination for the 
 place of Secretary would still have been confirmed. The great lever 
 by which the action of the party in opposition to President Jack- 
 son's administration was moved as well as the fundamental element 
 of their strength, was the power of the Bank of the United States. 
 They were then, several years in advance of the expiration of its 
 charter, about to pass a Bill for its extension; against the passage 
 of that bill they expected the President's Veto, and the measure and 
 the veto were designed to be the great issues upon which the Presi- 
 dential election, which was to be held before the close of that year, 
 was to be contested. Among Mr. McLane's first acts, after entering 
 upon the duties of the office of Secretary of the Treasury, which 
 was long before the Senate acted upon his nomination, was the 
 transmission to the Senate of his official report upon the finances, in 
 which he discussed at length and with great formality, the question 
 as to the expediency of rechartering the existing Bank of the United 
 States, and earnestly recommended its recharter — a measure of 
 which the President was known to disapprove, and against the con- 
 summation of which, he intended to interpose and did interpose his 
 veto. The party opposed to General Jackson's Administration, and 
 which possessed so many votes in the Senate, might, under such 
 
 1 Instructions to McLean, July 20, 1829. The part quoted is printed in Niles' Register, 
 39, p. 367. Van Buren's autograph notes of the instructions are in the Van Buren Papera. 
 
532 AMBEICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 circumstances, as well have laid down their arms as to have re- 
 jected Mr. McLane's nomination after the reception by Congress 
 and publication of that document. They could not do so with safety 
 to their own interests and they would not have desired to do so if 
 they could. 
 
 But the course pursued against me by those who governed the 
 action of the Senate, harsh and vindictive as it must be admitted 
 to have been, was marked by a feature, in the manner of carrying 
 out their design, especially offensive to the moral sense of the com- 
 munity. I allude to the arrangement previously entered into be- 
 tween them that the vote of the body should be made a tie and the 
 final question consequently be decided by the casting vote of the 
 Vice President, so that each section of the opposition, — ^the Clayites, 
 Calhounites, and the remnant of old federalists who acted with 
 Webster — should each bear their full proportion of responsibility 
 for the act. The extent to which the gratification of the more 
 highly excited feelings of Mr. Calhoun and his friends entered 
 " into the inducements for its commission, and the smallness, as 
 well in weight as number, of their force on the floor of the Senate, 
 gave, it must be admitted, considerable plausibility to the arrange- 
 ment — regarding the whole proceeding as a question of political 
 loss and gain, a consideration distinctly avowed in the Telegraph 
 note and never for a moment lost sight of by Mr. Webster. Of 
 the fact that such a stipulation was exacted and enforced there is 
 no room for doubt. The Globe charged it distinctly at the time 
 and I am informed by those in whom I have full confidence, and 
 who were in the way of knowing, that neither the Senators them- 
 selves nor their supporters ever affected to deny the arrangement. 
 Mr. F. P. Blair, in this month of April, 1859, though now acting 
 politically with the followers of Clay and Webster and having no 
 relations with me other than those of personal friendship and re- 
 ciprocal respect, writes me upon the subject as follows, "I remem- 
 ber well that it (the arrangement to make the tie) was so thor- 
 oughly understood on all sides in the Senate as to be common talk," ^ 
 and assigns many grounds for his statement which I do not think 
 it worth while to repeat here. The existence of such an agreement 
 moreover follows irresistibly from the manner in which the vote 
 was given and the tie produced. Never was there perhaps a severer 
 scrutiny or a more active drill of any public body, or one made 
 under more skillful trainers, or an occasion on which more mem- 
 bers, in proportion to the number of those engaged, were notoriously 
 persuaded to vote against their inclinations. 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 70. 1 April 25, 1859, in the Van Buren Papers. 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OP MAKTIN VAN BUEEN. 533 
 
 When the vote was taken Prentiss of Vermont and Bibb of Ken- 
 tucky were the only Senators absent. Prentiss was an upright and 
 fair minded man but an earnest old federalist, and therefore some- 
 what prejudiced against me, but as was well understood, he dis- 
 liked the work cut out for the Senate. Still, if he had been pres- 
 ent, he would have, in all probability voted against the nomination ; 
 at all events, he would have given timely notice of what he intended 
 to do. But being really an invalid to an extent which soon car- 
 ried him to his grave, he kept his bed. 
 
 Bibb, whose vote either way would have defeated the arrange- 
 ment, was a sort of Jackson-Clay-Calhoun Democrat, who aimed 
 at remaining upon friendly terms with all three; a difficult posi- 
 tion, but one which he succeeded in occupying as to the two latter 
 gentlemen. Although in fact decidedly hostile to me, either from 
 the promptings of his own heart, or made so thro' the influence 
 of others, my friends had been led to expect his support on this 
 occasion. The illness of Mr. Prentiss afforded him an opportunity 
 to oblige his friends by his absence and at the same time to avoid 
 a rupture with General Jackson, thro' whose influence he had been 
 elected to the Senate. He was in the Capitol when the vote was 
 taken; he claims to have been in the Supreme Court Eoom. Mr. 
 Blair informed me, on my return, that he was in the library; the 
 only difference being that the latter was on the same floor with 
 and the former directly under the Senate Chamber. His absence 
 was beyond doubt intentional and the reason for it is seen in the 
 arrangement of which I am speaking. Col. Benton, who was a 
 member of the Senate and present at this time, treats the fact 
 that the two successive ties were intentional, and a fulfillment of 
 the requirement of the other leaders that Mr. Calhoun's vote should 
 appear on the record, was established. He mentions also that Mr. 
 Calhoun said to a Senator, in his hearing and speaking of me : " It 
 would kill him, Sir ! kill him dead ! He will never kick. Sir ! never 
 kick!" A striking counterpart of the original article in the Tele- 
 graph, already quoted.^ Such contrivances are never thought of 
 by public men in the dignified discharge of public duties, and in 
 the performance of actions of whose merits they are conscious. In- 
 stead of seeking to lessen individual responsibility by dividing it 
 with others each is desirous of being foremost in the good work. 
 The manner in which this affair was gotten up and pushed through, 
 on the contrary, implied an acknowledgment that the act was felt 
 to be an unjustifiable one by the actors themselves. For the ac- 
 complishment of their object they entered, I will not say into a con- 
 spiracy, for the act was not an illegal one, but into a combination 
 
 > See pp. 512-513. 
 
534 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to put down a political opponent by means which involved much 
 of the criminality and all of the immorality of a conspiracy. 
 
 The whole proceeding was one with which such men as Clay 
 and Calhoun ought never to have been connected. They doubtless 
 regarded the matter in that light as soon as the phrensy into which 
 they had been thrown by President Jackson's unexpected success 
 in the administration of public affairs, had abated and commenced 
 the work of atonement, as soon, perhaps, as circumstances would 
 admit of. Mr. Calhoun, as has been seen, before the whole country 
 made the amende, honorable by extending the hand of friendship 
 to me, by supporting my administration to its close and by causing 
 the vote of his State to be thrown in favour of my reelection. 
 
 The relative political positions of Mr. Clay and myself were such, 
 that a similar course was not open to him. But from the period 
 of which I am now writing to the day of his death, as far as I 
 know or have reason to believe, he invariably spoke of my personal 
 character and conduct with respect and kindness. When I travelled 
 through the southern and western States, in 1842, he sent to several 
 - points pressing invitations to me to visit Ashland which I accepted, 
 spending a very agreeable week in his family circle. He subse- 
 quently at my request came to Lindenwald. I invited his political 
 friends within my reach to call upon him at my house, which they 
 did in great numbers — ^he passed several days with me most pleas- 
 antly and sociably; we talked over old scenes without reserve, my 
 sons escorted him to Albany and I went with him though suffering 
 from gout, as far as the railroad station, where we parted never 
 to see each other again. 
 
 After he had re-established friendly relations with his early and 
 devoted friends, Francis P. Blair and his -very intelligent and es- 
 timable wife, he frequently and in the warmest terms, expressed 
 to the former the personal ° respect and regard he entertained for 
 me, referred to this very matter of the rejection of my nomination 
 and, whilst avowing the sincerity of the views he then took of it, 
 still earnestly expressed his regret that the affair had ever occurred. 
 Mr. Blair communicated these observations to me and I recipro- 
 cated the feelings they manifested with all my heart. Col. Benton 
 was then writing his Thirty Years in the Senate and he sent me 
 occasionally the sheets of the first volume; among them, those con- 
 taining his account of Mr. Clay's conduct in the election of Mr. 
 Adams, which had been so violently assailed, and also of the duel 
 with Randolph. Pleased with the liberality evinced by the Colonel 
 towards a personal and political enemy, I expressed my satisfaction 
 in a complimentary letter to him, and convinced that Mr. Clay would 
 
 " MS. V, p. 75. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 535 
 
 be no less gratified than surprised by being made aware of the 
 favourable views which one whom he ranked among his bitterest 
 foes intended to publish of points upon which his sensibilities had 
 been, perhaps, more deeply excited than in respect to any other 
 occurrences in his public life, I sent the substance of them to Mr. 
 Blair, with a request that he should embrace some suitable occasion, 
 (it was during Mr. Clay's last illness) to communicate them. He 
 did so and informed me of the manner in which the communication 
 was received. The circumstances under which it was made were 
 interesting and striking. 
 
 Mr. Blair having received my letter and having taken it with him 
 for the purpose of imparting its contents, Mr. Clay introduced the 
 subject of the book the Colonel was preparing, and said he presumed 
 it would be filled with aggravated displays of the violent passions the 
 author had exhibited in his political course. These remarks gave 
 Mr. Blair an admirable opportunity to execute his commission, and 
 I need not say how well he availed himself of it. Mr. Clay was 
 deeply moved, thanked us both, and said the information he had 
 received should, for the short period he had yet to live, be permitted 
 to exert the influence to which it was so well entitled over what 
 he might have to say of Colonel Benton. I will add that my letter 
 to the Colonel expressive of my sense of the credit to which this 
 part of his work entitled him was read by him several years after 
 Mr. Clay's death, during his canvass for the House of Eepresenta- 
 tives, in portions of his district where Mr. Clay's friends were very 
 numerous, without giving the name of the writer, and through it 
 he secured many votes, and probably his election. Farther com- 
 munication passed between Mr. Clay and myself through our mutual 
 friend, Mr. Blair, down to within a few days of his death.^ 
 
 Mr. Webster's sensibilities were never, I presume, very deeply 
 distressed by the consciousness of the injustice he had done to a 
 political opponent. , , He did indeed, as will hereafter be seen, ex- 
 hibit some sense of shame upon the subject of his course towards 
 me on my return from England, and subsequently took a step in 
 the direction pointed out by better and juster feelings which he 
 failed to follow up having been prevented, I fear, by one of those 
 discreditable entanglements by which his entire political career 
 was beset. Seeing the improved relations that had sprung up be- 
 tween Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun and myself he seemed to think 
 a similar amelioration in the character of his personal intercourse 
 with me desirable. In this state of mind he called upon me whij^§| 
 we were both in New York, evinced great cordiality and expre^ge^^ 
 a strong desire that I should revisit Boston. I told him that^^y 
 
 -.,-t,.-.rr,i/- 1 
 
 • Van Buren again records this occurrence near the end of Chapter XMV.f' * vnix 
 
 <jH9C'iq [viiiinJ 
 
536 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 friend, Mr. Paulding, and myself were meditating a visit to Com- 
 modore Jack Nicholson who was then in command of the Boston 
 Navy-yard and to whom we were both warmly attached, and I 
 promised to appraise him of our arrival. He insisted that I should 
 not give myself that trouble as he would be certain to know of my 
 being in the City and would immediately find where I was and call 
 upon me. We went to Boston, spent a week there, dined with sev- 
 eral of his friends; our visit was noticed in the papers; we heard 
 several times of Mr. Webster being in the city, but saw nothing 
 of him. I was not a little puzzled by his conduct, canvassed its 
 probable cause with Paulding, and, confident that he would be 
 found to have had a shrewd motive for his non-appearance, I was 
 prepared also I feel bound to say, to find it one of a sinister char- 
 acter. The mystery was speedily solved. Soon after my return 
 home, whilst fishing in a pond a mile or two from my house, my 
 friend, Mr. B. F. Butler and his wife drove near the bank where 
 I was sitting and called me to their carriage. As I approached I 
 observed that they were both much excited and I had no sooner 
 reached them than Mrs. Butler asked me whether I had seen Mac- 
 kenzie's book? On receiving my reply in the negative, they pro- 
 posed that I should go with them to my house which I did, and 
 on our way they informed me briefly that that somewhat notorious 
 person had published a book made up of private and confidential 
 letters to Jesse. Hoyt, from myself and from some hundred of my 
 political and personal friends, in which number they themselves 
 were prominently introduced.^ The circumstances of the case were 
 in substance these. I removed Hoyt from the office of Collector 
 of New York for reasons to be hereafter spoken of and appointed 
 Mr. John J. Morgan in his place. The latter held the office a few 
 years, when he was removed by President Harrison, who appointed 
 the late Edward Curtis Esq., a gentleman whom Mr. Clay was in 
 the habit of describing as " Webster's man, Curtis." 
 
 In forming the opinion conveyed by this expression Mr. Clay made 
 a great mistake. If I had been asked to select an individual whom I 
 deemed best adapted to the management of a political intrigue, 
 which was not out of the reach of a man in his position, I would have 
 named Edward Curtis, and I need not say that among the qualifica- 
 tions of such an agent I would have deemed it indispensable that 
 [he] should not have been anybody's man. Mr. Webster did not 
 controul Curtis's action one jot or tittle farther than he thought it 
 for his interest to permit him to do so, but if I did not err egregiously 
 in respect to the character of the relations that existed between them. 
 
 * McKenzle published The Lives and Opinions of Benj'n Franklin Butler, and Jesse 
 Hoyt In 1845 and The Lite and Times of Martin Van Buren, In 1846. The latter con- 
 tained practically the same letters and correspondence as the 1846 publication. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJEEN. 
 
 537 
 
 he exerted a personal influence over Mr. Webster in respect to most 
 things but rarely if ever equalled between gentlemen in their relative 
 positions. Curtis possessed a facility of making himself thoroughly 
 acquainted with the character and disposition of those with whom 
 he had been or was desirous to be brought in contact and in devising 
 the ways by which they could be influenced, with degre^ of gentle- 
 ness, and perseverance in their application, which there was nothing 
 in the nature and disposition of Mr. Webster to enable him to with- 
 stand. Of the ends to which that influence was exerted and the 
 objects that were accomplished by it I do not design to speak. But if 
 the reader desires a practical illustration of Mr. Curtis's skill in the 
 management of intricate and difficult affairs I recommend him to a 
 careful perusal of the papers in the celebrated Gardner fraud upon 
 the Government and particularly to Mr. Curtis's correspondence with 
 the officer who had that matter in charge, without attempting to ex- 
 plain or reconcile the results of his interference, the first of which 
 was that he pocketed $40,000 of the money gained by the fraud, but 
 how applied God only knows, but I doubt not generously, but with- 
 held from the Government to the last ; and the second that he appears 
 on the record from an early period, certainly full as soon as there was 
 the slightest reason in any quarter to apprehend an ultimate blow up, 
 as an active and discreet adviser of the officer of the Government, 
 doing apparently what he could to guard the Government against 
 loss and put them in the best way to aid them in the performance of 
 their duties, fairly entitling himself to be regarded as a disinterested 
 and active friefid to the public interest. 
 
 Retaining an indistinct recollection of the contents of a- letter 
 from Mr. Weed of Albany, an exceedingly competent judge of the 
 character of Curtis, addressed to General Peter B. Porter, as the 
 personal friend of Mr. Clay, designed to remove his opposition to 
 the appointment of Mr. Curtis, in which the view I here take of 
 Curtis's character and the character of his relations with Mr. Web- 
 ster were sustained, I have referred to Mr. Clay's "Private Cor- 
 respondence" and have extracted from [there] what follows:^ 
 
 I met him for the last time but a short period before his death, 
 in Broadway in New York. The marks of approaching dissolution 
 were stamped upon his countenance and I do myself but justice 
 in saying that I was much affected by his appearance. I had not 
 seen him for several years; he was evidently happy to have met 
 me, and evinced so plainly a desire to prolong the interview by 
 
 • Van Buren's intention of using tliese extracts was not carried out. The letter re- 
 ferred to will be found on p. 448 of The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, edited 
 by Calvin Colton (N. Y., 1856) _ and is a letter from Porter to Clay, dated Jan. 28, 1841, 
 respecting Weed's letter on the contemplated appointment of Curtis as Collector of Cus- 
 toms at New York, In which Porter discusses Curtis' characteristics and political 
 manoeuvers. 
 
538 AMBEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 changing his course and accompanying me a short distance [the] 
 way I was going as to induce me to walk up and down the street 
 with him for a short time. The ease and apparent sincerity of his 
 manner, as well as the prudent advice he gave me in respect to a 
 matter of business I brought to his notice, were so much in har- 
 mony with the opinion I had always entertained of his great good 
 sense [that they] constituted the subject of my reflections for gome 
 time, during which I could not help felicitating myself that I could 
 succeed as far as I felt that I had in subduing my prejudice against 
 a man whom I always thought had through means certainly not 
 unexceptional made his exertions for my defeat in 1840 more effec- 
 tive than any other individual in his situation and whom I suspected 
 of having designed me much harm in the transaction to which I 
 am about to refer but on whom the hand of death was now so visible. 
 
 After this brief notice of a truly remarkable man I proceed with 
 my account of the transaction I purpose to relate. 
 
 William L. McKenzie, of Canadian memory, was arrested, triqd, 
 and condemned for a violation of our neutrality laws in 1839, the 
 period of the Canada disturbances, and was sentenced to imprison- 
 ment for eighteen months. He applied to me to pardon him and 
 his application was earnestly sustained by a large number of my 
 political friends as weU as by others, residents of Northern New 
 York, Ohio, Vermont and other States. There being no pretense 
 that he was innocent of the charge and having reason to apprehend 
 that his pardon would obstruct pending negotiations between us 
 and Great Britain, I refused to interfere in the matter until after 
 he had been in confinement for nearly two thirds of the time for 
 which he was sentenced, when I remitted the residue of the term. 
 He entertained a high opinion of his own political importance and 
 was rendered very implacable by the course I had felt it my duty 
 to take in the matter and in various ways announced his intention 
 to seek revenge. I heard no more of him until I learned that the 
 new collector, Mr. Curtis, had given him a place in the Custom 
 House. There he singularly enough soon found materials which 
 he and his employers thought were sufficient to cause great annoy- 
 ance to my friends and myself. ° Collector Hoyt who had been an 
 active politician and busy correspondent had left in an upper room 
 of the Custom House an old trunk containing his private letters 
 and notes — the accumulations of many years — some of them cer- 
 tainly of a free, thoughtless and indiscreet, though few, if any, 
 of a very culpable character. This trunk was discovered , by or 
 pointed out to McKenzie and rifled of its contents which were pub- 
 lished by him in pamphlet form.^ To prevent the suspicion that the 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 80. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIK VAN BUREN. 539 
 
 new Collector had connived at the transaction the book (for the 
 letters made a sizable volume) though printed in New York, as wag 
 ascertained from an examination and comparison of the [make-up] 
 was published at Boston, and was ready to be put in circulation at 
 the time of my visit to that city, although not issued until after my 
 departure. Of these procedings, at least from the time the pamph- 
 let was sent to Boston, Mr. Webster was, beyond all doubt, fully 
 informed. Among the letters were several written by myself and 
 some of them of a confidential character, and he probably thought 
 that the attentions he had designed to show me, if coincident with 
 a publication of confidential letters of a political and personal bear- 
 ing which was expected seriously to annoy and injure me, would 
 be both awkward and impolitic. We never m^et again. That this 
 was the explanation of his otherwise unaccountable conduct I have 
 never for a moment doubted. 
 
 The pitiful enterprise after all turned out very differently from 
 what was anticipated. My letters had been thrown before the pub- 
 lic without careful consideration of the effect they might produce, 
 and under the impression, natural to the sort of persons who would 
 be concerned in such a transaction, that because they were private 
 they must be unworthy. The general sentiment elicited by their 
 publication, on the part of both my political opponents and friends, 
 was that I could well have afforded to defray the expenses of bring- 
 ing out in such a form, my portion of the correspondence. i 
 
 But the subject of the rejection of my nomination has spun itself 
 out to a far greater length than will I fear be deemed excusable. 
 Still I cannot dismiss it without a word of acknowledgment of the 
 fearlessness, promptitude and warm eloquence with which my per- 
 sonal character and ofiicial conduct were defended in the Senate by 
 friends; especially is this acknowledgment due to the memory of my 
 lamented friend Forsyth — from whose speech on the occasion, I make 
 the following extract, the encomiastic tone of which, altho' he was 
 one of those noblemen who would not flatter the gods for their 
 powers, is certainly raised far above my deserts or pretensions by the 
 chivalric zeal of the speaker in the cause of an absent friend, but 
 upon which I may be pardoned for placing the highest value because 
 it grapples boldly with a charge perhaps more fanatically urged 
 against me than against any other public man in the country — of 
 course in my estimation without any justice — I mean the vague 
 imputation of a capacity and a disposition for political intrigue. 
 
 But this Mission to England was not sought by Mr. Van Buren ; his friends 
 know that it was pressed on him by the President ; and that it was reluctantly 
 accepted at the earnest solicitations of friends who were satisfied it would pro- 
 mote Ms own reputation, and redound to the honor and welfare of the nation. 
 
540 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 I win not follow, further, the Senator's lead. Long known to me as a politician 
 and as a man, acting together in the hour of political adversity, when, we had 
 lost all but our honor — a witness of his movements when elevated to power, 
 and in the possession of the confidence of the Chief Magistrate, and of the great 
 majority of the people, I have never witnessed aught in Mr. Van Buren which 
 requires concealment, palliation, or coloring — ^never anything to lessen his 
 character as a patriot and as a man — ^nothing which he might not desire to 
 see exposed to the scrutiny of every member of this body with the calm confi- 
 dence of unsullied Integrity. He is called an artful man — a giant of artifice — a 
 wily magician. From whom does he receive these opprobrious names? From 
 open enemies and pretended friends. In the midst of aU the charges that have 
 been brought against him, in shapes more varying than those of Proteus, and 
 thick as the autumnal leaves that strew the vale of Vallambrosa, where is the 
 false friend or malignant enemy that has fixed upon him one dishonorable or 
 degrading act? If innocent of artifice, if governed by a high sense of honor, 
 and regulating his conduct by elevated principles, this is not wonderful, but if 
 the result of skill, of the ars celare artem, he must be more cunning than the 
 devil himself to have thus avoided the snares of enemies and the treachery 
 of pretended friends. 
 
 It is not possible. Sir, that he should have escaped, had he been otherwise 
 than pure. Those ignorant of his unrivalled knowledge of human character, his 
 power of penetrating into the designs and defeating the purposes of his ad- 
 versaries, seeing his rapid advance to public honors and popular confidence, 
 impute to art what is a natural result of those simple causes. Extraordinary 
 talent, untiring industry, incessant vigilance, the happiest temper, which 
 success cannot corrupt nor disappointment sour; these are the sources of his 
 unexampled success, the magic arts — the artifices of intrigue, to which only he 
 has resorted in his eventful life. Those who envy his success may learn wis- 
 dom from his example.^ 
 
 1 In the debate In Executive session, Jan. 24-25, 1832. Register of Debates, 8, pt. 1, 
 1347. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXVI. 
 
 When I left for England in August 1831, Mr. Calhoun had just 
 committed himself, in a long and laboured expose, to the doctrine 
 of nullification and his political friends were striving, might and 
 main, to work the south in general, and South Carolina in particular, 
 into a condition sufficiently phrenzied to induce a resort to such a 
 remedy for the redress of undoubted and in my judgment flagrant 
 grievances.. When I returned in July, 1832, at the close of the first 
 session of the Congress, I found a bill for the relief of those griev- 
 ances under discussion and on the point of being decided. They 
 had succeeded by active and persevering agitation in creating great 
 excitement in South Carolina on the subject, and they had, as it 
 seemed to me, more from policy than from any expectation of re- 
 dress, deferred the commission of overt acts until another session of 
 Congress should have intervened. Gen. Jackson expressed a wish 
 that I would do what I could with my friends in Congress to pro- 
 mote a satisfactory adjustment of the matter, and I entered upon 
 this pleasing duty with a hearty good will. But the prospects of 
 success were far from flattering. The subjects of the Tariff for the 
 South and of the Bank Veto, momentarily expected, for the North 
 and East, were the most important resources on which the oppo- 
 sition relied to win the great game they were playing for the govern- 
 ment. If the question of the Tariff could be satisfactorily disposed 
 of, General Jackson, in addition to being greatly strengthened in 
 all the southern states, might reasonably count on carrying his native 
 state — South Carolina. Without such a result, that, at least, was 
 certainly lost to him, whether it fell to Mr. Clay, or not. When so 
 much depended upon the passage at the last session of Congress be- 
 fore the Presidential election, the policy of the opposition would be 
 certain to defeat it. "The South Carolina gentlemen had, besides, 
 been carrying proceedings with so high a hand and were so much 
 flushed by the degree of success already attained that they could 
 not, as they thought, afford to be satisfied by anything short of a 
 measure which should carry upon its front the stamp of triumph. 
 They were therefore in a condition which required that the great 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 85. 
 
 541 
 
542 AMEEICAN HISTOEICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 body of their people should be satisfied, if satisfied at all, against 
 the will of their leaders. 
 
 The Bill passed^ but did not produce the slightest political effect 
 other than to embolden the would-be nullifiers. The majority in 
 South Carolina refused to give their support to Mr. Clay, the whig 
 candidate for the Presidency (an act of principle for which they 
 were afterwards held to a strict accountability in the hour of their 
 utmost need) but they were nevertheless not a whit behind the whigs 
 in their anxiety for the defeat of President Jackson. The agitation 
 of the preceding year, with nullification more distinctly depicted in 
 the foreground, was renewed with fresh vigour in all the south from 
 the day of the adjournment of Congress to the period when the re- 
 sult of the Presidential election was known, but still without any 
 overt acts. After the election had been held and the reelection of 
 the President was ascertained the convention of South Carolina, 
 previously chosen, assembled; all farther hesitation was laid aside, 
 and the measures of that body were as bold and unqualified as the 
 movements of the majority in the state had before been guarded and 
 circumspect. A large committee composed of the most distinguished 
 members of the body was appointed on the first day, and to them 
 was referred the obnoxious act of Congress, and a consideration of 
 the remedy. That committee reported on the following morning an 
 ordinance declaring void the Tariff law, and making it the duty of 
 the Legislature to pass all necessary laws to prevent its execution 
 in the State of South Carolina. This ordinance was considered and 
 adopted on the same day, and the Legislature being in session forth- 
 with passed a voluminous act the provisions of which, if carried into 
 effect, would have completely superseded the power of the Federal 
 Government in the state of South Carolina quoad the law in ques- 
 tion; and fpr carrying them into effect they pledged the civil and 
 military power of the state. It was not in the power of language 
 or state action to put the authorities of the General Government 
 more absolutely at defiance than was thus done by this heretofore 
 devoted and always gallant member of the confederacy. Viewed 
 in connection with the danger that the disaffection, as yet substan- 
 tially confined to South Carolina, might be diffused into the other 
 southern states similarly situated in respect to the Tariff and the 
 consequent necessity of exerting the military power of the Federal 
 Government for its suppression, it must be admitted that a more 
 alarming crisis in the affairs of this country had never existed since 
 the establishment of her independence. 
 
 Fortunately — ^most fortunately for the welfare of the whole coun- 
 try, South Carolina inclusive, and for the safety of the Federal 
 
 > July 14, 1832, An act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties and im- 
 ports. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN". 543 
 
 Government, the best we could ever hope to see established, we had 
 at this perilous moment a man at the head of that Government 
 who was in all respects equal to the exigencies of the occasion. The 
 integrity of his motives, his proverbial readiness to assume every 
 necessary responsibility, his intelligence, judgment, activity and 
 firmness, confessed by foes no less than by friends, his possession 
 of the full confidence and affections of a vast majority of the 
 people of the U. States, as had been recently demonstrated by the 
 support they had given him in the face of an opposition violent and 
 embittered beyond anything before that period Imown to partisan 
 warfare, constituted his ample and rar« qualifications for the duties 
 before him. He was besides, in times of peculiar difficulty and dan- 
 ger, calm and equable in his carriage and always master of his pas- 
 sions; with the fullest opportunities to judge of him in the latter 
 respect, as connected with the discharge of civil duties, I have ever 
 felt and said that I have not known his equal. Those who will take 
 the trouble to read his letters to me during the whole of the critical 
 period to which I refer will see the qualities I have attributed to 
 him strikingly displayed. He • seemed always prepared to go to 
 the full extent of his duties, but never faster nor farther than was 
 indispensable to the efficacy of his acts and the necessities of the 
 public service. No man ever lived with less disposition to swagger 
 and if he sometimes denounced a harsh purpose against the guilty his 
 motives and aim were invariably consistent with the merciful im- 
 pulse which was native to his heart. No step requiring the active 
 interposition of the Federal arm was known at Washington, at the 
 opening of Congress on the ^th of December, 1832, to have been 
 taken by South Carolina. The subject was therefore merely noticed 
 in the President's Message, in a proper spirit but with appropriate 
 teserve. But almost immediately thereafter the news arrived of the 
 passage of the ordinance and on the 11th of December, President 
 Jaclison issued his proclamation which was a long and able docu- 
 ment reasoning out the whole subject before the people; a course 
 to which he was always partial and made so by the, great extent 
 of his confidence in their sagacity and good sense. That document 
 Was followed by the prompt dispatch of portions of the military 
 of the U. States to Charleston under specific instructions. The 
 opposition, taking it for granted that these instructions were of a 
 violent and indiscreet character, called for their transmission to 
 Congress. Although a compliance with such a call might justly have 
 been declined as inconsistent with the public interest, the instruc- 
 tions were forthwith and without reserve laid before that body 
 and proved to be such as they ought to be and in all respects suit- 
 
544 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 able to the character of a firm but prudent Chief Magistrate. The 
 disappointment visited upon both branches of the opposition by 
 this disclosure was very great and it would have been well if they 
 had profited by the occasion to make themselves better acquainted 
 with the character of the man they had to deal with. 
 
 The powers of the President under the existing law having been 
 exhausted a special message was sent to Congress containing another 
 full view of the whole subject with specific recommendations in 
 favour of the grant to the executive of additional power and au- 
 thority, the exercise of which had become unavoidable in conse- 
 quence of the stand taken by South Carolina in the passage of the 
 ordinance and in the means her legislature had provided for carry- 
 ing it into effect. This message was sent in on the 16th of Jan- 
 uary, the earliest allowable moment, but still leaving little more 
 than six weeks before the expiration of that Congress under the 
 Constitution. The time allowed to mature the measures of the 
 Government and what was, if practicable, of still greater impor- 
 tance for the passage of some measure of relief by which the 
 necessity of a resort to military force might be superseded, was 
 therefore extremely short. The celebrated Force Bill was, not in- 
 appropriately, introduced by a Pennsylvania Senator^. It was at 
 least strong enough for the occasion, and drew forth a debate which 
 threatened to be interminable and, in the meantime, the House of 
 Representatives were kept tinkering upon Mr. Verplank's ^ bill for 
 the modification of the Tariff. The President, having exerted all 
 the power with which he was clothed and having ° asked from the 
 proper department what was further wanted, maintained the even 
 tenor of his way undismayed and undisturbed by the clamorous 
 abuse of factions which, whilst they differed toto coelo upon the 
 abstract question of nullification, rivalled each other in heaping, 
 under various pretences, opprobrium upon the venerable patriot at 
 the head of the government, whose whole soul was enlisted in the 
 public cause. He had at this time, it must be admitted, one feeling 
 which approached to a passion and that was an inclination to go 
 himself with a sufficient force, which he felt assured he could raise 
 in Virginia and Tennessee, as "a posse comitatus'''' of the Marshal 
 and arrest Messrs. Calhoun, Hayne, Hamilton and McDuffie in the 
 midst of the force of 12,000 men which the Legislature of South 
 Carolina had authorized to be raised and deliver them to the 
 Judicial power of the United States to be dealt with according to 
 law. The reader will find this project more than once stated in 
 his letters to me written cwrreinte calamo. But notwithstanding 
 
 ' MS. V, p. 90. 
 
 1 Senate bill No. 82, 22d Cong. 2d Sess., a bill to further provide for the coUecUon 
 of duties on imports. It was Introduced by Senator William Wllltlns, Jan. 21, 1833, 
 passed and approved by the President Mar, 2, 
 
 " GuUan C. Verplanck, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 545 
 
 what is there said the attempt would never have been made save 
 in case of the very highest necessity and would then have been 
 executed with as much scrupulousness and clemency as would have 
 been consistent with its certain accomplishment. 
 
 Whilst the course of events at Washington was as favourable as 
 could be expected under such novel and trying circumstances the 
 President became involved in additional . embq-rrassments from 
 sources which were for the most part friendly. It has from the 
 commencement of the present federal government been a debatable 
 point whether the Constitution under which it was formed had 
 been framed and established by the people of the United States in 
 their aggregate capacity as one people, or by them as citizens of 
 different and preexisting States acting as the people of the several 
 states and under state authority. The result claimed to follow the 
 establishment of the one or the other construction, was, that the 
 recognition of the first would serve to increase the importance and 
 to swell the power of the Federal Government and proportionably 
 to depress those of the State Governments, and so vice versa. The 
 old federal party was, from the beginning the zealous advocate of 
 the first position and the republicans of the latter. But on the 
 present occasion there was no necessity or justifiable motive for 
 mingling that question with the agitation of that of nullification, 
 of itself sufficiently disturbing. 
 
 The President's proclamation, it is not to be denied, favoured the 
 federal idea, not so unequivocally as was pretended, but sufficiently 
 to give cause of great uneasiness in quarters entitled to respect, and 
 in which there was much anxiety that he should do what was neces- 
 sary to prevent the mistalce into which he had been led, without 
 wrong intentions on the part of any one, from being in future relied 
 upon as a precedent. The fact was that the whole of his new Cabinet, 
 though an able and patriotic body of men, had, with the single excep- 
 tion of the Postmaster General, Major Barry, a very modest and 
 unobtrusive man, received their first political instruction in the fed- 
 eral school. So I have always understood and still believe the fact 
 to have been. Although I placed full confidence in those gentlemen, 
 having had no inconsiderable hand in the construction of the Cabinet 
 with every reason to believe that no member of it would have been 
 selected against my remonstrance — a deference that would neither 
 have been asked nor extended out of any personal feelings of my 
 own, but sprang from a thorough conviction that I would have been 
 quite certain not to have made exceptions to any of them if I had 
 not been able to satisfy the President that they were well founded. I 
 was yet never free from apprehension that difficulties might arise 
 from that source and did what I could in so delicate a matter to put 
 the President upon his guard. In my letter to him from London 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 35 
 
546 AMEBICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 I 
 
 under date of the 11th of October, 1831 will be found these sen- 
 tences : 
 
 One word more upon the subject of the Message. You have taken your 
 ground upon the basis of a strict construction of the Constitution and it is the 
 only true and saving ground. A great proportion of your Cabinet, although in 
 other respects quite the thing, are not altogether in that sentiment, and, with- 
 out much care on your part, doctrines may be suggested and adopted ("oh! my 
 prophetic soul ! " ) which would expose you to the charge of inconsistencies. I 
 am led to this observation by understanding from the Captain of the Packet 
 that our good friend McLane intended to recommend a provision authorizing 
 advances to destitute Americans in foreign countries to enable them to return 
 home. Now, although this is justifiable in the case of distressed seamen, under 
 the power to regulate commerce, and to provide for a navy, I know of no 
 authority in the Federal Government to extend that provision to our citizens at 
 large.' 
 
 The Cabinet doubtless participated largely in the construction of 
 the message and it was prtjper that they should do so, and the Presi- 
 dent had other more pressing and more practical questions on his 
 mind than speculative disquisitions upon the construction of the gov- 
 ernment [Constitution]. That the nuUifiers should with avidity 
 seize upon those points of the proclamation which were at variance 
 with the orthodox states'-rights creed was to be expected. It was 
 the only ground of argument upon which they could sustain them- 
 selves and was in their hands a powerful lever with which to move 
 large portions of the republican party who were inaccessible to their 
 appeals in favour of nullification. But that those of the whig party 
 who thought the crisis a perilous one, who saw, as they could not but 
 see, that the very safety of the Government depended upon the Pres- 
 ident's being sustained, should seize upon this defect in his proclama- 
 tion (for such in reality it was) to fan discord between him and the 
 great body of his republican friends who were as mu(^ opposed as 
 themselves to nullification, could not with reason have been antici- 
 pated. If ever there was an occasion on which the reckless and 
 unscrupulous spirit of political partizanship should have succumbed 
 to the extreme necessities of the public service, — ^have foregone its 
 own temporary and unworthy advantage for the sake of the perma- 
 nent interest of the Country — ^that seemed to be one of such -a char- 
 acter. But the leading whigs, hearty anti-nuUifiers as they were 
 and anxious for the overthrow of the principle, could not sufficiently 
 master their partizan feelings to view their duty in its true light. 
 Instead of taking no notice of the alleged discrepancy between the 
 President's professed principles and those set forth in the proclama- 
 tion they, as a general rule, did all they could to blazon it forth, and 
 , to thrust it in the faces of his alarmed state-rights friends. The first 
 great meeting called out by the proclamation was held at Boston; 
 
 ' In the Van Biiren Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BURBN. 
 
 547 
 
 Col. Perkins^ offered the resolutions and Harrison Gray Otis and 
 Daniel Webster were the leading orators. That there should be no 
 room for misunderstanding their design to make political capital 
 out of that document they set forth the federal creed upon the point 
 referred to almost totidem verbis and greeted the President's recog- 
 nition of it with a sinister, all hail ! 
 
 John Randolph's resentment at the moment against President 
 Jackson prompted him to seize upon the Boston proceedings with 
 his characteristic sagacity and bitterness and especially upon the 
 circumstance that the highly respectable and worthy gentleman 
 who had been selected to offer the resolutions and the elder of the 
 leading speakers — a not less estimable man — had been delegates, 
 on behalf of Massachusettes, to the Hartford Convention, and to 
 found upon these proceedings and circumstances the charge ex- 
 hibited in his famous Charlotte County resolutions. No man " under- 
 stood better than he the mortification and pain he inflicted upon 
 the true men of Virginia, whom he could not induce to abandon 
 Jackson, when he proclaimed, in his peculiarly graphic language, 
 that the latter "had disavowed the principles to which he owed 
 his elevation to the Chief Magistracy of the Government of the 
 United States and transferred his real friends and supporters, 
 bound hand and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra 
 federalists, ultra tariffites, ultra internal improvement and Hart- 
 ford Convention men — ^the habitual scoffers at State-rights, and 
 to their instrument, the venal and prostituted press, by which they 
 have endeavoured, and but too successfully, to influence and mislead 
 public opinion." 
 
 The Union meeting in the city of New York, at which the im- 
 posing names of James Kent and Peter A. Jay were associated with 
 that of their prominent political opponents Walter Bowne, Saul 
 Alley, Abraham Bloodgood and Eldad Holmes, presented a grati- 
 fying contrast with the sinister proceedings at Boston. But the 
 truly patriotic spirit of the resolutions they passed was not, I am 
 sorry to say, imitated by the whigs of Albany or by those from 
 other parts of the state who were members of the Legislature which 
 assembled a few days thereafter. I resided in that city and was en- 
 gaged to dine with my excellent friend Judge Vanderoel^ on the 
 day the proclamation was received. A copy was brought in to 
 us a short time before dinner was announced and, painfully anxious 
 about its content^, I detained the company some minutes to enable 
 me to complete the reading of it to myself before we sat down to 
 the table. The objectionable passages presented themselves strongly 
 
 1 Thomas H. Perkins. ° MS. V, p. 95. ^ Aaron Vanderpoel. 
 
548 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to my mind at the instant and the Judge, reading my feelings in 
 my countenance, asked me, with the impatience that belonged to 
 his nature, whether there was anything wrong in it, — ^to which, as 
 his company were of various politics, I made an evasive reply. As 
 soon as the dinner was concluded he took me aside and pressed 
 me with increased earnestness for an explanation. I then stated 
 to him without reserve my apprehensions of the extent to which 
 a document, upon the success of which so much depended, would 
 in all probability be weakened by its unnecessary assertion of doc- 
 trines regarded by the republican faith as political heresies. 
 
 Although the descendant of a tory ancestry and reared in the 
 federal school, and until a short time before that day, one of my 
 ablest, most persevering and most decided opponents, the Judge had 
 embraced our cause with ardour and sincerity and adhered to it 
 through the rest of his life. His clear and vigorous intellect was 
 not slow in apprehending and appreciating the ground of my fears. 
 The following extract from a letter written to me by Mr. McLane, 
 then Secretary of the Treasury, a few days after the special mes- 
 sage which produced the Force Bill was sent in and a few weeks 
 after the Proclamation, will show how well my opinions in respect 
 to the latter document were appreciated by the Cabinet at Washing- 
 ton: 
 
 What think you of the Message? Tour silence speaks your thoughts of the 
 Proelamation. You too, I suppose, cursed my old federalism an hundred times 
 and laid all the sins at that door/ 
 
 Judge Vanderpoel and myself were invited to dine with Judge 
 Woodworth the next day, where we met Judge Spencer who had 
 long before returned to the ranks of the party in which his political 
 career was commenced and who, notwithstanding his already ad- 
 vanced age, was as violent in his partisan feelings and as earnest and 
 sincere in his convictions as he had always been under whatever flag 
 he fought, for his whole political career was an unceasing battle. It 
 was not long before he broke out, with his usual vehemence, in prais- 
 ing the President's proclamation — addressing himself to me across 
 the table. Having had a long and varied intercourse with Judge 
 Spencer, sometimes as friends and at other times as opponents, which 
 has already been largely spoken of in this memoir, I was not at a loss 
 for the turn it would be most expedient to give to the discussion he 
 was obviously determined to provoke. I therefore said to him, in 
 substance, and at once, that the proclamation was an admirable 
 paper, — ^in all respects, save one ; well calculated to promote the im- 
 portant object its author had in vieW, and that it afforded me much 
 satisfaction to find him so zealous in its support; the exception to 
 
 ' MeLane to Van Buren, Jan. 23, 1833. In the Van Buren Papers. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 
 
 649 
 
 which I alluded, I said, consisted of some speculations in which the 
 paper indulged, as I thought, unnecessarily, respecting the origin 
 and construction of the federal government, in regard to which I 
 thought erroneous grounds had been taken, but, as the reconunenda- 
 tions it contained were well warranted, whether all its theories were 
 sound or unsound, I trusted that gentlemen like him and myself who 
 were equally solicitous for the success of the government in the im- 
 j)ortant matter in which it was engaged, would feel also our duty to 
 avoid weakening its arm by invoking discussion of an abstract point 
 and I referred with approbation to the excellent example which had 
 been set in this regard by his friends. Chancellor Kent, Mr. Jay and 
 their associates of New York. The Judge was evidently not a lit- 
 tle nettled as well as embarrassed by the unexpected views I had 
 expressed. He knew very well that I would not assent to the por- 
 tion of the doctrines of the proclamation referred to and he had 
 hoped to precipitate an argument upon the point which could not 
 under the circumstances be otherwise than unpleasant to me but 
 which he perceived could not then be brought about. His whole 
 demeanour, as well as that of several of his friends at the table, gave 
 me a foretaste of what we might expect at the meeting of the legis- 
 lature during the ensuing week. I foresaw from the moment the 
 proclamation appeared that it would be seized upon by the whigs 
 to divide the President and myself, who had just been elected on the 
 same ticket, and to force upon our political friends in the legislature 
 a discussion in which it would become the duty of the republican 
 members to impeach the political orthodoxy of an important state 
 paper whose author they had supported and continued to support. 
 
 Among the first propositions, aiming to produce this complica.- 
 tion, was a resolution offered by Senator Seward,^ declarative of the 
 sense of the State Senate that " the President of the United States, 
 in his late proclamation had advanced the true principles upon 
 which only the constitution can be maintained and defended." This 
 resolution was regarded as insiduous upon its face and therefore 
 indefinitely postponed by a vote of 19 to 9 — ^all the supporters of 
 General Jackson's administration voting for the postponement ex- 
 cept three who were converts from the federal party, — ^a significant 
 sign of the origin of the objectionable clause in the proclamation. 
 Anticipating kindred movements in the House of Assembly, I ad- 
 vised our friends to raise a joint committee of both Houses, to whom 
 might be referred all similar propositions, and whose duty it should 
 be to report the sense of the legislature upon the whole subject. This 
 was done and Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, then a recent convert from 
 the Clintonian party, was placed at its head. I prepared the re- 
 port and resolutions which were presented to the two Houses by 
 
 'William H. Seward. 
 
550 ■' AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the joint committee. The report gave a full view of the origin and 
 history of the question which had been raised upon the proclama- 
 tiorv and disposed of it in the following words: 
 
 ° The history given by the President of the formation of our government 
 has drawn forth conflicting opinions in respect to its accuracy ; and lest the 
 committee might be regarded as having omitted any portion of their duties, 
 they will, upon this subject, also, with deference to the views of others, 
 briefly, but frankly, state their own. 
 
 The character of our government, so far as that is affected by the manner 
 in which the Federal Constitution was framed and adopted, has been always 
 a matter of more or less contention. DifCerences of opinion upon the subject 
 have been in some degree fostered by a seeming discrepancy between the 
 preamble of the Constitution and historical facts; and perhaps in a still 
 greater degree by the different senses in which the term " States" is used 
 by different persons. If we use that term, not merely as denoting particular 
 sections of territory, nor as referring to the particular governments, estab- 
 lished and organized by the political societies within each, but as referring 
 to the people composing tliose political societies, in their highest sovereign 
 cwpacity (as the committee think that in this respect the term should be 
 used) it is inoontrovertible that the states must be r^arded as parties to 
 the compact. For it is well established, that, in that sense, the Constitution 
 was submitted to the states; that, in that sense, the states ratified it. This 
 is the explanation which is given of the matter in the report of the Virginia 
 legislature, which has already received the sanction of the committee. It is 
 in this sense of the term " States " that they form the constituency from 
 which the Federal Constitution emanated, and it is by the States, acting, 
 either by their Legislatures, or in Conventions, that any valid alterations of 
 the instrument can alone be made. It is by so imderstanding the subject that 
 the preamble is reconciled with facts, and that it is a Constitution established 
 by " the people of the United States," not as one consolidated body, but as 
 numbers of separate and independent communities, each acting for itself, 
 without regard to their comparative numbers. It was in this form that 
 the Constitution of the United States was established by the people of the 
 different states, with the same solemnity that the Constitution of the 
 respective States were established; and, as the committee have heretofore 
 insisted, with the same binding force in respect to the powers which were 
 intended to be delegated to the Federal Government. The effects which are 
 likely to be produced by the adoption of either of the different versions of 
 the Constitution contended for, it is not ttie intention of the committee to 
 discuss. The positive provisions and restrictions of that instrument could not 
 be directly abrogated by the recognition of either. 
 
 The comparative weight and influence which would be attached to the 
 allegations and remonstrances of the States, in respect to supposed infrac- 
 tions of the compact, might, however, be very different, whether they are 
 regarded as sovereign parties of the compact, acting upon their reserved 
 rights, or, as forming only indiscriminate portions of the great body of the 
 people of the United States, thus giving a preponderance to mere numbers, 
 incompatible with the frame and design of the Federal Constitution. The 
 diversities of opinion which have arisen upon this subject have been more 
 or less injurious, according to their influence in inclining or disinclining 
 the minds of those who entertain them, to a faithful observance of the land- 
 marks of authority between the respective governments. Professions are 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 100. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIK VAN BUBEN. '■ 551 
 
 easily made, and the best evidence of a correct appreciation of the nature 
 and design of the system by a public agent is to be found in the general 
 bearing of his official acts. If his conduct be characterized by a desire to 
 administer the government upon the principles which his constituents have 
 elected, and by a determination to repudiate the dangerous heresy that the 
 Constitution is to be interpreted, not by the vrell understood intentions of 
 those who framed and of those who adopted it, but by what can be made 
 out of its words by ingenious interpretation; if he honestly believes that the 
 people are thfe safest depositary of power, and acts up to that belief, by evincing 
 an unwillingness to exercise authority which was not intended to be granted, 
 and which the States and the people might not, on open application, be 
 willing to grant; if he has steadily opposed the adoption of all schemes, 
 however magnificent and captivating, which are not warranted by the Con- 
 stitution — which, from the inequality of their benefits and burthens, are cal- 
 culated to sow discord where there should be union, and which are too fre- 
 quently the offspring of that love of personal authority and aggrandizement 
 which men in power find it so difficult to resist ; if he has done all in his 
 power to arrest the increase of monopolies, under all circumstances so ad- 
 verse to public liberty, and the equal interests of the community; if his 
 official career has been distinguished by unceasing assiduity to promote 
 economy in the public expenditures, to relieve the people from all unneces- 
 sary burthens, and generally to preser^'e our republican system in that sim- 
 plicity and purity which were intended for it — under which it has hitherto 
 been so successful, by which it can alone be maintained, and on account of 
 which it has, until this moment, stood in such enviable and glorious con- 
 trast with the corrupt systems of the old world; if such be the traces of his 
 official course, and if in maintaining It he shall have impressed all mankind 
 with the conviction that he regards as nothing, consequences which are merely 
 personal to himself, when they come in contact with duty to his country, the 
 people of the United States will not doubt his attacliment to the true prin- 
 ciples of that Constitution which he has so faithfully administered and so 
 nobly supported. Such the committee take pride in saying has been the 
 official course of our present Chief Magistrate, a course by which, in the 
 estimation of the people of this State, he has established for himself im- 
 perishable claims to their gratitude, respect and confidence. 
 
 The committee have thus explained their views upon the several delicate and 
 deeply interesting questions before them, with the frankness which becomes 
 the solemn occasion on which they act, and which should always characterise 
 the movements of a sovereign State upon matters involving her relations with 
 lier sister States. In doing so they have felt it to be their duty to vindicate 
 ai-d explain the political principles which are entertained by themselves, and, 
 as they believe, by a majority of the good people of this State. In the perform- 
 ance of this act of justice and duty, they have endeavored to avoid all impu- 
 tations upon the motives of those who may differ from them. The same 
 independence and toleration which they claim for themselves they are disposed 
 to extend to others. Amidst the conflict of interests and feelings with which 
 those who are charged v/ith the conduct of public affairs at this interesting 
 crisis are obliged to struggle, there is happily one opinion which has not 
 yet met with a dissenting voice in all the land ; and which it is fervently hoped 
 Is too deeply implanted in the minds and hearts of the people to be ever eradi- 
 cated. It is a thorough conviction, that anarchy, degradation, and interminable 
 distress will be, must be, the unavoidable results of a dissolution of the union 
 of these States. Associated w^ith this undeniable and undenied truth, and grow- 
 ing out of it, there are, we trust, two other sentiments of equal universality — a 
 
552 AMEKIGAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION". 
 
 determination to maintain the union at all hazards, and a willingness to make 
 liberal concessions, nay sacrifices, for the preservation of peace and reciprocal 
 good will among its members. Upon this great conservative platform all sin- 
 cere friends of the Union, all who honor and truly respect the parting admoni- 
 tion of the Father of his Country, all who prefer that country to their own 
 ambitious views of personal aggrandizement, and^who are disposed to give to 
 the Executive of the United Stdtes a cordial and efficient support, can meet 
 and act in concert to promote the greatest of all earthly objects. Here all 
 may earn the enduring respect and confidence of the people, by an honorable 
 sacrifice of personal and party feelings on the altar of their country's safety. 
 We may difCer as to the time, the manner, or to the extent of the measures 
 to be employed, whether of conciliation or coercion. It cannot be expected at 
 the present crisis, that honest anti unprejudiced minds should all happen 
 to arrive at the same conclusion; but such differences should not occasion 
 heart burnings, much less resentments. Our fathers differed in like manner 
 in the establishment of our Government, and it is in vain for us to hope for 
 exemption from similar embarrassments. The causes which produced them 
 have not yet ceased to operate ; they have been planted by the hand of nature, 
 and cannot be entirely removed by that of man. Those, to whose valor and 
 disinterested patriotism we are indebted for this glorious system under which 
 we have so long and so happily lived, overcame them by mutual concession 
 and compromise. If every man looks only to his own interest, or every State 
 to Its own favorite policy, and insists upon them, this Union cannot be pre- 
 served. We must not deceive ourselves upon this point, or suffer others to 
 deceive us. Our errors, in this respect, may lead to consequences which can 
 never be recalled, and over which we and our posterity may have occasion 
 to shed bitter tears of repentance : we must take higher counsel than that 
 which is derived from our pockets or our passions: we must be just, and, if 
 need be, generous ; and the deep and overpowering attachment of the great 
 mass of the people to the Union, the fidelity, energy and fortitude of their 
 character, directed by the illustrious man so providentially at the head of the 
 Government, will carry us safely through the dangers which threaten our 
 beloved country. 
 
 The Report was unqualifiedly against the nullification doctrine — 
 recoihmended a reduction of the tariff and the observance by the 
 Federal Government of a spirit of concession and forbearance as 
 long as practicable and was accompanied with resolutions for carry- 
 ing these views into effect. After many efforts to stave off or qualify 
 the expression of the sense of the Senate that body concurred in the 
 general conclusions of the Committee by a vote of 23 to 6, and on the 
 specific resolution in favor of conciliation by a vote of 28 to 1. " The 
 following were among the numerous comments upon the Eeport 
 made by the press: 
 
 From the New York Evening Post. 
 
 This document is drawn up we are happy to say with an ability equal to 
 the momentous and Interesting questions submitted to the committee, and dis- 
 cusses them in a firm yet conciliatory temper. We need not enter at present In- 
 to an analysis of a state pnper which will be universally read, further than to 
 say that whilst it protests against the doctrine of nullification as anarchical and 
 
 » By the time this vote was taken the Whigs had obtained information of Mr. Clay"s 
 Intention to compromise. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 653 
 
 denies that secession is a remedy authorized or contemplated by the constitu- 
 tion, it pronounces the Tariff Bill of the last session an inadequate measure 
 of redress and expresses a desire that a farther diminution of duties may be 
 immediately adopted. 
 
 From the Albany Argus of 1st February, 1833. Report on Nulli- 
 fication, State rights &c, &c. 
 
 We occupy our columns this morning nearly exclusively with this important 
 public document upon all the public questions of which it is a most sound and . 
 able exposition — of the nature of our political compact — ^the origin of parties — 
 the powers respectively of the State and Federal Governments — Nullification, 
 secession and rebellion — it is the sound republican doctrine of ninety eight — 
 the creed of the Democracy in the old times and at all times. We have not 
 • time to day to say all of this invaluable state paper which it and the occasion 
 seem to demand at our hands. We shall recur to it to-morrow. It will take its 
 place in the political records of the country by the side of the Virginia and 
 Kentucky Resolutions and with Madison's Report and be read, in the mean- 
 time, with great and engrossing interest. 
 
 The intention of the Whigs to make political capital out of the 
 matter was in this way signally defeated. 
 
 I enclosed a copy of the entire proceedings to the President and 
 informed him that I was the author of the report. Nothing further 
 ever passed between us in relation to them, but when I came to 
 Washington for the Inauguration his private Secretary and nephew, 
 Major Donelson, told me that he (Donelson) read them by himself 
 before he submitted my letter with its enclosures to the General ; that 
 the latter read all the papers very deliberately, placed the letter upon 
 his files but without saying a word upon the subject f a hint not lost 
 upon the Secretary. Without doubt, General Jackson saw in the 
 whole proceeding a realization of the apprehensions I had. expressed 
 to him in my letter from London and in other ways, and was well 
 satisfied with the judicious way in which the difficulty had been dis- 
 posed of in the New York Legislature. 
 
 The administration and its friends in the existing Congress did 
 not possess the power to pass Verplank's bill or any bill for the 
 reduction of the tariff that would be satisfactory to South Carolina. 
 In truth she was not disposed to be satisfied with any relief that 
 should come from that quarter. In respect to the whig party they 
 entertained different dispositions. That party went indeed against 
 the nuUifiers in all strong measures designed to bring them to sub- 
 mission con amore. Such a course was not only in harmony wifh 
 all their political opinions but this opportunity of aiding in sub- 
 jecting the nuUifiers to the power of the Government was made more 
 gratifying by the feelings with which the course of South Carolina 
 in refusing to vote for Mr. Clay and in throwing away her suffrage 
 upon Gen. Floyd had impressed them. But in all other respects 
 they were associates and co-workers, intent chiefly o^ the downfall 
 of the President and his administration. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 It is difficult to imagine a more critical condition than that in 
 which I found the country involved at the moment of my arrival at 
 Washington on the 26th of February, 1833. The judgment of all 
 the States, not even excepting that of her closest neighbour and 
 twin sister, N.. Carolina, was that the position which had been as- 
 sumed by South Carolina was, in the felicitous language of Ran- 
 dolph both "weak and mischievous." The " Force Bill " was cer- 
 tain to become as it did become the law. Having throughout and 
 earnestly pressed upon Congress the justice and propriety of extri- 
 cating the State from the otherwise fatal error she had committed, 
 by a liberal modification of the tariff. President Jackson was pre- 
 pared to follow wherever it might lead the path which he was al- 
 ways eager to tread — the straight-forward path of duty. That duty, 
 in the then posture of affairs, was simply to see to the execution of 
 the laws, for the enforcement of which he was armed with abundant 
 powers and, however severe and painful might be this exercise, he 
 was sure of the approbation of all good men. In such a contest 
 South Carolina would be unavoidably crushed and yet after the 
 stand she had taken it was not to be expected that a people so brave 
 and proud would yield to anything short of relief or overwhelming 
 force. 
 
 Henry Clay was, in the actual state of things, the only man 
 who had it in his power to extricate them. He was the father 
 of the so-called American system; his friends every where — at the 
 north, east and west — ^had taken open ground against any farther 
 modification of the tariff and could not be brought to that, the 
 only step by which civil war could be avoided save at his bidding. 
 There were then only seven or eight days before the power of 
 Congress to act in the matter " would terminate. Wlien Mr. Cal- 
 houn came to the support of my administration years afterwards, 
 there arose a bitter feud between him and Mr. Clay in the course 
 of which the motives by which the latter had been actuated on the 
 occasion of which we are now speaking were severely canvassed 
 on the floor of the Senate. Mr. Calhoun insisted that Mr. Clay 
 was then in his power — that he was " his master " ! " He my 
 
 " MS. V, p. 105. 
 
 554 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BUKEBT. 555 
 
 master"! replied Mr. Clay, with indignation, and in his best and 
 loftiest manner " I would not accept him for my slave." The 
 knowledge of the precise state of feeling which induced him to 
 consent to a sufficient modification of the protective system to arrest 
 further proceedings is most probably buried with Mr, Clay in his 
 grave. That he capitulated is certain, but it was to a variety of 
 controlling circumstances and not, I think, to the command Mr. 
 Calhoun had acquired over his position. The condition of Mr. 
 Calhoun was a helpless one. The situation into which h^ had been 
 chiefly instrumental in bringing his proud state did indeed exert 
 an influence over the actions of all concerned but it was an influence 
 very far from that of command. The evils about to be inflicted 
 on South Carolina on account of her contumacy — the loss of life, 
 of property and all the sufferings which follow in the train of 
 hostile military occupation to which her high spirited people were 
 destined — ^would be attributed to Mr. Clay's obstinate adherence to 
 a policy to a very great degree of a selfish character and which 
 was fast losing gromid before sounder and more comprehensive 
 theories among the communities of the world. This would be one 
 of the certain results if he refused to yield and it was one upon 
 which a man of his temperament could not look without the deepest 
 concern. Apprehensions of prejudice to his popularity arising 
 from this source, it is fair to presume, were not the only grounds 
 of hesitation that were presented to his mind. Four Presidential' 
 elections had then already passed away since he commenced the 
 construction of his hobby — ^the "American system," — and he was 
 evidently not so near the Presidency, the great object of his ambi- 
 tion, as he had appeared to be when he began his work. This 
 though good cause for reflection was not of itself sufficient to induce 
 him to abandon his offspring to the derision of his opponents; 
 sometimes a wise step but one which authors and inventors seldom 
 have sufficient resolution to take. But he might well, regard his 
 past experience of its little success in turning the public mind in 
 his favour as at least sufficient to deter him from encountering 
 new and, in this case, extraordinary responsibilities in its support. 
 Nothing is now or has ever been clearer to my mind than that the 
 agency of the tariff question in producing political effects has al- 
 ways been greatly overrated. To go into the examination of the 
 reasons for the disappointments on the part of the supporters of 
 the protective system in their reliance upon that agency would be 
 foreign to my present objects and I will therefore content myself 
 with saying that in my county and state, both of which possess 
 marked facilities for manufacturing establishments, I never, in 
 the whole course of my long and active partisan experience, knew 
 an election the result of which I had sufficient reason to believe 
 
556 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 was controlled by the agitation of that subject. This has not been 
 for the want of busy agitation for there are but few if any of the 
 States in the confederacy in which the question has constituted a 
 more prominent point in political discussions. In addition to the 
 considerations I have referred to, we know, from his own declara- 
 tions, how largely Mr. Clay was influenced by apprehensions, 
 founded on the signs of the times, that his system was destined 
 to a speedy overthrow and by a consequent desire to save from the 
 wreck as much as might be secured. 
 
 Mr. Clay's speech of the 25th of February, 1833, in reply to Mr. 
 Webster who opposed his compromise bill, is truly an extraordinary 
 production. The reporters. Gales and Seaton, say it was the only 
 one of his speeches during that short but most exciting session 
 which he prepared for the press himself, and it shows clearly the 
 great pains he bestowed upon it. ^ I cannot but think that though 
 shorter than many, it is distinguishable from any speech of his 
 extant for its happy combination of close and strong reasoning — 
 for which he possessed ample powers altho' he was not often inclined 
 to exert them — with genuine eloquence which was natural to him 
 and to which he delighted in giving free scope. The occasion of 
 its delivery was one of the two on which his feelings were more 
 deeply enlisted than on any other in the course of his checkered and 
 eventful life. The first was when he was charged with having been 
 induced to desert the political party in which he was reared from 
 boyhood and with the movements of which some of the brightest 
 features of his political career were indisputably associated, by the 
 allurements of office, and on that of which we now speak he was 
 freely charged with abandoning a national policy which he had 
 been principally instrumental in fostering into existence from in- 
 ducements of a mixed nature, but none of them, to a proud or able 
 statesman, free from humiliation. The former attack was of a more 
 personal character and therefore more exasperating in its effects. 
 It crossed his path when lie was comparatively a young politician 
 proudly claiming to be animated and governed by a chivalrous and 
 self sacrificing spirit, and I have elsewhere ventured the opinion 
 that he treated the grave impeachment at least unskilfully. When 
 General Jackson's witness, Mr. Buchanan,^ dodged the point, he 
 should have scouted further inquiry and indignantly turned his 
 back upon an imputation unsustained by the man to whom his ac- 
 cuser had himself referred for its origin and support. If he had 
 done so his subsequent career would have been a happier if not a 
 more successful one. His present embroilment was less calculated 
 
 * In Register of Debates, Ix, pt 1, 729-42. ' James Buchanan. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 657 
 
 to harass him in his personal feelings and therefore less disqualify- 
 ing for discreet action on the part of a man of his impulsive dis- 
 position. It involved principally the wisdom of his views as a states- 
 man, a matter which could more dispassionately be discussed and 
 acted upon than one which implied personal dishonor. It occurred 
 also at a period when he had been long in public life, when his sensi- 
 bilities had become somewhat blunted, a condition if not very at- 
 tractive in a leader whom we incline to admire yet not without its 
 uses to him in the rough and tumble of public life. But whatever 
 may have occasioned it, of the fact that he bore himself with infi- 
 nitely better grace and sustained his position more successfully — ^there 
 cannot be the slightest doubt. Having always estimated his rhetor- 
 ical powers highly, especially for the theatre of a popular assembly, 
 I have seldom failed to read his speeches, and of all delivered by him 
 since he changed his political position I am inclined to regard this, 
 every thing considered, as the ablest and the most creditable to his 
 heart as well as to his head. 
 
 This speech is my warrant for my interpretation of the motives 
 by which he was governed. Its entire scope shows his conscious-, 
 ness that the question of pacification or civil war depended upon his 
 individual action and his keen sensitiveness to the constructions that 
 might be put upon that action of the character I have suggested. 
 "They will accuse us of indifference to the preservation of the 
 Union, and of being willing to expose the country to the danger ° 
 of Civil War" — was prominent among the consequences which he 
 held up to the view of Mr. Webster of the inexorable adherence to 
 the tariff as it stood for which the latter contended. These con- 
 siderations seemed to fall unheeded on Mr. Webster's breast. His 
 ultimatum was brief and I had almost said bloody. South Caro- 
 lina must retrace her steps under the law as it stands, or things 
 must take their course. The apprehension that Congress will be 
 understood to have acted under the influence of panic, was, in his 
 judgment, sufficient to close the door upon the thoughts of concilia- 
 tion. Mr. Clay had hoped that the crisis was not yet so near at 
 hand as his opponent seemed willing to believe it to be. He thought 
 South Carolina would avail herself of the request of Virginia, con- 
 veyed through Watkins Leigh, to postpone the execution of her ordi- 
 nance until the end of the next session of Congress, and that, of 
 course, the President would stay his hand. But then came the 
 conclusion, the support of which formed so large a portion of his 
 very able speech, that by that time the privilege of conciliation, with 
 the power of modifying the tariff, would have passed from their 
 hands to those of the President and his friends to swell an authority 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 110. 
 
558 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOH". 
 
 already so formidable and which they were all justly anxious to 
 restrict. To sustain this position he brought forward arguments 
 and facts of great strength and applied them with eminent ability. 
 The perusal and study of his speech will bear out my opinion and 
 in all respects repay the student. 
 
 It so happened that I had also contributed somewhat to fortify 
 his position. Before Mr. Clay brought forward his measure of re- 
 lief at Washington, I prepared, at Albany, the report of which I 
 have spoken, of which conciliation and a reduction of duties were 
 principal features and which received the almost united sanction of 
 the New York Legislature; and whilst he was exerting himself to 
 promote the same ends I threw out suggestions, in reply to an invi- 
 tation to a public dinner, tendered to me by the friends of the Ad- 
 ministration in Philadelphia, going to justify Mr. Clay's admoni- 
 tions to his political associates that the relief required by the South 
 would be extended by the Administration if he and they did not 
 give it, whilst to do so was yet in their power. He was perhaps 
 already too full of his subject to be materially benefitted by my 
 concurring illustrations of his argument, but there had been circum- 
 stances in my previous course which gave some consequence to what 
 I said and did upon the subject of the tariff, and these had derived 
 no inconsiderable additional force from the fact of my election to 
 the second office under the Government and from the possibility, 
 not to say probability of my succession to the first within the short 
 period of four years. My reply to the Conmiittee of invitation was 
 prepared with somewhat more care than is usual on such occasions, 
 with a full knowledge of what was going on at Washington, to 
 which place I was hastening, and with an anxious desire to make 
 myself useful in putting an end to the painful and menacing crisis 
 that existed. 
 
 The following is an extract from my letter, which was forthwith 
 published : 
 
 The present condition of our Country is as you justly observe, a peculiar one ; 
 yet I cannot but think that the dangers which menaced our institutions are 
 already quietly lessened, and bid fair to be speedily and happily removed. It 
 is to me most obvious that the difficulties attending a satisfactory adjustment 
 of the tarifC are now reduced to questions of time merely. The repeated and 
 earnest recommendations of the President to Congress in favor of a reduction 
 of duties to the revenue standard, by means of a law which shall be certain 
 in its ultimate effect but yet so gradual in its operation as to give the greatest 
 extent of protection to existing establishments that shall be found consistent 
 with the paramount obligation to relieve the people from all burthens which 
 are not necessary to the support of Government — recommendations on the 
 propriety of which he so distinctly placed himself before the American people 
 at the late Presidential canvass and in which he was triumphantly sustained by 
 a vast majority of them — seem to be now unembarrassed by any opposition, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MABTIN VAN BUREN. 559 
 
 and to have become the favorite and universal sentiment. These important 
 points established there can surely be nothing in the residue of the subject or 
 in the details of the bill by which they are to be carried into effect, that, If 
 acted upon in a proper spirit, may not be overcome without threatening the 
 public peace or endangering the stability of our Union. Any measure which 
 shall successfully . accomplish the objects proposed, and which shall be of a 
 character to recommend itself to the moderate men on both sides of the ques- 
 tion (the only securities we can have for its permanency) will, without doubt, 
 receive the approbation of the people and restore the different sections of the 
 Country to those relations of peace, affection and good fellowship which are 
 indispensable to the prosperity and happiness of each and all. That these 
 great objects shall not fail for the want of such an arrangement is so em- 
 phatically demanded by public sentiment, as to allay all apprehension. Should 
 the present Congress, unfortunately, be unable to effect it we may count with 
 confidence upon the speedy and successful efforts of the next. Until this de- 
 sirable result shall be attained we have a safe guaranty against violence and 
 discords in the discreet exercise of executive authority, the pervading patriot- 
 ism of our countrymen and that sacred, inextinguishable love of union which is 
 the predominant master-feeling in an American bosom. 
 
 That Mr. Clay should not, after his long experience, have been 
 brought to doubt the efficacy of his Ajtnerican System, at least as an 
 element of political strength, is scarcely possible, and if his own 
 advancement had been the sole object of his labors in its support 
 he could not have furnished a wiser course than to have submitted 
 quietly to its overthrow by the assaults of his successful adver- 
 saries. There was no way in which the advantages to the Country, 
 which he claimed for it if the policy was sustained, might have 
 been pressed with greater safety or less trouble because all the 
 mischances and embarrassinents of business, from whatever causes 
 arising, would have been attributed by the manufacturers to that 
 overthrow. But I cannot now, when the passion and prejudice 
 of that day have run their course, read this speech without believ- 
 ing that much of Mr. Clay's original confidence in the soundness 
 and value of his system — ^if it could have a fair chance — had sur- 
 vived his many disappointments. Doubtless the insatiable craving 
 of the manufacturers, " whose conscience is their maw," and whose 
 gratitude for benefits received did not at all times bear fruit for 
 him, must have again and again disgusted the benefactor who had 
 contributed so liberally of his time and faculties to their advantage, 
 but we may assume that he regarded these as sacrifices unavoidable 
 in any great public cause, and I have, as I have said, reviewed these 
 transactions at this late day with a strong faith in the sincerity 
 of the assurances of continued confidence in the system which were 
 drawn from him by the circumstances in which he and it were placed 
 and which were expressed with so much earnestness and true elo- 
 quence. Mr. Clay pressed the measure of conciliation of which he 
 !wa.s, on his side, the exclusive author, and which he alone could 
 
560 AMEKICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 have made successful, to its perfect consummation and thus saved 
 the Country from a convulsion which impended over it, threatening 
 to put our entire political system to a severer trial than any to 
 which it had ever been exposed. In this he was doubtless in no 
 inconsiderable degree influenced by considerations personal to him- 
 self, but if we are never to award praise for beneficial actions un- 
 less they are wholly free from such inducements they miist be with- 
 held altogether, for the race of public men thus immaculate has not 
 yet arisen in the world. In my opinion he rendered his country, 
 on that memorable occasion, a service for which he was eminently 
 entitled to its respect and gratitude. If he failed to receive these 
 in a full measure the deficiency is to be attributed to political com- 
 plications in which he had unhappily involved himself and through 
 which he was made responsible for many political delinquencies not 
 his own. 
 
 His conduct when contrasted with that of his sometime co-parti- 
 san, but always rival an4 never unqualified friend, Mr. Webster, 
 calls for especial praise. If the omission to render a high public 
 service when° opportunity offered could ever be excused on the 
 ground that the act would enure to the present advantage of those 
 who had been personally hostile to him, Mr. Clay would have had, 
 in that crisis, much stronger justification than his distinguished 
 contemporary for folding his arms and suffering things to take their 
 course — ^for (to use his own strong language) " even silently gazing 
 on the raging storm and enjoying its loudest thunders." In his first 
 great political disaster, the attending circumstances of which had 
 sunk deep in his heart, he found,\ or thought he found, his most ac- 
 tive and implacable enemies, in the ranks of Mr. Calhoun's political 
 following. He carried the belief thro' life — ^I do not say with how 
 much justness — ^that Mr. Kremer, of Pennsylvania, whose card was 
 the first promulgation of the charge of a bargain with Mr. Adams, 
 acted under the advice of Mr. Ingham, of whose political relation- 
 ship with Mr. Calhoun from a very early day I have already spoken. 
 
 His friend, Gen. was at the time on the point of fighting a 
 
 duel with Mr. Calhoun's right-hand man, Gen. McDuflSe,^ growing 
 out of disputes in regard to the same subject. Indeed the warfare 
 between Jackson and Clay, upon that and othei" themes of a per- 
 sonal nature, was principally conducted by the friends and personal 
 adherents of Messrs. Clay and Calhoun respectively until these latter 
 found themselves arrayed side by side in opposition to President 
 Jackson's administration. The men who had been most prominent 
 in those excited times and conflicts now figured conspicuously in 
 
 "" MS. V, p. 115. » George McDuffie. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 561 
 
 the South Carolina movement and an opportunity was presented 
 to him, not of his own seeking, to glut his revenge upon them if he so 
 inclined. But he was above such meanness. He knew those gentle- 
 men to be, in the main, generous spirits, who, obeying the impulses 
 of their hearts, had rashly followed their leader to a precipice from 
 which one step more would plunge them in irretrievable ruin, and, 
 not suffering himself to be stayed from serving his Country by the 
 necessity of sparing his enemies, he went straight forward to his 
 object and accomplished the safety of both. This course was bold, 
 honorable and public-spirited, and if Mx. Clay failed to enjoy the 
 credit of it in life that credit should be awarded to his memory. 
 
 But the truth of history, whose claims stand immeasurably above 
 all other considerations, must attach to Mr. Webster's conduct at 
 that trying moment a very different character. It fell far below 
 that bright example before him. He had no corresponding causes 
 of complaint against Mr. Calhoun and his friends. The quarrel 
 between Clay and Calhoun and their followers had been a quarrel 
 of former friends, marked by the extreme violence and bitterness 
 that distinguish civil from foreign war or family dissensions from 
 controversies between strangers. Between them and Mr. Webster 
 there had been nothing beyond the common opposition of party to 
 party — republicaas against federalists. I may be mistaken, I cer- 
 tainly hope that I am mistaken, but the observations of a long and 
 active political life have deceived me more on this than they have 
 done on any other point if Mr. Webster was ever capable of exer- 
 cising a magnanimous forbearance towards a political opponent 
 whom he believed still faithful to his friends and his cause. On the 
 occasion before us he failed to exhibit a trace of such feeling. He 
 saw in democrats the authors of his own failure under prospects 
 which, so far as they had been founded on great abilities, justified 
 his sanguine hopes and he seemed to hate them from the bottom 
 of his heart. His ill will yielded only in degree as those to whom 
 it was directed fell from grace in the estimation of their own po- 
 litical brethren ; it gave ground neither faster nor farther, but ended 
 in a fraternal embrace only when their separation from their former 
 associates was complete. Although the nullifiers afterwards served 
 him at a great pinch he then knew them only as a class of men 
 from whom he had received good cause of offense in their invariable 
 and efficient opposition, and when he saw them falling he was prone 
 to press them to the utmost. So much at variance was his position 
 with the dictates of a magnanimous nature and with the proper 
 spirit and philosophy of political divisions that Mr. Clay, in that 
 debate, — one of the very few instances in which such a thing oc- 
 127483°— VOL 2— 20 36 
 
562 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 curred — far excelled him, even in the department of severe argu- 
 ment in which he commonly overpeered his fellow legislators. 
 
 The state of my own feelings at that interesting crisis is shown 
 by evidence the truth of which would not be questioned at this 
 day by any candid mind. I had scarcely returned to the Country 
 before I was interrogated upon all the great public questions of 
 the day, including nullification, by a meeting held at Shocoo Springs 
 in North Carolina professing to represent different parties. Their 
 letter reached me whilst on a visit to the western part of New York 
 and my answer, although dated at Owasco, the residence of my 
 friend Gov. Throop,^ was principally written, in pencil, whilst trav- 
 elling in public conveyances. It is to be found in the 43d vol. of 
 Niles' Kegister,^ and contains a brief sketch of the principles by 
 which my course was then and afterwards uniformly governed. I 
 have never prepared a paper of that character with which I have 
 been better satisfied. To do it full justice the reader should know 
 in advance that the proceeding and call upon me, tho professedly 
 the work of supporters as well as opponents, originated with and 
 were controlled by the latter and were so understood by me at the 
 time. But this is not the. only or the principal contemporaneous 
 exposition of my views in regard to the questions of the period to 
 which I now refer. Baffled in their design to produce a schism in 
 our ranks in the Legislature our opponents determined to resort to 
 a public meeting at Albany as a means to that end. Benjamin 
 Knower, an old republican, a man of high character and estimation 
 and father-in-law of Mr. Marcy, then Governor of the State, had in- 
 volved his considerable fortune in speculations in the purchase and 
 sale of wool and stood in imminent danger of being wholly ruined. 
 Altho' thro' life a man of integrity his politics became, at length, 
 controlled by the exigencies of his pecuniary circumstances and 
 thus impelled he resolved to do all in his power to prevent a modi- 
 fication of the tariff which was required to settle the difficulty in 
 South Carolina. To advance this object he united his efforts with 
 those of the opposition to obtain an expression from the city and 
 state (so far as the latter could be done thro' a meeting at the seat 
 of Government) against nullification but also against concession. He 
 was a man of much influence and activity, the former being of course 
 augmented by the relation in which he stood to the Governor. He 
 had a call drawn up for a meeting without distinction of party to 
 express its opinion upon the great question of the day, and he ob- 
 tained to it the signatures of all or almost all of the leading friends 
 of both the State and National administrations then at the seat of 
 
 i.Enos Thompson Throop. 
 
 ^ Page 125. The pamphlet, 5 pp., printed by Blair 1834, is in the Van Buren Paper's. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 563 
 
 the State Government, as well as of those in the opposition and a 
 large number of gentlemen who, like himself, altho' democrats, were 
 immovably intent on upholding the tariff. Of the result of such a 
 meeting, in a city then largely opposition, Mr. Knower and his asso- 
 ciates considered themselves justly secure. A great number as- 
 sembled at the City Hall, in answer to the call, and, after ap excited 
 effort to act in concert, separated — those who really approved of the 
 course that the Administration was pursuing retiring to the Capitol. 
 At their respective places of meeting each portion adopted resolu- 
 tions expressive of their opinions. Both condemned nullification 
 without reserve;. that division of the original assemblage which had 
 repaired to the Capitol declaring also in favor of a further modi- 
 fication of the tariff, in conformity with the recommendations of the 
 President, whilst those who remained at the City Hall — ^by far the 
 greater number of whom belonged to the opposition — ^protested in 
 the strongest terms, against the proposed change. 
 
 Pending the preliminary movements for these meetings and shortly 
 after they had been held I addressed the following letters to my con- 
 fidential friend Silas "Wright, then representing our State in the 
 Senate of the United States. I have elsewhere mentioned that after 
 the publication of his letter to me in regard to Mr. Sanford (which 
 was surreptitiously obtained and given to the newspapers by the 
 opposition) he made it a rule to destroy the letters on public af- 
 fairs in any degree confidential which he received — a determination 
 I have much cause to regret and of which I was not informed until 
 after his death. Upon a careful examination" of the papers left 
 by him these, and a few others of less consequence, were found. I 
 had kept no copies and had no distinct recollection of their existence. 
 They bear Mr. Wright's endorsement and are now inserted here, 
 verbatim et Hferatim, as the best evidence of my views at the period 
 and as candid contemporaneous explanations of the political move- 
 ments and measures of which they speak. 
 
 to riias wright, jr. 
 My Deae Sie 
 
 I have really not time to write you, but will do so in a day or two. Our 
 friends are deeply disturbed by the call which has been made for a public 
 meeting tomorrow and to which they have lent their names. Our friends have 
 however determined to attend and say honestly and fearlessly what they 
 think. The meeting will be very numerous and possibly quite animated. Be 
 not apprehensive of doing what you, in the honest exercise of your excellent 
 judgment, think for the good of the Country. The people desire that justice 
 shall be done and the public peace and harmony preserved and will support 
 all honest men in the discharge of their public duties, of the sincerity and 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 120. 
 
564 AMEEICAlir HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 integrity of whose motives they are satisfied. The means taken here to deter 
 action upon the subject of the tariff will produce a severe reaction. 
 
 Remember me cordially to Hoffman and the rest of my friends, and believe 
 me to be 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 M. Van Bueen. 
 Jany 23d, 1833. 
 
 TO SILAS WRIGHT, JB. 
 
 Albany, Feh. 4th 1833. 
 Mt dear Sir 
 
 I was favored with yours of the 29th ultimo last evening — for which accept 
 my thanks. You have before this seen the proceedings of our friends here, 
 and the Report of the joint Committee will have been sent to you by many 
 hands. The separation which took place at the City Hall meeting was a 
 providential event, by which political designs that had been nursed with great 
 care by our opponents were promptly and efficaciously baffled, and the Repub- 
 licans of this State placed, on better ground in respect to the tariff than they 
 have ever heretofore stood on. ^ The course of our city friends will be fully 
 sustained by the sincere friends of the administration in the State, with but 
 few if any exceptions, and the Report of the Committee approved, so' far as 
 relates to nullification and secession, by a unanimoois vote and in all other 
 respects by the unbroken strength of the Republican side of the two Houses. 
 
 I regret that you should be so annoyed by suggestions as to the probable 
 effect which the course of my friends in Congress may have on the next Presi- 
 dential election. You could not, my dear Sir, have better expressed my own 
 feelings upon that point than you have done in your replies to such intima- 
 tions. All I desire is that my friends should pursue that course which, in their 
 own unbiassed judgment, they shall think will best subserve the interest of the 
 Country and dispense the largest share of justice to every part of it ; and they 
 could in no way act more contrary to my wishes than by allowing themselves 
 to be diverted from that course by the consideration referred to. The people 
 will in their own time concentrate upon the individual whom they think best 
 adapted to the occasion and no one, I assure you, will acquiesce in their un- 
 biassed decision upon that subject with more cheerfulness than myself. If 
 therefore there are any so reckless as to seize upon the present distracted 
 state of the Country to further views of personal ambition and so weak as 
 to believe, notwithstanding the experience to the contrary of the last twenty 
 years, that the Presidency can be reached by means of combinations, however 
 artfully devised, or individual and selfish efforts of any description, my friends 
 will, I trust, do me the justice to keep me entirely disconnected from any 
 such intrigues. 
 
 That it is the ardent wish of the Republicans of this State, without any seri- 
 ous diversity of opinion, that the dissatisfaction which .exists at the South 
 shall be removed by a reducton of the revenue to the wants of the Government, 
 upon the principles stated in the Report of the Joint Committee of the Legis- 
 lature, is beyond all doubt. I am the last man who would ever attempt to 
 exercise any influence over my friends other than such as to be derived from 
 a frank interchange of opinions and views upon equal terms, if I could be 
 vain enough to suppose that I possessed any other — ^which I am not. It is 
 therefore with no such view that I say what, from my present position and 
 the knowledge I possess of the diflniculty of arriving at the truth in respect 
 to public sentiment situated as they are, I tlilnk it my duty to say — that 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREN. 565 
 
 if any of our friends in the delegation act under a dlfEerent belief they 
 will in the end be cruelly deceived. A large majority of the people of this 
 State are, I am confident entirely averse to endangering the peace of the 
 Country and the stability of the Union for the purpose of subserving personal 
 or local interests whether pecuniary or political. The current of public senti- 
 ment with the Democracy of the State is decidedly and actively the other way. 
 
 Our Senator question has passed oflE very well. Our friend Butler, after hav- 
 ing fought off the matter all winter, was In danger of being placed in the 
 attitude of a defeated candidate by the indiscretion of Mr. Livingston. But the 
 matter is so well understood here that even the opposition do not affect to mis- 
 apprehend it. I 
 
 Remember me kindly to your messmates — ^tell them to keep cool and be good 
 natured whatever they do, and believe me to be 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 M. Van Btjeen ' 
 
 • The autograph draft is in the Van Buren Papers. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 ° Whilst sketching the progress of our political parties I noticed 
 my return from England without regarding its chronological re- 
 lation to events afterwards described and brought the subject down 
 to my arrival at Washington and reception by President Jackson. 
 I was induced to do this by a desire to bring in my remarks upon 
 his veto of the bill to extend the Charter of the Bank of the United 
 States at the most appropriate place. A similar course has been 
 pursued in other parts of this memoir from a desire to insert aU 
 I propose to say on certain special subjects at one place and thus 
 to save the reader the trouble of connecting scattered and dis- 
 severed observations. The events which followed my return will 
 now be taken up at the point at which the narrative was then left. 
 On the morning after my arrival the General escorted me in his 
 own carriage to the gate of the Capitol and was doubtless well 
 inclined to accompany me into the Halls of both Houses if official 
 etiquette had not prevented him. I made my way to the Senate 
 Chamber in which body I had spent so many interesting hours with 
 most of the Senators who were in the Senate including the greater 
 part of those who had acted adversely on my nomination. My 
 friends gathered round me and affectionately welcomed my return. 
 A few of those who had voted against me under the behests of their 
 party and who knew me well enough to be satisfied that I did not 
 suspect them of personal hostility also" approached me and exchanged 
 friendly salutations. 
 
 Amongst the latter I remember with pleasure Stoddard Johnston 
 and Waggaman,^ the two Senators from Louisiana and a few others. 
 Judge Euggles ^ of Ohio had been the chairman of our celebrated 
 Crawford Caucus in 1824 and stood by my side without fear 
 or flinching through the whole of that unequal and trying Presi- 
 dential contest. Not an unkind word had ever passed between us 
 and though shaken in his politics by his distrust of General Jack- 
 son, a feeling in which his state largely participated, he had not 
 actually changed his political position until he was driven to that 
 course in consequence of the displeasure of his old associates with 
 his vote upon the occasion of my nomination. He was a perfectly 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 126. ■ Josiah-Stoddard Johnston and George A. Waggaman. = Benjamin Euggles. 
 566 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUREN. 56? 
 
 honest man desirous to do right and did not, I am persuaded on that 
 occasion depart intentionally from that course. The fault was in 
 his nerves rather than in his heart. He was almost always in deli- 
 cate health and the pressure of such men as his colleague Ewing 
 and Mr. Clay aided by innumerable letters from his state, a kind 
 of machinery of which the then opposition knew the use and value 
 better than any party that ever existed, proved too much for him. 
 Senator Mahlon Dickerson came to me and said, half laughingly 
 and half seriously, that my old friend Judge Ruggles had asked 
 him to present him to me on which I stepped up to the Judge and 
 shook hands with him with a degree of cordiality which seemed 
 to relieve him from a load of self reproach. Mr. Calhoun was in 
 his seat but my mind received no impression in respect to his con- 
 duct or appearance which it has retained. Our relations had been 
 long too openly and decidedly hostile to be affected by what had 
 recently taken place. Senators Clay and Webster were absent in 
 the House of Representatives whither I proceeded in a short time. 
 As I approached the outer door of that Chamber and had raised 
 my hand to it it was opened from the other side and Mr. Webster 
 entered he and myself being at the moment the only occupants of the 
 small vestibule. He instantly dropt his eyes and kept them upon 
 the marble floor as he passed me. Our meeting was too sudden 
 and on both sides unexpected and we passed each other too rapidly 
 to admit of premeditation. He obeyed the impulse of the mo- 
 ment, an impulse bom of a sense of shame. I happened to turn 
 to the left hand on coming into the narrow passage which ran 
 around the outside of the seats of the Members of the House of 
 Representatives and thus unconsciously rendered unavoidable a 
 meeting with Mr. Clay who was making his way, on the same side, 
 towards the door by which I had entered the Chamber. Our prog- 
 ress being frequently interrupted was so gradual as to attract the 
 attention of many of the Representatives towards us — among 
 others of a large group from among whom William S. Archer (a 
 distinguished member from Virginia and an old personal friend 
 of both of us) came to me, with mock gravity, and said that the 
 House having taken into consideration the relative positions in 
 which Mr. Clay and myself had been thrown and claiming the 
 right to regulate a »meeting which must now inevitably take place 
 in its presence, had decided that we might approach each other with 
 blandest and most friendly expressions of countenance, shake hands, 
 even embrace and, indeed, indulge in any further demonstrations 
 of affection that suited our tastes, but that kissing was inadmissible 
 and would be held to be a breach of the privileges of the House 
 and a contempt of its dignity. This speech being loudly applauded 
 
568 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 by those who heard it still further contributed to the notoriety and 
 awkwardness of the " situation." 
 
 Mr. Clay having before advanced slowly — taking snuff with one 
 and chatting with another — now stepped rapidly forward, offered 
 me his hand and led me to one of the sofas which, standing upon a 
 raised platform, overlooked the seats of the members. Here we sat 
 and conversed for some time about England and some of the ac- 
 quaintances he had formed there on his return from the Ghent Mis- 
 sion, when he left me and repaired to the Senate Chamber where 
 he alluded to our meeting in the manner I have elsewhere described. 
 The character thus given to our personal relations by Mr. Clay in 
 the face of the House of E«presentatives of the United States at our 
 first meeting after he had taken his part in the matter of my nomi- 
 nation enabled me consistently with a proper self respect to continue 
 my intercourse with him on the footing I preferred — one which 
 ignored the too prevalent idea that political differences necessarily" 
 draw after them personal hostility. Altho' profoundly conscious 
 of the difficulty of knowing oneself, however honestly and however 
 humbly the subject may have been studied, and of the consequent 
 hazards of describing one's own motives and dispositions, I yet ven- 
 ture to say that to uphold this line of separation between personal 
 and political differences and to protect social intercourse from the 
 deleterious influence of. partisan illiberality or violence were with 
 me cherished objects during my political career; nor do I permit 
 myself to doubt that this justice, at least, will, when I am no more, 
 be accorded to my memory by most of my surviving contemporaries. 
 
 The incidents of the first morning I spent in the two Houses of 
 Congress, after my return from England, were, upon the whole, 
 very gratifying, but the pleasure they were well calculated to impart 
 was damped by a mortifying falling off in another and most trusted 
 quarter. At an early hour of the morning following my arrival, 
 and before I had seen any of my friends except those who belonged 
 to the President's family, I was called upon by Mr. Blair, then and 
 afterwards the able and inflexible editor of the Washington " Globe." 
 He had not long occupied that position when I left Washington on 
 my Mission and I had had no acquaintance with him anterior to his 
 coming there to take charge of the Globe, but I had seen enough of 
 him to confide in the sincerity and integrity of his character, a con- 
 fidence which all my subsequent intercourse with him has served to 
 confirm and increase. The relation in which he was regarded by my 
 opponents as standing towards me at the time may be inferred from 
 the application that was made to him by Colonel Johnson and Mr. 
 Grundy, two of Mr. Calhoun's friends, in respect to tlie publication 
 
 " MS. V, p. 130. ■» 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAN BtTREN. 569 
 
 of the ' Appeal ' of the latter as heretofore narrated. He took me 
 apart and made to me a communication the substance of which he 
 repeated in a note addressed to me at Lindenwald long after my 
 retirement from public life ; to which he was induced by seeing me 
 maligned in the public papers in anonymous articles which he knew 
 to proceed from a meddling neighbour and avowed friend of Mr. 
 McLane, whom I had felt myself obliged to remove from office, 
 which articles Mr,. McLane knew to be in all respects false but which 
 he did not attempt to arrest as it was well understood he might have 
 done. The following is a copy of that note, so far as it relates to 
 this subject: 
 
 I take my pen to ask you if you remember the first conversation I had with 
 you after your return from England in the window-niche of the General's 
 little breakfast room. 
 
 I then told you that McLane had conspired with your enemies during your 
 absence to ruin you — that he had laboured to supplant you with General Jack- 
 son and was solicitous to exclude you from his ticket and had exerted hlmseli 
 to alienate me from your interests — conjuring me to discontinue the war I had 
 made on the Senators who voted your rejection and to give over the efforts I 
 was making to rally the Democracy on you as Vice President. My acquaint- 
 ance with you at that time was so new that I did not expect you to abandon 
 a friend of long standing on my representations — I hesitated therefore to make 
 them and only brought myself to it from the consideration that it would guard 
 you from the hypocrisy which might otherwise impose upon you. 
 
 I need not say how much I was disturbed by Mr. Blair's communi- 
 cation. My strong predilections rendered it impossible for me to 
 receive his statements as in all respects well founded and led me to 
 the conclusion that he had imbibed prejudices against Mr. McLane 
 and had been thus induced to place injurious constructions upon acts 
 which would prove susceptible of a different interpretation. But 
 there was a manly candour in his declarations and a force in the 
 circumstances to which he referred to show that he could have no 
 other motive than to warn a man whom he saw cherishing as a friend 
 one he knew to have been his enemy, and whom he thought was in 
 danger of sustaining further injuries from the same source, which 
 staggered but did not entirely overcome my habitual hearty faith in 
 Mr. McLane's friendship. He authorized me to give his name to Mr. 
 McLane as the author of the communication he had made to me 
 saying that he was aware of the risks he assumed by placing himself 
 in that position; Mr. McLane holding a high office under the Gov- 
 ernment which had more patronage at its disposal than any other 
 and possessing the confidence and friendship of the President, 
 whilst he, he hoped, at least equal in General Jackson's confidence 
 and regard, was but an editor of a newspaper; which considerations, 
 as he did not allow them to deter him from doing justice, would, he 
 hoped, satisfy me of the disinterestedness of his motives and of the 
 
570 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 sincerity of his professed objects. I thanked him for the friendly 
 feelings by which he had been actuated in respect to myself and 
 assured him that I did not in the least, degree doubt their sincerity 
 but begged him to excuse me for hoping, notwithstanding his erpUcit 
 statements, and my confidence in his truthfulness, that time would 
 disclose some satisfactory explanation or essential qualification of the 
 matters he referred to. I then informed him of my intention to con- 
 sult the President upon the subject, and obtained his permission to 
 inform him of what had passed between us; of which course he 
 declared his approval as one he expected me to adopt, adding that 
 having performed what he regarded as a duty he would of course 
 leave the matter entirely to me and if, for any reasons I should think 
 it best to take no further notice of it he would be satisfied. 
 
 Mr. McLane paid me a visit a short time afterwards, I believe 
 on my return from the Capitol. There was in his manner an ef- 
 fort to suppress embarrassment by which my attention was imme- 
 diately arrested. Sensible how natural it was that I should imagine 
 such a state of feeling on his part after the communication I had 
 received I laboured, in good faith and with a degree of success to 
 dismiss the subject from my mind, but of course, it was out of 
 my power to do so altogether. Our interview, of which and of his 
 carriage my recollection is as fresh as if the scene had occurred 
 yesterday, was brief and our conversation confined to the general 
 topics of the day. I had, before I saw Mr. McLarie, received a 
 note from Mr. Kane,^ a Senator from Illinois, a ^^entleman of the 
 purest character who had been very partial to"Efie former and who 
 cherished also a friendship for me which I am fully persuaded 
 the influence of no man could have disturbed, apprising me of his 
 apprehensions that I might receive impressions injurious to the 
 good faith of Mr. McLane, but assuring me that as far as he knew 
 or believed there was no sufficient foundation for them and McLane, 
 on reaching his house after his visit, sent me a kind note asking 
 me to ride with him the next day and to take ° dinner with him 
 and his family on our return. This rendered it necessary that I 
 should come to a conclusion in regard to our future relations lief ore 
 T answered his note. I therefore asked an interview with the Presi- 
 dent and gave him the substance of Mr. Blair's communication. I 
 saw at once that the subject was not a new one to him and I inferred 
 that Mr. Blair had apprised him of his intention to take the course 
 he had pursued, which proved to be the fact. He spoke kindly of 
 Mr. McLane and in the highest terms of Mr. Blair's character, de- 
 scribed it to be such as he continued to regard it till his death, when 
 
 > Blias K. Kane. ° MS. V, p. 135. 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 571 
 
 he left all his papers in his hands. He thought him incapable of 
 saying what he did not at least believe to be true— but expressed 
 no opinion in regard to the subject of his present statement fur- 
 ther than could be inferred from the declaration that " he believed 
 Mr. McLane to be as much my friend as it was in his nature to be 
 the friend of anybody." Having said this he proceeded at once 
 to exhort me to let the matter pass without further examination 
 into the truth of the case stated either on the one side or on the 
 other; I was under no obligations affecting my own character to 
 notice it and it would for many reasons be wise to forget it as far 
 and as fast as possible. " If you will be advised by me," he said, 
 " accept his invitation, ride and dine with him and let things take 
 their course." The earnestness which Mr. Blair had manifested, the 
 spirit with which he carried out his personal disputes, the certainty 
 that he would bring the matter before the public in his paper if 
 Mr. McLane denied what he had said and the injurious consequences 
 that would in all probability result to the administration in its criti- 
 cal position at the moment from such a feud upon such a subject 
 between men occupying most responsible and influential positions 
 towards it would have been considerations in favour of this course 
 of great weight with me even if I had not felt myself under obliga- 
 (tions to make the General's wishes in the matter the rule of my 
 conduct. 
 
 I accepted Mr. McLane's invitations. But with the best inten- 
 tions and every effort on the part of both, the hours passed heavily 
 and an influential member of the family charged me before I retired 
 Avith being reserved and cold in my manner to an extent never before 
 M'itnessed by the speaker, of which I -was entirely unconscious. Be- 
 sides the understanding! between the President and myself that no 
 farther notice should be taken of the matter and that our relations 
 should continue on their former footing an understanding in which 
 Mr. Blair, feeling that he had done his duty, readily concurred, I 
 have no specific recollection of anything said or done previous to my 
 leaving Washington, although it appears by the extract from my 
 letter given below that some conversation took place in relation to 
 it between Mr. McLane and myself. On the 11th of August 1832, 
 the latter wrote me a long letter in regard to an important appoint- 
 ment then pending before the President, which letter concluded thus : 
 
 I have now, my dear Sir, a duty to discharge to myself and which forms an- 
 other object of this letter. In all my life, j)ubllc and private, In one instance 
 only have I ever been accused or suspected of indifference to my friend at any 
 time, but, especially, in the' hour of difficulty: and I feel more than Indignant 
 that this instance is in relation to you. If you had participated in that sus- 
 picion without an examination into the grounds which should have been 
 
572 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 specifically stated and respectably vouched, you would have done me an injury 
 which would have admitted of no reparation. But while you had the manliness 
 and generosity to act in a manner due to our relations, at least for the purpose 
 of explanation,, you cannot do ample justice either to yourself or to me without 
 frankly informing me of the grounds of the suspicion and by whom they were 
 communicated. The communication must have proceeded from an innocent mis- 
 apprehension of opinions founded upon an unfeigned solicitude for your future 
 course, expressed with the frankness of a friend, and to your friends; or, from 
 a bad and wicked purpose; or perhaps a busy, suspicious, gossipping temper 
 always heedless about consequences. In either case, it is necessary for my own 
 safety that I should know the source whence I may be exposed to similar in- 
 jury. I am the more urgent in this instance, because of information recently 
 communicated to me, from my friend Mr. Latimer of Delaware, that he had 
 learned in Baltimore that you and I had been involved in a difHculty, which 
 would end in my retirement from the Administration. The source of this report 
 makes me regret that I did not enter more at large Into one or two topics 
 when you were here, and which I purposely reserved to a futune occasion. 
 How coulc\ such a report have reached Baltimore? I therefore submit my 
 request to your own sense of justice. 
 
 I should be glad of an opportunity in the autumn of conversing with you in 
 relation to certain changes of which we spoke when you were here; and of 
 making some suggestions both in regard to myself and others which appear to 
 me important ; and both more feasible and expedient than some that are in 
 contemplation. I wish to go up the North River, probably in October, with my 
 boys and would take that opportunity, if you were in the way, of seeing you ; 
 in the mean time you had better keep the whole subject open in your mind. 
 
 ^ I am, my dear Sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, L. McLane. 
 
 To Mabtin A'an Bxjeen Esq. 
 
 This letter reached me at Lebanon Springs and I find from a memo- 
 randum enclosed in it that I made the following reply to the part I 
 have quoted : 
 
 I have fully reflected upon your request in regard to the suggestions which had 
 been thrown out in respect to your feelings towards me on a recent occasion and 
 am thoroughly satisfied that that matter ought to rest where it stands. I 
 thought it due to the occasion to assure you at Washington that I was not aware 
 of a single instance in which the subject had been referred to in an unfriendly 
 spirit as it respected yourself or from the unworthy motive of making trouble 
 between us. Since the receipt of your letter I have passed the matter more 
 deliberately through my mind and can with truth repeat the assurance that 
 you would do injustice to any of my friends with whose sentiments I have been 
 made acquainted, If you treasured up any unkind feelings towards them or 
 harboured any distrust of them on that account. This is all that it is necessary 
 for you to know. That they had apprehensions upon the point is certain, and 
 I have no doubt you are correct in the supposition that those apprehensions 
 proceeded from " an innocent misapprehension of opinions founded upon an 
 unfeigned solicitude for your (my) future course expressed with the frankness 
 of a friend and to your (my) friends," and for which in the excitement of the 
 moment and under deep conviction that the course they advocated was vitally 
 necessary, sufficient allowances were not made. That such a state of things 
 shoiild give rise to speculations of the sort was unavoidable and the application 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 573 
 
 to me by ° Mr. Kane shows you that they had entered the minds of those who 
 were most thorough in their convictions that they did you injustice. 
 
 It may perhaps be made a question whether my answer in negativ- 
 ing the existence of an inimical disposition towards Mr. McLane on 
 the part of those who had judged his course as an unfriendly one 
 did not go farther, for the restoration of peace all round, than the 
 facts in one or two instances warranted ; but in truth Mr. Blair had 
 no motive to injure Mr. McLane who had taken particular pains to 
 serve him, and in the absence of full knowledge upon the subject, 
 Mr. Cambreleng informed Mr. McLane himself that he had con- 
 demned his conduct to me, but his friendship for him had not been 
 given up. 
 
 Of all the seceders from the federal iuuks who attached them- 
 selves to the republican party in my day and who cultivated inti- 
 mate relations with me and, partly through my interference, ac- 
 quired creditable distinctions in its service there was not one for 
 whom I cherished a warmer friendship than for Louis McLane, or 
 one to whom it has been in my power to render so many and so 
 important services. 
 
 L left the United States for England in the full belief that he 
 was one, if there was one, of that class upon earnestness and con- 
 stancy of whose personal friendship I could place the most implicit 
 reliance. If the disenchantment which the future had in store for 
 me showed that this faith had been without good foundation at the 
 time, there would appear to have been even more exaggeration than 
 could be credited to the partiality of friendship in the testimony 
 borne by Jackson and Forsyth to my surpassing "common sense 
 and good judgment," my "unrivalled knowledge of human char- 
 acter and power of penetrating into the designs and defeating the 
 purposes of my enemies." But without admitting to have failed 
 to reap considerable advantage in that direction from the observa- 
 tion and experience of a long and busy and prominent political 
 life I am free to confess my consciousness of one great weakness, 
 which although springing from a liberal impulse, is always the 
 cause to those subject to it of some and not unfrequently of severe 
 disappointment, the weakness of forming an extravagant estimate 
 of the merits of new converts to my own opinions, especially on 
 occasions when those opinions are subjected to fiery assault and trial 
 and when their new proselyte brings to my side, with his welcome 
 support, the attractions, vouched by old friends, of fascinating per- 
 sonal qualities. Even aside from the unreasonable amplification of 
 them which I have described as attributable to a defect in myself 
 and moderated to the measure actually intended by their respected 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 140. 
 
574 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 authors the high encomiums of my friends must be regarded as 
 greatly overrated in the light of this narrative of my relations with 
 Mr. McLane. - 
 
 A review of those relations, however general, is not a pleasant 
 occupation — it is rather one \vhich I would be most happy to de- 
 cline altogether if they were not interwoven in so many ways with 
 some of the most important incidents of my public career as to 
 ensure inferences unfavorable to myself if I should pass them by 
 without notice, and if indeed the extraordinary manner in which he 
 thought it fit to terminate them has not made it indispensable to 
 give my version of them. Whilst as I have remarked before, I have 
 often suffered impeaclunents of my political course and conduct to 
 pass without correction when I had in my possession the sure means 
 of refutation— confident of my ability to live down calumny and 
 averse to continual obtrusion of myself and my affairs upon the 
 public attention— it is due to those who stand towards me in such 
 relations that they will be affected by my good or bad name after I 
 shall have finished my course that my memory should be tested in 
 those respects by the facts — by truth, severe and unabated, which 
 is all I ask. My obligation under actual circumstances is of course 
 doubly imperative to take especial care that my account shall be 
 just and true — ^nevertheless errors may to some extent occur and I 
 charge those on whom the publication of this work- may devolve if 
 any such should appear when I am no longer here to correct them, 
 to lose no time in doing so in the most effectual way, on my behalf, 
 and to give to Mr. McLane's memory the full benefit of every doubt 
 even that may be cast upon any of my statements. 
 
 I made Mr. McLane's acquaintance at Washington, as nearly as 
 I remember, when I first took my seat in the Senate of the United 
 States. We both joined Mr. John D. Dickerson's Congressional 
 Mess at Strother's Hotel, comprising himself, Mrs. and Miss Dick- 
 erson. Col. Dwight ^ of Massachusetts, Walter Patterson, of New 
 York, Mr. McLane and myself. Altho' I had consented at New 
 York to make one of Mr. D's Mess I believe my being associated 
 with Mr. McLane was without previous arrangement and that our 
 meeting was fortuitous; but I was almost immediately strongly at- 
 tracted towards him and our intimacy rapidly grew into a friendship 
 that withstood exposure to many storms and would in all probability 
 have continued to flourish and to bear fruit if it had not been stopped 
 by his own act after it had reached a satisfactory maturity. Finding 
 the mess at Washington too gay for us we soon followed my col- 
 league, Mr. King ^ to Georgetown, where we remained during that 
 and the subsequent session in a mess composed of Mr. King, Patroon 
 Van Eenssalaer, Harrison G. Otis, with his wife and daughter, Ste- 
 
 1 Henry W. Dwight. 2 Rufus King. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 575 
 
 venson, of Virginia, Mr. and Mrs. McLane, Gorham, of Boston, 
 Nelson and Warfield of Maryland, Fenton Mercer, of Virginia, and 
 Cuthbert of Georgia.^ I soon took ground in favour of Wm. H. 
 Crawford as Mr. Monroe's successor, in which I was earnestly and 
 cordially joined by Mr. McLane but in which we separated politi- 
 cally from others of our mess, including my colleague. I have 
 turned to numerous letters from the former, yet on my files, for one 
 of that period as affording the best illustration, in respect to scenes 
 and feelings of a time so distant, of the true character of the relations 
 then existing between us. That which follows, being in fact the 
 earliest in date that has been preserved, will happily be found quite 
 full in regard to the political and personal dispositions and views 
 too that were avowed by him and — it must be inferred— -entertained 
 by me at that interesting period in our public lives, which was shortly 
 before the celebrated Presidential canvass of 1824, when Adams, 
 Crawford, Clay, Calhoun and Jackson were candidates for that 
 high office. 
 
 Wilmington, April 30th, 1823. 
 
 My dear Van Buken, I will not pretend to tell you, how much pleasure your 
 brief note of the 24th inst, gave me, but rely upon it, nothing will ofCend my 
 " federal ear " which augurs well of tlie success of my friends, more especially 
 if you are " to share the triumph." I look upon the proceedings at Albany as a 
 nomination of Mr. Crawford ; indeed, they will be worth much more to him, if 
 by the powerful influence of your state, they can lead to a congressional caucus, 
 on which that gentleman must place his firmest reliance. I never doubted the 
 wisdom of your coxmcil, and felt satisfied that, with a more intimate knowledge 
 of the grounds, you were the best judge of the operations. My only apprehen- 
 sion has been that some cursed apple of discord wooild be thrown into your 
 state, which, as heretofore, would hereafter divide and distract her power, but I 
 relied upon the Palinurus who, knowing the shoals, had skill to avoid them. 
 But, my dear Sir, the strait is now passed, and I trust the Pilot will keep" 
 the ship in an even steady course. 
 
 This is a broad wish for a federal pen, and, to be frank, when 1 look round 
 and see those men of the party which was, but is no more, yet panting in the 
 walks of ultraism, or something worse, and by the aid of silly disaffection, and 
 idle distinctions grasping, with vain efforts, at the shadow of power, whose sub- 
 stance is irretrievably beyond their reach, I doubt exceedingly, whether I have 
 any other claim to federalism, than that, which the honor of being claimed and 
 cherished as such by the best, and opposed by the worst citizens of my own 
 little native state affords me. But, after all, I must avoid all retractions — 
 and leave my friends, and you among others, to judge me by my actions. If 
 the lapse of a few months finds us both espousing the same principles, advocat- 
 ing the same cause, and advancing the same leader, you must give me at least 
 as much credit for orthodoxy, as will be allowed to " young Mr. Calhoun " and 
 those worthy coadjutors, who, under the wing of Gen'l Harper, mean to take 
 
 ' Stephen Van Kenssalaer, Andrew Stevenson, Louis McLane, Benjamin Gorham, John 
 Nelson, Henry E. Warfleld, Charles Fenton Mercer, and Alfred Cuthbert. 
 °MS. V, p. 145. 
 ' Robert Goodloe Harper. 
 
576 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the palace of a coup de main: — if the famous A. B. plot ' be inadequate to th:.' 
 purpose. 
 
 You are too warmly remembered by every member of my family, My Dear 
 Sir, to have made your letter indifEerent to any one of them, and it came^ only 
 in aid of the frequent occasions we have to think and talk of you. It atones in 
 some small degree too, let me say, for the heinous offence you committed, in 
 leaving Delaware to your left; on your way home, and for remaining in Phila- 
 delphia no longer than to allow me time to arrive there a few hours after you 
 had taken your departure in the steam boat ; I take it for granted tho' — to use 
 the language of our friend Archer— that you would not have dared to have 
 committed this outrage upon friends who deserve better at your hands, If you 
 had not coupled with it the resolution of a summer's visit-^and let me hope 
 that this event may be rendered more probable by the coming trial of the speed 
 of New York and Virginia, which will force you to iMXig Island. I shall send 
 a very pressing summons for Archer, and I should be exceedingly happy, if 
 you could prevail upon Gen'l Van Renssalaef to escort you hither, taking care 
 to bring with you Master John, for whom you have already made promises, 
 with which he may not be entirely disposed to comply. But fill your suite as 
 you please, and you will gratify me most. I can promise you little more than 
 the pleasure of making us all very happy with your society, and to show you, 
 in the small circle of our friends, in how humble a village I am content to toil 
 away my time. We will together examine Philadelphia and its environs and 
 together inspect the pea patch to be the better prepared to silence Gen. Cocke" 
 in next winter's campaign. Baltimore too, is at hand, and even Richmond, 
 should you be inclined to migrate so far south, is within our reach. 
 
 In the end, with the best regards of Mrs. McLane, believe me, my dear Sir, 
 most affectionately yours 
 
 L. McLane. 
 
 In this cordial and unstudied letter and in the inferences it jus- 
 tifies in respect to the nature of my communications generally to 
 and from him the spirit and scope of my political partisanship are 
 truly delineated. In them, I trust, will be perceived an unaffected 
 solicitude for a sincere unity in the political faith to which I pro- 
 fessed to adhere as the only proper basis of political co-operation 
 and a deprecation of combinations of individual leaders and of fac- 
 tions for the attainment of personal or party ends without care for 
 the actual political principles and feelings of those engaged in them, 
 such as have unhappily become too common in later times. It was a 
 union and concert of action in favour of the old Republican cree^, 
 looking to the public good as the end of our labours, that I desired 
 to consummate with Mr. McLane and which he appears here and 
 always professed to be most willing to concede. Although so widely 
 and perseveringly charged through my whole life with being a polit- 
 ical intriguant such and no more have been the substantive aims of 
 my political operations. I have never pretended indifference or in- 
 
 1 The A. B. plot, so-called, was a series of scurrilous articles by Ninlan Ed-wards In the 
 Washington Republican, signed A. B., having for their purpose the discrediting of 
 Crawford to the consequent advantage of Calhoun's presidential chances. See Wm. M. 
 Meig's Life of Calhoun (N. Y., 1917) vol. 1, pp. 294, et seq. 
 
 " Philip St. George Cocke and the controversy as to the United States' title to Pea 
 Patch Island In the Delaware Elver. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BXJKBN. 577 
 
 sensibility to the good opinion of^the people and have more than 
 once shown my readiness to accept testimonials of their confidence 
 and favour when they have been presented without solicitation and 
 as the evidence of approval of my conduct, but I can safely, as I 
 have done perhaps before, defy my contemporaries to produce a 
 single line or to recall a single word coming from me which had for 
 its object the construction of combinations or the suggestion of plans 
 to secure my own promotion in public life. If it shall be thought 
 that the record presents evidence that ought to have satisfied me 
 that Mr. McLane did not cherish tl^e political principles of the old 
 republican school with the consistency and singleness of purpose 
 with which I claimed to support them myself — ^that I have too often 
 overlooked his shortcomings in that regard and that, blinded by 
 personal partiality, I hazarded the public interests by causing his 
 advancement to responsible public stations, be that my reproach and 
 the judgment of the Country ; but let it not be inferred that I sought 
 his political association to augment my own resources in my public 
 career. He never had it in his power to be— neither did I ever be- 
 lieve he was or would be of service to me in that respect. I always 
 knew on the contrary that the partiality which bore fruit for him 
 in repeated and successful efforts to advance him in official positions 
 produced an abundant crop of dissatisfaction and even alienation 
 in the circle of my old political friendships. For the offer to him 
 of the place of Attorney General of the United States, as well as 
 for his appointments, in regular succession and within a briefer 
 period than any one man ever held them, to the distinguished posts 
 of Minister to England, Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of 
 State of the United States he was, beyond all doubt, indebted to my 
 intervention in his favour and to General Jackson's confidence in 
 my opinion of his qualifications. The state of mind in which I 
 found him on my way to Washington to enter upon the duties of the 
 office of Secretary of State shortly before the first of these move- 
 ments in his behalf has been already described. His letter in answer 
 to the offers I was authorized by President Jackson to make to him 
 of the two first mentioned places havQ also been referred to and will 
 be found in fuU in the correspondence. It seems now most extra- 
 ordinary that I should have overlooked indications of an overween- 
 ing care for gelf that ought to have put me on my guard, especially 
 when, at his pressing instance, I obtained also from the President a 
 promise that he should be appointed to a seat on the bench of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States if a suitable vacancy occurred 
 (looking to the probable early resignation or death of the aged 
 Judge [Gabriel] Duval) and communicated the result of my applica- 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 37 
 
578 AMEEICASr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 tion in his behalf to him at London whilst he was in possession of the 
 English Mission. Judge Baldwin shortly afterwards gave the Presi- 
 dent notice of his intention to resign his seat on the Bench and we 
 confidently expected that he would do so. There being a manifest 
 impropriety in appointing Mr. McLane to fill the vacancy which 
 would have been thus created because of his not residing in the 
 Circuit, but anticipating his anxiety upon the subject and having 
 occasion to write him in answer to another application, I made the 
 following explanation to him: 
 
 Connected with this subject is a matter which I am permitted to mention to 
 you in strict confidence, but in regard to which we scarcely know what to say 
 in respect to its bearings upon your Interest. 
 
 Judge Baldwin Is dissatisfied with his situation for reasons which it is 
 unnecessary to explain further than they grow out of opposition to what he 
 regards as an unwarrantable extension of Its° powers by the Court, and has 
 given the President notice of his intention to resign after he has completed 
 his Circuit — or in the fall at farthest. You need not to be assured of the 
 pleasure the President would take in appointing you to the vacancy, confident 
 that the Country would have nothing to apprehend from your opinions; nor 
 can It be necessary to explain to you the nature and extent of the difficulty 
 which arises from your not being of the Circuit. All therefore that he feels 
 himself at liberty to say is that he will watch the movement of events with a 
 lively zeal for your welfare, and if, when the time comes, he finds that he can 
 consistently appoint you it will be one of the most pleasant events of his life. 
 
 Before we parted in New York, I for England and he for Wash- 
 ington to take upon himself the functions of Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury, he asked me to write once more to the President upon the sub- 
 ject of the Judgeship. The original promise still remained in full 
 force but I felt the awkwardness of a compliance with his request; 
 nevertheless as it was almost a rule with me to refuse him nothing I 
 gave him the following letter : 
 
 To THE PbESIDENT. 
 
 New Yobk, August 3rd, 1831. 
 Mt deae Sib : — 
 
 Our mutual friend, Mr. McLane retains his preference for the Bench, and 
 will, if Duval dies, be pleased with the appointment to supply the vacancy. 
 It Is for obvious reasons my earnest hope that the opportunity to gratify him 
 In this respect, if it Is to occur during your administration, may be delayed 
 until it is near its close. The sacrifices which he has been obliged to make by 
 his Mission Increase the necessity of his obtaining as permanent and as little 
 expensive an employment as he can, and the extent of his family leaves him, 
 as he thinks, but little option as to his course in the event of the happening 
 of the contingency referred to. 
 
 Believing that I understand your feelings towards him I have taken the 
 liberty of assuring him that there Is no object nearer your heart than to 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 150, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBBN. 579 
 
 promote his interest and that no considerations that could be suggested can 
 increase that desire. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 M. Van Buken 
 
 Perceiving, at length, in the presence of the President, the im- 
 pression that would probably be produced by presenting an applica- 
 tion for a second office at the moment of entering upon so important 
 a station as that of Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. McLane returned 
 my letter enclosed in one from himself, without date, which was 
 immediately followed by the letter of August 11, 1831, both of 
 which are here given. 
 
 I herewith return you the letter you gave me for the President in order that 
 you may alter the date and transmit it by mail. I felt an insuperable delicacy 
 in handing it to him myself, notwithstanding his reception and his treatment 
 since have been of the kindest and most endearing kind. Still the letter is 
 important. You must not ascribe it to suspicion when I assure you that Mr. 
 Taney fights shy of me. He was the only one of the Cabinet who kept off and 
 him I did not see until we met yesterday at the President's in council. We were 
 always on good terms and" I know of no cause of separation now but his fears 
 on a certain subject. Therefore do not fail to send the letter. 
 
 Let me add in connection with this subject that you are escaping from a 
 season of storms and a shattered ship. I cannot doubt from all I see and hear 
 that the chances are against our old Chief, and to that I shall begin early to 
 make up my mind. 
 
 Don't forget the letter to the President. 
 
 Washington, August 11th, 1831. 
 My Deae Van Buren, 
 
 I sent you a large packet of letters thro' Mr. Bowne which I hope will be 
 satisfactory. I also sent you the letter you gave me for the P. in order that 
 it might go to him directly from you. My object in writing now is to im- 
 press upon you the importance of doing me that favour : and of adding to it, 
 if you feel yourself at liberty a line on the same subject to Major Lewis. He 
 voluntarily sent me a letter once upon the subject containing an express promise 
 of the P — ^and therefore it is that I suggest to you the propriety of intimating 
 to him that recent occurrences should not be allowed to alter the Intentions 
 formerly entertained. — ^Believe me that I am not mistaken in the necessity of 
 this interference. The designs in another quarter are not to be disregarded 
 and there is no other quarter than you from which it would be possible for 
 me to intimate my wishes. You may invent what pretext you please for your 
 letter, but on no account neglect it. 
 
 Once more I bid you Adieu-! 
 
 With my best wishes for your prosperity 
 
 L. M'L. 
 
 Major Lewis to whom he refers was his uniform and zealous 
 friend and did not esteem him the less for his federal antecedents, a 
 point in which the Major could .not but indulge, in a fellow feeling, 
 but it is due to the latter to say that no considerations or tempta- 
 tions, through many of which he was obliged to pass, could weaken 
 his fidelity to the General or his desire for the success of his Adminis- 
 
580 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 tration. Although I differed with him upon many abstract questions 
 I feel that I can safely bear this testimony in his behalf. The " other 
 quarter" spoken of by Mr. McLane, referred to Mr. Taney, the 
 Attorney General, as is plainly enough intimated in the first note. 
 On the day before I sailed from New York I enclosed my original 
 letter of the 3d August to the General in that which follows ; and thus 
 my last thought and my last act, at the moment of quitting my 
 country, were devoted to the service of one whom I thought as I have 
 said, bound to me by ties of personal friendship on which I might 
 rely in the worst of times. 
 
 To THE PbESIDENT. 
 
 New Tokk, Aug. 15, 1831. 
 Mt deak Sib 
 
 I gave the enclosed to our friend when here, but he has been deterred by a 
 sense of delicacy from delivering it to you and has returned It to me with a 
 request that I would write to you from here. Want of time compels me to 
 enclose it to you and to request that you would show it confidentially to Major 
 Lewis whom he asks to be informed as to his wishes. 
 
 Mr. McLane is delighted with your reception of him and will in all respects 
 come up to your expectations. Between us, in strict confidence, he apprehends 
 that another member of your Cabinet may desire the same place that he does. 
 Talk to him freely about it if you please and he will be at ease. It has been a 
 very unpleasant matter for me to press this subject upon your attention at this 
 moment but I could not well avoid it, and it Is best that you should know all. If 
 your son is with you remember me to him affectionately and do the same to 
 Mr. Trist ; say, if you please, to the latter, that I would write him if I could but 
 that he must write me often and remember me mostly kindly to Mrs. Randolph, 
 Mrs. Trist and all the family. 
 
 God bless you. 
 
 M. Van Bueen. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXIX.^ 
 
 I read at London Mr. McLane's first official report upon the 
 finances, and, fully aware of the condition of things at Washington 
 and of the positions of all parties, I regarded it as a state paper 
 calculated to supersede President Jackson as the efficient head of his 
 own administration upon a vital point by which it was destined to 
 stand or fall. Sensible of the embarrassment not to say humiliation 
 to which my venerable friend would unavoidably be exposed by the 
 appearance of such a document, coming from such a source, and by 
 the consequent exultation of his enemies, I could not but experience 
 pain and mortification when I reflected upon the " agency I had 
 exerted to bring about an appointment productive of such results. 
 I had not hesitated a moment in rejecting Mr. McLane's advice in 
 respect to my hurried return to the*United States and to seeking a 
 seat in the Senate at the close of its session as in the last degree un- 
 wise, yet upon neither point had the suggestion raised in my mind a 
 doubt of the sincerity of his friendship. 
 
 Thus much I had written on this subject almost in the words as 
 they stand now — precisely in those words so far as they speak of 
 Major Lewis, when I was reminded by one of the preceding letters 
 of the close friendship which had long existed between him and 
 McLane, sincere as I had reason to know it was on the part of 
 Lewis, and, what had a more particular bearing upon the subject 
 Before me, of a message from General Jackson to McLane or to 
 Major Barry of which Lewis had once told me that he was the bearer. 
 The import of the message, as far as my memory served, is set forth 
 in the letter from myself to Lewis which follows. I had not then 
 nor have I now any recollection of what I said or did in regard to 
 the message referred to, neither can I fix the period at which the 
 communcatioi},was made to me by Lewis. My conclusion however 
 is that it was at the time when it was my intention to suffer bygones 
 on the point involved to remain bygones, and that I therefore did 
 not heed the information. These reminiscences suggested the idea 
 of affording Major Lewis an opportunity to say what he might 
 think proper in regard to the course Mr. McLane had pursued to- 
 wards me in my absence, as he w-as for many reasons the individual 
 
 " MS. V, p. 155. 
 
 681 
 
582 AMERICAlir HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 most likely to know the whole truth upon the subject and as I was 
 besides not a little in the dark, at this late day, as to what had been 
 his own motive in making the communication referred"^to to me; — 
 whether to put me on my guard in respect to Mr. McLane or only to 
 place before me a conspicuous illustration of General Jackson's fidel- 
 ity to his friends — a feature in his character which both the Major 
 and myself had found many and interesting occasions to appreciate. 
 My earnest desire to protect my record of the transactions and feelings 
 of which I write from the chance of error or of injustice, through 
 lapse of memory or unfounded suspicion, inclined me strongly to 
 act upon that idea but this course was one not free from difficulties. 
 The result of all my reflections upon the subject was that I owed 
 it to truth, to Mr. McLane, and to myself, to afford Major Lewis an 
 opportunity to say what he might desire to say in regard to it and on 
 the 10th of April last having had no communication with or informa- 
 tion about him for nearly twenty years, I addressed him as follows : 
 
 MAJOR WM. B. LEWIS. 
 
 LlNDENWALD, April lOth 1859. 
 
 My deab Sib, 
 
 If my memory is not more at default than usual, you once told me that 
 General Jackson suspecting that efforts were making with the knowledge of a 
 portion of his Cabinet, whilst I was in England to prevent my nomination for 
 the office of Vice President, sent you to Mr. McLane, who, he apprehended was 
 
 favourable to the [ ] with a message to the effect — "That if that course 
 
 was persisted in and made successful, he would go to the Hermitage at the end 
 of his first term " ; and that you delivered it to Mr. McLane. 
 
 I am preparing something like an autobiography of my life to be published 
 after my death, in which the General will necessarily cut a larger figure than 
 myself and through which I hope to impress my readers with a truer and I 
 hope still more favorable sense of his character and capacities than they yet 
 possess. Not the least prominent feature in that character, was his fidelity 
 to his friends; and it has occurred to me that this circumstance may be suc- 
 cessfully employed to illustrate his disposition in that regard — if I am correct 
 in respect to the facts" and yoni have no objection to their being thus used. He 
 was from the time of my resignation desirous that I should run for that office, 
 but I was opposed to it before the rejection. If I am right in regard to the 
 principal circumstances it will be desirable that you should specify at what 
 period the transaction took place — whether before or after the final action of 
 the Senate. If you prefer for any reason to say nothing upon the subject 
 yourself, or to have nothing said about it by me, you have only to say so and 
 the affair will be left untouched. I am not positive that I shall use it in any 
 event. 
 
 Tou keep quiet like a wise man, enjoy good health, I hope, and are happy I 
 do not doubt, in your circumstances. Where is your daughter and how is her 
 health and your own? Mine at 76 is better than it has ever before been, and 
 I enjoy life admirably. 
 
 With best wishes for your health and happiness 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 M. Van Buken. 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 160. 
 
AtJTOiBIOGEAPHY OF MAETlif VAN BUEEN. 583 
 
 1 give the whole of his reply (except as mentioned below) be- 
 cause tho' parts of it have no particular reference to the subject 
 under consideration, they serve to show the character and disposi- 
 tion of the' man, and are in that respect not without value and in- 
 terest: a part of the postscript stated that there was a passage in 
 the paper he sent me headed "Notes, etc." which he particularly 
 described and which on reflection he preferred should not be pub- 
 lished and which being left out would not as he truly said, " affect 
 what preceded or followed in the least." This passage, whilst it 
 repeats more specifically the charge against Mr. McLane of setting 
 on foot an intrigue to defeat my nomination for the office of Vice 
 President, to promote his own ultimate views in respect to the 
 Presidency, implicates also another gentleman of whom he did 
 not wish to speak. That part of the Postscript to his letter as well 
 as the passage in the " Notes " referred to are omitted. 
 
 Nashville, April 22, 1859. 
 My deab Sm, 
 
 Your letter of the 10th inst. has been received, and the best reply I can make, 
 it seems to me, is to send you the enclosed papers. They contain every thing of 
 importance in relation to the nomination of a candidate for the Vice presidency 
 in 1832, of which I have any knowledge, and are more to be relied on than any- 
 tyng I can say, or write, at this distant day, as they were written when all the 
 facts and circumstances were fresh upon my mind. You can read them and 
 if you find anything in them that you would like to have transferred to your 
 promised autobiography you are heartily welcome to use them. Indeed, the 
 important and interesting events therein narrated belong to the history of the 
 times .in which they occurred, and should be placed on record for the use of 
 future historians of our country and I have not therefore, the least objections 
 that you shall use them in such a way as you may deem most prudent and proper. 
 I have one request to make, however, if you conclude to use them and that is, 
 on reading them, if you shall find a single expression that you think will give 
 pain to Mrs. McLane that you either strike It out, or modify It. I have always 
 had great respect for her and her family, and would be exceedingly unwilling 
 to say or do any thing, If I knew it, that would be calculated to wound their 
 feelings. I also had great respect for Mr. McLane himself, and was always 
 willing to serve him in any way I could, but I must Say that I was greatly sur- 
 prised to find him so strongly opposed to your nomination, under all the circum- 
 stances of the case. I had always looked upon him as one of your warmest 
 and best friends and counted upon his uniting with General Jackson and his 
 other friends in your support, with great certainty. I did not dream that he 
 ihad any aspirations to the presidency himself, for the reason that I knew, when 
 lie left the United States for England in 1829, he had his eye upon another and 
 -very different object. He then preferred a seat on the Bench of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States; but on his return, after having accomplished the 
 objects for which he was sent to London, it seemed that " a change came over 
 the spirit of his dream." He went to England reluctantly, as I dare say you 
 recollect, because, he said, vnth his large family he could not live in London upon 
 the salary our Government then allowed to our foreign Ministers. Judge 
 Duvall, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the U. States was a very 
 old man. and could not reasonably be expected to live very long, and if he had 
 
584 AMERICAIT HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 died, or resigned, before Mr. McLane returned to the XJ. States, or before the 
 Bank troubles arose, I have no doubt but that General Jackson would have 
 placed him on the Bench of the Supreme Court, for he authorized me to say to 
 him, before his departure for England, that he would do so, but th^ rejection of 
 Mr. Taney's nomination as Secretary of the Treasury Department, by the Senate, 
 connected with other circumstances, determined the President to offer the vacant 
 seat on the Bench, occasioned by the resignation of Judge Duvall, to him, Mr. 
 Taney, upon the same principle that induced him and his friends to insist on 
 your nomination for the Vice Presidency after your rejection by that same 
 factious body, a majority of which then consisted of Clay Whigs and Calhoun 
 NuUifiers ! 
 
 But Mr. McLane was not the only one of our prominent friends that desired 
 the nomination, in opposition to you — Gov. Forsyth also wanted it, but he 
 did not enter into any combinations, or intrigues, so far as I was apprised, 
 to defeat you. Col. Richard Johnson, not only desired it, but was urging his 
 claims with all the power and influence he possessed to obtain it, even down to 
 the very last moment almost, as you will perceive on reading the notes I send 
 you. The claims of several others were also warmly urged by their friends, 
 among the most prominent of whom were Judge Williins, Gov. Dickinson, of 
 N. J., and Judge Philip Barber, of Virginia. The latter gentleman was 
 earnestly recommended by Mr. Kendall* in a letter he vsTote me from 
 was earnestly recommended by Mr. Kendall in a letter he wrote me from 
 Concord, New Hampshire, where he had gone on a visit to Gov. (Isaac) Hill 
 and no doubt with the approbation of that gentleman. Seeing that this question 
 was likely to give us much trouble and unless satisfactorily arranged in some 
 way, and that too without much delay, might become dangerous to the very 
 existence of our party, in my reply to Mr. Kendall's letter I suggested to him 
 the expediency Indeed absolute necessity, of advising our friends every where 
 to get up a national. convention, to convene at some convenient point, for the 
 purpose of selecting some suitable and proper person to be placed upon the 
 electoral Ticket with General Jackson, as a candidate for the Vice Presidency, 
 and, as the Legislature of New Hampshire was then in session, I begged him, 
 with Mr. Hill's assistance, to get it if possible to adopt resolutions, recom- 
 mending to our friends, in every state, the getting up of such a convention — 
 Such a proposition was submitted to the Legislature, and resolutions were 
 adopted with great unanimity by the friends of the Administration. Similar 
 proceedings were afterwards adopted by nearly all the democratic states in the 
 Union, which resulted in the meeting of the Convention that sat In Baltimore 
 on the 20th of May, 1832, -and which nominated" you for the Vice Presidency. 
 This was the first convention of the kind ever gotten up I believe, in this 
 country, and they have been kept up ever since by both democrats and whigs. 
 
 The conversation I had with Mr. McLane and to which you refer in your letter, 
 must have taken place about the last of February 1832, and but a short time after 
 your rejection by the Senate. I recollect very well previously to that time, you 
 were opposed to being run for the Vice Presidency, for I conversed 'With you 
 several times upon that subject before you left the United States for England ; 
 but, in opposition to your own opinions and wishes, both General Jackson and 
 myself were decidedly in favour of it. I thought, to be associated with the 
 General and run for the Vice Presidency upon the same Ticket with him would 
 bring you more prominently before the country, and strengthen your prospects 
 for the Presidency at the next succeeding election, and for that reason I was 
 
 1 William Wllklns, Mahlon Dickerson, Philip Barbour, and Amos Kendall. 
 "MS. V, p. 165. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN \AN BUftEN. 585 
 
 reconciled to what most persons considered a great sacrifice, on your part, In 
 giving up the State Department for the mission to London. I recollect too, 
 that thinking it possible that you might persist in refusing to run, I consulted 
 you with regard to the best and most suitable person to be run for that situa- 
 tion, and that you recommended Gov. Dickinson, of New Jersey ; but after the 
 rejection by the Senate, your true and sincere friends were determined to run 
 you, regardless of all objections whether made by enemies or pretending friends, 
 and at their head stood the noble old hero and Patriot of the Hermitage. 
 
 But I will not bore you any longer with my reminiscences upon these almost 
 antiquated subjects. 
 
 My daughter after whom yooi so kindly enquire is still living in Paris and 
 her health I am happy to inform you is pretty good with the exception of 
 occasional attacks of rheumatism or neuralgia. Those complaints, however, 
 generally are not dangerous, tho' sometimes accompanied by acute and severe 
 pain — If she can only steer clear of consumption, or pulmonary attacks she 
 may live to a good old age, but as almost every member of her family on the 
 Mother's side has died of that complaint I have always been fearful that she 
 would be taken off in the same way ; but thanks to a kind Providence, she has 
 thus far escaped and as she is now upwards of 40, she may escape entirely. 
 Yes, she and Mr. Pageot are still living in Paris with the hope of soon vsdtnessing 
 the exit of Louis Napoleon, and the Eestoration of the Bourbons ! The first she 
 may live to see and perhaps not long, as the political atmosphere of Europe 
 portends approching storms and tempests just now ; but the advent of the latter, 
 if Napoleon even should be overthrown, I consider extremely problematical, in 
 their day at least ! 
 
 My own health, like yours, is much better than it used to be, and by the time 
 I get to be as oM a man as you are, if it continues to improve as it has done for 
 the last 12 or 14 years ; it will, I hope, become perfect ! You say you are 76. 
 I am only 74 and [on] the rise, that is on the 25th day of next June I shall be 
 75 if I live to see that day. I attribute the improved condition of my health 
 mainly to the exercise I take in the open air on horseback. I have a very nice 
 farm, and quite a pretty place adjoining Nashville, and ever since I returned 
 from Washington I make it a rule to ride over it, on horse back twice a day, 
 when the weather is good, morning and evening, for exercise and, at the same 
 time, to see how my farming operations are getting on. In my farming busi- 
 ness, I am something like our old friend, the General, was in his military opera- 
 tions while in the service. I not only give my orders but I take care to see 
 them executed. 
 
 Are any of your sons living with you ; or, like me are you all alone : Martin, 
 I believe, did live with you, but you have had the sad misfortune to lose him, 
 which I regretted exceedingly to hear ; but you have three left you still, and in 
 that respect Providence has been kinder to yon than to me. / had three, a son 
 and two daughters ; My son and youngest daughter are dead. She died in her 
 22nd year, leaving a son now in his 15th year, and a very nice promising boy 
 he is. My son died in his 20th year, just after he had graduated, first at George-, 
 town College, and afterwards at Harvard University. He was everything that 
 a devoted and al^ectionate father could desire a son to be, morally and intel- 
 lectually ; but death is no respecter of persons. The ways of Providence are. 
 Indeed, inscrutable ! How many worthless vagabonds are permitted to live and 
 taint the moral and social atmosphere with their foul and pestiferous breath, 
 whilst the brightest ornaments of society are often snatched from us, as it 
 were, in the morning of life, and in the beauty and vigor of manhood ! 
 
 Your sons when I first knew them were not grown, with the exception of the 
 eldest, but now if I were to meet with them, instead of boys, I dare say I 
 
586 AMERICAN HISTOHICAL ASSOCIATIOlSf. 
 
 should find them grey headed men. Well, whether they be boys still, (some 
 people never get old), or grey-heads I beg you to present my kind regards to 
 them, and that you will receive for yourself the best viflshes of 
 Very Truly Yours, 
 
 Wm. B. Lewis. 
 
 To Mabtin Van Btjeen 
 
 Kinderhook, New York. 
 
 P. S. The papers I send you are originals, and as I have no copies of them, 
 I wish, when you are done with them, that you will put them up carefully^ 
 and send them back to me thro the Post office; that is if we shall have, at 
 that time, any such establishment in this country ! 
 
 Mr. Larwell,^ the writer of the letter I send you with the notes, is an honest 
 and very estimable man, and was exceedingly useful at the Convention of 1832. 
 He was appointed a receiver of public monies at one of the Ohio Land offices 
 by General Jackson and, I believe, was almost the only one in the whole North 
 Western Country, indeed I may say South Western also, that honestly accounted 
 for the public moneys received by them. He continued in office through your 
 Administration, and may stfll hold the same office for aught I know. 
 
 ' Wm. B. Lewis. 
 
 Have you ever seen a correspondence between Mr. A. C. Flagg and myself 
 upon the subject of your being run for the Vice Presidency? It took place in 
 February 1832, not long after your rejection, as Minister to England, by the 
 Senate. I think it probable Mr. Flagg has preserved it, and if you have not 
 seen it I am sure you would be gratified at its perusal, as it has a bearing upon 
 the very point referred to in your letter to me, if my memory serves me 
 correctly. 
 
 Wm. B. Lewis. 
 
 Apkil 25th/59. 
 
 With the above letter Major Lewis enclosed" me also a document 
 entitled " Notes ec." every part of which will be found below (save 
 the passage which he desired should not be published) and also the 
 original letter from Major Eaton spoken of in the "Notes." Both 
 papers appear to have been written many years ago altho' the 
 " Notes " in the handwriting of Major Lewis and signed by him bear 
 no date. Mr, Larwell's letter sent with the above is confined to a 
 review of the preliminary steps and doings of the Baltimore Conven- 
 tion of 1832, as to which he confirms the statements of Major Lewis. 
 
 Deeply affected by the contents of these papers which threw a 
 deeper shade over Mr. McLane's conduct towards me than I had 
 ever allowed myself to think it deserved I again addressed Major 
 Lewis, and asked him to inform me as nearly as he could at what 
 time his " Notes " were written. In his reply he says : 
 
 The statement was prepared at Washington as you suppose, but the precise 
 time it was done, I do not now recollect. It was, however, in the"latter part 
 of General Jackson's Administration, if my memory serves me correctly — I 
 feel pretty confident of this, because about the time I contemplated drawing 
 it up I wrote to Mr. A. C. Flagg and requested him to send me a copy of a 
 
 1 Joseph H. LarwlU. ° MS. V, p. 170. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 01? MARTIN VAN BUREN. 68*7 
 
 letter I wrote him in Feby 1832 upon the subject of your rejection by tlie 
 Senate and, also, in relation to the Convention and your nomination for the 
 Vice Presidency, which letter I wanted to see previously to drawing up the 
 statement and having kept no copy of it, I desired Mr. Flagg to send me one. 
 This, I think, was in the Autumn of 1835, but my letter, if Mr. Flagg has 
 preserved it, will show the date. At all events it was before General Cass left 
 the U. States on his Mission, as Minister to France, which was in the summer 
 or the beginning of the fall of 1836, because I perfectly recollect, after getting 
 a copy of my letter to Mr. Flagg, that I showed the correspondence to him. 
 So that the statement must have been written in either 1835 or 1836. Why I 
 did aot show it to you I cannot tell, unless it was for the reason that I sup- 
 posed you had already been made acquainted with all the important circum- 
 stances and facts relating to that Convention. I do not think I ever showed 
 it to General Jackson, nor did I ever make him fully acquainted with the 
 very extraordinary conduct, on that occasion, of some of his most intimate and 
 trusted friends, because I knew it would have deeply mortified him, and I had 
 no wish to do that. 
 
 The omission of a date to the statement was probably owing, I think, to an 
 expectation that some additions might be made to it. I know that I had always 
 intended to write to Mr. Larwell upon the subject and get a statement from him, 
 who was perfectly conversant with all the movements in connection with the 
 proceedings of that convention, more for the purpose, however, of corroborating 
 my statement, than from any want of confidence in its correctness. I omitted 
 to do this, however until I saw in some of the democratic papers an attempt to 
 depreciate the services of some of those who had been most active and resolute 
 in their efforts to sustain General Jackson in what was known to be his wishes 
 with regard to the nomination of yourself for the Vice Presidency, and then it 
 was I wrote to Mr. Larwell and received from him, in reply, the letter I sent- 
 to you, which I filed with my own statement, prepared some three or four years 
 before. The object I originally had in view was to place it, with many others , 
 of a similar character, in the hands of my son, thinking they might be some day, 
 interesting as well as instructive to him ; but after his death, poor fellow, I have 
 taken very little care of them, and it is a wonder that I was enabled so readily 
 to lay my hand on the one I sent you. Since then I have been lucky enough to 
 find the correspondence between myself and Mr. Flagg, alluded to above, as 
 well as in my first letter, and which, I herewith enclose to you. Those are the 
 only copies I have, and I must ask the favour of you to return them to me with 
 the other papers I sent you. I never expect to have any use for them myself, 
 but I have two grandsons who possibly may. 
 
 But to the statement itself, which I now copy — omitting a single 
 paragraph at his request, as explained above, and appending the 
 letter from Eaton referred to and as much of the letter to Mr. Flagg 
 as relates to the same subject: the residue of the letter treating ex- 
 clusively of efforts to extend the circulation of the " Globe " News- 
 paper. 
 
 Notes &c. 
 
 The cause of my writing to Mr. Eaton the letter to which his is a reply, 
 requires explanation. The day before Judge Ov&ton ^ left W^ashington to attend 
 the Baltimore Convention, which sat on the 20th May, 1832, I stepped into his 
 
 ijohn Overton, of Tennessee. 
 
588 AMEEICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 room (we both occupied rooms at the President's House) and found him busily 
 engaged writing. I had scarcely taken my seat, when he laid down his pen, 
 and accosted me thus — " Well, Lewis," said he, " if we should not be able to 
 nominate Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency, who next shall we take?" 
 I quickly replied, and with some feeling, if we cannot get Mm, I care not whom 
 you select " Come, come," said he, " that's not like a general — an able com- 
 mander always examines his ground well before he goes into action, with an 
 eye to defeat as well as victory, so that in case it becomes necessary he may 
 make a safe retreat." " But, Judge," I replied, " there are times and occasions 
 when like Cortez, a commander should ' bum his ships ' with the view of 
 cutting off all means of retreat." " Come, come," he replied again, " that, I tell 
 you, is not like a man of sense." The idea suddenly flashed upon my mind that 
 there was more in the Judge's remarks than met the eye, and I determined 
 to see what he was at. " Well, Judge," I said, in an altered tone, " perhaps you 
 are right in thinking we should have more than one string to our bow. Have 
 you thought upon the subject? If so, whom would you recommend, in case we 
 should fail in our efforts to have Mr. Van Buren nominated?" "Why, yes, 
 Sir," he said, " I have been looking around me, and in that eventj;I have thought 
 it would be best to take up General Samuel Smith, of Baltimore. He is a man 
 who has been long in the public service — ^is well known to the country, and 
 would unquestionably be acceptable to the friends of the Administration." The 
 very moment he named General Smith, I saw by whom and for what purpose 
 he had been operated on. The whole scheme was as plain to me as day light. 
 Major Barry, the Postmaster General, was a connection of Judge Overton and 
 had a great deal of influence over him, and was at the same time in the 
 interest of Mr. McLane, Secretary of the Treasury, who, I was satisfied, 
 anxiously desired to defeat If possible the nomination of Mr. Van Buren. 
 Genera:i Smith was a favourite of Mr^McXiane's and, it was expected, would, 
 of course, use the influence of his station for his benefit. ° Besides, he was a 
 very old man, and would be in no body's way at the close of General Jackson's 
 next term. There is no doubt upon my mind that Mr. McLane himself desired 
 to be placed upon the ticket with General Jackson, but finding there was no 
 hope, his next object was to get a friend of his own selected, who would not be 
 in his way, at the next presidential election in case he should be disposed to run. 
 This conversation with Judge Overton caused me a good deal of uneasiness, 
 for it satisfied me that there was an intrigue on foot to defeat the nomination of 
 Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency, and consequently for the succession. 
 Being determined, therefore, to probe this matter to the bottom, if in my power, 
 and haying resolved to sound Major Barry upon the subject, I accordingly 
 sought an interview with him on Sunday morning, (the 19th) and without 
 letting him know my object, or saying anything to him in relation to my conver- 
 sation with Judge Overton, I drew him into a conversation about the convention 
 and its nominee, for the Vice Presidency. After a few preliminary remarks, I 
 asked him if he thought there was any doubt about the nomination of Mr. Van 
 Buren. He said he did not consider the nomination by any means certain. 
 I told him I had supposed that there would be no difiiculty, nor did I yet think 
 there would be, as almost every delegate I had seen, was In favour of his nomina- 
 tion. He replied, " I think you are mistaken in the views and feelings of many 
 of the delegates." I cannot be, I remarked for I had conversed with most of 
 them from the West and I believed they to a man would go for Mr. Van Buren ; 
 and I had good reason to believe that those from Virginia as well as New York, 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 175. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 589 
 
 would also support hijn. " Why," said he, " I doubt whether your Tennessee 
 delegates will go for him." " Why do you doubt that? " I asked him — " because," 
 said he, " I am told Mr. Eaton, who is at the head of the delegation, thinks it 
 would be jeoparding General Jackson's election to run Mr. Van Buren with him 
 on the same Ticket." This, I told him, was impossible. I felt confident, I 
 added that Mr. Baton would support Mr. Van Buren. Upon this he coolly 
 replied, "You had better not be too confident, for I tell you It is extremely 
 doubtful — ^he will support no one, who, he thinks, will endanger General Jack- 
 son's election." Here our conversation ended and we parted. 
 
 If my conversation with Judge Overton occasioned uneasiness, this with Major 
 Barry was still more alarming. The latter was an intimate and confidential 
 friend of Mr. Eaton, and I thought it likely, therefore, that there had been a 
 correspondence between them upon that subject. I well knew if Mr. Eaton and 
 Judge Overton should be opposed to Mr. Van Buren that he could not get the 
 nomination. — ^They being the personal and confidential friends of General Jack- 
 son, would be considered as representing his feelings and wishes in relation to 
 the matter, which would enable them to procure the nomination of almost any 
 person whom they might recommend to the convention. This determined me to 
 write, at once, to Mr. Baton, who had been absent in Tennessee six or eight 
 months, for the purpose of undeceiving him, if he had been led to believe, from 
 any source, that the President desired the nomination of any other person than 
 Mr. Van Buren, or that he was ever indifferent about his nomination. I assured 
 him, in my letter, that so far from that he would be excessively mortified if he 
 should not be taken up by the conventioia — indeed, that he would as soon be 
 dropped himself, by his friends. I had no time to take a copy of my letter, and 
 as Mr. Eaton was rather careless with his papers, I desired him to destroy it, as 
 he says in his letter, for fear it might fall into the hands of some person who 
 would make its contents public, and thereby expose both the President and 
 myself. Whether my apprehensions were well or ill founded in relation to Mr. 
 Van Buren, will be seen from the tone of Mr. Eaton's letter. If I had not 
 written to him there is no telling what effects the suggestions of others might 
 have had upon him. 
 
 Judge Overton and Major Barry, however, were not the only persons of 
 influence about the person of the President, I conversed with upon the sub- 
 ject of running Mr. Van Buren for the Vice Presidency. Among others I had 
 soon after his rejection by the Senate, a long and rather an excited conversa- 
 tion with Mr. McLane who alleged that If he were associated with General 
 Jackson It would endanger his success and the safety of the whole party. I 
 remarked to him that I thought it had been unanimously determined by the 
 Members of the Cabinet to take him up In case the Senate should throw him 
 overboard as was anticipated some time before It happened. He said he was 
 not aware of any such understanding — besides, he added, it would have been 
 useless for them to have resolved upon any such course, as there were other 
 persons belonging to the party, over whom they had no control, who would be 
 candidates. "Who are they"? I enquired. "Why, Sir," said he, "Col. John- 
 son and Judge Wilklns ! " I told him I could not believe either would be — the 
 former, I was sure would not, for I had just had a conversation with him in 
 my oflice, and he assured me that he would not thwart the wishes of the 
 party, if it desired the nomination of Mr. Van Buren. " Well, Sir," said, he, 
 "I can assure you that he holds a different language to me. I understand 
 from him that he will be a candidate." In this, Mr. McLane was correct, for, 
 long afterwards, Mr. Speaker Stevenson and myself had great difficulty in 
 prevailing on him to authorize his name to be withdrawn. This, however. 
 
590 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 he did, but it was a few days only before the meeting of the convention. Judge 
 Wilkins, tho' never did decline, and was, a few days after this conversation, 
 actually nominated by a state convention which sat at Harrisburg on the 4th 
 of March 1832. In my conversations with the Judge, with whom I was upon 
 the most intimate and friendly terms, I was led to believe, tho' without any 
 positive assurances from him, that he would at the proper time decline and 
 leave the coast clear to Mr. Van Buren ; but he never did, and actually received 
 the electoral vote of Pennsylvania for the Vice Presidency — (For this, I think, 
 he was never forgiven, and was made to feel it in the summer of 1834, when 
 he was spoken of as Secretary of Navy.) But to return to Mr. McLane. 1 
 asked him why he was opposed to Mr. Van Buren's nomination. And at the 
 same time remarked that from the friendship which existed between them, 
 I had supposed he would have been the very first to urge his nomination for 
 the situation referred to. He said no one was a better friend .of his than he, or 
 would be more willing to serve him, but that he could not consent to jeopard 
 the administration for any one. He verily believed, he added, to place him on 
 the Ticket, after having been rejected by the Senate, would sink General Jack- 
 son, and consequently the whole party with him. This he thought was hazard- 
 ing too much for any one man. I told him I apprehended no such dangerous 
 consequences. At all events, I felt fully authorized In saying that the General 
 was willing to swim or sink with Mr. Van Buren; and would prefer going 
 back to the Hermitage rather than leave him to his fate under such circum- 
 stances. I then left Mr. McLane and had no farther conversation with him 
 upon the subject. 
 
 The conversation referred to above, occasioned a coolness between myself 
 and Mr. McLane, and from that time until after the election we were scarcely 
 upon speaking terms. Mr. Van Buren after his return from Europe about the 
 first of July 1832 spoke to me about Mr. McLane and said that we ought not to 
 quarrel — adding that he was sure that he was a good friend of mine notwith- 
 standing what had passed. I told him I had no wish to quarrel with him and 
 did not mean to do so if I could avoid it. After the election, however, Mr. 
 McLane very frankly admitted to me (at a dinner party at Mr. Eaton's) 
 he had been mistaken in his views with regard to the effect of running Mr. 
 Van Buren, and that I had formed a muph more correct opinion of public 
 sentiment. Our former friendship was renewed, and he had no better friend 
 at Washington than myself. 
 
 Wm. B. Lewis. 
 
 °Feom Major Eaton to Wm. B. Lewis. 
 
 (Endorsed May 21st, 1832.) 
 
 Baltimobb. 
 Deab Sib, 
 
 I have your letter of Sunday and have read and torn it to pieces as you 
 requested. 
 
 Don't distrust my feelings towards V. B. — they are, as always they have been, 
 good and kind and friendly. My object has been, and is to serve General Jack- 
 son ; and no fear as to V. B. has ever come across me, save that his nomination 
 might do Injury to the General, and to V. B. The first is a prominent considera- 
 tion with me. V. B.'s nomination will open the floods of abuse upon him, and 
 defeat his future prospects ; for all parties will unite against him ; to cry down, 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 180. 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OP MABTIN VAN BUEEN. 591 
 
 and to destroy him. My belief is, that if made Gov', of N. Y. it would be service- 
 able beyond his nomination here. 
 
 Wilkins would allay all, and keep all right. But Penn". has not sent his 
 friends here. If they had I do not doubt but he would have been chosen ; as it 
 is, V. B. will succeed. For as far as. I can judge V. B. will be unanimously, 
 almost, selected — ^unless we change out of great regard to him, and to his future 
 prospects. 
 
 We have been In session all day. Judge O. was appointed to the chair. He 
 was at home quite sick — very sick. I rose and returned our acknowledgments 
 for the civility — stated his indisposition, and moved that General Lucas * (Ohio) 
 be chosen ; it passed nem. con. We have a vast crowd — more than two hundred 
 members — from every state except Missi. and a fine looking set of fellows. 
 In great haste yrs. 
 
 Eaton. 
 
 Wm. B. Lewis to A. C. Fiagg, Esq. 
 
 Washington, Uth Feb. 18S2. 
 Deab Sib, * * * 
 
 You speak in your letter of the indignation every where excited by the rejec- 
 tion of Mr. Van Buren's nomination and intimate that it is intended by his 
 friends, in New York, to run him for Governor. I can well imagine that the 
 people of New York feel very indignant at the outrageous conduct of the Senate, 
 as is the ease in every state heard from ; but my dear Sir, I hope his friends will 
 not think, for a moment, of running him for any State appointment. The wrong 
 has been done to him, the President, and the Nation by the Senate of the United 
 States, and it must be redressed by the people of all the States. From all quar- 
 ters heard from, the people manifest a determination to run him for the Vice 
 Presidency, and upon this, / think, they are resolved. I am sure, if it is desired, 
 or even expected to make Mr. Van Buren President, this occasion to place him 
 prominently before the Nation should be promptly embraced. If the party can- 
 not now, under existing circumstances, succeed in electing him Vice President, 
 he can never hope to be President. To run him for any local, or subordinate 
 situation, would, in my opinion, destroy Ms political prospects forever. I speak 
 not my own sentiments only, but the opinions and feelings of every one of 
 General Jackson's real friends here. Upon this subject I understand the Cabinet 
 is unanimous ; (this however should not be spoken of publicly as it might have 
 the effect of destroying their influence upon that subject) and we have the most 
 encouraging [reports] from all quarters not excepting Virginia and Pennsyl- 
 vania. I hope, therefore, our friends in New*York will throw no obstacles in 
 the way. If they feel a delicacy in actively co-operating, let them be passive, 
 at least for the present. I hope you will pardon the liberty I have taken in 
 venturing these hasty suggestions. I write as I feel, and as every true friend 
 to the President, in this City, feels. 
 
 I am Sir, 
 
 With much respect 
 Your Mo. obt. Svt. 
 
 Wm. B. Lewis. 
 
 'Robert Lucas. 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 The conduct which is brought home to Mr. McLane upon the 
 authority of his early and-constant friend is submitted to the reader 
 without animadversion or even comment on my part. Most sincerely 
 do I regret the obligation imposed on me by considerations which 
 I am not at liberty to disregard to add what remains to be told 
 of our subsequent intercourse and in doing so to record, unavoidably, 
 what additional favours he allowed himself to ask and to receive 
 at the hands of a still confiding friend, against whom whilst absent 
 from the country and whilst struggling for political existence, he 
 had found himself capable of aiming a blow which promised to be 
 more fatal than any which the most embittered enemies could wield 
 against him. This will be done with as much brevity as the grave 
 public transactions out of which they arose and with which th^y 
 were connected will admit of. Moreover, what I have further to 
 say being with full knowledge of the treatment I have received, 
 the reader will not need to be reminded of his right and duty to 
 make all proper allowance for the influence of that knowledge upon 
 the tone and temper of the narrative. Let him also be the judge 
 of the success of my endeavors to say as little as possible and to say 
 that with calmness and moderation. It will naturally be thought 
 strange that the communication made to me by Mr. Blair and the 
 remarkable reply to my interrogatory by General Jackson did not 
 impress me with more caution in regard to further intercourse with 
 Mr. McLane. The only excuses I can give for the heedlessness of 
 my subsequent course are to be found in the hope I cherished that 
 Mr. Blair's views of the matter, (a gentleman whom I did not then 
 know a thousandth part as well as I afterwards knew him), were 
 under the influence of prejudice, and the promise I made to General 
 Jackson to pass the matter by — a proipise which when made, it 
 was not in my nature to observe half-way. But whatever may be 
 thought of this explanation, the fact requires me to admit the in- 
 terference on my part alluded to in Major Lewis' statement to 
 appease the unfriendly feelings which had been excited in his 
 breast against Mr. McLane. This must have been almost imme- 
 diately after the course to be pursued had been agreed upon between 
 General Jackson and myself and it adds another to the singular 
 features of our intercourse that the first of my new series of efforts 
 to serve Mr. JVIcLane should have been to soothe irritation caused 
 592 
 
AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 593 
 
 by an act of hostility to myself of which I was, however, ignorant, 
 or it would seem, weakly incredulous. 
 
 It will be recollected that Mr. McLane in his letter to me of the 
 &th of August spoke of a visit to the north which he had in con- 
 templation to consult with me in relation to certain changes of 
 which we had spoken whilst I was at "Washington; and to make 
 some suggestions both in regard to himself and others which he 
 deemed important. I received also from him some weeks later a 
 brief note fixing the time -vyhen he would come to New York and 
 by desire of the President (concurring with his own views of "in- 
 dispensable necessity") converse with me on "sundry grave mat- 
 ters." The " grave matters " referred to were of no less importance 
 than the transfer of Mr. liAdngston,^ then Secretary of State, to 
 France, the elevation of Mr. McLane to the Department of State 
 and — ^last, though by no means least, either in point of importance 
 in his estimation or in respect to the aggravated difficulties which 
 were thrown aroxmd the subject by his views in respect to it — ^the 
 appointment of a new Secretary of the Treasury to supply the 
 vacancy that would be created by his own advancement. The two 
 first movements had ceased to be open questions and waited only 
 the expedient moment for their execution. The last was one of 
 great delicacy as well as difficulty, in consequence of the relation 
 in which the Administration stood towards the Bank of the United 
 States and the peculiar duty that the Secretary of the Treasury" 
 would, in all probability, be called upon to perform. Mr. McLane 
 was openly in favour of the recharter of the Bank-^-had been op- 
 posed to the President's veto and was equally decided against the 
 next great step the President had in view — ^that of substituting 
 some of the State Banks for the Bank of the United States as the 
 depository of the public revenues. He came to New York and we 
 there had the interview he desired. 
 
 My opinions in respect to the best course to be pursued were com- 
 municated to him without reserve. These were that Mr. Taney 
 should be appointed Secretary of the Treasury and Mr. Butler ^ At- 
 torney General in his place, both of which appointments were fi- 
 nally made after the President had been subjected to a world of 
 trouble by the intermediate selection of Mr. Duane^ for the first 
 office. The preference I expressed for the selection of Taney for 
 the Treasury is alluded to in the letter from Mr. McLane to me 
 which follows, though not in express terms. He opposed it at our 
 
 ' Edward Livingston. 
 
 " MS. V, p. 185. 
 
 "Eoger B. Taney, of Maryland, and Benjamin F. Butler, of New York. 
 
 » William J. Duane, 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 38 
 
594 AMEKICASr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 interview with much earnestness and it will be seen that he repeats 
 that opposition emphatically in his letter, holding up to me, and 
 through me to the President, nothing less than his own retirement 
 from public life as the possible consequence of Mr. Taney's introduc- 
 tion into the Treasury Department. 
 
 That Mr. McLane determined to bring Mr. Duane into that depart- 
 ment of the Government by which alone the views of the President 
 in respect to the change of the place of deposit could be carried 
 into effect and that he entered upon the accomplishment of that 
 object having good reasons to believe that Mr. Duane's views con- 
 formed or might be brought to conform to his own, no one familiar 
 with the events of that time will now affect to doubt. Tt must be 
 admitted that this attempt was a bold one, whatever may be thought 
 of its discretion with reference to its ultimate consequences to him- 
 self. That he succeeded in it, is strongly illustrative of the in- 
 fatuation by which both the President and myself were infected 
 in respect to him and of the consequent influence he was capable 
 of exercising over us. I have said that in my opinion there is no 
 reasonable ground to doubt that the appointment of Duane was his 
 deliberate scheme; nevertheless it may be now perhaps made a 
 question — Shaving reference only to the evidence produced — ^whether 
 the suggestion of Mr. Duane's name originated with him or with 
 the President. I give the evidence on both sides that the reader may 
 form his own judgment. In the letter which follows from the Presi- 
 dent he authorizes that latter supposition, whilst in a subsequent let- 
 ter to me, which is published, speaking of the- removal of the depos- 
 its he alludes to the appointment of Duane as made at Mr. McLane's 
 instance, and complains that he should have urged it with a knowl- 
 edge that his (Duane's) opinions were against the measure. Mr. 
 
 Blair on the same side, in his letter of the date, says, " He, 
 
 General Jackson, told me positively that Mr. McLane had slapped 
 his hand on his thigh after canvassing other Pennsylvanians, and 
 named Duane as the very man for the place." Mr. McLane's let- 
 ters to me which follow can scarcely fail to strengthen belief in 
 that as the most probable conclusion. The motive for suppress- 
 ing the fact that the appointment had that origin was to prevent 
 jealousy in the Cabinet which would be likely to arise from so 
 great an accession to the influence of one of its members, and we 
 have before seen the principle by which the General felt himself 
 at liberty to be governed in assuming the responsibility of those 
 who acted under him when he thought tTie public interest would be 
 promoted by his doing so. As in the cases of his undivided assump- 
 tion of the appointment of Randolph, and of the instructions to Mr. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUREN. 595 
 
 McLane on the subject of the West Indies, he chose to place the 
 responsibility where the Constitution placed it, and where, more- 
 over, his military training had taught him to think it ought always to 
 rest. 
 
 Fbom Pbesident Jackson. 
 
 Washington, ]Vov. 25th, 18S2. 
 My Dear Sib, 
 
 I am in receipt of your confidential letter of the 22nd instant and have read 
 it with attention and duly noted its contents as well as those of its enclosure. 
 I had prepared and submitted to my Cabinet the outlines of my Message to 
 Congress before the receipt of your views but was gratified to find that they 
 corresponded precisely. This, from what I knew before of your opinions, I ex- 
 pected and the receipt of yours only confirmed them. 
 
 On the Naval Office I will take an order in all [ ?] December. In the mean time, 
 as I am aware that it is proper that your name should not be introduced in any 
 way and as our enemies in the Senate may call for recommendations, would it 
 not be well to get Cambreleng, White, Marcy, and Dudley to present Throop 
 for that appointment ; many others are strongly presented for that office. 
 
 I was anxious that the arrangement in the Cabinet should have taken place 
 before the meeting of Congress and the Minister have been at Paris 'ere this. 
 Now it must be postponed until after Congress meets, and on presenting Mr. 
 Livingston to the Senate a fit person must be selected for the Treasury. 
 
 I have been passing in review Pennsylvania, first, then Virginia and all the 
 South and as yet have not been able to make a selection. This I find difficult. 
 There are jealousies (about men) in Virginia that must not be aroused; and, 
 passing over the South and viewing our present situation, it will not be prudent 
 to weaken ourselves in the Senate. The character must be one of high standing 
 in the Nation ; he ought to be in constitutional and political views with us — 
 opposed to the power of Congress to establish corporations anywhere except in 
 the District of Columbia and opposed to the power of creating corporations 
 the Government becoming a partner or shareholder; be heartily with us in 
 reducing the revenue to the wants of the Government and yielding to our own 
 labour, and productions that are means of national defense, such protection 
 as will place them on a fair competition with foreign labour ; — a man of 
 integrity combined with talent and a disposition to harmonize and unite in the 
 administration for the benefit of the wTiole Union, extending justice to every 
 part of it. Help me to search out such a character — or as near it as can be 
 obtained, and write me soon. 
 
 Your triumph is complete and the faction in the Senate condemned by an 
 overwhelming majority of the people. You will get all the votes of the South 
 aiid West except Kentucky and South Carolina — the vote in No. Carolina is 
 a large majority — In Virginia, overwhelming; your triumph, I repeat, is hon- 
 orable to the people and must be entirely satisfactory to you. We have only 
 now to go on and continue faithful to the people and realize in our actions that 
 confidence they have so liberally reposed. 
 
 Intense labour has brought back occasional headache. — My health is other- 
 wise good and I trust Providence will prolong my days a little while and make 
 me an instrument in His hands to put down the present excitement and restore 
 harmony to the nation. 
 
596 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Mrs. D Is a little unwell and confined. All your other friends are well 
 
 and unite in good wishes and kind salutations. 
 
 Believe me your friend 
 
 Andrew Jackson 
 
 Maetin Van Bttben Esq. 
 
 P. S. — A happy thought has occurred: William J. Duane, in whom every 
 confidence can he placed, flashed into my mind, after writing the above, and 
 having named him to Mr. McLane he assures me that his talents in every way, 
 are suited to this situation. This selection puts out of our way" many things 
 that would have embarrassed us — and will have a tendency to harmonize Penn- 
 sylvania and keep her with the Democracy of the Union. Pennsylvania de- 
 serves this notice from me. She has supported me from first to last altho' I 
 differed with her on the American System. Duane is competent and he brings 
 with him a great weight of moral character ; it is- going to the people for 
 agents ; he is warmly attached to you and to my administration ; having con- 
 ducted Girard's business for a long time he is well acquainted with finance 
 and commercial law. In short, when we reflect, he is, as Pennsylvania de- 
 serves the oflice, the very person who ought to be selected. Let me hear from 
 you. Excuse this scrawl — I have no time to copy. 
 
 A. J. 
 Feom Lotos McLane. 
 
 Washington, Nov. S6, 1832. 
 Mt deab Sib, 
 
 The President appeared satisfied after conversation on my return from New 
 York to acquiesce in the propriety or rather necessity of postponing the con- 
 templated changes here until the spring; tho' it was obvious he was not alto- 
 gether happy or at ease in the unsettled state of his mind : and the matter has 
 been since more than once recurred to. 
 
 I found also that in my absence the idea of changing from the Navy or ofBce 
 of A. Gen'l to the T. had been suggested to him or had passed through his mind ; 
 but without receiving with any definite approbation. On the contrary the for- 
 mer expedient had not been viewed with any favour and received still less 
 after what he heard from me. I did not feel authorized after your injunction 
 to me, to suggest the view you had partially meditated, and as he did not him- 
 self entertain any distinct idea, I may perhaps have been less inclined to do so 
 from considerations of which you are fully aware. My main Inducement, how- 
 ever, for silence was your injunction and what I understood from the Presi- 
 dent to be his determination not to include New York in his arrangements 
 unless from a clear necessity and his wish to look to Penn®. if that were prac- 
 ticable, in both which he mentioned to me he had your concurrence in a letter 
 but recently received. 
 
 His preference for Penna. was decidely declared on many accounts and among 
 others that he believed he could thereby more effectually gratify his views and 
 wishes towards yourself. It seemed moreover that by going to Penn. he would 
 avoid the conflicting pretensions of his friends in the South and more readily 
 reconcile Forsyth to a longer continuance in the Senate where he believes it 
 important to retain him. 
 
 He believed also that in consequence of the opposition of some of his cardinal 
 points of administration to the policy of Penn. past and to come, he might more 
 effectually preserve his future weight in the party and in the support of his 
 administration by making the selection from that state; and he also felt that 
 
 °MS. V, p.. 190. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 697 
 
 the early and steadfast support given him by that state especially in the last 
 struggle and in defiance of the veto &c, &c gave her claims upon his gratitude, 
 and that he should feel better satisfied in yielding to them if a proper man 
 could be found within her limits. I confess that these views met my concur- 
 rence other things being equal, and there being no superior obstacle. 
 
 Looking to Penna. Dallas, Wilkins, Buchanan,^ and Wm. J. Duane severally 
 passed in review and to each of the three former he had what appeared to be 
 Insuperable objections, both personal and political which it Is presumed you 
 will readily and fully comprehend. Wm. J. Duane is a warm and active 
 friend of yours, was among the earliest to espouse your cause, and has been 
 sincere and efficient in his endeavours to divert the electoral vote of Penn. to 
 your support. He is and has been an early uniform friend, personal and politi- 
 cal, of the P. and from his youth a uniform and popular member of the old 
 democracy in opposition to all its enemies. His purity and integrity of char- 
 acter is without reproach, and his devotion and fidelity might be relied upon in 
 any and every crisis. His capacity, education, business habits and financial 
 knowledge are said to be unquestionable and that he had for years before Mr. 
 GIrard's death managed his Banking concerns and business generally. The 
 President adverted to a great variety of other considerations which had weight 
 with him, and the only objection which I could conceive to the selection was 
 the possibility of its interference with another plan, which however I did not 
 feel at liberty to suggest, and a doubt that he was not sufficiently prominent 
 as a public man which I did suggest. It was evident, however, that the Presi- 
 dent's mind had taken a decided bent and even settled down in his favour; 
 he said he would write to you, if he were at liberty to express my concurrence. 
 To this I assented and promised to write myself, which I now do. He desired 
 me to write to Duane ; but I determined on reflection not to do so ; but hearing 
 this afternoon that Duane is In town I have written to the President, not being 
 able to get out of my office, requesting him if Mr. Duane should call on him not 
 to mention the subject until I can see him. On my way home I shall call, and 
 ask that nothing definitive will be done until he hears from you. After that 
 interview I will write you again, if I am in time for the mail. I am, both on 
 personal and political grounds, so thoroughly satisfied of the propriety of this 
 selection that I should clinch it at once and irrevocably but for an apprehension 
 that it may create some disappointment in your quarter. I hope you need no 
 assurance of my determination to promote Mr. Butler ' to anything ; tho' I con- 
 fess that the means you hinted to me would be gall and wormwood; and, I 
 frankly tell you, rob me of almost every inducement to continue in public 
 life : it would rob me of all but the difficulty of making immediate provision. 
 for a large and helpless family. If that inducement could be removed my course, 
 in the event referred to would be plain; but I beg you to understand would 
 not alienate me in fact or in feeling from the President and yourself, towards 
 whom I feel that I am incapable of indifEerence or ingratitude. If Mr. B. could 
 be placed in the T. I should be fuUy satisfied ; or if Mr. T.' could go abroad and 
 thus accomplish your 6wn view, I should be even better satisfied. However, 
 this and one other act of patronage has given me more solicitude than I am 
 willing now to express, and more than all the honors of Cabinet place will ever 
 repay. 
 
 I believe I have now given you a full view of the whole ground as far as I 
 understand it,' and which the P. said he did not doubt would be satisfactory 
 to you. 
 
 1 George M. Dallas, WllUam Wilkins, and James Buchanan. 
 
 2 Benjamin F. Butler. 
 ^Eoger B. Taney. 
 
598 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 I otight to add that no immediate change is contemplated, and that therefore 
 the chance of events still remains. 
 
 I am, my dear Sir 
 Very faithfully yours 
 
 L. McLane 
 Hon. M. Van Biteen 
 
 ° To THE PEESIDENT. 
 
 AuBANY, Nov. 29tn, X8S2. 
 My Dear Sie, 
 
 I received your letter at the moment of leaving New York and have this 
 morning been favored vnth a very sensible and dispassionate one from our 
 friend McLane upon the same subject, — as I am very busy with my friends you 
 juust allow me to answer both by tfiis. I have fully considered your suggestion 
 in regard to Mr. Duane, and do not hesitate to say that the measure proposed 
 has more advantages, and is freer from objections than any which I have been 
 able to hit upon. His location and personal and political character are pre- 
 cisely every thing we could wish, and the absence of that sort of previous 
 notoriety as a public man which is generally considered Indispensable, and 
 which is so often the result of accident. Is, I think, more than made up by the 
 consideration you suggest, — going to the people for agents. 
 
 The only point about it which is not so clear to me, because I have had no 
 opportunity for judging, is, the question of capacity. Mr. McLane and your- 
 self have had opportunities and are not in danger of making a mistake upon 
 that point. I had thought of suggesting the propriety of bringing Mr. Butler 
 into the office of Attorney General if Mr. Taney could be provided for In a 
 manner more acceptable to himself; but on my return to this place, I find that, 
 influenced by that never failing good sense which keeps Mr. Butler from being 
 led astray by the partiality of his friends or of the public, he prefers to remain 
 where he is, at the head of his profession, and completing a suitable provision 
 for his family. I think I would not let the matter come out in advance. 
 Don't forget to send for Forsyth and put him at his ease. I thank you for your 
 attention to my friend Throop. Judge Marcy will attend to what you suggest; 
 Remember me affectionately to all the members of your family. I sincerely 
 hope Mrs. D. has recovered. Show this to Mr. McLane. 
 
 If I do not say anything about the signal triumph I have, through your in- 
 strumentality and the kindness of my countrymen, obtained over my enemies, 
 you- must not suppose that I think the less of it. The mail is closing and I 
 must do the like. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 M. Van Bueen. 
 
 P. S. — I last evening consulted in confidence my friends Marcy, Wright, 
 Flagg, Croswell and Butler and they concur fully. It is not a little singular 
 that this name should have flashed upon your mind, as it did upon mine, you 
 will recollect, in our walk upon the Terrace, for the place he now holds. 
 
 Mr. McLane's wishes were gratified on all points. Mr. Livingston 
 was removed out of his way by the Mission to France, himself 
 promoted to the office of Secretary of State, his friend, Duane, was 
 appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and "Woodbury and the modest 
 and ingenuous Taney were suffered to remain where they stood. 
 I will not say the claims to promotion of the two latter were sac- 
 
 ■■ MS. V, p. 195. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 599 
 
 rificed to Mr. McLane's prejudices for that would perhaps be an 
 expression too strong for the occasion, and rather an awkward one 
 for me to employ as I was made a party to what was done. 
 
 A word or two here in explanation of the allusions in the post- 
 script of my letter. 
 
 The rejection in the Senate of the nomination of Stephen Simpson 
 as one of the Commissioners under the French Treaty was, if not 
 the first, among the first instances of similar proceedings. It oc- 
 curred at a moment when the President's mind was greatly disturbed 
 by other causes and before he had become accustomed to the exercise 
 of Senatorial supervision in the way in which it was on that occasion 
 exerted. Yet new in the discharge of his executive dutes, the action 
 of the Senate, without enquiring as to the grounds upon which the 
 nomination had been made or assignment of any reasons for its 
 rejection, seemed to him' designedly disrespectful. Looking upon 
 it as an attempt on' the part of the Senate to deter him from the per- 
 formance of his duties by making him feel the extent of its powers, 
 he determined at the instant to renominate Simpson, and to send 
 to that body the recommendations upon which he had selected him 
 with a respectful request to be informed of the nature of its ob- 
 jections. I arrived at the Executive Mansion a few moments after 
 the Secretary of the Senate had left him and found him in the East 
 Eoom, in which there were also at the moment several other persons, 
 whom curiosity had drawn to inspect an apartment which had ac- 
 quired much notoriety during the Presidential canvass, and in whose 
 presence he spoke of the transaction with his usual unreserve and 
 with more than usual excitement. Anxious to be relieved from their 
 I^resence I raised a window opening upon the terrace and proposed 
 a stroll to which he assented. However excusable he might be in 
 believing that a majority of the Senate were more influenced by 
 their hostility to him in the act he complained of than by a sense 
 of public duty he was wrong in assuming that they had gone be- 
 yond the regular exercise of their constitutional functions or that 
 he would be justifiable in putting to them the interrogatory he pro- 
 posed, and perceiving that he was in danger of exposing to his 
 opponents what a large portion of the public and not a few of 
 his friends conceived to be his weakest side, I exerted myself to the 
 utmost to divert him from his purpose. 
 
 My long service in the Senate enabled me to bring to his notice 
 several cases in which partisan majorities had pursued a course 
 equally exceptionable during the administration of some of his 
 predecessors without being noticed in the way he proposed by any 
 of them, save perhaps, on one occasion by Mr. Adams, on which 
 he himself was one of the offending Senators. Our walk commenced 
 
600 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 in the afternoon and continued till it was dark without interruption, 
 although I saw gentlemen approaching us who were turned back 
 by the manifest earnestness of our conversation. He listened to 
 me with uniform respect and indulgence but, for a long time, without 
 the slightest indication of a willingness to change his purpose and 
 I have not forgotten his energy and emphasis at one moment when, 
 arresting his steps and turning towards me he said " I tell you, Mr. 
 Van Buren, we shall never have peace with these men until they are 
 made to imderstand the character of Andrew Jackson better than 
 they now do." I suggested the names of several individuals as 
 proper to be sent in but without effect, until a chance allusion from 
 him to the early struggles of the old Republican party, whilst he 
 was a Member of Congress, brought suddenly to my mind the favour- 
 able opinion he had often expressed to me of the conduct, at that 
 period, of the then redoubtable conductor of the " Aurora " — ^William 
 Duane, and the disposition evinced by the General to befriend him 
 whenever a suitable opportunity might offer. I was not personally 
 acquainted with his son, William J. Duane, but knew enough of 
 his character and standing in his profession to feel convinced that 
 his appointment would be a good one, and proposed his name with 
 a reference to what had passed between us in regard to the father. 
 The favourable impression made by the suggestion was at once 
 apparent. There seemed to be something ° in the idea of sending 
 to the federalists in the Senate the name of a son of William Duane 
 which divested his acquiesence in the rejection of Simpson of every 
 appearance of yielding to their hostility and, in the sequel reconciled 
 him to the abandonment of a design to which he had before some- 
 what pertinaciously clung. Accordingly he invited me into his office 
 and prepared a new nomination to that effect which was confirmed 
 by the Senate. I spoke of this affair more than once to Mr. McLane 
 as I did frequently to others. Whether it furnished a cue to the 
 former in the consultations preceding the appointment of Duane 
 to the Treasury I am not, of course, able to say. 
 
 To return from this digression — at the period at which we have 
 now arrived the next of the great measures of President Jackson's 
 administration, for some time meditated, was brought to its con- 
 summation. I allude to that familiarly known as the " Removal of 
 the Deposits." Mr. McLane had thrown his official shield aroimd 
 the Bank in his first annual report upon the finances. Of that docu- 
 ment he thus wrote to me at London, in his letter of the 6th of De- 
 cember, 1831: 
 
 You will not approve of this report most probably — unless you purge your 
 mind, not of your democracy, but of your party prejudices. If you take it up 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 200. 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUEBN, 601 
 
 In the spirit of a patriot you will bless me for it. I feel as you may suppose 
 great solicitude but am not without confidence in success — ' 
 
 And in that of the 12th,: 
 
 I send, by this opportunity, addressed to you, a few copies of the annual re- 
 port for some of my friends in England, which, if it is not against your con- 
 science, I will tha,nk you to cause to be forwarded. 
 
 Mr. McLane never acted against the principles by which he knew 
 President Jackson intended to be guided in the administration of the 
 Government without being sensible of the pain it would give me, but 
 he trusted to my partiality for him and my good temper, and under- 
 stood his ground well. He knew that in this case his course was 
 against the earnest desires of the President, and, as in all his under- 
 takings of that character, he failed — the country deciding them all 
 against him. He remained nevertheless a prominent member of the 
 administration tho' a marked monument of the forbearance of its 
 supporters, and, strange as it may seem, he lost no ground in the per- 
 sonal regards of the President or myself, towards whom he assures 
 me in one of the preceding letters, when advocating the appointment 
 of Duane, that he felt himself " incapable of indifference or ingrati- 
 tude." 
 
 Experience however seemed to have exerted no influence upon his 
 disposition to meddle in the disturbing questions that related to the 
 Bank. The removal of the deposits gave rise to the second great 
 struggle on the part of the Government to confine that institution to 
 its rights and duties. In point of efficiency the movement which 
 preceded and caused that struggle was not a jot behind the veto. In- 
 telligent and sensible observers of the progress of events not inap- 
 propriately compared it to General Jackson's night attack upon the 
 enemy's lines on the 25th of December, preliminary to the Battle of 
 the 8th of January before New Orleans. The justice of that opinion 
 and the principles upon which that important measure rested will be 
 presently considered. Mr. McLane was early in the field and, as be- 
 fore, on the side of the Bank, The President, as will be seen by one 
 of his letters, informed me in advance that he would desire to consult 
 with me, on our Eastern trip, in regard to this important question 
 and brought with him some rough notes of the arguments in favour 
 of the measure which was finally incorporated in the paper read by 
 him to his Cabinet on the 18th of September.^ These he delivered to 
 me on his arrival at New York and Mr. Kendall, the special agent of 
 the Treasury, sent me. a full statement of what was desired and of 
 what had been, and could, as he thought, be done with the State 
 
 1 Van Buren Papers. 
 
 2 Mr. Blair speaks of this paper as having been constructed at the Bip Baps and after- 
 wards submitted to the revision of Mr. Taney. This is doubtless right but the notes 
 referred to here were nevertheless used at the Bip Baps. 
 
602 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Banks to promote the object in view. ~ McLane accompanied the Pres- 
 ident as far as New York from which place he returned to Washing- 
 ton leaving in the hands of Major Donelson the following letter for 
 me: 
 
 June 4th, 18SS. 
 Mt Deab Sir, 
 
 Before you finally dispose of the deposit question I beseech you to read at- 
 tentively the paper I prepared for the President in which I have endeavoured 
 faithfully to trace the effects of the proposed change under the circumstances 
 on the public service and upon the Country. God knows I have no love for the 
 present Banlj and my opinions are the result of my honest convictions of right 
 and propriety. Something, undoubtedly, is due to the new Secretary who should 
 not be driven to the step at least before the Senate have acted upon his nomina- 
 tion. Therefore if anything be done let it be postponed 'till the Session and let 
 the President enforce his views in a Message. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 L. M'L. 
 
 The grounds upon which the measure was to be placed were all 
 considered and discussed between the President and myself on our 
 journey and Mr. Kendall's plan revised as far as the information in 
 our possession allowed. Secretaries Cass and Woodbury accompanied 
 uj and were made aware of what was going on but were not called 
 upon to commit themselves to the approval of it. My own course in 
 respect to this matter was, as usual, made the subject of misrepre- 
 sentation. I have brought together the entire correspondence be- 
 tween the President and myself relating to it which is submitted 
 without comment. Every feeling I entertained about it is therein 
 compressed. If I can lay my hands upon it, which is not the case 
 at this moment, I will add a corroborative statement sent to me by 
 the President whilst I was a candidate for office and was assailed in 
 regard to this matter by prejudiced persons ignorant of the facts. 
 Our Eastern tour was suddenly cut short at Concord, New Hamp- 
 shire by the severe indisposition of the President, and we made our 
 appearance before the Secretaries of State and Treasury, McLane 
 and Duane, at Washington, quite unexpectedly. 
 
 The President had in the course of our journey apprised the lat- 
 ter of his general purpose and as soon as he recovered sufficiently 
 from his attack, which was a very severe one and for forty-eight hours 
 seemed to threaten his life, he sent for Mr. Duane to enter with hini, 
 upon the consideration of the final instructions to be given to Mr. 
 Kendall. On our way from the President's bed room to the Draw- 
 ing room we met the Secretary and were both struck with his feeble 
 and emaciated appearance, which, as we had not heard of his being 
 ill we at once attributed to distress of mind caused by obstacles, to 
 us unknown, interposed to the perf ormance^- of his duties upon the 
 subject under consideration. I well remember the kind manner with 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAETIN" VAN BUREN. 603 
 
 which the President took both his hands in his own and gently- 
 scolding him for coming out in his actual state of health, advised 
 him to return to his house and neither to think more of the deposits 
 nor to come to him again until he was perfectly well. Mr. Duane 
 gladly availed himself of this advice and further action upon this 
 subject was postponed for some days. The incidents that followed — 
 Mr. Duane's agreement" to do what the President desired or to 
 resign ; his refusal, on the return of the latter from the Kip Kaps, 
 to do either; his removal; the appointment of Mr. Taney in his 
 place and the order directing future receipts of the public moneys 
 to be placed in the selected State Banks — are elsewhere and in vari- 
 ous ways referred to.^ 
 
 It has been stated that when the President interposed his veto to 
 the Bank he found himself in that great Act, which cannot fail to 
 be long and gratefully remembered by the American people, opposed 
 by his Secretaries of State, Treasury and War, — ^Livingston, 
 McLane and Cass. These gentlemen avowed their disapproval of 
 the President's course and stood aloof from his proceedings. He 
 went through with them with the aid of officers occupying inferior 
 positions in his Cabinet, and obtained a decisive triumph in the elec- 
 tion that took place in the course of a few months. When he super- 
 seded the Bank as a depository of public monies he was again opposed 
 by the Secretaries of State, Treasury and War. The action of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury being indispensably necessary to the exe- 
 cution of his determination, that refractory officer was removed 
 whilst Messrs. McLane and Cass remained unqualified in their oppo- 
 sition to the removal of the deposits and the former, as before, open 
 and active. These gentlemen were not indeed, could not have been 
 insensible to the feelings to which their position gave rise, or un- 
 mindful of their duties in respect to them. On the morning suc- 
 ceeding the dismissal of Mr. Duane and the appointment of Mr. 
 Taney, viz: on the 24th September, 1833, and again on the fol- 
 lowing morning, Messrs. McLane and Cass called on the President 
 and held with him the conversations detailed immediately after they 
 left him in these admirable letters: 
 
 Fbom the Peesident. 
 
 September Sith, 1833. 
 My deae Sie, 
 
 I did not intend to have written you again so soon. But this morning I was 
 waited upon by Mr. Louis McLane and Gov. Cass, and, in a friendly manner, they 
 Introduced the delicacy of their situation — that the question made before the 
 
 ° MS. V, p. 205. 
 
 1 An autograph draft of Van Buren'a defense of Jackson's course in dismissing Duane 
 and the removal of the deposits is in the Van Buren Papers under date of Feb., 1834. 
 
604 AMEMCAlir HISTORICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 public would be a party question — that they as well as myself would be 
 assailed — they for remaining in my Cabinet when it will be known that they 
 were opposed to the measure, &c. &c. to all which I answered, kindly and 
 firmly, that I could not see how their feelings or delicacy could be involved ; 
 the truth could be told, — that Mr. McLane had given me his full opinion on the 
 subject with frankness — that he and myself had differed in opinion — ^that I had 
 taken all responsibility upon myself — that I virished no support from either 
 when their principles and opinions were not in accord: whether this satisfied 
 them I can not say ; I hope it has and it surely must unless they believe that 
 when it becomes a party question they must, for principle and opinions' sake, 
 take open ground with the opposition — for I have declared to them, frankly 
 and truly, that all I want of them is to attend to the duties of their respective 
 departments, in the manner heretofore done. I hope they will remain but if 
 it so happens that they do not the question arises — ^whom shall I select for the 
 State, War and for Attorney General? they must 6e all knowm to he right in 
 principle and good and true men. — ^Not men who differ on the great leading 
 measures and believe that they have a right to transact the business of the 
 department adversely to what the Executive believes the good of the country 
 and prosperity of all require. Give me your views on this subject by the 
 earliest moment In your power. I enclose this under cover to Mr. Cambreleng. 
 
 My night-fevers still continue but the press of business keeps me up in 
 the day. 
 
 In haste your friend 
 
 Andebw Jackson 
 
 Maetin Van Bitben 
 
 P. S. — I hope for the best— i)ut let what will come the &un will continue to 
 rise in the East and set in the West — and I trust in a kind Providence to guide 
 and direct me and in a virtuous people's support. A. J. 
 
 Washington, Sept. 25, 183S. 
 My Deab Sib, 
 
 I have this moment had an interview with Mr. McLane and with Gov. Cass 
 and I have the pleasure to inform you that we are all united in our cordial 
 friendship and confidence which on my part was never impaired. I have suf- 
 fered more in my feelings in this great national matter than in any period of 
 my eventful life. I had to struggle with my private friendship opposed to my 
 public duty — ^but I could not struggle long. My God told me the measure was 
 right — that the Morals of the People and the perpetuity of our republican gov- 
 ernment required it — and, as excruciating as it was to my private friendships 
 and feelings, my public duty required my prompt action. I performed it and 
 it is the first pleasure in my life that I can communicate to you that our friends 
 McLane and Cass remain where they now are — harmoniously. 
 
 The system will succeed well and I am assured to day by one heretofore 
 friendly to the Bank that nine-tenths of the people will sustain me — ^that the 
 disclosures are so obnoxious to all principles of morality, so inconsistent with 
 the course expected from the Bank, and for which it was chartered, that no 
 honest man but must justify my course towards it: when its former friends 
 speak thus we can have no fears of the result of public opinion. Let me hear 
 from you. Mr. Cambreleng says you will be in New York by the time this can 
 reach you. I address it to you there. 
 
 Your friend 
 
 Andbew Jackson. 
 
 Mabtin Van Buben, 
 
 Vice President. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUBEN, 605 
 
 A concerted and formal call by the two high officers named and 
 upon such a mission, immediately after the elevation of Mr. Taney, — 
 a gentleman shown to have been especially unacceptable to one of 
 them — ^before he had taken any steps towards carrying out the 
 President's policy and at a moment of so great excitement, might 
 well have been looked upon by a severely chafed Chief Magistrate as 
 designed to drive him from the performance of his duty. 
 
 What the result of such a suspicion on the part of the General 
 would have been no one who understood his character can doubt. 
 Notwithstanding my experience of his general calmness and self pos- 
 session on trying occasions, I yet claimed some merit for having 
 ensured the exercise of those inestimable qualities in this instance by 
 forewarning him of the trial to which his patience and indulgent 
 spirit might be subjected, as will appear in the extract which follows. 
 
 In Sept. 1833, whilst passing a few days with my old |riend Gov. 
 Morgan Lewis, knowing that the proceedings in respect to the Gov- 
 ernment deposits were about to be brought to a head and always 
 alive to McLane's interest, I wrote the President a letter from which 
 the following is an extract and which was in furtherance of what 
 I had said to him before we parted at Washington — ^he for the 
 Eip-Eaps and I for the north: 
 
 o* * * Allow me to say a word to you in regard to our friend McLane. 
 He and I differ toto coelo about the Bank and I regret to find that upon almost 
 all public questions the bias of our early feelings is apt to lead us in different 
 directions. Still, I entertain the strongest attachment for him and have been so 
 long in the habit of interceding in his behalf that I cannot think of giving it up, 
 as long as I have it in my power to serve him and his. From what passed 
 between us at Washington I think it possible that he may (if Mr. Duane re- 
 signs) think himself obliged to tender his resignation also, which, if accepted, 
 would inevitably ruin him. Your friends would be obliged to give him up 
 politically, and when stript of influence his former federal friends would as- 
 suredly visit their past mortification at his success upon him in the shape of 
 exultations at his fall. I am quite sure that if he tenders his resignation he 
 will nevertheless be anxious to remain if he can do so with honor, and if you 
 should say in reply, that you will accept his resignation if he insists upon it 
 but that you confide in him, notwithstanding the difference between you upon 
 this point, and that if he could consistently remain in the administration you 
 would be gratified, I think he would be induced to withdraw it. 1 could not 
 advise you to change your course for anybody but it appears to me that you 
 might go thus far consistently with what is due to all parties. I think I cannot 
 be mistaken in believing that he told me explicitly that he did not know Mr. 
 Duane's views in regard to the Deposits when he was selected. When at Wash- 
 ington I informed you that I had thought of Mr. Taney for the Treasury but 
 had not made the suggestion in consequence of its not meeting with Mr. Mc- 
 Lane's concurrence. On accidently reading since a letter which he wrote me 
 upon the subject of Mr. Duane's appointment I find it stated that he had not 
 mentioned my suggestion in regard to Mr. Taney to you in pursuance of my 
 request that he should not do so until I could ascertain whether Mr. Butler 
 
 ■" MS. V, p. 210. 
 
606 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 would take the office of Att'y General, if you should think proper to offer it to 
 him, which he declined and consequently nothing more was said of the other 
 idea. Although this had escaped me I presume it must be so. * * * ' 
 
 The following was my reply to the General's two letters given 
 above. The original has been obtained from Mr. Blair with whom 
 he left his papers. 
 
 New Tobk, Sept. 27th, 1833. 
 My deae Sm, 
 
 Your letter of the 24th was handed me by Mr. Oambreleng at the moment of 
 stepping into the carriage to visit the Town of Brooklyn upon the invitation of 
 its trustees, and I embrace the first moment of my return to reply to it. You 
 have done all that was required of you in regard to the suggestions of our 
 friends McLane and Cass. If after that they choose to go, so it must be. Your 
 course cannot be altered out of mere personal regard to any one. I do not 
 however believe that such will be the case, but if it be, I think I ought to come 
 down immediately and remain with you until your arrangements are completed, 
 instead of making the suggestions you desire. I shall hold myself subject to 
 your wishes. 
 
 Your letter of the 25th is this moment received after I had written thus far. 
 I sincerely rejoice that matters have turned as they have. Our friends will 
 soon see what a precipice they have escaped. Public sentiment is unprece- 
 dentedly strong in your favor. I dined yesterday with a party rising oi 
 100, in King's county, composed of the Senate of the State, now sitting as a 
 Court of Errors, and of gentlemen of different politics: After several other 
 toasts. Dr. Elwus of Fort Hamilton gave the following : — " The Oracle of 
 Delphos said make gold thy weapon and thou wilt conquer all. Andrew Jack- 
 son has said make honesty thy weapon," — and I never knew a toast received 
 with more rapturous applause, long continued and several times revived. As 
 this is probably the first direct test of the kind, and the company was respec- 
 table and of different politics, I think it of sufficient importance to mention It 
 to you. 
 
 I think Gov. Woodbury is right in his opinion that the Attorney Gen'l ought 
 to come from the South. You recollect what passed between us in regard to 
 our friend Forsyth. He once (long ago) told me he would not think of accept- 
 ing the appointment of Attorney General, and I do not know what effect the 
 views he recently expressed upon another subject would have upon him in 
 regard to this ; but I feel so deeply how well he behaved for us all that I can- 
 not think of suffering a single opportunity to pass without doing all in my 
 power to serve him. If, for any re,ason, lie should be out of the way I should 
 like Judge Parker'' right well, if he Is a speaking man. You will have time 
 enough to cause enquiries to be made upon the point. You will recollect also 
 that I spoke to you of Judge Ruffin," of North Carolina. You can cause the same 
 enquiries to be made as to him so that you may finally act with a full view of 
 the whole matter. 
 
 There is one point you may depend upon, my dear Sir, and that is that there 
 is an extreme anxiety on the part of the Democracy of the Country — ^your stay 
 and support — that you should infuse a little more of their good spirit into 
 your Cabinet than it now possesses. Recent events have given increased inter- 
 
 1 September 11, 1833, In the Jackson Papers ; a copy of this extract is in the Van 
 Buren Papers. 
 
 "Richard Elliott Parker. 
 8 Thomas Euffln. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAH" BUEBN. 607 
 
 est to this point, and the impression is extensive that if it had been heretofore 
 otherwise in that respect things would have been better. Our quondam friend, 
 Duane was either beyond or behind the age. Do not be in haste and do me the 
 favour to remember me kindly to all your household. I hope to be with you on 
 the 20th without fail. 
 
 \ I am very truly yours, 
 
 M. Van Bueen. 
 Note. — ^Having occasion some days since to write to Mr. F. P. Blair and 
 knowing the close intimacy that existed between him and General Jackson as 
 well as the unlimited confidence reposed by the latter in his integrity and 
 truthfulness, I suggested to him the propriety of communicating any incidents 
 or passages in their intercourse which he might think of sufficient interest and 
 whilst engaged In the revision of these pages, I received a letter from him (in 
 part fulfilment of my request) which relates to the period and events here 
 described and which I give in his own words — suppressing unnecessary names : 
 
 From F. P. Biaib,, Esq. 
 
 Silver Spring, 13 Nov. 1859 
 * * * There is a circumstance connected with the Bank panic tending to 
 characterize the principle actors of the time which coming immediately under 
 my notice may be worth mentioning to you. 
 
 ' While Kendall was on his mission, beseeching the State Banks to receive 
 deposits, I spent the month of August and part of September with the Presi- 
 dent at the Rip Raps — our families occupying the cottages on that pile of rocks 
 in Hampton Roads. Biddle had planned a most insidious mode of reaching him 
 in this isolated spot, to which, for successive years he had retired for repose. 
 The Old Chief had a little hut on the highest point of the Rocks looking out 
 to the Ocean, where we went to open his mails and talk over matters, and it 
 might almost literally be said to be the point at which Biddle levelled a can- 
 nonade from every quarter of the Union. He had organized a sort of siege 
 against the General, who had hardly time, like an old Eagle, to fold his wings 
 for repose on his Rock when missiles ° from every quarter and especially from 
 the cities were poured in upon him in the shape of letters entreating a surren- 
 der of the design of removing the Deposits. The peculiarity of this struggle 
 was that all the volleys poured in upon him came under cover of the names of 
 
 his friends ; was panic-Master for Richmond, ■ remained at 
 
 Washington, & thence he was piled with accounts of the terrible ruin impend- 
 ing, travelled West and from him, at every stage, came news of the 
 
 distresses of his friends, but from Nashville a cry came of unusual consterna- 
 tion. Young , for whom the General had cultivated a fondness, got up 
 
 petitions among one portion of hil friends, and among others almost a meeting 
 in favour of another Bank. In a word no man was ever so overwhelmed with 
 such a deluge of griefs since the time of the forty days deluge. The old man 
 said to me from time to time, as some shocking defection aroused him, " Mr. 
 Blair, Providence may change me but it is not in the power of man to do it." 
 I remember two instances when he was particularly oppressed by such appeals : 
 One was a voluminous argumentative display of coming disasters from an old 
 Tennessee friend who had moved to Indiana and represented that state in Con- 
 gress ; Another was from his best friend of the Jefferson Era, Nathaniel Macon. 
 To these he dictated elaborate letters in reply, written in such a strain that 
 
 ° MS, Book VI, p. 1. 
 
608 AMERICAN HISTOEICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 he was sure, if they retained the personal kindness they professed, they would 
 give them to the public In his vindication, as It was Intimated they might be 
 given if they thought necessary. But they never published them. In these 
 letters I have no doubt the facts mentioned to yo'u in my last letter and many 
 others not remembered are shown. 
 
 It was during this siege of the Rip Baps that the gen^ral dictated the 
 original of "the paper read to the Cabinet," which was afterwards read by 
 Taney and given a calm judicial aspect, instead of that of a combative Bulletin. 
 There is an anecdote connected with this paper which I am not sure I ever 
 told you, but It is worth preserving, at least in the shape of a letter; 
 
 After the paper was read,' but before publication, came to me, with 
 
 his solemn face unusually elongated, and said he was sorry it would drive 
 both Oass and McLane out of the Cabinet. I thought that would be little 
 harm done, but he deprecated repeated Cabinet explosions as making good 
 against the General the charge of a belligerent, unruly temper &c. &c. He 
 said that McLane had resolved to go out of the Cabinet, and Cass had agreed 
 to go with him rather than have it understood, by tacit acquiescence, that he 
 agreed to the paper: "/* did not contain his opimions and he ought not to 
 he held responsible for them." I answered that it was not probable that the 
 General wished to shift his burden on Cass : " Well," said he, " if you will 
 speak to the General and he will say so much In the paper Cass will let McLane 
 go alone out of the Cabinet or he will be compelled to stay." When I repeated 
 this conversation to the General he smiled at the suggestion that Cass was 
 to bear the responsibility of his measure and said that If it were thought 
 necessary to escape it McLane and he might quit the Cabinet — " he cared not — 
 they could do no mischief in or out;" but he added, " I am very willing to let 
 the public know that I take the whole responsibility of this measure; Mr. 
 Blair, I wish you would look out a place In the paper where I can put that 
 In." I then read over his cabinet " paper " and found out a paragraph where 
 this declaration might be introduced and he clapped it in, interlining or patch- 
 ing on a sentence or two to make it fit. The next morning I went to Taney's 
 house with the printed paper, and Donelson being there, Taney, putting a 
 segar in his mouth and his feet upon the writing table, prepared to enjoy his 
 first state paper In print, said " Now, Mr. Secretary, let us hear how it reads 
 for the public." Donelson read on until he reached the responsibility passage 
 when Taney stopped him with " how under heaven did that get in !" I told 
 him the story and he said, " this has saved Cass and McLane ; but for It they 
 would have gone out and have been ruined — as it is, they will remain and do 
 us nfuch mischief." No one has regretted the mistake more than myself and 
 I felt It with the deepest chagrin when Cass, at the Kossuth dinner given at 
 Jackson Hall, volunteered a speech to make capital for a presidential nomina- 
 tion and selected the topic of the Removal of the Deposits as his theme, 
 extolling that act as the wisest and most heroic of the Administration! No 
 one not in the secret could have doubted but that he was the mover of the 
 measure in the Cabinet, so happily did he explain its propriety and necessity 
 and praise the wisdom that planned and the courage that dared to propose it. 
 I think the Speech was printed but knovsr not whether reported by the author 
 with the effrontery with which it was uttered. * * * " 
 
 I Sep-. 18, 1888. The Globe, Sep. 23, 1833. 'Asterisks In the manuscript 
 
CHAPTEK XLI. 
 
 The removal of the deposits was the last great public question in 
 the disposition of which Mr. McLane and myself consulted and acted 
 together though differing widely in the opinions we gave to the Presi- 
 dent. Others arose and were disposed of but there was no concerted 
 action in respect to them between us. Among the latter the subject 
 of our claims upon France was the most prominent and deserves and 
 will receive a separate notice. 
 
 This change in the bearing of our personal relations upon public 
 questions, by superseding [sio] what is, perhaps, my only excuse for 
 the space I have given them, admonishes me of the propriety of draw- 
 ing to a conclusion on the subject, which I shall much prefer to do as 
 soon as I can. How it was that Mr. McLane convinced himself that 
 Mr. Duane's resignation properly involved his own, or upon what 
 principle he, for many months, felt himself relieved from the impera- 
 tive pressure of that obligation, if any such existed, may perhaps 
 never be known. One thing only is certain, and that is that he was, 
 after that gentleman's removal, never at ease in his official seat. 
 From what has already been seen the reader will not be surprised 
 to hear that this unsettled state of feeling led to frequent and, not 
 seldom, to daily reiterated appeals to me for consultation with him- 
 self " and through me with the President in respect to his course. 
 Several anxious notes upon this point are found among my papers. 
 
 In the latter part of February, of the Session of 1833^, and after 
 rumors of his intended resignation had found place in the news- 
 papers, his fluctuating councils appeared to have reached a fixed con- 
 clusion and his withdrawal to have become inevitable, but the affair 
 was brought to a different and amicable solution through my exer- 
 tions made effectual by the patience and generosity of the President. 
 
 It will not escape notice that I have in the preparation of this 
 work liberally resorted to familiar letters, when within my control 
 and when the use of them was not otherwise improper, as sources 
 of information and evidence in relation to events with which they 
 were contemporaneous and of which they speak. 
 
 In addition to such weight as the degree of information and ca- 
 pacity to appreciate the bearings of important passages in public 
 affairs or in the lives of public men possessed by the writers, and 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 5. 
 127483°— VOL 2— 20 39 609 
 
610 AMEEICASr HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION, 
 
 the extent to which their minds niay chance to have been engrossed 
 by their subject, they have an inestimable value in their absolute 
 freedom from certain drawbacks to which representations made 
 many years later are always exposed. However tenacious the memory 
 and however honest the intention it is scarcely possible that the rec- 
 ollections of any man should be entirely uninfluenced by the chances 
 and changes of the intermediate period. 
 
 These obvious truths have been brought freshly to my mind by 
 the letters from Mr. Washington Irving which I find on my files 
 and which I give below. Mr. McLane had impressed Mr. Irving 
 with feelings of personal regard for him similar to those entertained 
 by myself, although his habitual caution may have protected the 
 latter from serious embarrassments such as resulted in my case. 
 Thus influenced and anxious for the welfare of Mr. McLane's family, 
 while not insensible of the peculiarities in his temperament, Mr. 
 Irving kept a watchful eye upon , his movements and frequently 
 invoked my good offices in his behalf. It will be seen that both of 
 his contemplated resignations — in September 1833 and in February 
 1834 — are spoken of in these letters, and I have obtained from Mr. 
 Irving my own letter to which his last was a reply and which is also 
 inserted here. 
 
 Fkom Washington Irving. 
 
 Washington, Oeto. 5th, J833. 
 My Deae Sib, 
 
 I have yours of Qcto. 2nd and am gratified by the clear sunshiny view you 
 take of the cloudy concerns of our friend McL. I am convinced that all you 
 say is just, and it is very much to the purport of vrhat I stated to him in 
 repeated conversations. I am happy to say he left here the day before yes- 
 terday on his excursion,- in very good spirits, and I fancy his mental atmos- 
 phere is relieved from the fogs and glooms that lower'd. about it. He returns 
 on Tuesday next, and after I have seen him and had a Little more conversa- 
 tion with him, I shall turn my face homewards and trust to see you in New 
 York before you set off for the South. * * * 
 
 I have taken a family dinner vifith the President and have seen Mm since, 
 in an evening visit. His health is not good, and I fancy he has been much 
 worried of late by his Cabinet affairs; he seems anxious to have you here, 
 and now that he has had his " wicked will " of the bank I think you' had 
 better be at his elbow. I have confidence in your knowledge of character 
 and hope that your opinions of Mr. [Kendall] may be correct. Many hard 
 things are said of him, but I know how exposed men in his situation are to 
 be misrepresented. 
 
 I am in my old quarters in the neighborhood of the McLane's, and am 
 making use of a quiet nook and a little interval of leisure to exercise my long 
 neglected pen. It is an odd place and time for a man to amuse himself with 
 literary avocations, but it shows how little I am of a politician. 
 
 Ever very truly yours, 
 
 Washington Irving. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 611 
 
 To Washington Irving. 
 
 My Deae Sm: 
 
 Knowing the deep Interest you take in the happiness of our friend McLane 
 and of his interesting family, I take pleasure In saying to you that after a' 
 severe trial, in which he was brought to the brink of a fatal precipice, he has 
 finally determined to remain in his present station, and that under circum- 
 stances which give, I think, the best security for Its permanency and which 
 reflect, if that were possible, additional credit on his best of wives. 
 
 In great haste. 
 
 Ve;'y truly yours, 
 
 M. Van Btjben. 
 W., March 6th, 1834. 
 
 From Washington Irving. 
 
 New York, March 11th, 1834. ' 
 Mt Dear Sir: 
 
 Your letter concerning Mr. McLane is deeply interesting. I have felt great 
 anxiety about him, knowing the excessively trying situation in which he was 
 placed and the delicate and involved state of his feelings. He Is entitled to 
 every consideration from you all. His sacrifices of feeling must be great, yet 
 his continuance in the Cabinet at this crisis is of great importance to his 
 friends, even though his arms may be tied up as to the contest in which they 
 are engaged. It is also Important to his own welfare. His retirement at this 
 moment would be made a handle of by the opponents of the Administration, 
 and he would be forced, in spite of himself, into a wretched collision with his 
 late friends. What a sorry figure is making of It — spinning out news- 
 paper letters to swell this eternal bank theme. I have no thought of coming 
 to Washington at present. I am quietly settled in the bosom of my family, 
 and gradually getting back into those literary habits which have been so long 
 interrupted and which, after all, are most congenial to my tastes. Besides I 
 have no inclination to hear any spouting on this Bank Question — I begin to 
 loathe the subject, and can hardly relish the sight of a bank note — ^in a little 
 while nothing but a hard dollar will set upon my stomach. Truly we are a 
 bank-ridden country. 
 
 John was in town the other day, looking very well, though pretending to be 
 somewhat affected in purse by the shifting of the deposits. 
 
 Remember me kindly to the Major. When you see the family of the McLanes 
 give my most affectionate remembrances to them. I long to hear from some 
 one or other of them, for I have not had any domestic news from them for 
 months. 
 
 Ever, my dear sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Washington Irving. 
 
 The merely personal relations between Mr. McLane and myself, 
 though somewhat less familiar, continued on apparently friendly 
 footing till towards the close of the celebrated Session of Congress 
 (1833-34) when circumstances occurred which doubtless contrib- 
 uted largely to hasten their final dissolution. These grew out of the 
 difficulties between us and France in respect to the non-payment of 
 
612 AMEEICAM' HISTOBICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the draft which was drawn upon the French Government under Mr. 
 Rives' treaty. The information of its protest arrived at Washington 
 
 in 1834, and Mr. McLane took instant ajid decided ground as 
 
 to the course proper to be pursued by our government on the occa- 
 sion. Of that position and of my own in opposition to it and of the 
 whole matter ° I will have more to say hereafter. The question was 
 one which properly referred itself to the Department over which he 
 presided and the course he advised was, for a season, earnestly sus- 
 tained by the President. My strong dissent from the opinion of both 
 produced momentary embarrassments, but as between the President 
 and myself they soon disappeared and, although I was sensible that 
 Mr. McLane was deeply mortified by the direction which was finally 
 given to the matter, I did not dream of its having the effect of 
 reviving the question of his resignation, which had been I supposed 
 and hoped, disposed of by the last adjustment. I remained under 
 this impression until information reached me accidentally, and in a 
 way which was, under the circumstances, not a little extraordinary, 
 that he had actually resigned. On my arrival at an evening party at the 
 house of Mr. Ogle Tayloe I perceived Mrs. McLane near the door by 
 which I entered engaged in conversation with Mr. John Sargent, of 
 Philadelphia, and I advanced -to pay my respects to her. As I ap- 
 proached Mr. Sargent was in the act of leaving her and raising her 
 voice somewhat, she exclaimed to the latter "Well, thank Heaven! 
 it is over at last " Having been long on intimate and as I always sup- 
 posed very friendly terms with her I did not hesitate to ask what 
 happy deliverance had called out such a fervent expression of thank- 
 fulness. " Why," she replied, " I referred, of course, to Mr. McLane's 
 resignation ! " adding a declaration of surprise at my apparent igno- 
 rance of the event, which I assured her was real. Seeing Major Don- 
 elson, the President's private Secretary, nearby I asked him to walk 
 out with me, and on receiving his confirmation of the news I had just 
 heard, he also saying that he had supposed that I knew all about it, 
 I invited him to accompany tne to the White House. 
 
 We found the President, lying on a sofa, quite alone and evidently 
 jaded and despondent — a condition to which his naturally elastic 
 and self reliant spirit rarely succumbed. I described my brief inter- 
 view with Mrs. McLane, assured him of my ignorance of the fact 
 of her husband's resignation and that I had not received the slight- 
 est intimation even from any quarter of his purpose, altho' it now 
 appeared that his letter of resignation had been delivered to the 
 President a day or two before. His countenance instantly cleared 
 up and expressed as plainly as words could have done the relief 
 afforded him by my communication. My omission to speak to 
 
 " MS. VI, p. 10. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIK VAN BUREN. 613 
 
 him in relation to a matter of so much delicacy, about which we had 
 previously held many embarrassing and painful consultations, had 
 very naturally caused him much uneasiness — doubtless not wholly free 
 from misgiving as to the steadfastness of my devotion to his policy 
 and to his person when brought in irreconcilable conflict with my 
 constant solicitude for Mr. McLane's welfare. But the single fact 
 that the resignation had been made without my knowledge furnished 
 a clue to the entire proceedings and at once disclosed to his keen 
 sagacity that the movement was one of hostility to me. He directed 
 Major Donelson to read to me the letter of resignation and the an- 
 swer to it which had been prepared, and, speaking with the ease and 
 freedom which had always characterized our intercourse, asked my 
 opinion of the latter. I gave it to him without reserve — ^he had gone 
 further I thought, in his answer, than the occasion called for or than 
 justice to himself allowed. I said that I cordially sympathized 
 with his desire to make his parting with Mr. McLane as soothing 
 to the feelings of the latter as the case would admit of but that his 
 answer might well be construed as conceding errors on his own 
 part. These I pointed out and whilst my view of the matter was 
 not fully assented to by Major Donelson who had drafted the answer, 
 he nevertheless admitted that the expresssions might be misconstrued. 
 The President then requested me to take the pen and to make the 
 paper what I thought it ought to be, which I did and he directed 
 the Major to copy it as it stood. The letters were never published 
 as I believe; they are certainly not to be found in the publications 
 of the day or I would be able to point out the alterations with more 
 precision. 
 
 The General immediately took up the question of a successor to the 
 retiring Minister and heartily consented to offer the appointment to 
 my friend John Forsyth, by whom it was accepted. 
 
 I called at Mr. McLane's house on the next day, was received by 
 Mrs. McLane with her usual urbanity and remained long enough for 
 Mr. McLane, who was, as she informed me, in his study, to present 
 himself if he was disposed to do so. Not seeing him within a proper 
 time, or receiving any excuse for his non-appearance, I took a respect- 
 ful leave of Mrs. McLane and do not remember to have seen her again. 
 Her husband and myself shortly afterwards passed each. other in our 
 carriages without recognition on either side, and once again, I met 
 him at Baltimore on the occasion of General Smith's funeral. I was 
 then President and during the ceremonies of the day was placed near 
 to both Mr. McLane, who had been an old friend of the General, and 
 to Mr. Taney, then and still Chief Justice of the United States. After 
 the services were concluded the Chief Justice said to me " I saw that 
 you and your old friend McLane did not recognize each other : cer- 
 
614 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 tainly no advance in that direction," he added, " could be expected 
 from you." 
 
 The " Globe " announced Mr. McLane's resignation with a compli- 
 mentary notice of him which I never saw until I read it in the news- 
 paper, neither was I apprised of Mr. Wright's agency in causing it 
 to appear — certainly not until after its appearance. In 1845, when 
 he suspected that Mr. McLane was seeking preferment from Mr. 
 Polk and that he was aiming to advance his interest by an indication 
 of hostility to Mr. Wright, who was looked to as the probable candi- 
 date for the succession, and to his friends, Mr. Blair made me several 
 communications having reference to these matters and in one of his 
 notes he thus spoke of that publication : 
 
 How much I regret the admission of the article in the Globe on McLane's leave 
 taking ! It wps written by Donelson and was intended by McLane for the very 
 purpose for which it will now be used — my estoppel. Mr. Wright's instances 
 alone induced me to surrender my objections. I intended to take Donelson's 
 article to the General and satisfy him that it should not appear, but Mr. Wright, 
 who seemed to have more interest in it than I could account for except on the 
 supposition that you were desirous that McLane should have an honorable dis- 
 charge, overruled me. I never acted against my instincts in my life that I did 
 not, in the end, find myself in the wrong. 
 
 The reader will have observed that in his letter to me acknowledg- 
 ing the offer to him by Gen. Jackson of the office of Attorney General 
 and also in that accepting the mission to England (by which he was 
 raised from a state of great despondency to a position which could 
 not fail to be gratifying to a reasonable man) Mr. McLane intimated 
 that more might perhaps have been done for his interests than was 
 done, and among his letters from England will be found one in which, 
 replying to the information that he had been selected as Secretary of 
 the Treasury, he expresses in some form, his regret that in the con- 
 struction of the President's second Cabinet he had not been desig- 
 nated as Secretary of State in the place of Mr. Livingston. Neither 
 at the period when he resigned the latter office nor at any time after-, 
 wards or before, with the exceptions I have named, did he utter a 
 complaint in any form to me or to any other person, to my knowledge, 
 of my treatment of him or of insincerity on my part, or failure to do 
 for him all that I had promised or imputing to me any act or word 
 inconsistent with the friendship I had professed for and which had 
 been so liberally and disinterestedly extended to him, nor did he ever 
 assign to me or to any other person, to my Imowledge, in any shape, 
 any reason for dissolving our long and close relations. Having ten- 
 dered by an act of complaisance to which he possessed no claims, a 
 suitable opportunity to ask or to offer explanations, nothing further 
 was left for me to do save to forget, as far as practicable, the intimate 
 association that had unhappily ripened between us bringing to me 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 615 
 
 almost continual anxiety and drawing fi-om me manifold acts of 
 kindness which, it now appeared, might have been more judiciously 
 as well as more deservedly bestowed. 
 
 " Nevertheless the unprecedented steps by which those relations 
 were suddenly and mysteriously ruptured by Mr. McLane caused me 
 much pain and have forced from me an exposition which I would 
 gladly have avoided and which but for the reasons already given I 
 would have avoided. Every one of our contemporaries, in any con- 
 siderable degree conversant with the course of public events, knew of 
 our long continued and intimate intercourse and of my active interest 
 in his welfare, and understood that on the day on which he presented - 
 to President Jackson his resignation of the office of Secretary of State 
 he was ranked by myself and by all my friends among the foremost 
 of the number of the latter bound to me by the strongest ties, and 
 that he made the dissolution of those ties and the abandonment of his 
 high official station parts of the same transaction, conveying to the 
 public mind, by the manner of its execution, an impression that his 
 resignation, if not caused, had at least been facilitated by bad treat- 
 ment received at my hands. The official relations that had long 
 united him with the President were closed at his own instance and 
 with suitable grace and dignity and in a form excluding the sus- 
 picion of a breach in their personal friendship. From all his asso- 
 ciates in the Government he parted apparently with kind feelings, 
 but altho' I had stood towards him for years in the acknowledged 
 character of "next friend," had during the greater part of that 
 period been doomed to bear, in addition to my. own abundant polit- 
 ical vexations and troubles, a large portion of his private griefs, — 
 not only those which were real but those more numerous and more 
 harassing which, from time to time, were conjured up by the work- 
 ing of a restless and a morbid spirit— altho' I was yet fresh from the 
 negotiation of an arrangement between him and the President by 
 which he had been saved from the destructive effects of his own rash- 
 ness, with me a very different course was pursued. Not only, as has 
 been before stated, were no explanations asked, no complaints ad- 
 vanced, no suggestions of his intention to resign made but his design 
 was apparently with studied caution concealed from me so that the 
 movement might be completed before I should be informed that it 
 was a-foot. The President, after what had passed before, would 
 not, it was doubtless foreseen, broach the subject to me if I did not 
 speak of it to him. The line of conduct towards me which was 
 entered upon by Mr. McLane at and immediately preceding the 
 period of his resignation was persevered in to the end of his life. 
 During the whole of that after period not a line or a word in regard 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 15. 
 
616 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to the present or the past was exchanged between us, directly or in- 
 directly. After the opportunity I had afforded for such a com- 
 munication, if he desired one, unless I was weak enough to volun- 
 teer explanations to the public all that the latter could know or infer 
 was that a prominent politician whom they had long recognised 
 at Washington as apparently chief among my friends, had suddenly 
 quitted the seat of Government my enemy. 
 
 The merest novice in the affairs and ways of the world would 
 reject the suggestion that a course so unnatural and so indefensible, 
 matured in a mind of remarkable shrewdness and subtlety, was 
 adopted without specific calculations or ulterior purposes. In re- 
 spect to these I have no information — of sufficient importance to be 
 stated — which will not be open to the reader of these pages, but 
 it was, of course, not possible that I should fail to have decided 
 impressions, to which, with the explanations I make here, being 
 nothing more than my inferences from facts resting chiefly on Mr. 
 McLane's authority and, beyond that, to an important extent on tha 
 communications of his respectable, early, constant and clear-headed 
 friend, the reader is not asked to allow more weight than that to 
 which he would himself think them entitled. I am now entirely 
 satisfied that Major Lewis is correct in the supposition that Mr. 
 McLane's imagination was dazzled by an expectation of reaching the 
 Presidency and that his mind was influenced from an early period 
 of our intercourse by that hope. His discomfitures in reiterated 
 attempts to promote the cause of a national bank — ^to which he was 
 devoted intus et in cute but in which he encountered the invincible 
 opposition of President Jackson — at length satisfied him that all 
 schemes for the gratification of his desires in that direction thro' 
 democratic channels were forever blasted. One chance remained — 
 the possibility, perhaps, in his view, the probability that the oppo- 
 sition might be induced to accept him as their Presidential candidate 
 at the then coming election if his name could be brought before them 
 in an imposing form. There were features of his position and 
 operating causes in the temper of the times well calculated to fill 
 with high hopes of such a result a temperament at intervals very 
 sanguine. The bank, with its vast interests and exertions, was 
 looked to as the strong arm of the opposition and among the per- 
 sons by whom Mr. McLane was then surrounded and with whom, 
 at the particular period of which I speak, he freely consulted, there 
 were artful and, in such matters, able men who devoted their whole 
 time and talent and energies to its service. His partiality for the 
 close companionship of several of these had often caused me un- 
 easiness at earlier stages of our intimacy. From these sources he 
 might have learned, if his own observation had failed to suggest it, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTMN VAN BTTEBN. 617 
 
 the disposition prevalent in the whig councils to postpone the pre- 
 tensions of Mr. Clay, for the ensuing election at least, a disposition 
 which, in the sequel, controlled their action. The influential whig 
 managers knew well the hopelessness of a campaign under the 
 leadership of Calhoun or "Webster. Who beside could present so 
 imposing a claim to the favor of a bank-governed opposition as Mr. 
 McLane? He had always been its friend, had exerted himself per- 
 haps more in its behalf than any other public man among its sup- 
 porters and in latter years had done so under peculiar responsibilities 
 and at great hazard to his political position and prospects. What 
 might not he and the men who were his advisers hope for from the 
 partisans of that institution when to claims founded on such con- 
 siderations he should be placed in a situation to add that of political 
 martyrdom in its cause — ^that of having sacrificed one of the highest, 
 most honored and most influential stations in the Government on 
 the altar of his unceasing devotion. In the actual position of parties 
 one drawback upon pretensions otherwise so solid and irrefragable 
 would have been found in the character of his well known relations 
 with him who was expected to be the anti-bank candidate. To meet 
 that objection the prompt and absolute renunciation and equally 
 abrupt reversal of those relations, personal and political, was a 
 provision doubtless suggested by at least one of the busy ministers 
 of the bank by whom he was, as I have mentioned, beset and which 
 would appear to have been adopted without compunction. 
 
 Mr. McLane did not receive the aid of Mr. Biddle to elevate him 
 to the Presidency of the United States altho' he obtained, thro' the 
 direct influence of the latter, a position which afforded him for sev- 
 eral years a liberal salary with little labor.* 
 
 The portions of this work which relate to his conduct were pre- 
 pared not for purposes of crimination but for vindication and I 
 tender my thanks in advance fo anyone who shall find himself able 
 to disprove the adverse statements and deductions they contain, or 
 to qualify in any degree the unfavorable impressions which they 
 iriay otherwise produce. I ask that my own course shall be held, in 
 the estimation of my Countrymen, in the respect and regard to which 
 it is entitled under the facts as they have transpired — ^nothing more. 
 
 1 President of the Morris Canal & Banking Company. 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Of greater public importance and of even less agreeable character 
 were the scenes which by the order of events are now brought to our 
 review. I allude to the proceedings of the first session of the twenty 
 third Congress — a portion of our legislative history upon which the 
 people stamped its true character by denominating it, from its close, 
 " the panic-session," by which name it has ever since been known and 
 which it is destined to bear as long as its doings are remembered. 
 
 By my election to the office of Vice President I became President 
 of the Senate and consequently an attendant upon its important de- 
 bates and proceedings, as well in its secret as in its public sessions, 
 and having been at the same time confidentially consulted by Presi- 
 dent Jackson, as our correspondence will abundantly shew, in rela- 
 tion to nil the measures save one which during that session became 
 the principal subjects of contention between that body — then the 
 head-quarters of the opposition—and himself, it was scarcely pos- 
 sible that any person could possess better opportunities to know the 
 whole truth both of those subjects and of the motives by which the 
 contestants ° were respectively influenced. 
 
 The virtual censure of a portion of the National Legislature by 
 their constituents conveyed in the name popularly applied to their 
 proceedings was called forth by the course of the Senate upon the 
 application of the bank for a renewal of its charter and by the con- 
 troversy which had arisen between it and the President of the 
 United States touching that matter. To enable the reader to decide 
 with greater accuracy in respect to the justice of that censure it will 
 be highly useful to precede my notice of the transactions upon which 
 it was pronounced with a brief revie^of the principal features of the 
 controversy alluded to from its commencement to the period at which 
 we have arrived. The tendency of a national bank in a Government 
 like ours, and the particular acts of the late bank to promote the claim 
 set up for an extension of its charter, are subjects which have already 
 been touched upon in this work for other purposes than those for the 
 better understanding of which they are again brought forward ; but 
 the reader may rest satisfied that the repetition will be limited, nor 
 will he be disposed to complain when he finds that its only object 
 is to save him trouble by bringing to one point every fact and con- 
 sideration that may serve to illustrate the whole subject. 
 
 Gen. Jackson entered upon the duties of the office of President on 
 the fourth of March 1829, and the charter of the bank was to expire 
 
 " MS. VI, p. 20. 
 
 618 
 
AtTTOBIOGEAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BTJEEN. 619 
 
 by its own limitation on the third of March 1836. A new charter, 
 or an extension of that under which it was then acting was naturally 
 the subject upon which the thoughts of those who were entrusted 
 with its management were most employed. The ability of the bank 
 to obtain a majority in its favor in both Houses of Congress was not 
 doubted; the only opposition feared was that which might proceed 
 from the new President. There had not been, I believe, a moment 
 since Gen. Jackson's elevation to the Presidency in which they 
 had not been disturbed by unfavorable forebodings upon that inter- 
 esting point. This presentiment had its origin in their knowledge of 
 the school in which he had been taught the rudiments of his political 
 education, of the earnestness with which he had in early life sus- 
 tained its doctrines and of the stability and integrity of his char- 
 acter. Intimations thrown out in his first and second annual Mes- 
 sages served to confirm their apprehensions and if anything was 
 required to assure the bank of what his course towards it would be 
 it was readily obtained from the General himself, at a personal 
 interview between him and the President of the bank soon after the 
 former entered upon his official duties.^ These intimations and 
 declarations went no further than to announce objections to the bank 
 under its existing charter, but Mr. Biddle was too sagacious and too 
 well acquainted with the ways of the world not to find in them 
 evidence of a strong and in all likelihood, an unyielding opposition 
 to any national bank of the description desired by him and by his 
 associates. Having made this discovery ^ and being himself a man 
 of resolute and persistent spirit he. dismissed on the instant all 
 hopes of assistance from the President and looked only upon him as 
 upon one whose power and influence he was destined to encounter at 
 every step in his efforts to obtain a new charter for the institution 
 over which he presided. 
 
 1 Biddle was In Washington the third week o£ November, 1829, and the interview took 
 place some time between the 17th and 26th. 
 
 2 It is well-nigh impossible for natures like Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle to 
 understand each other and that Biddle misunderstood the situation does not seem to have 
 occurred to Van Buren even as a remote possibility. To the latter with his Intimate 
 knowledge of Jackson it appears to have been inconceivable that Biddle had not made the 
 discovery here credited to his astuteness and sagacity. The Biddle Papers, from which 
 the two following extracts are taken, conclusively show Biddle's state of mind : 
 
 " The rumor to which you allude, I have not heard from any other quarter & I believe 
 it is entirely without foundation. My reason for thinking so is, that during a recent visit 
 to Washington, from which I returned on Thursday last, I had much conversation of a 
 very full & frank character with the President about the Bank in all which he never inti- 
 mated any such purpose. On the contrary he spoke In terms the most kind & gratifying 
 towards the institution — expressed his thanks for the services it had rendered the Gov' 
 since his connection with it & I look to the message with expectations of the most satis- 
 factory kind." — (Biddle to Alexander Hamilton, Philadelphia, Nov. 28th, 1829. Biddle 
 Papers : President's Letter Book, No. 3, page 98.) 
 
 " I found with great pleasure a friendly feeling towards the Bank in the minds of the 
 President & his particular friends who formerly entertained different views. This I regard 
 as a very fortunate circumstance for the Institution — and our general affairs are, I think, 
 highly prosperous." — (Biddle to Eobert Lenox, Philadelphia, Dec. 4th, 1829. Biddle 
 Papers ; President's Letter Book, No. 3, page 99.) 
 
620 AMERICAN HISTOEIOAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 From that moment, as subsequent developments ha^'e fully shewn, 
 nothing was thought of by the managers of the bank but preparation 
 for the struggle, and their preparations were on a scale that indicated 
 a fair appreciation on its side of the character and strength of its 
 anticipated antagonist. But altho' thus impressed its advocates and 
 supporters were not dismayed and conscious of the vast resources of 
 the bank they entered upon the great undertaking before them con- 
 fident of success. The session of 1831-2 (four years before the expira- 
 tion of its charter) was selected for the presentation of the bank 
 memorial asking from Congress a new or extended charter. That 
 session was deemed the most promising as it was the last before the 
 ensuing Presidential election and afforded the most eligible oppor- 
 tunity for an attempt to drive the President into an approval of a bill 
 for its recharter by the dread of its power to prevent his re-election 
 if he should succeed in defeating such a bill by the use of the veto 
 power. The exercise of that power was the obstacle most feared by 
 the bank, and to place the question in a position which would render 
 such a proceeding by the President most difficult and hazardous to his 
 popularity was of course the principal point at which it aimed. 
 Authorization of its President to employ the funds of the institution 
 at his discretion to influence the Press, confined in the first instance 
 to specific modes, had been provided for, but these, tho' not lost sight 
 of, were soon felt to be altogether inadequate to the urgencies of the 
 occasion. The possession of majorities in both branches of the na- 
 tional Legislature enabled the bank to drive the Executive to resort 
 to the extreme power with which he was clothed by the Constitution 
 to defeat the bill for its re-incorporation. This power tho' its exer- 
 cise was not without precedent in this Country had been used with 
 marked hesitation and reserve by his predecessors and was nowhere 
 favorably received. This was in itself an advantage to the bank 
 which few men coming before their Countrymen for the last time an 
 applicant for their confidence and support would be willing to en- 
 counter or could be induced to do so even imder circumstances far 
 more favorable than those which surrounded President Jackson. In 
 addition to the assumed odium of resorting in a Republic to what 
 they invidiously called the one-man-power was the liability of his 
 acts tho' they could not rightfully be so regarded to be perverted into 
 a hastening of the collection of its debts by the bank. 
 
 The necessity of winding up the affairs of an institution, with a 
 capital of thirty-five millions, the business of which had been im- 
 mense and widely diffused, within the time limited by its charter, 
 was well calculated to produce unavoidable embarrassments in the 
 business concerns of the community, with the best intentions on the 
 part of those to whose management its affairs had been committed, 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUKEN. 621 
 
 and to excite great apprehensions without a resort to extraneous 
 means to increase the causes of alarm. But the sharp-sighted and 
 bold men on whom that duty devolved as also those who had ven- 
 tured their political standing on the success of the bank and had 
 devoted all their energies to its cause had been made too sensible of 
 the General's popularity to trust to the ordinary means of warfare 
 as long as there were any additional barriers in their power to inter- 
 pose to his adoption of the only course by which their success could 
 be prevented. They therefore set themselves at work to add to 
 existing difficulties in winding up its affairs within the prescribed 
 period and thus to stimulate those who might be affected by it to a 
 still more vigorous pressure upon the President to induce him to 
 withhold his veto. The expedient resorted to for that purpose was, 
 it must be admitted, of a truly formidable character. It was nothing 
 less than a largely increased line of discounts notwithstanding full 
 and official notice to the bank of the intention of the Government 
 to apply all its disposable funds to the payment of the public debt. 
 Forty millions had been for years the average amount of the loans 
 of the bank. In October 1830 they stood at $40,527,523. Between 
 January 1831 and May 1832 they were increased to $70,428,007 : the 
 highest figure ever reached. The amount of its outstanding dis- 
 counts between the periods mentioned was thus increased about thirty 
 millions, saying nothing of the increase which took place between 
 May the date to which the report of the bank extended, and July 
 when the veto was interposed. This extraordinary and reckless step 
 was taken without even a pretence of a change in the business of the 
 Country to justify, much less to require so great a change in the 
 extent of its credits. The design, as charged at the time and fully 
 demonstrated by subsequent disclosures, was to place the Country 
 so deeply and unless relief could in some other way be obtained — 
 so irretrievably in debt as to compel the whole community to demand 
 of the President that he should give his assent to a bill which it was 
 certain would be passed by the two Houses, to extend the charter of 
 the bank as the only means by which it could be saved from wide 
 spread distress and cureless ruin ; an appeal which the bank managers 
 believed he would not dare to disregard and which, if disregarded, 
 would inevitably defeat his re-election. To make the device the more 
 effectual the largest portion of these professed loans was scattered 
 thro' the Western States, of one of which the President was a 
 cherished citizen and in most of them ° since his entrance on the 
 political stage he had supplanted his great rival — ^the leader of the 
 bank power and the long established favorite of the West. Ee- 
 monstrances from that quarter, it was naturally enough supposed, 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 25. 
 
622 AMBEICAIsr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOST. 
 
 would produce the deepest impression on the minds of the President 
 and oi those about him who enjoyed his confidence. Able to count 
 their majorities in both Houses the friends of the bank did not waste 
 their time with unnecessary debates in either, reserving their speeches 
 for the coming in of the veto, when they were to be virtually ad- 
 dressed to the people as they knew beforehand that they could not 
 obtain a constitutional majority over the veto in either House. 
 
 A Bill fcTr the renewal of the charter of the bank passed both 
 branches of Congress notwithstanding the presence in each of a 
 majority who professed to be supporters of the President and of 
 his administration and who had been elected as such. Mr. Dallas, 
 who presented the memorial of the bank, and who was doubtless a 
 sincere friend of the President and solicitous for the success of his 
 administration, but who felt himself instructed by his State to sup- 
 port the bank, frankly admitted that "the propriety of an appli- 
 cation so early in the term of its incorporation for the renewal of 
 its charter, during a popular sensation in Congress which must cease 
 to exist some years before that term expires and on the eve of all 
 the excitement incident to a great political movement (the Presi- 
 dential election) struck his mind as more than doubtful." The 
 President interposed his veto, and the Bill failed for want of a 
 two-thirds vote. 
 
 The debate upon the consideration of the veto-message was per- 
 haps as able as any that had ever occurred in the Senate, in which 
 body the Bill originated and where its fate was therefore to be first 
 passed upon. Mr. Clay was to be the opposition candidate against 
 the re-election of President Jackson and Mr. Webster was selected 
 to take the lead in the discussion on the part of the bank. Of the 
 singular ability with which he discharged that difficult and re- 
 sponsible duty I have elsewhere spoken. His speeches, for he ad- 
 dressed the Senate more than once, were addressed at times avowedly, 
 to the Country, and had in view the accomplishment of three prin- 
 cipal objects; viz: — first, to alarm the thinking sober-minded and 
 conservative men of all parties on account of the despotic and un- 
 constitutional doctrines which he solemnly charged President Jack- 
 son with having avowed and maintained in the veto message. Those 
 parts of his great efforts have already been fully noticed in the 
 portions of this work which treat of the rise and progress of our 
 political parties. Second, to impress the Country with adequate ideas 
 to the extent of its indebtedness to the bank — of the impossibility of 
 paying that debt within the period allowed to the bank to wind up its 
 concerns without the sacrifice of every interest that was worth pre- 
 sei'ving and to portray the desolation and ruin inevitable if the 
 necessity for doing so was established, as it would be by the re- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURBN. 623 
 
 election of the author of the veto. Third, to settle the finality of 
 a decision in his favor by the people upon the question of bank 
 or no bank. 
 
 The bearing of Mr. Webster's great speech upon the first point 
 has been I repeat noticed elsewhere. Full justice can only be done to 
 the consummate ability which he displayed on that occasion by 
 reading his speeches. I invite the reader to study them as well on 
 account of the intellectual gratification they will afford him as from 
 a conviction that thus he can not fail to be satisfied that the increase 
 of the bank's line of discount was made for the purpose I have set 
 forth and that the orator had been fully instructed of its character 
 in that regard if not consulted in thet;onstruction of the plan. 
 
 I will content myself with brief extracts, applicable to each of the 
 two cardinal points last presented and which embrace the drift of his 
 argument in that direction. 
 
 Thirty millions of the capital of the bank, (said he) are now on 
 loan and discount in States on the Mississippi. These will all have 
 to be called in within three years and nine months if the charter is 
 not extended. He then went on to show the impracticability of this 
 operation, and to prove that the State banks would not be able to 
 assist in the payment of that enormous debt. " I hesitate not to 
 say," he continued, "that as this Veto travels to the West it will de- 
 preciate the value of every man's property from the Atlantic to the 
 Capital of Missouri. Its effects will be found in the price of land, 
 the great and leading article of Western property, in the price of 
 crops, in the produce of labor, in the repression of enterprise and in 
 embarrassments of every kind of business and occupation." 
 
 There was much more of the same style and tendency but this 
 brief extract exhibits the substance of all he said on that head. 
 
 In respect to the last point^ — the finality of the decision which the 
 people would make at the election upon the great issue of bank or 
 no bank, then submitted to them by the consent of all parties, he 
 said: 
 
 His (the President's) objections go against the whole substance of the law 
 originally creating the bank. They deny, in effect, that the bank is consti- 
 tutional, they deny that it is expedient ; they deny that it is necessary for the 
 public service. \ 
 
 Again : 
 
 In this place they are such as to extinguish all hope that the present bank 
 or any bank at all resembling it, or resembling any known similar institution, 
 can ever receive his approbation ; he is against the bank and against any bank 
 constituted in a manner known to this or to any other Country. * * * j^ 
 is now certain that without a change in our public councils the bank will not be 
 continued nor will any other be established which according to the general 
 sense of mankind will be entitled to the name. * * * Congress has acted 
 
624 AMEKICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION". 
 
 and its acts have been negatived by the President and this result of the pro- 
 ceedings here places the question with all its connection, all its incidents, 
 fully before the people. * * * Such is this Message. It remains now for 
 the people of the United States to choose between the principles here avowed 
 and their Oovemment. These cannot stand together. The one or the other 
 must be rejected. If the sentiments of the Message shall receive the general 
 approbation the Constitution will have perished.'^ 
 
 Such was the issue which Mr. Webster, as the spokesman for the 
 bank, prepared for the people of the United States. Such, with 
 the exception of the rhetorical hyperbole with which they closed, the 
 legitimate consequences that would, in his judgment, in the estima- 
 tion of all his political coadjutors and of the bank managers, flow 
 from a decision of the people in favor of the President at the elec- 
 tion then on the eve of being held. It was with a distinct under- 
 standing on all sides that this ought to be the effect of the decision 
 about to be made that the issue so clearly explained by Mr. Webster 
 was submitted to the people. To this the friends of the administra- 
 tion, the bank managers, and its political supporters then fully 
 assented. Mr. Webster's speech was published and thoroughly cir- 
 culated at the expense of the bank and the substance of it was 
 reiterated from the stump in every quarter of the land. 
 
 1 Speech of July 11, 1832. Register of Debates, VIII, pt. 1, 1221-1240. 
 
CHAPTEE XLIII. 
 
 In the course of my public life I have not met with another man 
 who came up to Gen. Jackson's standard as well in respect to the 
 strength of his belief in the certainty that a public servant honestly 
 laboring for the welfare of his Country would receive the good-will 
 and support of the people as long as they remained confident of his 
 integrity as in his constant readiness to stake his political reputation 
 upon that faith regardless of consequences merely personal to him- 
 self. Silas Wright was fully his equal in habitual negation of self 
 in the performance of public duties and in his willingness to stake all 
 he had or was on his faith in the virtue of the people, but, probably 
 from a constitutional difference in their temperaments, he did not 
 always feel as certain that all would go well. That as long as the 
 people were at their ease in respect to the sincerity of their representa- 
 tives they would be predisposed to think them right and to support 
 them accordingly was among the earliest and most confirmed con- 
 victions of the General's mind, and one of the numerous and striking 
 fulfilments of which he frequently spoke to me. On the night of my 
 first appearance at the White House, after my return from England, 
 he exhibited when stretched on a sick-bed a spectre in physical appear- 
 ance but as always a hero in spirit — an impressive illustration of his 
 profound and unspeakable trust in the people. Holding my hand in 
 one of his own and passing the other thro' his long white locks he 
 said, with the clearest indications " of a mind composed, and in a tone 
 entirely devoid of passion or bluster—" the bank, Mr. Van Buren is 
 trying to kill me, liut I will kill it! " Never before this time have I 
 referred to this feature of that deeply interesting interview except 
 in the privacy of family intercourse, and I have been solely prevented 
 from doing so by an apprehension that casual hearers of the state- 
 ment, neither understanding the man nor conversant with the oyder 
 of events, might infer that he had been controlled in his struggle 
 with the bank by offended personal feelings — an inference which I 
 know as well as such a thing can be known would be without the 
 slightest foundation in truth. If a wish to propitiate the bank or to 
 avoid its hostility had ever been entertained by him he might have 
 gratified it at any moment after his accession to office. But he had 
 
 " MS. VI, p. 30. 
 127483°— VOL 2— 20 40 625 
 
626 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 taken his stand upon the question of the continuance of that institu- 
 tion long before it entered upon the course which drew from him the 
 words I have quoted, and in them he only gave utterance to his con- 
 sciousness of and his determination to defeat its design in the selec- 
 tion of the time for the presentation of its memorial — a design sub- 
 stantially admitted by Mr. Dallas when he presented it. Gen. Jackson 
 was not the man in the performance of his public duties and upon a 
 great public question to obey the influence of any merely personal 
 motives. On the contrary thoroughly imbued, as I have before said, 
 with the feelings of the political school of which he had been an early 
 graduate, he was, from the beginning, predisposed against the con- 
 tinuance of an institution like that upon which it was inevitable that 
 he would be called to act oflBlcially, and not seeing his way clear to 
 strip it of its objectionable features he soon decided to oppose its re- 
 incorporation. This resolution he was earlier led to adopt by 
 finding himself at once surrounded by the sinister influences which he 
 had been taught to look upon as prominent among the dangerous 
 elements of its power. Having arrived at that conclusion he pro- 
 ceeded to what he considered a duty in the spirit and with the confi- 
 dence of support from the people by which his political course was 
 distinguished throughout. The toils which had been spread with so 
 much art and labor and cost to turn him from the path he had chosen 
 and to destroy him if he persisted in it were crushed beneath his 
 undaunted tread. Notwithstanding the large vote they secured in 
 most of the Northern and Eastern States and especially in New York, 
 through the aid of the Georgia Missionary imposture, (of which I 
 have elsewhere spoken) the bank forces were beaten at every point. 
 Not only was President Jackson re-elected by an overwhelming 
 majority over Mr. Clay, the bank candidate, but to afford the most 
 unmistakable evidence of the determination of the people not to 
 make " the change in our public councils " without which Mr. Webster 
 had insisted that the present bank would not be continued nor would 
 there be the slightest chance for any bank " which, according to the 
 general sense of mankind would be entitled to the name," they, at the 
 same time, elected to the second office in the Government the writer of 
 these pages, who had gone farther than it was perhaps allowable to 
 the President, by reason of his official position, to go in the promulga- 
 tion of unqualified opposition to the bank. They also returned to the 
 popular branch of the Legislature a majority who, unlike their 
 predecessors, were not merely nominally but heartily against the 
 continuance of the bank and who, when a fitting opportunity was 
 presented, erected an impassable barrier against its further progress 
 towards the accomplishment of its objects. 
 
 Such was the result of the first campaign in what was called the 
 bank war. Of the distinctness of the issue upon which- it was waged, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJEBN. 627 
 
 the uniformity of construction placed upon it by all parties, and of 
 their eagerness for the trial I have already spoken. In respect to 
 the unequivocal character of the decision of the people upon the 
 points submitted to them, there was no room for and no attempt at 
 cavil. Unfairness in the election, the common excuse of a defeated 
 party, was in this instance not even pretended. The will of the 
 people in regard to the bank had been most clearly expressed on its 
 own appeal and according to the forms of the constitution. 
 
 The only question that presented itself for the decision of that in- 
 stitution, and the result has afforded a melancholy demonstration 
 of the momentous importance of the question as well to the good of 
 the country as to the interests of the stockholders and debtors of 
 the bank, was whether it would submit to that will, thus solenmly 
 announced and in a form so obligatory, or whether it would con- 
 tinue the war. We have seen what were the promises made in its 
 behalf by its great leader, when he urged an early decision of the 
 main issue, promises which were also virtually made by the bank 
 itself in its memorial to congress for an extension of its charter. 
 " The bank," it said, " should have as much time as possible to 
 execute the duty, always a very delicate and difficult one, to aid the 
 community in seeking new channels of business, and by gradual and 
 gentle movements to press with the least inconvenience on the great 
 interests connected with it." 
 
 Before the election no one affected to doubt the intention of the 
 bank to wind up its concerns. if the decision should be against it. 
 The reasons which rendered that course obligatory need not to be 
 recapitulated. They are clear to the apprehension of all who are sin- 
 cere friends to our institutions and to the great principle on which 
 they are founded — ^that of the sovereignty of the popular will. Upon 
 those who are not they would be urged in vain. The great saving to 
 the interests of the country and to those of the -stockholders and 
 creditors of the bank and to the character of all concerned that 
 would have been made if the bank managers had performed their 
 duty in this respect, is now at least well understood, and sadly con- 
 fessed. But the supporters of that institution, of every hue, decided 
 otherwise, and, swayed alternately by the "rule or ruin" spirit of 
 political partisanship and by the desperate hopes based on the chances 
 that might present themselves in the course of the struggle they de- 
 termined to subject both government and people to a reckless, unscru- 
 pulous and injurious exercise of the immense power of the bank until 
 both should submit to its demands. This is a very grave accusation, one 
 which, in connection with the means hereafter charged to have been 
 employed to carry that most extraordinary determination into effect, 
 conveys imputations, which, if now for the first time brought for- 
 ward, would very properly be received with distress if not with dis- 
 
628 AMBBICASr HISTOEICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 satisfaction. But such is not the case. These charges were fully, 
 and in terms far more severe than those here used, made against the 
 bank in oiEcial papers proceeding from the Chief Magistrate of the 
 country and from other high Executive functionaries, in the reports 
 of standing committees of the national legislature and through the 
 public press, and were in turn repelled, or explained, as best they 
 could be, in the manifestoes of the bank, in coimter-reports, pro- 
 ceeding, in some instances, from similar sources and in the columns 
 of friendly newspapers. Moreover the country has long since passed 
 upon them also, and I am not going farther than the truth will jus- 
 tify, in assuming that its judgment was one of condemnation, severe 
 and irreversible, against the bank. 
 
 It is now more than a quarter of a century since these transactions 
 occurred. The interests out of which they sprang have ceased to 
 be operative and the passions and prejudices by which the actors 
 in them were influenced have in a great measure subsided. It is at 
 a moment so auspicious to truth that I propose — not to re-argue the 
 questions which grew out of them, nor ° to aggravate or ameliorate 
 the nature and tendency of the transactions themselves or of the 
 motives of the parties to ,them, but simply to state the cases they 
 present, truly and as impartially as I can, to remove at least in a 
 degree the obscurity that time and the forgetfulness it breeds have 
 spread over them and to do my part towards preparing them for 
 their place in history. To do this is not only a right common to all 
 but a right which, on the part of those who have possessed oppor- 
 tunities superior to those of the generality of their fellow citizens 
 for performing it, becomes, from that consideration alone, a duty. 
 Will it be asked, why revive the recollection, in all their original 
 sharpness of outline, of scenes once so discreditable and so distress- 
 ing — ^why seek to arrest the obscurity which is settling upon them — 
 why not suffer them to be forgotten ? The answer to such reflections, 
 should they occur to the reader, are numerous, cogent, and incon- 
 trovertible. 
 
 Never, either in time of peacef or in a state of public war, was 
 this Country so thoroughly convulsed, never before was the vital 
 principle — ^that of the sovereignty of the popular will — ^which lies 
 at the foundation of free government and without the complete 
 preservation of which such a government, however plausibly con- 
 structed, is nothing more than an empty pretense, so seriously men- 
 aced, never before were our material interests so severely and wan- 
 tonly injured as they were by the successive struggles of the second 
 Bank of the United States to obtain a renewal of its charter. 
 Those who lived at that day and were conversant with public 
 
 ° MS. VI. p. 35. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OP MARTIlT YAN BtJEEN. 629 
 
 affairs know that all the branches of the Federal Government — 
 Executive, Legislative, and Judicial — as well as those of the State 
 Governments were profoundly agitated by those struggles. They 
 obtruded themselves into all the ramifications of society, shed their 
 baleful influence upon all its interests and for a season suspended, 
 if they did not permanently weaken the recognition of some of its 
 most vital obligations. Is it to be expected that transactions so 
 disturbing in their enactment and pregnant with consequences so 
 vast can be ignored in the history of the Country? This would 
 not be practicable if it were desirable, but it is neither. Erroneous 
 versions of them would unavoidably usurp the pages of history, if 
 pains were not taken to maintain the truth in respect to them. To 
 this end every bona fide effort deserves, on the contrary and should 
 receive the commendation of the community. To make such an 
 effort is one of the objects of this work. If I fail to state the truth 
 in respect to them others will correct the errors into which I may 
 fall. A regard for the interests of truth will, of itself, be a suf- 
 ficient motive to induce them to assume that duty, for the mass of 
 men prefer — nay love the truth when no sinister or selfish objects are 
 to be promoted by its perversion. The time has arrived in respect 
 to these transactions when no such objects can be thus advanced. 
 Most of the men at whose doors these excesses were laid are in 
 their graves and the few who are still left on the political stage, 
 standing like reeds* shaken by the) winds, are divested of all par- 
 tisan vitality. The political party that was responsible for them, 
 because it justified and sought to sustain them, is itself extinct, 
 utterly^ hopelessly extinct. Here and there may, possibly, be still 
 found a few homeless spirits seeking to revivify its dry bones, but 
 the attempt will prove futile. 
 
 For the acts of which I am about to speak, however momentous 
 in their day, there is, therefore, no longer either personal or par- 
 tisan responsibility, or interest in their misrepresentation or misinter- 
 pretation. The truth in respect to them must at some time be told, 
 and with that all should, as all must be satisfied, whatever may be 
 its effect upon the fame of those who have gone before us. It is 
 right that it should be so. The aphorism " de mortvis nil msi honwm " 
 is doubtless founded in the most humane principles, and, when cor- 
 rectly interpreted, its observance is honorable ; it does not however 
 apply to a case of this character. When the rule is restricted to 
 the personal infirmities and private vices of men I for one am con- 
 tent that it should receive the interpretation which its words im- 
 port. The denunciation of such defects — ^when those who were sub- 
 ject to them are no more — ^may, doubtless, on occasions, be made 
 useful to the after generations, but the annoyance to the living 
 
630 AMEEICAK HISTOKIOAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 arising from it is generally certain and its advantages are so often 
 problematical as to render the extension of the charity of silence to 
 oifences of that description, no unreasonable sacrifice to the solemnity 
 and immunity of the grave. But when one whose conduct becomes 
 the subject of animadversion acted for the public in the matter in 
 which his action is impeached, as the representative of his country- 
 men or of a, portion of them, the measure and duration of his re- 
 sponsibility with reason and justice assume a very different com- 
 plexion. In such cases the rule which exempts from personal re- 
 sponsibility the representative who rescues his country from great 
 peril, howsoever illegal the means by which its salvation is ac- 
 complished, — saius popuU suprema lex — attaches to his misdeeds, 
 in turn and with equal justice, an accountability from which the 
 acts of private men are exempted. That no such exemption can be 
 claimed for the conduct of public men for oiRcial malfeasance is 
 now the received opinion of the world. It is interesting to witness 
 the extent to which this principle of responsibility after death to 
 the public opinion of the surviving or of succeeding generations, 
 drawing after it the unreserved disclosure of every thing that ap- 
 pertains to or will serve to explain the acts and motives of their 
 public men in past days, is now carried in England — ^the only coun- 
 try in'Europe where the press is really free ; to see private cabinets 
 and secret depositories, formerly so strictly guarded against the 
 intrusion of inquisitive eyes, now freely searche'd — the most private 
 records, confidential letters and every document that can throw 
 light upon the past unreservedly given to the public for the benefit 
 of the living. The opinions thus manifested as to what is consistent 
 with sound political ethics come from a source entitled to our respect. 
 If there are features in the English system of which we do not ap- 
 prove we must nevertheless admit and admire the purity and fidelity 
 to duty which is there exacted from public men. The preparation 
 and publication of true accounts of the proceedings we are about 
 to describe are thus nothing more than acts of justice to the reputa- 
 tions of the distinguished men who took part in them on one side 
 or another, and at the same time, of the soundest policy in respect 
 to those who come after us. The memories of those who exposed 
 themselves to persecution by pursuing the course which proved to 
 be the right one should be duly honored for their patriotism, their 
 integrity and their intelligence and it is no less right that those 
 who devoted their faculties and their influence to an opposite policy 
 should bear the odium of their misdeeds. Such are and ought to be 
 the conditions upon which men enter into public life and assume 
 public trusts, certainly under all governments that claim to be free. 
 The just apportionment of praise and censure among the actors in 
 those transactions is especially due to the Country which bore the 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 631 
 
 brunt ofxfche evils that were produced by them, and which, if ever 
 again exposed to similar trials, may thus have the benefit of the 
 lesson and tK© warning upon those on whom the administration 
 of public affairSs may chance, in such a crisis, to have devolved. 
 
 The question of a national bank has been, in all its phases and at 
 all times, one of the most disturbing characters in our history. The 
 occasion of which we speak was the fourth on which the Country 
 has been agitated with especial violence by its appearance on the 
 legislative stage. The extent to which our national councils were 
 shaken when the subject was first introduced, with other and kin- 
 dred devices from the fertile genius of Alexander Hamilton, will 
 never be forgotten ; the second arose at the expiration of the charter 
 of the first bank, when a severe struggle was made for its renewal — 
 a struggle in which its petition to Congress was attempted to be 
 sustained by means and influences similar in spirit to those after- 
 wards resorted to, but without success ; the third at the establishment 
 of the second and last bank, through an honest but mistaken impres- 
 sion, on the part of the virtuous Madison, of the necessity of such 
 an institution, and, lastly, the fierce conflict now the subject of our 
 review, and in which as a national institution it was, it is to be 
 hoped, finally overthrown. Whether another attempt to establish 
 a national bank will be made and, if so, how soon, are questions 
 which no man will undertake to answer with confidence. There 
 are certainly many " who think that the subject will never again be 
 revived and this is a consummation devoutly to be wished. But 
 where was the political prophet who, in 1811, when the question of 
 the renewal of the charter of the first bank was decided and, as was 
 at the time supposed, finally decided in the negative by the casting 
 vote of George Clinton and when a large majority of the people 
 said of his course " well done, good and faithful servaat ! "—would 
 have had the boldness to predict that it would be revived and a new 
 national bank established in 1816, less than four years afterwards ? — 
 Especially would such a prediction have been deemed preposterous 
 if it had been also assumed that a result, apparently so improbable, 
 would be brought about by the consent and approval of James 
 Madison! Mr. Webster indeed asseverated that a national bank 
 was an "obsolete idea" but it is to me, not at all likely that the 
 proposition was dictated by a settled opinion founded on a compari- 
 son of the facts of the past with the probabilities of the future. 
 Disappointed and deeply mortified as he was by the failure of the 
 exaggerated estimate he had formed of the invincibility of a great 
 money power willing to devote all its means to the accomplisliment 
 of its objects, it is, to my mind, much more probable that the declara- 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 40. 
 
632 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 tion had its origin in a desire to neutralize, as far and as fast as 
 possible, the odium which he and his party had drawn upon them- 
 selves by their unscrupulous support of the bank. 
 
 It may turn out that the idea of the usefulness of such an institu- 
 tion has been so thoroughly exploded in this Country as to prevent any 
 attempt at its re-establishment among us ; but we have no sufficient 
 reason for assuming such a result as certain, nor adequate motives for 
 exposing ourselves, in this regard to the proverbial hazard of polit- 
 ical currents and speculations. Our political system may be said 
 to be in comparison with others, yet in its infancy, but we have had 
 sufficient experience under it to satisfy us that we can not expect ex- 
 emption from those vibrations in the movements of public questions 
 and events which have so long been witnessed under other and older 
 institutions — vibrations answering to those which are exhibited in 
 most of nature's works and serving to confinn the unerring truth of 
 the declaration of the wisest of men that " the thing that hath been 
 itjs that which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun." 
 
 Having said thus much in deference to a feeling which, neverthe- 
 less, might very well not have arisen in the breast of any reader, we 
 will continue our progress towards the commencement of the " Panic 
 Session." 
 
 The expectation so confidently indulged by the republican support- 
 ers of the administration that the bank would submit to the decision ' 
 that had been made on its appeal and the disappointment they ex- 
 hibited at a different result were more creditable to their political sin- 
 cerity than to their sagacity in estimating the designs of party leaders 
 and of corporate bodies. If the distinguished founder of the paper 
 system in the United States had devoted his powers and his time to 
 the work of infusing into the first national bank the largest share of 
 his own impatience of popular restraint he could not have made it 
 more hostile to the government of numbers than such large monied in- 
 stitutions are by the imperious law of their natures, nor can the infer- 
 ences drawn by the bank in favor of its ability to sustain itself in such 
 a contest as that on which it had resolved, after a comparison of its 
 means with those of the Governmeht, be thought as extravagant as 
 some may have, upon a superficial view of the matter, supposed. Not 
 contemplating any action that would justify the application of the 
 military arm of the Government to the bank or its supporters the 
 latter looked to a struggle in which none but civilians would partici- 
 pate and, thus regarding it, none can fail to perceive how largely the 
 resources of the bank exceeded those of the Government. Against 
 the officers holding their commissions at the pleasure of the latter — a 
 body thought to possess much power but never half so efficient as it is 
 popularly rated — ^the bank had at its command a far more puissant 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN" BUREN. 633 
 
 force in " the train-bands of commerce " and was much better supplied 
 than its assumed rival with the means of enlisting, stimulating and 
 relieving those whom it mustered into its service. A statement of the 
 respective amounts of money and funds convertible into money which, 
 at the period we speak of, were passing thro' the hands and, in various 
 degrees, under the control of the respective governments of the coun- 
 try and of the bank, will seem to the reader at first sight, marvellous ; 
 it is nevertheless vouched by official and authentic reports of both 
 parties. The balance in the National Treasury, at the commencement 
 of the " panic session '' was between four and five millions, the receipts 
 from all sources for the year between 31 and 32 millions and the 
 estimate of the accruing revenue for the year, from which it did not 
 vary much, amounted to between 32 and 33 millions, whilst the annual 
 operations of the bank in discounts and foreign and domestic ex- 
 changes and according to its own published statements, at the same 
 period amounted to three hundred and forty one millions of dollars, 
 and it had on deposit a yearly average in its vaults of six millions of 
 dollars belonging to the Federal Government, besides the deposits of 
 individuals. The revenue of the United States was in due time ap- 
 propriated by law to specific purposes, but whether this was or was 
 not done the President could not use a cent of it, until after the pas- 
 sage of a law authorising him to do so, without exposing himself to 
 the penalties of impeachment; and of the national legislature, by 
 which alone such an act could be passed, it is not too much to say 
 that a majority in one of its branches — ^the Senate — were the de- 
 voted partisans of the bank. The public money subject to the indi- 
 vidual control of the President was that portion constituting the 
 secret service fund, which was limited to fifteen or twenty thousand 
 dollars. The extent of control with which the President of the bank 
 was clothed over its immense funds, at that particular period, will 
 be seen hereafter. I may say here without hesitation or hazard, that 
 as to any amount of them that could in any way be so directed or 
 applied as to promote the object of the bank his authority was not 
 subject to embarrassing restrictions of any kind. 
 
 It was, I doubt not, under some such views of the relative powers 
 of the two governments that the resolution to compel an extension of 
 the charter of the bank, by the arbitrary exercise of those with which 
 it was armed, was formed after the Presidential election of 1832. 
 Among the great men who filled conspicuous parts in the attempt to 
 carry that resolution into effect Nicholas Biddle, then President of 
 the bank, and Henry Clay, the leading member of the Senate of the 
 United States, exerted far greater influence than any of their coadju- 
 tors. Mr. Biddle represented, upon a claim of authority which has 
 never been publicly questioned nor its exercise condemned, the entire 
 
634 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 interests of the bank, its stock holders and all who were concerned in 
 its success and the means it possessed for carrying on the contest in 
 which they, the bank and its political partisans were about to em- 
 bark — ^means without the support of which they could not have 
 hoped to succeed. 
 
 Equally vain and hopeless would the struggle have been without 
 the active co-operation of the political party towards which, although 
 it had been defeated, Mr. Clay occupied the imposing relation of its 
 candidate for the Presidency, and over which he exerted a leader- 
 ship of unusual absolutism and without his concurrence, therefore, 
 that co-operation could not have been secured. There was nothing 
 in the plan of operations, which was devised as the one best adapted 
 to the respective conditions of the bank and its political supporters, 
 that was either repulsive to Mr. Clay's feelings or otherwise calculat- 
 ed to prevent him from embarking in it. Whether its first suggestion 
 came from Mr. Biddle or from himself will probably never be known. 
 Its character reflected the bitter and disappointed emotions excited 
 by the adverse result of the election, over which both were brooding, 
 and it was quite as likely to have originated in the breast of one as 
 of the other. In^mness, intelligence and general capacity both 
 were entirely equal to the parts they were expected to perform in its 
 execution. Mr. Clay possessed a measure of physical and moral 
 courage and of readiness to assume responsibility approaching if not 
 equalling that universally conceded to his great rival Gen. Jackson. 
 Mr. Biddle was a prominent member of a highly respectable family 
 long creditably connected with the public service, in war as well as 
 in peace; a family which, from an early time in our history, oc- 
 cupied a distinguished position in society and were favorably known 
 throughout a large portion of our country, for personal worth 
 and gallant bearing. ° Altho' his official conduct as President of the 
 bank, in the matter brought under discussion in these pages, has been 
 and always will continue to be with me the subject of unqualified con- 
 demnation it is due to truth to say that his private and personal 
 character has never, to my knowledge, been successfully impeached. 
 I knew him from an early period of my life, had considerable inter- 
 course with him, which was not even interrupted by our political dif- 
 ferences but was always agreeable and, I have no reason to doubt, 
 on both sides — ^politics apart — sincerely friendly. The only member 
 of his family with whom I am acquainted is his son, Major Biddle, 
 towards whom I have imbibed feelings of high respect and affection- 
 ate regard. 
 
 Having thus spoken of the general abilities and characters of the 
 two principal leaders in the political crusade which I am about to 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 45. 
 
ATTTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUKBN. 635 
 
 describe I am constrained to add that the judgments of both in 
 respect to the probable effects of the course they had marked out 
 for themselves and their friends upon the feelings and opinions 
 of the great body of the people were, in my humble estimation, very 
 unreliable. Mr. Clay could not have shut his eyes to the political 
 consequences involved in the struggle before him, nor did he affect 
 to do so. If it proved a failure entire political prostration of its 
 leaders, in the ratio of their prominence, must be the result — 
 a catastrophe of which, as the leader in chief, his would be the largest 
 share. If successful it would, in the natural course of things, raise 
 that leader to the Presidency. Having been already twice over- 
 thrown in his aspirations in that direction there was no process of 
 reasoning by which he could avoid the conclusion that the present 
 would be, must be his last chance for that high distinction. He so 
 considered the matter and laid down, as his first requirement — one 
 which was to be distinctly and irrevocably recognized by the bank, 
 and, under no extremities, to be lost sight of — that there should not 
 be on this occasion, as there had been before, a divided leadership. 
 Of this the reader will, before the account of these transactions is 
 closed, be made very certain. He needed the co-operation of both 
 Webster and Calhoun. That of the latter was indispensable. Mr. 
 Webster's not so much so, but highly desirable, and Mr. Clay hoped 
 to obtain both. From Mr. Calhoun he could apprehend no such 
 rivalship as has been alluded to; in respect to Mr. Webster that 
 question stood on different ground and it was toward him, there- 
 fore, that the requisition of which I have spoken was aimed — trust- 
 ing, as reasoning from the past he thought he might safely do, 
 to the influence of the bank over Mr. Webster's action to keep the 
 latter in the harness which was to be prepared for him. Mr. Clay's 
 demands were ultimately satisfied in regard to both of the gentlemen 
 named. For his success with Mr. Webster, however, he was, in all 
 probability, indebted, as the reader will hereafter see, to an agency 
 other than his own or the bank's and of which he was not apprised 
 until a much later period of his life. 
 
CHAPTEE XLIV. 
 
 Of the details of the bank plan of campaign, as it stood at the 
 close of the session of 1832, — I can of course only speak from infer- 
 ences drawn — with such advantages of position for drawing them 
 as I have before pointed out — from facts of undoubted authority. 
 The reader will judge for himself of the correctness of my infer- 
 ences and accord to them the credit to which he may think them 
 entitled. Having for its leading and only avowed object the re- 
 chartering of the bank that plan was necessarily constructed with 
 special reference to the actual condition of the several powers of 
 the Federal Government. No direct action of the people, by which 
 that condition might be seasonably varied, was allowable under the 
 Constitution before the existing charter of the bank would have 
 expired : it was only through new or changed views by which their 
 minds could be impressed and unsettled, that they might be induced 
 to exert an influence over the course of their representatives elect, 
 and thus to promote or to retard the adoption of public measures 
 bearing on the general subject. In the Executive branch no change 
 had taken place. President Jackson had been re-elected for a term 
 extending beyond the bank's charter, his opposition to it had been 
 placed in his Veto-message on grounds that could not be moved 
 and he had been made, if possible, still more absolute against it 
 by the subsequent abuses of its power. The federal element in the 
 Senate, altho' it had been somewhat reduced by the election, was 
 greatly strengthened as against the administration by its more per- 
 fect union with the friends of Mr. Calhoun. The House of Repre- 
 sentatives had undergone a great change in. all respects and par- 
 ticularly on the question of the bank, a majority of friends of the 
 administration having been returned which, tho' not half so large 
 as in the previous Congress, was believed to be not only composed 
 of better stuff in general but especially reliable on that question. 
 
 Further effort to obtain the passage of an act for the desired ex- 
 tension of the charter of the bank from a legislature composed of 
 three separate branches, the consent of every one of which was 
 necessary to the validity of the grant, in despite of the known and 
 settled hostility of one branch and the all but certain opposition 
 of another (both of which held their offices by a tenure reaching 
 beyond the limit of the existing charter) was an undertaking which 
 most men would have looked upon as desperate. But Messrs. Biddle 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 637 
 
 and Clay did not regard their situation in a light so unfavorable. 
 They did not see, or affected not to see any obstacles in these undis- 
 puted facts to the accomplishment of their objects which could not 
 be overcome by a vigorous application of the means at the command 
 of the bank, supported by its political allies. Of the particular 
 character of those means we will speak hereafter; for the present 
 let it suffice to say that they bore no analogy to those which, spring- 
 ing from a conviction in the breasts of suitors of the justice of their 
 applications, consist of arguments and explanations in behalf of 
 what they ask. Whatever may have been their confidence in the 
 merit of their petition, which" it is not necessary to consider here, 
 means of that description were, in the present^case, deliberately laid 
 aside as having already been resorted to without avail and as espe- 
 cially unpromising under existing circumstances. The only appeal 
 that, in their view of the matter, was still open to them and promised 
 success was one which hazarded the unbiased and deliberate opinions 
 of public men, and of the communities for which they acted, as an in- 
 auspicious agency for the solution of public questions, as entirely 
 extraneous and in the last degree sinister in its nature and which, 
 instead of enlightening and fortifying men's minds, served only to 
 bewilder and subvert their judgments and carried in its train the 
 worst evils to the public welfare. If they were enabled to carry 
 their bill thro' the House of Representatives by the use of the 
 means they contemplated, altho' not availing much, in the first in- 
 stance, towards the accomplishment of their immediate object — 
 indeed, advancing them no further than they reached in the first 
 struggle — such a result would, in their estimation, open to them 
 chances of future success of greater value than the cost of an imme- 
 diate triumph however expensive that might be. It would go far 
 to divest the decision of the preceding Presidential election of the 
 influence it had acquired, and to which it was entitled, as a declara- 
 tion of the will of the majority of the people, expressed in a con- 
 stitutional form, against the continuance of the bank; Means potent 
 enough to drive the House of Representatives, which had been chosen 
 under such circumstances, from its integrity and duty would, it was 
 also believed, if they failed to be operative upon the President, yet 
 force the supporters of the administration in both Houses to give 
 way in sufficient numbers to secure for the bill a constitutional ma- 
 jority over the Veto. The President might die in the course of the 
 struggle, an event which, from his advanced age and physical debil- 
 ity, seemed at the time not unlikely, and, in that contingency, his 
 constitutional successor might not prove to possess the firmness 
 necessary to maintain the position he had occupied, a chance easily 
 assumed at least as furnishing an additional ground of hope. If 
 all other calculations failed, the prostration of the existing adminis- 
 
638 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 tration, the election of a friend of the bank as the next President and 
 the establishment of a new bank upon the foundation of the old 
 were ' last resorts ' on which men of temperaments so sanguine as 
 were those of Messrs. Clay and Biddle could not hesitate to rely 
 with entire confidence. 
 
 That such, or something very like them, were their views of the 
 subject and such the nature and general outlines of their plan, as it 
 stood at &e close of that session, is fairly inferable from significant 
 occurrences, both before and after, the character and details of which 
 are neither matter of dispute nor difficult of interpretation. 
 
 The removal of the deposits enabled the bank to change the method 
 and form of the measure for its relief much to its advantage. This, 
 at first, was from necessity intended to be a simple bill to extend the 
 charter; that which was actually proposed was a joiat-resolution 
 to restore the deposits to the place from whence they had been re- 
 moved, which, if if had been adopted would, inevitably, have led to 
 a re-charter. We shall see hereafter the reasons why this change 
 was an improvement in the bank's position. 
 
 The possible inflexibility of an adverse majority" in the new 
 House of Eepresentatives was certainly a formidable difficulty but 
 not sufficient to discourage the bank or its leading supporters. Who 
 those representatives were, what their characters and capacities, their 
 firmness, their spirit, scattered as they were throughout the extended 
 Country, could as yet be little known, and much room for hope was 
 therefore left to those who had been accustomed to speculate upon 
 the weakness of public men and trained in the ways by which they 
 could be influenced. These uncertainties could only be definitely 
 settled at the next session of Congress — ^then comparatively far off. 
 It would, at all events, be a new thing under the sun that a bank of 
 the United States should for a long time remain in a minority in 
 either branch of the National Legislature. The controlling influence 
 of the first bank in the first Congress was notorious, and it may well 
 be doubted whether, as far, at least, as respected the bank's own 
 concerns, that influence had been much less over any of its successors. 
 To the popular branch of the first Congress under Gen. Jackson's 
 administration, which immediately preceded that whose probable 
 character they were canvassing, there had been elected a majority of 
 more than sixty avowed friends of the administration, or " Jackson 
 men," as they were called. Yet before the expiration of its second 
 session the bank had acquired sufficient influence over that body to 
 obtain from it the passage of a bill to extend its charter notwith- 
 standing full Imowledge that the measure had been introduced at that 
 early period — so long before the expiration of its then chartered 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 00, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREST. 639 
 
 powers and rights — with the express purpose of being used to pre- 
 vent Jackson's re-election if he should interpose his Veto; a design 
 virtually admitted by the Senator from Pennsylvania who presented 
 the memorial for the re-incorporation of the rank. In the present 
 House the majority in favor of the administration was less than half 
 that number and among them were some untried men. It was not 
 therefore surprising that the bank and its advocates entered upon 
 the undertaking of converting the second House of Representatives — ■ 
 as they had done for the first — with the confidence which was ob- 
 served in all their movements. 
 
 The agency selected on the second occasion for the development of 
 their joint powers and for the attainment of their respective purposes 
 afforded a striking illustration of the tenacity of the impressions 
 which really great men, sincere in their opinions and having the 
 faculty of winning the hearts and persuading the judgments of 
 others, sometimes stamp on the minds of their followers, especially 
 when those opinions had been gradually crystalized and shaped into 
 a partisan creed. That the people might alwa5rs and could only suc- 
 cessfully be governed through their individual interests or through, 
 their fears was a doctrine which Alexander Hamilton held with the 
 sincerity and avowed with the manly candor which pre-eminently dis- 
 tinguished his character. No one who has made himself in any con- 
 siderable degree acquainted with our political history can be ignorant 
 of this fact, or of the zeal with which he inculcated that doctrine, 
 and of all our public men there has not been one who made such du- 
 rable impressions of the convictions of his own mind on those of 
 friends and followers. By far the largest portion of those to whose 
 management the affairs of the bank were committed and also of the 
 party by which it was sustained was composed of his surviving dis- 
 ciples and their descendants reared in and still devoted to the same 
 faith. The extraordinary effort they made, in the first instance, to 
 enlist the favor of the people on the side of the bank and to secure 
 their support for its candidates by the most assiduous and the most 
 lavish appeals to particular interests has been described in the pre- 
 ceding pages, as well as the failure which attended it and every other 
 in that direction. What more natural tjian that having failed in the 
 application of one of the only two elements of political influence by 
 which Hamilton believed that the action of the public mind could 
 be rightly directed, his political disciples, the early and late admirers 
 of his creed, should resort to the other, or that Mr. Clay, whose con- 
 version to that creed — bank and all— had become complete should 
 not co-operate only but be the chief leader in the enterprise. Hence 
 the origin of the plan which was carried out with such unrelenting 
 vigor, — that of employing the vast means at the disposal of the bank 
 
640 AMEBICAN HISTOKIOAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 in deranging the credits of the Country and of embarrassing business 
 concerns to an extent sufficient to create wide spread distress and to 
 infuse intense alarm for the safety of its every interest into all the 
 ramifications of a great comriiunity — ^to excite public indignation 
 against the Executive branch of the Government by imputing these 
 disastrous occurrences to the interposition of the President's Veto 
 and to the necessity he had wantonly imposed on the bank of pre- 
 paring to wind up its affairs, the evils of which they (the bank lead- 
 ers) had foretold, and to obtain, by means of the extensive panic 
 thus produced, a control over the action of the public mind which 
 would enable the projectors of these criminal schemes not only to 
 mark out for the newly elected House of Representatives the course 
 it should pursue but to gain in the sequel, possession of the General 
 Government. 
 
 Whether those derangements in all our business relations, the ob- 
 stacles they presented to public and private prosperity and the dis- 
 tress produced by them were caused by the action of the Federal 
 Government, or of either of its Departments in relation to the then 
 existing bank of the United States, or were systematically contrived 
 by the bank itself, as is here stated, to subserve bank and partisan 
 purposes, although long and hotly disputed, has ceased to be regarded 
 as an open question by our people. The judgment of the Country, 
 after full hearing and mature consideration, pronounced them to have 
 been parts of a criminal plot devised and cai-ried out to force a con- 
 tinuance of chartered privileges from an unwilling Government and 
 people. In the end that decision was generally concurred in. Here 
 and there may still be found a straggling dissentient from the com- 
 mon sentiment and, for obvious reasons, the sentiment itself may be 
 more or less freely avowed by some than by others, but the conviction 
 of its justness is, nevertheless, in our time almost universal. It was 
 by thus regarding it and by resuming the management of their busi- 
 ness concerns with the means that were left to them that the people 
 of the United States relieved themselves as far and as fast as they 
 could, from the injurious effects of a severe temporary excitement, 
 the fruit of misplaced confidence in those who had raised it for 
 sinister purposes. They shook off an incubus the attempt to fasten 
 which upon them had convulsed the Country; every apprehension 
 for the success and stability of our political institutions was thus 
 quieted and our business interests and relations were in time restored 
 to the condition in which they stood at the commencement of the 
 selfish and unprincipled war that had been waged against them and 
 against the honor and welfare of the nation by and in behalf of 
 the U. S. bank. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 641 
 
 It is of that great struggle — the fiercest, more disturbing, more 
 influential upon the prospects of the public men of the day, and 
 threatening greater dstnger to the vital principles of free govern- 
 ment than any to which those principles have been exposed in this 
 Country since the recognition of our national independence — of its 
 most striking incidents and of its issue that I propose to speak. 
 
 Unprecedented pecuniary embarrassments having been chosen as 
 the groundwork of the contemplated panic the bank was of course 
 looked to as the leading arid most efficient agent for their production. 
 Holding the principal strings and to a great extent controlling the 
 direction of the enormous amount of three hundred and forty mil- 
 lions of the moneyed operations of the Country it was necessary that 
 the business affairs of the latter should have been indeed in a palmy 
 condition to have put it out of the power of that institution to intro- 
 duce any desired extent of derangement in its credits and in the 
 systems by which they were regulated. The bank entered upon its 
 allotted part of the work with the alacrity and energy which dis- 
 tinguishes the operations of large monied institutions moved by the 
 word of command and with a degree of recklessness in respect of its 
 obligations to the Country, to the Government by which it had been 
 created and to the provisions and reservations of its charter which 
 nothing short of its desperate condition could have inspired. Of its 
 measures and plans to forward its designs, devised during the recess 
 and continued during the ensuing session of Congress, I will, in this 
 place, notice those only which have a direct bearing upon the imme- 
 diate objects of the confederates, viz : the undermining of the major- 
 ity of the anti-bank men whom the people had elected to the coming 
 House of Representatives and the excitation and demoralization of 
 the public mind by means of a pecuniary panic. These consisted — 
 
 First: of the steps that were taken to supersede the action of the 
 regular and only board of directors authorized by the charter in 
 regard to all the important movements of the bank which it desired 
 to conceal from the knowledge of the Government ; of these the most 
 important were the substitution of what was called the " Exchange 
 Committee," composed of only five directors, of whom the President 
 of the bank was one and the other four were selected by him, and 
 the bestowment of all but unlimited power on this Committee, whose 
 doings were confidential and from whose councils the Government 
 directors were invariably excluded; 
 
 Secondly: of those by which power was given to °its President 
 over the funds of the institution, including the money of the Govern- 
 ment, as means for operating upon public opinion, without requir- 
 
 " MS. VI, p. 55. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 41 
 
642 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 ing him to render vouchers of their disbursement to the regular 
 board or in any way to account to it for the uses he made of them, to 
 an extent, amply sufficient to enable him to exercise all the influence 
 that could be acquired by the application of money over the public 
 press, over influential individuals and over members of Congress; 
 
 Thirdly: of the movements and measures of the Exchange Com- 
 mittee to derange the credits of the Country and to spread the 
 pecuniary embarrassments over the length and breadth of the land 
 by which the desired panic was produced. 
 
 Others may be briefly noticed in the course of this review, and even 
 of these the substance only can be stated. To describe them respec- 
 tively in detail would require a volume, nor is it indispensable to do 
 more than I have proposed as the record of them in all their original 
 fullness is preserved in our public archives, to which the reader, who 
 desires to test the accuracy of my statements of the leading facts or 
 the correctness of the deductions I have made from them or to obtain 
 ampler views of the subject can refer. 
 
 The Government held one fifth of the capital stock of the bank, 
 viz : seven millions of dollars out of thirty five millions. It kept in 
 its vaults, of public monies, an average annual amount of six millions 
 more, on general deposit and, of course, subject to the use of the bank. 
 It had conferred on that institution vast powers which, it was be- 
 lieved, could, and trusted would be used for the advantage of the 
 Government and of the Country at large as well as fqr that of the 
 bank, but it was also well understood that all their important inter- 
 ests might be made to suffer if the management of the affairs of the 
 bank was not strictly guarded and closely watched. Partly from 
 necessity, at all events rightfully and wisely the Government had 
 assumed the largest share of the responsibility of that watchfulness 
 and, to enable it to discharge the duties it thus assumed with success, 
 powers were reserved to it and restrictions and duties imposed upon 
 the bank by the provisions of its charter which would, it was vainly 
 hoped, be amply sufficient for that purpose. It was, among other 
 things pointing in the same direction, provided by the Charter that 
 " for the management of the affairs of the said Corporation " there 
 should be twenty five directors, five of whom should be annually 
 appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the 
 advice and consent of the Senate, and the residue should be annually 
 elected by the stockholders " other than the United States," and it 
 was further provided that " not less them, seven directors shall con- 
 stitute a board for the transaction of business." These solemn stipu- 
 lations, notwithstanding that the latter was one of the fundamental 
 articles of the constitution of the bank and that both together em- 
 braced the most material provisions for the management of the affairs 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 643 
 
 of the corporation, upon the integrity of which the security of im- 
 mense public interests depended, that institution permitted, nay en- 
 couraged and assisted its President to set at naught by the appoint- 
 ment and action of the "Exchange Committee" to which I have 
 referred. • 
 
 That there may be no mistake as to this cardinal step in these 
 proceedings, through which impunity was expected to be secured 
 for most of the lawless acts that followed, I repeat the words in 
 which Chief Justice Taney, then Secretary of the Treasury, officially 
 communicated the matter to both Houses, at the commencement of 
 the panic session, in the face of the able and active friends of the 
 bank on the floors of Congress : 
 
 Instead of a board constituted of at least seven directors, according to the 
 cliarter, at which those appointed by the United States have a right to be 
 present, many of the most important money transactions of the bank have been 
 and still are placed under the control of a committee of which no one 
 of the public directors has been allowed to be a member since the commence- 
 *ment of the present year. This Committee is not even elected by the board 
 and the public directors have no voice in their appointment. They are chosen 
 by the President of the bank ; and the business of the institution, which ought 
 to be decided on by the board of directors, is, in many instances, transacted by 
 this Committee and no one has a right to be present at their proceedings but 
 the President and those whom he shall please to name as members of this 
 Committee. Thus loans are made unknown at the time to a majority of the 
 board and paper discounted which might probably be rejected at a regular 
 meeting of the directors, the most important operations of the bank are some- 
 times resolved on and executed by this Committee and its measures are, it 
 appears designedly and by regular system, so arranged as to conceal from the 
 officers of the Government transactions in which the public interests are 
 deeply involved.^ 
 
 That the truth of this statement could not be denied was, in various 
 ways, unreservedly admitted as well by the bank as by its supporters 
 in Congress. When Mr. Taney's report of his reasons for removing 
 the deposits, the document in which the statement is contained, was 
 received in the Senate Mr. Clay moved to take it up and to fix a 
 day for its consideration without referring it to a committee. Mr. 
 ■Benton alluded to the various charges of misconduct against the 
 bank which it contained, and upon which the Secretary relied as 
 reasons for the removal, and submitted whether it was not due to 
 the bank, to the Country and to the Senate to have the truth of 
 these charges enquired into before the Senate proceeded to decide 
 upon the sufficiency of the reasons they furnished for the step 
 which the Secretary had taken. Mr. Clay, without direct reply to 
 the suggestion, persisted in his motion. A day having been appointed 
 for the action of the Senate upon the Secretary's report he offered 
 
 1 Report of Secretary of the. Treasury, Dec. 3, 1833. 
 
644 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. ■ 
 
 resolutions^ declaring the reasons assigned by that officer to be 
 insufficient and highly censuring the conduct of the President in 
 the matter, which were discussed for three months. 
 
 Mr. Taney's statement was never refuted either by the bank or 
 by its supporters in Congress, but, on the contrary, not .only was 
 a challenge interposed by a hostile Senator to go into the investiga- 
 tion of its truth declined but the investigation itself was virtually 
 refused thro' the action of the friends of the bank, they constituting 
 a majority of the Senate. It would, therefore, be an act of supero- 
 gation to add another word here to establish its correctness. Am I 
 wrong in assuming that it would be an equal waste of time to 
 enlarge upon the subject for the purpose of establishing the utterly 
 reckless and wholly inexcusable, not to say criminal character of 
 these proceedings? No upright and ingenuous mind, whatever may 
 have been its impressions in respect to other points in the contest, 
 can avoid being forced to that conclusion. Feeling that this must 
 be so, that they present, taken together, a transaction neither the. 
 illegality nor the immorality of which can be made more intelligible 
 by argument or aggravated by denunciation and which, in itself 
 considered, may, without prejudice to the cause of truth, be allowed 
 to stand substantially in the light in which the bank has placed it 
 without coloring or comment, I will so treat it. But in thus declining 
 to probe deeper proceedings which were so exceptionable on their 
 face we cannot, if we would, ignore their plain and conclusive inter- 
 pretation of the character and design of the subsequent acts of the 
 bank. If there had been nothing in the establishment and action of 
 the " Exchange Committee " that shunned the light because its deeds 
 were evil Mr. Biddle would have placed in Mr. Clay's hands, within 
 twenty four hours after the presentation to the Senate of Mr. Taney's 
 report, an authentic statement of facts sufficient to turn the tide 
 of public indignation against that incorruptible officer for his severe 
 but in that case unfounded arraignment of the bank. No office 
 would have been more acceptable to Mr. Clay than that of demol- 
 ishing, at the threshold of the session a man whoio the supporters 
 of the bank disliked to a degree only less than that in which they 
 held President Jackson himself, and whose official course became the 
 central point to which the attention of all parties was then turned 
 and continued to be directed during the remainder of the session. 
 Mr. Clay's unfair attack on Mr. Taney, on the ground of his interest 
 in the Union bank of Maryland, which the latter turned with so 
 much power upon his assailant, would, in that case, never have been 
 tho.ught of. But the record of the doings of the " Exchange Com- 
 mittee " was, from the beginning designed to be a sealed book and 
 
 1 December 26, 1888. 
 
AUTOBloGRAl'HY OF MAKTiif VAN BUEeN. 645 
 
 there was no possible imputation to which it would not be better for 
 the bank to submit than to have those seals broken and its inner 
 workings revealed to the knowledge of the Government and to the 
 gaze of the people. 
 
 Of the measures which were concocted in that secret and irrespon- 
 sible Council of Five, and which were attempted to be carried into 
 effect under its powerful auspices, I can here only make room for a 
 brief notice of one of great interest by which the public mind was, 
 in the sequel, profoundly moved. When General Jackson arrived at 
 the Presidency our national debt stood at " about sixty millions, and 
 no object was nearer his heart than that of its extinguishment during 
 his administration. The height of his remaining ambition was to 
 place the great Republic by the side of the Empires of the old world, 
 enjoying, in addition to her other glories, the proud distinction of 
 being free of any public debt — ^that wasting canker of the nations. 
 If the appropriations for the payment of the national debt, recom- 
 mended to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, by order of 
 the President, in December 1832, had been fully made and applied, 
 he would have succeeded in that the last year of his first official 
 term in reducing the debt (including the payment of interest) fifty- 
 eight million of dollars since his elevation to the Presidency. This 
 would have left the whole amount due on the first of January, 1833, 
 only a little over seven millions, for the discharge of which the 
 Government stock in the bank of the United States, with the ac- 
 cruing dividends, was considered amply sufficient. This assumed 
 reduction included an item of eighteen millions to be paid in 1832, 
 which embraced thirteen millions — the whole amount of the old 
 three fer cents, funded by the act of 1790, and constituting the last 
 instalment of our revolutionary debt. It was advertised for re-im- 
 bursement on the first of October, 1832, and for that purpose the 
 Treasury department had made all the provision supposed to be 
 necessary at the different loan offices. On the very eve of the accom- 
 plishment of this great object and but a few days before the Presi- 
 dent's annual Message of December 1832 in which he congratulated 
 Congress and the Country on its consummation, it was discovered 
 (it does not appear how) that the bank, through its " Exchange Com- 
 mittee," had, in the month of July preceding, and without even the 
 knowledge of the Government, sent a secret agent to London to 
 make an arrangement with Baring Brothers & Co. for the post- 
 ponement of three millions of that stock, for which they were the 
 agents, and also two millions in addition, for six, nine, or twelve 
 months after the date designated by our Government for its reim- 
 bursement ; that the Barings had agreed with the agent of the bank 
 
 " MS. VI. p. 60. 
 
646 AMEMCAN MlSTORlOAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to buy up the three per cent stocks upon the best terms at which 
 they could be procured — ^to charge the bank with the outlay, to re- 
 tain the certificates themselves and, if the amount of the stock so pur- 
 chased and that retained by the holders should be less than five 
 millions, to make up the deficiency in case the bank should desire 
 to draw for it — and that the purchase of the stock was actually 
 made to the extent of a million and a half ; that, on receiving infor- 
 mation of this purchase, Mr. Biddle had discovered that the bank 
 had no right to purchase any public debt whatever and that the step 
 he was taking might operate as a forfeiture of the charter for the 
 renewal of which he was making such prodigious exertions; that 
 he had disavowed so much of the arrangement made by his agent 
 as related to the purchase of stock, on the ground of a want of 
 power in the bank to carry it into effect and had substituted in lieu 
 thereof a proposition that the Barings should send to the bank the 
 certificates, that it should receive the money for the owners, pass it 
 to their credit on the books of the bank which should pay them the 
 subsequent interest, quarterly, until October 1833. 
 
 It is apparent on the face of these proceedings that the bank's 
 immediate object was to add, for its protection against possible 
 contingencies, five millions to its disposable funds. To secure that 
 accommodation, independent of its pecuniary engagements, it in- 
 curred the responsibility of a studiously concealed but most fiagrant 
 violation of duty as the fiscal agent of the Government, a violation 
 which acquired the distinction of being the only one of its promi- 
 nent transgressions which its friends in the House, altho' willing to 
 palliate, did not attempt to justify. The time at which such a 
 step was taken — only four months before the Presidential election, 
 upon the result of which its fate was supposed to depend, — and the 
 hazard of exposure shew very conclusively that its interest in the 
 movement or its necessity for the money was of the most urgent 
 character, and that whatever its motives they looked principally to 
 its own welfare. What was the precise channel thro' which the 
 bank was to be benefitted by that acquisition to its disposable funds 
 or to what particular purposes the five millions were designed to be 
 applied are undivulged secrets of which the public, will, probably, 
 never be fully informed.'^ It is sufficient for the condenmation of 
 the bank for us to know that those funds had been set apart and as it 
 
 ] The Inference here is unjustified. The drain upon the Bank's funds, regardless of 
 causes, had been enormous ; the financing of private business enterprises had been given 
 the precedence over the Government's interests and the money was needed for the dis- 
 charge of that portion of the public debt the administration desired to cancel. The Gov- 
 ernment deposits, theoretically In the Bank's vaults, In reality vfere largely engaged 
 elsewhere in commercial activities, and for this situation, of course, the Bank Itself 
 was entirely responsible. The matter Is discussed at some length In Cattarall's Second 
 Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1903), pp. 267-273. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAK BUREN. 647 
 
 were consecrated to a sacred and glorious object — the payment of 
 the last remnant of the debt which had been contracted for the 
 achievement of our independence ; that an important measure of the 
 Government was thwarted through the infidelity of the bank and 
 the nation compelled to continue for a time liable for a debt which 
 it was ready and desirous to extinguish ; that this was brought about 
 by the secret management of a committee of an institution which was 
 the custodian of the people's strong box and the trusted fiscal agent 
 of their Government. 
 
 The instructions for the secret agent ^ sent to London were, as it 
 afterwards appeared, dated on the 18'" of July, 1832, barely a week 
 after the date of the President's veto Message and closer still upon 
 the failure of the bank to obtain a constitutional majority in the Sen- 
 ate. They were issued and the agent selected whilst its spirited but 
 reckless President was yet deliberating with the no less reckless lead- 
 ers of the party which had made the cause of the bank its own and 
 maturing in concert plans for the ensuing political campaign in which 
 the fate of that party, for a long time at least, and the fate of the 
 Constitution were to be decided. 
 
 The unprecedented success of President Jackson's efforts for the 
 payment of the national debt, during his first term had already been 
 recognized by his fellow citizens as worthy of a civic crown and 
 promised to be of no small weight in his favor in the approaching 
 struggle. The additional eclat which his persevering exertions in 
 that direction would derive from an announcement promulgated on 
 the first of October, a single month before the election, that the last 
 cent of our revolutionary debt had on that day been paid and so ap- 
 . propriately paid under the administration of one who might be called 
 a shoot from the seed of that ever memorable contest, was a considera- 
 tion not likely to be overlooked by astute politicians such as led the 
 bank forces, especially when so m.uch had been staked on the canvass 
 to be influenced by that annunciation.^ Had it not been for the fate 
 which subsequently befell the bank, at a period not too remote to 
 countenance the inference that its condition may already have been 
 sufficiently precarious to make necessary these disreputable transac- 
 tions to guard against a collapse pending the canvass, we might not 
 have looked for other than political motives for their commission, but, 
 reviewing those scenes from the point we now occupy and in the light 
 of the developments at which I have glanced, it is difficult to resist 
 
 1 Gen. Thomas Cadwalader. 
 
 2 It was not overlooked, but Biddle's plan for accomplishing it was in the nature of a 
 trade, with the renewal of the charter as the consideration. Biddle's handling of the 
 matter was at fault ; his misunderstanding of Jackson and presumption in assuring his 
 friends that the charter would be renewed caused suspicion and irritation in Jackson's 
 mind that counted heavily against the Bank thus early in the struggle. 
 
648 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the conclusion that the material interests and condition of the institu- 
 tion furnished the strongest inducements to its desperate steps. 
 
 Favored by the intense national excitement and through the jug- 
 glery of financiering — ^the sinister side of an otherwise highly use- 
 ful and honorable art — in the occult mysteries of which, unhappily 
 for himself and for the bank, he thought himself an adept, Mr. 
 Biddle was able to prevent for a season a successful scrutiny into 
 his motives and to confuse the subject sufficiently to qualify public 
 feeling, but in the sequel his disguises have been broken through and 
 his acts unreservedly condemned. 
 
 The separate and comparatively irresponsible control given to 
 their President by the board of Directors over the funds of the bank, 
 including of course those of the Government, avowedly for elec- 
 tioneering purposes, is the next subject I propose to notice. As is 
 often the case with similar abuses this had its beginning in an incon- 
 siderable and perhaps excusable transaction, but, as usual also, it 
 increased in extent and boldness with the growth of the motive in 
 which it originated and the impunity which was extended to it until 
 the caution and moderation of its earlier stages were openly dis- 
 carded. An article appeared in the American Quarterly Review 
 highly complimentary to the bank, and, in November, 1830, the board 
 passed a resolution authorizing the President to take such measures 
 in regard to its circulation at the expense of the bank as he might 
 deem most conducive to the interests of the latter. Not contenting 
 himself with doing what he was authorized to do the President 
 caused to be re-published and circulated other papers and docu- 
 ments ° having a similar tendency, and, in March, 1831, he suggested 
 to the board the propriety of empowering him to cause " to be pre- 
 pared and circulated such documents and papers as might communi- 
 cate to the people information in regard to the nature and operation 
 of the bank " — ^which suggestion was promptly carried out. The ex- 
 penses thus incurred in the years 1831 and 1832 (those of the Presi- 
 dential canvass) amounted to eighty thousand dollars, as far as the 
 Government Directors were enabled to obtain an account of them. 
 Finding no vouchers for many of these other than the President's 
 order, and that often too general to shew to whom and for what the 
 money was paid, those directors, alarmed by what they had seen and 
 by discovering similar operations in progress upon an increased scale, 
 offered to the general board a resolution asking a specific account of 
 those expenditures and of the purposes for which they had been in- 
 curred and of the names of persons to whom the moneys had been 
 paid. This proposition, which seemed to be very proper and reason-, 
 able, was promptly voted down. They next moved to rescind the 
 resolution of March, 1831, under which those exceptionable steps' 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 6B. 
 
AITTOBIOGBAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 649 
 
 had been taken. The consideration of that proposition was deferred 
 by the board, on the motion of one of its members, for the purpose 
 of receiving the following as a substitute : 
 
 Resolved, that the board have confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the 
 President and in the propriety of the resolutions of the 30th November, 1830, 
 and the 11th March, 1831, and entertain a full conviction of the necessity of 
 renewed attention to the object of those resolutions and that the President be 
 authorized and requested to continue Ms exertions for the promotion of such 
 oiject. 
 
 The Government Directors, determined it seems to leave the bank 
 without an excuse for refusing to give the particulars they had asked 
 of past expenditures, offered the following amendments to the pre- 
 ceding resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That while this board repose entire confidence in the integrity of 
 the President they respectfully request him to cause the particulars of the ex- 
 penditures made under the resolutions of 30th November 1830 and 11th March 
 1831 to be so stated that the same may be readily submitted to and examined 
 by the board of Directors and the stockholders. 
 
 Resolved, that the said resolutions be rescinded and that no further expendi- 
 tures be made under the same. 
 
 These amendments were voted down and the substitute was forth- 
 with adopted.^ This took place in August 1833, a few weeks after 
 the bank had despatched its secret agent to England to thwart the 
 Government in its purpose to redeem the three per cent stock, an act 
 which of itself, and more especially when considered in connection 
 with the virtual sequestration of the Government funds to satisfy a 
 groundless claim for damages on account of the protest of the French 
 draft ^ and in regard to the Pension Agency,^ shows that the bank then 
 regarded itself as engaged in a struggle a I'outrance and deemed every 
 measure allowable that might serve to advance its objects — the only 
 rule on which this last step in regard to the funds of the Government 
 can be accounted for.* 
 
 In regard to the construction Mr. Biddle felt himself at liberty to 
 place upon a resolution so worded, its passage being accompanied by 
 an express refusal to call upon him to say what he had done with the 
 monies already expended save those the outlay of which he had been 
 pleased to account for, there is no room for misapprehension. Nor 
 can any doubt exist as to what he deemed the most eligible channel 
 through which the power thus conferred could be exerted with the 
 greatest advantage. It was doubtless intended to operate through the 
 
 I See House Elxecutlye Documents, 23d Congress, 1st Session, Nos. 2 and 12 for reports 
 of tlie government directors to Jackson. 
 
 ' The French Indemnity bill the damage claim for which was finally decided against 
 the Bank by. the U. S. Supreme Court on a point of law. 
 
 "The control of the pisnslon funds was a dispute of some years standing. Here again 
 the Government's attitude was not above criticism. 
 
 * Van Buren, apparently, could not conceive of the possibility that the Bank's struggles 
 were, in part, efforts to preserve its financial strength to meet obligations, the imprudent 
 assumption, of which was an entirely different question. 
 
650 AMERICAN- HISTORICAL aSsOGIATIOIT. 
 
 means thus supplied upon all who were in a situation to exert an 
 influence upon public opinion or immediately upon the pending ques- 
 tion, upon the conductors and proprietors of the public press, upon 
 outsiders who wrote for it, upon members of Congress and upon influ- 
 ential individuals who were capable of shaping their course. How 
 much was done in any or in all of those directions, what attempts 
 were made by direct applications of money or by nominal loans upon 
 straw security, of the existence of which we have heard from various 
 quarters, to influence the action of the new House of Eepresenta- 
 tives — ^the important pivot upon which the movement of the bank and 
 its allies during the approaching session of Congress was destined to 
 turn, will never be fully known. The empty vaults of that once 
 powerful institution at a not very remote subsequent period would 
 seem to mock the notion that nothing was done in that way : thirty 
 five millions of bank capital are not wasted in a day. But nothing 
 can be further from my intention than to say or insinuate, either in 
 these surmises or by anything I have before advanced or may here- 
 after say, unless a change of opinion in this respect on my part is 
 distinctly announced, that I believe Mr. Biddle to have been capable 
 of abasing his position to advance his own pecuniary interest — as 
 the phrase runs to " feather his own nest " — ^by the acquisition in any 
 way of illicit gains. I have always regarded him in that respect as 
 a true disciple of Alexander Hamilton, whom I have considered as 
 free from such reproach as were Washington or Jefferson. Hamilton, 
 who never hesitated to jeopard the general for the support and en- 
 couragement of special interests, to conciliate the favor and to pur- 
 chase thus the adherence of the classes engaged in the latter, would 
 never have countenanced the application of the public money in direct 
 bribery and would not have survived the consciousness of having per- 
 mitted a dollar of it to reach his own pocket unworthily. I have 
 elsewhere spoken of the sacrifice, beyond measure painful, to which 
 he submitted to prevent the purity of his official character from be- 
 ing exposed to the slightest suspicion by accusations which he might 
 have defied with safety. Such, I am very confident, was the opinion 
 which his great rival Jefferson had formed of his character and 
 which he intended to express to me when, speaking on that or a 
 kindred subject, he exclaimed " Hamilton was above that ! " or " above 
 such things." Such was also, as I believe, essentially the case with 
 President Biddle. He engaged in a contest the excitements and irri- 
 tations of which brought his mind at length to the conviction that the 
 application of all means to influence the conduct of others that could 
 be useful and effectual was allowable but he never saw the day, I am 
 persuaded, when he would have failed to turn from the mere idea of 
 being himself sustained by the wages of corruption with disgust 
 and scorn. 
 
AtfTOBlOGRAPHY OF MAETIN VAK BtfBEN. 651 
 
 Such power as was given by the action of his board of Directors 
 was not likely to remain long unemployed in the hands of a man like 
 Mr. Biddle, especially as its application looked towards the accom- 
 plishment of an object he had so much at heart and in respect to 
 which each faculty of his excitable nature had been stirred into ac- 
 tion. Everything was doubtless attempted to be affected by it that 
 lay within its reach but the great levers by which the public mind 
 was to be unsettled, the Country distracted and the in-coming House 
 of Eepresentatives driven from the anti-bank position it was ex- 
 pected to assume were the prostration of credit and the consequent 
 disorganization and depression of the business of the Country which 
 were to be brought about thro' the agency of the bank and at- 
 tributed to the necessity to which it had been driven of preparing to 
 wind up its affairs by the refusal to extend its charter, with the em- 
 blazonment and exaggerations of the distress thus visited on the land 
 to be fulminated during the coming session from the Halls of Con- 
 gress,^ Of the ability of the bank and its numerous branches, scat- 
 tered over the Country, to produce at will such a state of things no 
 intelligent man can entertain a moment's doubt when he calls to mind 
 the many millions which passed annually thro' its hands in the 
 shape of discounts, deposits and exchanges, foreign and domestic, to 
 which I have before alluded, and the control these gave to it not 
 only over most of our business men but also over the State banks — a 
 control made almost absolute by the possession of the public de- 
 posits. The assumed preliminary arrangements having been com- 
 pleted the first impulse in that great fiscal and political coup d'etat 
 by the U. S. bank, by which it was designed to discipline the 
 majority in one branch of our National Legislature and to humiliate 
 another, was given in the month of August, 1833. This was followed 
 up by the bank with others in the same direction and having the same' 
 objects not only until the meeting of Congress but far into the session. 
 
 ° Anxious to bring what I desire to say in respect to the conduct 
 of the bank in this connection within the narrowest compass con- 
 sistent with what is due to truth, I shall content myself with trans- 
 ferring to these pages two accounts of it prepared at the time with 
 much care by well known and capable gentlemen whose power of 
 
 ^ The proposition Is not, however, so elemental as Van Buren states it. That the 
 Bank deliberately engineered a panic is, at least, debatable. During a period of unusual 
 business expansion the Bank made imprudent grants of credit which facilitated and en- 
 couraged further expansion, which, in turn, demanded the grant of further credits. This 
 condition went far toward creating a financial situation unequal to a sudden, heavy 
 strain. This strain the Government supplied by adopting its perfectly legitimate plan of 
 paying oft the public debt — a pet idea of Jackson's, the political importance of which 
 Biddle, apparently, failed to grasp. That the Bank was ruthless In its measures for self- 
 protection and that its ruthless contraction of credits to this end was largely responsible 
 for the panic cannot be gainsaid. 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 70. 
 
652 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 condensation is greatly superior to my own and of whose claims to 
 credit the reader will be at liberty to judge for himself. 
 
 The first is from the report of Roger B. Taney, then Secretary of 
 the Treasury and now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, of the reasons which had induced him to remove the 
 public deposits from the bank, made to both Houses of Congress at 
 the opening of the panic session. This paper was sent to the Senate, 
 of which body the enemies of the Administration constituted a very 
 decided majority, including such men as Clay, Webster, and Calhoun 
 with many others scarcely less able and all abundantly qualified, by 
 talents as well as by facilities for obtaining all necessary statements 
 from the bank, to detect any error of fact or of deduction into which 
 Mr. Taney might have fallen ; to a body moreover which was soon to 
 pass upon his own nomination for the high office for which he had 
 been selected ajid which it was not, at that early period of the ses- 
 sion, supposed by the sober minded men of either party could be 
 brought to strike down a man of a character so singularly miex- 
 ceptionable without a better excuse than that of expediency or parti- 
 san prejudice. It was freely and fearlessly committed to the hands 
 of men who had the strongest possible temptation to arraign and con- 
 demn him if it could be shown that he had done injustice to an im- 
 portant monied institution imder the impulse of political hostility. 
 
 Mr. Taney thus speaks of the conduct of the bank upon the subject 
 under consideration: 
 
 The situation of the mercantile classes also rendered the usual aids of the 
 bank more than ever necessary to sustain them in their business. Their bonds 
 for previous Importations were, as before stated, constantly becoming due and 
 heavy cash duties were almost daily to be paid. The demands of the public 
 upon those engaged in commerce were consequently unusually large and they 
 had a just claim to the most liberal indulgence from the fiscal agent of the 
 Government, which had for so many years been reaping harvests of profits from 
 the deposits of the public money. But the bank about this time changed its 
 course.^ 
 
 By the monthly statement of the bank dated 2d Aug., 1833, it 
 appears that its loans and domestic bills of exchange, pur- 
 chased and on hand, amounted to $64, 160, 349. 14 
 
 By the monthly statement of the 2d Sept., 1833, they appear 
 
 to have been 62, 653, 359. 59 
 
 By that of the 2d Oct., 1883, they were 60,094,202.93 
 
 Reduction in two months 4, 066, 146. 21 
 
 By the same papers it appears that the public deposits, including those for 
 the redemption of public debt, the Treasurer's and those of the public officers, 
 
 were, in Aug $7, 599, 931. 47 
 
 in Sept 9, 182, 173. 18 
 
 in Oct 9, 868, 435. 58 
 
 Increase of the public deposits in two months 2, 268, 504. 11 
 
 Total amount collected from the community 6, 334, 650. 32 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 653 
 
 Thus upwards of six millions of dollars were withdrawn from the business 
 of the Country by the bank of the United States in the course of two months. 
 This of itself must have produced a pressure on the money market, affecting 
 all commercial transactions. But the curtailment in the bank accommodations 
 of the community was much larger. The policy adopted by the bank of the 
 United States compelled the State banks to take the same course in self defence 
 and the bank of the United States appears to have resorted to the expedient 
 of drawing from the State banks the balances due in specie and to have hoarded 
 up the article in its own vaults. 
 
 In August, 1833, that bank had in specie $10, 023, 677. 38 
 
 In September 10,207,649.20 
 
 In October 10, 663, 441. 51 
 
 Showing an increase of specie in two months 639, 764. 13 
 
 This sum it is believed was chiefly drawn from the state banks. To fortify 
 themselves those banks were compelled to call upon their debtors and curtail 
 their accommodations ; and so large a proportion of these calls are always paid 
 in their own .notes that to obtain $100,000 in specie they are probably obliged 
 to call for four or five times that amount. To replace the specie taken from 
 them by the bank of the U. States and to provide for their own safety the State 
 banks, therefore, must have curtailed from two to three millions of dollars. On 
 the whole it is a fair estimate that the collections from the community, during 
 those two months, without any corresponding return, did not fall much short 
 of nine millions of dollars. As might have been expected complaints of a pres- 
 sure upon the money market were heard from every quarter. The balances 
 due from the State banks had, during the same time, increased from $368,- 
 969.98 to $2,288,573.19 and, from the uncertain policy of the bank, it was appre- 
 hended they might suddenly be called for in specie. The State banks, so far 
 from being able to relieve the community, found themselves under the neces- 
 sity of providing for their own safety. 
 
 A very large proportion of the collections of the bank in August and Septem- 
 ber were in Philadelphia, New York and Boston. In August and September 
 
 the curtailment in Philadelphia was $195, 548. 69 
 
 Increase of public deposits 646, 846. 80 
 
 Actual collections by the bank ^ $842,395.49 
 
 Increase of public deposits in New York $1, 396, 597. 24 
 
 Deduct increase of loans 331,295.38 
 
 Actual collections of the bank 1,065,301.86 
 
 Curtailment in Boston was 717,264.45 
 
 Increase of public deposits 48,069.88 
 
 Actual collections of the bank 765,334.33 765,334.33 
 
 Total collections in the three cities $2,673,031.68 
 
 It win be perceived that it was solely thro' the increase of the public de- 
 posits that the bank raised balances against the State banks in New York, and 
 was placed in a situation to take from them at its pleasure large sums in specie. 
 And when it is considered that those curtailments and collections of the bank 
 of the United States necessarily compelled the State banks to curtail also we 
 shall be at no loss to perceive the cause of the pressure which existed ill the 
 commercial cities about the end of the month of September. It was Impossitile 
 
654 AMERICAK HISTORICAX, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 that the commercial Community could have sustained itself much longer under 
 such a policy. In the two succeeding months the collections of the hank would 
 probably have exceeded five millions more and the State banks v^ould have been 
 obliged to curtail in an equal sum. The reduction of bank accommodations to 
 the amount of nineteen millions of dollars in four months must have almost put 
 an end to trade ; and before the first of October this pressure in the principal 
 commercial cities had become so intense that it could not have been endured 
 much longer without the most serious embarrassments. It was then daily In- 
 creasing and, from the best information that I have been able to obtain, I am 
 persuaded that if the public monies received for revenue had been continued to 
 be deposited In the bank of the.United States for two months longer and it had 
 adhered to the oppressive system of policy which it pursued during the two 
 preceding months a wide spread scene of bankruptcy and ruin must have fol- 
 lowed. There was no alternative therefore for the Treasury Department but to 
 act at once or abandon the object altogether. Duties of the highest character 
 would not permit the latter course and I did not hesitate promptly to resort 
 to the /ormer. [Niles' Register, vol. 45, p. 261.] 
 
 1 he curtailment of the bank subsequent to the preparation of this 
 paper, as derived from its own reports, was as follows: — ^between the 
 first of December, which was the day before Congress met and the 
 first of July, 1834, when Congress adjourned, $3,428,132; between the 
 first of July and the first of September, $3,965,474; total reduction 
 in thirteen months, including that which took place before the first of 
 December, $17,100,851 upon a discount line of sixty four millions, at 
 which it stood August 1st 1833, when its curtailment commenced ; and 
 all this was done whilst the Government deposits in the bank had only 
 been reduced five millions between the first of August 1833 and the 
 first of August 1834. 
 
 I beg the reader to reperuse and reflect upon the above brief extract 
 from Mr. Taney's report — to observe the clearness, the distinctness 
 and the obvious freedom from either reserve or passion which charac- 
 terize its statement of the facts that belong to the case and the irre- 
 fragable proofs it deduces from them that the acts imputed to the bank 
 were voluntary and were the results of a preconcerted" plan to disor- 
 ganize and break up, at least for a season, the system of credits imder 
 which the Country was then and had been for a long time carried on 
 with fair success and to throw apparently insurmountable obstacles 
 in the way of its farther prosecution, to tie up the State banks, hand 
 and foot, and, thus manacled, to exhibit to their view the necessity of 
 closing their doors as the certain penalty of any assistance they might 
 be tempted to afford the Government by the supply of places of deposit 
 for the public funds in lieu of its own vaults, and, as an imavoidable 
 consequence, to fill the Country with excitement and panic. 
 
 That this was undertaken with a latent design on the bank's part, 
 after it had forced an extension of its charter from the fears of the 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 75. 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 655 
 
 Country, to reconstruct the system thus rudely arrested is highly 
 probable, perhaps undoubted. 
 
 I cannot take it upon myself to say that in the numerous mani- 
 festoes of the bank, in the reports of Committees devoted to its sup- 
 port or in public speeches, proceeding from similar sources, — docu- 
 ments which, from their obvious design to pervert instead of to main- 
 tain the truth, soon became obsolete — attempts were not made to over- 
 throw Mr. Taney's facts and to explode his deductions. But that 
 such attempts were unattended with the slightest success is certain. 
 
 My next extract is from a speech made by Churchill C. Cambre- 
 leng, a gentleman who deservedly occupied a high position among 
 the ablest and purest of the representatives whom the great city of 
 New York has, from time to time, sent to the National Legislature. 
 It was a partisan speech made before the Eepublican young men of 
 New York, in the course of a political campaign, the next after the 
 panic session and after the game which had engrossed its attention 
 was substantially played out. Its statements may therefore be taken 
 with a portion, tho' not a large one, of the allowance which is com- 
 monly and properly made in such cases. I have known Mr. Cam- 
 breleng long and intimately and I am quite sure that I well under- 
 stand his character. A North Carolinian by birth and a friend and 
 disciple of Nathaniel Macon he has throughout our intercourse dem- 
 onstrated himself to my observation as honest as the steelyard and 
 as direct in the pursuit of his purpose as a shot from a culveria. 
 He is a clear headed, painstaking, indefatigable and conscientious 
 man, ardent in politics but incapable of knowingly saying anything 
 to advance his cause which he does not believe to be true, and, to 
 me at least, he always seemed to be as anxious and careful in respect 
 to his representation of facts as if he was under oath. Indeed I 
 have never known a man to whose statements I would more readily 
 trust my own interests. Proudly conscious of the character he had 
 acquired there was small danger that he would commit himself to 
 any averments in the presence of his constituents upon a most ex- 
 citing subject which he had not fully considered. What, he said 
 on the occasion referred to was spoken and published in the vicinity 
 of the bank, by the side of the most important of its branches, and 
 was liable, if untrue, to be exposed and contradicted at the moment, 
 and I know that nothing could have been more mortifying to him, 
 apart from any impeachment of his truthfulness, than to have been 
 convicted of inaccuracy upon the subject, nor any greater pains 
 taken to be correct. 
 
 The first step taken by the bank, [he said] was on the 13th August, last 
 year, (1833) — the second on the 1st of October. The resolutions adopted by 
 the Board ordered that the premium on exchange should be advanced — that no 
 bills should be purchased, except on the Atlantic cities. Mobile and New Or- 
 
656 AMBEICAK HISTOKICAIi ASSOCIATION. 
 
 leans, and at shorter dates — that loans in the interior should be converted into 
 bills on these cities — that the branches should discontinue receiving the notes 
 of distant State banks — that the balances against all such banks should be 
 collected, and the bank immediately commenced a rapid curtailment. These 
 measures calculated to ruin our merchants, break our institutions and disturb 
 our currency and exchanges, were adopted because other banks were about to 
 be employed to collect the public revenue ! Such were the preparations made 
 for an explosion on the meeting of Congrfess. With the session the campaign 
 commenced vigorously, its friends In both Houses opened in full cry, while the 
 operations of the Exchange Committee were active in every part of the Union. 
 The resolutions of the 13th August were expressly designed to arm the branches 
 on the Atlantic, and especially the New York branch, with funds in bills at 
 ninety days to create a debt against the local banks. Under the resolutions of 
 both dates some thirty or forty millions in bills were thrown into the Atlantic 
 cities. Mobile and New Orleans, for collection. While these millions were 
 drawn from the diminished resources of our distressed merchants and while 
 the local banks were alarmed at thejr accumulating debts to the branches the 
 public men were amused with weekly statements of their discounts as an evi- 
 dence of their friendship. Armed with these millions in Western drafts, with 
 balances steadily accumulating, the branch at New York would have drawn 
 from our city banks their last dollar and would have broken every bank in the 
 Union had not the Secretary of the Treasury, between the 30th September and 
 the 1st April, prevented that branch from collecting $8,760,000 — had he not 
 armed our city institutions with near nine millions to defend the whole Country 
 in this war upon its trade and currency. [Extra-Globe, 1834, page 181.] 
 
 The additional details of the steps taken 'by the bank to involve 
 and embarrass the credits and business of the Country (and they 
 are nowhere so intelligently stated) embraced the fruits of move- 
 ments matured and developments made subsequent to Mr. Taney's 
 report, and which, as far as they existed when the latter was pre- 
 pared were known only to the Exchange Committee and perhaps to 
 its political confidants. Both Mr. Taney and Mr. Cambreleng 
 hint, tho' in different degrees, the removal of the deposits as a 
 measure determined upon in consequence of the curtailmcint by the 
 bank of its line of discount, and on referring to the files of the 
 bank press and other channels thro' which that institution was de- 
 fended it will be found that those curtailments are justified and 
 excused on the ground that they had been made indispensable by 
 the removal of the deposits. These assumptions on either side were 
 in the main unfounded. The two proceedings ran into each other 
 and were used after their appearance to strengthen the respective 
 positions which the President and the bank had assumed: they, 
 notwithstanding, originated in sources substantially if not wholly 
 independent of each other. 
 
 In respect to his own action, Mr. Taney took the case as it stood 
 at the moment and the reasons and motives by which he was gov- 
 erned in consenting to. be the agent for the removal of the deposits 
 were doubtless precisely such as he described them. But, as has al- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN \AN BUBEN. 657 
 
 ready been in part explained, that measure, if satisfactory arrange- 
 ments with the State banks could be made, was in substance de- 
 cided upon by President Jackson some three months before Mr. 
 Taney came into the Treasury Department. The President re- 
 garded the question of the continuance of the bank as determined 
 by his own re-election and was, from the moment of that event, 
 resolved that nothing should be wanting on his part to carry into 
 effect the declared will of the people. He had seen enough, in the 
 smnmer and autumn of 1832, of the reckless use the bank was capable 
 of making of the funds under its control to promote its own ends to 
 stand in need of no further proof on that point. The conduct of the 
 bank after the result of the election was known satisfied him be- 
 yond a doubt that it had determined to continue the war, — a con- 
 clusion fully confirmed by the proceedings of the meeting of stock- 
 holders in August, carrying out the wishes of Mr. Biddle by in- 
 structing the directors to renew the application for a new charter 
 at the next session, and he was equally determined that the public 
 monies should not, so far as he could rightfully prevent it, again 
 constitute part of its resources for the conflict. It was, besides, in- 
 dispensable that new places of deposit should be provided, and he 
 was the last man likely to postpone so essential a point in his ar- 
 rangements until the eve of the battle which it became certain he 
 would have to fight ' o'er again.' He, therefore, from the month of 
 . June till its consummation, kept that important measure — the re- 
 moval of the deposits — constantly in view, resolved to do nothing 
 rashly, nothing that would work unnecessary harm to the bank or 
 furnish it with grounds for sinister appeals to public sympathy, but 
 as firmly decided to omit or neglect nothing that might be demanded 
 by the exigencies of the occasion. He did indeed use the subsequent 
 abuses of its power by the bank, in the paper he submitted to his 
 Cabinet and in his messages to Congress, to strengthen the position 
 he had taken, but he nowhere set them up as ° furnishing the 
 original grounds for taking it. Such was the case also with the 
 bank in regard to the measures it adopted to impair the credits of 
 the Country, to obstruct its business and to fill it with distraction 
 and panic. These were the bitter fruits of counsels and decisions 
 long anterior to the suggestion of the removal of the public de- 
 posits, or perhaps to the thought of removing them, and would have 
 been put in operation at the same time and with the same views if 
 the deposits had not been removed. 
 
 But altho' that great measure, which, as far as I know or ever 
 had reason to believe, had its origin in the General's own breast 
 and in the execution of which at all events he took the lead of all 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 80. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 42 
 
658 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 the friends about him availed more than any, perhaps than all 
 the others that were adopted to frustrate the "flagitious schemes of « 
 the bank "—(as they were truly and aptly termed by Mr. Appleton/ 
 of Boston, who had been its early friend) it was not the occasion 
 of them, and proved indeed, in many respects, to its confederated 
 supporters a valuable windfall. It enabled the bank to substitute 
 for the application for a renewal of its charater, in support of which 
 it was at the moment acting, a fresher and far more popular issue, 
 that of seeking redress for a great public wrong which it charged 
 to have been committed by an arbitrary and unconstitutional exer- 
 tion of Presidential authority. Under that disguise its supporters 
 were enabled to promote its interest more effectually, than in any 
 other way. It was to them a welcome, change in 'the front of 
 battle ' which relieved for a season the object of their exertions and 
 hopes from the odium- which naturally attaches itself in the public 
 mind to all applications for monopolies, more especially when they 
 are supported by exceptionable means and when, as in this instances', 
 they have been pressed ad nausea/m. 
 
 The strong, tho' in my judgment, necessary and constitutional 
 ground taken by the President in removing Mr. Ihiane when the lat- 
 ter refused to carry out his policy, after engaging to do so or to 
 resign, enabled the bank to give the new issues which arose out of 
 it- a high degree of plausibility by means of the extensive control 
 it had acquired over the public press, presenting as it did a favor- 
 able opportunity for an appeal to the inveterate and honest preju- 
 dices of the people against what was called 'the one man power.' 
 But these were neither the only nor even the principal advantages 
 the bank derived from the chance thus afforded to blink, for a sea- 
 son, the principal question on which the Country was again to be 
 divided, and divided moreover under circumstances more stringent 
 and dangerous than had before existed. There were scattered thro' 
 the Congress and in greater proportion thro' the body of the people, 
 particularly in the Southern States, a number of clever men, many 
 of whom still occupied distinguished rank in the Democratic party 
 and most of whom had been known for their constant opposition 
 to a national bank on the ground of its unconstitutionality. Of 
 these some through private griefs and others by open difference 
 of opinion from the President on various subjects had been drawn 
 into the ranks of the bank party and were now in their hearts 
 desirous that the bank should triumph, if for no other reason, 
 than to break down Jackson and the administration. They however 
 did not think the prospects of success as yet sufficiently auspicious 
 to justify them in venturing to vote for it directly, a course which 
 
 ' Nathan Appleton. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIK VAN BUREN. 659 
 
 would effecutually impugn their past pretensions, but, whilst not 
 quite ripe to support its application for a new charter, they could 
 all be relied on to take open and decided ground with the bank 
 against the removal of the deposits and in favor of their restora- 
 .tion. If the passage of a bill or joint resolution directing the public 
 deposits to be restored could have been procured, some of these men, 
 without whose votes the bUl to extend the charter of the bank 
 could still not have passed the House, would doubtless, by an easy 
 gradation, have reached the entire change of an opinion which most 
 of them already regarded as an incumbrance and would have voted 
 for that bill. Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, in many respects occu- 
 pied such a position. An educated man and distinguished lawyer, 
 then representing Virginia in the Senate, he declared on its floor 
 that he had made the question of constitutional power his study 
 and had arrived at a dear conviction that the constitution, which he 
 had, on entering the Senate, sworn to support, conferred on the 
 Congress no authority to establish such an institution, but that he 
 could yet bring himself to vote for one to avoid a greater evil. This 
 evil he thought he saw in the arbitrary exercise of unconstitutional 
 power of which he accused the President. The opportunity of giv- 
 ing such a vote, under circumstances rendering it certain that a bill 
 to the effect described would be carried by it, was never presented 
 to Mr. Leigh; if it had been so presented in the course of that winter 
 I have never doubted that he would have availed himself of it. 
 
 Thus the new shape which the removal of the deposits enabled 
 the bank to give to the issue with which its supporters entered upon 
 the panic session, especially as no one could doubt that their success 
 in compelling the restoration of the deposits would be the harbinger 
 of its re-incorporation, was a clear and important advantage — one 
 which, if it had been wisely used, might have made the result of the 
 struggle more doubtful. 
 
 Satisfied that it had done its full share towards producing that 
 condition of the public mind which was thought necessary to the 
 accomplishment of their respective purposes, the bank waited only 
 the opening of the Congress for the performance of the part assigned 
 to her allies. Relying on their fidelity to the common, cause its 
 trusted managers and all outside friends who had been initiated into 
 the mystery of the evil times stood ready, at the appointed signal, to 
 send to the National Capitol the wails of distress prepared for the 
 occasion which, when set to panic notes and re-echoed from its walls, 
 would it was confidently expected, cause every man of business and 
 especially those who were dependent upon credit to quake with fear, 
 friends as welt as foes, it being well understood that no panic would 
 be regarded as real which was not general. jBefore settling himself 
 
660 AMERICAN- HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 at Washington for the session Mr, Clay paid Mr. Biddle a visit at 
 Philadelphia. With movements in contemplation, of which they 
 were the contrivers and chief engineers, of a character so important, 
 so comprehensive and, may I not add, considering the intelligence 
 of the people to whom they would ultimately have to account for, 
 them, so reckless also, there were, of course, preliminary points to 
 be settled which could not be safely submitted to a multitude of 
 councellors. These, or the most material of them, we have a right, 
 from subsequent developments, to infer, were settled in the interviews 
 which took place between those gentlemen on that occasion, and one 
 of them was, I do not at all doubt, that which I have before alluded 
 to as having been uppermost in Mr. Clay's mind from the begin- 
 ning — the question of the political leadership of the bank forces in 
 the campaign in which they had thus far progressed and of which 
 they were about to enter upon that portion especially committed to 
 the skill and daring of politicians. Mr. Clay, I am satisfied^ did not 
 leave Philadelphia before it was definitively settled between Mr. Biddle 
 and himself that, in all that was political in the future movements of 
 the allies, the reins should be placed and kept in his hands and that 
 in respect to decisions in the last resort his control should be both 
 absolute and exclusive. The time had arrived when he could no 
 longer afford and would not consent to trust to arrangements less 
 definite and comprehensive. Whatever may have been the condition 
 of others he was a free agent. The bank could exercise no control 
 over his actions and Mr. Biddle was made to understand that such 
 were .the conditions on which alone the latter could receive his aid 
 and that without a compliance with them he would not proceed 
 another step in that direction. These are strong assumptions but the 
 reader will, in the sequel, say whether they are not as true as strong. 
 The relations between Mr. Clay and. Mr. Webster if ever even 
 intimate had been so only during brief periods when they were 
 thrown together by accidental and imperative circmnstances; really 
 friendly and confidential, in the sense in which the latter relation 
 obtains between men who sincerely like each other, they had never 
 been, there is good reason to believe in the course of their lives. At 
 the moment of which we are speaking there was not a vestige of 
 that sentiment on either side. What Mr. Biddle's personal prefer- 
 erences, as between them were, I have never had sufficient oppor- 
 tunity to form a reliable opinion; from his general character and 
 his temper I would infer .that° he leaned to the side of Mr. Clay, 
 but of that I know nothing, neither was it material for they had 
 all arrived at a crisis when such feelings lost their power over the 
 conduct of public) men. It was at Mr. Webster that the arrange- 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 85. 
 
• AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 661 
 
 ment of which I have spoken was especially aimed. Competition for 
 the distinction^ in prospect was apprehended from no other quar- 
 ter but from this it was apprehended. There were, besides, reasons 
 in behalf of the exclusion of Mr. Webster from the leadership of 
 a more general and not less cogent character. That post had been 
 awarded to him at the previous session, particularly in the discus- 
 sion on the veto Message which was expected to exert controlling 
 influence on the then coming Presidential election, and, as I have 
 said, he discharged the duties imposed upon him with singular 
 ability. His position, on that occasion, for reasons elsewhere given, 
 was in every respect favorable to a full development of his powers. 
 Mr. Clay, if the part had been assigned to him, could not have 
 filled it so well. Mr. Webster's self-control, his superior reasoning 
 powers and his peculiar subtilty in debate made him the most fit 
 man for the hour. One unfamiliar with the character of our people 
 and with the light in which Mr. Webster was regarded by them, 
 could not at this time review his treatment of the case, made to 
 his hand by the operations and appliances of the bank, without 
 being amazed at his failure. But in selecting him as its spokesman 
 the bank and its political confederates overlooked a disqualification 
 on his part which is very apt to render the ablest speaking unavail- 
 ing with the people. This was not surprising, for a political party 
 which sanctions such steps a* were taken to defeat President Jack- 
 son's re-election seldom, if ever, attaches much importance to dis- 
 qualifications like that here referred to, nor is it apt, in the hour 
 of defeat, to look to the immorality of thej means it has used or 
 to the impregnable virtue of the people for the causes of its dis- 
 comfiture but seeks them rather in defects, obvious or latent, in 
 the- manner in which those means were applied. However diverse 
 may then have been the shades of public opinion in respect to 
 Mr. Webster's superiority to the influence of money in the dis- 
 charge of public functions, his eagerness to borrow and the reckless- 
 ness with which his loans were made were very generally known and 
 his being largely in; debt to the bank and, so far as that went, 
 within its power, was undoubted. This extensive knowledge of 
 his condition in that regard, and the industrious circulation given to 
 the fact by the friends of the President and of his cause completely 
 divested Mr. Webster's very able speeches of credit with the classes 
 upon whom they were designed to operate and reduced them to 
 the same level in their estimation with what was said by the 
 bank itself; a consideration which, altho' it came to be understood 
 when it was too late for the past, Mr. Biddle would scarcely have 
 felt himself at liberty to disregard a second time, whatever may 
 have been his personal feelings or other views upon the subject. 
 
662 AMERICAN HISTORICAli ASSOCIATION. 
 
 If the objection alluded to had not existed Mr. Clay would still 
 have been the best man for the approaching crisis. The controyersy 
 between the bank and the Government had now assumed a very dif- 
 ferent phase from that which it wore in 1832. Then the former had 
 at least plausible reasons for calling its position one of defence. 
 Those interested in it had a perfect right to ask for a renewal of its 
 charter. Both' branches of the Legislature sanctioned their request, 
 but the President neutralized their" wishes by his veto, a measure 
 always before resorted to with much hesitation and distrust — one not 
 calculated to attract the favor of the American people and only made 
 popular in the present instance by the great popularity of its author 
 and by the bad conduct of the bank. In such a contest, backed as 
 he was, Mr. Webster would have been the very best of leaders if 
 his personal independence had not been liable to question. But the 
 struggle on which the bank had now determined was, whatever the 
 pretences with which it was undertaken, one of a purely aggressive 
 character. It was designed to make it one of life or death, and to 
 employ the boldest means. It was indispensable that the leader of 
 the assault should possess both physical and moral courage, qualities 
 "in which it was equally notorious that Mr. Webster was deficient as 
 that Mr. Clay was at least amply for the occasion perhaps super- 
 abundantly endowed. I have spoken of the lack of cordiality in the 
 personal relations between these gentlemen from an early period. On 
 looking over some of my old papers for the purposes of this work I 
 find the following memorandum of a declaration made to Mr. Forsyth 
 and myself and of one to me on the Same point by Mr. Buchanan. 
 When I laid my hand on the paper I had entirely forgotten its ex- 
 istence, altho' I remembered well the fact of the declaration: 
 
 At the commencement of the session of Congress when the election was made 
 by the House of Representatives (1825) Mr. Clay told Mr. Forsyth and myself, 
 at a dinner given by the Russian Minister, that if we could understand what 
 Mr. Webster meant to do we could do more than he, and used several expres- 
 sions indicating dislike and great want of confidence. 
 
 On the same paper the following: 
 
 Dec. 30th 1826. Mr. Buchanan, of Penn. told me that, at the same session, 
 1825, when the bill making appropriations for the payment of the Spanish 
 claims was pending in the House of Representatives, Clay came to him and 
 said " I think we can pay these people with land," from which Mr. Buchanan 
 
 dissented. Clay then said, "that yellow rascal is to have $70,000 of 
 
 the money." Mr. B. asked whether he meant Webster, to which Clay assented. 
 Mr. B. then said that he thought W. was a clever fellow and he was glad he was 
 to receive so much of the money as he thought he wanted it. C. said that it 
 was probable that the treaty meant money but that he would give them trouble. 
 Shortly after Webster addressed him and said that Clay 'meant to oppose the 
 bill because he (W.) had an interest in it, and wished him (B.) to take some 
 notes he had made to support tUe bill as he thought it improper, from his situa- 
 
AUTOBlOGiRAl'HY OP MARTTiS^ VaN BUllEKr. 663 
 
 tion that he should take part In It. Soon after the commencement of the next 
 session he, to his surprise, found Webster and Clay walking, arm in arm, behind 
 the Speaker's Chair and from that time forward a close Intimacy has subsisted 
 between them.' 
 
 Mr. Calhoun did not compete for the leadership nor do I believe 
 that he desired it. He was taken into the coalition, reeking (in the 
 estimation of the supporters of the bank) with the bad odor of nulli- 
 fication, but ready to make war on his own hook against the adminis- 
 tration, a privilege gladly allowed him by his colleagues of the trium- 
 virate. His master-passion, at the moment, was hatred towards the 
 General and myself whilst his resentments would have been more de- 
 servedly directed against Mr. Webster. In respect to myself his own 
 subsequent acts confessed that his suspicions of my hostility were in 
 the beginning unfounded and afterwards exaggerated, and the Gen- 
 eral was, as I know, sincerely desirous to afford relief to the South 
 and to conciliate South Carolina which would have rescued Mr. Cal- 
 houn and his friends from the perils in which they had involved 
 themselves. Mr. Webster, on the other hand, opposed with great 
 pertinacity and not a little bitterness the efforts of Mr. Clay to effect 
 these results. 
 
 AVhilst Mr. Clay was thus busily and warily employed in fortify- 
 ing the ground he intended to occupy in the approaching struggle — 
 an occasion which was destined to bring him and his able and life- 
 long contemporaries, Calhoun and Webster, side by side, in a 
 partisan field with the fires of ambition unquenched in their breasts 
 and each alike conscious that time and events had made the present 
 their only chance for reaching the goal that had long attracted the 
 aspirations and best energies of each, — the sagacious and wily New 
 Englander was not idle. Philadelphia was in his course to the seat 
 of Government and his temporary sojourn there, at a critical 
 moment, was therefore less liable to the notoriety and speculations 
 attached to that of Mr. Clay. That he did not fail to inform him- 
 self before he left Philadelphia, of the conclusions in respect to the 
 position which had there been allotted to him for the coming winter, 
 is certain. How this was done it would now be difficult and is in 
 no way material to discover. It is not improbable that his friend 
 Mr. Biddle, with the off-hand frankness of his character, ° communi- 
 cated it to him, with suitable delicacy, as one of the necessities of 
 their condition; but however this may have been, that he arrived at 
 Washington with full knowledge of the whole truth on the subject 
 and with the feelings which that information was calculated to 
 arouse in a breast like his the reader will be in the sequel, a!bun- 
 
 ' This memorandum, in Van Buren's hand, is in the Van Buren 'Papers under date of 
 1826. It is endorsed by Van Buren : " Buchanan — Clay & Webster." 
 ° MS. VI, p. 90. 
 
664 AMERICAN" HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 dantly satisfied. These feelings conjoined with speculations which, 
 there is reason to believe, had constantly filled his mind since the 
 appearance of the President's proclamation, prepared him for an 
 act of strong mark, the least effect of which would be to cripple if 
 not altogether neutralize Mr. Clay's promised leadership by secur- 
 ing to himself a complete umpirage over the action of the standing 
 committees of the Senate. 
 
 I do not pretend to possess any very material proofs of the accuracy 
 of the surmises I have thrown out in respect to the state of Mr. 
 Clay's mind upon the particular point referred to or to what was 
 decided in his interview with Mr. Biddle or to the information of 
 that decision obtained by Mr. "Webster further than these ante- 
 cedents are justly and clearly to be assumed in view of well known 
 facts and incidents following on their very heels. These shall be 
 stated with all practicable exactness and' if those who may hereafter 
 peruse these sheets shall find themselves able to attach to them any 
 different interpretation from that I have here presented they will, 
 of course be at liberty to do so: As to what their inferences may 
 be save a general concern for the prevalence of truth, I am as in- 
 different now as I shall certainly be then. To give an account here 
 of the occurrences referred to, a precedence to which they are chrono- 
 logically entitled, will of necessity separate my history of the panic 
 session from the transactions of the bank which the proceedings of 
 that session were designed to make effectual; a separation which, 
 tho' it may weaken the force of the description as a "whole, may, in 
 other respects, tend to agreably diversify the narrative. They con- 
 stitute the incidents of a piece of private history of the period I 
 speak of, in which I took a part altho' I had at the time an inade- 
 quate idea of its comprehensive interest and no suspicion that the 
 bolt with which it was charged was aimed at myself as well as at 
 Mr. Clay. I had suffered it to pass from my mind until the recol- 
 lection of it was revived and my interest in it increased by a casual 
 observation made by the latter gentleman during his visit to my 
 house in the year 1849. I have elsewhere alluded to that visit and 
 to the conversations which took place between us about past times 
 and scenes. These unrestricted and familiar chats were resumed 
 whenever the press of company permitted, which was not as often 
 as we both desired for the reason that most of his political friends 
 among my neighbours embraced the occasion of his first appearance 
 in our vicinage to give him a cordial shake by the hand. More than 
 one of these added to the expression of the pleasure they felt in 
 meeting him an assurance of additional satisfaction afforded by 
 finding him where he was and the latter idea was, in particular and 
 neatly expressed by my worthy whig neighbour Mr. Chittenden when 
 he, attended by a large number of his friends, was taking leave in 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN" TAN BtTREN. 
 
 665 
 
 a few well spoken words addressed to Mr. Clay whilst the latter 
 stood in the porch of my house and by my side. The feuds of the 
 past and the asperities caused by them were as completely ignored 
 in these conversations as if they had never existed. I having en- 
 tirely and forever withdrawn from public life and he being on the 
 point of doing the same thing we had no motive to refrain from 
 speaking freely as we thought and felt or to limit the measure of 
 our entertainment as we reviewed together the misinterpretations, 
 unfounded conjectures and 'till now inexplicable failures of "best 
 laid plans " which had been experienced on many exciting occasions 
 both by ourselves and by our respective parties. The inclinations 
 of our dispositions had been towards the cultivation of friendly 
 personal relations from a very early period in our public lives, with 
 an unfailing readiness to resume them after the successive and 
 violent shocks to which they had been from time to time, exposed 
 had sufficiently subsided. This tendency on my side sprang, to no 
 small extent, from admiration of the genial and winning social 
 qualities and carriage for which in his prime of life he was greatly 
 distinguished. These attracted my observation for the first time 
 on his return from the Mission to Ghent, when I was a visitor at 
 Washington and received a liberal share of his courtesies, and he 
 retained them in a good degree to the end altho' sobered by domestic 
 sorrows and at times clouded by the adverse incidents of his public 
 life. His own inclination in the same direction was, I have always 
 believed, influenced by the recollection of occasions on which I had 
 manifested a regard for his welfare which he had never been af- 
 forded an opportunity to reciprocate. 
 
 To two of these I will briefly refer. One of them presented itself 
 in the rough and tumble Presidential canvass of 1824, when I made 
 my debut in the art and business of President-making, at Washing- 
 ton, as one of the leading supporters of Mr. Crawford. Becoming 
 each day more convinced of the practicability of electing the latter 
 and of preserving the republican party, then threatened with de- 
 struction, if Mr. Clay would, for the time, decline his pretensions 
 to the Presidency and consent to stand for the second place on the 
 ticket with Mr. Crawford and feeling sincerely friendly to both 
 of these gentlemen, I made unwearied efforts to bring about that 
 arrangement. The person thro' whom I chiefly worked to that end 
 was Col. Thomas H. Benton, Mr. Clay's relative, I think, by mar- 
 riage,^ at all events, then his ardent friend and a young Senator of 
 much promise. I succeeded fully in satisfying the Colonel on two 
 points, viz: that with such a ticket we would most likely succeed 
 
 ^ Van Buren states this relationship with his usual care. The common report that 
 Benton and Clay were cousins was without foundation. Anne Gooch, an orphan, who 
 was brought up by her uncle, Col. Thomas Hart, married Jesse Benton and named her 
 eldest son after her uncle. Henry Clay married a daughter of Col. Hart. 
 
666 AMEKICAK HISTOBICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and that Mr. Clay would, in that event, be Mr. Crawford's successor ; 
 and he consequently became as anxious for the adoption of the prop- 
 osition as I was myself and we had several conferences on the sub- 
 ject. He pressed the matter upon Mr. Clay with his usual earnest- 
 ness by whom the proposition was treated with all respect, but in 
 the progress of time and events the canvass assumed a shape which 
 led Mr. C. to think it his duty to decline it. He could not, under 
 the circumstances, have doubted that there was on my part a large 
 tho' subordinate share of disinterested friendship displayed on that 
 occasion towaj-ds himself and could never have failed to be satis- 
 fied that his eventual elevation to the Presidency would have been 
 secured if my advice had been adopted, whether we had been suc- 
 cessful in the immediate election or not. Mr. Crawford, it will be 
 remembered, was soon broken down by disease and the party by 
 which Gen. Jackson was elected would, in all probability, have 
 chosen Mr. Clay in his stead if the latter had continued before the 
 Country in the attitude which, in the event of our failure in 1834 
 he would have occupied, that of one of the defeated republican can- 
 didates in that contest. 
 
 My second instance somewhat resembles the first. Mr, Clay's 
 name was sent to the Senate by President Adams for the office of 
 Secretary of State at a moment when the charge of a selfish coalition 
 between himself and Mr. Adams, by which the latter had been made 
 President in consideration of a promise that Mr. Clay should receive 
 that office at his hands, was rife at Washington and when the pas- 
 sions of men were running mountain-high. 
 
 That there would ultimately be a union between the Crawford, 
 Jackson and Calhoun parties to resist the latitudinarian views which 
 we knew Mr. Adams to cherish and to overthrow the new adminis- 
 tration was nearly as certain at the moment when that administra- 
 tion was ushered into existence as it became at any subsequent period. 
 Mr. Clay, having brought the administration into life was looked 
 upon as its main reliance and a blow aimed at him was therefore cor- 
 rectly regarded as one in advance and, as those who wished to make 
 it thought, a well deserved one at the administration. It was not 
 in the power of the Senators belonging to the three political divi- 
 sions named to defeat Mr. Clay's nomination, but by voting for itg 
 rejection — a step never resorted to on such occasions except for grave 
 causes — they could give credence in important localities to the charge 
 of a corrupt coalition between the President and his Secretary of 
 State. " The strong men of the political interests I have named were 
 eager to vote for the rejection of Mr. Clay's nomination and were 
 respectively headed by imposing names: the Jackson men by the 
 
 " MS. TI, p. 95. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAl-HY OP MAETIK VAK BUBEN. 667 
 
 General himself, then Senator, the friends of Crawford by that vener- 
 able and sterling old patriot Nathaniel Macon and those of Calhoun 
 (himself in the Chair) by Robert Y. Hayne and voted accordingly. 
 I refused to join them from the beginning, first because I did not 
 (without impeaching the motives of my friends which I knew to be 
 pure) feel myself justified by the proofs before us in affixing such 
 a stigma upon the character of the nominee, and secondly, because 
 if the case had been stronger against him than I thought it was I 
 would still have regarded the course proposed as politically inex- 
 pedient. 
 
 Mr. Clay, shortly before his death, held a conversation with my 
 friend Francis P. Blair of which I was a principal subject. The 
 latter gentleman commenced his political career an ardent sup- 
 porter of Mr. Clay and illustrated the depth of his friendship by 
 unmistakable acts of devotion performed in the disinterested spirit 
 of which he has been thro' life capable. After the Presidential 
 election of 1824, at which he zealously sustained Mr. Clay's cause, 
 Mr. Blair became an admirer and political adherent of Jackson and 
 formed closest relations of personal friendship with the latter which 
 continued undiminished at the death of the General, who left a 
 striking record of his sense of its sincerity by bequeathing all his pri- 
 vate papers to Mr. B's keeping. Changed feelings naturally arose out 
 of Mr. Blair's new position, producing a feud between Mr. Clay and 
 himself of unsurpassed bitterness and of many years continuance. It 
 extended itself to their f amiles and excited so strongly the indigna- 
 tion of Mrs. Blair, a lady possessed of rare abilities and a resolute 
 spirit, altho' as amiable as she was resolute, that she refused to take 
 Mr. Clay's hand when offered to her in the Senate chamber after a 
 full reconciliation had taken place between him and her husband. 
 But this excess of feeling on her side was sorely repented of and 
 every trace of resentment banished from her mind before Mr. Clay's 
 death. In common with his numerous female friends she employed 
 herself almost incessantly, during the latter moments of his life, 
 in securing for him, absent as he was from his family, those as- 
 suagements and comforts which it is the peculiar and blessed office 
 of her sex to provide and Mr. Clay at one time agreed to go to her 
 house and to put himself under her "Kentucky nursing." In the 
 conversation with Mr. Blair, to which I have referred, he expressed 
 his deep regret that angry passages had now and then deformed the 
 course of our political antagonism and spoke with much kindly 
 feeling of my general demeanour towards him, notwithstanding 
 our political differences, and of features of my character which he 
 made the subject of special conmiendation. This was communicated 
 to me by Mr. Blair as it was obviously intended by Mr. Clay that 
 
668 AMERICAK HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 it should be, and the feelings expressed to Mr. B. were promptly, 
 earnestly and sincerely reciprocated on my part. At the same time 
 Col. Benton, being engaged in preparing his "Thirty years in the 
 Senate," sent me at intervals, the original drafts of several chap- 
 ters of that work for such comment as I might feel disposed to 
 make. One of these contained his able and forcible exculpation of 
 Mr. Clay from the charge of corrupt coalition with Mr. Adams in 
 the election of 1824, an affair that had given Mr. Clay much trouble. 
 I expressed to the Colonel my opinion of his liberal and manly con- 
 duct in this matter in a letter which he afterwards informed me 
 he had read, during his canvass for the House of Representatives, 
 in that portion of his District distinguished for devotion to Mr. 
 Clay and by that means obtained the votes of the friends of the 
 latter to an extent sufficient to secure his election. He had shewn 
 the same chapter to Mr. Blair who, in answer to some unfavourable 
 criticism by Mr. Clay on the probable violence of the Colonel's 
 forthcoming book, detailed to him the substance of the portion 
 alluded to, which made a strong and favorable impression on Mr. 
 Clay and led him to say that he should aiot be unmindful of it in 
 the future. This having been communicated to Col. Benton the 
 latter addressed to me a letter extending the account he had given 
 me of his work to another matter to which Mr. Clay also attached 
 much importance and the narrative of which I greatly desired him to 
 see before he died; to which end I enclosed it to Mr. Blair with a 
 request that he would impart as much of its contents as, in his dis- 
 cretion, he should deem best but in a way to make it certain that Mr. 
 Clay would not feel obliged to trouble himself with a notice of them. 
 This was done by the letter which, with my note and Col. Benton's 
 — closely connected as they. were with the dying scenes of a man so 
 distinguished and doing much credit to those gentlemen — ^I think 
 of sufficient interest to insert here. 
 
 Letter from Col. Benton — ^extract. 
 
 Mr. Clay is dying and knows it and looks forward to some weeks or a few 
 montlig to terminate his earthly career. There is no help for him and he knows 
 it, and I am told is most calmly viewing the approaches of death. Blair went 
 to see him twice — great proof of forgiveness on the part of Blair. Among 
 other things conversation the last time turned upon me and my forthcoming 
 work — evidently with some apprehension on his part. Blair told him what 
 he had read a chapter on the election of 1825 with you, and says that a 
 beam of sunshine went over his face with many expressions of gratification. 
 This has made me think of suggesting to you to write him a letter — ^proper I 
 think under the circumstances — to express your own feelings, and in which 
 you might add, what that chapter shows, that there Is a time when political 
 animosities are to be obliterated under the great duties of historic truth. 
 True, at other places the same duty may make me bear upon him, but without 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN' VAN BUREN. 669 
 
 malice and always preferring to say what is honorable when the veracity 
 of history will permit. 
 
 In another part, when I shall have to speak of him personally — the duel 
 with Randolph — he will appear with great honor, not merely for courage 
 on the field, but, lohat is more, generosity of feeling. You might add this, 
 if you please, as a thing you have learnt from me and in which I and Jessup 
 (his second) mil spealc alilce.^ 
 
 To F. P. Blaib, Esq." 
 
 LiNDENWALD Jan. 16th 1852. 
 My Deab Sik 
 
 I received the enclosed letter from Col. Benton last evening, and hasten 
 to send it to you to be shewn in confidence to Mr. Clay, if you concur with me 
 in the propriety of such a step. Its contents shew very clearly that such a 
 disposition of it was not contemplated by the writer yet I can see no serious 
 objection that could be raised to the course I propose. * * * This letter, 
 taken in connection with the general turn of the Colonel's feelings towards 
 Mr. Clay, always, to our observation, excluding the idea of a fixed per- 
 sonal hatred, satisfies me beyond a doubt that his sympathies are as deeply 
 excited as our own. This must be your opinion also and so believing we 
 ought not to hesitate, I think, in employing the means which have been 
 accidentally placed in our power to ameliorate the effects of past estrange- 
 ments, if we cannot remove them altogether, to which I would be most happy 
 to contribute all in my power. 
 
 Do me the favor to repeat to Mr. Clay, if you have an opportunity, assur- 
 ances of my respect, esteem and confidence and add that no one can have 
 derived more satisfaction from his noble bearing whilst confined to the sick 
 bed than I have done. * * * 
 
 Yours truly 
 
 M. V. B. 
 To Hon. Henkt Clay.' 
 
 Sllvbr Spring Jan. 22d. 1852 
 Deab Sir 
 
 It is most gratifying to me that Mr. Van Buren commits to my discretion the 
 opportunity of disclosing the kind feelings and high opinion entertained for 
 you by two of the most distinguished adversaries you have encountered in the 
 political contests of your time. I therefore take the same liberty with Mr. Van 
 Buren's letter that he proposes with Col. ° Benton's to him, persuaded that 
 nothing would more please you than the naked and unpremeditated expression 
 of feeling contained in the very words of the private notes not meant to reach 
 your hands. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren would not have turned over to me, I well know, an office which 
 he would gladly have performed himself if he had not felt the delicacy of trou- 
 bling you with a letter, in your present painful condition which might seem to 
 ask reply and burden you with a matter that might cost an effort or embarrass 
 you. My communication you can receive as you have my oral ones — ^take to 
 your bosom with your benevolent thoughts without further exertion. 
 With the warm feelings of earlier days 
 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 F. P. Blaie. 
 
 ' January 11, 1852, Van Buren Papers. ^ Van Buren Papers. ° MS. VI, p. 100. 
 
670 AMERIGAH" HISTOBIOAL ASSOCIATION', 
 
 To return to the occasion of his conversation with me, at Linden- 
 wald, Mr, Clay dpoke with perfect freedom of the course he intended 
 to pursue, during the short period that he might remain in public 
 life. It had always, he said been his wish to judge of public meas- 
 ures on their intrinsic merits and to treat them according to the best 
 opinion he could form of their probable effects upon the public wel- 
 fare. He hoped that in making up that opinion he had kept himself 
 above the control of mere partisan feelings, and knowing how ear- 
 nestly he had desired to do so, notwithstanding the difBculties in 
 the way in high party times which he appreciated and acknowledged 
 he could not but think that he had to some extent succeeded in car- 
 rying that wish into effect. In relation to the past others would de- 
 termine but of the future he felt that he could speak in this regard 
 with certainty and he thought he could not deceive himself in the 
 estimate he had formed of the service it would yet in his power to 
 render to his Country be eschewing partisan prejudices and by ap- 
 plying his experience and the faculties with which Providence had 
 favored him to the impartial consideration and support of measures 
 the utility of which he could not doubt, and he protested that, God 
 willing, this duty should be faithfully performed. I need not say 
 that I earnestly commended this determination and encouraged its 
 observance. 
 
 Mr. Webster's name was introduced: I do not recollect by whom 
 or in what connection. Mr. Clay spoke of him in the cautious and 
 measured terms which I had often before observed in his conversa- 
 tion when it related to a political associate of whose course he did 
 not approve and which was indeed natural when addressed to an 
 opponent of both. He referred without qualification to his great 
 abilities but did not affect to admire his general character and ad- 
 mitted that their relations had not commonly been as cordial or their 
 intercourse as confidential as was usual between associate leading 
 members of the same political party; nevertheless he declared that 
 he had been always willing to do Mr. Webster justice and to concede 
 to him the position and all the weight to which he believed him fairly 
 entitled in their party and had made a point of speaking with respect 
 of him when he could do so with truth. There had been one occa- 
 sion, he added, when he was fully satisfied that Mr. Webster had 
 committed treason in his heart against their common party, and he 
 had then spoken of him and of his designs as he thought such in- 
 fidelity deserved. I do not think there" was a man among our 
 Countrymen who looked upon a breach of party allegiance with 
 more severity than Mr. Clay. Although he had filled a high position 
 in the old republican party and was now the conceded leader of a 
 rival organization the idea had never entered his mind that he had 
 himself been guilty of any such offence. He, Mr. Calhoun and a few 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BtTREN, 671 
 
 others, who had been prominent members of the republican party at 
 the close of the War of 1812, as has been elsewhere said, looked to 
 the dissolution of all pre-existing parties as certain and as if from 
 a common impulse directed their attention to the Chief Magistracy 
 of the Nation as the representatives of a new generation. Justly 
 proud of the record of their course as related to the war and con- 
 scious of the political strength which it would give them they eagerly 
 advocated a general adoption of their new idea in a spirit doubtless in 
 a good degree of magnanimity but of forgetfulness of the inveterate 
 and enduring character of party divisions. The acquisition by each 
 for himself of fragments of the old federal party, as the spoils of 
 war, serving as a stimulus to their zeal in that direction, they were 
 not slow in arriving at the conclusion not merely that the old parties 
 ought to- become but that they had already become extinct and took 
 their respective positions accordingly. Mr. Clay having determined 
 to stake his political fortunes wpon the success of the protective policy 
 and internal improvements by the General Government and of a 
 National Bank, as the nursing mother of both, soon found himself at 
 the head of a new political organization composed of men who coin- 
 cided with his views on those subjects; but the political antecedents 
 of most of them had been very unlike his own. From the moment 
 the lines of that organization became distinctly defined and its 
 union cemented by the "outside pressure" of its opponents he ad- 
 hered to it with unswerving fidelity. Neither the successive slights 
 put upon his individual pretensions, in favor of Harrison and Tay- 
 lor, nor the many other desertions of which he felt that he had a 
 right to complain, altho' they tried his temper severely and altho' he 
 could not but have believed that his old associates would have 
 greeted his return to their ranks with kindness and with renewed 
 confidence, shook for a moment his loyalty to his party, in the unin- 
 terrupted and faithful service of which he spent his remaining days. 
 The nature and the earnest tone of Mr. Clay's concluding remarks 
 about Mr. Webster brought suddenly and strongly to my recollec- 
 tion an intrigue in relation to the choice of the standing committees 
 of the Senate, at the opening of the panic session with which the 
 name of the latter was connected and which I was instrumental in 
 thwarting and I was induced to think that it was to that trans- 
 action that Mr. Clay alluded. I mentioned this impression and 
 offered to relate the circumstances, which he desired me to do. I 
 then described what occurred between President Jackson, Senator 
 Grundy and myself on the morning after my arrival at Washington, 
 to take my seat in the Senate for the first time as Vice President, 
 substantially as it is set forth in the statement below; saying to 
 him, at the same time, that I was confident I h^d never had any 
 
672 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL, ASSOCIATIOBT. 
 
 further communication with Mr. Grundy upon the subject, neither 
 did I recollect having any with the President, and that my knowl- 
 edge of the participation of Mr. Webster in the proposed intrigue 
 was limited to what had passed in the interview of which I had 
 given him an account, 'but that I understood Mr. Grundy well 
 enough to feel certain that he would never have carried the matter 
 as far as he did with Gen. Jackson without being thoroughly as- 
 sured of the ground on which he stood. 
 
 Mr. Clay listened to my narrative with the deepest interest and 
 altho' he abstained from asking explanations I saw by the increasing 
 animation of his countenance and the continual nodding of his head 
 that he accompanied my description of the scene with a ready inter- 
 pretation of its import and tendency. I cannot pretend to recall 
 his words at the conclusion but he admitted that the affair-which I 
 had detailed to him constituted a material part of the transaction 
 out of which had grown the conviction of Webster's infidelity to his 
 party to which he had alluded, and that at that moment for the first 
 [time] he had learned how it was that the execution of designs he 
 believed Mr. Webster to entertain had been arrested. The idea that 
 the latter meditated an entire change in his party relations or any- 
 thing more than the acquisition of an additional share of personal 
 influence over the action of the Senate for himself at the expence of 
 Mr. Clay, for which he stood ready as was his way to return an 
 equivalent, did, not, at the time, enter my head, nor did the com- 
 munication which I believed had been made to Mr. Grundy cause 
 me to suspect that Mr. Webster's own views or those of his friends 
 extended to his becoming a member of President Jackson's Cabinet 
 and to his succeeding in that capacity to the place in the General's" 
 confidence and esteem which was, at the moment, generally con- 
 ceded to myself. But Mr. Clay's communication and the necessity 
 of noticing the subject in this memoir gave it an added interest and 
 induced me to institute a careful review of the whole matter, the 
 results of which will now be given to my readers, who may deter- 
 mine for themselves how much reason there is for believing that 
 such day dreams were indulged in by both. 
 
 " MS. VI, p, 105, 
 
CHAPTEE XLV. 
 
 About to commence my presidency over the Senate I was neither 
 ignorant nor unmindful of the feelings with which I was regarded 
 by a majority of its members — feelings recognised as belonging to 
 human nature, altho' so little to its credit by sagacious Observers 
 in every age and sententiously described by classical authority — 
 " proprium, hwmani ingenii est odisse guem laeserity I was never- 
 theless and perhaps on that account especially careful to respect, in 
 my own course towards them, all the proprieties of my position. 
 The Vice President being chosen by the People and made the pre- 
 siding officer of the Senate without any agency on its part, differing 
 in that regard from the Speaker of the House, the Senate had always, 
 until 1823, retained the choice of its committees in its own hand, 
 but finding that this duty could not be as easily and as satisfactorily 
 performed by a general vote of the body as by the appointment of 
 the presiding officer the rules in that respect were altered, in that 
 year, by giving the power of appointing them to their President. 
 The Vice President was thus enabled to put it in the power of the 
 Senate to exercise the same privilege enjoyed by the House of Repre- 
 sentatives — ^that of having its committees selected by an officer of its 
 own choosing — ^by abstaining from taking his seat at the commence- 
 ment of each session long enough to afford the President pro tempore, 
 an officer elected by the Senate and always in being, an opportunity 
 to do that duty, and the amendment of the rule led to a very fitting 
 usage on the part of the Vice President so to absent himself and 
 with this view. The existence of this usage and my own sense of 
 its propriety furnished the rule for my own action and it was adopted 
 'of course. Altho' I thus withheld myself from all interference 
 with the selection of the committees — a function which a majority 
 of the then Senate were determined to resume, — as they had a perfect 
 right to do — it so happened that my course increased the embarrass- 
 ment and excited the ire of the opposition leaders. To have taken 
 from me the appointment of the committees on my first appearance 
 in the body which had long before, of its own accord, attached that 
 power to the office to which I .had been elected, would have been a 
 proceeding in keeping with their past course towards me and one 
 which, if I had presented myself at the opening of the session, they 
 would have adopted with alacrity. The charge which they would, 
 in that event, have assuredly made and which, under the circum- 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 43 673 
 
674 AMERICAN HISTORICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 stances, would not have lacked plausibility, would have been that a 
 deviation so marked, from the general course of my predecessors 
 was designed to deprive the venerable President pro tempore, Judge 
 White,^ a life long friend of the President (as they would have de- 
 scribed him) of his privilege because I suspected his fidelity to the 
 administration of his old friend, and the opportunity to make this 
 ■imputation would have. added materially to the satisfaction afforded 
 by the revocation, face to face, of my authority. 
 
 But the loss of that gratification was not the most unpleasant 
 •feature sf the predicament in which those leaders were placed by 
 ,my absence. ' Judge White, long the friend and companion of Qen. 
 Jackson and the man in whose behalf I had shown so strong a desire 
 not only that he should be appointed Secretary of War (on the dis- 
 solution of the first Cabinet) but that he should be invited to reside 
 with the General at the White House, they having both recently 
 become widowers, had already at the period of which we are speaking 
 inclined a favoring ear to the blandishments which, in the sequel. 
 Separated him forever from his old friend and spread a gloom over 
 the closing scenes of his own life. Mr. Clay was, I doubt not, suffi- 
 ciently satisfied of the state of the Judge's feelings to have consented 
 to leave to him the appointment of the committees had he not also 
 known that if the latter performed that duty in a manner acceptable 
 to the friends of the bank he would have disqualified himself for 
 the further uses to which it was even then determined to put him. 
 Neither would the Judge, pleased with the idea of being made a 
 candidate for the Presidency, as he thought to be elected but as 
 those who brought him forward intended merely to draw the votes 
 of Tennessee and some other States from the Democratic nominee, 
 have been willing to assume thus early a responsibility which could 
 not have failed to render him harmless. Altho' it had become suffi- 
 ciently probable to cause its being regarded in particular move- 
 ments as certain that a complete separation between the President 
 and Judge White would soon occur, it was equally certain that tha 
 ednsfent- of the latter at that early period to appoint committees 
 favorable to Mr. Clay's views and to the schemes of the bank would 
 have destroyed his popularity in the States in which it was hoped 
 thfcti his nornination could be used with effect. Look, which way 
 they would there were serioijs difficulties in the way of the confed- 
 erates. If Judge White resigned the place of President pro tempore 
 by shunning a duty he ha,d accepted before his feelings towards 
 Gen. Jackson had undergone a change he could not have escaped 
 a share of the odi^m that would have followed the appointment of 
 the committees in a way to promote the bank's designs and he was 
 ,not yet prepared to admit that his feelings towards the General were 
 
 • Hugh Ti nwson White, of Tennessee. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 675 
 
 changed; if Mr. Clay and his friends were driven to the necessity 
 of repealing the rule authorizing the presiding officer to appoint 
 the committees the Judge would be obliged to vote upon that propo- 
 sition, and thus, if he voted for it, he must have shared largely in 
 the like responsibility. This was perplexing, nay irritating and Mr. 
 Clay showed it in word and manner, but there was no other prac- 
 ticable recourse, by which the selection of the committees could be 
 secured to the opposition, than the passage of a resolution restoring 
 the choice of them to the Senate, as well against the action of the 
 President pro tempore as against, the Vice President. The idea of 
 offending the former, by this act of apparent distrust of his impar- 
 tiality, did not seem to have presented^*itself to the mind of any 
 one, affording the clearest evidence that there was no discordance 
 in their respective feelings and views on the passage of the resolution. 
 
 Judge White asked to be excused from voting on the resolution on 
 account of the dilemma or embarrassment in which he appeared to 
 think himself placed. His colleague, Mr. Grundy, who understood 
 the whole matter thoroughly and who thought it but right that the 
 Judge should be compelled to show his hand, vigorously opposed the 
 motion. The Senate adjourned without deciding the question, at 
 the instance of Mr. Frelinghuysen, who had doubts on the subject, 
 and Mr. Clay was constrained to raise the curtain in part, on the 
 following day, by coming to the Judge's relief, saying many civU 
 things of him and advocating strenuously his request to be excused. 
 He was excused but by the close vote of 22 to 19. 
 
 The groundless attacks that were made upon me by Mr. Clay, aided 
 by Mr. Calhoun, in the course of this discussion on the [cause] of 
 my non-appearance amongst "them and their Senatorial associates 
 and coadjutors, under peculiar, indeed unexampled circumstances, — 
 the occasion presenting a fair opportunity for them to show the ab- 
 sence of personal ill will in what they had before done — were not 
 only in bad taste but afforded unpleasant evidence of the extent to 
 which such a feeling had controlled their past. actions. As a notice 
 of continued hostility it was, I regret to say, superfluous and if de- 
 signed to disturb my nerves, by giving me a foretaste of what I had 
 to expect, they might have done me the justice to doubt, at least, 
 whether much could be accomplished in that regard by the demon- 
 stration. But the surprising feature of the occasion was that Mr. 
 Webster, for the first and I might with truth add for the only time 
 in his life, stood by with folded arms and took neither part nor lot 
 in a hostile movement against me — a semblable exhibition of neu- 
 trality which failed not to attract Mr. Clay's attention. 
 
 The resolution to change the mode of.chposing the committees was 
 passed by a strict party vote, and° the 12th of December was desig- 
 
 " MS. VI, p. 110. 
 
676 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 nated for their election by the Senate. I had informed President 
 Jackson that I would not reach Washington before the evening of 
 Saturday the 14th of that month. When the order was called up Mr. 
 Grundy moved to postpone the election of committees until the suc- 
 ceeding Monday, the 16th, assigning, for reason, the absence of sev- 
 eral members and the importance of having a full Senate for the per- 
 formance of so important a duty. Mr. Cla,y took instant and earnest 
 ground against the proposition : he hoped 
 
 the postponement would not take place ; the Senate was as full as it would be 
 on the average, during the session. We were now at the close of the second 
 week of the session and we. were urged to put off the appointment of commit- 
 tees, a matter about which he supposed the minds of all gentlemen were made 
 up. This day had been assigned for the appointment some days ago and It 
 was as weU known then that there were absentees . as it was now. No such 
 objection was urged then. There were important bills now lying on the table 
 that ought to be referred to the committees. The time for the meeting of the 
 committees was approaching and it Was of importance that they should be 
 appointed now. If gentlemen were absent he regretted it ; but we were not in 
 fault and he thought if we were to look at the political character of the ab- 
 sentees that things would be as they now are if they were here. * * * He 
 could see no reason for the delay but that we ought rather to proceed to the 
 appointment, and he would therefore call the yeas and nays. 
 
 Mr. Webster said 
 
 he had voted for the change of the rule, in regard to the appointment of com- 
 mittees with a good deal of reluctance. It appeared to him likely there would 
 be some diflBiculty in making so good a selection in respect to where pluralities 
 were to prevail. It appeared to him an early period to proceed to the con- 
 sideration of important business. He thought there was reason in giving time 
 to the absent gentlemen to be here and it is said they wiil be here. We had 
 changed the rule — they could not know it, and if gentlemen request the post- 
 ponement he thought it was reasonable and that the motion should prevail. 
 
 Mr. Clat. I understand the gentleman to say it is time to proceed to the 
 appointment of Committees. 
 
 Mr. Webstek. I said it was an early period to take up important business. 
 
 Mr. Clay. At no time, I believe, has the appointment of committees been 
 delayed beyond the second week of the session. 
 
 Mr. Grundy said, that 
 
 the present was a new case in the Government. It was new in this that the 
 Senate, at the commencement of the session, had changed an important practice. 
 Formerly the presiding officer appointed the standing committees and it was 
 well known that he exercised that power. The gentlemen absent, therefore, 
 had no right to expect that they would be called on at this early period of the 
 session to perform the duty of choosihg the committees. 
 
 The question of postponement was determined in the affirmative, 
 as follows: 
 
 Yeas. Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Brown, Frelinghuysen, Forsyth, Grundy, Hen- 
 dricks, Hill, Kane, King, Knight, Moore, Morris, Prentiss, Rives, Robinson, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OS" MARTIN VAN BtTREN. 677 
 
 Hobbins, Shepley, Silsbee, Smith, Swift, Tallmadge, Tipton, Tomlinson, Webster, 
 White, Wilklns and Wright— 28. 
 
 Nays. Messrs. Bell, Calhoun, Chambers, Clay, Ewing, Kent, Mangum, Nau- 
 daln, Poindexter, Preston, Southard, Sprague and Tyler — 13. 
 
 The Senate then, on motion of Mr. Mangum, adjourned over to 
 Monday next. 
 
 The reader will not fail to be struck with the arms-length style of 
 ^the passages in the debate between the two. champions of the bank, so 
 little like what was to be expected from them on the eve of a re-open- 
 ing campaign and legislative struggle in which they were looked to 
 as coadjutors, and still more by the peculiar appearance of the di- 
 vision on Mr. Grundy's motion : the particular friends of Messrs. Clay 
 and Calhoun voting with the former against the motion and every 
 New England Senator siding with Mr. Webster save Mr. Sprague 
 whose father had been a prominent member of the democratic party 
 and a friend of Mr. Clay, and the son, on that and, I believe, on all 
 subsequent occasions obeyed sympathies similar to those which had 
 governed his father. 
 
 I was not present at the dialogue which took place thus at the very 
 threshold of the session between the principal personages on the bank 
 side of the Senate, but can well conceive, from what I have often seen 
 on other occasions, Mr. Clay's look and manner on this. So formid- 
 able a movement towards overturning his premiership may have 
 been without ulterior object or deliberate design, but few will so 
 construe it. 
 
 I arrived at Washington on the evening of Saturday the 14th, of 
 December, according to the appointment I had made with the Presi- 
 dent and found a message from him at my quarters expressing a de- 
 sire to see me as soon after breakfast on the following morning as 
 wouldsuit my convenience. I found him, at an early hour, expecting 
 my visit and attended only by Senator Grundy, and was at once, ac- 
 cording to his custom, informed of the object of the desired interview. 
 He said that Mr. Clay had pressed the appointment of the standing 
 committees of the Senate at an earlier day but that Mr. Grundy, with 
 views which that gentleman would explain to me, had succeeded in 
 getting the subject put off till the moi-row, for which time their se- 
 lection had been made the order of the day. 
 
 Mr, Grundy then spoke of the probable character of the session, 
 the exciting nature of the subjects that would require action and 
 of the importance to the administration of having the committees 
 as favorably constituted as possible, in all of which I fully con- 
 curred. He had, he said, what he considered sufficient reason to 
 believe that an arrangement could be made with Mr. Webster and 
 his friends by which the latter object could be materially promoted. 
 He had expressed that opinion to the President by whom he had 
 
678 AMERICAN HlSIQEiqAf-. AS^OPUIION. , , 
 
 been informed of the time when I would reach Washington aild 
 requested that no step should be taken in the matter before I had 
 been consulted ; hence the postponement of the choice of committees 
 and the application for the present interview. Determined on the 
 instant that I would, under no circumstances, be a party to any 
 such arrangement with Mr. Webster, I did not stop to ask Mr. 
 Grundy for the grounds of his belief in the practicability of the 
 scheme proposed or even to give him an opportunity to assign them 
 but proceeded to state, at some length, the principles and considera- 
 tions upon which I felt constrained to oppose it. Satisfied, as I 
 ■declared myself to be, that Mr. Grundy would be as little favorable 
 as I could be to a political coalition with Mr. Webster I would not 
 say a word on that point but would limit myself to an attempt to 
 convince him that no arrangement like that suggested, however 
 plausibly devised or cautiously guarded, could be carried out in 
 the then excited state of public feeling without exposing the General 
 and his administration to the suspicion of being disposed to favor 
 such a coalition, and to impress him with a sense of the advantage 
 which Mr. Clay would derive from being furnished with materials 
 to spring such a mine upon us. I dwelt on the antagonistic positions 
 which the President and Mr. Webster had always occupied, in time 
 of peace and in time of war, and especially in relation to the bank 
 which we all knew would be the principal subject of the session — 
 the former the disinterested and fearless opponent of that powerful 
 institution, willing to brave its immense strength from motives 
 exclusively of a public and patriotic character whilst the latter was 
 regarded by all sides as one of its most unscrupulous supporters; 
 on the confusion and consequent alarm with which such a conjunc- 
 tion as was indicated would fill the minds of the friends who had 
 thus far sustained the General with so much firmness as the possible 
 forerunner of an ultimate surrender of the cause in which they had 
 made great sacrifices and in which they were ready to make greater 
 still. I admitted, in their broadest latitude, the troubles that were 
 ahead, the certain severity of the struggle, but declared that I, for 
 one, was prepared for it and would enter upon it in the full con- 
 viction that the people, if nothing occurred to blunt their ardour 
 or to raise a doubt of the purity and disinterestedness of the Gen- 
 eral's aims, in which they now implicitly confided, would carry us,° 
 as on many previous occasions they had carried us, triumphantly 
 thro' the crisis. 
 
 I only attempt to recall the outline of my remarks. The Presi- 
 dent, after introducing the subject, as I have said, concisely but 
 with simple directness and unreserve, took no further part until I 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 115. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY Oi' MAllTiN VAN - B.XTIieia-. 679 
 
 closed rthem. We remainedT staiiding throughout., I^he, .interview — the 
 General resting, one hand upon the mantel. When I had concluded 
 he looked towards Mr. Grundy, who made no response to what I 
 had urged, and advised him to drop the matter, to which the latter 
 assented and immediately withdrew. Between neither of tiiese 
 gentlemen and myself was the subject ever revived. . 
 
 Two remarkable circumstances signalized the opening of the ses- 
 sion. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, ithe principal leaders of the party 
 in opposition to the-"Administration,.who had parted in the .Senate 
 Chamber, when the previous session broke up, with apparently un-. 
 usual cordiality and mutual confidence, now met on the same floor 
 and on the eve of a great political struggle with every indication 
 not only of alienation but of the indulgence on the side of each of 
 feelings reciprocally' hostile and defiant, and by the aid of one of 
 these leaders, backed by eight of his sympathizing colleagues, 
 against the strenuous efforts of the other, and to his great annoy- 
 ance, a partisan motion made by one of the friends of the President 
 was carried, to the surprise of the uninitiated, by a vote of that 
 body in which the Administration — which proverbially repelled 
 neutrality — ^was supposed to be in a hopeless minority. These 
 occurrences, so extraordinary at a time when party feeling was un- 
 ustially bitter and when the lines of party demarkation were very 
 sharply defined, I shall endeavor to explain. 
 
 The course pursue^ by Mr. Webster, at the previous session, upon 
 the passage of Mr. Clay's bill for the pacification of South Carolina, 
 was described in my clpsuig' observations on nullification, but there 
 were features in the proceedings there rela,ted bearing upon the sub- 
 ject before us which were, not brought sufficiently to view for our 
 present design. In the absence of direct evidence of the cause of so 
 sudden and so great a change in the relations and purposes of those 
 gentlemen, which is now not to be expected, we can only look for 
 its; stdutioB^ jto contemporaneous occurrences in the course and. con- 
 duct of .thej p9,rties which shed light upon the subject, and of the 
 truth ' of which we have reliable proof. To do justice to these 
 will extend this digression to a greater length than was ini^nded, but 
 I, can not doubt that temperate and well considered accounts of the 
 acts of men who are destined to figure largely in our history,, on 
 occasions conceded to have been both intricate and. important, pro- 
 ceediiigrirom contemporaries who had good opportunities to possess 
 themselv^ of j^the truth and who can not, at the time when their 
 report is madej^be imder any adequate motive to. njisrepresentit, will 
 h§roj&|great' interest to the men of the present time and instructive 
 to MipSfe who ,cpme after them. Of Mr. Webster's predetermination 
 to oppc^'*lVIr.«,C_lay's bill and to do this without a very particular 
 examination ^qI, or scrupulous, regard to the extent of the concessions 
 
680 AMEBlCAlf HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 or ameliorations proposed by it, and that lie never relaxed tliat 
 determination until he had in the debate placed himself before the 
 Country, in respect to the general subject, as nearly as he deemed 
 safe and practicable, in the position he desired to occupy, there can- 
 not be a reasonable doubt. Yet the only way in which this end 
 could, as he at first thought be attained was to him, until near the 
 close of the debate, a source of nervous personal apprehension. 
 Nevertheless if the obstacles in the path to which his ambition 
 pointed were formidable in his eyes it was equally obvious to all that 
 the temptations to follow it were not less potent. The President's 
 Proclamation had struck him as full of promise of future advance- 
 ment if the facilities it seemed to afford were promptly and wisely 
 embraced. We have authority, necessarily derived from himself, 
 for saying that the first knowledge he received of its existence 
 was derived from a traveler just arrived from the seat of Govern- 
 ment, unknown to him and by whom he was imknown, who told him 
 as a piece of news that Gen. Jackson had issued a proclamation 
 against the nullifiers "taken altogether from Webster's speech at 
 Worcester " — " wh^ere he " (Webster) " had a short time before 
 reproached the Administration for its backwardness and in so doing 
 had recapitulated the powers and duties of the General Government 
 as previously defined in his reply to Hayne." It was hardly to be 
 expected that he should fail to find in the Proclamation much of 
 what his unknown informant has described as constituting its prin- 
 cipal matter or to be gratified by it. The Boston Gazette, a journal 
 professing good will towards the Administration of Gen. Jackson, 
 also spoke of it as follows : 
 
 The Proclamation of the President is a very fortunate document for Mr. 
 Webster; and, if that distinguished gentleman plays his cards skilfully, he 
 can, as easy as kiss my hand, be at the head of the administration party within 
 twelve months. 
 
 It Was not strange that he should construe the signs of the times 
 as promising him a liberal participation in the action of an adminis- 
 tration which he had labored so hard to overthrow and without 
 violence to the principles which he had always professed. He lost 
 no time but forthwith rallied his party at Faneuil Hall and from 
 its time honored walls came forth the warmest commendations of the 
 favored State Paper, of its principles and of the patriotic course of 
 its distinguished author, with earnest pledges of support in its 
 enforcement; commendation and assurances promulgated under cir- 
 cumstances and in a form which vouchsafed to Mr. Webster the 
 credit of their paternity. Having thus defined his position in re- 
 spect to a matter of such vast importance Mr. Webster remained at 
 home until the issue between the Federal Government and South 
 Carolina had been fully formed by the nullifying Ordinance of the 
 
A-C:TOBIOCiEAI>HY OF MAETIN VAN BUEEN. 681 
 
 latter, the passage of a law to carry it into effect and the promulga- 
 tion of Gov. Hayne's counter Proclamation. Congress met on the 
 3d of March but he did not make his appearance in the Senate until 
 the 31st of that month. He supported the Force bill (to which his 
 biographer, Mr. March, says he was strongly urged by Mr. Grundy, 
 whom that gentleman describes as the President's "next friend") 
 in a speech of undoubted ability, and this he would have done if his 
 speech at Boston had never been made because the principle on 
 which it proceeded was that by which he claimed that his whole 
 public life had been regulated. Mr. Clay, was also unreservedly in 
 favor of its passage altho' he was, for reasons that were satisfactory 
 to himself yet liable to misconstruction, absent at the vote, and did 
 not embrace the measure with any extraordinary zeal. 
 
 The discussion drew from Mr. Calhoun an intimation, tho' not 
 harshly or strenuously pressed, that Mr. Webster was trying to 
 conciliate the administration, and a personal attack of extreme vio- 
 lence was made upon him by Senator Poindexter,^ upbraiding him 
 with his conduct during the war of 1812, thus inflicting a wound upon 
 his feelings the healing of which, as we shall see, was reserved for 
 the closing scene in the political drama to which the attention of 
 the Country was now directed with the keenest solicitude. Mr. 
 Clay's measure of pacification not yet formally announced but all 
 along confidently expected at what he might think the most auspi- 
 cious moment for its introduction, was looked to as the touchstone 
 that was to determine the effect of the position — to some extent, at 
 least, a new one — ^which Mr. Webster had assumed upon his future 
 relations with Mr. Clay and with the mass of their political associates. 
 On the main point, that of opposition to it, Mr. Webster's mind had 
 been, as before intimated, doubtless, made up from the beginniag; 
 but the manner in which his opposition should be avowed, the extent 
 to which his objections to the anticipated bill should be carried to 
 make them sufficient for his purposes, and the way in which the one 
 or a different course might be received were questions alike deli- 
 cate and grave. It having been pretty well ascertained that Mr. 
 Clay's bill, whether satisfactory to the disaffected State or not, would, 
 if it passed, suffice to induce her to abandon her refractory steps, 
 and it being manifestly the general sense of the Country that the 
 adoption of some such measure," if not indispensable, was in the high- 
 est degree desirable to avoid the evils of internecine commotion, Mr. 
 Webster's sagacity admonished him to weigh well the grounds upon 
 which it would be safe to place himself in opposition to what might 
 be justly claimed to be the will of the people. He had too much sense 
 not to understand that the occasion was one on which the public mind 
 
 1 George Poindexter, of Mississippi. ° MS. VI, p. 120. 
 
682 AMERICAN HISTORICAl, ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 would neither, make allowance for, the mere person3,l ieelipgs>o£.>ny 
 mall nor tolerate commonplaces aniong the motives and excus^^ for 
 granting or denying legislation, such as greater or less profits-to the 
 manufacturers under one or another set o:^ revenue regulations or more 
 or less encouragement to any particular interest. These were mat- 
 ters which it might well be urged would be listened to with respect, and 
 canvassed with care under different circumstances but which would 
 not be allowed [to] control in a crisis like that, which had been brought 
 on the Country partly thro' the selfishness of one and not less thro' 
 the headlong violence oi another class. It was plain, rand the truth 
 did not pass his intelligent mind unheeded, rtliat he could not hope to 
 escape public denunciation if he should attem^p^ to defeat the measure 
 the introduction of which by Mr. Clay wasexpected, in the'actual con- 
 dition of parties and of the Country, on any other ground than ithat 
 it amounted to an abandonment of the protective system and would in-' 
 volve the certain prostration of immense interests which had grown up 
 under the promised encouragement of the Government. To arraign, 
 however, the conceded author of the "American System" at the bar. 
 of the people, in the then excited and inflammable condition of thes 
 public-mind, upon'the charge of consenting to sacrifice the most im- 
 portant and hitherto the most cherished feature of that, system to ap- 
 pease the NuUifiers, and to do this when that author was smarting 
 under the mortification occasioned by a most annoying defeat as a 
 candidate for the Presidency, would have been to arouse resentments 
 of the fiercest nature, to brave the probable consequences of which 
 required a greater degree of personal firmness tHan Mr. Webster had 
 ever exhibited, especially in Ms intercourse with Mr. Clay^ his pecul- 
 iar dread of giving offence to whom was perfectly well known to their 
 friends and to the public. Yet such a course or one which, not 
 amounting to it on its face, could afterwards and under more eligible 
 circumstances be made to take that shape before the Country-^onev 
 or the other altemadve was indispensable to the accomplishment- of . 
 Mr. Webster's assumed object. • . , , 
 
 He adopted the latter plan and brought to its execution all the 
 sagacity and a^di'oitness he possessed, and in which he had no superior, 
 to .make the positions he assumed and the ideas and expressioiis by 
 ■vjrhich he supported them convey to intelligent hearers and readers a 
 significance beyond his words. He commenced hjs speech with, a staid 
 compliment tov,"th^ purity, zeal and ability of the Senator fi;om 
 Kentucky, for, p^tn he, had long entertame^ a Mgh respecfi^wr^- to 
 elevate whom to a sitw^n where Ms talents ndghi/be sIaR more 
 henefjoioL to his Govntry he had zealously labored^'''' He -a-lso com- 
 plimented for his talents and services the Senator ^fpom South Caro- 
 lina. (Mr, Calhoun) '•'■'uiith-wJicmi, -he- had-Mfiem-acted^ amd for whom, 
 he had always felt a sincere regard.'" 
 
AU5;pBI0GEAPHY OF MAETIKT VAN BUREN. 683 
 
 - -Hayjlig tendered these ©live branches to his principal antagonists, 
 each of whom he knew at the moment to be watching his course with 
 sharpest inspection and with determination to make it as onerous to 
 him as possible; he_ proceeded to ■ weave -into his' speech )the .grave 
 objection to the measure under consideration to which I have^lluded, 
 that of its amounting, to an abandonment of the protective policy 
 without security to the extensive interests that had grown up under 
 it, and did so without exposing himself to the responsibility of spe- 
 cific allegations to that effect or a direct charge that it was so in- 
 tended by its author. " He opposed the bill " he said, among many 
 similar things, " because it seemed to yield the constitutional power 
 of protection " — ^because " in giving up specific duties and substituting 
 ad vuLoremi the- bill had abandoned the policy of all wise govern- 
 ments and the policy of our own government and the policy always 
 advocated hy the Senator from Kentucky; " — •" he could not help 
 thinking that panic had something to do with it and that if the 
 South Carolina Ordinance and replevin law had not appeared this 
 bill would never have appeared in the Senate," &c. &c. These are 
 fair samples of the propositions and insinuations which pervaded the 
 speech. The intelligent reader will find in it continued and unmis- 
 takable traces of an effort on one hand to impute to Mr. Clay the 
 design of abandoning the protective system for the purpose of traii- 
 qoilizing- and conciliating • the nullifiers and on the other to avoid 
 embroiling his personal relations ^with Mr. Clay by charging that 
 intention too plainly, and I do not doubt that, with all his caution, 
 he resumed his seat under the stirongest apprehension that he had 
 gone too far. 
 
 But Mr. Webster was ignorant of what was -passing in Mr. Clay's 
 mind at the moment. Deeply impressed as the latter doubtless was 
 with a conviction of the importance of the service he was about to 
 render to the country and anxious to perform it, that was not the 
 ojjly and, it is not uncharitable to suppose, the most engrossing 
 matter that occupied ,hia attention. He had ascertained the cost, 
 had "counted noses," and knew that a suiSeient settlement of the 
 . disturbance by which the fears of ^the people in every quarter of the 
 Union had been excited was in his hands and could not be prevented 
 by anything Mr. Webster could; say or do. Without misgiving, 
 therefore, as to immediate results. he was less sensitive as to what 
 was going on before his eyes while, his thoughts and feelings were 
 chiefly occupied with the plan concqctedj^ Ijetween Mr. Biddle and 
 himself for a renewed struggle on behalf of the bank and for the 
 success of his party widely differing both in principle and in mode 
 of :qperation from that which had ended so disastrously. That was 
 a mattej: .iiitQJLhich,.there is. every reason to_ believe, Mr. Webster 
 
684 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 had not been initiated, but in which his co-operation would, in time, 
 be desired and, notwithstanding present complications, was confi- 
 dently anticipated. It would have been, therefore, inconsistent 
 with Mr. Clay's views to expose his some time friend to humiliations 
 which, with the temptations recently presented by the President's 
 Proclamation, might shake his fealty to the bank however strong 
 the tenure by which it seemed to be held. Made more cautious by 
 the lessons of a severe experience and having acquired, what is not 
 usual, with advancing years also greater self-command, Mr. Clay 
 suppressed, upon calculation, the impetuous retort which, at an 
 earlier period of his life, would have forced its way thro' all such 
 restraints, not only suffered the insinuations and sinister surmises 
 of his wily rival to pass unnoticed but reciprocated his compliments 
 measure for measure. He opened his reply with a "high tribute," 
 as the reporter has it, " to the patriotism and purity " of that gentle- 
 man and said that he felt " pained exceedingly" at being obliged to 
 differ from "his friend from Massachusetts," but took care, at the 
 same time, to say "how happy he was to find himself connected 
 with his friend from Maine" (John Holmes) "with whom he had 
 acted in the final adjustment of the Missouri -Question." Of his 
 speech, in other respects, I have fully spoken in my concluding 
 strictures upon nullification 
 
 Mr. Webster had thus accomplished his immediate purpose. By 
 general observations which could, at a future day, be made more 
 specific he had placed himself before the Country as the consistent 
 and persistent friend of a system about to be abandoned for other 
 objects by him who had, hitherto, borne its standard — a system which, 
 tho' an abomination in the South, from which quarter he felt that 
 he had nothing to expect, had been and could, he thought, be again 
 ridden as a political hobby in the West and was, in his own section, 
 a living and powerful interest, entering into the business and personal 
 concern of the most active and influential portions of the population, 
 and its fortunes and the course of public men in relation to it were 
 therefore watched with all the alertness and shrewdness that char- 
 acterize the race in that region. He had been enabled, by a good for- 
 tune the source of which it is not probable that he, at the moment, 
 entirely comprehended, to take this position without a collision with 
 Mr. Clay ° which he had obviously and naturally anticipated with 
 concern, and he determined to let well alone. Although he con- 
 tinued his opposition to the bill, offering such explanations as he 
 thought expedient to neutralize the assaults made by other Senators 
 on the grounds assumed by him and finally voting against it, he 
 made no reply to Mr. Clay's elaborate and able answer to his objec- 
 
 ° MS. Vr, p. 125. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MABTIN VAIJ BUKEN. 685 
 
 tions and, so far from taking any further steps to prevent the pas- 
 sage of the bill, when Gov. Dickerson, an ultra protectionist, offfered 
 certain amendments Mr. Webster prevailed on that Senator to with- 
 ,draw them, declaring that, altho' he was satisfied that some such 
 amendments would become indispensable he yet thought "if the 
 bill was to pass it ought to pass at once " — and it was passed. 
 
 Having witnessed the passage of his bill by a vote of which the 
 constituent parts were, on other questions and occasions, so inhar- 
 monious and being assured by Mr. Calhoun that it would pacify 
 South Carolina and thus^quiet the alarm seriously and universally 
 disturbing the public mind, Mr. Clay exulted in his new claims to a 
 character on which he had long prided himself — ^that of a Great 
 Pacificator. By the opportune service he had rendered them he. had 
 placed Mr. Calhoun and the nuUifiers in a position which would not 
 only incline but oblige them to co-operate with him so far as relatied 
 to the President and the bank in the great struggle in which he was 
 about to engage, however indisposed they might be to advance his 
 political fortunes. Such successful results were certain in his case 
 to stir into activity the generous impulses which were deeply im- 
 planted in his nature. Not content with the favourable effects which 
 the conciliatory course he had pursued towards Mr. Webster had 
 apparently produced upon that gentleman he yet felt in the mood to 
 go further, to turn his plastic hand from the composition of public 
 dissension to the adjustment of a private quarrel, and thus to confer 
 a further benefit for which Mr. W.'s admirers and supporters would 
 perhaps give him credit whether he did so or not. At the first 
 vacant moment after the final passage of his bill Mr. Clay arose from 
 his seat, and, alluding, with suitable solemnity, to the very violent 
 attack upon Mr. Webster by Senator Poindexter, of which I have 
 before spoken, addressed the Chair, commencing as follows : 
 
 An incident occurred a few days ago which gave me very great pain and I am 
 quite sure that in that feeling the whole Senate participated." I allude to some 
 of the observations made by the honorable Senator from Mississippi and the 
 honorable Senator from Massachusetts near me, with reference to an important 
 bill then pending. I was persuaded at the time those remarks were made that 
 they were the result of mutual misconception, and were to be attributed solely 
 to that zeal which each of those honorable Senators felt — In the position in which 
 they stood toward each other — ^the one to carry, the other to defeat the measure, 
 with respect to which my friend from Massachusetts and myself unfortunately 
 took different views. * * * 
 
 " Mr. Poindexter had taken occasion to allude to the eonrse of Mr. Webster during the 
 War of 1S12, on which he commented with great severity, and compared it with the 
 conduct of Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Webster declined all explanations to the Senator from 
 Mississippi. He said that the Senator from South Carolina was with him in the House 
 of Representatives at the period to which Mr. P. alluded, and if that Senator wished 
 any explanation of his course at that time he would pay the most cheerful and respectful 
 attention to his request But he did not feel himself called upon to take any notice of 
 the remarks of the gentleman from Mississippi. Mr. Poindexter immediately rose and 
 said " he felt the most perfect contempt for the Senator from Massachusetts." 
 
686 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 By -these and similar impartial and guarded observations Mr. Glay 
 got up a half friendly and explanatory colloquy between the belliger- 
 ent Senators, which soon ended in shaking hands and in asseverations 
 of mutual respect and good will. No one doubted that he could have - 
 suppressed Poindexter's outbreak on its first manifestation or reme- 
 died it at any intervening moment and all will agree that if his inter- 
 ference was designedly delayed the moment for its exercise was judi- 
 ciously chosen. 
 
 These occurrences gave in the eyes of all and especially of Mr. Clay 
 a more agreeable aspect to the closing scente of that session than had 
 been expected. They made him a happier man by far than he was 
 when he left his home for the seat of Government on the close of the 
 Presidential election immediately preceding, in which he had suffered 
 a signal defeat. To make up for the latter disaster, so far as that was 
 possible, and for the loss to his party of the majority in the House of 
 Representatives he had, chiefly thro' his own efforts, recruited and. 
 consolidated in the Senate — ^the body of which he was himself a mem- 
 ber and to which he looked as the theatre of the great transactions 
 which he hoped to see triumphantly accomplished at the next ses- 
 sion — a safe working majority, ready and able to carry out the pro- 
 gramme in the preparation of which he had borne a principal part. 
 , Judging by appearances only, no leave-taking between members 
 of a political brotherhood, at the close of an arduous and excited 
 session, could have more convincedly given assurance of the exist- 
 ence of a common sympathy or of the promise of a zealous co-oper- 
 ation in their future partisan movements than that which then took 
 place between Mr. Clay and Mr. Webstfer ; and yet at their very next 
 meeting, during the first day of the ensuing session, they presented 
 themselves^ as we have seen, to friends and foes, in hostile array 
 against each other, apparently as well personally as politically ; and, 
 stranger still, the occasion of this demonstration was a proposition, 
 intended to have a bearing on partisan interests, by a devoted friend 
 of President Jackson, the opponent of both and of their common 
 party. No intelligent person, conversant with the common forms of 
 parliamentary intercourse between public men, can read the official 
 account of what occurred on the discussion and disposition of Sena- 
 tor Grundy's motion without being satisfied that there is no exag- 
 geration in my description of the attitude and bearing towards each 
 other of those gentlemen on that occasion. A demonstration so un- 
 expected by the great body of their party and so disastrous in its 
 tendency would, under any circumstances, have caused consternation 
 in its ranks but under those in which it was placed the alarm pro- 
 duced by it was unavoidably greatly aggravated during the few 
 days that its fate was suspended. Their actual condition can to 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN' BUKEN. 687 
 
 stated- in a few words. The bank, then the principal element of 
 their political strength, had, almost immediately after the close of 
 the preceding conflict, given unequivocal indications of a determina- 
 tion to renew the struggle for the perpetuation of its powers and 
 privileges, a determination which had received th^ sanction of its 
 stockholders and the approval of the leaders of the party on the 
 support of which it counted with entire confidence As soon as the 
 ' necessary preparations had been made it entered upon and had 
 been for four months engaged, at enormous sacrifices, in the pro- 
 duction and organization of the new materials of war which, for 
 the first time, were to be employed to secure success and only 
 awaited the meeting of Congress to " fire the train," and just when 
 its engineers were, as they fiattered themselves, on the point of se- 
 curing the fruition of their hopes and its political supporters their 
 harvest, alLwas placed in jeopardy by this ill-omened breach between 
 two Senators who had been from the beginning its strongest and 
 ablest generals. To give to this inopportune dissension its worst 
 aspect it had disclosed itself on so vital a point as the construction 
 of the standing committees of the Senate which body was the in- 
 tended head-quarters of the bank forces and Mr. Webster had been 
 followed in his adverse vote by a sufficient number of the Eastern 
 Senators to put Mr. Clay in a minority. AH will agree that such 
 a rupture on the side of the bank could not have happened without 
 the greatest reasons. What were they? Mr. Grundy's embryo in- 
 trigue with Mr. Webster could not have produced it on the part of 
 Mr. Clay because altho' the latter might have found grounds of 
 suspicion already produced by other causes, strengthened by the 
 'ominous conjunction 'between those Senators and by his knowledge 
 of Mr. Grundy's passion for what ° he regarded as allowable strategy 
 in partisan >varf are, he was not informed of its existence, as far as 
 I know or believe, until fifteen years afterwards. Mr. Webster's 
 resentment may have been kindled by his gleanings at Philadelphia 
 in regard to the stringency of Mr. Clay's requirements, but that 
 could have had no other or further effect ; for, if Mr. C's suspicions in 
 respect to the views with which Mr. Webgter reached Washington 
 were well founded, the disposition of the latter to separate from him 
 sprang from far reaching motives of a very different character. 
 
 The suspicion by which Mr. Clay was led to meet Mr. Webster at 
 Washington as an enemy, and which was confirmed by his acci- 
 dental conversation with me years afterwards, was that Mr. W. left 
 the seat of Government in the spring of 1833, after his peace-making 
 with Senator Poindexter, with two settled purposes— first, to sup- 
 plant him in the affection and confidence of their own party and, 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 130. 
 
688 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 secondly, to conciliate the good will of President Jackson and as 
 many of his friends as should be found practicable, with the ulterior 
 design of employing one or the other or both of^ these means, incon- 
 gruous as they might appear to be, to secure his own elevation to the 
 Presidential office at the approaching and certain vacancy. The first 
 object Mr. Clay was doubtless thoroughly conscious had never been 
 absent from Mr. Webster's thoughts since the commencement of their 
 political association, and having been, from the beginning, at all 
 times exposed to attempts at its accomplishment, persistent altho' 
 unsuccessful, the repetition of them at the time I speak of, if con- 
 ducted with common fairness, would not, I think, have led him to 
 the adoption of so decided a step towards his old political confed- 
 erates as that which he determined to take and did take on his arrival 
 at Washington. His belief in Mr. Webster's designs upon the Gen- 
 eral's friendship was, in this instance, the revival of a suspicion 
 which he, in common with almost every body .else, had imbibed from 
 the eager and emphatic applauses of the doctrines of the Proclama- 
 tion with which Faneuil Hall had resounded on the appearance of 
 that document ; but his first impressions had been greatly shaken, if 
 not removed, by observation of the conduct of the President's most in- 
 fluential friends, who, for reasons to be explained hereafter, had 
 turned the cold shoulder to Webster, and he had been thus induced 
 to make the effort I have noticed (and in which he thought that he 
 had succeeded) to secure the continued fealty of the latter to the 
 bank. Mr. Webster's course, however, during the recess, not only 
 re-awakened his former suspicions but ripened them into convictions 
 which he ever afterwards deemed well founded. This was, beyond 
 all doubt, the state of his mind in those regards when he met Mr. 
 Webster at the Capitol a few days after the opening of the Panic 
 Session. 
 
 If Mr. Webster's ardor in the pursuit of the object which Mr. Clay 
 assumed that he had in view was somewhat abated by the discour- 
 agement to which I have just alluded it is quite certain that it was 
 renewed and strengthened during his residence at Washington thro' 
 the short session of 1833-34. How much influence the conversation of 
 Mr. Livingston and possibly of Mr. Grundy and others had in pro- 
 ducing this change we shall now never Imow, but, reassured and satis- 
 fied that he had, in the course of the session and of the recess, done 
 what was needful to lay a secure foundation for the ultimate accom- 
 plishment of his purpose, save only an open rupture with Mr. Clay, 
 he accepted the terms of their future [sic] proffered by the latter 
 without hesitation and, as it seemed, without apprehension. 
 
 I have before described the impression made upon me by Mr. 
 Grundy's communication in respect to Mr. Webster's probable aims, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 689 
 
 spoken of the absence from my own mind of such a suspicion as that 
 which Mr. Clay entertained, and assigned the men, by which I have 
 been induced to review the premises, from whom it is probable that 
 his conclusion was drawn. Whilst it might be considered presump- 
 tion in me to undertake to pronounce definitely upon their sufficiency 
 I am free to aclaiowledge their evident strength and consistency. 
 However well assured Mr. Clay might think himself of Mr. Webster's 
 grateful sense of the favor done to him at the close of the preceding 
 session, the nature of their past relations and considerations of the 
 important concerns with which it was intended that the attention 
 of both should be occupied at the next rendered it likely that he 
 would, during the recess, keep his' eye on the movements of his 
 expected co-adjutor with more than ordinary interest. President 
 Jackson's purpose to visit the Eastern States was well understood 
 at Washington before Mr. Webster left that city and the expectation 
 was generally entertained that the course he had pursued in regard to 
 the doctrine of nullification' would call forth a more general demon- 
 stration of respect f rOm the Eastern people than might otherwise have 
 been exhibited. Many, perhaps most persons, would, on a first im- 
 pression, have taken it for granted that Mr. Webster, if he cherished 
 the desire attributed to him by the supposition we are consider- 
 ing, would have made it a point to be with his people on the 
 President's arrival amongst them, to have participated in their demon- 
 strations of respect, to have mingled in the combined assemblages of 
 the President's political friends and his own, and so to have manoeu- 
 vred as, without a seeming effort to that end, to cause, as he did at the 
 Fanueil Hall meeting, the eulogiums bestowed on the Chief Magis- 
 trate to be regarded as virtually proceeding from himself. But, in 
 the case supposed, conceding to his position a portion only of the 
 dignity and influence with which his lavish admirers invested it, he 
 might well have reasoned differently in regard to the steps by which 
 such a coalition as that he desired should be preceded ; he might well 
 have preferred a course of proceedings by which to save so. great a 
 sacrifice of his personal consequence. His enthusiastic young biogra- 
 pher and friend, March, when, treating of the proposed union, he 
 spoke of Mr. Webster (who was, he says, " admirably qualified for a 
 great adviser") becoming the great ally of General Jackson, of 
 " securing his admiration by the majesty of his intellect " and supply- 
 ing " the mind to plan what the other would have had the heart to 
 execute," may have come nearer to Mr. Webster's views of what would 
 have been the character of a union between Gen. Jackson and himself. 
 Whichever way Mr. W. may have reasoned on the subject his actions 
 certainly were most in harmony with this idea. So far was he from 
 taking pains to be at home when the President arrived in Massa- 
 12T483°— Y0i,2— 20 44 
 
690 AMEBICABT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 chusetts that he selected the entire period of the General's visit to 
 New England for his famous Western tour, which by his biographer 
 is described as having been " one continual ovation " and by his 
 friends of the National Intelligencer as " an excursion in the progress 
 of which he wrought little less than a miracle upon party feuds and 
 divisions in the Western country '' — setting forth, as its most grace- 
 ful trophy, a letter by which Mr. Grundy, in connection with several 
 of Gen. Jackson's friends and neighbours at Nashville and others 
 without distinction of party, invite him, in highly complimentary 
 terms, to visit that city and its neighbourhood. By the adoption of 
 this course Mr. Webster was enabled to give more dignity and greater 
 efficacy to such tributes of respect to the public acts of the President 
 as he might desire to pay them. Instead of speaking to that high 
 officer as the chairman of a committee or as the mover of resolutions 
 at a public meeting, conveying his own sentiments modified by those 
 of others, as would have been the case if he had waited to receive him 
 in the vicinity of his own home, he could now speak in his own name 
 and, if he chose so to do, the unmixed feelings of his heart, and in- 
 stead of addressing him in the midst of a population a majority of 
 whom the President very well knew would never so far subdue their 
 inveterate prejudices or recant their old and rooted doctrines as to 
 become his sincere supporters, he could say what he might desire to 
 him or at hini in the hearing of any portion of the people of the West 
 whom he should have reason to think best adapted to his purposes. 
 Mr. Webster was then and had always been a party man, certainly 
 among the strictest if not also among the bitterest of his sect. It 
 suited his views to doff his partisan character and armor on this tour, 
 and his political opponents, having been the victors in the last great 
 contest and resting in possession of the Government, were not indis- 
 posed to meet his advances and to receive so distinguished a leader, 
 under such circumstances, with frank cordiality. How consistent the 
 assumption of this non-combatant appearance was with the feelings 
 and actual views of his party will be best considered ° when we speak 
 of the finishing touch which he gave to this peace professing, at least, 
 if not also, in a special sense, peace making enterprize. 
 
 Public dinners, eo nomine, were, with a single exception (at Cin- 
 cinnati), avoided, but he accompanied large parties on pleasure 
 excursions, received addresses, and noticed their contents when they 
 related to particular points in the improvement of the Country — 
 the latter subject, with the promise of further advancement and 
 the favorable character of the people, constituting the staple of his 
 speeches. Party politics were studiously eschewed or postponed. 
 There was not a word spoken any where, save at Cincinnati, his 
 
 " MS. VI, p. 135. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 691 
 
 speech at which place was not published, to which the warmest ad- 
 mirer of the President could not have listened without receiving 
 offence. Apparently Mr. Webster reserved all that he wished at 
 that time to say of politics, past, present, and future, and of the 
 course of President Jackson in that connection for his speech at 
 Pittsburgh, in the State of Pennsylvania, at which point his Western 
 tour terminated. The unsurpassed fidelity of that great State to the 
 General and the anxious solicitude felt by the people of Pittsburgh, 
 as well as by those of the State at large, for the maintenance of the 
 protective system were known to every body and by none better 
 understood than by the orator. It is fair to presume that these were 
 among the reasons by which he was induced to consider Pittsburgh 
 the most eligible place for the promulgation of the views expressed 
 in that speech in regard to his own course and that of President 
 Jackson in the suppression of nullification and to the importance of 
 the protective system, of which he thought himself entitled, after 
 the proceedings of the past winter, to the distinction of being re- 
 garded as the principal champion. The more the Pittsburgh speech 
 is considered the more evident will be found its bearing on the point 
 under consideration. The significance attached to it by its author 
 appears from the facts that whilst the speech delivered at Cincinnati, 
 tho' promised to the printer, was never furnished, this, having been 
 once published from the notes of a professional stenographer, was, 
 months afterwards, revised and materially enlarged by Mr. Webster 
 himself and republished in Niles' Register, the principal mouthpiece 
 of the protectionists. Mr. W's uniform friend, the venerable James 
 Ross, an old school and consistent federalist, was chairman of the 
 Committee of Invitation, which w,as mainly if not wholly com- 
 posed of Mr. Webster's political adherents, and the Mayor of the 
 city, who. presided, manifested himself a zealous member of the 
 same denomination. The meeting was held in a grove and was 
 attended by some three thousand of the citizens of Pittsburgh and 
 its vicinity. Mr. Webster was presented to the assemblage by the 
 Mayor in a brief address full charged with compliments but dis- 
 creetly engrossed, however, with the domestic questions and con- 
 cerns of the Country in respect to which Mr. W's latter opinions 
 had best accorded with those of Pennsylvania, placing Nullification 
 and the protective system in the front grotmd : 
 
 Gentlemen, [he said] we are this day Citizens of the United States. 
 The Union is safe. Not a star has fallen from that proud banner 
 around which our affections have so long rallied and when, with de- 
 lightful assurance, we cast our eyes on the eventful history of the last 
 year, when we recall the gloomy apprehensions and perhaps hopeless 
 despondency which came over us, who, gentlemen, can learn without 
 
692 AMERICAN HISTOEICAX, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 a glow of enthusiasm that the great Champion of the Constitution — 
 that Daniel Webster is now in the midst of us ! To his mighty in- 
 tellect the nation, with one voice, confided its cause — of life or death. 
 Shall there be withheld from the triumphant advocate a nation's 
 gratitude ! 
 
 It is worthy of remark that neither in giving this well deserved 
 prominence to the subject of nullification nor in his earnest appeal 
 for the nation's gratitude for its rescue from the perils that had 
 environed it was the name of Andrew Jackson even mentioned, or 
 his participation in that great deliverance alluded to unless such was 
 the design of the paragraph immediately following this outburst of 
 admiration and praise of Mr. Webster which aimed to show the 
 superior usefulness, in the then situation of the Country, of " intel- 
 lectual pre-eminence " over appeals to " the sword_and the bayonet." 
 Whence arose this singular omission, rendered the more striking by 
 the place where and the people before whom it occurred, it is not 
 easy to discover; whether we are to attribute it to the sympathy of 
 the Mayor (whose name is not recorded) with the feelings of the 
 venerable chairman of the Committee who, from being at first a 
 zealous advocate of Gen. Jackson's election, had turned strongly 
 against him when he found that he had mistaken the bent of his 
 political sentiments, or whether it was the result of design to in- 
 crease the credit and to swell the eclat of Mr. Webster's very differ- 
 ent course — whatever may have heen the motive the latter did not 
 fail to give to the President's good conduct the same prominence 
 which had been accorded to his own by the Mayor and treated the 
 subject in a way with which the friends of Jackson had reason to be 
 satisfied. He spoke of him as a "patriotic chief magistrate" who 
 was "true to every duty" and who, "when the crisis arrived in 
 which our Constitution was in danger," stepped forward in its de- 
 fence in a spirit which had induced him (Mr. Webster) to yield "not 
 a tame and hesitating but a cordial and efficient support to his 
 measures." 
 
 In all this Mr. Webster did no more than the culpable omission 
 of the Mayor and the other circumstances of the case imposed upon 
 him as a duty. In a subsequent part of his address, but before 
 he had quitted the general subject, he availed himself of the oppor- 
 tunity to commend the views in regard to the conduct of the Gov- 
 ernment which he had found to prevail in the course of his tour 
 and in that connection to add what follows : 
 
 I know that those who have seen fit to entrust to me, In part, their interests 
 in Congress approve of the measures recommended by the President. We 
 see that he has taken occasion, during the recess of Congress, to visit that 
 part of the Country ; and we know how he has been received. Nowhere have 
 hands been extended with more sincerity of friendship; and, for one, gentle- 
 
ATJTOBIOGEAPHY OP MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 693 
 
 men, I take occasion to say tbat, having lieard of his return to the seat of 
 government with health rather debilitated, it is among my most earnest 
 prayers that Providence may spare his life and that he may go through vcith 
 his administration and come out with as much success and glory as any 
 of his predecessors. 
 
 Having paid this tribute of respect to the President and offered 
 up these earnest prayers for his future success, Mr. Webster next 
 turned to the sentiments favorable to himself as the friend of 
 domestic industry, expressed by the Mayor, as to a matter of which 
 he was evidently full and ^uUy prepared to speak. He did not refer 
 to the bill Mr. Clay had, three months before, introduced and caused 
 to be passed to quiet South Carolina,^ and of which he (Mr.-W.) 
 had said, from his place in the Senate, that he opposed it because 
 it imposed a restriction upon the future legislation of Congress, be- 
 cause "it seemed to yield the constitutional power of protection" 
 and because "in giving up specific duties and substituting ad. 
 vdioTem, the bill had abandoned the policy of all wise governments 
 and the policy of our own government and the policy always advo- 
 cated by the Senator from Kentucky ". I did say he did not name 
 that bUl at Pittsburgh but he spoke at it with great power and, 
 doubtless, with great effect upon minds so strongly predisposed 
 against it as were those of the manufacturing population of that 
 city, in a speech which had been obviously prepared with unusual 
 care and research, which aimed to place the subject in new lights and 
 from the influence of which it was apparent that much was expected. 
 He spoke of the protective system as a policy which Massachusetts 
 had not originated and to which she was not originally favorable, 
 which had been brought into existence by the overwhelming influence 
 of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio (the States to which he had 
 made the visit he was then upon the point of closing,) but in which 
 she had acquiesced after it was thus adopted. He said that they had 
 given their capital and labor to it — that ° they had become wedded 
 to it, so that " there was now no shade of difference between the 
 interests of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts." "We shall not," 
 said he, " yield it without a struggle, neither shall we yield the prin- 
 ciple of protection, without a severe struggle, under any circumstances 
 whatever." 
 
 He treated the subject throughout as if the questions of yielding 
 the system and its constitutionality had been newly put in issue 
 and under circumstances of menace and peculiar danger to its ex- 
 istence. He introduced as new a detailed and very interesting state- 
 ment of the proceedings of the mechanics of Boston — " the workers 
 
 1 An Act to modify the Act of the fourteenth of July » • * and all other Acts 
 imposing duties on imports. Approved March 2, 1833. 
 ° MS, VI, p. 140. 
 
694 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 .in [leather?], in tin, in iron, &c." — ^before the adoption of the Fed- 
 eral Constitution, to show not only the influence they exerted in 
 favor of protection but that to those proceedings in all probability 
 was ascribable a controlling effect in producing the ratification of 
 (the Constitution itself, and concluded by saying : 
 
 ' Under these circumstances it cannot be expected that we of New England will 
 readily abandon our ground. We are ready to do more work with less pro- 
 tection, if that will answer, but we yet believe that the power is in the Constitu- 
 tion and I do not believe that it is within my competency to draw my pen 
 across that power: &c. &c. 
 
 I quote from the stenographic report of the Speech, published in 
 Nile's' Eegister of July 27th, 1833.^ 
 
 It was not likely that Mr. Clay would read so impassioned a pane- 
 gyric of a man whose power with the people he had already much 
 reason to be convinced but with whom he was preparing for another 
 and final struggle, or so fervent a prayer for the success of an ad- 
 ministration which he and Mr. Biddle were providing the means to 
 overthrow, or an attack so vigorous and almost undisguised upon his 
 title to the position which it had been the labor of his life to establish 
 for himself, that of leading advocate and friend, in the eye of the 
 Country, of the^protective system, coming from such a source and 
 promulgated at such a moment without, at least, imbibing a suspi- 
 cion that he and his party had as much to apprehend from Mr. Web- 
 ster, in proportion to his means, as from President Jackson or any 
 of his political adherents. Still I do not think that he would have 
 thought it expedient, if Mr. Webster had been content to let the 
 matter rest as it then stood, to break with him at that critical junc- 
 ture. Thoroughly satisfied as he might have been, by this last de- 
 velopment, of the impossibility of inaintaining friendly political re- 
 lations permanently with Mr. Webster, he, nevertheless, knew the 
 depth of the distrust with which the latter was regarded by the mass 
 of what was called the Jackson party and by its most influential 
 leaders and he might have been induced to look upon efforts to gain 
 a foothold in that quarter as so hopeless as to make it his safest 
 course to shut his eyes to them and to trust to the power of the bank 
 >to secure indispensable cooperation. He had been not a little in- 
 fluenced in the adoption of the conciliatory course he had pursued 
 towards Mr. W. at the preceding session by the knowledge he pos- 
 sessed on this point and by what he saw of the extent to which that 
 gentleman had increased the obstacles to his progress in the direc- 
 tion indicated by the clumsy and unwise manner in which he had de- 
 vised and conducted the proceedings of his Faneuil Hall meeting on 
 the occasion of the first appearance of the Proclamation. These were 
 such as no practical man, with only a moderate share of common 
 
 1 Vol. 44, p. 362. 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 695 
 
 sense, could have failed to avoid. Gen. Jackson was in Congress 
 during the first term of Washington's Presidency when the germs of 
 the political creed which has been, in its leading features, in suc- 
 cession, that of the old republican the anti-federal and democratic 
 parties, were first planted in the public mind, and he had imbibed, 
 to an extent heretofore stated an abiding sense of the justice and wis- 
 dom of its doctrines. I have heretofore also remarked that, whilst 
 its vital and fundamental principles were never obscured or shaken 
 in his mind or heart, he had doubtless lost, in some degree, during 
 a long military service and consequent withdrawal from and indif- 
 ference to party contests, his familiarity with the history of some of 
 its particular tenets and the perception of their constant application 
 and importance. How far the character of the Government, other- 
 wise plainly defined, had been affected by the declarations of the pre- 
 amble which had been affixed to the Constitution was one of the 
 vexed questions between the old republican and federal parties of 
 that period. The different effect of the adoption of the one or of 
 the other interpretation has been elsewhere described. The doctrine 
 of the democratic party in that regard, which is identical with that 
 zealously insisted on by the early republicans, was supposed to have 
 been ignored in the construction of the Proclamation and the ancient 
 federal dogma to have been recognised in its place and the Faneuil 
 Hall meeting, called to consider and express an opinion upon that 
 State Paper, seemed determined that nothing in respect to the 
 grounds of its action should be left to inference. Jts resolutions, 
 offered by his friend Col. Perkins but bearing unmistakably the im- 
 press of Mr. Webster's mind, and doubtless dictated if not written 
 by him, gave special prominence to the rival definitions which had 
 been so long the subject of dispute between the two great parties of 
 the Country, claimed to find the federal doctrine asserted in the 
 Proclamation and adopted by the President and, with that under- 
 standing of the scope and spirit of that document, expressed the 
 warmest approval of them and pledged them the support of the 
 meeting. 
 
 The apprehension that the Proclamation was in truth obnoxious 
 to such construction, strengthened by these proceedings, cost the 
 President many friends, particularly in the Southern States. John 
 Randolph seized the opportunity and, taking advantage of the fact 
 that Col. Perkins, who offered the resolutions and Harrison G. Otis, 
 who advocated them in an able speech, — two gentlemen of as high 
 personal honor and probity as any of whom the Country could 
 boast — ^had composed a majority of the Commission sent by the 
 Hartford Convention to the Seat of Government, and were met on 
 their way thither, denounced the President, as I have elsewhere de- 
 
696 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 scribed, for having " disavowed the principles to which he owed his 
 election to the Chief Magistracy of the Government of the U. S." — 
 for having " transferred his real friends and supporters, bound hand 
 and foot, to his and their bitterest enemies, the ultra-federalists, 
 ultra-bank, ultra-tariff, ultra-Internal Improvement and Hartford 
 Convention men — ^the habitual scoffers of State Eights," &c. These 
 effects of the Boston meeting, added to his previous observation of 
 the distrust and even dislike of Mr. Webster manifested, on many 
 occasions, by the great body of the friends of the Administration, 
 might well, as I have remarked, have inclined Mr. Clay to rely upon 
 the obstacles they presented to any effective coalition between them 
 and determined him to take no public notice of Mr. Webster's move- 
 ment at Pittsburgh if it had ended there. 
 
 But the latter was not content with the matter as it stood. The 
 stenographer's report of his speech was published in Niles' Register, 
 in July, 1833 ; it was subsequently announced in a Boston newspaper 
 that he was engaged in revising it and in the issue of the same jour- 
 nal of October 12th ^ the revised copy made its appearance. This 
 was after the expedients of the bank to produce a pecuniary pres- 
 sure had begun to operate, after its agents and the opposition presses 
 had partially succeeded in alarming the XDountry with vague appre- 
 hensions of distress and ruin to be brought upon it by Gen. Jackson's 
 interference with its credits and currency, after Mr. Duane had been 
 removed by the President because he refused to fulfill his promise 
 either to carry out his policy or to resign, after the State banks had 
 been selected as depositories of future public revenues and when 
 every corner of the land was ringing with denunciations against the 
 President as a tyrant whose ignorance and lawless violence were fast 
 consigning its interests and its Institutions to disgrace and destruc- 
 tion. If Mr. Clay's mind had been entirely unprejudiced in regard 
 to Mr. Webster — as it probably was not — it would have been difficult 
 for him to assign an adequate motive, other than the one now the 
 subject of our consideration, for the publication, at that juncture, by 
 a friend of the bank, ranking at least second among the leaders of 
 the party by ° which it was sustained, of a new and revised edition 
 of a Speech the material points of which, as has been shown, con- 
 sisted, 1st of a denunciation of nullification and nuUifiers and an en- 
 comiastic account of the successful efforts, by Jackson and the 
 Orator, to suppress them, and 2dly, of an elaborate exposition of the 
 importance of the protective system and the dangers that menaced 
 it, with an eloquent invocation to the people of Pennsylvania, Ohio 
 and New York, who had brought it into existence, to defend the 
 
 ' Vol. 45, p. 107. ° MS. VI, p. 145. 
 
( 
 
 AtTTOBIOGEAPSt OP MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 69? 
 
 work of their hands. To the first branch of this studied address it 
 could not be objected that it was not both just and true ; but the flag 
 of nullification was struck, the cause and its champions, politically 
 speaking, were ruined. Why fight that battle over again — cui bono 
 by the revival of the subject ? Especially would such a course appear 
 inexpedient on the part of any supporter of the bank. The nulli- 
 fiers and their able leaders were, at least quasi friends of that insti- 
 tution, many from choice and all from hatred to President Jacksoii, 
 the arch foe of nullification. The first report of Mr. Webster's 
 speech had said enough on the subject aJid in the General's favor to 
 satisfy his warmest admirers, but even that was materially enlarged 
 in the revised production, notwithstanding the extent to which orig- 
 inal differences between the political friends respectively of the 
 President and the Orator had increased in violence since the appear- 
 ance of the first publication. Whilst everything contained' in the 
 latter was retained in the former, including the earnest prayer for 
 the success of the ad.ministration, the following entire sentence 
 (which we cannot suppose would have been omitted by the ste- 
 nographer if it had been spoken at Pittsburgh) was published in the 
 Boston edition : 
 
 While I am willing as others to admit that the President has, on other occa- 
 sions, rendered important services to the Country, and especially on that occa- 
 sion which has given him so much military renown, I yet think the ability and 
 decision with which he resisted the disorganizing doctrines of nullification cre- 
 ate a claim than which he has none higher to the gratitude of the Country and 
 the respect of posterity. 
 
 Assimiing that it was at that time Mr. Webster's expectation to re- 
 main with the party which had then already entered on a new cam- 
 paign, designed to be one of active and unremitting hostilities, against 
 an administration for the prosperity and final success of which he, 
 after an interval, repeated so fervent a prayer and on whose Chief he 
 thus renewed and accumulated encomiums, without being called to 
 return to the subject by any public considerations of which the pub- 
 lic were informed, we are obliged to acknowledge a display of politi- 
 cal magnanimity on his part, as commendable as it was rare at an era 
 of imsurpassed partisan violence. In reference, also, to Mr. Web- 
 ster's own services the revised edition materially amplified the report 
 of the stenographer. By the latter the Speaker was made to say that 
 he gave to the President's measures " not a tame and hesitating but 
 a cordial and efficient support ; " in the former the reviser thought it 
 expedient to add the following: 
 
 It is true, doubtless, that if myself and others had surrendered ourselves to a 
 spirit of opposition we might have embarrassed and probably defeated the 
 measure of ttie administration, but in so doing we should, in my opinion, have 
 been false to our ovrai characters, false to our duty and false to our Country. 
 
698 ameeican historical association. 
 
 Considering that Mr. Clay, tho' openly opposed to nullification 
 and favorable to the passage of the Force bill, had left the Chamber 
 on the night when it was ordered to be engrossed, on account, as he 
 subsequently said, of the impure state of its atmosphere, and his feeble 
 health, and had neither spoken for its passage nor recorded his name 
 in its favor on the last reading of the bill, and that he was the only 
 Senator favorable to the measure of whom that could be said, is it 
 riot difficult to imagine that whilst by the Speech as first reported 
 so emphatically clearing his own skirts of the imputation of content- 
 ing himself with giving to the President, in a great crisis, "a tame 
 and hesitating support," or again when months afterwards, prepar- 
 ing in his closet these invectives against those who had found them- 
 selves capable of acting differently from himself, it never occurred 
 to Mr. Webster that Mr. Clay's enemies would say and his friends 
 apprehfend that he was the person aimed at by these virtual and 
 violent denunciations? 
 
 But the revised Speech contained another new sentence which 
 would seem to have a still more significant bearing upon this point. 
 We have already spoken of the heart burnings that had been caused 
 by the effort, so transparent in the proceedings of the meeting at 
 Faneuil Hall, to represent Gen. Jackson as having sanctioned political 
 principles directly in opposition to those he cherished in early life, 
 and of the consequent dissatisfaction of many of his friends exhibited 
 in their bearing towards Mr. Webster. No attempt to explain that 
 effort away or to blunt the force of its recoil is found in the speech 
 at Pittsburgh as reported, but in the revised edition this omission 
 appears to be supplied by the following sentence. When commend- 
 ing the Proclamation the Orator is made to say: 
 
 " I would not be understood to speak of particular clauses and 
 phrases in the Proclamation" — (which were specifically set forth 
 in the Faneuil Hall resolutions) — ^"but its great and leading doc- 
 trines," which had nowhere been called in question by the Presi- 
 dent's anti-nuUifying friends. 
 
 I cannot see how any other construction can be placed upon the 
 introduction of this observation than that it evinced a desire to 
 conciliate the President and his friends as respected the Speaker, 
 or rather the writer, by dissociating the latter from the unacceptable 
 tenor of the resolutions of the Faneuil Hall meeting. 
 
 But the most labored endeavor of Mr. Webster, in this movement, 
 was to amplify and improve his disquisitions regarding the protec- 
 tive system — its importance and the necessity of efforts for its 
 preservation. If the reasons -for the revision of the speech under the 
 circumstances were inconceivable those for an elaborate vindication 
 and advocation of the protective system at that particular moment, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAIT BUREN. 699 
 
 except upon the hypothesis of a desire to supplant Mr. Clay in the 
 confidence and favor of the protectionists, were even more so. The 
 nature and extent of the protection to be given to the domestic in- 
 dustry of the Country had been settled by a law just enacted, which 
 was, by its terms, to remain in force for a long series of years. In 
 his speech on its passage Mr. Webster had raised an issue for the 
 public, asserting in as open a manner as he thought eligible and safe 
 in his then position — ^the aifirmativei of that issue, to wit: that the 
 bill abandoned the principle of protection, and insinuating that it 
 was founded on concessions that the system was unconsitutional and 
 that it had been sacrificed to the menaces of South Carolina, At no 
 time, after the adjournment, did he either agitate the subject with 
 the avowed object of obtaining a repeal of the law or make a distinct 
 point that the bill which had been passed involved an abadonment 
 of the protective system, and yet he devoted himself industriously 
 to the work of magnifying the importance of the system in the esti- 
 mation of the people, portraying the evils that would befall the 
 Country if it was abandoned, and directing popular distrust at men 
 and measures which might be supposed to favor such a result. To 
 have contended before the people, after its passage, that Mr. Clay's 
 bill was such a measure would haAfe been received by that- gentlemen's 
 friends as a direct attack upon him and was therefore deemed inex- 
 pedient; the course adopted was as well calculated to weaken Mr. 
 Clay with the protectionists and was therefore preferred. Would 
 not his faculties have been indeed obtuse if Mr. Clay had failed to 
 see in all Mr. Webster's movements, since their last parting, the most 
 satisfactory proof that his objects were to unhorse the acknowledged 
 leader of the opposition and to conciliate the good will and support' 
 of President Jackson and of as many as possible of his friends in 
 his own favor for the succession, in the form and to the extent which 
 after developments might show to be practicable and auspicious? 
 Whatever may be our conclusion as to Mr. Clay's judgment or dis- 
 cretion as exhibited in guarding himself against the dangers by which 
 his political positions were threatened there was never good reason 
 to question his intelligence or accuracy in penetrating the designs ° 
 of his opponents. Perhaps the former object required more habitual 
 self control than may be ascribed to him, whilst for success in the 
 latter he was amply qualified by the genius with which nature had 
 liberally endowed him. He, in all probability, apprehended Mr. 
 Webster's views before he came to Washington at the meeting of 
 Congress, and his convictions in regard to them were riveted within 
 two days after Mr. W.'s arrival by the demonstration made by the 
 latter on Grundy's motion, which aimed a blow directly at a material 
 
 ' MS. VI, p. 150. 
 
VOO AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 point in his own position and by which, if successful, that position 
 might be overthrown. He had done all that he could do at Phila- 
 delphia to protect hiraself, the bank and his party from Mr. Web- 
 ster's expected defection and he met what he could not but regard as 
 the first development of his meditated treachery with feelings 
 plainly enough manifested and yet, in an unusual and creditable 
 degree controlled. 
 
 I have said that Mr. Clay's suspicions in relation to the aims of 
 Mr. Webster went further than my own. This will not surprise ^he 
 reader when I inform him that I never saw the proceedings on Mr. 
 Grundy's motion for the postponement of the choice. of committees, 
 never read the Pittsburgh speech, never knew of the pains taken by 
 its author to revise and republish it shortly before the meeting of 
 Congress, and knew nothing of what I am now enabled to add to 
 these indications bearing upon the point until I sat down to prepare 
 what I thought it proper to say of the conversation between Mr. 
 Clay and myself, the last time I saw him, in respect to Mr. Webster. 
 My faith in the unalterable sihcerity of Gen. Jackson's friendship 
 ha-d been so fortified by past experience that I was not accessible 
 to suspicion or apprehension on that point. I recognized at the same 
 time fully the extent to which I was exposed, as his anticipated suc- 
 cessor, to the assaults of my political enemies and found all the time 
 I could spare from my public duties suflSciently occupied in watch- 
 ing and thwarting their intrigues against myself. Assuming, per- 
 haps hastily, that the one under consideration did not reach beyond 
 the rivalries between Messrs. Clay and Webster, the existence of 
 which had been notorious to all parties, and having, as I thought, 
 protected the General against injury from that quarter I troubled 
 myself no farther with it or about- it. The first thing to which my 
 attention was now called was the debate on Mr. Grundy's motion, 
 and from that I was led, step by step, and with continually increas- 
 ing interest, into a general review of the intercourse between those 
 distinguished men at that critical period. The principal results of 
 that review I have placed before my readers as a portion of history 
 in which they can not fail to take an interest in some degree pro- 
 portioned to my own. 
 
 Whilst engaged on this part of my work some additional matter 
 first came to my knowledge which, I cannot but think, throws much 
 light upon the general subject. A friend sent me, shortly after its 
 appearance, a neatly bound volume entitled " Reminiscences of Con- 
 gress, by Charles W. March," ^ containing a biography of Daniel 
 Webster, with brief notices of the sayings and doings of several 
 among his contemporaries and co-actors in the principal scenes 
 
 'New York, 1850. It Is principally a biography of Webster. 
 
AtTTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAETIN VAK BUEEN. 701 
 
 described by the author. Mr. March is a native of New Hampshire, 
 (in which state Mr. Webster was also born) and a young gentleman, 
 I am told, not only highly esteemed by Mr. W. but one in whom 
 the latter reposed a marked confidence and with whom he cultivated 
 a degree of intimacy not usual between gentlemen of so great dis- 
 parity in years. It has so happened that I have never made Mr. 
 March's acquaintance but from my knowledge of the high character 
 of elder branches of his family, I am fully prepared to find him 
 well worthy of the regard and confidence bestowed upon him by 
 one of the most if not the most distinguished man his native state 
 has produced. His book was published in 1851, at a moment when 
 Mr. Webster's own mind and the minds of his particular admirers 
 were turned, in one of their periodical and always unsuccessful 
 efforts to raise him to the Presidency, to the then approaching Presi- 
 dential election. As before intimated whilst I was actually employed 
 in the preparation of these pages one of my sons approached me 
 with Mr. March's work in his hand and called my attention to an 
 imputation which the author assumes that Mr. Calhoun cast upon 
 me in his speech on the Force bill. Having altogether forgotten 
 that the book was in my possession I asked my son how he came by 
 it and was told that he had accidentally laid his hand on it while 
 searching the library shelves for another volume, and opening it 
 the passage referred to caught his eye. Better acquainted with the 
 events of that day than the author I found no difficulty in satisfy- 
 ing my son that Mr. March had mistaken Mr. Calhoun's intention, 
 which was to apply the observation attributed to him to Major Eaton 
 instead of to myself ; but struck by the cleverness and I ought to add 
 the, to me, unexpected fairness in many respects of a work which 
 I could only have carelessly glanced at, if at all, when it was re- 
 ceived, I read the whole of it including, to my very great surprise, 
 the following passages : 
 
 Speaking of the years 18S3-34 (page 250), 'the author says: 
 
 A community of sentiment and action, in tliis fearful crisis of our national 
 history, brought Gen. Jackson and Mr. Webster into stricter intimacy, social 
 and political, than had previously ever subsisted between them. Some of the 
 General's friends hoped, and more feared, a closer official relationship. . In 
 May of this year Mr. Webster journeyed West ; returning in June he met Mr. 
 Livingston in New York, then preparing to depart on his mission to France. 
 It was understood at this time in private and confidential circles, that, before 
 leaving Washington, Mr. Livingston had had frequent and earnest conversations 
 with Gen. Jackson in relation to Mr. Webster's position ; and that he had urged 
 upon him the absolute necessity of securing Mr. Webster's continued support of 
 his administration To his suggestions Gen. Jackson gave a favorable ear and 
 acquiescence ; and authorized Mr. Livingston to approach Mr. Webster upon the 
 subject. These conversations and their result Mr. Livingston, in his interview 
 with him in New York, communicated to Mr. Webster. That a seat in the 
 Cabinet was at the same time proposed to Mr. Webster, on the part of the 
 
702 AMEKICABT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 President, thro' the same medium of communication, was a belief warmly en- 
 tertained by some of the nearest friends of both parties. One fact it is allow- 
 able to mention ; a distinguished Senator, a political and personal friend of 
 Gen. Jackson, brought Mr. Webster a list of the intended nominees for offices 
 in the Eastern States and asked him to erase therefrom the names of any 
 personally objectionable to iiim. This Mr. Webster declined to do, not wishing 
 to place himself under any obligations to the administration that might qualify 
 the freedom of his action, either in support or repudiation of its measures. 
 
 To appreciate the weight to which this statement, coming from 
 so credible a source, is entitled in forming an opinion upon the 
 justice of Mr. Clay's suspicions, the reader has only to call to mind 
 that these sayings and doings at Wasihington are described as hav- 
 ing occurred shortly before and during Mr. "Webster's Western tour, 
 in the progress of which he crowned President Jackson, as we have 
 Feen, with rhetorical palms for his course in respect to nullification, 
 and offered up eloquent prayers for the presfervation of the General's 
 health and for the success of his future Oareer, and further, that 
 the opportune, if not appointed interview with Mr. Livingston, at 
 New York, took place when Mr. Webster was on his return from 
 that famous and ominous expedition. My reference to the credi- 
 bility of the source from which the statement I have extracted pro- 
 ceeds is on the assumption, the correctness of which I cannot doubt, 
 that it would not have been thrown before the Country, under his 
 own name, by a gentleman standing in the relation towards Mr. 
 Webster occupied by Mr. March, without having been first submitted 
 to the inspection and revisal of the former, so far at least as con- 
 cerned the accuracy of the facts set forth, several of which could 
 only have come from himself. 
 
 The question how far Mr. Livingston was warranted in the decla- 
 rations he is here represented to have made to Mr. Webster, as to 
 what Gen. Jackson was desirous or inclined to do for Mr. W.'s° 
 political advancement, or to mark his sense of that gentleman's 
 services, deserves and will presently receive full consideration. There 
 is no reason to suppose that Mr. Webster had any doulbts of their 
 authenticity and how far he vi^as himself willing to go in recip- 
 rocating the friendly dispositions attributed to the President upon 
 Mr. Livingston's and Mr. March's authority, we have endeavored 
 to show. Waiving, however, for the present, the consideration of 
 the accuracy of the statement in all other respects there is one preg- 
 nant reflection that can hardly fail to present itself at once to the 
 mind of my readers. Assuming that its principal contents were 
 derived from Mr. Webster, either directly or indirectly, as justice to 
 Mr. March, who sets them forth so confidently, requires that we 
 should assimie and as was doubtless the fact, and considering their 
 
 » MS. VI, p. 155. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAETIN VAN BUBEN. 
 
 703 
 
 import in connection jvith the steps taken by Mr. Webster, after 
 he returned from Ms Western trip, in respect to his Pittsburgh 
 speech, and his overture to Mr. Grundy, there cannot remain a douibt, 
 I should think, on the part of any intelligent person that Mr. Clay's 
 suspicions as to the condition and employment of Mr. Webster's 
 mind at that period were in the main correct, whatever may have 
 been the specific ends he aimed at or whatever the degree of ma- 
 turity at which ffis plans may have arrived. 
 
 Mr. March, as well as Mr. Webster," if we assume that he was 
 cognisant of the statements put forth by Mr. M. were obviously not 
 a little embarrassed by the incongruity of the friendly relations 
 which are alleged to have existed between Mr. W. and President 
 Jackson, at the time referred to, with the fact that, only a few 
 months thereafter, the former was found closely allied with Messrs. 
 Clay and Calhoun in the most violent efforts to obstruct the Gen- 
 eral's administration and to degrade him as a public man by' per- 
 suading the Country that he had played the part 6f a tyrant and 
 usurper of powers not conferred on him by the Constitution which 
 he had sworn to " preserve, protect and defend." It could not have 
 escaped such shrewd minds that the transition from the alleged 
 cordial alliance to the indisputable bitter assault was so sudden that 
 men would either discredit the report of the former or condemn Mr. 
 Webster for his share in the latter. Accordingly an apology for 
 the great and rapid change in Mr. W's opinions of and dispositions 
 towards the President is sought in that fertile theme of partisan 
 agitation — the removal of the Goverimient deposits from the vaults 
 of the bank of the United States to those of the State banks; but 
 unfortunately for the writer, as well as for the subject of his defence, 
 that excuse is wholly demolished by the irresistible logic of dates. 
 
 The removal of the Government deposits [says Mr. March] however justi- 
 fiable on the ground of expediency or even necessity was a measure of such 
 formidable energy as to confound some of the General's longest tried and not 
 most timid supporters. It encountered Mr. Webster's opposition and even 
 denunciation. And this honest difference of opinion in regard to a matter 
 of temporary importance, prevented the union of the two master spirits of the 
 age and blasted the patriotic hopes of the Country. 
 
 The unsatisfactory ch3,racter of this explanation must be admit- 
 ted when it is considered that Mr. Webster's high wrought enco- 
 miums upon the General's conduct and earnest prayers for his suc- 
 cess and glory in the administration of the Government, revised and 
 enlarged by the author in a second edition, were, without the occur- 
 rence of any circumstance making such a course necessary to his 
 own vindication but of his mere motion, scattered broad-cast through 
 the Country not only months after the deposits had been ordered 
 to be thus removed but after that act of the President and th^ dis- 
 
704 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 missal of Mr. Duane had been made the subject of partisan clamor 
 and denunciation on the part of Mr. "Webster's political associates, 
 and that the attempted intrigue thro' Mr. Grundy was not entered 
 upon until after those associates and the friends of the bank had 
 assembled at Washington, at the commencement of the session, pre- 
 pared to open their batteries upon the President for the very " meas- 
 ure of formidable energy " described. 
 
 Of the correctness of Mr. March's statement of what Mr. Living- 
 ston said and thought I know nothing. I can conceive of no ade- 
 quate motive in Mr. Webster at that time to misrepresent the matter 
 to his confidential friends, and Mr. March was certainly free from 
 any inducement even to exaggerate it further than the desire nat- 
 ural to an ardent young man to place the standing of his friend 
 upon the highest ground. But that there existed on the part of 
 both and of Mr. Livingston also, if he made the representations 
 attributed to him, the grossest delusion upon the principal point is 
 very certain. Gen. Jackson's feelings towards Mr. Livingston were 
 the same as my own, uniting with a sincere and strong personal 
 regard a disposition to do all in our power to advance his interest 
 and to promote his own happiness and welfare, and those of his 
 family. These dispositions were never suffered to fail of effect be- 
 cause of what we regarded as political aberrations on his part. We 
 knew from the beginning that he differed from us on several of the 
 important issues of the day, such as the bank, internal improve- 
 ments, &c., but we never permitted such differences to affect our 
 personal feelings towards him. We were well aware that he was 
 more at his ease in talking and not unf requently in acting upon 
 public questions in the company of Mr. Webster and Mr. Biddle 
 than with us, but we could afford to indulge him and did so, know- 
 ingly, in that also. The strength and constancy of those feelings 
 on my part, as well as the extent to which they were communicated 
 to my family, may be inferred from the fact that a favorite grand- 
 son of mine, now twelve years old, bears his name, which was given 
 to him with my hearty approval. The General's opportunities for 
 ascertaining the measure of Mr. Livingston's adaptation to the dif- 
 ferent branches of the public service had been fuller than my own, 
 and fullest, perhaps, when the latter had been a member of his 
 military family at a difficult and highly responsible period in his 
 life. The result had been a conviction that Mr. Livingston, for 
 reasons which, so far from lessening, increased his regard for him 
 as a man, was illy qualified for the performance of executive duties. 
 Hence his resistance to my recommendation of Mr. L. for the post 
 of Secretary of State, on my own resignation, and the reluctance 
 with which he fiiia-lly yielded that point to my earnest solicitations. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIW VAN BUREK. 705 
 
 I need not say how forcibly and, I may add, painfully I was re- 
 minded of that reluctance, and of the reasons that were assigned for 
 it, on finding Gen. Jackson, on my return from England, opposed 
 by the leading members of his Cabinet on the vital question of his 
 administration — ^that of the bank — with Mr. Livingston at their 
 head. That he had found no reason, after I left the Country, to 
 change the opinions expressed to me on the occasion referred to. will 
 
 be seen by his letter addressed to me at London, of the day of 
 
 183 — ^, in which the same views are repeated and in which 
 
 I am urged to return and to resume the place in his Cabinet which 
 I had resigned. Those who understood the General's character 
 would find it difficult to believe that, how great soever his respect 
 for him, Mr. Livingston was the man by whose counsels he would 
 have been at all likely to be influenced in a matter which had al- 
 ready cost him so much trouble as that of the constitution of his 
 Cabinet. 
 
 That Mr. Livingston believed all he reported to Mr. Wet^ter, 
 whatever that may have been, there is no reason for doubt; but he 
 was, from the state of his own feelings, in danger of misinterpreting 
 what the General said pr of overlooking its intended limitation. He 
 was for many reasons very partial to Mr. -Webster. The latter had 
 taken the lead in sustaining his draft of the Proclamation,^ in respect 
 to which he was very sensitive, more so than I could have imagined. 
 Mr. Webster had also supported his nomination as Minister to France 
 against the bitter opposition of Mr. Clay, regarding whom the preju- 
 dices of both ran very high. Indeed the harsh course pursued to- 
 wards Mr. Livingston on that occasion, in again bringing forward, 
 after the lapse of so many years, the charge of official defalcation 
 when Attorney for the New York District, under Mr. Jefferson, had 
 60 exasperated Mr. L. (in general a most amiable and placable man) , 
 as to lay him open to almost any lawful approaches that promised 
 to gratify his resentment against Mr. Clay, and there is some reason 
 to apprehend, to efface also, for the nonce, all recollection of the 
 friendly part I had acted towards him, without the aid of which 
 he certainly would not have been Secretary of State or probably 
 Minister to France — ^there having been a pretty direct connection 
 between the possession of the one place and the bestowment of the 
 other. I need not say that Mr. Webster had also grudges against 
 
 1 " Tou know Mr. Livingston is anxious to go abroad, and I am as anxious again to 
 have you near me, and It would afford me pleasure to gratify both. I find on many 
 occasions 1 want your aid & Eaton's — I have to labour hard, and constantly watchfull — 
 had I you in the State Department and Eaton in the War, with the others, filled as 
 they are, it would be one of the strongest and happiest administrations that could be 
 formed." — ^Jackson to Van Buren, December 17, 1831. Van Buren Papers. 
 
 2 Jackson's Nullification Proclamation. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 45 
 
Y06 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Mr. Clay which he had wintered and summered through many years, 
 which would bear fattening, and which made him the man to help 
 Mr. Livingston's prejudices against Mr. Clay at the point to which 
 the latter had himself inflamed them. They were both, moreover, 
 somewhat weather-beaten politicians who, whatever may have been 
 their enthusiasm at earlier stages in their careers, were no longer 
 swayed by that ardent devotion to particular political tenets or that 
 absorbing anxiety for their success which younger Statesmen — and 
 many even older than themselves. Gen. Jackson, by way of illustra- 
 tion, — could not shake off at will, but preferred in an equal degree, 
 the enjoyment of public stations exempted, as far as practicable, 
 from' the cares and sacrifices often inseparable from a punctilious 
 discharge of the duties attached to them. Mr. Livingston was, under 
 these circumstances, not a little solicitous to make his friendly report, 
 for in that light Mr. March speaks of his communication to Mr. 
 "Webster, of the dispositions entertained by Gen. Jackson towards 
 the latter as favorable as his views of the facts would justify. The 
 danger of exaggerating or misconstruing them, was, in no small 
 degree, increased by the General's habitual warmth of expression on 
 such occasions. He never allowed himself to be outdone in courtesy 
 by friends or foes, and when he was pleased with the conduct of 
 either he said so without measuring" his words for fear of saying 
 too much. Contrasting Mr. Webster's course with that of others, 
 from whom he had a right to expect better things, he was doubtless 
 highly gratified by it, spoke of it as he felt and would with pleasure 
 have taken any proper step to mark his high sense of it. But be- 
 tween the indulgence of such feelings said such expressions of them 
 and an inclination to bring Mr. Webster into his Cabinet or to 
 make him his trusted and confidential adviser there was a very wide 
 difference. Against such steps there were, on his part, many in- 
 sup6ra;ble objections, to only one of which I will here refer. Gen. 
 Jackson was not a complaining man — I never knew one less so — yet 
 few men could have felt more keenly than he felt the extent to which 
 he had, in the estimation of many of his best friends, been made to 
 ignore if not to gainsay a portion of his early political creed, on 
 fidelity to which he prided himself as he well might in view of the 
 high character of the school in which he learned it. This had been 
 done by a few generalities in his Nullification Proclamation which 
 had their source in the original federal proclivity of its draftsman 
 and which had met with sympathy from a similar and perhaps still 
 stronger bias on the part of the most prominent member of his Cabi- 
 net and had been overlooked by himself through his anxiety in 
 respect to the substance of that memorable document and his habitual 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 160. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTJREN. 707 
 
 indifference to matters of form. Nevertheless no word of murmur 
 escaped from him. He was satisfied that Mr. Livingston had meant 
 what he had done for the best and he was therefore silent but, with 
 his attention callecl to the point by a caution suggested in one of my 
 letters from London, he was determined, if it could be avoided, to 
 suffer no more from like sources, and being, at the same time; not 
 unmindful of the extent to which the censures referred to had been 
 strengthened by the fact of Mr. Webster's support of the Proclama- 
 tion, any proposition in regard to the latter of the character spoken 
 of would, I am quite confident, have encountered at his hands a rejec- 
 tion equally prompt and decided. 
 
 But why spend our time in conjecture and speculations upon a 
 question which received, at the moment, a solution so explicit and 
 decisive from the General himself? A more plausible proposition or 
 one more artfully adapted to commit him to such an alliance as Mr. 
 March supposes' that he was willing to form could not have been de- 
 vised than that upon which he was consulted by Mr. Grundy at the 
 opening of the Panic Session. It presented temptations in the im- 
 mediate and effective aid offered to the Administration at a most 
 critical period of its fortunes ; the proceeding contemplated by it was 
 exclusively of a legislative character with which he had no official 
 connection; it was to be performed in the regular course of their 
 duties by the members of the Senate, for whose acts he was in no 
 sense responsible; it would, if successful, have essentially crippled 
 the power and influence of two gentlemen, Clay and Calhoun, whom 
 he regarded as foremost and ablest among his enemies, and it might, 
 m its consequences, have superseded the necessity of a new struggle 
 with the bank from which he could, however favorably it might re- 
 sult, reap no individual advantage and which at his time of life, and 
 in his actual condition with reference to the esteem and respect of 
 his countrymen, he had strong inducements to avoid if that avoid- 
 ance involved no failure in duty on his part. And how did he dis- 
 pose of that proposition on the instant the construction that might 
 be placed upon his acquiescence, with regard to the very point we are 
 considering, was brought to his notice! Let his direction to Mr. 
 Grundy answer the question. His reply to a proposition, the ap- 
 proval of which would, perhaps, have been regarded as no more than 
 an encouragement of the notion of his willingness to associate him- 
 self with men whom and whose political principles he had all his life 
 opposed, would only have been more eriiphatic if the invitation to do 
 so had been more distinct and direct. 
 
 The grave and circumstantial form in which Mr. March has put 
 forth this imputation and the sly manner in which it has been re- 
 vived, upon more futile pretences, by Mr. Everett, in his preface to 
 
708 AMEEICASr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 Mr. Webster's Works, constitute my apology for the notice I hfive 
 bestowed on the subject. 
 
 Mr. March's book is written with much ability and in a lively and 
 agreeable style. He speaks with more fairness of Mr. Webster's 
 opponents than might have been expected from one so largely de- 
 voted to that gentleman and I may add so extravagantly his ad- 
 mirer. He does great injustice to the late Mr. Forsyth and myself 
 in his assumption of an agency on our part in producing the rupture 
 between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, but I have been persuaded 
 by the general character of his work that on that point, and on a 
 few others like it, he has said no more than he believed to be well 
 founded, and in respect to the matter of which I have been led into 
 a discussion above, he will probably live long enough to become 
 convinced of his error and will then, I doubt not, be ready to do 
 what he can to correct it. With the manner in which he expresses 
 himself in regard to my performance of the delicate and difficult 
 duties of presiding officer of the Senate, at a critical and stormy 
 period in the history of that body, I would be quite unreasonable 
 not to be more than satisfied. For Gen. Jackson he evidently felt a 
 sincere admiration and he does, upon the whole, fair justice to Col. 
 Benton which was not often done by gentlemen of his way of think- 
 ing. The weakest part of his work is the judgment formed and ex- 
 pressed of the value of the services rendered by Mr. Webster to Gen. 
 Jackson and his Cabinet in the passage of what was familiarly known 
 as the " Force bill," at the session of 1832-3. 
 
 But for the efforts of Mr. Webster [is Mr. March's dashing assumption] and 
 the friends who rallied under him, the administration would have fallen into a 
 powerless and pitiable condition, an object of opprobrium to its friends and of 
 safe insult to its foes. 
 
 Language so extravagant as this provides its own antidote and, but 
 for the soberer positions and conclusions of other parts of the work, 
 would shake the confidence of intelligent observers of the events of 
 that period in the good sense of the author. A more fitting construc- 
 tion of the sentence is to regard it as an illustration of the absurd 
 extremes to which warm hearted and enthusiastic young men are 
 liable, in times of high excitement, to be carried by partisan feelings. 
 What were the facts and circumstances in view of which this extra- 
 ordinary declaration was hazarded ? The close of the year 1882 had 
 been made memorable by the triumph of the popular cause in a con- 
 test for the Presidency scarcely less important in its consequences 
 than any recorded in our annals, and quite unequalled by any in the 
 power of the opposition it encountered and in the extent to which 
 the warm personal affection of the masses of the people for their 
 leader and candidate was influential in -producing the result. That 
 leader and candidate was Andrew Jackson, and arrayed against him 
 
AtrTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN" BUREH. Y09 
 
 had been found those distinguished partisan chiefs, Clay, Calhoun 
 and Webster, backed by the bank of the United States and aided by 
 their respective friends and parties and by all the discontented and 
 factious spirits which could be brought into the field by their com- 
 bined influences. Not satisfied with that abortive struggle to prevent 
 his reelection a still more furious effort had been made, in the ensuing 
 year, to overthrow his administration by the same parties and fac- 
 tions, under the auspices of the same able leaders, and supported by 
 the same great monied institution, rendered far more reckless by the 
 desperate condition to which it had been already brought ; an effort 
 in which means were employed the character of which we are con- 
 sidering in the review from which this is a digression, and of which 
 it is sufficient to say in this connection that they yet stand and it is to 
 be hoped will forever stand without a parallel in the recorded con- 
 flicts of parties. No other man of that day, it will now be readily and , 
 generally confessed, or of many preceding years in our history, would 
 have been able to stand against those combined assaults ; yet he not 
 only sustained himself, his administration and the ° cause of free 
 government, but, strong in the devotion of a grateful people, was 
 able to strip those redoubtable leaders of most that was dangerous in 
 the influence they had so vigorously employed to destroy him, to 
 arraign their unscrupulous confederate, the bank, for the crimes of 
 which it had been guilty before the tribunal of public opinion and, 
 thro' its power, to bring that high reaching and thitherto most for- 
 midable institution to the feet of the Government humbled and com- 
 paratively impotent. 
 
 It was in view of these historical events that Mr. Webster's biog- 
 rapher, after Jackson had descended to his grave and led by infatu- 
 ated zeal for the promotion of his friend's fortunes, would have 
 persuaded the Country that, during the session of Congress that 
 intervened between these exhibitions of his unparalleled popularity 
 and power, the President had been thus dependant on the support 
 of one of those leaders, and that one the least influential among them, 
 and that his administration and himself were only rescued from utter 
 prostration aiid debasement by the help of Daniel Webster! And 
 how rescued? By the effects of a speech by that Senator in favor 
 of a measure which was called for by the whole Country, save South 
 Carolina and a few politicians in other States — against which there 
 was no substantial opposition — for the adoption of which Mr. Web- 
 ster's immediate constituents, almost to a man, were clamorous— 
 which he himself could not have opposed without encountering the 
 hazard of political destruction — against the final passage of which 
 but a single Senator was found -vain-glorious enough to record his 
 
 - MS. VI, p. 165. 
 
YlO AMERICAN- HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 name ^ — which, beyond all doubt, derived its efficiency from the char- 
 acter and peculiar qualifications of the Chief Magistrate who was 
 charged with its execution and which, but for the energy it derived 
 from that source, might have remained and, in the opinion of the 
 strongest minds in the Country, would have remained a dead letter 
 on the statute-book. 
 
 In representing Mr. Webster as leading the New England Sena- 
 tors, on the occasion of the postponement of the election of com- 
 mittees in the Senate, I wish not to be understood as attributing their 
 adoption of a course which I assume to have originated with him 
 to the exercise of any personal influence over their action or even, 
 mainly, to a desire on their side to advance his separate political 
 interests. He never appeared to me to possess, in any considerable 
 degree, that kind of control over the action of the representatives 
 from his particular section which we have often seen exerted by 
 leading, men in other sections of our Country, even of much less 
 local or national distinction. This arose, in part,- from a lack in 
 him of the qualities to which that sort of influence is commonly 
 accorded, and still more, from traits unfavorable to its acquisition 
 in the character of the New England people. I am, on the contrary, 
 persuaded that, to obtain their assent to 'oppose Mr. Clay on the 
 Grundy ipotion, Mr. Webster found it necessary to satisfy each of 
 those Senators in advance that if their overruling Mr. Clay in the 
 proposition before them, in the succjeas of which they well knew the 
 feelings of the latter were enlisted, should cause a breach in their 
 own party and lead to a union between them and the administration 
 their own political prospects, as well as the material interests of 
 their section of the Country, would stand a fair chance to be im- 
 proved by such a change in their party relations. A man of less 
 than Mr. Webster's tact and ability would not, I think, have experi- 
 enced much difficulty in doing this. With few exceptions they were, 
 like himself, members of the old federal party, the greater portion 
 of whose lives had been spent in resisting the advance of democratic 
 men and measures and who had encountered the difficulties and 
 borne the sacrifices of such an undertaking with no greater reward, 
 in national politics, than the elevation to the Presidency of John 
 Quincy Adams — which, from the peculiarities of the man and from 
 the circumstances under which he was chosen, had proven little bet- 
 ter than a barren victory. I can well conceive that the time had 
 then arrived when men of their sober minds and practical good 
 sense — from the beginning distinguishing characteristics of their 
 race — ^had begun, at least, to feel that in addition to results so dis- 
 couraging, they had suffered enough in the long and equally fruit- 
 less struggle to stem the current oi Jackson's popularity which had 
 
 'John Tyler, who alone voted against the "Force Bill," Feb. 20, 1833. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAJPHY OF MARTIN VAN BTTEEN. Ill 
 
 just caused them a fresh and humiliating defeat to make them de- 
 spair of the possibility of elevating Mr. Clay to the Presidency, a 
 consummation, tho' earnestly desired and zealously labored for, that 
 would after all, for obvious reasons, never have quite satisfied them, — 
 to doubt the advantages of a monied institution so deeply and so 
 desperately involved in party politics and to confess to themselves 
 the inexpediency of so soon undertaking another partisan campaign 
 for similar ends, to be supported by means certainly in the first in- 
 stance greatly injurious to the Country, and with prospects of 
 attaining those ends in no wise improved. It would have been in- 
 deed strange if under such untoward circumstances, (and my repre- 
 sentation of their condition is by no means exaggerated) they would 
 not have greatly preferred a union with the victorious old Chief, 
 founded upon an issue not incompatible with the principles they had 
 always professed and formed for the preservation of the Union — an 
 object which they well knew to be dear to the hearts of the people. 
 That Chief could never again be a candidate for the high office which 
 he then filled and they might flatter themselves with the expectation 
 that it would fall to the lot of Mr. Webster, whose elevation to it 
 would at least gratify their pride, to succeed to the place in his con- 
 fidence and regard which had long been occupied by one whose 
 assumed pretensions it was now the first wish of their hearts to 
 defeat. 
 
 But these agreeable arrangements, if they were projected, were 
 completely frustrated, as has been seen, and the materials out of 
 which they were to be constructed were restored to the uses to which 
 they had been previously and long devoted. The day set apart for the 
 election of the standing committees of the Senate arrived. Mr. Clay 
 found the New England Senators, Mr. Webster included, by whose 
 votes he had been defeated on Grundy's motion, all restored to the 
 ranks of the party from which they had perhaps meditated flight, 
 ready, if not Willing, to submit to his leadership as before and as 
 loyal also to the policy and interests of the bank as if nothing in- 
 consistent with such fidelity had been attempted or purposed. Whilst, 
 however, the keen encounter on Grundy's motion was apparently 
 destined to pass unnoticed and to be forgotten the events and de- 
 velopments of the summer had left no doubt on Mr. Clay's mind of 
 the existence of sinister and, in a party sense, disloyal designs on the 
 part of Mr. Webster, but why the further prosecution of them had 
 been abandoned or how frustrated he never knew until enlightened 
 by me, years afterwards, as I have described. 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 The prevalence of public disorder and private distress, real or 
 simulated, has always been treated in England as a legitimate sub- 
 ject of partisan agitation which, there as here, has rarely failed to 
 furnish occasion for misrepresentation and exaggeration in respect 
 both to their origin and extent; but the deliberate and systematized 
 undertaking by a political party, by means placed at its disposal 
 by a powerful monied institution having a common interest, to dis- 
 turb the business concerns of a whole country, with the express 
 purpose of converting the distress thereby occasioned into political 
 capital, was a partisan experiment of exclusively American origin. 
 There is reason to hope from the signal rebuke which the criminal 
 enterprise received from the American people that, as it was never 
 before attempted it will not be drawn into precedent anywhere. 
 
 ° About to enter upon an undertaking at the same time so out- 
 rageous and so hazardous, it became Mr. Clay, its conceded leader, 
 to be especially careful not to allow his confidence in the efficacy of 
 his means to render him inattentive to the manner of their applica- 
 tion. Upon that important point no man could have evinced greater 
 circumspection. He was too sagacious not to know that to give full 
 effect to the train which had been laid by the bank during the recess 
 and, thro' its agency and whatever assistance Congress could afford, 
 to cause such a panic in the public mind as would be sufficient to 
 accomplish their object was not and could not be made, in our ex- 
 tensive Country, the business of a day but would require agitation 
 not only violent but long continued. Especially did he recognize 
 the value of the latter requisite and adapt his course of proceeding 
 with consummate skill, to the end of securing it. It was scarcely 
 less desirable that the course of the House of Eepresentatives should, 
 in both respects, be made to harmonize with that of the Senate, and 
 we were not long in discovering that the genius and will, which, from 
 the period of the balk in the first attempt to choose the standing com- 
 mittees to the end of the session, bore absolute sway in the latter 
 body, regulated also the action of the former, as far as the state of 
 parties there would permit. The law of his nature demanded that 
 it should be so and there were no longer, on the part of either of his 
 principal associates, any adequate inducements -to thwart his designs. 
 
 • MS. VI, p.. 170. 
 
 712 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIBT VAN BUEEN. 713 
 
 Mr. McDuffie, the leader of the opposition in the House of Kepre- 
 sentatives, was an honest, obstinate man, in general actuated by pure 
 and patriotic motives, but, on this occasion, his resentment against 
 the President and" his solicitude for the success of the bank, of which 
 he was from the beginning a devoted friend, were raised to such a 
 pitch that Mr. Clay had only to satisfy him that the course he recom- 
 mended was best calculated to counteract the General's views and to 
 protect that institution to secure his zealous co-operation. 
 
 Whilst Mr. Clay cannot be said to have displayed the best judg- 
 ment in his general political course, his parliamentary tact and talent 
 have ever been regarded as of the highest order, if indeed, they were 
 not superior to those of any of his contemporaries. The established 
 parliamentary rules and usages have in view of the dispatch of busi- 
 ness to the greatest extent consistent with a full opportunity for the 
 deliberate consideration of the matters to be acted upon, and they 
 serve to promote that end except when they are perverted for the 
 accomplishment of sinister objects. The latter operation was now 
 deemed necessary for Mr. Clay's purpose and it is curious to observe 
 the perseverance and skill of his movements. The elements of panic 
 and ruin already put in motion were to receive an overwhelming 
 impulse from the rhetorical exaggerations and vehement denuncia- 
 tions to be fulminated from the two Houses of Congress, in the shape 
 of speeches, resolutions and reports. But to make sure of disturbing 
 the bitter waters to their very depths and thus to guard against their 
 too rapid subsidence after these Congressional tempests, it was indis- 
 pensable, as I have remarked, that the latter should be long con- 
 tinued and, to that end, that the propositions on which the supporters 
 of the bank based their proceedings should be such, in shape and sub- 
 stance, as to enable them, maugre all efforts of their opponents in 
 the contrary direction, to keep the discussion on foot during pleas.- 
 ure, or as long as might be necessary to give their panic operations a 
 thorough trial. 
 
 The feelings with which Mr. Clay had embarked, in the struggle, 
 strengthened as they had been by what took place in relation to the 
 choice of the standing committees of the Senate, induced him to de- 
 mand for himself the paternity of the leading proposition on which 
 the' opposition and the bank should decide to trust their case before 
 the Country. Proverbially generous in his dealings with his political 
 friends he was, nevertheless, not free from selfishness in respect to 
 everything that might affect his fame, an infirmity from which few 
 public men, if any, have been entirely exempt and which in him, as in 
 others, had grown stronger with increasing years. The " wear and 
 tear " of his long and active political career and the hazardous strug- 
 gle in which he was now embarked combined with his advanced age 
 
714 AMeMOAN HiSTOillCAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 to admonish him that the present was his last chance of reaching the 
 goal of his life long ambition. 
 
 The power to remove the public deposits from the bank was 
 reserved to the Secretary of the Treasury by its charter, but it was 
 made his duty, if he exercised that power, to report to the Congress, 
 at its next session, the reasons on which he had acted. If these 
 were satisfactory to that body it became its duty to direct, by law, 
 where and upon what terms the public monies should be deposited, 
 and if it did not approve of the Secretary's, action it was within its 
 power to direct their restoration to the bank. All this was very 
 plain as was also the course of proceeding on the part of Congress 
 for the accomplishment of either end : to wit, to refer the Secretary's 
 reasons to the appropriate committee in each House, which woul'd 
 have been that of Finance, in the Senate, and that of Ways and Means 
 in the House of Representatives, and, upon their Reports, to provide, 
 by law or by joint resolution, for such action in the matter as Justice 
 to the Country and to the bank should be held to require. Without 
 doubt this course would have been pursued if it had comported with 
 the views and interests of the bank and its supporters that the ques- 
 tion should be fairly acted on and disposed of in accordance with 
 parliamentary usages; but its adoption instead of promoting their 
 sinister objects might, as they thought, defeat them. There was in 
 the Senate a decided majority ready to condemn the act of the Sec- 
 retary and to give to the bank all it asked for, whilst in the House, of 
 which the members had just been elected, there was known to be a 
 majority equally decided in favor of that act and equally ready 
 to vote, on the second reading, for the rejection of any bill re- 
 versing the Secretary's decision should such a one be sent to them 
 by the Senate. If the usual course had been pursued by the 
 supporters of the bank, the friends of the Administration, aware 
 of the ulterior objects of the former and understanding the 
 game they were playing to accomplish them, would have had 
 nothing to do but to allow the bill reported in the Senate to pass 
 without opposition, as rapidly as the forms of legislation would 
 permit, and to reject it in the House on its appearance there, thus 
 suddenly and effectually closing the door to Congressional agitation, 
 on which so great reliance was placed to shake the Country a'nd, 
 by consequence, to break down the administration majority in the 
 popular branch of the Legislature. 
 
 But there was another objection to the adoption of the usual course 
 of proceeding which would have been equally imperative with Mr. 
 Clay if its consideration at the moment had not been superseded by 
 the other and pressing motive for departing from it to which I have 
 alluded, but which was, nevertheless, vigorously enforced at a more 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIK VAK BUBEN. 715 
 
 advanced period of the session and which it will not be amiss to 
 notice in this place. I have before spoken of the feelings with which 
 Mr. Clay made himself a party to the renewal of the conflict for the 
 re-incorporation of the bank, a question supposed by many to have 
 been settled by the Presidential election of 1832; of his determina- 
 tion that whatever was done on that side which promised to create 
 political capital for its author should originate with himself, and, 
 in that connection, of the then existing personal relations between 
 Mr. Webster and himself. These resolutions he would doubtless have 
 carried out, even if those relations had continued as cordial during 
 the recess and a^ the opening of the panic session as they seemed to 
 be at the close of that which preceded it, but in a very different 
 manner and spirit. The altered mood in which he again met his 
 bank co-adjutor and the occurrences which led to it have been fully 
 stated. The mortification he suffered from being voted down on a 
 motion for the success of which he had manifested great solicitude, 
 on the very threshold of a session in which he expected to figure so 
 largely and so triumphantly, sank deep into his heart. He did not, 
 at the time, as appears by his subsequent declarations, hesitate to 
 attribute Mr. Webster's movements during the recess, to a contem- 
 plated defection from his party, to be concealed for the moment and 
 to become more or less undisguised ° according to circumstances, 
 and this notwithstanding his ignorance of the political dalliance 
 between Mr. Webster and Mr. Livingston, during that period, in 
 which Gen. Jackson's name was so freely used. A co-operation, 
 seemingly hearty, was extended by Mr. Webster, after the selection 
 of the committees, towards carrying into effect Mr. Clay's plans, but 
 his experience of the former's settled unfriendliness having been too 
 long and recently too irritating to permit him ever again to confide 
 in his sincerity he resolved to make Mr. Webster's situation through- 
 out the session to the last degree humiliating and we shall see how 
 thoroughly he carried out that determination. He did not attempt 
 to interfere with the programme of his party according to which 
 Mr. Webster was to be placed at the head of the Finance committee 
 but the committee was so constituted otherwise as to have on it a 
 majority who were Mr. Clay's friends. To that committee the report 
 of the Secretary of the Treasury, assigning his reasons for the re- 
 moval of the deposits, should of right and, if the regular course of 
 legislative proceedings had not been broken up for the occasion, 
 would have been referred. The action of the Senate would, in that 
 case, have been based on the report of that Committee, which would 
 of course, have been made by its chairman, Mr. Webster, and that 
 gentleman must thus have been invested with the position of leader- 
 
 ° MS. vr, p. 175. 
 
716 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOH. 
 
 ship in respect to the great question of the session. Mr. Clay, how- 
 ever, interdicted the action of the Finance committee on that sub- 
 ject, with a single exception, throughout the session. He once, after 
 a protracted parley, consented that the Secretary's report should go 
 to that committee, but this permission was guarded and clogged by 
 terms and stipulations, humbly proposed by Mr. Webster himself, 
 to wit : that he would bring it back to the Senate the next morning 
 accompanied by a report which he had some time before prepared 
 and which, in lieu of bill or other form of relief, should conclude 
 with a recommendation, to the Senate to pass one of Mr. Clay's own 
 resolutions, which had been long before that body, as the proper 
 subject for its action, and, further, that the debate on Mr. Clay's 
 resolutions should be thereupon forthwith resumed.^ 
 
 To secure both objects, time to create and increase panic by pro- 
 tracted discussion and the exclusion of Mr. Webster from that promi- 
 nence in the proceedings of the Senate to which he was entitled by 
 his position as Chairman of the Finance committee, Mr. Clay moved 
 to take up for consideration the Secretary's Special Report on the 
 subject of the removal of the deposits soon after it had been sent in, 
 which was near the commencement of the session, and, after obtaining 
 the information he desired from the Treasury Department, to wit: on 
 the 26th December, he submitted two resolutions upon the subject for 
 the separate action of the Senate — ^the prst charging the President 
 with having assumed and acted upon a power over the Treasury of 
 the United States not granted to him by the Constitution and laws, 
 dangerous to the liberties of the people, and the second declaring that 
 the Secretary's reasons for the removal of the deposits were " unsatis- 
 factory and insufficient " and accompanied their presentation with a 
 highly inflammatory but able and elaborate speech. Bj- his first reso- 
 lution he thus advanced a proposition which left the friends of the 
 Administration in the Senate, no option as to the manner in which 
 it, should be met but drove them to instant, earnest and persevering 
 opposition to its adoption and at the same time stimulated contention 
 between the friends and enemies of the President throughout the 
 land and aggravated the general distraction, the existence of which 
 was believed to be the most effectual support to the cause of the bank. 
 Furthermore, and this was its principal value, from its nature and 
 adroit presentation it enabled the maj6rity to keep the subject under 
 discussion as long as the agitation produced by that discussion might 
 seem to them to continue to be useful. It was, in fact, debated de die 
 in dienn three months and a day, a duration unprecedented in this or, 
 I believe, any Country and that without the introduction, during all 
 that period, of a solitary proposition which, if adopted, would have 
 
 1 See page 731. 
 
AUTOBIOGRABHY 01" MARTIN VAK BUEEN. 717 
 
 reversed the action of the Secretary of the Treasury or have afforded 
 redress to the bank or have relieved the distress of any one. 
 
 On the 28th of May, 1834, more than five months after the intro- 
 duction of these resolutions, Mr. Clay presented, in the shape of a 
 joint resolution, the first definite proposition that was offered for 
 the reversal of the Secretary's decision and the restoration of the 
 deposits to the bank of the United States.^ His plan for extending 
 and aggravating the panic, for which the bank had laid the founda- 
 tion in the recess and contributed its aid through the winter by 
 means of inflammatory appeals to the passions and the fears of the 
 community, was therefore, so far as it afforded ample opportunity 
 for that experiment, eminently successful. 
 
 For obvious reasons the House of Representatives would have been 
 made the principal theater of these operations but for the circum- 
 stance that the three leading agitators were members of the Senate 
 and further that whilst the supporters of the bank outnumbered the 
 friends of the administration in that body the latter were as yet in 
 a decided majority in the House — a majority to be broken down 
 thro' the influence of the bank and the arts and devices of its advo- 
 cates before any movement promising success could be made in its 
 behalf. 
 
 Mr. McDuffie by several adroit movements, which it is not un- 
 reasonable to suppose were the results of Mr. Clay's advice suc- 
 ceeded in effecting the same object that was so successfully accom- 
 plished in the Senate to an extent beyond what could have been 
 anticipated. By a motion which the friends of the administration, 
 thro' inadvertence, suffered to pass, the report of the Secretary of 
 the Treasury in relation to the removal of the deposits was referred 
 to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
 by which that subject was placed beyond the reach of the previous 
 question. The ground thus lost thro' the inattention of the majority 
 could only be regained by a reconsideration, the motion for which 
 was open to debate and was accordingly long debated. When the 
 proposition for reconsideration was at length brought to a vote and 
 adopted thro' the instrumentality of the previous question and a 
 motion was made to refer the report to the Committee of Ways and 
 Means, a new obstacle was interposed by Mr. McDuffie in the shape 
 of a motion to amend the motion for a reference, by adding instruc- 
 tions to the Committee to report a resolution directing the restora- 
 tion of the deposits to the bank. 
 
 'The first of these resolutions was the same as that agreed to March 28, 1834, 
 in characterizing the reasons of the Secretary of the Treasury for removing the deposits 
 as " unsatisfactory and Insufficient." See Eegister of Debates, X, Pt. I, 1187 and X, Pt. 
 II, 1817. 
 
718 AMEEICAlSr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'. 
 
 By the use of parliamentary arts like those I have described the 
 whole subject was kept under discussion in the House of Eepre- 
 sentatives for the space of months upon preliminary ques- 
 tions before the secretary's " reasons " were referred to the Commit- 
 tee of Ways and Means, where they should have been sent in the 
 first instance. Upon each of these questions, thro' the latitude in 
 debate which crept into the proceedings of that body, panic speeches 
 utterly unrestricted in their scope or character were held to be in 
 order. 
 
 Having thus obtained ample security against a sjpeedy disposition 
 of the subject by either house Mr. Clay entered on the execution of 
 the task he had assumed — ^that of bringing Congressional agitation 
 to the aid of the bank and its outdoor partisans in their efforts to 
 create a panic in the public mind of sufficient extent and intensity 
 to effect the subjection of every adverse branch of the Government 
 to the dictation and control of that institution. This audacious 
 design he hoped to accomplish thro' the instrumentality of incendi- 
 ary speeches and vindictive resolutions emanating from the two 
 Houses to be reproduced at public meetings and in State Legisla- 
 tures, aimed to aggravate whatever embarrassments in the business 
 concerns of the Country the bank had succeeded in causing, by 
 exaggerating their extent, and to exasperate the public feeling and'' 
 mislead the public mind into the belief that these evils, altho' in 
 fact intentionally and causelessly created, so far as they existed at 
 all, by the bank and its supporters, had arisen from the removal of 
 the deposits; aimed also to uproot the confidence of the community 
 as well in the stability of the institutions which the States had 
 established aa in their capacity to afford the necessary pecuniary 
 facilities to men of business, to shake its faith in monied establish- 
 ments of every description," in individual resources, in all the busi- 
 ness pursuits of men which had thitherto afforded support or profit 
 and in every source of relief or security against the ruin which, as 
 was asserted and insisted, threatened, nay actually overwhelmed the 
 material interests of the whole Country, other than that afforded 
 by the bank of 'the United States — an institution, as subsequent de- 
 velopments have demonstrated, then already tottering to its fall ! 
 
 A leader better fitted for the conduct of such an enterprise could 
 not have been found in this or, perhaps, in any Country. Neither 
 the vigor of his intellect nor his reasoning powers were superior, 
 probably they were inferior to those of Mr. Webster ; but these were 
 not even the chief qualifications for the post. All the " aid and com- 
 fort " to be derived from these sources had been contributed in full 
 
 ° MS. VI, p. 180. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN" BTJREN. 
 
 719 
 
 measure by Webster in the veto-message campaign, but without suc- 
 cess. In the contest in which Mr. Clay was embarked clear and cool 
 argument, save to confuse and silence the defences of the adminis- 
 tration against the unjust assaults that were to be heaped upon it, 
 would be out of place. His reliance was to be an agency at war with 
 sense and reason — ^that of panic. To create this — of violence ade- 
 quate to the occasion and to the purposes to which ft was to be ap- 
 plied — in a Country so extensive and withal so thriving as ours, 
 was an undertaking of which the difficulties would have discouraged 
 and dissuaded ordinary minds, but with Mr. Clay and with many of 
 his confederates not less resolute, backed as they were by a money- 
 power utterly unscrupulous as to the means it employed, no efforts 
 to promote its cause were thought too difficult or desperate in that 
 crisis of their fortunes. Their united exertions were therefore un- 
 ceasingly employed, as I have said, day in and day out, for the de- 
 struction of the confidence of the community in public and private 
 credit — in the success of business pursuits of every description — 
 in the solvency of all banks and monied establishments in any way 
 connected with business transactions, except only the bank of the 
 United States and such State banks as acknowledged fealty to that 
 institution and in spreading the belief, that the former, whether cor- 
 porate or private, would be speedily compelled to suspend payment ; 
 in persuading tfce Manufacturers that they would be obliged to stop 
 their mills— their employees that they would be discharged — those 
 engaged in commerce that their ships were destined to rot at the 
 wharves— t^ei officers and sailors that they would be turned adrif1>— 
 the farmers, planters, founders, miners, and producers of every de- 
 scription that the products of their labor would be without a mar- 
 ket — the contractors and builders that the demand for houses would 
 cease and the numerous workmen dependent upon them and the labor- > 
 ers in every department of industry that all would soon be thrown out 
 of employment — that there would be neither call for their services 
 nor a currency of sufficient value to reward them, if they found any 
 work, unless the public deposits were restored to the vaults of the 
 bank. 
 
 To fright the public mind from its propriety, to stultify it so far 
 as to make these monstrous assumptions credible was an undertak- 
 ing the success of which could not be promoted by appeals however 
 eloquent or plausible to men's judgments. Not arguments nor facts 
 but bold-faced hyperbole and incendiary harangue addressed to the 
 worst passions of the heart with the grossest misrepresentations in 
 regard to the acts of the Government, the actual condition. of the 
 Country and the causes of the limited distress that existed and reck- 
 less assaults on those whose influence the supporters of t]xQ bank 
 
720 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 sought to subvert — these were the appropriate weapons for the occa- 
 sion and they were wielded to an extent which has secured to it an 
 enduring and unenviable notoriety. 
 
 That Mr. Clay should have consented to become the principal and 
 most active leader of those who encouraged and sustained the bank in 
 its crusade not only against the best interests of the Country but 
 against the vital principle of the Government was a source of deep 
 regret to his earliest and best friends. What could have been more 
 humiliating to himself or painful to those who were conversant with 
 the bright opening of his career than the aspect in which he presented 
 himself for three months of this memorable session. Even before 
 attaining the period of manhood the eloquent advocate of liberal 
 principles and for many proud years of his prime of life the un- 
 flinching and successful supporter of the pure and self-denying 
 doctrines of the old Republican party, now, when his temples were 
 silvered by age, his imposing figure was daily recognized in his well 
 known place in the Senate Chamber and his melodious voice heard 
 in forced apologies for, or unfounded justifications of the conduct 
 of the bank and in indiscriminate denunciations of the Government, 
 in heralding for the most part fallacious and always grossly exagge- 
 rated reports of the prevalence of distress in the Country, in urging 
 the preposterous conclusion — ^known at the moment and long since 
 conceded by all intelligent minds to be such — ^that those distresses 
 were occasioned by the removal of the deposits and in wailing proph- 
 ecies of woe to every public and private interest unless those deposits 
 were restored, intended as key-notes to his followers in every corner 
 of the land. No man who reads these pages will, I am confident, 
 believe that I feel any satisfaction in recording the details of these 
 the most exceptionable proceedings of Mr. Clay's life. Yet the truth 
 of history requires me to say, painful as it is to do so, that he not only 
 sought or at least voluntarily assumed the lead in all of them, but 
 that he suffered no one of his associates to go beyond him in the 
 violence, in acts and words, with which his ends were pursued. 
 
 Whilst Mr. Clay and his followers in both Houses were applying 
 all their energies to carry into effect the part allotted to them by 
 the general programme their political friends and the bank and its 
 employees and dependents were no less actively engaged in supply- 
 ing them with materials for agitation in the shape of memorials 
 from all parts of the country and all classes of people, altho' so 
 much alike in form and substance as to shew that they were made 
 to order, describing, in terms which echoed Congressional lamenta- 
 tions, the fulfilment of Congressional predictions of the general suf- 
 fering and ruin in consequence of the removal of the deposits, and 
 pointing to their restoration to the vaults, of the bank of the U. States 
 and, in some few cases, referring also to an extension of the charter 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIK VAN BUBEN'. 721 
 
 of that institution as the only panacea for the disorders tliat per- 
 vaded the body-politic. 
 
 ° Thes© " distress memorials " (as they came to be called) pre- 
 sented the first phase of the external aid afforded to the alarmists 
 in Congress. What I have to say of their character and content^ 
 must of necessity be briefly said as the general subject under cor- 
 sideration — that of the proceedings of the panic session^^has already 
 grown largely on my hands. The ball was opened, after the petition 
 of the bank, which was little more than a prayer for general relief, 
 by a memorial from a number of the principal State banks doing 
 business in the city of Philadelphia. It was the boast of the bank 
 of the United States and its supporters that the State banks could 
 not be kept on foot, in a period of commercial embarrassment, with- 
 out her aid and that she had it in her power, on such occasions, to 
 compel them to suspend specie payments by merely withholding her 
 assistance from them. That this was not so was fully proven by 
 results with which we are all familiar but it is not as clear that 
 all of the State institutions were sensible of their real ability to take 
 care of themselves. Whatever may have been the influences by 
 which the State banks in Philadelphia wer>* moved — whether by 
 dread of the power of the National bank or by a common sympathy — 
 it so happened that those banks, to the number of nine, under their 
 corporate seals and the signatures of their respective Presidents, 
 immediately came forward to sustain that institution and pre- 
 sented to Congress a joint memorial asking that body to direct a 
 restoration of the deposits to its vaults. Their communication was 
 
 presented on the day of December 1833 ^ and was ordered to 
 
 be spread upon the journal, a mark of respect conceded to that docu- 
 ment and to the memorial of the bank of the United States, but 
 not to any other. It was selected not only as an imposing and sat- 
 isfactory opening representation for the bank but obviously to 
 serve as a model for those which were to follow. It is therefore en- 
 titled to special notice and what is here said of its contents will 
 generally apply to those that proceeded from different sources. It 
 dwelt upon the importance of a well regulated currency — affirmed 
 that the nation had enjoyed such a currency and a moneyed system 
 adequate to its wants for the preceding ten years thro' the instru- 
 mentality of the existing national bank, which in their opinion had 
 DO superior in the world — it charged that that system, which had 
 been thus perfect on the first of October preceding, and the signal 
 prosperity it had produced had undergone a sudden and a powerful 
 
 ° Ms. Book VII, p. 1. 
 
 'The memorial, dated Dec. 9, was presented Dec. 18, 1833. It is printed in the De- 
 bates of Congress, 10,'Pt. II, 2207. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 46 
 
722 
 
 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 change — ^that "the moneyed operations of our commercial cities 
 were at a stand, the commerce between the States was again laboring 
 under a tax, which must continue increasing at a loss on all its 
 exchanges — that the circulating medium already begun to arrange 
 itself on a scale of depreciation, while, in the train of these evils and 
 not far behind them, might be apprehended a general abandonment 
 of specie payments — ^that, happily for the Country, the remedy for 
 this distressing state of things was as evident as the cause of it — 
 that they did not hesitate to express their belief that, as the removal 
 of the deposits of the U. States from the bank of the U. S. was the 
 real cause of the distress, so the restoration of them to that insti- 
 tution would be the effectual remedy." They therefore prayed that 
 such restoration should be directed by (Congress. 
 
 This memorial was followed on January 3d by one from the Board 
 of Trade of the same city, which, having been drawn up at a some- 
 what more advanced stage of the panic, went far beyond its proto- 
 type in its gloomy description of the distress and ruin which had 
 within a few weeks taken the place of previous prosperity and ease 
 in the pecuniary" affairs of the Country, affirming more specifically 
 that the disastrous change was owing to the fact that the bank of 
 the U. S. had been deprived of the means she before possessed to 
 support the currency and to aid men of business by the removal of 
 the Government deposits without enabling the deposit banks to 
 supply her place, negativing in explicit terms the idea that the bank 
 had, either for her own protection or any other motive, taken any 
 steps by which the prevailing embarrassments had been produced and 
 insisting that they were entirely chargeable to the acts of the Gov- 
 ernment, and would be all remedied by the restoration of the deposits. 
 
 The statements set forth in these memorials, the preposterous 
 falsity of which will be hereafter demonstrated, were founded on 
 those of the bank which, after its defeat in the last canvass and 
 after it had resolved upon the reckless enterprise in which it was 
 now engaged, was entirely unscrupulous in the means it employed, 
 and were adopted by the President and directors of the State banks 
 in Philadelphia with unhesitating and blind confidence in the mo- 
 tives and in the infallibility of Mr. Biddle. The same influence by 
 which these were called into existence produced similar petitions 
 from all quarters of the Country. They were generally presented 
 to the Senate by members friendly to the objects of the petitioners 
 and sometimes by those opposed who had been selected with a knowl- 
 with the presentation of one or more of these petitions and a speech 
 from the Senator presenting (which was never omitted) in which 
 portion and not infrequently the whole of each day was occupied 
 edge of their views by the signers for special reasons. The early 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAETIN VAJS" BTJEEN. 723 
 
 he described the character of the petitioners, their original political 
 associations, the prostration of their business and the distress pre- 
 vailing among them, and depicted in most sombre colors the wicked 
 acts by which such widespread ruin had been produced in a Country 
 but recently highly flourishing. This was followed by replies to 
 the allegations of facts in the speech and a running debate in which 
 many Senators participated, accusatory on the side of the petitions 
 generally exciting and often very violent. The inflammatory char-, 
 acter of these Senatorial altercations was continually aggravated 
 by the reading of private letters, the promulgation on the floor of 
 the Senate, of startling reports importing the confirmation of the 
 statements of the memorials, and of the proceedings of partisan 
 meetings denouncing the administration in bitterest terms as the 
 author of the distress alleged — the greater portion of which had no 
 existence outside of those proceedings and memorials and for no 
 part of which was it justly responsible. 
 
 These allegations charges and invectives naturally drew out replies 
 from Senators friendly to the Administration, some of whom repre- 
 sented States to which those high-wrought descriptions applied, and 
 who believed them to be in the main groundless. Altho' these re- 
 plies in one sense promoted the views of the opposition by pro- 
 longing the discussion and by° giving additional interest to the 
 subject, they were nevertheless unavoidable, as it was not in the 
 nature of such men to listen in silence to representations which 
 they knew to be, in a very great degree, false and in all respects 
 grossly exaggerated,, especially when they were made the pretext of 
 demmciations of an administration which they honestly believed 
 to be deserving of the confidence of the nation. These replies were 
 not made without cost to their authors, which men less firm than the 
 noble spirits by whom the administration was defended in that the 
 moment of its utmost need might have felt willing to avoid. To 
 question the existence of the distress described in those memorials, 
 private letters or irresponsible newspaper paragraphs, or even to 
 deny its prevalence to the extent alleged, exposed the Senators who 
 ventured so far to an immediate storm of impetuous railing from 
 Clay or of scowling sarcasm from Webster or to be pounced upon 
 by Poindexter, who watched with the alertness of a cat for his 
 opportunity. 
 
 Most prominent among the friends of the administration who 
 devoted themselves with all their hearts and powers to the support 
 of the President in this fierce struggle stood Forsyth of Georgia, 
 Benton of Missouri, Wright of New York, Bedford Brown, of North 
 Carolina, Koane of Virginia, Wilkins of Pennsylvania, Grundy of 
 
 - MS, VII, p. 5, 
 
724 AMEEICAW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Tennessee, Shepley of Maine, and Kane of Illinois, with occasional 
 assistance from King of Alabama, a gentleman of colder tempera- 
 ment but who cherished and manfully asserted, whenever he was 
 called out, just and honest views. 
 
 An incident illustrating the absorbing excitement of those scenes 
 recurs to my memory as I write. Feeling quite unwell on the morn- 
 ing of one of those troublous days I thought it advisable to remain at 
 home, but as the Senate could not be organised in my absence (under 
 the rules as they then stood) I decided to wrap myself up warmly to 
 go to the Capitol, place some one of the Senators in the chair and re- 
 turn to meet a physician whom I directed to be called and to betake 
 myself to my bed. Adding a heavy cloak to my ordinary out-door 
 apparel and a scarf around my neck I drove to the capitol and took 
 the chair without parting with either and with the determination I 
 have described. As soon as the reading of the Journal was completed 
 a distress memorial was presented upon which and upon the remarks 
 of the Senator presenting it a fiery debate sprang up in which my 
 friend Forsyth bore a principal part and which lasted without inter- 
 mission until five o'clock, the hour of adjournment. As the excite- / 
 ment increased I gradually threw aside my surplus coverings and re- 
 mained in the chair until the Senate adjourned, when, on leaving the 
 chamber, I invited Forsyth, with whose bearing on the occasion I 
 had been especially pleased, and two other friends to take seats in 
 my carriage and to dine with me and it was not until we arrived at 
 my house and noticed the astonishment of my servant, who met me 
 with an explanation from the doctor of his inability to wait longer 
 for me, that I recalled the resolutions of the morning and the instruc- 
 tions I had left with him. 
 
 There was, however, no degree of excitement in the two Houses 
 that could save the cause of the bank from the damaging effects of 
 the examinations and discussions which stamped the indelible brand 
 of imposture on the memorials of the Philadelphia city banks and 
 of its Board of Trade, and the distrust thus produced naturally ex- 
 tended to many subsequent memorials, embracing nearly all con- 
 structed on the saine basis. The justice of this condemnation was 
 fully demonstrated by the facts disclosed and by their array in 
 juxtaposition with the pretences set up, as was done in counter- 
 memorials which sprung spontaneously from the' bosom of the com- 
 munity under the influence of a rapidly spreading conviction of 
 the falsity of the clamor that had been raised on the subject of the 
 removal of the deposits. These, altho' for obvious reasons not so 
 numerous as the bank petitions, were yet very imposing in their 
 character and construction. Disinterested men of clear heads and^ 
 honest hearts, influenced frequently by no other interest in the ques- 
 
AXJTOBIOGKAPHY OF MAKTIN VAN BUREN. 725 
 
 tion than by love of truth and hatred of imposition, devoted them- 
 selves to their preparation, exposed the absurd propositions which 
 had been dogmatically advanced in the Philadelphia memorials to 
 the contempt of unprejudiced and sensible minds, and their posi- 
 tions were enforced with great ability and effect by the supporters 
 of the public cause on the floor of the Senate. 
 
 By these investigations and discussions the following case was 
 made out against the bank-memorialists: 
 
 The order for the removal of the deposits, tho' made in September,^ 
 did not take effect until the first of October and affiled only ta the 
 accruing revenue, leaving the balance of the public money which 
 should on that day be in the bank of the United States to be expended 
 in the public service and drawn out in the way which had been before 
 pursued. The memorial of the State banks in Philadelphia was 
 presented to Congress on the 30* December and that of the Board 
 of Trade on the 3d January following; thus, assuming that only a 
 few days elapsed between their preparation and approval by the 
 respective Boards and their presentation to Congress, leaving some 
 ten weeks during which the bank had been deprived of the accruing 
 revenue when those documents were so presented. The receipts by 
 the Government, during the intervening period, were ascertained 
 
 from official sources to have amounted to and the bank 
 
 had in its vaults when the order for the removal took effect a bal- 
 ance of public money amounting to which remained until 
 
 drawn out in the regular course of the public service. It was by the 
 act of withholding from the bank the use of the first mentioned sum, 
 tho' accompanied by the continuance of a much larger deposit, and 
 by placing the moneys thus withheld in State institutions — o,ne of 
 them in the same city — to be used in the same way, that these doubt- 
 less worthy but certainly very gullible memorialists were made to 
 believe, or at least to charge that their Government had, in the space 
 of some ten weeks, produced the wide spread ruin they pathetically 
 depicted, reaching to the prostration, if not destruction of the cur- 
 rency and moneyed system of a great nation, the superior of which 
 in their opinion the world had never seen ; had brought the moneyed 
 operations of our commercial cities to a stand; had subjected the 
 commerce between the States to a tax, which must continually in- 
 crease, a,t a loss on all its exchalnges and our circulating medium 
 to the point of depreciation, and, in the train of these evils, had 
 furnished good ground for fearing a suspension of specie payments. 
 No better illustration could be asked of the reckless audacity of these 
 statements than the necessity they imposed of the preliminary as- 
 sumption that an interference with the accustomed receipts of the 
 
 •September 26, 1833. 
 
'?26 AiVfEElCAK HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 bank to so slight an amount could have so far crippled an institution, 
 which boasted, in official communications, that its annual moneyed 
 operations amounted to some three hundred and forty millions. 
 
 The leaders of the bank party, (for to that appellation the oppo- 
 sition had fully entitled themselves) at length became sehsible that 
 the pretence, with which they had commenced the campaign, was 
 detected by the people and that they were rapidly losing ground 
 by attempting to maintain the imposture. Accordingly they yielded 
 to the necessity of a change of position in the face of the enemy — 
 an always dangerous movement and which proved disastrous in 
 their case. Abandoning the groimd taken in their memorials, that 
 the pecuniary embarrassment and distress which they alleged to 
 prevail in the Country were the direct consequences of the removal 
 of the deposits, it was now charged that they had been caused by 
 the destruction of the confidence of the community in the banks 
 generally and in all pecuniary engagements brought about by the 
 removal of the deposits and by the acts of the President and Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury in coimection with that measure. This 
 amendment of the indictment was scouted, by the friends" of the 
 administration as an after-thought, which had not occurred to the 
 bank managers when the removal of the deposits was selected as 
 the subject for agitation, nor to the memorialists or their advisers 
 and which was now acted upon by the latter after being driven 
 from their first position. In this conclusion the Country coincided 
 and the ground now taken soon came to be regarded as but a no 
 less unfounded pretence substituted for one already refuted, a cover 
 for the retreat from an unsuccessful attempt to practice a gross 
 imposition upon the community. Few unprejudiced minds failed 
 to penetrate the artifice, regarding it as manifest on the face of the 
 memorials, with which they justly identified the bank, that they 
 would not have been constructed as they were if the view afterwards 
 taken had been the one originally intended. That a discreet and 
 timely effort on the part of the President to withhold the revenues 
 necessary to the public service from a bank already discredited by 
 the extent to which it had involved itself in party politics, and 
 which was at the moment notoriously pursuing a lawless and reck- 
 less course in many respects, would shock and demoralize an intel- 
 ligent people, a vast majority of whom believed him to be honest 
 and disinterested, however some of them might differ from him as 
 to the wisdom of particular measures, so far as to cause them to lose 
 all confidence in themselves, in the institutions they had created and 
 in their government, was an assumption dishonoring their character 
 and which they did not, in the sequel fail to rebuke and disprove. 
 
 " MS. VII, p. 10. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 72 Y 
 
 Memorials of the same general character, differing only by urging, 
 according to the corrected programme, the destruction of confidence 
 as the cause of the evils under which the Country was said to be 
 suffering, continued to pour in, day after day, until the number of 
 the signers to them exceeded one hundred thousand as declared when 
 a count was made by the Secretary of the Senate at the instance of 
 Mr. Clay. 
 
 A new feature was, after a while, added to the panic machinery 
 of the bank and its supporters ; that of large " distress committees " 
 appointed to carry the memorials to Washington and commissioned 
 to add their personal assurances of the existence and extent of the 
 distress. These committees thronged the galleries of the two Houses 
 of Congress and the avenues to the Capitol, proclaiming everywhere 
 the ruin of the country ; they visited the President, repeated to him 
 their relation of public grievances and in some instances misrepre- 
 sented his replies to an extent that led him to require that their 
 further communications to him should be in writing. They fulfilled 
 their allotted task of adding to the prevailing excitement by start- 
 ling descriptions of the condition of the people given to their rep- 
 resentatives and on their return laboring to irritate the constituent 
 body by exaggerated pictures of the condition of affairs at Wash- 
 ington, of which the obstinacy of the President was a prominent 
 and invariable feature. 
 
 A memorial from the Building Mechanics of the city of Phila- 
 delphia, said to have been adopted at a meeting of 3,000 persons, 
 composed, as Mr. Webster said, of carpenters, masons, bricklayers, 
 painters, and glaziers, lime burners, plasterers, lumber merchants, 
 &c., &c., was carried to Washington by a committee of thirty of the 
 memorialists. This committee was admitted to the Senate Chamber 
 and were ranged around the seats of the Senator whilst that gentle- 
 man presented their memorial, in doing which, he pointed to them 
 and spoke in his most solemn vein of their respectability and use- 
 fulness and invited the Senators to converse with them and to hear, 
 from their own lips, their " fearful story." 
 
 The flood of memorials in favor of the bank naturally soon pro- 
 duced a large number of remonstrances from those who thought the 
 Government had done right, against the interference of Congress in 
 the matter. Each document, whether denunciatory of the act of the 
 President, or of the conduct of the bank, was ushered in by a sepa- 
 rate speech, which provoked replies and these, in turn, rejoinders, 
 to the exclusion of all other business, until the two Houses presented 
 a spectacle, which would not have been endured in any other state 
 of public feeling than that into which it had been lashed by the 
 practices of which I have given a faint outline. 
 
728 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 From Dec. 26th, 1833, to June 5, 1834, when the vote was taken 
 on Mr. Clay's joint resolution, the state of the question in regard to 
 the removal of the deposits and the recharter of the bank, with a 
 single and limited exception, had remained substantially unchanged. 
 Mr. Webster had, from the beginning, winced severely under his ex- 
 clusion from all direct control of, or other than subordinate agency 
 in the course of proceedings adopted by Mr. Clay. He took occasion, 
 at an early day, to say, during the formal proceedings of the morn- 
 ing, that the Secretary's reasons for the removal of the deposits ought 
 to have been referred to the Finance Committee, of which he was 
 chairman, that he did not like to interfere with the discussion, a 
 thing he was, for well understood reasons, very careful not to attempt, 
 but that he would make a motion to that effect, when the present 
 discussion was closed, and he was constantly on the lookout for an 
 occasion when that could be done with the least danger of giving 
 offense to Mr. Clay. That which he embraced, sprung out of cir- 
 cumstances in which I took part, and as to the propriety of referring 
 to which, I have had a good deal of hesitation. The true character 
 and unprecedentedly equable tenor of the close relations that existed 
 between Silas Wright and myself, from the beginning to the end of 
 our acquaintance, were, in their day, appreciated, but not thoroughly 
 understood even by our mutual friends. There never was a single 
 occasion, in all the troublesome and trying political scenes through 
 which we passed, side by side, that disturbed, with even a momentary 
 ruffle, the calm confidence of my feelings towards him or that in- 
 spired me with apprehension of any interruption or diminution of 
 the respect and esteem which he, in turn uniformly manifested to- 
 wards me. My deference to his judgment in many things and es- 
 pecially in such as had political relations, was all but absolute, and 
 never have I been tempted for a moment to regard myself as superior 
 to him, in any good quality of the head or heart ; indeed I believe he 
 had no superior in the sincerity, simplicity, and strength of his public 
 and private virtues, and in that important attribute of a truly admir- 
 able statesman, perfect disinterestedness — ^he stood above any man I 
 ever knew. I have often remarked to my friends, that in all our 
 long and confidential intercourse, embracing consultations in almost 
 every gradation of his career, it never appeared to me that the ques- 
 tion, how a contemplated political step might affect the individual 
 interests of Silas Wright, had occupied his mind for a moment. 
 
 It cost him much to suppress at the time the facts I am about to 
 mention, and at any period of his after life he would have spoken 
 of them, if he could have obtained my consent to his doing so. 
 
 The panic session had already lasted some months without his 
 taking a part in its proceedings, in any degree proportioned to 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREK. 729 
 
 his capacities, and also without, as it was thought, a full and suffi- 
 ciently authoritative expose, on the floor of either House, of the 
 views and ultimate intentions of the administration, in respect to 
 the important matters under discussion. The disadvantages re- 
 sulting from this " state of things was felt by some of our most dis- 
 creet friends, and by none more than Mr. Wright himself. I often 
 sought to remedy the evil, by hints to him, indicative of a desire 
 that he should say in a speech on the floor of the Senate, what he 
 knew our sentiments to be, but without success, and was in the end 
 driven, by the pressure of the emergency, to call at his lodgings 
 and to have a talk with him, of which the following was the sub- 
 stance : 
 
 "Mr. Wright!" 
 
 " Mr. Van Buren ! " [a response, the formality of which, was probably pro- 
 duced, by an unusual earnestness in my manner] " I am about to talk to 
 you in a way in which I would not venture to speak to any other friend 
 I have in the world, because I could not feel sufficiently confident that it 
 would be received in the right spirit." 
 
 "Say on." 
 
 "Are you aware that you have not, since you have been in the Senate, 
 realized the anticipations of your friends? " 
 
 " I am, but I am also aware that the fault does not rest on me." 
 
 " On whom then? " 
 
 " On my friends, for cherishing expectations which are not authorized by 
 any thing I have ever done." 
 
 " That is a point in respect to which all your friends differ from you. I, 
 for one, know that in thinking so, you do yourself injustice. Having reference 
 to a clear and strong intellect, a sound judgment, reasoning powers of the 
 highest order, and perfect sincerity, integrity and disinterestedness in your 
 purposes, the proper qualities for the leader of such an. administration as the 
 present, you have not your superior in the Senate. That is the opinion of all 
 your friends, and you are yourself only prevented from taking the position its 
 general truth assigns to you, by an excess of modesty, the existence of which 
 we all deplore." 
 
 "The partiality you have just evinced is a fair sample of that by which 
 my friends have been led into error." 
 
 " You must allow us to judge of that. The President, as well as myself, 
 feels that his real views have not, thus far, been sufficiently developed on the 
 floor of either House of Congress and that the misrepresentations of his op- 
 ponents derive their greatest facilities from that source. We are desirous 
 that a fuller and more authoritative exposition of them should be made at 
 the earliest practicable moment, and that you should make it. The presenta- 
 tion of the proceedings of the New York Legislature upon the principal subjoot 
 under consideration, which on account of their source, and of ours being the 
 first legislative body that has come to his aid, will present a suitable occasion 
 for such exposition, and I come, at his instance, to entreat you to do him that 
 favor. Are you willing to make it, If I inform you of what the President 
 desires to have said? " 
 
 ' MS. yu, p. 15. 
 
730 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 " The administration has several friends in the Senate more competent for 
 the task than myself." 
 
 " We do not think so, and even if we did, we would for other reasons, prefer 
 that what is said should come from you." 
 
 " You wish to impose upon me a responsibility I would prefer to avoid. I 
 may misunderstand you and thus commit you against your will. There are 
 those who understand the subject better and would be less likely to do so." 
 [He paused a moment.] 
 
 " If I reduce all we want to have said to writing, will you then undertake to 
 say It? " 
 
 "Write and let me^see it." 
 
 " I will do it this very night and you shall have it early in the morning." 
 
 My promise was promptly perform.ed and I received by the serv- 
 ant who carried the package a verbal answer, that the matter would 
 be attended to. Shortly thereafter, I think the next day, he pre- 
 sented the New York resolutions and accompanied them by observa- 
 tions, which with the caution and fidelity he observed in all things, 
 were, with the addition of a few formal expressions, in substance an 
 almost a verbal recapitulation of the brief I had sent him. They 
 may be found in the Congressional Globe for the 23d Congress, page 
 136. He had not spoken ten minutes before Mr. Webster exchanged 
 his own, for a vacant chair near him and scarcely took his eyes from 
 him until he finished. Other prominent Senators of whom Mr. Clay 
 was one, also gathered round him and bestowed very unusual atten- 
 tion upon what fell from him. Webster replied instantly and gave 
 notice, at the close of his remarks, that he would call for farther con- 
 sideration of the New York resolutions on the morrow; which he 
 did, and thereupon made another vigorous effort in answer to Mr. 
 Wright's speech. He commenced his speech, singularly enough, with 
 the following remarks : 
 
 The observations [he said] of the gentleman from New York, he considered 
 as full of the most portentous import. He considered the declarations which 
 had been made by him as conveying the settled purpose of the administration 
 on the great questions which now agitated the public mind. 
 
 Mr. Wright rose to explain " he had," he said, " given his opinions 
 as an individual and he had no authority to express the views of the 
 administration." 
 
 Mr. Webster said " he perfectly well understood all the gentle- 
 man's disclaimers and demurrers, but it was from the station of the 
 gentleman and from his relations, that he had adopted the con- 
 clusion that every word spoken by the gentleman had been well con- 
 sidered, and the subject of deliberation with himself and others." 
 
 He appreciated at its true value the effect which Mr. Wright's 
 speech, on so imposing a subject as were the proceedings of the New 
 York legislature, was calculated to produce, in raising the cause of 
 the government in the estimation of the people and his ambition was 
 
AUTOSlOCffiAl'HY OF MAllTIK VAST BTTEEIS". VSl 
 
 highly excited to elevate equally that of the bank and its political 
 allies. Under the influence of such feelings, he addressed the Senate 
 on two days in succession and for several hours of each, and as the 
 newspapers truly reported, with unusual animation and as I felt at 
 the time, with unusual ability even for him. 
 
 But the reader would make a great mistake in assuming that Mr. 
 Webster regarded the obvious effectiveness of the proceedings of 
 the New York Legislature and of Mr. Wright's speech, with un- 
 mitigated regret. On the contrary, though he stood ready to do 
 what he could to render them inoperative, he yet looked upon their 
 occurrence as essentially facilitating the steps he was constantly 
 meditating to relieve himself and the conmiittee of which he was 
 chairman, from Mr. Clay's interdict against the introduction, by 
 them of a single substantive measure professedly designed to afford 
 the country relief from the evils under which they all pretended to 
 believe it was suffering, because of the removal of the deposits. 
 
 To that end, Mr. Webster suggested, in open Senate, to Mr. Clay 
 and Mr. Poindexter, the latter of whom had already introduced 
 some resolutions upon the subject, the propriety of referring the 
 New York resolutions to the Committee of Finance, with the reasons 
 of the Secretary of the Treasury for removing the deposits. To 
 this course Mr. Clay professed to have no objection, provided it did 
 not interrupt " the debate on his resolutions, but soon exhibited un- 
 mistakable signs of opposition to it. "The Committee," he said, 
 "had the President's message before them, and there was nothing 
 that prevented them from acting upon that." Mr. Webster replied, 
 "that the message was not the Secretary's reasons" but seeing in 
 what fell from Mr. Clay, an indication of the probable fate of his 
 motion, he added, that if the Secretary's reasons were allowed to 
 go to the Committee, the latter would not require to have possession 
 of them for more than a day, and concluded with the remark that 
 " if the paper was to go to the Committee, it was tiTrve it was there." 
 He finally promised to report the next morning, if the Senate would 
 refer the Secretary's reasons to the Committee. 
 
 Mr. Clay moved to lay the subject upon the table, and it was so 
 disposed of. 
 
 The next day Mr. Webster renewed his motion in a form to which 
 Mr. Clay could not and did not object — that was to refer the Secre- 
 tary's reasons with Mr. Clanfs second resolution to the Committee on 
 Finance, under a promise to the Senate that he would report them 
 back the next morning, and beyond all doubt under a promise to Mr. 
 Clay, negotiated through Poindexter, that a recommendation in 
 favor of the passage of Mr. Clay's second resolution, should be the 
 
 ° MS. VII, p. 20. 
 
732 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 only proposition the committee would report. In this way a docu- 
 ment, which according to all the rules of legislative propriety be- 
 longed to the committee on Finance from the beginning, was at 
 length entrusted to Mr. Webster as its chairman, for a brief period 
 and a specific purpose, under well guarded restrictions that it should 
 not be used in any way that would supersede the mode of proceed- 
 ing introduced by Mr. Clay at the commencement of the session, of 
 the end and object of which the reader has been informed. 
 
 On the following morning Mr. Webster made a report, which had 
 been long before prepared for a very different purpose, modified to 
 suit the qualified reference I have described. It was an elaborate and 
 I presume able paper, which took an hour and a half in the reading 
 and recommended the passage of Mr. Clay's resolution and nothing 
 else. As respects any influence or effect, it fell from the hands of its 
 author still-born. Six thousand copies of it were ordered to be 
 printed, that being the only action that was ever had upon it and the 
 debate in the Senate was resumed as it stood the day before. 
 
 The Legislature of his State finally came to Mr. Webster's assist- 
 ance, to enable him to relieve himself from the unpleasant position 
 into which he had been thrown by the reversal of the usual and only 
 regular course of legislative proceedings at the beginning, a position 
 which was becoming every day better understood on all sides, and 
 upon which he was not a little jeered by his political opponents. This, 
 it was thought, could only be done by the introduction, through this 
 agency, either as chairman of the proper conmiittee, or in his capacity 
 of Senator, of an appropriate and distinct proposition to relieve the 
 country, founded on principles consistent with the grounds so far con- 
 tended for by the opposition. 
 
 Such a movement appertained of right to the station in which Mr. 
 Clay had assisted in placing his rival, although he had from the 
 commencement of the session prevented him from making it. 
 
 The Congress had now advanced into the fourth month of its ses- 
 sion and had been already within a few days of three months debat- 
 ing the propriety of the removal of the deposits, without even a propo- 
 sition for their restoration before either body. The public mind was 
 evidently becoming restless under a proceeding, the false and ficti- 
 tious character of which, every day was making more and more ap- 
 parent. 
 
 The sagacious members of the Massachusetts Legislature saw that 
 the time had arrived when a proposition to put an end to the sham 
 fight about the deposits, and to present for decision the real issue, 
 the only one in which success could be of value to them, would be 
 received with favor by their friends. They therefore passed a set 
 of resolutions, in which, after paying due respect to the matters 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN. 733 
 
 and things upon which Congress had been all the winter engaged, 
 the necessity of a change of position was shadowed forth in a way 
 which was thought likely to give the least offense, and promised to 
 be the most effective. These resolutions were, on the 1st of March, 
 presented by their senior Senator, Mr. Silsbee and accompanied 
 by set speeches from him and his colleague, Mr. Webster, in which 
 all the threadbare subjects of the session were once more skillfully 
 re-hashed and served up for the benefit of the Senate and the public. 
 
 On the lYth of March, Mr. Webster, having tried motions of ref- 
 erence to the 'committee of Finance, as the means of arriving at a 
 proposition of that character in vain, gave notice that he would, on 
 the next day, move for leave to bring in a Bill "to re-charter the 
 bank of the United States." On the 18th he made the motion and 
 submitted, with preliminary remarks, the copy of a Bill, according 
 to which the charter would be extended as it stood for six years. 
 
 Whatever may have been Mr. Clay's thoughts in respect to this 
 movement, he understood too well the feelings of the hour, to evince 
 the slightest disrespect to the Massachusetts Legislature, out of 
 whose proceedings the proposition had sprung, or to interpose ob- 
 stacles to its prosecution by the Massachusetts Senators. He was 
 moreover quite sure that Mr. Webster's notice and Bill might safely 
 be left to the opposition it would receive from other quarters. 
 
 ,When Mr. Webster took his seat, Mr. Leigh of Virginia rose and 
 said, that the remarks of the Senator from Massachusetts required 
 that he should define his position. The Legislature of Virginia had, 
 he said, passed a resolution, denying the power of Congress to 
 establish a bank, he had accepted his appointment with the knowl- 
 edge that such were the wishes of his State, and with it the trust of 
 carrying them into effect, founded, as they were, upon an opinion in 
 which he fully concurred. 
 
 Mr. Wright followed Mr. Leigh, announced his desire to speak 
 on the subject and moved an adjournment which took place. The 
 question of leave came up every morning as unfinished business, 
 when it was farther discussed and again laid over. 
 
 Mr. Wright made a long and very able speech against the consti- 
 tutionality of the present, or any bank of the U. S. He was replied 
 to by Mr. Webster. Mr. Calhoun announced his wish to address 
 the Senate and as the day w-as far advanced, it adjourned on his 
 motion. The next day he spoke for an hour and a half against the 
 principles of the Bill, regarding it as being only a temporary expe- 
 dient, but in favor of a new bank upon the basis of the present one 
 and prohibiting the issuing of notes under $10, and the payment of 
 Government dues in any notes of banks under the denomination of 
 $5. Mr. Benton followed Mr. Calhoun, whom he complimented for 
 
734 AMEKICASr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 having restored the debate to the elevation that belonged to the 
 Senate, in a speech of great length and power, against the present 
 or any other national bank. Mr. White of Tennessee succeeded to 
 the floor and made another two days speech against the constitu- 
 tionality and expediency of a national bank. He finished on the 
 25th of March, a week after the debate had commenced. When Mr. 
 White concluded, Mr. Webster rose and, after complaining of the 
 lengthened debate which had arisen on his motion, a thing which 
 he believed had never occurred before, moved to lay his own motion 
 on the table. On that motion, Mr. Forsyth, to mark the satisfaction 
 which he and his friends had derived from the introduction of Mr. 
 Webster's notice, by which the veil was rent in twain and the real 
 matter in controversy, brought before the Senate and promulgated 
 to the country, and probably to worry Webster, called for the ayes 
 and noes. Mr. Webster avowed it to be his intention to call it up 
 on a future day, but he never did so, being too happy to be relieved 
 from the odium he had incurred by putting his party in a false posi- 
 tion. But whilst thus yielding to their mandate, he could not 
 forego playing the part of the dog in the manger, by a fling, as 
 pointed as the habitual dread in which he stood of Mr. Clay would 
 admit, at the only proposition for relief then before the Senate. 
 
 In his judgment [he said] any relief for the present distress of the country, 
 must be carried through Congress by the action of public opinion out of doors. 
 Such was the distracted state of the community, that no relief could be expected, 
 'till public sentiment gave direction to some specific measures, and with this 
 object he had moved for leave to introduce the Bill, with a view to action 
 upon it in due season hereafter. 
 
 Mr. Clay did not, in any stage of these proceedings open his lips 
 upon the subject, farther than to say, by way of reminder, that he 
 "had a special order, long locked up in the debates of the Senate, 
 and to express his wish that another week would bring it to a close." 
 And throughout the residue of the struggle, Mr. Webster appeared 
 content to regard himself so far as it related to the introduction of 
 substantive provisions for redress, a functus officio. 
 
 There have been brief periods, when the ° personal relations of 
 Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were to all appearance cordial and to a 
 certain extent, of a confidential character. Such was the case 
 through a considerable portion of Mr. Adams' administration, but 
 even then, as we have seen, they soon suffered a bitter change. With 
 those rare and limited exceptions, the description I have here given 
 of their acts and feelings presents, I cannot but think, a fair and 
 truthful view of their political and personal relations, between the 
 time of Mr. Clay's first accession to the Federal Republican party 
 
 ' MS. VII, p. 26. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN" VAN" BUEEN. 735 
 
 and that of his death. This, few well informed members of that 
 party would consider themselves at liberty to controvert. The per- 
 petual anxieties attending this state of things and the unceasing 
 efforts of the prominent supporters of the party to which they be- 
 longed to mitigate the obstacles to success arising from it, were 
 matters of notoriety. There were differences in their disposition and 
 temperaments, which made harmonious action between them, for any 
 length of time, or even for a short period under trying circum- 
 stances extremely difficult. I wjll not attempt to particularise those 
 differences, nor can it be necessary to say, that in my estimation they 
 reflect the greater credit on Mr. Clay. But there was an element of 
 discord more potent than any>that arose from such sources. Of 
 those who now composed the political party, to which they then be- 
 longed, the greatest proportion, by far, probably nearly seven tenths, 
 had been members of that in which Mr. Webster had been reared, to 
 which he had always belonged and in which he had become a leader, 
 whilst the number of the recruits, Mr. Clay had been able to carry 
 with him, from that in which he had been educated, and by which 
 he too had been highly honored, was comparatively small. 
 
 Mr. Webster had a right to think that his talents were, in some 
 respects superior, and in all, at least, equal to those of Mr. Clay. 
 The latter, however, soon acquired a popularity and influence in the 
 ranks of their common party, which eclipsed his own, notwithstand- 
 ing what he naturally regarded as his superior advantages. It was 
 not in human nature that he could ever become perfectly reconciled 
 to this preference, even if his dispositions had been more magnani- 
 mous and placable than they were. But the exceptional occurrences 
 of hearty concurrence in aims and councils, to which I alluded, inter- 
 posed from time to time, disqualifying him from resisting the supe- 
 rior influence of Clay in the movements of their party, otherwise than 
 by stealth, ^nd hence his side intrigues to check the advance of the 
 latter, constantly stimulated by the consciousness of the true char- 
 acter of the relations between them. 
 
 It would not be necessary to go beyond the influences resulting 
 from these considerations, more especially when viewed in connection 
 with the suspicions imbibed by Mr. Clay, during the redfess, for ex- 
 planations of the character I have ascribed to the relations that 
 existed between those gentlemen during the panic session ; but there 
 were not wanting other and not less efficient stimulants to unfriendly 
 action on that occasion. The Whig party, composed for the most 
 part of the descendants of men who had never failed to overrate the 
 political influence of a monied interest like that of the National 
 Bank, and of such appeals to the self interest and fears of the electors, 
 as were contemplated, did not permit themselves to doubt of their 
 
736 AMEEICAW HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATIOIT. 
 
 success in discrediting the administration of President Jackson, so 
 far at least as to enable them to control the election of his successor. 
 The public man who acted the most efficient part in the struggles to 
 that end, would be, in the nature of things and according to the 
 course of parties, their choice for the succession. 
 
 Both Clay and Webster so understood the matter, and the former 
 was determined that the latter should not be that man. 
 
 ^ No farther attempt was made to change either the shape of the 
 question or the mode of treating it which h^-d from the beginning 
 been under Mr. Clay's exclusive control. The debate was accord- 
 ingly resumed at the point where it stood when Mr. Webster's efforts 
 to accomplish those changes commenced, and that was done with 
 the intention, not expressed, but well understood, that things should 
 go on as they had gone, until Mr. Clay should decide that the time 
 had arrived for the introduction of a more definite proposition. 
 
 We return therefore to our description of the manner in which 
 the labors of panic making — ^the great business of the session — ^the 
 chief feature in the plan, by which the Government was to be over- 
 awed — devised in Mr. Biddle's closet and entered upon by him before 
 the meeting of Congress were carried on. 
 
 The author of every proposition for redress that had been, or was 
 thereafter to be, introduced, Mr. Clay, went also beyond any of his 
 coadjutors in the variety and violence of the denunciations which 
 he hurled, from his place on the floor of the Senate, at the President 
 and his constitutional advisers, for the course they had pursued in 
 the matters which formed the burthen of his complaints. 
 
 Many of the memorials were sent to him for presentation, and 
 scarce a day passed, for months, in which his tall and erect figure 
 was not to be seen, towering above his fellow Senators, busiest among 
 the busy in scattering seeds of discord and alarm throughout the 
 land. 
 
 It would fill a volume to repeat and describe what he said and 
 did during those days of ceaseless agitation. He did not confine his 
 observations nor his propositions to the particular measure under dis- 
 cussion, but introduced into it, or by the side of it, every act or 
 matter, which he thought might aid in the accomplishment of his 
 great design, that of alarming and stultifying the public mind. 
 Mr. Clay's situation was the more harrassing as he was knowingly 
 warring against truth, for he understood the case in all its bearings, 
 having largely assisted in its preparation and was thus worse off 
 than his unfortunate dupes, many of whom, in their clamor against 
 the Government gave utterance to their real convictions. A less 
 indomitable spirit would have quailed under the constant and severe 
 
 > From this point to the end the transcript has been corrected by Van Buren. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN" VAK BUEEN". 737 
 
 recoils to which he was exposed but he had steeled himself equally 
 against the rebukes of others and his own reproach. 
 
 We can notice only a few of his efforts to give the stamp and 
 effect of reality to a fictitious case, efforts as unresting, as toilsomej 
 and as fruitless as those of the unhappy Sysyphus of the classic 
 fable. 
 
 Whilst yet scarcely warm in his official seat and before he was 
 ready to issue his proclamation of outlawry against the old hero of 
 the White House, he launched at him a stinging bolt in the shape 
 of a Senatorial call for a copy of the paper he had read to his 
 Cabinet containing his reasons for wishing to remove the deposits. 
 Mr. Clay could not have thought that he had a constitutional right 
 to make this call, and knew that it would not be complied with, but 
 it might he thought, irritate an inflammable temper and lead to the 
 exhibition of some act of disrespect towards the Senate — a branch 
 of the Executive [Legislative] department which would justify or 
 excuse the vehement denunciation with which he was prepared to 
 assault the President. The latter, however, understood a great deal 
 better than his enemies supposed, when it might be useful to give 
 free vent to his feelings, and when it was wisest to qualify and sup- 
 press them. He sent to the Senate a brief respectful message, assign- 
 ing reasons for refusing to comply with its request — reasons, the 
 conclusiveness of which were but feebly controverted, even by the 
 author of the call, and thus placed on its files a document which 
 afforded to his friends a Ratifying contrast between the course he 
 thought it proper to adopt in his intercourse with another branch 
 of the departments of the Government, at the head of which he had 
 been placed by the people, and that of the Senate, on a subsequent 
 occasion towards himself. The matter was almost immediately 
 dropped in the Senate. If that body had been denied what was 
 due to it under the constitution, it would not have submitted so 
 readily and quietly to the response of the President. 
 
 Mr. Clay entered the Senate but a few mornings afterwards 
 with a woe-begone countenance, which he was very capable of as- 
 suming, and instantly made the following communication to that 
 body, which I give in the words of the reporter : 
 
 Mr. Clay said he had just heard through the public prints that one of the 
 incorporated banks of Maryland, situate in Baltimore, had failed. He had 
 also heard that in consequence of a supposed connexion between that bank 
 and the Union bank of Maryland, one of the banks selected by the Secretary 
 of the Treasury as a depository of the public money in that city, a great 
 run was made upon that selected bank yesterday, for specie. He had been 
 informed that the Secretary of the Treasury was a stockholder to some extent, 
 he did not know how much, in the Union bank, and there might be great danger 
 to the public moneys now on deposit there. He hoped it would turn out the 
 127483°— VOL a— 20 47 
 
738 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Union bank was safe, and that the Secretary was not a stockholder to such, 
 an amount that his interest could be supposed to have induced him to 
 select that bank as a depository of the public money. He had also heard 
 that in apprehension of a run on the Union bank, a treasury draft had been 
 issued in its favor for $150,000 and that it was the duty of the Senate to 
 look into it. He ° had therefore prepared the following resolution, which 
 he hoped no gentleman would object to Its being adopted immediately. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to report to 
 the Senate, what amount of public money is now on deposit in the Union 
 bank of Maryland: On what account it was deposited, and whether any 
 treasury drafts, contingent or other, have been, during the month of March, 
 1834, furnished to the said bank, to enable it to meet any demands which 
 might be made upon It. 
 
 Mr. Fiorsyth, who was never silent when the character of his 
 friend was assailed, said : 
 
 If the gentleman had introduced the resolution without any remarks, he could 
 have had no objection to it. But after what had been said by the gentleman, 
 he thought we ought to have some time to see the resolution. It was said 
 that the Secretary of the Treasury was a stockholder in the Union bank — he 
 knew nothing to what extent. But he had no hesitation in saying that the 
 interest of the Secretary, whatever it might be, had not the slightest effect 
 on him in selecting the bank as one of the public depositories. 
 
 The resolution was passed when it came up in its order. ^ 
 The dullest imagination would not find it difficult to appreciate 
 the injurious effects which such an announcement — coming from 
 such a man — delivered in such a place and at such an exciting 
 period, ^was almost certain to have upon not only the interests, but 
 the safety even of the bank which was thus assailed, and the sus- 
 picion and distrust it was calculated to cast upon the character of 
 one of the purest men in the country, then but just entered upon 
 the duties of a highly responsible office and upon a great public 
 measure, then in its earliest stage, and as yet unfortified by the 
 favorable judgment of the People — now happily, justified and ap- 
 plauded by every honest heart, of whatever political prepossessions. 
 If Mr. Clay had stopped with what he had read in the papers, he 
 would not have been blamed, for he would but have repeated what 
 was already before the public and what was of no consequence to 
 any save the bank reported to have failed and its dealers, but the 
 disturbing matters he thus published, were on mere hearsay author- 
 ity; he had heard this alarming thing — ^been informed of that and 
 had again heard of another ! These hearsays and surmises, so likely 
 to be injurious to the fair fame of Mr. Taney — to revive the run 
 upon the Union banlc, if it had already commenced — to excite the 
 apprehension of those who held its paper and of all who might be 
 interested in the safety of the public funds and to increase the gen- 
 
 "■ MS. VII, p. 30. 
 
 1 March 31, 1834. Begister of Debates, X, pt. 1, 1140-41 and 1206. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MABTIK VAIST BUEEN. 789 
 
 eral alarm, were fulminated from the Senate chamber to work their 
 mischievous effects until they should be overtaken by the compara- 
 tively tardy movement of official refutation. 
 
 Secretary Taney delayed only long enough to enable him to write 
 to the President of the bank to obtain a statement of his own stock 
 transactions which he transmitted as soon as received to the Senate, 
 with a communication, in which he assumed, as he was bound to do, 
 that the enquiry in regard to the stock he held in the bank, pointed 
 to the motives by which he-had been influenced in his official acts, 
 and therefore demanded at his hands the fullest disclosure of them. 
 He stated that the report that had reached Mr. Clay's ears " that a 
 treasury draft had been issued to the Union bank, to enable it to meet 
 any demands that might be made upon it " was utterly groundless — 
 that no " Treasury drafts, contingent, or otherwise, were furnished 
 to the Union bank of Maryland, during the month of March 1834," 
 and that no Treasury draft, or draft of any description contingent, 
 or otherwise, had ever been furnished to the bank of Maryland, since 
 he came into office. Mr. Taney's letter was, on Mr. Clay's motion, 
 ordered to be printed and referred to the Committee on Finance, on 
 whose files it slept the sleep of death, by the side of hundreds, not 
 to say thousands of distress memorials, which had also been referred 
 to it. 
 
 Mr. Clay never again alluded to the subject, not even when Mr. 
 Taney's nomination, as Secretary of the Treasury was considered and 
 rejected by the Senate, nor was there, I believe, a single man, how- 
 ever deeply steeped in party politics, not excepting Mr. Clay himself, 
 who harbored a doubt of the entire purity of his [Mr. Taney] mo- 
 tives and acts in the whole matter. 
 
 Not content with the daily discussions on his general resolutions, 
 denouncing the President for the removal of the deposits and the 
 separate speeches of the Senators on the presentation of each 
 memorial, Mr. Clay introduced a resolution instructing the Com- 
 mittee on Finance to enquire and report on the propriety of giving 
 relief by extending the time of payment upon revenue bonds. This 
 resolution was kept before the Senate for more than a month, and 
 made the subject of protracted debate. There were thus provided 
 three" daily channels for the dissemination of panic — viz : the presen- 
 tation of distress memorials, and the proceedings of public meetings, 
 Mr. Clay's general resolutions and his proposition in relation to 
 revenue bonds, on each of which the speeches of Senators were all 
 composed of like materials and directed to the same points — ^the 
 prevalence of unexampled distress and the proper remedy. There 
 was not an idea suggested, or circumstance referred to, that was 
 not equally applicable in either debate, a.nd that was not indis- 
 
740 AMEEICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION'. 
 
 criminately used in all. But the sagacious parliamentarian who 
 introduced two of the subjects and largely participated in the organ- 
 ization of the other, was aware of the necessity of relieving the 
 body, and more especially the public mind from the tedium of long 
 continued debates in a single form and therefore supplied them 
 both with a constant change of dishes, though the food was in all 
 cases the same. After the discussions on the latter resolution had 
 already been of long continuance, it occurred to one of the Sena- 
 tors, friendly to the administration, to enquire of the Chair whether 
 the indulgence proposed to be extended, had been asked for by the 
 merchants, and on being informed that no petition, or applications 
 to that effect had been made by them, the enquiring Senator ob- 
 jected further to the resolution, the manifest impropriety of thrust* 
 ing upon so intelligent and shrewd a class of the public debtors, 
 an indulgence of which they had not sufficiently felt the necessity, 
 to give themselves the trouble of applying for it, and that too, at a 
 time when the predictions of, and lam.entations over the speedy 
 bankruptcy of the national treasury were among the daily echoes 
 of the Senate Chamber. 
 
 The opposition to the resolution, thus strengthened, was soon in 
 sufficient force to lay it upon the table and from which, Mr. Clay, 
 regarding it as having contributed its share towards the creation of 
 panic, made no attempt to raise it. 
 
 Either forgetting that Mr. Webster had some time before sub- 
 mitted a resolution instructing his Committee to " enquire into the 
 probable effect of the present state of commercial affairs on the 
 revenue of the United States," or not convinced,_as he ought to have 
 been, by Webster's subsequent and ominous silence upon the subject, 
 that the business of panic making would derive no aid from that 
 source, Mr. Clay offered resolutions calling upon the Secretary of 
 the Treasury to report the amount of duties received and accrued on 
 foreign imports during the 1st quarter of 1834, shewing the com- 
 parative amount between that quarter and the corresponding one 
 in 1833, and also whether any thing had occurred since his annual 
 report to change his opinion in respect to the probable revenue, from 
 imports for 1834. 
 
 The friends of the administration, having had their attention called 
 to the subject by Mr. Webster's movement, had possessed themselves 
 of the true state of the case, and dispensed with the rule requiring 
 two readings and on different days of said resolutions, allowing it 
 to pass forthwith. The Secretary's report shewed an excess of 
 almost ten millions of imports during the first half of 1834, and an 
 excess also of more than a million and a half over his own estimate 
 of the accruing revenue for the same period. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP MARTIN VAK BUREH. Y41 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that Mr. Clay, after this to him un- 
 palatable disclosure was made, became as silent upon the subject as 
 Mr. Webster. Both were not only disappointed, but discomfited 
 by the result of their investigations, with the difference, that the lat- 
 ter had been the most cautious in his movements and had thereby ex- 
 posed himself to less mortification. 
 
 At another time we find Mr. Clay plunged with his usual im- 
 petuosity in an exciting debate with the New York Senators, Silas 
 Wright and Nathaniel P. Talmadge, (the latter, Mr. Clay's subse- 
 quent ally, but then in a state of comparative innocence) in respect 
 to the solidity of the " New York Safety fund system," upon which 
 he, aided by Mr. Webster, had made an angry and well prepared 
 assault. Here we have another and an instructive illustration of the 
 true character of their complaints in regard to the destruction of the 
 confidence of the people in the pecuniary concerns of the Coimtry 
 and of the propositions for their relief. I have briefly referred to 
 this system before, having aided in its construction and assumed the 
 principal responsibility for its adoption. It had, to the day of this 
 assault upon it, supplied the largest and most commercial state of 
 the Confederacy with a paper currency, on which her people had not 
 lost a single dollar and at that moment possessed their fullest con- 
 fidence, as it would in all likelihood have continued to do to the pres- 
 ent time, if the political power of the State had not unhappily fallen 
 into the hands of a class of men who used it to overturn the financial 
 and economical systems, devised and matured by those modest and 
 unpretending, but able public servants and "benefactors, Wright, 
 Hoffman, Flagg, and their associates, under the influence of which 
 the State, in their day, signally prospered. 
 
 The safety fund system was therefore naturally an eye sore to the 
 panic makers, presenting a spot, and that not a small one, either 
 in its extent or in the amount of business afforded by its influence, 
 whose condition furnished a standing refutation, practical and con- 
 clusive, of the assumption of a general derangement of the currency, 
 so confidently advanced by the advocates of the bank ; and the talents 
 and industry of Clay and Webster were for that reason actively di- 
 rected to its prostration. Hence their labored efforts to impair the 
 confidence which the public at large, and the people of New York in 
 particular, had in its stability, and to inspire them with apprehen- 
 sions that it was about to be involved in the wreck of similar insti- 
 tutions ; which the Bank of the United States aimed to bring about 
 and for which, the removal of the deposits was to be held responsible. 
 
 My friend, Mr. Forsyth, happily and truly characterised that 
 inflammatory and unprofitable debate, when he said at its close that 
 " the gentlemen from New York, if they had taken his advice, 
 
 ° MS. VII, p. 35. 
 
742 AMEBICAH" HISTOEICAX, ASSOCIATION. 
 
 might have saved themselves a great deal of trouble. They could 
 not recommend the Safety Fund System to those who assailed it — 
 be it good, or bad. It came from New York." 
 
 That the excitement which was kept up during the whole of a 
 session of Congress, to which the people, almost with one accord, 
 attached the appellation of the " Panic Session " by which it has, 
 as I have said, ever since been distinguished — was not the conse- 
 quence of real grievances felt by the great body of the people, but 
 the result of factious and extraneous means purposely devised to 
 produce it, was clearly seen in all the movements of its authors — 
 especially in these shifts to which Mr. Clay, the generalissimo of 
 their operations, was driven, to provide adequate subjects for suc- 
 cessful agitation. 
 
 The constitution directs, in express terms, that the officers of the 
 Federal Government shall be appointed by the President, but is 
 silent in regard to the authority by which they may be removed. 
 A question was raised at the commencement of the Government, 
 upon the latter point, was elaborately discussed, and as was sup- 
 posed, was finally decided by the first Congress, in favor of the 
 power of removal by the President. That construction had since 
 been generally acquiesced in, and had been acted upon, without 
 intermission, by every President, not excepting Mr. Adams, at 
 the head of whose Cabinet stood Mr. Clay. The necessities of his 
 present position drove the latter to attempt to galvanize into new 
 life that long settled question, and to that end he offered, with great 
 solemnity, a series of resolutions,^ denying the power and denounc- 
 ing its exercise, which, after being kept before the Senate for a 
 month, and used for the purpose for which they were introduced — 
 that of agitation — were allowed to lie on the table, on which slum- 
 bered, without risk of being disturbed, so many similar propositions, 
 introduced only for effect, without an idea on the part of their 
 authors of pressing them to successful efforts. 
 
 Among his "great guns" for the campaign, Mr. Clay counted 
 with confidence on the effects of the proceedings he designed and 
 adopted in regard to his Bill for the distribution of the proceeds 
 of the public lands among the States, which had been passed at the 
 very close of the previous session, having been kept back with a 
 view to its rejection by the President. The Bill was sent to the 
 Executive at so late an hour as to make it absolutely impossible to 
 read and consider its numerous provisions ;^ a proceeding which left 
 him no other proper course than to omit to return it at that session 
 to the House in which it had originated, and by which omission, the 
 
 1 Four resolutions on the removal of public oflScers, Mar. 7, 1834. 
 
 ' A bill to appropriate for a limited time, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands 
 etc. It was sent to the President for signature on the evening of Saturday, March 2 
 1833. 
 
AtTTOBIOGBAPHY OF MAKTIK VAN BUREK. 743 
 
 Bill would, from that cause alone, fail to become a law. But always 
 anxious to have his constituents know and understand the principles 
 upon which he acted, and on this occasion particularly desirous " to 
 reason the matter out before the people," he sent the Bill to the 
 Senate at their ensuing session, with a message ^ informing them of 
 his inability to consider it before the close of the last session on 
 account of the lateness of the time when it was received by him, but 
 giving his reasons at large, why he could not approve it. 
 
 It was in a reply to this document upon a subject of such vast in- 
 terest, that Mr. Clay thought he could, especially in the then excited 
 state of the public mind, produce a great sensation. To that end 
 he introduced^ a new Bill, of precisely the same character, had it 
 referred to the committee on the public lands, of which he was a 
 member, where it was retained some five months before he made his 
 intended reply to the argument of the President, in the shape of a 
 report from the Committee. I doubt whether he ever took more 
 pains with a public document than he bestowed on this, or ever 
 cherished loftier anticipations of the success of any paper or speech 
 of which he was the author. My friend Mr. Wright once entertained 
 me with a description of a scene that transpired in the course of its 
 preparation, which I can see no objection to my repeating here. He 
 and Mr. John M. Clayton, Senator from Deleware, though differing 
 widely in their political views and associations, formed for each other 
 strong personal attachments, and often amused themselves by talk- 
 ing without reserve of occurrences that arose behind the scenes, in 
 their respective political camps, confident as they both were, that no 
 improper use would be made of the confidential communications in 
 which they indulged themselves. On speaking to Mr. Clayton of 
 Mr. Clay's report, shortly after it had been made, Mr. Wright ob- 
 served, with natural surprise, that the subject, in itself quite un- 
 amusing, excited much merriment in his friend, which the latter 
 made no effort to control, but on the contrary proceeded at once to 
 explain. Mr. Clay, he said, when he had completed his report, sum- 
 moned Watkins Leigh, of Virginia, Eobert Letcher a representative 
 from Kentucky, an old and particular friend, and himself to his 
 room, to hear it read and to give their opinions upon its contents. 
 They attended at the appointed time and found Mr. Clay with the 
 voluminous document, which required two hours in the reading, 
 before him. It was in the month of May, but the evenings were yet 
 cool, and their host had directed the materials for a good wood fire 
 to be placed on the andirons, and after lighting it himself, he took 
 his seat, put on his spectacles and surrounded by his three friends, 
 commenced reading the report. They were much pleased with the 
 
 1 December 4, 1833. ^ December 10, 1833. 
 
744 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOK. 
 
 paper, as far as they heard the reading, and so expressed themselves, 
 which together with the interest he himself felt in it, excited Mr. 
 Clay considerably and he read on with increasing animation. But 
 having all dined out, where the wines had met their approval and 
 the fire becoming a rousing one — ^the three counsellors soon yielded 
 to the genial warmth of the room, and their attention gradually 
 slackened until they successively fell into a sound sleep. This must 
 have been their state for several minutes before Mr. Clay's attention 
 was directed to their condition by Letcher's snoring. Clayton was 
 himself first aroused by the loud and angry tones of Mr. Clay and 
 found the latter standing in the middle of the room swearing at 
 Letcher, who was in the act of making his escape from it, and whom 
 he vehemently upbraided with coming to him along with the others, 
 all in a state of intoxication. "Old Jackson himself " said Clayton - 
 describing the scene, "was never in a greater passion, nor ever 
 stormed louder." 
 
 The report was able, and if it had been, in one respect, more skill- 
 fully constructed, would have been better calculated to produce the 
 designed effect. Its great error consisted in the prominence it gave 
 to the retention of the BiU at the preceding session, as a grievous 
 fault on the part of the President. This charge was so palpably 
 unjust, and the object in sending it to him during the expiring hours 
 of the session, so obvious, as to shock all unprejudiced minds and to 
 prevent them from doing justice to the report in other respects. 
 
 Mr. Forsyth, ever prompt to seize the advantage offered by such 
 errors, pressed this objection with decided effect on the coming in of 
 the report, and was ably seconded, in this movement, by Mr. King,^ 
 of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. Clay's co-adjutors in the Senate, participating fully in his 
 extreme views, all contributed their aid in blowing the trumpet of 
 distrust and alarm. Every matter that could excite, or revive, or 
 keep alive prejudices and resentments against the old chief at the 
 head of the Government, was pressed into service. Mr. Calhoun 
 brought in a bill to repeal the " Force Bill " of the previous session, 
 a measure, that at the time of its passage, ptoduced intense excite- 
 ment in South Carolina, without the slightest intention of even try- 
 ing to pass it, as his confederates in the great object of the session, 
 would upon the exhibition of such a design, have been obliged to 
 unite with the friends of the administration to prevent its passage, 
 but understanding his motive, they so winked at his endeavors to 
 resuscitate the public interest in the subject and to use it as a " raw 
 head and bloody bones " with which to keep alive alarms and resent- 
 ments which were in danger of becoming obsolete. 
 
 1 William R. King. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIN VAK BTJEEN. V45 
 
 Mr. Ewing/ of Ohio, a most indefatigable agitator, possessed of 
 highly respectable talents, and capable of almost any extent of phy- 
 sical indurance, was made chairman of the Committee on Post Offices. 
 The overhauling of this department had, from the beginning, been 
 regarded by Mr. Clay as a rich mine. He had been brought up with 
 Major Barry, who had unhappily been placed at its head, and 
 knew him to be an honest man, of kind and generous disposition; 
 but illy qualified to resist the importunity of that class, which is 
 always to be found besieging the Treasury, and many of whom, at 
 the time of which we write, clung to the skirts of-such men as Col. 
 Richard M. Johnson and the Postmaster General. It was equally 
 well understood that the gallant Colonel, though among the bravest 
 of the brave and patriotic and honest, was also, to a great extent, 
 subject to the infirmity which disqualified Major Barry for such a 
 post as he filled, and was not more to be relied upon to check the 
 cupidity of his friends. These were, most of them, Kentucky people, 
 whom Mr. Clay knew as the saying is, "like a book." It was to the 
 short comings of that department, therefore, more than any other, 
 that he looked for essential aid, in the " work he had undertaken, and 
 his friend Ewing pursued the Postmaster General with a vengeance. 
 Certainly no department of the Government had ever before been 
 subject to so severe an ordeal, and it is equally certain that the ad- 
 ministration was more damaged by the operations of that branch of 
 the Government than by that of all the others. Many faults had 
 doubtless been committed, not a' few petty larcenies had escaped 
 the notice of its chief, and its general administration had been far 
 less thrifty and methodical than it ought to have been, but I be- 
 lieve I do not greatly err when I say that Major Barry left it with- 
 out any serious impeachment of his character as an honest and hon- 
 orable man, in the estimation even of his political enemies, and he 
 hg-d no other. 
 
 Mr. Poindexter, one of the Senators from Mississippi, a man who 
 was never so much in his element as when surrounded by public ex- 
 citment aroused to its highest point, and who possessed a talent for 
 raising it not excelled by any of his contemporaries, was placed at 
 the head of the Committee on public lands. Endowed with abilities, 
 which were in my judgment, far superior to those which even his 
 friends conceded to him, and with an eager disposition for mischief, 
 he embarked in the business of panic making with his whole soul ; 
 and by his incessant exhibition of charges of frauds in the sales of 
 the public lands, and of other enormities committed by President 
 Jackson's appointees, threw the whole western Country into a state 
 
 '■ Thomas Ewing. 2 MS. VII, p. 40. 
 
Y46 AMERICAIT HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir, 
 
 of excitement more intense and more disturbing than the wire-pullers 
 in those regions were able to produce by all their clamor and misrep- 
 resentation about the removal of the deposits. 
 
 Numerous other panic enterprises, of the same character, were set 
 on foot by these leading alarmists in the Senate and their zealous, 
 and, in some instances, scarcely less able co-adjutors [outside], during 
 this memorable session, which I have not room to notice. These ef- 
 forts were greatly aided by those portions of the public press which 
 made the cause of the Bank their own, constituting at least three 
 fourths of those potent instruments of power and embracing with 
 scarcely a single exception, every paper devoted to the support of that 
 great political organization then called the Federal Republican 
 party; besides several [papers] of considerable prominence and 
 supposed influence, which had advocated the election of General 
 Jackson, and were friendly to his administration at its commence- 
 ment, but had been drawn into the support of the bank and sub- 
 sequently into the opposition ranks, by the arts and appliances of 
 that formidable institution. It would not be possible, in a work 
 like this, to give anything like a general selection even from their 
 articles to shew the false and exaggerated views of the condition of 
 the country and the conduct of the administration in respect to 
 them, with which they sought to poison the public mind. An octavo 
 volume would not suffice to do so. Nothing could serve half so well, 
 as such an exhibition, if it were practicable, to illustrate the melan- 
 choly extent to which the credulity of partisan prejudices may, at 
 greatly excited periods, be played upon by artful and designing 
 men, in the possession of such means. 
 
 Let the following extracts, taken from a publication frequently 
 referred to in this work, and which, as it was designed as a per- 
 manent record of public events, assumed a degree of gravity and 
 sobriety not common to its fellow laborers in the political vineyard ; 
 and was less gross, if not less bitter, in its denunciations of the Gov- 
 ernment, serve as a reduced type of the assaults to which the Presi- 
 dent and his administration were exposed from those quarters: 
 
 Many rumors are afloat. One says, that certain draughts of the United 
 States (not of the bank of the United States,) have been dishonoured at 
 London, and returned — another, that about two millions of the stocks of a 
 certain state, which were (lately) at a high advance in England, have been 
 sent back, because of the wreck of confidence in American funds, and that 
 the bills drawn on the anticipated sale of these stocks have come back pro- 
 tested — and a third, that the new deposit banks are about to be hardly pressed 
 to meet the demands of " the government " — ^with many fears of disasters in 
 money affairs, whether respecting corporate bodies or private individuals. We 
 are not swift to give common reports — ^but this is a time of high feeling and 
 extraordinary excitenfent ; and, while we would not increase that excitement 
 by any use of artificial means, we feel it a matter of duty to put our friends 
 on their guard, at this season of alarm to men in business, though all reason- 
 
AUTOBIOGfiAPHY OE" MAKTIiT VAN" BtTEEK. " 14:1 
 
 ably prudent persons ought to have stood " at ease " and employment, with 
 high wages, abounding for working men. If the keeping of the wholesomeness 
 of the currency has been violently transferred to stock-gamblers and money- 
 shavers, through ignorance of its nature, or from any other cause, the fault 
 does not rest with us — nor shall we remain neutral, and quietly suffer our 
 part in the common distress or ruin that seems to impend. 
 
 Confidence in American stocks has been mightily shaken in Europe, and the 
 " hurrah " of the multitude will not relieve us for the want of credit there. As 
 a single instance out of many before us, we may observe, that one of our sub- 
 scribers, in this city, has received by the last packet ship from Liverpool, a let- 
 ter from his correspondent, an intelligent Scottish farmer, in which he directs 
 that all his funds in the United States be collected from the south and west, 
 where they are now employed, and invested as safely as possible in Baltimore, 
 under the im'mediate care of his friend — giving as a reason for the change or- 
 dered, the clamor raised by " the government " against the United States bank, 
 which would force it to curtail its accommodations to the Country, and create 
 great distress in the community, by unsettling the currency. 
 
 The writer of the letter above alluded to resided a good many years in the 
 United States and transacted a large business — on returning home he left be- 
 hind him no small amount of funds which he thought happily invested, and 
 without a desire to disturb them ; but at 4,000 miles distance, he has seen ap- 
 proaching events as we saw them, and peremptorily ordered that all his funds 
 shall be concentrated in the charge of his friend, and so deposited that they 
 may be at his own sure disposal, when called for. He feels that our hitherto 
 unrivalled currency can not be longer relied on, and will probably withdraw 
 his funds. He had, perhaps, just seen the paper " read to the Cabinet " in the 
 Eegister, (which is received by him) and hence the decision that he has made. 
 
 But neither the excitement, nor the pressure, has yet nearly reached the ex- 
 tent to which both 'will proceed. Every day adds failure to failure, misery to 
 misery, and reduces the means of the most solvent persons. Many men, as yet, 
 pay their deits J)y exhausting their fortunes, in sacrifices to preserve their 
 credit! A member of the legislature of Massachusetts lately said in his place 
 that $2,500,000 had been paid, in that State, for extra interests since the re- 
 moval of the deposits. We think that this is less than the truth, in a commu- 
 nity so eminently commercial as the State named. It is our opinion, derived 
 from several conversations with persons who ought to know, that the daily 
 amount of savings in Baltimore amounts to $100,000. 
 
 With articles like these, almost wholly unfounded in their mate- 
 rial assumptions and suggestions, was the country literally flooded 
 throughout the panic session. 
 
 The extent to which the country was thus alarmed, her public 
 counsels distracted, and her business paralyzed will, even at this day 
 of indifference to the signs of the times, however ominous of evil, 
 be scarcely credited, however well established.^ 
 
 The Senate as a body and the House of Eepresentatives as far as 
 the power of the Minority extended, having been converted into 
 laboratories for the construction of panic cries the best adapted to 
 foster and continue the prevailing alarm — the fruits of their labors, 
 were, after they had been used in panic speeches there, re-hashed by 
 their friends in the State legislatures and other public bodies, and 
 
 * This portion of the autobiography was written in the year 1860. 
 
'r48 AMEEICAN historical ASSOCIAflOlif. 
 
 spread far and wide through a devoted press, and finally returned 
 to the place from whence they came, in the various shapes of dis- 
 tress memorials, the inflammatory proceedings of public meetings, 
 backed, as has been stated, by distress committees from all parts of 
 the country, bringing tidings of the resentments of the people, and 
 fiUitig the ears of members with jeremiads of present distress and 
 coming war. 
 
 The denouement of this conspiracy against the supremacy of the 
 popular will and the independent action of its legitimate representa- 
 tives had fortunately to be disclosed in the presence of the friends 
 of the administration in the two Houses, constituting a majority of 
 the popular branch, and nearly a moiety of the Senate, and contain- 
 ing in their ranks as noble spirits as ever before graced a popular 
 cause, by whom the whole scheme was thoroughly understood and of 
 course denounced with unsparing severity. These denunciations, 
 and the criminations and recriminations to which they gave rise, 
 produced on both sides the most angry feelings, and scarcely a day 
 passed, for three successive months without the exhibition of a war 
 of words between individual members, some of which were with 
 difiiculty prevented from furnishing occasion for hostile meetings. 
 The Senate chamber, so long the forum in which grave and venerable 
 Senators discussed and matured measures appertaining to the public 
 welfare, was unhappily made to resemble more an arena for gladia- 
 torial exhibitions of partisan conflicts. The constitutional restraints 
 by which my official action was principally confined to the duties of 
 umpirage, and the consequent propriety of my position, saved me 
 from the temptation of participating in these bitter feuds, and 
 should have protected me against any attempts to involve me in them 
 against my will. 
 
 My inaugural address, to which not a lisp, in the way of excep- 
 tion was uttered in any quarter, and the liberal and impartial spirit 
 in which I entered upon and continued the discharge ° of the duties 
 of the chair, a liberality, in the sequel, admitted by all, constrained 
 the leaders of the opposition to postpone, though obviously as it ap- 
 peared to me, much against their individual wishes, the assaults 
 upon me which were foreshadowed before my arrival and confidently 
 predicted on all sides. The mortification occasioned by this restraint 
 upon the gratification of long cherished anticipations, was, to my 
 mind, obviously increased by the social and seemingly friendly re- 
 lations which had, at the period to which I am about to refer, sprung 
 up between most of the opposition Senators and myself, relations 
 so inconsistent with the grave charges upon which the rejection of 
 my nomination as Minister to England by the Senate had been justi- 
 fied, and so well calculated to sanction the sentence of condemnation 
 
 ° MS. VII, p. 45. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREH". 749 
 
 which, the people of the U. States had pronounced upon the treat- 
 ment I had received. 
 
 To this respectful, familiar and agreeable intercourse whenever 
 we met, whether whilst performing our respective duties in the 
 Senate, or at social meetings elsewhere, and in which many co- 
 operated, who I was well satisfied deprecated its existence, there were 
 a few minor, and two prominent exceptions, viz : Mr. Calhoun and 
 Senator Poindexter. In the account I h.a,ve heretofore given of the 
 political relations which, at different times, existed between Mr. 
 Calhoun and myself, I did not give as full an account of our per- 
 sonal demeanour towards each other on the occasion of the breach 
 in our friendly feelings which was made public in 1831, as may now 
 be useful. 
 
 Mr. Calhoun sent his letter, by which the personal and political 
 friendship which had so long existed between General Jackson and 
 himself was finally severed, at the close of the session of Congress of 
 1829-30, and soon thereafter left Washington for South Carolina. 
 He did not return to that city until late in the month of December 
 thereafter and in the mean time we never met. It will be remem- 
 bered that I declined to read the correspondence between the Gen- 
 eral and himself before its publication, neither did I make any 
 attempt to inform myself of its contents, or in any way become 
 possessed of them, until I read it in Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet, on its 
 appearance at Washington in the latter part of February 1831. The 
 fact of its having been prepared became generally known at the 
 seat of Government, and speculation as to its character rife. He 
 submitted it before publication, to many of his friends, and in that 
 way and probably in others, the impression became general that my 
 conduct, in some of the transactions referred to, was virtually im- 
 peached. As Mr. Calhoun had made no complaints to me and. 
 knowing that there was not the slightest ground for any imputa- 
 ,tions of that character, as Mr. Calhoun himself, at a subsequent 
 period, virtually admitted, and as is now demonstrated in Mr. Par- 
 ton's life of Jackson;^ and not thinking that the difficulties which 
 had arisen between him and the President furnished a sufficient 
 ground for disturbing the courtesies which had before been inter- 
 changed between the Vice-President and myself, an opinion, in which 
 President Jackson cordially concurred; I left my card for him as 
 usual, he as Vice President, being by the etiquette of the place, enti- 
 tled to that attention from the Secretary of State, and it was duly 
 reciprocated. An invitation to one of my weekly dinners followed of 
 course. On the night preceding the appointed day there set in a 
 storm of snow and wind of unprecedented severity in that region, 
 and I despatched my servant, early in the morning, with notes to 
 
 1 James M. Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson (N. Y. 1860). 
 
750 AMBEICAlir HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 my intended guests, postponing the dinner from Saturday to the 
 following Monday. In the course of Saturday I received from Mr. 
 Calhoun,, the following note : 
 
 Mr. Calfioun regrets that owing to the state ol the weather and a cold with 
 which he is afflicted he can not dine with Mr. Van Buren to day. Saturday. 
 
 The impression it made upon me at the moment, an impression 
 which was I doubt not greatly strengthened by other circumstances 
 which have now passed from my mind, was, that he was embarrassed 
 by my invitation, and had gladly availed himself of the state of the 
 weather to avoid placing himself in a position which was incon- 
 sistent with the hostile attitude he would be obliged to assume to- 
 wards me, when his correspondence with the President was published. 
 
 So regarding his note, and apprehending that I might in conse- 
 quence of the renewal of my invitation, be regarded as having evinced 
 too great a desire to conciliate him, I made the following endorse- 
 ment upon the note : " Not received when my note for Monday was 
 sent," and placed it upon my file, where is has remained for thirty 
 years. Very unexpectedly to me Mr. Calhoun appeared on Monday 
 among my guests, consisting of some thirty ladies and gentlemen, 
 among whom were, besides himself, the Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives and his lady, and Senator Grundy and his lady. 
 The latter gentleman, as it subsequently appeared, being at that mo- 
 ment, but without my being aware of it, one of Mr. Calhoun's con- 
 fidential advisers as to the disposition that should be made of the 
 correspondence, had, I now believe exerted a controlling influence 
 over his action in respect to the dinner. The company was not only 
 numerous and brilliant, but, with the exception of Mr. Calhoim, lively 
 and jocular. His demeanor on the contrary, though highly respect- 
 ful, was throughout obviously constrained. He, at my request, took 
 Mrs. Grundy in to dinner and placed her between him and myself. 
 In the course of a long dinner, I made several unsuccessful attempts 
 to restore him to his usual vivacity and to a participation in the con- 
 versation of the table, a thing I never before knew him to omit, but 
 he continued in the mood he assumed upon his entrance and retired 
 soon after the company had returned to the drawing room ; leaving 
 me thoroughly convinced of the correctness of the construction I 
 had placed upon his note, and satisfied that the character of our 
 future relations would, so far at least as he was concerned, be mainly 
 dependent upon the suppression or publication of the correspondence 
 which had taken place between him and the President ; not then sus- 
 pecting that a qualified publication was under consideration. If the 
 first course was pursued and really amicable relations between him 
 and the President restored, there would not, I supposed, be a desire 
 for an open rupture Avith me. It was well known at the time that an 
 active discussion was going on between' Mr. Calhoun and the more 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BXJREN, 751 
 
 considerate of his friends on the subject of its suppression. Senator 
 Bibb ^ informed the President that he had warned Mr. Calhoun that 
 the publication of the correspondence would be his destruction, and 
 had conjured him to commit it to the flames. The latter gentleman, 
 not only thought differently, but anticipated a signal triumph, and we 
 have no evidence that they ever prevailed on him to go farther in that 
 direction, than to consent, which he did, that his friends might make 
 an attempt to reconcile the President to its appearance, by such modi- 
 fication of it and explanation of what he should farther say as would 
 be sufficient to effect that object, without lessening the injurious 
 effects of the correspondence upon myself. To this was added, 
 through the same instrumentality, an effort to prevail upon the editor 
 of the Globe to publish Mr. Calhoun's appeal first, and accompany 
 it with favorable comments. As we have already seen, an intrigue 
 was consequently set on foot by my subsequent friend Grundy to 
 accomplish the first of these objects through their friend. Major 
 Eaton, and by the same gentleman and Col. Johnson, who was every- 
 body's friend, to obtain Mr. Blair's consent to the latter, the failure 
 of both of which has also been seen. Mr. Blair refused altogether, 
 but Mr. Grundy thought he had succeeded upon the first and prin- 
 cipal point. The correspondence was published and Mr. Calhoun's 
 success in political life forever destroyed. That the President dis- 
 claimed the encouragement which had been given by Major Eaton, 
 and indignantly resented the attempt that had been set on foot to use 
 him for the destruction of his friend, has also been already stated. 
 
 Immediately after the failure of the Grundy and Eaton negotia- 
 tion and on the appearance of the Globe which announced the Gen- 
 eral's feelings in the matter, I was favored with a visit from Dr. 
 Jones, a devoted and very active friend of Mr. Calhoun, who was 
 soon followed by Mr. Blair at the Doctor's instance; the object of 
 their joint appearance being to afford the latter an opportunity to 
 remonstrate, in my presence, against the course which the Globe 
 was taking. The Doctor's desire was to arrest and suppress the 
 paper war, which had that morning been commenced; which he 
 claimed the power of doing on Mr. Calhoun's side, if the President 
 and myself would prevail upon our friends to do the same on ours. 
 Perceiving that he was not advancing his object, by the explana- 
 tion he made of Mr. Calhoun's course and the excuses he founded 
 upon them, as these were readily, and, as it appeared to me, con- 
 clusively overthrown by Mr. Blair, he at length directed his obser- 
 vations to the injurious consequences which would result to the 
 party and to all belonging to it from the schism, which he charged 
 that Mr. Blair's course was producing. After dwelling at great 
 length, and with an earnestness that was almost amusing upon the 
 
 > George M. Bibb, of Kentucky. 
 
752 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 disasters which the distraction and consequent overthrow of the 
 party would entail on all of its supporters, and misled by Blair's 
 serious countenance, he ventured to draw his attention to his [Blair's] 
 own case, spoke of the press which he had recently established, of its 
 prospects and of the fortune he might reasonaljjy expect to reap 
 from it, and of its probable failure, if the schism, he so earnestly 
 dreaded was not arrested, and the ruin in which he and his family 
 would be involved, &c. When he closed his remarks, Mr. Blair 
 assented to the probable occurrence of some of the consequences the 
 Dr. had depicted as results of a continuance of the war, said he 
 would be as sorry as the Dr. if it should turn out so, but that he 
 could not alter the course upon which he had entered. He was 
 fully satisfied that Mr. Calhoun was not only at the bottom of all the 
 difficulties that had arisen but had voluntarily produced them to 
 promote his own ends, that he had commenced the war by his 
 pamphlet, without good cause, and must abide the consequences, 
 and in the conclusion of a brief and obviously sincere speech, 
 thanked the Dr. for the sympathy he had expressed for the loss 
 which the struggle might entail upon him; but begged the Dr. to 
 give " himself no uneasiness on that account. It was true, he said, 
 that he was poor, but he had long been so and never expected to be 
 otherwise, that he nevertheless felt himself to be independent as 
 his wants were few, and if the ruin overtook him, to which the. 
 Dr. alluded, he could " live by his rifle," and would have nothing to 
 do but go back to old Kentucky, where he knew he could always 
 find plenty of employment for it; and enjoy greater and more 
 lasting satisfaction than he could derive from making himself sub- 
 servient, in any form, to the promotion of Mr. Calhoun's ambitious 
 schemes. 
 
 The Dr. was a cripple, walked seldom and with a sort of dot and go 
 one motion, which, far from graceful when he was at his ease, became 
 absolutely ludicrous when he was excited or hurried. Deeply dis- 
 gusted with the mode of obtaining his living, to which Blair had 
 shewn himself willing to resort, greatly irritated to madness by his 
 obstinacy, and seeing moreover that the game was up, the Dr. indig- 
 nantly leaped from his chair and limped towards the door, exclaiming 
 as he made his exit, at the top of his voice, " Well, by G— d, I cannot 
 live by my rifle." 
 
 Whilst the fate of the correspondence, of the contents of which^ 
 although the information was within my reach, I knew as little as 
 anyone in Washington, was in suspense, it was made my duty, as 
 well by the rumors that were afloat, as by what had taken place at, 
 and in respect to my dinner, to see that my personal relations with 
 Mr. Calhoun were kept on a footing that would suit any contingency 
 
 » las, VII, p. 50. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHT OF MABTIIT VAIT BUEEN. 753 
 
 that might happen. We were together, a few days after the dinner, 
 at a meeting of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, of which his 
 friend, Mr. Ingham, the Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Jus- 
 tice Marshall were members and present. We shook hands respect- 
 fully but in our intercourse there was, on his part, a greater formality 
 even than that which was observed on the former occasion, which I 
 attributed to the presence of the latter gentleman and a design to give 
 to our personal relations an appearance which would be in harmony 
 with the character the Chief Justice, who though a gentleman of quiet 
 manners generally understood whatever passed about him, supposed 
 them to bear. 
 
 After these occurrences, I felt myself justified in insisting that the 
 first advance towards the continuance of social intercourse between 
 us should proceed from him; and I determined to embrace the first 
 fitting opportunity to drive him to the necessity of deciding that point 
 himself. A suitable occasion for carrying this resolution into effect 
 was afforded me, some time, probably a week or so, before his publica- 
 tion, at a party given by the French Minister. I perceived, on enter- 
 ing the principal room, that Mr. Calhoun was standing near the center 
 of it, with Mrs. [Samuel] Harrison Smith, an old confederate of my 
 own in the Crawford war, but now a friend of his, leaning on his arm. 
 When I reached them, in taking the circuit of the room, I addressed 
 Mrs. Smith familiarly, then looked Mr. Calhoun fully in the face, 
 respectfully, but without extending to him the ordinary salutation — 
 a ceremony, which would, under ordinary circumstances, have been 
 due to his rank, but was withheld upon the grounds I have stated. 
 He looked me also full in the face, but made no motion, nor did he say 
 anything. I gave to my countenance no expression, nor was there 
 anything in my demeanor that was not respectful, and his was the 
 same in both respects. It seemed to me that he understood what I 
 meant, and that was all I desired. I continued my conversation a 
 few minutes with the lady, when bowing to her I proceeded on. An 
 intimacy of long standing, and at times very close, was thus quietly 
 broken off — a proceeding, which left nothing further for us to do, in 
 that regard, when his pamphlet appeared. I do not recollect to have 
 heard of a single disrespectful remark made by him of me, during the 
 long estrangement that ensued, and I endeavored to observe the same 
 reserve in respect to him. When we met we took no notice of each 
 other, with the exception of a single occasion, which will be referred 
 to, when, under very peculiar circumstances, he literally gazed at me 
 for a moment or two. Such continued to be the character of our per- 
 sonal relations until 183T, a period of more than six years when he, as 
 has been elsewhere stated, of his own accord, tendered, and I accepted, 
 the resumption of friendly intercourse between us. 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 48 
 
CHAPTEE XLVII. 
 
 It so happened that my personal relations with Senator Poindex- 
 ter, were,, from the first, of an arms length character. I need not, I 
 am sure, say to any of my acquaintances, whether they have ranked 
 among my friends or my opponents, how greatly such a state of 
 things was at variance with the general tenor of my feelings in such 
 matters. 
 
 He had justly acquired very considerable distinction by his sup- 
 port of General Jackson in the great debate in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives, in which the conduct of the latter in the Seminole war, 
 was sought to be deeply implicated; and had now been elected a 
 Senator of the United States by the General's friends and suppTjrt- 
 ers in the State of Mississippi. He presented himself at Washing- 
 ton for the first time, in that capacity, a few days before the session 
 of 1830-31, drove to the White House in a coach drawn by four 
 cream colored horses, and was announced to the President whilst he 
 and myself (I then being Secretary of State) were engaged on 
 business in the President's office. We repaired at once to the Draw- 
 ing room, where he was received by the General with cordiality and 
 respect. Having never met him before, I was introduced and a long 
 and sprightly conversation ensued, which was chiefly confined to the 
 President and his visitor. In the course of it, old times and scenes 
 were, in succession introduced by the latter and freely spoken of, 
 whilst the exciting political questions of the day were, as it appeared 
 to me, studiously avoided on the part of the Senator, and singularly 
 enough, having regard to the nature of the President's relations 
 with that gentleman, Mr. Clay's sayings and doings constituted the 
 principal theme. The conversation received that direction from 
 the Senator, who introduced and dwelt on the positions which he 
 and Mr. Clay occupied towards each other, and the stirring scenes 
 which had occurred between them, more particularly in the sporting 
 way, at different periods of their busy lives. On the latter head, he 
 gave us the particulars of a famous brag party, at which Mr. Clay, 
 stung to madness by his losses, had bragged him, against a nam^ 
 sum, his Hotel establishment at Cincinnati — an estate of great 
 value, a brag which he had declined to meet, although he held a hand 
 which could not fail to win, that of two aces and a bragger, and his 
 the oldest hand, which he laid down on the table at the moment of 
 754 
 
AUTOBIOGBAPHY OF MABTIN VAIT BUEEN. 755 
 
 refusal. Mr. Clay, he said, had often told him, that he was the only 
 man who had ever had him in his power. I remember these particu- 
 lars the more distinctly, from the effects produced on my northern 
 ears by this revelation of the enormous sums of money which were 
 lost and won between them. To the General's they did not, it must 
 be admitted, produce equally astounding effects; but were listened 
 to, as Poindexter knew they would be, as racy reminiscences of some- 
 what similar scenes through which he had himself passed, at an 
 early period, on the famous " Clover bottom race course " between 
 him and his life long competitors in all things, the McNairys, the 
 Ervings and the Cannons — cum wjuZtis aliis, in the progress of 
 which land patents and class rights in bundles, and horse flesh by 
 droves had been staked on their respective racing steeds in which 
 the General had generally been the favorite of fortune. 
 
 Suspicions unfavorable to Mr. Poindexter's fidelity to the admin- 
 istration he had been elected to sustain were already extensively 
 entertained in political circles. With me, at least, they lost none 
 of their force from a personal acquaintance. The remarkably sin- 
 ister expression of his countenance, a point, in respect to which, 
 there was no room for two opinions, and his whole demeanor at our 
 first interview, coming on the back of the invariably unfavorable 
 reports I had received of his character, differing only in the degree 
 of odium that was heaped upon it, satisfied me of his hostility, and 
 that this formal visit was one of exploration only. The President 
 accompanied him to his carriage, but hastened back after he 
 took his departure, with the question, " Well, what is your opinion 
 of Poindexter?" My conviction of his hostility and the certainty 
 that he would soon be found in the ranks of the opposition, were 
 of course freely expressed ; to which the reply was " You are cer- 
 tainly right. We are not to his taste, and it will be thought no dis- 
 credit to us that such is the case, but we will soon shew him that we 
 can do without him." 
 
 Had this interview taken place shortly after the Seminole debate, 
 the result might have been different, for as I have elsewhere said, 
 I have seldom known a man, who was seemingly more blind to the 
 faults, and indulgent to the short comings of friends who had stood 
 by him in a crisis and whom he believed to be honest, than General 
 Jackson ; and their concurrence in opinion with him on such ocasions 
 went far to satisfy him that they were so. But many years had 
 passed away since those exciting scenes, and he had in the interim 
 enjoyed, as he thought, suificient opportunities to become well ac- 
 quainted with Mr. Poindexter's real character, and we both looked 
 [upon] his open junction with the opponents of the administration as 
 a question of time only. 
 
756 AMEBICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 After a month or two of brisk fighting, which, however well it may 
 have been calculated to mystify his constituents did not, in the least, 
 obscure the clear conception we had formed of his designs, and before ° 
 the close of his first session, he threw off the mask and took open 
 ground against the administration by aiding Messrs. Calhoun, Taze- 
 well and Tyler in their attempts to fix upon the President the impu- 
 tation of having been guilty " of a manifest violation of the rights of 
 the Senate, a flagrant usurpation of their constitutional powers and 
 a gross violation of rthe Constitution," in the negotiation of the Treaty 
 with the Sublime Porte, a matter which has been heretofore spoken of. 
 
 Agreeable, as this assault was to the Mississippi Senator, whose 
 belligerent spirit panted for active service, it did not afford him half 
 the satisfaction which he hoped to reap from the action of the Senate 
 upon my nomination as Minister to England. There were features 
 in the latter proceeding, such, for instance, as the opening it would 
 afford for assaults upon the personal and private character of his 
 intended victim, which rendered it a far more acceptable service to 
 his accusatory and aggressive spirit, the indulgence of which, all who 
 were acquainted with him knew to be the ruling passion of his soul. 
 The scope for that indulgence was materially enlarged by the shame- 
 ful abandonment by Holmes, of Maine, of the resolution he had offered 
 for the appointment of a committee of investigation, on which the 
 majority of the Senate would have found itself constrained to place, 
 at least one sincere friend, through whose agency the machinations 
 and practices of the chairman and his associates might have been 
 detected and exposed — an abandonment, accompanied by an express 
 and unblushing reservation to each Senator to. supply his green bag 
 with such bits of scandal for exhibition in secret session, as it might 
 be consistent with his individual taste to gather from sources of his 
 own selection. 
 
 The action of the Senate was postponed for several weeks on ac- 
 count of Mr. Poindexter's inability, from sickness, to attend its meet- 
 ings; not because the majority stood in need of his vote for as has 
 already been stated, they had a convenient supemumary in the per- 
 son of Senator Bibb, who agreed to be within call, if he should be 
 wanted to make a tie and thiis compel the Vice President to perform 
 his part of the agreement, which the Senator was to do by voting 
 for, or against my confirmation, as the occasion might require. The 
 postponement was in deference to the excess of his zeal and the ex- 
 tent of the ■contributions he was,expected to make to the mass of accu- 
 sations that were to be presented against the nominee. 
 
 According to his own account, he was, when his speech was made, 
 still too feeble to stand continuously during its delivery; but the 
 
 ° MS. VII, p. 55, 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHy OF MABTIN VAN BUBEN. 757 
 
 budget of calumnies which he in conclave poured upon the ears of 
 the Senators disclosed the extent to which the invalid had notwith- 
 standing Explored the kennels and ransacked the gossiping circles 
 of the capital for defamatory reports; the whole being wound up 
 with a letter addressed to himself by a man, whom I was not con- 
 scious of ever having known, setting forth a statement, supposed to 
 have been made to him by me of the motives by which I had been gov- 
 erned in bringing about the dissolution of the Cabinet, which every 
 one acquainted with me, whether friend or opponent, was ready to 
 pronounce immitigated falsehoods. By the side of the sayings and 
 doings of this veteran combatant, it mortified me to find displayed 
 on the journals exhibitions of illiberality and injustice not far behind 
 his own on the part of a clever young southern Senator, whom I 
 once held in higji estimation, but who sunk himself for the occasion 
 in the pursuit of vengeance for imaginary intrigues, which his leader, 
 Mr. Calhoun, the party to be injured by them, subsequently nailed to 
 the counter as unfounded suspicions. 
 
 The conduct of the first named Senator, bad as it was, had but 
 little effect upon our personal relations, on account of pre-existing 
 barriers to anything like friendly or social intercourse between us. 
 Once only, during our whole acquaintance, did he, to my surprise, 
 approach me with friendly greetings. 
 
 A violent altercation had taken place, on the floor of the Senate, 
 between him and my friend Forsyth ; which it was for a while sup- 
 posed would lead to a hostile meeting — a matter about which, as 
 was well known, no one could have been more solicitous than myself. 
 The morning after that result had been avoided, he saluted me, on 
 my entrance, with much cordiality. N^othing was on my part want- 
 ing in the reception of his civility, for I felt relieved and happy, 
 but there the matter ended. We passed through the panic session, 
 in which he was the busiest of the busy, and probably had more to 
 do with the chair than any other Senator, with the same unvarying 
 rigidity of countenance on both sides that had, with the single ex- 
 ception referred to, distinguished our personal intercourse from the 
 beginning, and what was really miraculous, without his finding a 
 single occasion to complain of the treatment he received at my hands 
 as presiding officer of the body. But the panic session had scarcely 
 passed away before the party, to which Mr. Poindexter had attached 
 himself, became sensible of the popularity I had acquired by the 
 fearless and faithful discharge of my delicate and difficult duties at 
 that trying period, as well as apprehensive of the political conse- 
 quences to which it might lead. Senator Poindexter was not an 
 indifferent or inattentive observer of the signs of the times, nor a 
 
758 AMEKICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 sluggard in devising means to obstruct the way of political opponents 
 whom he hated and whose advancement he deprecated, both of which 
 was emphatically the case in respect to myself. The frustration in 
 Congress of the elaborate and artfully devised plans of the bank 
 and its confederates, the leaders of the opposition, aggravated as 
 they were, by the signal success of the administration at the suc- 
 ceeding election with the obvious impracticability of every attempt 
 to reexcite the public mind through the agency of new public ques- 
 tions in season for the approaching session of Congress, the only 
 one to be held before the Presidential election, cast a gloom over 
 their prospects and caused unusual despondency in their ranks. 
 Poindexter, generally among the foremost and seemingly the most 
 fearless in partisan fights was among the first to feel the influence 
 of the re-acting panic, and to see the necessity of a change of tactics. 
 His confidence in all efforts to cripple an opponent or overthrow an 
 administration that were unaccompanied by personal broils, was 
 habitually slight. The reader has already been supplied with a 
 striking exhibition of [his] preference for and adaptation to that 
 feature in partisan warfare in his very gross assault upon Daniel 
 Webster, when that gentleman ventured to as.sume a different posi- 
 tion from that occupied by the chosen leader of his party on the 
 passage of the force bill in nullification times ; an assault which was 
 not only unprovoked but obviously made upon calculation and to 
 answer a political purpose. Senator Poindexter's plan for re- 
 kindling the public mind and dispelling the prevailing apathy in 
 their party, therefore, was to lay aside for a season their threadbare 
 denunciations of General Jackson, by the hackneyed use of which 
 the public taste had been annoyed and its judgment insulted, and get 
 up a sort of semi-official quarrel with me, the probable democratic 
 candidate for the presidency; a quarter more likely, perhaps, to be 
 effectual, and to try to work it into a personal fracas at the capital of 
 the union. This naturally struck him as a proceeding more likely to 
 produce distrust, an indispensable element to their success, and give 
 animation to the approaching session than any scheme that could un- 
 der existing circumstances be devised. That he attempted to draw 
 me into such an affair, and that he consulted more than one of his 
 brother Senators in respect to its expediency, I did not, at the time 
 entertain a particle of doubt. I received from a reliable source 
 early inklings- of what was in the wind, of the source from which 
 the attack was to proceed, and of its prooable abettors. 
 
 Thus forewarned, I possessed fair opportimities, from what was 
 daily passing before my ej^es, to identify, in my own estimation at 
 least, the Senators by whom the step was probably favoured; and 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 759 
 
 suspicions settled down upon two gentlemen who had probably been 
 consulted at least from the beginning by the principal actor. But 
 these were but suspicions, without anything that deserved the name 
 of proof to sustain them, and therefore, though effective upon 
 my own mind, it would be wrong in me to give names. I there- 
 fore content myself with saying that Mr. Clay was not one of them, 
 and I do so as well because I sincerely believed him as well as the 
 great body of the Senate to have been altogether above countenancing 
 such a proceeding as on account of his well Known influence over 
 Poindexter, which might otherwise give rise to the impression that 
 I alluded to him. 
 
 Those who are conversant with the political history of that period 
 wiU remember the violent assault Mr. Clay made upon me at the 
 commencement of the session, on account of my non-appearance at 
 its commencement to organise the body ; or how earnestly my prede- 
 cessor, Mr. Calhoun, denied the fact set up by my friends in explana- 
 tion of my absence, viz : that it has been the practice of the Vice Presi- 
 dents to avoid so early an attendance, to give the Senate an oppor- 
 tunity to choose their standing conmiittees before his arrival, a selec- 
 tion which if present, it would have been his duty to make himself. 
 
 At the present session I was at my post on the first day and strange 
 enough, that very fact was seized upon by my opponents and made 
 the principle pretext for opening with me a correspondence, virtually 
 hostile at its commencement, and designed to become more so as it 
 progressed. On the 5th of January, when the lapse of time and the 
 occurrence of circumstances, had rendered the moment for the de- 
 nouement of the plot as favourable as they could expect it to become, 
 I received from Senator Poindexter the following letter : 
 
 Washington city, Janf 5th 1835. 
 
 Sib: 
 
 The unusual punctuality, with which you attended, as the Presiding oflBcer 
 of the Senate at the commencement of the present session of Congress, has 
 been attributed by certain newspapers edited by your friends and supporters, 
 to considerations having a direct personal relation to myself. 
 
 This innovation on the uniform practice of your predecessors would have 
 received no attention from me, as it was an act resting exclusively on your own 
 sense of propriety, and therefore wholly unimportant in reference either to my 
 feelings or wishes, had it not, vauntingly, been put forth by presses under your 
 control with explanations well calculated to attract my notice, and doubtless 
 designed to make impressions incompatible with my honor. I refer especially 
 to an article in the Newburg Telegraph, which has been copied into other 
 kindred prints, and cannot have escaped your observation : 
 
 The President of the Senate was in his chair at the opening of the session and 
 thus preserved it from being disgraced by " ° that bloated mass of corruption — 
 Poindexter." 
 
 ° MS. VII, p. 60. 
 
760 AMERICAN HISTOMCAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 I have waited a reasonable length of time, to afford you, or your friends an 
 opportunity to disavow the foul motive attributed to you in the paragraph 
 above quoted ; none has been made — altho explicitly called for in one of the 
 public journals of this city. I desire to be distinctly understood as not in- 
 tending to claim the right to hold you answerable for this offensive article, or 
 any other of like character which may have appeared, but the novel and 
 extraordinary circumstances attending this whole matter, authorizes me to ask 
 of you, that which is due to me — and to the station which you occupy — a dis- 
 avowal of all connection between your conduct on the occasion and the relations 
 in which I stand to the -Senate, and to the country. I will not permit myself 
 to believe that in taking your seat at the opening of the session, you were actu- 
 ated by the unworthy motives, which your friends have so Indiscreetly attributed 
 to you, until you manifest a disposition to place yourself in that attitude. I 
 should much prefer for your own sake, and that of the august body over whose 
 deliberations you have been called to preside, to regard your early attendance as 
 an evidence of the promptitude and industry, with which you were anxious to 
 discharge your public duties. It is now in your power, to give me this assurance 
 which I consider absolutely necessary to avert the consequences of an opposite 
 conclusion. 
 
 I address you thro' the Post Office, not wishing to consult anyone in this 
 affair, in the present doubtful state of my mind concerning it. 
 I have the honor to be, Sir, Yr Obt. Servt 
 
 , Geo. Poindexteb.^ 
 
 It came to my hands as I was leaving the Capitol, and was read 
 in the carriage on my way home. Its construction and everything 
 connected with it satisfied me that its design was to accomplish the 
 object I have described. I called at the State Department on my 
 way down and shewed it to my friend Mr. Forsyth, who at the 
 instant concurred in the construction I have placed upon it — an 
 opinion, in which no one, acquainted with the writer and the state of 
 feeling then existing between the opposing parties at Washington, 
 could not fail to concur. 
 
 A second perusal on reaching my house, confirmed me in this view 
 of the Senator's epistle, and at the same time satisfied me that in 
 this, as is apt to be the fate of similar feats of left-handed wisdom, 
 the very cunning employed in its construction, supplied me with ade- 
 quate means to frustrate its design. Nothing was wanting beyond 
 the studied protests, concessions and reservations which had been 
 inserted in the letter for subsequent use ; and his appeal to our official 
 relations for protection against the assault that had been made upon 
 'him, to enable me not only to discharge my whole duty in the matter 
 without the slightest sacrifice of personal or official dignity, but to 
 do that in a way, which would not only leave him without cause of 
 complaint that his questions had not been fully answered, but render 
 it in the last degree undesirable on his part to place my letter in 
 juxta-position with his own before the country. 
 
 1 Van Buren Papers. ■■ 
 
AtTTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUEEN-. Y61 
 
 The following short letter was therefore, forthwith prepared and 
 
 after receiving the approval of my friends General Jackson, Mr. 
 
 Forsyth and Mr. Wright, sent the next morning through the Post 
 
 Office- 
 
 Washington JanV 6*\ 18S5. 
 Sib, 
 
 You are cLuite correct in not permitting yourself to believe that the official 
 act to which you allude, in your letter of yesterday, was designed to arrogate 
 to myself the right of deciding upon the propriety of the Senate's choice of 
 their President pro tempore, or to Interfere with the relations in which you 
 or any other member, may stand to that body, and to the country. 
 
 Your very proper and explicit disclaimer of all idea of holding me responsi- 
 ble for the commentaries or constructions of the public press has enabled me 
 so far to respect the official relations existing between us, and to which you 
 refer, as to give you this answer. 
 I am Sir, your humble servt. 
 
 M. Van B-oken. 
 To the Hon"'" Geoege Poindextek.^ 
 
 I might, perhaps ought to dismiss the subject here; but as there 
 is another matter which grew out of it and not destitute of interest, 
 as descriptive of the character of the times, I will briefly notice it. 
 That my adversary would be embarrassed in respect to his farther 
 movements, by the character of my reply was what I confidently 
 anticipated. A quiet publication of the correspondence, indicative 
 of satisfaction with my reply, was a result I did not expect. Such 
 a course would, I thought, be inconsistent with the opinion I had 
 formed of his character and the design in which his letter ori^nated. 
 I was, on the contrary, led by these considerations to look for a 
 publication, accompanied by offensive comments, opening ,new issues 
 calculated to increase existing irritation. That he would suppress 
 both letters, and leave the public to draw the inference that I had 
 sanctioned the publications in question, an inference he so sorely 
 deprecated and which he claimed would be the certain consequence 
 of my silence, was a result which neither my friends nor myself 
 allowed ourselves to expect, ©specially after the appearance of an 
 intimation of the existence of such a correspondence had appeared 
 in a paper hostile to me. These views led to the suspicion that the 
 Senator, after what had been done, might think a parol altercation 
 with me, a more eligible way of bringing about the fracas upon 
 wluch we believed him to be bent, and consequently to a considera- 
 tion of the expediency of placing myself in a situation to prevent 
 at the instant any hostile attempt that might be made upon my 
 person. I therefore, for the first and only time in my life, placed 
 about my person, a pair of loaded pistols, of a size which I could 
 
 »Van Buren Papers. 
 
762 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 carry without danger of exposure, and wore them in the chair and 
 out oif it, until I ibecame fully satisfied that my adversary had made 
 up his mind to drop the whole matter where my answer had left it, 
 and neither to say, nor to do, nor to publish anything further upon 
 the subject. Those of my friends, who were conversant with what 
 had been done, and who took a special interest in the matter on my 
 account, looked to the papers from day to day for the correspond- 
 ence, and were not less surprised than myself that a gun, which had 
 been so carefully, and I may add, so ceremoniously loaded, should 
 have been so soon and so quietly spiked. My own opinion has al- 
 ways been, that Mr. Clay was consulted on the receipt of my letter, 
 that he pronoimced the movement to have been, to say the least of 
 it, an unwise one from the beginning, predicted that it would grow 
 worse, the further it was pushed, and advised Mr. Poindexter to 
 drop it where it stood. At all events, so it was, that the affair was 
 never again alluded to, in any way that has come to my knowledge. 
 
CHAPTEE XLVIII. 
 
 These two Senators constituted the principal exceptions to the social 
 and seemingly amicable relations which had sprung up between the op- 
 position Senators and myself, notwithstanding the adverse circum- 
 stances under which we met. Yet, it is doing no injustice to the prin- 
 cipal leaders of the opposition in that body, nor to most of the mem- 
 bers of the second class who though not regarded as leaders were yet 
 men of great experience and distinguished ability to say that they 
 were all the while lying in wait, nay pining, for the performance on 
 my part, of some act by which they might be enabled to qualify, if 
 they could not reverse, the vantage ground I had acquired through the 
 action of the people upon the course they had pursued towards me, 
 an advantage of which my quiet bearing at the head of the Senate, 
 presented a daily, and to most of them, a very grating memento. I 
 had passed through the ordeal of my inaugural address, an affair, 
 which under existing circumstances, could hardly have been expected 
 to pass off without giving offense in any quarter, to the fifteenth week 
 of the session without the happening of any such occurrence. 
 
 Now, however, the hoped for transaction was believed to be on the 
 point of being perpetrated. The straight forward and sturdy Democ- 
 racy of old York county Pennsylvania having had their feelings 
 greatly excited by the controversy which the bank and its leading 
 supporters had waged against President Jackson, in respect to the re- 
 moval of the deposits held their meeting also, and headed by their 
 undaunted former representative, Adam King ° adopted a memorial to 
 Congress on that stirring subject. They condemned in no very meas- 
 ured terms, the conduct of a majority of the Senate, denounced the 
 motives by which they believed their leaders to be actuated and 
 plainly imputed venality to Senator Webster by name. This paper 
 they, for reasons of their own, resolved should be sent to me its pre- , 
 siding officer for presentation to the Senate. One of their Senators 
 Mr. McKean,^ an honest, but exceedingly prejudiced man, had with- 
 out cause, though he doubtless thought otherwise, made himself one 
 of my bitterest enemies, andMr. Wilkins^ his colleague, the liberality 
 and gentleness of whose bearing had secured for him the esteem of all 
 who knew him, had permitted his name, wrongfully, as the people 
 of York thought, to be used to prevent my nomination as the candi- 
 
 °MS. TII, p. 65. 2-w^iuiam wilklns. * Samuel McKean. 
 
 763 
 
764 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 date of our party for the Vice-Presidency. How far these circum- 
 stances influenced the course the meeting pursued in regard to the 
 presentation of their memorial, I do not know, but I thought it not 
 unlikely that those circumstances, aided probably, by a not unnatural, 
 but very erroneous supposition that I would be pleased with the un- 
 usual notoriety thus given to a denunciation of the former proceed- 
 ings of the Senate against me from a quarter so imposing, as well in 
 the revolutionary as political history of the country as old York, had 
 exerted some influence on the course that was pursued. Similar 
 views of the matter, I was in the sequel forced to conclude, had 
 led Mr. Webster and his co-adjutors of the Senate to think I was 
 advised of the proceeding, and would take pleasure in presenting 
 them. So wide a departure from the comity due from me to the 
 members of a body, the presidency over which had been conferred 
 upon me without their agency, and to which I was not responsible 
 for my conduct, would have presented my enemies, for such they 
 really were, a most desirable opportunity for their first attack. Their 
 leaders, apprised ty letter of what had taken place at York, of which 
 I was myself wholly uninformed, entertaining the views in regard 
 to my course, which I have attributed to them, determined in ad- 
 vance, as I had reason to believe, to make the presentation of that 
 memorial, the occasion for their long premeditated assault. That 
 Mr. Webster should, on the first presentation of the subject, have 
 made himself oiScious in the movement, was perhaps natural enough, 
 but that he should have continued to do so after he became ac- 
 quainted with my feelings upon the subject will not, it is believed, be 
 approved by fair minded men. A full account of what was done at 
 the meeting was sent to him by his friends ; but the communication 
 of the commitee, enclosing the memorial, did not reach me until three 
 or four days after his letter was received. In the mean time he en- 
 quired of me whether such memorial had come to my hands, and 
 was informed that it had not. The next morning the enquiry was 
 repeated and the same answer returned ; and he, at the same time, in- 
 formed that my mail was sometimes taken to my house, where the 
 papers and letters were liable to be mislaid, that such might have been 
 the caSe with the communication in question, that I would cause a 
 search to be made and inform him of the result in the morning, which 
 was, that no such memorial had yet been received. 
 
 That evening the letter containing it arrived, when, influenced by ' 
 Mr. Webster's repeated enquiries, I forthwith read the memorial 
 and discovered, as I supposed, the cause of his solicitude. Although 
 not precise, the memorial, or rather the preamble to it, contained a 
 paragraph which was regarded by his friends as exhibiting a direct 
 charge against him of being bribed by the bank. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUKEN. 765 
 
 I decided, at once, that it was a paper which ought not to be 
 communicated to the Senate through me; and that I would write 
 to that effect, to the Committee, by whom it had been sent. On my 
 way to the Capitol, I fell in with my friend, Senator Wright and 
 related to him the circumstance. He informed me, as he afterwards 
 stated on the floor of the Senate, that a memorial had, some days 
 before, been sent from our State, to an opposition Senator for pre- 
 sentation, reflecting severely upon him (Mr. W.), that the Senator 
 had informed him that he had on that account refused to present 
 it, unless, one of our representatives, also of the opposition, who 
 lived in the vicinity of the memorialists, should feel himself at lib- 
 erty to strike out the objectionable paragraph, which was done, and 
 the memorial in that state presented to the Senate and referred. 
 This statement, suggested to me the propriety of submitting the 
 York memorial to the Pennsylvania Senators, with a similar expla- 
 nation, before I returned it to the committee, by whom it had been 
 forwarded to me. Mr. Webster approached me, as I entered the 
 Senate chamber, with an enquiring look, and was informed of the 
 receipt of the memorial, — ^that I had read it and deemed it unfit 
 to be presented to the Senate, on account of a paragraph it con- 
 tained in relation to himself — and of my determination to submit it 
 to the Pennsylvania Senators with an explanation of my intentions 
 to return it, unless they felt themselves authorised to strike out the 
 objectionable paragraph. To my amazement, instead of expressing 
 his satisfaction at the view I had taken of the matter, Mr. Webster 
 appeared disconcerted, seemed perplexed and acted as if what I had 
 communicated would interfere with some favored scheme — ^hemmed, 
 hawed, muttered gutteral intonations, without expressing a single 
 intelligible idea and left me for his seat. I was, for a moment, 
 confounded by a result so unexpected ; but soon the use which he and 
 his confederates had intended to make of the York memorial, if I 
 had presented it, flashed across my mind and I became re-com.posed. 
 I called Senator Wilkins to me, gave him the memorial, pointed out 
 the objectionable paragraph, informed him of the determination I 
 had formed, desired him to consult his colleagues as to what they 
 ought to do, but to understand for himself, and to say to his col- 
 leagues particularly, that I expressed no opinion in regard to their 
 rights or duties in the matter. Thus forewarned, I took the chair, 
 confident that I should, in due time, be able to possess myself of the 
 details of the plot, and considering that as I had neither done nor 
 meant to do anything that was wrong, I felt no apprehension in 
 regard to my ability to counteract their hostile views. 
 
 A memorial from the people of Shenandoah in Virginia, one of 
 the counties which compose what is called, the 10th legion, in favor 
 
766 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 of the removal of the deposits, was immediately presented, and 
 called forth a characteristic speech from their Senator Tyler,^ of 
 whose course they disapproved. 
 
 Whilst this was being made, Mr. Wilkins had time to consult his 
 colleagues, and deposited the memorial on my desk, without saying 
 anything, but with the paragraph impeaching the conduct of Web- 
 ster stricken out. 
 
 When I announced the title of the York memorial, the opposition 
 members of the Senate pricked up their ears in a way which satis- 
 fied me it was a document, of which they had heard before. Mr. 
 Wilkins moved that it be read, printed and referred to the Commit- 
 tee on Finance. When it was read, disappointment at the absence 
 of the attack upon Webster was, as I thought, equally apparent. 
 Mr. Webster immediately took the floor, assumed a nonchalant air, 
 spoke of the imputations cast upon him by the memorial as " puerili- 
 ties" which his friends were desirous should not be charged upon 
 one of the greatest counties in Pennsylvania — said a friend had sent 
 him a letter signed by several persons whom he described as highly 
 respectable citizens, and called on Senator McKean to sustain him 
 in saying they were such, which he did as to some, perhaps to most 
 of them. Mr. Webster desired to have the letter read, and added that 
 if this was a specimen of the ineTrborials tohioh were to be presented 
 in support of the Treasury measure, he thought they would require 
 the particular attention df the Senate. Poindexter immediately fol- 
 lowed in a fierce attack upon the memorial, insinuated that it had 
 been gotten up in the purlieus of the palace, and sent to York county 
 to be sent back here again^ — that for himself, he would not have 
 presented such a paper. If it had been sent to him, he should have 
 sent it back to the person from whoni it came, but he said not a 
 word about the erasure that had been made on it. He was by far 
 too active in gaining information on such occasions, before he spoke, 
 not to know how and by whom, that erasure which he had examined 
 critically before he rose, had been made. He did not wish to come 
 in contact with the Pennsylvania Senators, particularly not with 
 Mr. McKean, who he thought would, at least, sympathize with them 
 in their attack. Senator Preston,^ on the other hand, was pro- 
 verbially slow in such matters. He and his colleague, Mr. Calhoun, 
 then occupied front seats, side by side, and directly below the chair ; 
 whilst Mr. Wilkins' seat was in the rear. Preston, having read and 
 examined the memorial at the clerk's desk, which was before him, 
 said he desired to be informed how this paper got before the Senate. 
 The Vice President replied that it had been transmitted to him, un- 
 
 1 John Tyler. Although against the removal of the deposits Tyler was opposed to the 
 bank. 
 ''William C. Preston. 
 
AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF MAKTIIT VAN BtTREK. 76? 
 
 der cover of a letter, in which he was requested to lay the enclosure 
 before the Senate and directed the letter to be read, which was done 
 accordingly. Mr. Preston who was obviously under the impression 
 that the erasure had been made by me, desired to make but a single 
 remark. He was astonished at the presentation of this petition. He 
 considered the right of petition to be a sacred right, and therefore to 
 be protected against changing or remodelling of any petitions sent 
 to the Senate for presentation. When the presiding officer, or any 
 officer of the Senate was in possession of docwments to he submitted 
 to " the Senate, he should not he permitted, with his assent, to erase 
 or Tmdtilate them. This is all he is reported to have said. In these 
 observations he was, beyond all doubt, under the full belief that the 
 alteration in the memorial, was my act ; and was probably intended to 
 serve as a prelude to some such attention on the part of the Senate, 
 as that which had been forshadowed by Webster in his opening 
 speech, though that suggestion had doubtless been framed with 
 reference to a different state of things. If Mr. Webster had not been 
 deprived, by the course I pursued, of his foundation facts, he would 
 have been ready with his resolution of censure. But he was too 
 cunning to commit himself to such a movement on such shallow pre- 
 tenses, as those advanced by the former. He stood ready to support 
 him by side wind blows, as he did to the end, and Mr. Clay for a 
 while; but both of them kept themselves clear of any such commit- 
 ments. 
 
 Years had elapsed since Mr. Calhoun's eyes and mine had de- 
 liberately rested upon each other. Assuming that he thought as 
 Preston did in regard to the author of the erasure, and we, being only 
 a few feet from each other, I eyed him attentively, and he gazed at 
 me in return, with a smile upon his countenance, which seemed abso- 
 lutely demoniac. It was one which conveyed the expression as plainly 
 as words could have made it, " We have you now." From the bottom 
 of my heart I pitied him. It was not in my nature to see a counte- 
 nance, which I had so often looked upon with pleasure, so disfigured. 
 My regret was perhaps less restrained, from knowing how soon his 
 sanguine, and obviously malevolent expectations were destined to be 
 easily disappointed. 
 
 Mr. AVilkins followed Preston. He had struggled for the floor 
 before, but I had awarded it to Mr. Preston — a decision to which it 
 was apparent that my friends demurred. Wilkins narrated all the 
 circumstances correctly, including the communication I had made to 
 him ; and assigned the reason upon which he and his colleagues had 
 proceeded in striking out the paragraph to which I had objected — did 
 
 ° MS. VII, p. 70. 
 
768 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 full justice to the motives and also to the character and standing, 
 political and personal, of those who had taken part in its proceedings. 
 His statement removed, as well in point of fact as of principle, 
 every pretence of complaint of the agency that I had exercised in 
 the affair. Seeing that he had commenced his attack upon me under 
 a mistaken view of the facts, Mr, Preston owed it to himself to 
 have abandoned it, in the frank and manly manner and temper, in 
 which he sometimes acted, and in which, as a general rule he pre- 
 ferred to act. But the temptation to push on the assault was too 
 strong to be resisted by so unskilful a politician as Mr. Preston. 
 He had just taken his seat, as the colleague of Mr. Calhoun, had been 
 elected imder the influence of those feelings of personal hostility 
 against myself then common with a particular class of the public 
 men of South Carolina, and was anxious to distinguish himself in 
 the business of hunting down a man, whose political overthrow lay 
 so near the hearts of many of her sons. He had been promised a 
 field for the display of his talents in that direction on this occasion, 
 but the feast to which he had been invited, had fallen through in 
 two important particulars — one before, and one after he had en- 
 tered the arena. I had not presented the memorial in its objectiona- 
 ble shape, as was expected, nor had I made the erasure, upon which 
 he seized in the first moments of his disappointment. Under these 
 adverse circumstances, he was driven to carry on the war upon 
 the grossly untenable and to the Senate itself, suicidal assumption, 
 that when a paper was addressed to its President, with a request 
 that it should be laid before the Senate, that paper became ipso facto 
 the property of that body, and could not be withheld from its con- 
 sideration; and that, whilst every member, had a right to comply 
 with a request to present it or refuse to do so, as he in his discretion 
 should think to be most consistent with his duty to his constituents 
 and the body to which he belonged, the President of the body pos- 
 sessed no such discretion and was bound to present to them what- 
 ever was sent to him for that purpose however abusive of them or 
 defamatory of himself ; and that I had therefore committed a great 
 offence in submitting a memorial of the citizens of Pennsylvania 
 to the discretion of the Senators of that state, with the view and 
 for the purposes which have been stated. Having taken that ground, 
 he made in support of his proposition one of the ore roMndo 
 speeches, in which he called into action all the eloquence and declama- 
 tion for which he was distinguished; but did not succeed in satis- 
 fying anybody else, nor, as it appeared to me, himself either, that 
 he had succeeded in proving anything beyond the extent of his 
 own zeal in the anti-administration and anti-Van Buren cause. But, 
 it was not at the moment, nor has it ever been, clear to my mind 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 769 
 
 that there was, even then, in the breast of the Speaker any consid- 
 erable share of personal hatred towards the principal subject of 
 his vituperation. The Prestons are a peculiar race. Having a large 
 share of the bulldog spirit in their composition, they never fail to 
 shew it under excitement ; but they are at the same time not less 
 sparingly endowed with the generous impulses of that noble mastiff 
 which seldom fail to show themselves when their passions are at 
 rest. I have witnessed the action of these varying dispositions in 
 the subject of my remark on more than one occasion. In this very 
 matter, when the subject came again before the Senate, in conse- 
 quence of the return of the memorial hj the honest and stubborn 
 Grermans of old York ; and when time and reflection had made him 
 sensible of the preposterous grounds, he had, under the excitement 
 of the moment, been led to assume, he made a reasonable atonement 
 for his former excesses. But a still stronger illustration of this 
 feeling occurred in the progress of our personal intercourse, which 
 though it happened long afterwards, may as well be mentioned 
 here. Few will have forgotten the gold spoon story, which cut so 
 conspicuous a figure and is supposed to have exerted so large an 
 influence upon the Presidential canvass of 1840. 
 
 As far back as the commencement of Mr. Monroe's administration, 
 a quantity of very extravagant French furniture was purchased for 
 the Presidential mansion, through the agency of Consul Lee,^ himself 
 an ostentatious man ; and among the rest, a parcel of spoons, which 
 were alleged to be of pure gold. These, with other portions of that 
 furniture, were still at the White House in my time. I was charged 
 with having purchased them, and the alleged extravagance made 
 matter of accusation against me in the canvass. Several prominent 
 Whig politicians who were perfectly conversant with the facts, so 
 far forgot themselves as to introduce the subject in their election- 
 eering speeches, with the exaggerations and falsifications that had 
 been attached to the subject by their tools, and Mr. Preston was^ un- 
 happily, one of that number. Circumstances had occurred in our 
 social relations, which in addition to the favorable opinion I had 
 formed of his character, more particularly in all that related to the 
 courtesies of life, made this course, on his part, particularly annoy- 
 ing. I therefore determined to make him an exception to my gen- 
 eral course, by noticing the matter, but to do it in a way which 
 whilst it should impress him with a sense of my feelings upon the 
 subject should not be inconsistent with the respect I had always felt 
 for him, and the decorum that was due to our relative positions. 
 When he called, on the first day of the session, to pay his respects, 
 
 1 William Lee, Consul at B<?r4eaus, 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 49 
 
770 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 as was his invariable habit, he found me in the office, surrounded by 
 some dozen friends engaged in a lively conversation, and one or two 
 doing business with me. I received him with unaffected respect, but 
 sufficiently deficient in that cheerful cordiality, which had generally 
 marked our intercourse, to show him that I felt the unhandsome 
 treatment I had received at his hands, but might not have served to 
 make our interview quite as abrupt, as he saw fit to render it, if he 
 had not approached me with a deep consciousness of the impro- 
 priety of the course he had pursued towards me, uppermost in his 
 mind. He took the chair, to which I invited him, but occupied it only 
 long enough to allow me to remark upon the unusual severity of the 
 weather, then arose, made me a formal bow, and retired. His sudden 
 exit attracted the attention of the company. Senator Koane of 
 Virginia, in particular, exclaimed, " What has become of Preston — 
 what made him leave so soon? " One or two others adverted to the 
 matter, but no one even suspected that anything of an unpleasant 
 nature had occurred. Nothing was therefore said which made it nec- 
 essary for me to explain and I resumed the business from which his 
 visit had diverted me, and my friends their chat. If the matter had 
 been left to me, the extraordinary circumstance would not have again 
 been referred to, except perhaps, with the members of my family, 
 but Col. Preston thought and acted differently. To the first friend 
 he met, on the Avenue, he said, as I was thereafter informed : 
 
 " Well, I have been to pay my respects to the President. He received me with 
 all the respect that was due to a Senator of the United States. Spoke of the 
 coldness of the weather, and treated and received me In a way that was a 
 
 d deal colder than the weather," and added, " But that is not the worst of 
 
 it; he was perfectly right, and treated me no worse than I have deserved." 
 "How so?" "Why, I was goose enough, during the recent canvass to make 
 myself a party in one of my Virginia speeches to the absurd gold spoon story — a 
 step, of which I was heartily ashamed, the moment I had done it, and have been 
 so ever since." 
 
 And ever afterwards, he spoke of our interview to his friends and 
 others, in the same unreserved way. It so happened that we never 
 met again ; but my eldest son who married an intimate friend of his 
 family, visited him frequently in South Carolina, and through him 
 we often talked at each other in a way altogether respectful and 
 "kindly. Such was the real character of my feelings towards him; 
 and I have never doubted that they were, in the main, sincerely re- 
 ciprocated by him to the day of his death. 
 
 But, in respect to the erasure impeachment, there was, for the 
 moment, no let up on his part; he, on the contrary, instigated and 
 aided in keeping on foot a debate on the untenable proposition he 
 had advanced, in which a majority of the Senators participated, 
 
 ° MS. VII, p. 76. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 0¥ MARTIN VAN BUREN. 771 
 
 which having commenced early in the day lasted until an advanced 
 hour in the evening, and was, as Niles said in his Weekly Register, 
 " listened to, by one of the most closely packed auditories that ever 
 filled the galleries (and he might have added the floor too) of the 
 Senate." 
 
 During all this time I was literally on trial. The reader has 
 seen for what — not certainly for the offence upon which it was 
 intended that I should be arraigned; as I had shewn too just a sense 
 of what was becoming in me to do, to take the step for which that 
 arraignment was hoped to be set up as a justification. But, upon a 
 charge trumped up on the spur of the occasion, because the leaders 
 of the opposition, had promised their friends a sort of auto da fe 
 and were determined neither to disappoint them, nor to be disap- 
 pointed themselves, in any attempt, at least, to disparage me for 
 which there was supposed to exist the slightest pretence. Occur- 
 rences not destitute of interest presented themselves in the course of 
 the day the most of which must pass unnoticed. The Congress 
 going ladies whose name was legion apprised that a scene was ex- 
 pected to come off, a species of information, which was never be- 
 yond their reach, were early in the seats allotted to them, and in 
 many that were not. The Senate galleries were also early filled to 
 the exclusion, in a great measure, of sober minded spectators, by 
 the outside representatives of the bank, distinguished in the streets 
 by the appellation of "bank bullies." The opposition members of 
 the House, apprised of what was to be done, dropped off, one after 
 another, and repaired to the Senate chamber. Friends of the admin- 
 istration, even, impelled by an uncontrollable curiosity, followed 
 suit, in considerable numbers, until it was found difficult to pre- 
 serve a quorum and an early adjournment consequently effected. 
 
 The Senate chamber was literally swamped by the currents that 
 were turned upon it from these sources and willing that my oppo- 
 nents should have a full swing, I directed our worthy doorkeeper, the 
 well known and long remembered Judge Haight ^ to light the lamps 
 the moment there was a necessity for it, which he did not fail to do. 
 
 Every thing being thus gorgeously arranged, grave Senators mak- 
 ing vehement speeches about nothing; but not the less successful in 
 drawing forth testimonials of admiration and subdued applause from 
 a giddy and excited audience; we were presented with a full dress 
 exhibition of the modiis operandi, through the influence of which the 
 bank hoped to carry away from their duty to their constituents 
 enough of the weak and the venal to undermine and finally overthrow 
 the majority against its pretensions in the House of Eepresentatives — 
 exhibitions, which occurred, sometimes daily, but seldom at greater 
 
 1 Stephen Haight, assistant doorkeeper. 
 
772 AMERICAN HISTOEICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 intervals than twice a week, during the principal part of that dis- 
 reputable session. Exhibitions, which were at the time the source of 
 no slight consolation to those who were designed to be injured by 
 them, because we believed, and that on good grounds, that whilst these 
 things were going on at Washington, there were all the while thou- 
 sands upon thousands, in every quarter of the country, sincere friends 
 to our institutions and desirous to see them maintained in their "purity 
 and simplicity, who mourned over these excesses and determined, at 
 the proper time, to hold their authors to a rigid and severe responsi- 
 bility. The wonder to me was, that men like Clay, Webster and Cal- 
 houn did not foresee that such would be — ^must be the case, if the 
 American people remained true to themselves. But all such reflec- 
 tions were smothered in the reciprocal excitements that these political 
 debaucheries produced upon those engaged in them, or were drowned 
 in the dinners and party going dissipations, which had never before 
 been so prevalent or half so animated at Washington. Mr. Clay, 
 becoming convinced that the particular proceeding on foot, was doing 
 them no good, not on account of the array, which I have described, 
 for strange to say, that was to his taste, but on the ground of the 
 utterly baseless character of the position which Preston had taken, 
 and the absence of even a decent pretence for the persevering assault 
 that was made upon me, resorted to one of his dexterous parliamen- 
 tary movements to extricate his party from the dilemma in which it 
 had been placed. To this end, he approached towards the chair, and, 
 in his smooth, seemingly friendly and well digested terms, suggested 
 the propriety of passing the subject over, till the next morning; to 
 give, as he said, the chair a better opportunity to look inta the matter, 
 with more deliberation than that which had yet been allowed him, and 
 adopt such a course then, as he should judge advisable. My particu- 
 lar friends in the body, had mainly gathered round Mr. Forsyth's seat, 
 where they kept very quiet, taking no further part in the debate, than 
 was sufficient to preclude the idea of abandoning, in any respect, the 
 ground upon which I had acted; but prepared for any duty. Not 
 one of them had, throughout the day, either approached the chair, 
 or communicated with me, in any form, other than such as were 
 addressed to it from their respective seats. They were, however, as 
 I saw, alarmed, lest I might be induced to acquiesce in Mr. Clay's 
 suggestion, which they believed to be a trap set for me, by him, 
 designed to make a drawn battle of the affair by the postponement 
 for the day, to be laid aside in the morning — an opinion in which, 
 they soon saw, I fully participated. I thanked Mr. Clay for his 
 polite suggestion, but assured him and the Senate, that I wanted no 
 time, either to form, or to prepare for an expression of my opinion 
 upon every question which any Senator might think grew out of the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 773 
 
 subject, as it stood. That I was therefore opposed to delay of any 
 kind, would wait patiently the action of the body, and after every 
 Senator had been allowed an opportunity to say all that he desired 
 upon the subject, the Chair would submit its own views upon so much 
 of it, as he should deem necessary to notice. Satisfied by these re- 
 marks that I understood the game of our opponents, in all respects, 
 and was in no danger of being taken in by their civilities, my friends 
 obviously dismissed from their minds all concern in regard to the 
 result. The venerable Ex-President Adams stood below the chair 
 from nearly the beginning to the close of the proceedings, a period of 
 seyeral hours, a watchful and seemingly interested spectator of the 
 scene. I invited him to take a seat with me on the platform, which 
 he respectfully and kindly declined, then caused a chair to be placed 
 near him which he did not occupy, because he could, as he told the 
 messenger, see better as he stood. In that position he remained till 
 the adjournment, certainly the most imperturbable and apparently 
 the least exhausted person of the entire assemblage. 
 
 Mr. Webster, at a late period in the discussion, renewed Mr. Clay's 
 attempt to get rid of the subject in a side way. His suggestions, as 
 might be expected, were of a character far less entitled to respect 
 than those of the former gentlemjm, and were therefore less cour- 
 teously received. Entirely conscious of the entire security of my 
 position, I had but little to think about and occupied some of my 
 unemployed time in speculations upon the appearance as well of the 
 Senatorial actors in the scene, as of the various classes of spectators, 
 with which every nook and corner of the chamber was filled. The 
 seats of my friend, Thomas W. Ludlow Esq. of New York, long 
 familiarly known and esteemed by all who were thus favored, by the 
 name of Tom Ludlow ; and his very intelligent and sensible lady, 
 were so open to my observation, and my recollection of the interest 
 they took in the scene, is even at this late day, so vivid, that I cannot 
 withhold a brief notice of the excitement they evinced. They were, 
 accidentally, early in their places and continued in them to the end, 
 obviously without thinking of their dinners ; not a slight matter to 
 persons who were so favorably known as the patrons of good living, 
 and would, to all appearance, have remained 'till morning, if that 
 had been necessary to enable them to see the matter out. One or the 
 other was constantly standing to make sure that nothing should 
 escape them. Their oft repeated glances at me, as if to see how I 
 stood it, would, of itself, have been sufficient, or if I had been ignor- 
 ant of the depth and disinterestedness of their friendship, to satisfy 
 me of the deep interest they took in the proceedings and of their 
 apprehension that something very injurious to me might grow out 
 of the matter. As I anticipated, when I reached the vestibule, I met 
 
774 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 my relieved friends and received their earnest congratulations on the 
 satisfactory termination of the affair. The contrast between the 
 appearance and action of my friends, and those of the accusing Sen- 
 ators was very striking. Whilst the latter, throughout that long 
 sitting, seemed restless, excited and passionate — occupied the floor 
 more than three fourths of the time — ^making vehement speeches, 
 signifying nothing; the former, to use Senator Frelinghuysen's cele- 
 brated remark in respect to Mr. Biddle, seemed " as calm as a sum- 
 mer's morning." Conscious that no harm had been done by any body, 
 to any person, or thing, that the clamor that was raised about my 
 action in the matter was simply absurd, and satisfied that every 
 fairminded ° man, including most of the assailing Senators them- 
 selves, would in the end, see the matter in that light, my discreet 
 friends spoke but seldom, and then briefly, dispassionately and to the 
 point. This difference could be easily accounted for. Adroit men, 
 expert actors, experienced in public life and conversant with the ways 
 of the world, may sometimes succeed in concealing from those in 
 whose presence they are acting, the imworthiness of the motives by 
 which they are influenced, but they can never hide it from them- 
 selves. There is in the breasts of even the worst of men a monitor, 
 which keeps the truth before then^ ever, and ruffles their complacency, 
 turn which way they will. It is this conviction and the apprehension, 
 that being known to them, it is also seen by others, by which they are 
 disturbed. Hence the disparity in the conduct and appearances of 
 the respective actors in those extraordinary scenes. 
 
 Though usually slow in arriving at correct conclusions on such 
 points all the leaders of the opposition saw, in the sequel, that they 
 were engaged in a losing concern, and became anxious to get rid of 
 the subject. Mr. Clay left his seat, on one of his snuff taking expedi- 
 tions, his common resort, when anything was going on, of which he 
 wished to wash his hands, and occupied his time in badinage and the 
 exercise of his skill in repartee with my friends, Wright and For- 
 syth, a repartee in which they frequently indulged. As soon there- 
 fore as they felt themselves safe in assuming that their rank and file 
 had been allowed sufficient time to have their respective says, the 
 signal for the close of the debate was given. After asking whether 
 any other Senator wished to address the- chair, and receiving no re- 
 sponse, I made them the address which will be found in the Congres- 
 sional Globe, and the drift of which will be made sufficiently apparent 
 by the following extract : 
 
 The subject matter out of which the present question has arisen presents two 
 points for decision ; that is to say, f.rst, Does a communication intended to be 
 laid before the Senate through the medium of the Presiding Officer, from the 
 
 ■ MS. VII, p. 80. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. 775 
 
 inoment of its reception by the Oliair, become, ipso facto, as is contained, the 
 property and part of the archives of the Senate, so as to deprive the Chair of 
 all discretion, as to the disposition to be made of it, without the approbation 
 of the body? And if that be not the case, then, secondly. Under ■wh&t responsi- 
 bility does the Chair rest to the Senate, in regard to the character of the com- 
 munications which it suffers to reach the body through its agency? These are 
 certainly questions of a very grave character, well deserving the deliberate con- 
 sideration of the Senate. They are questions in respect to which there would 
 seem to be a diversity of opinion among the members ; and it is certainly far 
 from being the intention of the Chair to pass, in this form, upon the correctness' 
 of the conflicting deductions which have, in this respect, been drawn from the 
 premises before us, by honorable Senators. Its only purpose is to state its 
 own views, and, in doing so, it feels that it may safely assume, that if it be 
 correct to say that the Chair has no rightful authority over communications 
 addressed to it for the use of the Senate ; no right to return them to those from 
 whom they came; to deliver them over to their representatives on this floor, 
 and withhold them from the Senate, then most clearly the Chair cannot be 
 held responsible for the contents of any paper thus presented. It can only be 
 necessary to state this proposition, to render the incongruity and injustice of the 
 opposing pretension obvious to the meanest capacity, and to secure its rejection 
 by every unprejudiced mind. What then is the true rule as to the power and 
 duties of the Chair, in regard to the disposition of papers addressed to it with 
 a view to their submission to the Senate? Could the Chair allow itself to con- 
 sult its convenience only, and to relieve itself from responsibility, there is no 
 rule that could be suggested, by which those objects could be more efEectually 
 accomplished, than that which has been contended for — ^by which its office, in 
 this respect, is converted into one of a purely ministerial character, and by 
 which every paper received by it for the use of the Senate, is at once converted 
 into a portion of the Senatorial archives. But the Chair has not been able to 
 satisfy itself, that It could thus be relieved from a duty which it owed to the 
 Senate. It has, on the contrary, considered it to be a portion of that duty to 
 withhold such communications as, in the exercise of its best discretion, it con- 
 sidered to be so framed, as to render their presentation inconsistent with the 
 respect due to the Senate, as weU as such as were, from other considerations, 
 justly subject to the operation of the same rule. Scarcely a week passes, in 
 which communications are not received by the Chair, with a request to have them 
 laid before the Senate, in respect to which it is apparent that their authors are 
 suffering under mental aberrations. 
 
 Communications of this sort, of which many are constantly in the possession 
 of the Chair, would, on the supposition referred to, be entitled to the disposi- 
 tion which is claimed for the itaper under consideration. But the exercise ot 
 the discretion referred to has not been confined by the Chair to papers ot 
 this description, which might justly be regarded as extreme cases. It has, 
 on the contrary, felt it to be within the line of its duty, to withhold from the 
 Senate communications which, however high and sound the source from which 
 they emanated, contained reflections upon the Senate, plainly derogatory to 
 its honor. It is but a few weeks since, that the Chair received, with a 
 request to lay them before the Senate, the proceedings of a public meeting 
 held in the city of Philadelphia, which, it was obvious, had been a very large 
 one, and which the Chair does not doubt to have been also very respectable, 
 in which the severest censure was denounced against this body, for an act 
 in which the present incumbent of the Chair happened to have had a par- 
 ticular interest. Under the influence of the sense of duty which has been 
 
776 AMERICAN HISTOKICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 expressed, the Chair did not hesitate to deliver the paper to one o( the 
 Senators from that State, with a request that it should be respectfully 
 returned to the source from which It had come, with the information that the 
 Chair felt it to be inconsistent with Its duty to lay a paper containing such 
 matter before the Senate. The Chair would have preferred In this, as it 
 would in every similar case, to have pursued the course authorized by the 
 rules of the Senate, and which has heretofore, in other respects, been so 
 extensively adopted, of taking the sense of the Senate, in the first instance, 
 upon the propriety of receiving the paper in question. But It has hitherto 
 appeared to the Chair, that that could not well be done without exposing 
 the Senate to the indignity against which the discretion exercised by the 
 Chair was calculated to protect it, viz. the indignity of having a paper read 
 to it which reflected upon its character and motives.^ 
 
 That the talented men who lent themselves to this second and 
 equally unfounded assault upon a political opponent, against whom 
 they had no ground for hostility other than political rivalry, in ad- 
 dition to its injustice, committed a grievous error as it respected 
 themselves, soon became obvious to all. 
 
 The course which might, on the part of his co-adjutors, be re- 
 garded by their friends in the subdued light of an error in partisan 
 warfare, in regard to Mr. Webster, bore a far worse aspect, as long as 
 that gentleman suspected me of being willing to. present to the 
 Senate, in the character of its presiding officer, a memorial contain- 
 ing an impeachment of his conduct, for the avowal of which, by a 
 Senator in his place, it would have been my duty to have called that 
 Senator to order — ^and still more so, if he credited the slanderous 
 suspicions, promulgated by Senator Poindexter, no one could or 
 would have blamed him for meditating, and if it had so turned 
 out, for prosecuting with all his power the severest measures of re- 
 taliation. But in proportion to the vigor of his assault under 
 such circumstances should have been the measure of his forbearance, 
 when he found that such suspicions were not only without the 
 shadow of foundation but that I had, without consulting him, en- 
 tered upon active measures to prevent its presentation, and satis- 
 fied, as he doubtless was of my sincerity in that movement, he owed 
 it to me, to himself and to his position to have abandoned at the 
 instant, cordially and cheerfully the hostile proceedings upon which 
 he was bent. What further effect the consciousness of the injus- 
 tice he had done me, was calculated to produce in ingenuous minds 
 and what more he might have said or done in the premises, was 
 of course left to his own sense of propriety. But to have received 
 my friendly communication in the way .1 have described, one too 
 abhorrent to my feelings at the moment, and still too fresh in any 
 recollection to admit of mistake in the account I have given of it, 
 
 ^The MS. refers to the Congressional Globe of 1834, pp. 24.5-246, In Van Biiren's 
 library as marked. The above extract Is selected from the Glolje for 1834, Mar. 22, Vol. 
 1, No. 16, pp. 245-240. 
 
AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF MAETIlf VAN" BITreN. 777 
 
 to have separated from me with the full knowledge of my dispo- 
 sitions not only liberal but friendly, yet determined to deal with 
 me in a spirit of unabated hostility and a determination to carry 
 out his first views, embarrassed only by the obstacles which the 
 liberality of my course had interposed to the full gratification of 
 his vindictive designs, crowned the imworthiness of which no epithets 
 could aggravate. 
 
 But this was not the most delicate of the various relations in 
 which Mr. Webster stood towards these proceedings. There was, 
 unhappily another, the true character and bearings of which are 
 indispensable to a fair consideration of the merits or demerits of 
 all who participated in them. They occurred at the most excited 
 period of the- memorable struggle of the bank of the United States 
 for an extension of its charter whilst the Country in general and 
 York county in particular were literally ringing with accusations 
 and denunciation of the corrupt uses of its funds by that institution 
 to the furtherance of that object. 
 
 President Jackson, who stood at the head of the opposition to a 
 compliance with its wishes was less dependent than others for cor- 
 rect information in respect to its proceedings on account of access 
 to that portion of the board of directors which represented the Gov- 
 ernment, the selection of which was made by himself. In the vigi- 
 lant watch which he kept upon all its movements, its dealings 
 with members of Congress occupied the front ground, and the fear- 
 less and independent Editor of the Globe, Mr. Blair, was not slow 
 or backward in arraigning at the bar of the people, those whom 
 either the Executive or himself had, as they thought, good reason 
 to suspect of participating in the wages of corruption. The most 
 prominent among those who were thus placed before the country 
 and against whom the charges of the Globe were specific, were 
 George Poindexter and Daniel Webster. Both, defended themselves 
 against these charges, Poindexter under his own name, Webster 
 through the instrumentality of a Boston editor, and it so happened 
 that the defences in both cases were of the same general character, 
 viz: that the monies they had received from the bank were the 
 avails of regular discounts of notes and drafts drawn in the course 
 of business and in no way connected with any matter or inducement 
 like that imputed to them. 
 
 The truth or falsehood of the charges which were thus exhibited 
 against Mr. Poindexter are not intended to be enquired into, or 
 passed upon here. The matter was, at the time, discussed at large in 
 the public papers and proof produced, or referred to on both sides. 
 Those who have any curiosity on the subject will find the subject 
 fully canvassed in the papers of the day and can judge for them- 
 selves. In respect to Mr. Webster's case, the same course could not, with 
 
778 AMEKICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOlir. 
 
 equal propriety be pursued. The people of York county had equal 
 access with others to what was said and published upon the sub- 
 ject of his guilt or innocence in the matter referred to, more so, 
 indeed, than many other portions of the country, inasmuch as their 
 state was the seat of the bank, and was thus rendered the focus of 
 most that was said and done upon the exciting subject. They were 
 of course proportionally better informed as they thought of the 
 grounds upon which these imputations upon Mr. Webster rested. 
 They believed them to be well founded and felt it their duty to 
 assume the responsibility of a public expression of their convictions, 
 but selected a mode for giving publicity to their accusations which 
 was inadmissible for reasons in no way affecting the guilt or inno- 
 cence of Mr. Webster in the matter. Their proceedings were there- 
 fore arrested, and the charges suppressed as has been stated. They 
 were, nevertheless, if not principally through Mr. Webster's instru- 
 mentality, certainly with his active cooperation, accused in the 
 Senate, and before the Country, with being the authors of false and 
 slanderous charges against him. No statement of the proceedings I 
 have described would therefore be just to all the parties, which did not 
 also give at least a general view of the circumstances as they were then 
 presented to the public in relation to the charges against Mr. Webster. 
 One of the Boston papers, assuming to speak by Mr. Webster's 
 authority — ^the correctness of which was never, in any .way, brought 
 in doubt — said : 
 
 We are authorized to say that since Mr. Webster's residence in Boston, bills, 
 acceptances, and other paper bearing his name, have been discounted at the 
 bank of the U. States, more or less frequently every year, in the ordinary way 
 of business, as at other banks, and never otherwise ; and that no special loan 
 was ever made to him, at any time by the bank, or any of its officers to the 
 amount of a single dollar. 
 
 To this defence, the Washington Globe, on the 23rd of August, 
 1832, replied as follows : 
 
 " In page 424 of the Minority Report, may be found a call on the President 
 of the Bank for " a statement of the loans made by the Bank and its branches 
 to members of Congress, editors of newspapers, or persons holding offloes under 
 the general Government.' 
 
 A statement of the loans made to members of Congress was furnished to the 
 Committee, after their return to Washington, laid on the Clerk's table with the 
 Majority Report, and sent to the printer. It was however suppressed, by what 
 means we know not. 
 
 Now we fearlessly >assert, that Mr. Webster was returned in that statement 
 as responsible, either as borrower or payer, at the Boston Branch for $22,000, 
 and at the principal Bank for $10,000. 
 
 Did not Mr. Webster leave Washington within two hours after he and Clay 
 received Benton's castigatlon, and the vote was taken upon the veto on Friday? 
 
 Did he not arrive in Philadelphia on Saturday evening? 
 
 ° MS. VII, p. 85. 
 
 1 Journal of the Select Committee to Investigate the Bank, p. 424 of House Report No. 
 460, 22(J Congress, 1st Session. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN VAN BURKN. 779 
 
 Had not President Blddle left PhlladeUihla for his country seat before Mr. 
 Webster's arrival; and did not Mr. Webster visit him there on Sunday? 
 
 Did he not on Monday procure from the Bank ten to fifteen thousand dollars? 
 
 Did he not get it early enough to leave Philadelphia for New York in the 
 steamboat, at 12 o'Cloek, M.? 
 
 We put to Mr. Webster's "by authority " press in Boston, the following ques- 
 tions : 
 
 " Was there any Board op Directors, or any Committee, authorised to lend 
 money, in session that morning; or was this money furnished by any other 
 authority than that of Nicholas Biddle, President of the Bank ; and if yea, by 
 what authority? 
 
 We should not put these questions, did we not firmly believe that every cir- 
 cumstance is true. The organ of Mr. Webster is called on to respond, which 
 can be done by the same authority to which he has already had access. Let us 
 have no special pleading about special loans &c. Has Mr. Webster this loan, be- 
 sides the $32,000 for which he was before responsible?" 
 
 To these interrogatories, growing as they did out of a discussion 
 commenced in Mr. Webster's defence by one of his friends — interroga- 
 tories which had been put in a form that admitted of their being an- 
 swered, if founded in error, without the least sacrifice of self respect 
 on his part, no response of any kind was made, either by Mr. Webster 
 or his friend. My own impression upon the subject would have 
 justified me in affirming that such was the case ; but as both the editor 
 and proprietor of that paper are still alive, I have applied to them 
 and they confirm my statement. 
 
 Where is the man, properly jealous of his reputation, who would 
 not, if the facts here so circumstantially detailed had ever occurred, 
 have hastened to give the lie to the whole story ; or who would not, if 
 the affair had been part of a bona fide business transaction have forth- 
 with given to the public the explanations of a course, even on that 
 supposition, most extraordinary and humiliating. For even under 
 such a view of the case, how revoltiiigly indelicate woi^ld it have been 
 to see any Senator, much more one occupying Mr. Webster's position 
 before the Country, as the leading supporter of the bank, following 
 up the close of one of the ablest speeches of his life and the rendition 
 of his vote in its favour, by starting off within the next two hours to 
 Philadelphia the seat of that institution, following its President to his 
 country seat on the Sabbath, and there, away from the bank, without 
 the intervention of a board of directors, or exchange committee, or 
 committee of any description receive at his hands a direction to the 
 officers of the bank, towards which he had placed himself in so delicate 
 a relation, to pay him out of bank hours so large a sum of money. 
 
 Could the discontinuance of Mr. Webster's defense against the 
 accusations of the Globe, and his omission to reply to these inter- 
 rogatories, be regarded in any other light, than that of a virtual 
 admission that the principal facts which are therein supposed to 
 have occurred, did actually take place? They were, as has already 
 bieen stated, put in a form to which no just exception could be taken ; 
 
780 AMEEICAlSr HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 and Mr. Webster, by allowing himself to be defended against simi- 
 lar charges, proceeding from the same source, precluded himself from 
 objecting to the credibility of his accuser, if there had ever been 
 room for any such exceptions. But how stood the case in that re- 
 gard ? They had been put forth by the State paper, the organ of the 
 Federal administration; the independent editor of which was him- 
 self a man of unblemished character, posseting the unbounded con- 
 fidence of the President of the U. States, with whom, as the head of 
 the Executive department of the Government, the bank was contend- 
 ing for a renewal of its charter; a department which possessed the 
 power and had exercised it to appoint a portion of the bank board of 
 directors, whose duty it was — a duty which they performed — ^to re- 
 port to the Executive all proceedings of the bank, of which they 
 thought he ought to be informed. Under such circumstances, state- 
 ments put forth by the well understood organ, that department might 
 well claim to be regarded as founded on the authority of a portion of 
 the board of directors. There were besides interests of the greatest 
 magnitude, which it was fair to presume would be promoted by a 
 successful exculpation of Mr. Webster from the imputations con- 
 veyed by these revelations. These interrogations appeared in the 
 State paper, less than three months before the Presidential election 
 of 1832, on the result of which, the fate of the bank was, on all sides, 
 supposed to depend. Both the bank and General Jackson, after 
 his veto, went to the Country with the understanding that the de- 
 cision of the people upon the issue which had thus been raised should 
 conclude the question, as to the extension of its charter. Mr. Webster 
 had been selected by the bank as its spokesman on that discussion 
 above all others, not even excepting Mr. Clay, and he had placed its 
 claims before the Country in a speech, of unsurpassed ability. The 
 bank relied mainly upon the influence which that speech was calcu- 
 lated to exert upon the public mind in its cause for the ultimate 
 success of its application. It was the plea on which it had virtually 
 consented that the great issue in which it had joined with the Presi- 
 dent, should be heard and determined. It was consequently scattered 
 through the country, as no speech had ever before been distributed. 
 Copies were stricken off by the million at the expense of the bank, 
 and the design was to bring it as nearly to every man's door as was 
 possible. This was done to an extent never before attempted. The 
 triors [jurors?] were to be the mass of the people — the farmers, 
 mechanics, and laboring men of every hue, in addition to the mer- 
 cantile and professional classes of whom the three former consti- 
 tuted a vast majority. The extent to which their decision would be 
 influenced by the opinion they should form of the purity, intergrity, 
 and disinterestedness of the author of this great performance, was 
 a point on which there could be no room for conflicting opinion3 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAETIIir VAN BUBEN. 781 
 
 among sensible men. If they were led to regard Him as a wise, dis- 
 interested and upright statesman whose only object was to assist them 
 in arriving at a correct conclusion in respect to a great public ques- 
 tion, by which the country had long been convulsed and which was 
 now to be brought to an end, that result could Hot fail to be in the 
 highest degree favorable to the bank. If, on the contrary, they 
 should have reason to suspect that he was a necessitous and un- 
 scrupulous politician, one, who under specious disguises, brought 
 his great mental power into market, and used the political power 
 which had been placed in his hands by his confiding constituents 
 for wise and beneficient public purposes, to the advancement of his 
 individual interests — to believe that he had been so lost to decency, 
 so indifferent to the respect of his countrymen, as to have acted, 
 after the speech which was submitted to them had been delivered 
 as he was, in those interrogatories, supposed to have acted, that great 
 effort would not exert more influence upon their decision than so 
 much waste paper. A man of Mr. Biddle's sagacity could not have 
 failed to see the matter in that light, and would have hastened to Mr. 
 Webster's exculpation, if there had not been a feature in the transac- 
 tion, by which silence was rendered the only safe course to be taken. 
 The circumstances alluded to, in the interrogatories, were nearly 
 all supposed to have occurred at, and in the neighborhood of Phila- 
 delphia, and whether they were truly or falsely set forth was pe- 
 culiarly within the cognisance of the President and officers of the 
 bank. Nothing therefore, could have been easier than to give them 
 the lie in detail, and thus overwhelm Mr. Webster's detractors, 
 among whom they could on that account with no small degree of 
 plausibility, have placed the President himself. How important 
 would such a triumph have been to the bank, and how embarrassing 
 to its opponents at that critical moment. Whatever may have 
 caused the omission, it is well known that no attempt to cause their 
 opponents" so great a discomfiture, was made by the bank or its po- 
 litical allies. The President and his Cabinet, the State paper and 
 the great party whose cause it sustained were left free to press upon 
 the people the inferences that naturally arose from Webster's silence 
 and the silence of the bank also upon the subject of these revelations, 
 through which if neither refuted nor explained, the character of its 
 selected standard bearer, as an upright and incorruptible man was 
 doomed to be blasted beyond redemption ; and the result of the great 
 contest was what might have been anticipated. Circumstances oc- 
 curred subsequently, but whilst the bank still in full blast, 
 
 which may perhaps throw some light upon the otherwise extraor- 
 dinary course pursued by Mr. Webster, Mr. Biddle and the bank 
 upon the occasion of which we have been speaking. 
 
 • MS. VII, p. 90. 
 
782 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 
 
 After the close of the panic session, and whilst the two great 
 parties of the country were preparing their issues for the succeed- 
 ing election then at hand, at which the Country was to pronounce 
 upon the acts and doings of that session and the conduct of the 
 bank, the subject of Mr. Webster's dealings with it was again 
 brought into view in the Extra Globe, edited and owned by the same 
 fearless partisans. Speaking at a time when the public mind was 
 yet alive to the whole subject as well of the $22,000 reported by the 
 Clayton Committee,^ as of the $10,000 to which the interrogatories 
 related, the Editor of that paper expressing himself in a way which 
 justified the assumption that his information was derived from the 
 government directors said : 
 
 For a portion of those loans to Mr. Webster, a man was taken as security, 
 who was notoriously insolvent, a defaulter to the bank at the time, who after- 
 wards compromised his debts in that institution, by securing or paying fifteen 
 or twenty cents on the dollar. 
 
 This charge which was also submitted to in silence, was not spe- 
 cifically applied to the $10,000 debt at the mother bank ; but the ex- 
 treme probability that such an occurrence could have happened at 
 the Boston branch ; and its being so much in harmony with the other 
 transactions by which the advance of the ten or fifteen thousand dol- 
 lars, obtained from Mr. Biddle at his country seat was characterized 
 leaves scarcely a doubt that such was their meaning — and if so, and 
 if the statements were well founded, we have here the explanation 
 of Mr. Biddle's persistent silence upon the subject. But be that as 
 it may, one thing is, I fear, morally certain, if the notes and pro- 
 fessed securities of the bank were reserved from the sale to the manu- 
 facturers of its archives by the ton, as waste paper, before referred 
 to, have been preserved, and but a tithe of the reports of the heavy 
 losses which that institution sustained from its loans to Mr. Webster, 
 on straw securities, so prevalent at the time of its total failure, and 
 then generally credited, be true, the note that was given for those 
 ten or fifteen thousand dollars, or its representative, equally worth- 
 less, will be found amongst them. If so, and without the slightest 
 personal knowledge upon the point, I feel as confident of the fact as I 
 do of my existence, farther explorations of the dusty labyrinth of a de- 
 funct bank parlor, to trace the real character of the principal transac- 
 tion, would seem to be superfluous, and the reader will decide whether, 
 in such an event, farther speculations in regard to the political ethics 
 or official purity of Daniel Webster would be equally useless.* 
 
 'Augustin S. Clayton, of Georgia. Majority report of the Select Committee to Inves- 
 tigate the Baiik, March 14, 1832. House Reports, No. 460. 22cl Congress, 1st Session. 
 
 2 From the rou^h notes and loose pages of Van Buren's first draft of the Autobiography 
 among the Van Buren Papers In the Library of Congress It Is evident that there was no 
 Intention, at the time, of carrying the autobiography beyond this point. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. B. plot, 181, 187, 576, 576». 
 
 Aberdeen, Barl of, 499, 528, 529. 
 
 Abolitionists, 138, 492. 
 
 Act (of 1802) to regulate trade, etc., with 
 Indians, 280. 
 
 Adams, Henry, History of the V. S., 56», 
 59n.. 
 
 Adams, John, 123, 139, 140, 179, 183, 188, 
 189, 190, 191, 434, 435 ; assailed by Ran- 
 dolph, 439, 440; character, 189, 190, 
 191 ; correspondence with Cunningham, 
 188m ; Franklin's opinion of, 191 ; opin- 
 ion of Franklin, 191 ; supported by Pat- 
 rick Henry, 433, 434, 435 ; Van Buren's 
 visit to, 188. 
 
 Adams, John, of Virginia, 436. 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, 108, 126, 141, 143, 
 145, 149, 150, 152, 153, 155, 157, 158, 
 159, 160, 162, 165, 181, 192, 193, 194, 
 19T, 198, 199, 200, 205, 219, 220, 233, 
 514, 515, 521, 522, 529, 534, 560, 575, 
 244, 253, 255, 278, 279, 282, 284, 293, 
 303, 306, 307, 398, 418, 421, 429, 511, 
 599, 666, 668, 710, 734, 742, 773; ad- 
 dress on Lafayette, 226m ; administra- 
 tion, 193, 199 ; capitalizes prejudice 
 against England to gain Presidency, 494, 
 495, 496 ; character, 203, 271, 272 ; colli- 
 sion with Senate on Panama mission, 
 201 ; election, 142, 152, 310 ; first an- 
 nual message, 195, 196; Fourth of July 
 oration, 495 ; friends politically pro- 
 scribed, 247 ; inaugural address, 194 ; In- 
 dian message, 283 ; Jaokson's feeling 
 against, 269, 270, 271 ; latitudlnarian 
 doctrines, 449 ; minister to Russia, 192 ; 
 personal relations with Jackson, 271 ; 
 Presidential candidacy, 116, 131 ; Van 
 Buren's opinion of, 192 ; Van Buren's op- 
 position to, 199 ; Van Buren's visit to, 
 269 ; warns Van Buren, 270. 
 
 Adams, Samuel, 188, 189. 
 
 Addington, Henry, letter to, 203. 
 
 African seizures, see Great Britain, seiz- 
 ures of American slave ships. 
 
 Alabama, Indians claim self-government 
 In, 277, 286. 
 
 Albany, N. T., Anti-nulllflcation meeting, 
 562, 563, 564 ; citizens' regard for Van 
 Buren, 227 ; postmastership, 125, 126, 
 234 ; Republicans, 126. 
 
 Albany Argus (The), 57, 61. 108, 139, 
 147, 196, 197 ; comment on N. T. legisla- 
 ture's report on Nullification proclama 
 tion, 553. 
 
 Albany county, N. Y., 105. 
 
 " Albany Regency," 113. 
 
 Alexander, Mark, 207. 
 
 Alien and Sedition laws, 190, 412, 414, 
 429, 440 ; Cooper's imprisonment, 159, 
 160.; Henry's support of, 433, 437 ; 
 Lyon's imprisonment, 439, 440; Madi- 
 son's report on, 302 ; Randolph's speech 
 against, 439. 
 
 Allen, Peter, contested election, 73. 
 
 Alley, Saul, 264, 547. 
 
 Althorp, Lord, Van Buren's opinion of, 476, 
 477. 
 
 " Ambroslad " articles, 41, 42, 43. 
 
 America, South, Independence, 306 ; re- 
 publics, 484. 
 
 American Board of Foreign Missions and 
 Indian question, 293. 
 
 American Citizen (newspaper), attacks 
 Spencer, 41, 43. 
 
 American Quarterly Review, 648. 
 
 "American System" (Clay's tariff), 411, 
 554, 555, 556, 559, 682. 
 
 Ames, Fisher, 313, 419. 
 
 Appointment, N. Y. Council of, 38, 39n, 
 66, 69, 70, 73, 76)1, 79, 80, 86n, 91, 92, 
 93, 94, 94m, 102n, 103, 103m, 174 ; abol- 
 ished, 106, 107 ; removes Van Buren, 
 89, 94». 
 
 Appointments, poltical, by Jackson, 249, 
 250; Van Buren's suggestions In N. Y., 
 107. 
 
 Appleton, Nathan, 658, 658m. 
 
 " Appeal " Calhoun's. See under Calhoun, 
 John C. 
 
 Appomatox River, Virginia, barons of, 431. 
 
 Archer, William S., 151, 567, 57*. 
 
 "Aristides," pamphlet, 109, 109». 
 
 Armstrong, John, 42, 43, 66, 67, 74. 
 
 Army, Provisional, 429. 
 
 Arnold, Benedict, 189. 
 
 Astor, John Jacob, 175. 
 
 Astronomical observatories, 195. 
 
 Attorney General of U. S., 258, 598, 606; 
 Butler for, 593 ; offered to McLane, 257. 
 
 Attorney. General of N. Y., 38, 42, 08, 69, 
 70, 71, 73, 174 ; appointment, 38, 39, 94n, 
 159 ; Van Buren's appointment, 224 ; Van 
 Buren's removal from, -92, 93, 94, 225. 
 
 783 
 
784 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Atwater, 
 
 Judge, 70. 
 
 Auctioneer officers. New York, 223. 
 Aukland, Lord, 457, 473 ; opinion o( Senate 
 rejection of Van Buren's nomination, 458. 
 Aurora (The), (Philadelphia), 183, 600. 
 Austria, 485. 
 
 B. 
 
 Baleh, Alfred, letters to, 367, 367n, 368. 
 
 Baldwin, Abraham, 415, 578. 
 
 Baldwin, Henry, 237, 237», 292, 292H. 
 
 Baltimore, Maryland, Conyention (of 1832), 
 584, 586, 587, 588, 591; (of 1840), 227; 
 State bank failure, 737. 
 
 Bank, National, 671 ; a disturbing ques- 
 tion from the beginning, 631. 
 
 Bank of North America, 28, 32, 45, 49 ; 
 bonus, 32, 44; bribery, 96, 110; mania, 
 36. 
 
 Bank, (First) U. S., controlling Influence 
 in Congress, 638. 
 
 Bank, (Second) U. S., 297, 299, 300, 312, 
 320, 363; 411, 605, 648, 700, 704, 709, 
 710 ; adherents in Congress, 659 ; aid to, 
 531, 593, 594, 705 ; aided In Senate, 713, 
 716, 717, 717n, 718, 719, 720, 723, 728, 
 731, 733, 779, 780 ; attempt to control 
 Government, 640, 641 ; attempt to con- 
 trol public opinion, 641, 6^2 ; campaign 
 aided by removal of deposits, 658 ; can- 
 didate for President of U. S., 626; 
 charged with bribery, 764, 777 ; charter, 
 275, 294, 424, 449, 510, 521, 531, 566, 
 593, 601, 603, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620, 
 
 621, 622, 623, 624, 628, 633, 636, 638, 
 646, 647, 655, 657, 658, 659, 662, 715, 
 728, 733, 777; claims credit for well- 
 regulated currency, 721 ; control of the 
 press, 658 ; controversy, 287, 294, 584, 
 G32, 683, 763, 777 ; corrupt use of funds, 
 124, 641, 642, 777, 778 ; criminal In- 
 trigues, 124 ; dealings with Members of 
 Congress, 777 ; defeated, 626, 627, 631 ; 
 difficulties of windlng^up its affairs, 621, 
 
 622, 647; directors, 642, 648, 649, 651, 
 057 ; directors empower president to use 
 Bank's funds, 648, 649, 651, 657; dis- 
 counts, 621 ; engineers the panic, 607, 
 640, 641, 642, 651, 651»l, 654, 655, 656, 
 659, 712, 741, 717, 719, 726, 727; ex- 
 change committee, 641, 642, 643, 644, 
 645, 647, 656 ; fears Jackson, 619 ; finan- 
 cial measures, 646, 646», 647, 649, 649», 
 650, 651, 651», 655, 656, 657; ^rench 
 indemnity case decided against, 649n ; 
 government directors, 641, 643, 649», 
 777 ; government directors refused Infor- 
 mation, 643, 648, 649 ; government stock 
 and deposits, 642 ; influence to turn Jack- 
 son from his course, 626 ; Investigation 
 of, 643 ; Investigation report of select 
 committee of House of Representatives, 
 778, 778», 782, 782m; Irving on, 610. 
 611 ; Jackson's attitude, 619 ; Jackson's 
 reelection a mandate to suppress, 657 ; 
 Jackson's remark about, 626 ; leadership 
 of afEalrs In Senate, 661, 662, 663, 664 ! 
 
 loan curtailment Independent of removal 
 of deposits, 656, 657 ; loans made to gov- 
 ernment officers, 778 ; mathematical state- 
 ment of condition, 652, 653 ; memorial, 
 721 ; menace to country In struggle for 
 renewal of charter, 628 ; newspaper sup- 
 port, 746, 748; opposition to, 183, 184, 
 184ra, 449, 619, 626, 628, 647, 656, 657, 
 733, 734, 766 ; opposition to Jackson, 
 449, 450, 531, 616 ; peoples' judgment on, 
 628, 640 ; plans frustrated, 758 ; plan of 
 campaign, 620, 621, 622, 623, 624, 636, 
 637, 638, 639, 640, 641, 642, 643, 645, 
 
 646, 647, 648, 650, 651, 651», 652, 653, 
 654, 655, 656, 657, 662, 687, 696, 704; 
 political advantage, 658 ; postponement of 
 payment of public debt, 645, 646, 647, 
 049 ; power given to its president, 641, 
 642, 643 ; power over Webster, 661 ; 
 preparations for struggle, 620, 621 ; 
 president of, 633, 647, 648, 649 ; See also 
 Blddle, Nicholas ; president's control of 
 funds, 633 ; pressure exerted by, 696 ; 
 pressure on State banks, 653, 654, 656 ; 
 publications, 648, 780 ; publishes and 
 distributes Webster's speech, 780 ; re- 
 fusal to abide by decision at the polls, 
 627, 632, 633 ; restoration of deposits, 
 717, 719, 721, 722; revelations of course 
 of, 604 ; " rule or ruin " policy, 627 ; 
 secret aiTaugement with Baring Bros., 
 645, 646, 647, 649 ; size of financial busi- 
 ness, 633 ; stock, 449, 642 ; strength in 
 Congress, 636, 638 ; supported by Su- 
 preme Court, 126.; tactics In Congress, 
 
 647, 678, 717, 726, 771, 777; Taney's re- 
 port on, 643, 643» ; unscrupulous meth- 
 ods, 719, 722, 726, 727 ; Van Buren's re- 
 view of controversy, 618, 619, 620, 621, 
 022, 623, 624, 636, 637, 638, 639, 640; 
 Webster's financial dealings with, 778, 
 779, 780, 781, 782. 
 
 Banks, monoply and failures in New York, 
 Van Buren's bill, 221. 
 
 Banks, State, 601, 602, 696, 725; curtail- 
 ment of loans, 653, 654, 656 ; pressure on 
 from U. S. Bank, 653, 654, 656 ; public 
 money deposited In, 603, 607. 
 
 Banks, of D. S., attempts to continue, 631. 
 
 Bankhead, Charles, 455. 
 
 Bankrupt law, 213, 214, 215, 217. 
 
 Barbour, Philip, 278, 299, 303, 308, 309, 
 522 ; desires Vice-Presidency, 584. 
 
 Baring Eros. & Co., secret agreement of 
 TJ. S. Bank with, 645, 646. 
 
 Barker, Jacob, 75 ; suggests elevation of 
 Van Buren to N. Y. Supreme bench, 
 90, 91. 
 
 Barnum, , 89n. 
 
 Barnwell Courthouse, S. C, Hammond's 
 speech at, 411, 411». 
 
 Barry, William T., 325, 325)i, 350, 350», 
 406, 508, 545, 581, 588, 589; character 
 and management of U. S. Post Office, 745. 
 
 Barstow, , 103». 
 
 Barton, David, 201n, 215. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 785 
 
 Bassett, John Spencer, Life of Andrew 
 Jackson, 388». 
 
 Bay, , 111. 
 
 Belknap, , 87. 
 
 Bell, John, elected Speaker of House of ftep- 
 resentatives, 226n ; interview with Van 
 Buren, 226n. 
 
 Bell, Samuel, 677. 
 
 Benson, Egbert, 18. 
 
 Benton, Jesse, 665ii. 
 
 Benton, Thomas H., 384, 410, 426, 504, 
 511, 513, 533, 534, 535, 643, 665, 669, 
 676, 708, 778 ; account of Clay, 535 ; let- 
 ter, 668 ; relationship to Clay, 665n, 668, 
 669 ; speech on the Bank, 733, 734 ; sup- 
 port of Jackson, 723 ; " Thirty Years 
 View," 115, 204, 367, 391, 392n, 393«, 
 535, 668. 
 
 Berrien, John Macpherson, 213, 213n, 214, 
 215, 216, 350, 350n, 352, 356, 357, 358, 
 359, 360, 361, 362 ; appointed Attorney 
 General, 257 ; letter to, 359 ; offered mis- 
 sion to England, 257 ; relations with Van 
 Buren, 216. 
 
 Bertrand, Marshal, 459. 
 
 Bibb, George M., 374, 454, 454«, 676, 751. 
 756 ; absent from Senate on vote on Van 
 Buren's nomination, 533. 
 
 Biddle, Charles John, 634. 
 
 Biddle, Nicholas, 617, 633, 634, . 636, 638, 
 644, 646, 647, 647m, 648, 657, 660, 661, 
 663, 683, 694, 704, 722, 736, 774r 781. 
 782 ; actions, 634, 648, 649 ; Clay's visit 
 to, 660, 664 ; engineers campaign by mail 
 against removal of deposits, 607 ; in- 
 fluence and power, 633, 634 ; interview 
 with Jackson, 619, 619» ; misundprstand- 
 ing of Jackson, 647re ; personal honesty, 
 650 ; Webster's visit to, 779. 
 
 Birdseye, , 106n. 
 
 Bishops, in House of Lords, and the Re- 
 form bill, 460, 461. 
 
 Black Sea, negotiation for open navigation 
 for American vessels, 257, 270. 
 
 Blair, Frank Preston, 321, 323, 358, 359, 
 377, 382, 532, 534, 535, 568, 571, 592, 
 601», 606, 607, 614, 667, 668, 751, 752, 
 777; feud with Clay, 667; informs Van 
 Buren of McLane's hostility, 569, 570 ; 
 Jackson's papers bequeathed to, 667 ; 
 letters, 607, 614, 669 ; letter to, 669 ; 
 regrets praise of McLane, 614 ; regrets 
 preventing resignations of Cass and Mc- 
 Lane, 608. 
 
 Blair, Mrs. Frank P., 667. 
 
 Bleeker, Harmanus, 429. 
 
 Bloodgood, Abraham, 547. 
 
 Bloodgood, DeWitt, 165. 
 
 Bloodgood, Francis A., 39n. 
 
 Bloom, Henry, 76n. 
 ^Boiling, Powhatan, 436. 
 
 Bonney, Catharina Van Rensselaer, Legacy 
 of Historical Gleanings, 125«. 
 
 Bonus bill, Calhoun's, 298, 299, 300, 328, 
 330, 331, 334. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 50 
 
 Boston, citizens meeting on nullification 
 proclamation, 547 ; mechanics' proceed- 
 ings prior to adoption of Constitution, 
 693, 694. 
 
 Boston Gazette (The), 680. 
 
 Boullgny, Dominique, 201n. 
 
 Bourbons, restoration of, 585. 
 
 Bowne, Walter, 76n, 103, 103n, 547, 579. 
 
 Braintree, House of, 190. 
 
 Branch, John, 211, 211n, 212, 215, 350, 
 350», 351, 352, 356, 358, 360, 361, 362. 
 
 Brent, Daniel, 421, 421n. 
 
 Bright, John, opinion of United States, 479. 
 
 Brockenborough, William, 259, 259n. 
 
 Broome county, N. T., 80. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, Van Buren's opinion of. 
 472, 473, 474, 475. 
 
 Brown, Bedford, 676 ; support of Jackson, 
 723. 
 
 Brown, James, 128 ; speech, 129. 
 
 Brown, Mrs. James, 128. 
 
 Bruyn, Johannes, 39>!. 
 
 Bryan, Mrs., 436. 
 
 Buchanan, James, 289, 495, 556, 556n, 597 ; 
 capitalizes prejudice against England to 
 gain Presidency, 496 ; conduct at Eng- 
 lish court, 497 ; envoy to England, 496, 
 497; on Webster and Clay, 662, 66:J, 
 663n. 
 
 Bucktall Bard, 94n. 
 
 Ducktall Bard, 04re. 
 
 Buel, .Tesse, 106". 
 
 Buel, , 61. 
 
 Buffalo and New Orleans road, 311. 
 
 Buren, town of, 10, 10«. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, 13, 21, 28, 32, 55, 109, 120; 
 charges against, 109« ; conversation with 
 Van Buren, 400 ; duel with Hamilton, 
 16, 29 ; Van Buren's relations with, 15. 
 
 " Burrites," 109. 
 
 Butler, Benjamin Franklin (of N, Y.), 536. 
 565, 597, 598, 605 ; approved for At- 
 torney Generalship by Van Buren, 593. 
 
 Cabinet, Jackson's, 231, 244, 246, 249, 269, 
 610, 614 ; appointments, 593, 594, 595 ; 
 changes, 596, 604, 606, 608 ; dinner, 348, 
 349, 350 ; disruption, 356, 520 ; Federal 
 tendencies in, 545, 546 ; meetings, 250, 
 251, 320 ; offer of place to Webster, 701, 
 706 ; paper on removal of deposits read 
 to, 601, eOln, 608, 737; reception, 351; 
 resignation, 356. 
 
 Cadwallader, Thomas, 647»i. 
 
 Calhoun, John C, 12, 27, 122, 124, 157, 
 169. 194, 199, 200, 204, 209, 210, 220, 
 240, 244, 2T8, 297, 303, 306, 307, 325, 
 345, 356, 364, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 
 374, 379, 380, 381, 382, 388, 389, 399, 
 410, 411, 415, 454, 608, 519m, 532, 533, 
 535, 561, 567, 568, 575, 576n, 617, 635, 
 652, 663, 666, 667, 670, 677, 685, 685», 
 701, 703, 707, 708, 709, 756, 757, 759, 
 
786 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 772, 766, 767, 768 ; " Appeal " pamphlet, 
 367, 377, 378, 379, 380, 383, 384, 389, 
 398, 569, 749, 750, 751, 752; appointed 
 Secretary of War, 300 ; approves appoint- 
 ment of Van Buren as Secretary of State, 
 517 ; attacked by Clay, 390, 391, 392 ; 
 attacks Van Buren, 675 ; Bank speech, 
 733 ; bill to repeal Force bill, 744 ; Bonus 
 bill, 298, 299, 300, 328, 330 ; breaks with 
 Adams' supporters, 514 ; charges against 
 Van Buren, 366, 367, 368, 384; charges 
 against Webster, 681, 682 ; coalition with 
 White, 225n; committed to nullification, 
 541 ; construction of U. S. Constitution, 
 .j13 ; contest with Jackson, 752 ; conver- 
 sation with Van Buren, 409 ; correspond- 
 once with Jackson, 366, 375, 376, 376n, 
 
 383, 384, 385, 386; debate with Clay, 
 392, 393« ; declines Van Buren's dinner 
 invitation and afterwards appears, 750 ; 
 disposition, 519 ; elected Vice President, 
 220, 514 ; Federal proclivities, 636 ; feud 
 with Clay, 554, 555, 560, 561; idea of 
 Jackson's purpose as to a successor, 504, 
 505 ; inconsistency on tariff, 411, 412 ; 
 Jackson's desire to arrest, 544 ; letter on 
 Jackson's Seminole War conduct, 506 ; let- 
 ters, 371, 374», 375, 37e», S81n, 514, 516 ; 
 nomination for President, 384, 393, 394 ; 
 
 " nomination for Vice President, 515, 516 ; 
 nullification scheme, 382, 395, 410, 541 ; 
 on Adams-Clay-Crawford-Jackson contest, 
 515 ; opposes the money power, 389, 390 ; 
 opposition to, 367 ; opposition to Jack- 
 son and his administration, 257, 663 ; 
 opposition to Van Buren, 513, 517, 518, 
 519. 520 ; originates Internal Improve- 
 ment policy, 411 ; personal relations with 
 Van Buren, 389, 390. 391, 392, 393, 394, 
 395, 513, 514, 534, 535, 749, 750, 753; 
 political principles, 513 ; political ruin, 
 751 ; Presidential candidacy, 116, 131, 
 
 384, 663 ; proniinclamento, 356 ; quarrel 
 with Crawford, 366, 367, 368. 369, 388; 
 quarrel with Jackson, 366, 367, 373, 374, 
 375, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, 384, 388, 
 410, 505, 506, 520, 749 ; reaches the nul- 
 lification Idea, 410 ; report on Internal 
 Improvements, 300, 300n ; responsibility 
 for starting Idea of rejecting Van Buren's 
 nomination to England, 512, 513 ; respon- 
 sibility for U. S. Bank, 411 ; selects Jef- 
 ferson's birthday dinner to launch nulli- 
 fication, 413 ; severs friendship with 
 Jackson, 749 ; successor to Jackson, 504 ; 
 tariff, 409, 410, 411, 412 ; toast at nulli- 
 fication dinner, 416; Webster's remarks 
 on, 682. 
 
 Callender, James Thomas, 156 ; charges 
 against Hamilton, 120. 
 
 Cambreleng, Churchill C. 231, 268, 367, 
 423», 514, 515, 573, 505, 604. 608; de- 
 scribes rejection of Van Buren's nomina- 
 tion In Senate, 454; letters, 268n, 454, 
 502; opinion on proper time of Van 
 Buren's return to U. S., 503; speech on 
 Bank panic, 665, 656; Van Buren's 
 opinion of, 655. 
 
 Campbell, John, 441. ' 
 
 Campbell, , 385. 
 
 Canada, rebellion, 466. 
 
 Canadian Fisheries dispute, 498, 499. 
 
 Webster's actions and speech on, 498, 
 499, 500. 
 
 Canals, 309. 
 
 Canning, George, 481, 521. 
 
 Cannons, the, 755. 
 
 Cantine, Moses J., 32, 32«, 85, 86. 
 
 Cards, " brag " game between Clay and 
 Poindexter, 754. 
 
 Carman, , 89n. 
 
 Carolina, North, 554. 
 
 Carolina, South, 415, 424, 553, 561, 562, 
 699, 709, 744 ; against Jackson, 542 ; 
 antagonism to Van Buren, 768 ; Clay's 
 bill to pacify, 679, 681, 685, 693, 695; 
 force raised to support nullification, 544 ; 
 Jackson's desire to aid, 663 ; latitu- 
 dinarians, 416; nulllflcation, 396, 409, 
 680 ; nullification ordinance, 542 ; op- 
 poses abolition of slave trade, 135 ; op- 
 poses Clay, 553 ; policy in forcing nulli- 
 fication, 541, 542 ; position on nullifica- 
 tion, 554 ; refuses to support Clay, 542 ; 
 submission of, 557. 
 
 Caroline, burning of the, 466, 466». 
 
 Carrington, Edward, 434 ; letter to, 433 ; 
 report on Henry, 433. 
 
 Carson, Samuel P., 325, 325n. 
 
 Cass, Lewis, 497, 587, 602, 606 ; capitalizes 
 prejudice against England to gain Presi- 
 dency, 495, 496 ; claims credit for removal 
 of deposits, 608 ; Jackson's opinion of 
 resignation, 608 ; opposes removal of de- 
 posits, 603, 604 ; opposes veto of rechar- 
 ter of Bank, 603, 604. 
 
 Cattarall, E. C. H., Second Bank of tho 
 United States, 646n. 
 
 Chambers, Ezekiel F., 677. 
 
 Chambers, Henry, 201». 
 
 Chancellor of New Tork, 110, 111. S'ee 
 also Kent, James. 
 
 Chandler, John, 201n. 
 
 Charlotte Court House, Va., 435 ; resolu- 
 tions, 424, 425. 
 
 Chauncey, Isaac, 349, 349». 
 
 Cheetham, James, 41. 
 
 Cherokee Indians, 295 ; address to people of 
 U. S., 292 ; case of vs. Georgia, 291n, 
 292; confiict with Georgia, 282; inde- 
 pendent government, 282 ; Jackson's ef- 
 forts with, 294; lands, 281, 290, 291; 
 memorial, 290 ; missionaries In country, 
 293; stand on removal, 290. 
 
 Chesapeake and Ohio canal, 309, 363. 
 
 Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, 
 315, 327, 329, 330. 
 
 Cheves, Langdon, 122, 411. ' , 
 
 Chickasaw Indians, Jackson's advice to, 
 294. 
 
 Child, . 106m. 
 
 Childs, P. G., 52. 
 
 Chittenden, — — — , 664. 
 
 Choctaw Indians, Jackson's advice to, 294, 
 
 Cholera, in New York, 510, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 787 
 
 Church, the, auxiliary of political, partisan 
 advantage, 290, 293. 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, Webster's speech at, 691. 
 
 Circuit judges, appointment, 218. 
 
 Class, social obligation, Van Buren on, 461. 
 
 Classification bill (N. T. militia), 55, 56, 
 57, 58. 
 
 Clay, Henry, 108, 122, 145, 148, 151, 152. 
 153, 162, 163, 165, 181. 193, 194, 196, 
 197, 200, 220, 244, 248, 255, 299, 300, 
 301, 306, 307, 308, 309, 320, 323, 356, 
 364r 382, 390, 393. 398, 420, 449, 454, 
 508, 511, 515, 520, 521, 532, 534, 535, 
 537, 541, 542, 552n, 567, 57D, 617, 633, 
 634, 635, 637, 638, 652, 663, 663», 665, 
 666, 669, 672, 674, 675, 677, 678, 683, 
 684, 703, 707, 709, 710, 711, 730, 731, 
 
 742, 745, 754, 759, 762, 767, 772, 773, 
 774, 778, 780; "American System," 411, 
 554, 555, 556, 559,, 682 ; analysis of Web- 
 ster's action,-688, 689, 694 ; appointed Sec- 
 retary of State, 310 ; appreciates Benton's 
 account of the Adams-Clay charges, 668 ; 
 attaclts Calhoun, 390, 391, 392 ; attacks 
 Jackson, 737 ; attacks N. Y. safety fund 
 system, 741 ; attacks Van Buren, 675, 
 759 ; attacks upon, 556, 557 ; backs in- 
 ternal Improvement policy, 411 ; Ben- 
 ton's treatment of. In Ws Thirty Years 
 View, 535 ; bill to distribute proceeds of 
 public land among the States, 742, 742)i. 
 
 743, 744; bill for paclficatien- of Soutli 
 Carolina, 679, 681, 682, 685, 693, 693n, 
 699 ;' blocks Webster's leadership in Sen- 
 ate, 716 ; " brag " game with Poindex- 
 ter, 754, 755 ; calls for report on duties 
 from Secretary of Treasury, 740 ; char- 
 acter, 559, 560, 561 ; charges against, 
 666, 668; charges against Taney, 
 644 ; compared with Webster, 560, 
 561, 718, 719 ; compromise bill, 556 ; 
 conduct contrasted with Webster's, 560, 
 561 ; courage, 662 ; death, 535 ; debate 
 with Calhoun, 392, 393 ; defeated by 
 Jackson, 626 ; defeated for Presidency, 
 682, 686 ; duel with Randolph, 204, 207, 
 534 ; efforts to induce him to run as 
 Vice-President with Crawford, 665 ; 
 fame, 713 ; favors Force Bill, 698 ; feud 
 with Blair, 667 ; feud with Calhoun, 
 554, 555, 561 ; the " Great Pacificator," 
 685 ; hostility to Van Buren, 521 ; hos- 
 tility to Webster, 679 ; influences Van 
 Rensselaer, 152 ; Instructions in West 
 India trade negotiation, 521 ; last chance 
 for Presidency, 635 ; leadership in Sen- 
 ate, 712, 716 ; leads Bank campaign, 639, 
 643, 644; letter, 203« ; letter to, 669; 
 Livingston's resentment, 705, 706 ; lova 
 of brilliant political effects, 200, 203; 
 McDuflBe's cooperation with, 717 ; on 
 Maysville veto, 329 ; meeting with Van 
 Buren, 568 ; move to overturn his Sen- 
 ate leadership, 677, 679 ; move to trap 
 Van Buren, 772 ; nominated for Secre- 
 tary of State, 666, 667, 668 ; opinion, of 
 
 Webster, 670 ; opposed to nullification, 
 698 ; opinion of South Carolina, 553 ; 
 personal relations with Van Buren, 534, 
 535, 568. 665, 667, 668, 669, 670; per- 
 sonal relations with Webster, 734, 735, 
 736 ; plan for Increasing panic, 717, 718. 
 719, 720, 736; on political allegiance, 
 670, 671 ; political career, 501 ; polit- 
 ical control of Bank campaign, 660, 662. 
 664 ; political course, 670, 671 ; political 
 manoeuvers, 686 ; political relations with 
 Webster, 660, 662, 663. 670, 681, 682, 
 684, 686, 687, 688, 689, 694, 696, 698. 
 699, 700, 702, 703, 705, 706, 715; posi- 
 tion in nullification crisis, 554, 555, 557 ; 
 prejudice against England, 501, 502 ; 
 Presidential aspirations, 663 ; Presiden- 
 tial candidacy, 116, 131 ; Presidential 
 chances, 711, 714 ; private correspond- 
 ence, 537m ; quarrel with Jackson, 560 ; 
 reconciles Webster and Poindexter, 685, 
 686 ; relationship to Benton, 665n ; re- 
 marks on postponing Senate committee 
 appointments, 676; report on bill 'to dis- 
 tribute proceeds of public lands among 
 the States, 743, 744 ; reports failure of 
 Union Bank of Maryland, 737, 738 ; res- 
 olution calling for Jackson's paper to 
 Cabinet on removal of deposits, 737 : 
 resolution calling for report ou the Union 
 bank, 738 ; resolutions on removal power 
 of the President, 742, 742n ; resolutions 
 to restore deposits to U. S. Bank, 717, 
 717», 728. 731, 732 ; Secretary of State, 
 157, 310 ; services to nation, 060, 561 ; 
 speech against the Bank, 303 ; speech 
 against Jackson's veto of recharter of 
 Bank, 622 ; speech on his South Carolina 
 pacification bill, 684 ; speech in reply to 
 Webster, 556, 557, 558 ; supports " Force 
 Bill," 681 ; tactics to aid the Bank, 634, 
 635, 712, 713, 714, 715, 716, 720, 723, 
 727, 731, 736, 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 
 742, 744 ; tactics to increase panic, 717. 
 718, 719, 720, 736, 738, 739, 744; ou 
 tariff, 240 ; Van Buren's visit to, 153 ; 
 visits Blddle, 660, 664 ; visits Van Buren. 
 153, 534. 664 ; Webster's attempt to take 
 control of Bank campaign from, 728, 731, 
 732, 733, 734, 736; Webster's fear of, 
 682, 728, 734; Webster's opposition to, 
 682, 683 ; Webster's Speech against, 683. 
 684. 
 
 Clayton, Augustin S., 782, 782ii. 
 
 Clayton, John M., 201m ; visit to Clay, 743. 
 
 Clergymen, complicate the Indian question, 
 284, 293. 
 
 Clinton, De Witt, 29, 30, 36, 37, 38, 39, 
 39n, 41, 42, 43, 64, 71«, 72, 73, 85, 86', 
 86», 87, 89», 90, 91, 92, 93, 98, 99, lOOn, 
 101, lOlm, 102, 102n, 104, 105, 106, 138, 
 144, 145, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 
 197, 227, 228, 232, 233, 401, 515; atti- 
 tude on amendment of Constitution, 
 102n ; character, 167, 168 ; death, 157, 
 160, 166, 166», 167 ; Democratic support. 
 
788 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 158, 159; elected, 164, 165; Brie Canal 
 policy, 84, 157 ; Federalist connections, 
 45, 46, 48, 49, 49n, 158, 159; inaugura- 
 tion, 88 ; message to Van Buren, 89 ; op- 
 posed by Van Buren, 105, 163, 164 ; popu- 
 larity, 158 ; Presidential candidacy, 37, 
 38, 39, 40, 41, 157, 158 ; reelected gov- 
 ernor, 99, 144, 147, 164, 165 ; reelection 
 chances, 160, 161 ; removed from Canal 
 Board, 143, 147, 159; retirement, 103, 
 112 ; return to political power, 74, 75, 76, 
 76», 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83 ; supported 
 by Van Buren, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 75, 158 ; 
 supports administration, 86 ; Van Bur«n's 
 address on death of, 166, 166m, 167 ; Van 
 Buren's break with, 45, 46, 47, 48, 101 ; 
 Van Buren's feeling toward, 96 ; Van 
 Buren's relations with, 149. 
 
 6linton, Mrs. DeWitt, 149. 
 
 Clinton, George, 227, 411, 631. 
 
 Clintonians, split with Republicans, 89 ; 
 union with Federalists, 90. 
 
 " Clover bottom race course," 755. 
 
 Cobden, Richard, 412; opinion ot United 
 States, 479. 
 
 Cochrane, Sir Alexander Forester Inglis, 
 letter, 58»i. 
 
 Cocke, Philip St. George, 576«. 
 
 Golden, William, 401. 
 
 Collins, , 106«. 
 
 Colton, Calvin, Private Correspondence of 
 Henry Clay, 537ii. 
 
 Columbian Sentinel (The), 209. 
 
 Commerce, with British West Indies and 
 North America, 274. 
 
 Congress, attitude toward appropriations, 
 310 ; anticipation of receipts from sale 
 of public lands, 117 ; Bank adherents in, 
 658, 659 ; Bank debate in, 719, 720, 726, 
 727 ; Bank's efforts to influence, 651, 656 ; 
 Bank's plans frustrated in, 75S : Bank 
 pressure on, 659 ; Bank strength iu, 714 ; 
 Bank tactics in, 712, 713, 714, 715, 716, 
 771 ; calls for instructions to troops sent 
 to South Carolina, 643 ; distress memo- 
 rials in, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 727, 
 736, 739, 740, 748 ; extravagance, 3i-'l ; 
 plan to foment panic, 712, 713, 716 ; pow- 
 ers, 302, 316, 317 ; pressure on in behalf 
 of Bank, 637, 639, 640, 641, 642. See 
 also House of Representatives atgo 
 Senate. 
 
 Congressional Globe (The), 357, 358, 360, 
 377, 384, 386, 398, 532, 568, 587, 614, 
 730,' 751, 774, 776n, 777; article, 378; 
 charges bribery by the Bank, 777, 778, 
 779, 780, 781, 782; establishment of, 
 385 ; questions Webster, 778, 779. 
 
 Conklin, Frank J., On. 
 
 Conscription. See Classiflcation bill. 
 
 Constitution, U. S., 647 ; adoption opposed, 
 431, 432, 443; amendments, 118, 315, 
 316, 317, 468n; Convention, 135, 1S5«, 
 471, 472 ; implied powers, 204, 207, 298, 
 299 ; on internal improvements, 327, 328 ; 
 interpretations, 513, 54.''>, 540, 549, 695 ; 
 President's appointive and removal power 
 under, 742 ; guarantees alavovy, 137. 
 
 Convention, at Baltimore (1832), 585, 587, 
 588, 591; (of 1840), 227; first of Its 
 kind, 584. 
 Conway Cabal, 444. 
 Cook, Daniel P., 182. 
 Coolidge, Mrs. Joseph, 183. 
 Cooper, Thomas, 159, 159«, 160 ; convicted 
 under the Alien and Sedition law, 159, 
 160, 183 ; Jefferson's opinion of, 159 ; 
 opinion of Jackson, 160 ; opposed to Clin- 
 ton, 160 ; relations with Van Buren, 
 160. 
 
 Cooper, Mrs. 228. 
 
 Corporations, Jackson's opposition to gov- 
 ernment being a shareholder in, 595. 
 
 "Corrector" (The), 109. 
 
 Cotton, tariff on, 240. 
 
 Courts, auxiliaries of political, partisan ad- 
 vantage, 290. 
 
 Cox, , claim, 128, 129, 130. 
 
 Cox, Mrs., 128. 
 
 Cramer, John, 145. 
 
 Crawford, William H., 108, 122, 124, 147, 
 149, 150, 157, 162, 194, 198, 241, 244, 
 303, 307, 370, 371, 372, 373, 374, 375, 
 376, 380, 385, 386, 388, 449, 514, 515, 
 517, 566, 575, 576n, 665, 667, 753; 
 charges against, 181, 182 ; House report 
 on charges against, 182n ; King's opinion 
 of, 131 ; letters, 367, 368 ; Presidential 
 candidacy, 116, 131, 142, 145 ; quarrel 
 with Calhoun, 366, 367, 368, 369, 388 ; 
 supported by Van Buren, 140 ; supporters, 
 235, 240 ; Van Buren's visit to, 367, 368. 
 
 Creek Indians, arrest surveyors and appeal 
 to the President, 280 ; Jackson's advice 
 to, 285, 294 ; lands, 281. 
 
 Creek-Cherokee Confederacy, 279. 
 
 Croker, , 477. 
 
 Crosby, Darius, 145, 145«. 
 
 Crosby, , 81, 82. 
 
 Croswell, Edwin, letter, 197, 198)i. 
 
 Croswell, Harry, 401. 
 
 Croswell, , 598. 
 
 Cumberland Road, bill, 117 ; expense, 302 ; 
 toll-gates, 302, 307, 315. 
 
 Cunningham, William, correspondence with 
 Adams, I8811. 
 
 Currency, tl. S. Bank claims credit for, 721, 
 722. 
 
 Curtis, Edward, 536, 538 ; conduct in 
 Gardner fraud case, 537 ; influence over 
 Webster, 536, 537. 
 
 Custis, G. W. P., 418. 
 
 Customs, duties ("Force Bill"), bill to en- 
 force collection, 544n. 
 
 Cuthbert, Alfred, 149, 149n, 151, 575, 575n. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dallas, George M., 597, 626 ; opinion on 
 Bank memorial for recharter, 622: 
 
 Dandridge, Nathan, 441. 
 
 Davis, Warren R., 353. 
 
 Davis, , 88. 
 
 Dayton, Jonathan, 67, 69, 70, 71>i ; letter to 
 298, 298)1. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 789 
 
 Debt, imprisonment for, 212. 
 
 Debt, Public, payment of, 645, 647 ; U. S. 
 Bank's obstructs paying off of, 645, 646, 
 647, 649. 
 
 Decatur, Mrs. Steplien, 152. 
 
 Democrats, N. Y., alliance of " Highminded 
 Federalists " with, 105, 108 ; support 
 Clinton, 150, 159. 
 
 Democracy, perpetual struKglc with mon- 
 archy, 485. 
 
 Democratic Convention. See Convention. 
 
 Democratic Party, opponents, 489 ; distrust 
 of England, 493. 
 
 Denison, John Evelyn, 479". 
 
 Denmark, successful negotiation of claims 
 against, 276. 
 
 Denniston, . See Denison, John 
 
 Evelyn. 
 
 Deposits, Removal of the, 600, 601, 603, 
 603n, 607, 608, 609, 643, 656, 657, 659, 
 696, 703, 714, 717, 718, 722, 726, 731, 
 739, 746, 747, 766 ; an aid to Bank's 
 campaign, 658 ; analysis of, 725 ; debate 
 in House of Eepresentatives on, 717, 718 ; 
 decided upon, 657, 658 ; effect on country, 
 602, 607 ; Jackson's paper read to Cabinet 
 on, 601, 601n, 608, 737 ; independent of 
 Bank's loan curtailments, 656, 657 ; legal 
 - procedure for, 714, 715 ; public sentiment 
 in favor of, 604, 606 ; restoration of, 717, 
 717n, 721, 722, 724, 725, 726, 728; 
 strengthens Bank, 638 ; Taney's report 
 on, 652 ; Van Buren's defense of, 603n ; 
 Webster on, 703. 
 
 Derby, Lord, 464, 491, 499 ; Van Buren's 
 opinion of, 475, 476. 
 
 " Dick Shift " of the Bucktail Bar<I, 94», 
 109. 
 
 Dickerson, John D., 574. 
 
 Dickerson, Mahlon, 182, 188, 201n, 241, 
 242, 267, 585, 685; desires Vice Presi- 
 dency, 584. 
 
 Dickerson, Philemon, 118. 
 
 Dickins, Asbury, 182. 
 
 Dlno, Dutchess de, 458, 460, 473. 
 
 Diplomacy, effect of Jackson's character 
 on, 274, 275. 
 
 Diplomatic appointments, 251, 252 ; corps" 
 adverse Idea's of Jackson, 260, 261, 262 ; 
 corps' apprehensions relieved, 262. 
 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, 467, 468. 
 
 Doddridge, Philip, funeral, 270. 
 
 Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 270, 270m, 323, 
 341, 351, 353, 403, 413, 553, 602, 608, 
 612, 613, 614; letter, 346; letter to, 
 602. 
 
 Donelson, Mrs. Andrew Jackson, 343, 344, 
 345, 348. 
 
 Drayton, , 169. 
 
 Duane, William, 600. 
 
 Duane, William J., 593», 602, 607; com- 
 missioner under P^ench treaty, 600 ; 
 favors Bank, 594, 605 ; health, 602 ; Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, 593, 594, 596, 
 597, 598 ; refusal to remove deposits, 
 603 ; removal from office, 603, 603», 658, 
 696, 704 ; resignation, 609. 
 
 Dudley, Charles E., 160, 263, 263«, 430, 
 r>02, ,595. 
 
 Duer, John, 89n, 104, 108, 100, 401. 
 
 Duer, William A., 138. 
 
 Duncan, Alexander, 495. 
 
 Duncanson, J. M., 384, 385, 399. 
 
 Dutchess county. New York, contested dele- 
 gation, 82; 
 
 Duval, Gabriel, 577, 583, 584. 
 
 Dwight, Henry W., 574, 574». 
 
 Earle, 
 
 377. 
 
 Easton, Miss, 343, 344, 345. 
 
 Eaton Affair, 250, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 
 344, 345, 347, 348, 350, 351, 352, 356, 357, 
 358, 360, 373, 395, 397, 403, 520; tho 
 first Cabinet dinner, 348, 349, 350. 
 
 Eaton, John H., 225n, 238, 241, 242, 242«, 
 325, o25m, 340, 342, 345, 350, 352, 354, 
 
 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361, 363, 
 364, 365, 377, 379, 380, 405, 406, 50S, 
 586, 587, 589, 590, 701, 751 ; appointed 
 Governor of Florida, 364 ; appointed 
 Minister to Spain, 364 ; Jackson's wish 
 for his return to place of Secretary of 
 War, 705 ; letter, 590 ; opposes Jackson, 
 363, 365 ; recalled from Spain, 364 ; 
 resignation as Secretary of War, 350, 
 
 356, 406, 407. 
 
 Eaton, Mrs. John Henry (Peggy O'Neale), 
 342, 343, 344, 351, 352, 354, 358, 359, 
 361j 365, 407; Jackson's and Van 
 Buren's last call on, 407, 408. 
 
 Edwards, Ninian, 181, 576» ; appointed 
 Minister to Mexico, 181 ; charges against 
 Crawford, 181, 182. 
 
 Edwards, Ogden, 102n, 106, 106»t. 
 
 Eldred, , 104». 
 
 Electors, Presidential, New York mode of 
 choosing, 142, 145, 146, 146r!, 147. 
 
 Elections, N. Y., use of money in, 222, 223 ; 
 Van Buren's bill against use of money in, 
 221. 
 
 Elmendorff, Lucas, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71n, 72. 
 
 Elwus, Dr., 606. 
 
 Embargo, 28, 192. 
 
 Emmett, Thomas Addis, 21, 24, 63, 96, 160, 
 176 ; appointment as attorney general of 
 N. Y., 39, 96 ; death, 172, 173, 175. 
 
 Emott, James, 76n. 
 
 England. See Great Britai'n. 
 
 Eppes, John W., 435. 
 
 " Era of Good Feeling," 124, 126, 429. 
 
 Erie Canal, New York, 84, Sin, 85, 143, 
 1 67 ; commissioners, 91 ; opening celebra- 
 tion, 157. 
 
 Brvlngs, the, 755. 
 
 Europe, political alignment, 485. 
 
 Evans, Edward B., 103, 103». 
 
 Everett, Edward, 499, 529, 707 ; letter, 528 ; 
 Webster's Works, 708. 
 
 Ewing, Thomas', 567, 677, 745, 745n ; chair- 
 man of Committee on Post Offices, 745. 
 
 Exeter, Bishop of, 460, 461. 
 
790 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 F. 
 
 FaneuU Hall, Boston, meeting, 688, 689. 
 
 695 ; Webster's speech at, 698. 
 Federal Republican party, 734, 746. 
 Federalist Party, 494 ; continuance of, 124, 
 125 ; deserts principles In capitalizing 
 prejudice against England to gain Presi- 
 dency, 494, 495, 496 ; ruined by Hartford 
 Convention, 489 ; tendencies in Jackson's 
 Cabinet ; theory of adoption of Constitu- 
 tion, 545. 
 Federalists, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 48, 49, 
 49», 59, 80», 81, 82, 102«, 104, 116, 158, 
 159, 186, 193, 218, 220 ; address against, 
 88m.; and anti-Federalists played against 
 each other, 468« ; Clintonians union with, 
 90 ;' hatred of Henry, 432 ; New York 
 against Council of Appointment, 106 ; op- 
 position In New York legislature to War 
 of 1812, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 88» ; in U. S. 
 Senate, 710, 711 ; withdraw support from 
 Jackson, 449. 
 Fellows, Henry, contested election, 73. 
 Ferguson, John, 264. 
 Fillmore, Millard, nomination vote, 500. 
 Finance, Senate Committee on, Webster's 
 move to obtain reference of resolutions 
 to, 731, 732. 
 Findlay, William, 210«, 235, 235«. 
 Fish, Preserved, 43. 
 Fitzhugh, Mr. and Mrs., 514. 
 Plagg, Azarlah C, 147, 147)t, 222, 222))., 
 
 586, 587, 598, 741 ; letter to, 591. 
 Florida, Jackson's conduct in, 373, 375, 383. 
 Floyd, John B., 181, 553. 
 Foot, Bbenezer, 32, 33. 
 Force Bill, 544, 544n, 548, 554, 554», 681, 
 698, 701, 758 ; repeal, 744 ; Tyler's vote 
 against, 710n ; Webster credited with 
 passage of, 708. 
 Foreign relations, reciprocity in, 494 ; 
 party feelings in, 512 ; Van Buren's 
 labor on, 273. 
 Forman, Joshua, 221 ; letter, 221)i. 
 Forsyth, John, 272, 272«, 279, 365, 370, 
 371, 372, 373, 374, 380, 381, 386, 573, 
 598, 606, 662, 676, 708, 734, 744, 760, 
 761, 772 ; altercation with Polndexter, 
 757 ; appointed Secretary of State, 613 ; 
 defense of Taney, 738, 741 ; defense of 
 Van Buren, 539, 540 ; desires Vice Presi- 
 dency, 584 ; explanation, 373, 374 ; let- 
 ters, 370, 373, 389 ; letter to, 369 ; op- 
 position to Van' Buren, 584 ; supports 
 Jackson, 723, 724. 
 "Forty Thieves," 104. 
 France, 485 ; claims against, 609 ; negotia- 
 tion with, 274; Envoy from, party, 753; 
 non-payment of draft by, 612 ; treat- 
 ment accorded D. S., 487 ; treaty with, 
 599 ; U. S. disregards treaty alliance, 
 485 ; U. S. envoy to, 229, 251, 252, 433, 
 434; war with, 429. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 189 ; Adams on, 191 ; 
 letter, 191 ; opinion of Adams, 191. 
 
 Free trade, in England, 411, 468. 
 Frelinghuysen, Theodore, 288, §75, 676, 
 
 774. 
 French Indemnity bill, case, 649, 649n. 
 French Spoliation claims, 251, 272 ; Adams 
 
 on Webster's unpatriotic speech, 271. 
 Friends, Society of, complicates the Indian 
 
 situation, 285, 289. 
 Frothingham, , 103». 
 
 G. 
 
 Gaillard, John, 115. 
 
 Gales & Seaton, 556 ; Register of Debates, 
 211n, 215, 215«, 219». 
 
 Gallatin, Albert, 117, 297», 521 ; mission 
 to England, 521, 522 ; report on internal 
 improvements, 297. 
 
 Gardlnler, Barent, 33. 
 
 Gardner fraud, 537. 
 
 Garland, Hugh A., 435, 438. 
 
 Georgia, 414, 415; Cherokee lands, 291, 
 292; cited to appear before U. S. Su- 
 preme Court, 290 ; conflict with Indian 
 rights, 282 ; conflict with D. S., 291 ; gov- 
 ernor asks withdrawal of missionaries in 
 Cherokee country, 293 ; Indians, 286, 
 290 ; Indians claim self-government, 277, 
 278, 279 ; missionary imposture, 626 ; op- 
 poses abolition of slave trade, 135 ; orders 
 survey of Indian lands, 280 ; radicals, 
 416 ; versus Cherokee Nation, 291». 292. 
 
 German, Obediah, 47, 66, 93, 99 ; candi- 
 dacy for Speaker of N. Y. Assembly, 
 89, 90. 
 
 Gibson, Milner, 467.' 
 
 Gilbert, W., 38, 39. 
 
 Girard, Stephen, 596. 
 
 Gladstone, William E., 468. 
 
 Globe. See Congressional Globe. 
 
 Goat Island, purchase of a class right, 72. 
 
 Goes [Hoes], Maria, lOn. 
 
 Gold Spoon story, 769, 770. 
 
 Goldsborough, Charles W., 426. 
 
 Gooch, Anne, 665n. 
 
 Gore, Christopher, 76n. 
 
 Gorham, Benjamin, 575, 575n. 
 
 Government otBcers, appointment, 742 ; 
 power to raise money, 304 ■ removal, 742. 
 
 Governor of New York, state dinner, 68. 
 
 Graham, Sir James, 468. 
 
 Graham, John A., 75. 
 
 Granger, Gideon, 82, 99. 
 
 Great Britain (England), alliance with 
 U. S., 485, 486, 493 ; circular excluding 
 American fishermen itrom Canadian fisher- 
 ies, 498, 499 ; claim to right of search. 
 528, 529 ; conduct in Wa^ of 1812, 53, 54, 
 58, 60 ; convention with, 20Sn ; Demo- 
 cratic party's distrust of, 493 ; effort to 
 favorably impress foreign ministers, 448 ; 
 feeling about War of 1812, 490 ; free- 
 press In, 630 ; free trade In, 411 ; friend 
 ship with U. S., 491, 492, 494; govern- 
 ment system compared with V. S., 480, 
 481, 482. 483, 492, 493 ; King, 451, 453 ; 
 King's judgment of Jackson, 450, 451, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 791 
 
 457 ; King ou yan Buren's rejection by- 
 Senate, 455, 456 ; negotiations with V. S. 
 on West Indies trade, 251, 250, 272, 274, 
 522, 523, 525, 526, 530; news of Van 
 Buren's rejection by Senate received In, 
 453, 454, 455, 456, 457 ; North American 
 trade negotiations, 274 ; power of public 
 opinion in, 481, 483 ; prejudice against, 
 494, 495, 496. 497, 498, 499, 500, 501, 
 502 ; Queen, 456, 457 ; Queen's drawing 
 room, 455 ; right of search in slave trade. 
 203, 528, 529; refusal of West India 
 tra^e privileges to U. S., 522, 523 ; secre- 
 tary to v. S. mission, 258 ; seizures of 
 American slave ships, 528 ; simplicity of 
 nobility, 473, 474 ; treatment accordetl 
 D. S., 486, 487, 495 ; treatment accorded 
 Van Buren on news of his rejection by 
 Senate, 456; U. S. envoy to, 251, 252. 
 257, 258, 260, 273, 325, 453, 496; Van 
 Buren appointed envoy to, 404, 405 ; Vap 
 Buren's nomination rejected by Senate, 
 395, 455, 456, 748, 756; war.wjth Eus- 
 sla. 467. 
 
 Green, Duff, 366, 376», 384, 397, 514; 
 scheme to defeat Jackson and elect Cal- 
 houn, 384. 
 
 Greene county, N. Y., attempted deprlv.i- 
 tlon of its state senator, 86, 87, 88. 
 
 Gregory, Matthew, 69. 
 
 Grey, Lord, 479, 491 ; speech on the Ee- 
 form bill, 460, 461, 462 ; Van Buren's 
 opinion of, 460, 461. 
 
 Grosvenor, Thomas P., 27, 28, 62, 401. 
 
 Grundy, Felix, 226m, 325, 325», 377, 378, 
 379, 380, 381, 382, 415, 568, 675, 676, 
 677, 681, 686, 687, 688, 690, 699, 700, 
 703, 704, 707, 710, 711, 750, 751 ; belief 
 that Webster would cooperate with 
 Jackson, 677, 678, 679; meeting with 
 Jackson and Van Buren, 671, 672 ; re- 
 marks on Senate postponing committee 
 appointments, 676 ; support of Jackson, 
 ' 723. 
 
 H. 
 
 1 lager, Henry, 44, 44n. 
 
 Maight, Stephen, 771, 771n. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 150, 189, 190, 191, 
 195, 227, 249, 305, 433, 486, 488, 495, 
 631 ; advocacy of monarchy, 471 ; 
 charges against, 120 ; duel with Burr, 
 16, 29 ; favors special interests, 650 ; 
 failure in Constitutional Convention, 471, 
 472 ; Jefferson's opinion of, 186, 650 ; 
 lack as a political leader, 470, 471, 472 ; 
 letter, 289, 298»t, 488; method of an- 
 alyzing a subject, 156; Monroe's actions 
 towards, 120, 121 ; on implied powers of 
 Constitution, 297, 298 ; on power of gov- 
 ernment to raise money, 304 ; personal 
 honesty, 650 ; report on manufacturers, 
 297, 304 ; the Eeynold's affair, 119, 120, 
 120n ; sons, 109 ; theory of government, 
 639 ; Van Buren's opinion of, 121. 
 
 Hamilton, James, 151, 169, 231 ; Jackson's 
 desire to arrest, 544. 
 
 Hamilton, James A., 110, 368, 369, 370, 
 371, 372, 373, 374, 380, 381, 386, 387, 
 388, 389 ; appointment as district attor- 
 ney for southern district of N. Y., 265, 
 268 ; letters, 369, 370, 871, 372 ; letters 
 to, 370, 371. 
 
 Hammond, Jabez D., 86, 87, 88, 102», 150 ; 
 Political History of New York, 9, 37, 
 39», 41», 44», 48, 49», 67», 69«, 72, 73. 
 76», 79», 84, 84», 86, 86», 88m, 90«, 91«. 
 94k, 98», 100m, 102n, 104m, 150». 
 
 Hammond, James H., speech, 411, 411m. 
 412. 
 
 Hancock, John, 189. 
 
 Hardin, Benjamin, 308, 308m. 
 
 Harper, Eobert Goodloe, 575, 575m. 
 
 Harris, Levitt, 441. 
 
 Harrison, Eichard, 21. 
 
 Harrison, William Henry, 248, 536, 671. 
 
 Ilarrowby, Lord, 482, 483. 
 
 Hart, Ephraim, 91. 
 
 Hart, Thomas, 665m. 
 
 Hartford Convention, 49, 489, 547, 09.-), 
 
 Hay, 
 
 235, 236. 
 
 Hayne, Eobert Y., 213, 213m, 215, 216, 320, 
 414, 415, 454, 454m, 520,ye67 ; experience 
 in Senate, 217 ; Jackson's desire to arrest, 
 544 ; Nullification proclamation, 681 ; re- 
 lations with Van Buren, 216 ; Van 
 Buren's opinion of, 216 ; Webster's reply 
 to, 680. 
 
 Hays, , 33. 
 
 Hemphill, Joseph, 308, 308m, 309, 310, 
 314. 
 
 Hendrl-?ks, William, 454, 454», 676. 
 
 Henry, John V., 21. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, 487 ; Carrington and Mar- 
 shall's report on, 433 ; character, 440, 
 441, 442 ; debate with Eandolph, 435, 
 436, 437, 438, 439; defeats Madison, 
 432; dissatisfaction with U. S. Consti- 
 tution, 431, 432 ; genius, 187 ; Jefferson's, 
 account of, 186, 187, 441 ; last speech, 
 435, 437, 440 ; letter, 433 ; letter to, 433 : 
 nominated envoy to France, 433, 435 ; 
 offered Secretary of State, 433, 434 ; 
 opposes U. S. Constitution, 443 ; plot 
 against, 433, 434 ; political relations with 
 Jefferson, 444 ; political services, 431, 
 432, 440, 442, 444; pursuit of wealth, 
 433 ; reading habits, 441, 442 ; repug- 
 nance to slavery', 133 ; supports Adams 
 and Alien and Sedition laws, 433 ; sup- 
 ports Washington in Conway Cabal, 444 ; 
 Washington's impression of, 443, 444. 
 
 Herbert, Bushrod W., 177». 
 
 Herbert, Noblet, 177m. 
 
 Herkimer, N. Y., convention, 161, 163. 
 
 "High-minded Federalists," 104, 109; alli- 
 ance with Democrats, 105, 108 ; Van 
 Buren's relations with, 1.05, 108. 
 
 Hildreth, Matthias B., 38m;death, 38. 
 
 Hill, Isaac, 584, 676. 
 
 Hoes, Maria. See Goes. 
 
 Hoffman, Josiah Ogden, 61. 
 
 Hoffman, Michael, 741, 
 
792 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hoge, Moses, 436. 
 
 I-Iogeboom, John C, 29, 30; break with Van 
 Buren, 47, 48. 
 
 Holland, King William I, 9. 
 
 riolland, Lord and Lady, 473. 
 
 Holland's Life of Van Buren, 139n, 20rm. 
 
 Holmes, Eldad, 547. 
 
 Holmes, John, 201n, 242, 340, 520, C84 ; 
 attacks Van Buren, 524, 525 ; deserts 
 Van Buren, 756 ; difficulty with Ran- 
 dolph, 206, 209 ; proposes amendments 
 to rule of Senate, 208, 209. 
 
 Holy Roman Empire (Holy Alliance), 200, 
 484. 
 
 Horn, Henry, 394 ; letter, 394. 
 
 Horse racing, 755. 
 
 House of Commons, power, 462. 
 
 House of Lords, debate on Reform bill In, 
 461 ; Bishops' bench in, 460, 461. 
 
 House of Representatives, aid to panic in, 
 747, 748; anti-Bank majority in, 714, 
 771 ; Bank's eCfort to reduce hostile ma- 
 jority in, 717 ; debate on restoration of 
 deposits, 717, 718 ; Presidential election 
 in, 149, 151, 152; Select Committee re- 
 port on investigation of V. S. Bank, 778, 
 778« ; speaker, 226n ; Van Buren's recep- 
 tion in, on his return from Europe, 567. 
 
 Hoyt, Jesse, 536 ; letters, 536, 536«., 538. 
 
 Hubbard, Ruggles, 45, 46, 66, 67, 68, C9, 
 70, 71n, 72 ; letter to Van Buren, 68. 
 
 Hull, Isaac, 349, 349». 
 
 Hume, Joseph, Van Buren's opinion of, 478, 
 479. 
 
 Humphreys, (Judge), 40. 
 
 Huntington, James, 47. 
 
 Husklsson, William, 521. 
 
 Huygens, Baron, 261, 353, 354. 
 
 Huygens, Madame, 352,. 353, 354, 356. 
 
 Impeachment, JeflEerson on, 184. 
 
 Imports, act to modify duties (Clay's bill), 
 693m. 
 
 Impressment of seamen, 59, 491 ; negotia- 
 tion, 452, 453. 
 
 Imprisonment for debt, 212. 
 
 Independent Treasury bill, 390. 
 
 Indiana, application for relief from Ordi- 
 nance of 1787, 135 ; letter to governor 
 of, 327. 
 
 Indians, claim to self government, 277, 283, 
 286, 288, 290, 291 ; Congress' proceedings 
 on land question, 281 ; land question, 
 279, 280, 281, 290; policy, 285, 289; 
 question complicated by clergymen and 
 Friends Society, 284 ; removal beyond 
 the Mississippi, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 
 285, 286, 286n, 287, 288, 289, 289», 294, 
 312, 314, 320 ; trade, 280 ; treaty, 279. 
 
 Ingham, Samuel D., 231, 263, 263n, 350, 
 350», 352, 356, 357, 358, 359, 361, 362, 
 378, 379, 514, 560, 753 ; appointed Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, 504, 505 ; desire 
 to succeed to the Presidency, 604, 506 ; 
 letter to, 360 ; opinion as to Jackson's 
 
 successor, 505 ; opposes Van Buren, 505 ; 
 Van Buren's opinion of, 504, 505. 
 
 Ingham, Mrs. Samuel D., 348, 350, 332. 
 
 Inglis, Sir Robert, Van Buren's relations 
 with, 482, 483. 
 
 Inglis, Bishop, claim, 172, 175. 
 
 Internal Improvements, 185, 194, 195, 297, 
 300, 300n, 301, 302, 308, 309, 312, 313, 
 .314, 315, 316, 320, 322, 329, 330, 331, 
 337, 338, 411, 671, 704 ; conflict of State 
 and Federal power, 117 ; Constitutional 
 amendment, 315, 316 ; Gallatin's report 
 on, 297 ; Hamilton on, 298 ; Jackson's 
 policy, 297 ; Jefferson on, 297 ; Madison 
 on, 330, 33.5 ; Monroe's position, 301, 302. 
 302n, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308 ; over- 
 throw of policy, 172; policy, 115, 116, 
 172, 297; political importance, 297; 
 power behind, 320, 327 ; stopped, 27.j ; 
 Van Buren on, 117, 319, 321. 
 
 Irish, William B., 234, 234n ; appoint- 
 ment, 127. 
 
 Irving, JoBn T., 83, 258, 611. 
 
 Irving, Peter, 109. 
 
 Irving, Washington, 109, 454, 610 ; feeling 
 towards McLane, 610, 611 ; letters, 610, 
 611 ; letter to, 611 ; on the Bank ques- 
 tion, 610, 611 ; secretary to English 
 mission, 258. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 149, 150, 152, 157, 160, 
 162, 168, 181, 194, 198, 199, 200, 213, 
 216, 220, 225n, 231, 239, 247, 2lb, 250, 
 256, 257, 284, 293, 306, 310, 340, 346, 
 370, 372, 380, 381, 385, 380, 387, 388, 
 398, 399, 401, 402, 409, 410, 415, 417, 
 418, 419, 420, 423«, 424, 425, 426, 429, 
 445, 446, 450, 451, 465, 502, 506, 614, 
 517, 518, 522, 523, 524, 529, 533, 541, 
 556, 569, 573, 575, 577, 579, 581, 584, 
 586, 587, 590, 592, 601, 606, 607, 610, 
 614, 615, 616, 618, 634, 638, 644, 649«. 
 666, 667, 674, 676, 677, 678, 680, 686. 
 688, 691, 692, 094, 695, 696, 697, 698, 
 
 700, 702, 704, 706, 708, 715, 736, 744, 
 746, 751, 761, 763, 780; accident, 403; 
 administration, 244, 246, 251, 321, 581 ; 
 administration opposed, 250, 257, 287, 
 288, 289, 290, 292, 295, 709, 746, 763; 
 administration's social side, 229, 230 ; 
 advice to Monroe, 234, 235 ; advice to 
 Van Buren, 571 ; aid to, 314, 320 ; alli- 
 ance with Webster, 672, 677, 678, 679, 
 688, 689, 690, 691, 697, 698, 699, 700, 
 
 701, 703, 707, 709, 711 ; ambition to pay 
 oft national debt, 645 ; appointment of 
 foreign ministers, 251 ; appointment of 
 editors to political positions, 247 ; ap- 
 pointment rule, 249, 260, 253 ; arrest at 
 New Orleans, 369, 370, 371 ; asks power 
 from Congress to deal with South Caro- 
 lina situation, 544 r assassination at- 
 tempted, 353 ;. assumption of responsibil- 
 ity for administrative acts, 428, 594; at 
 Tammany dinner, 233 ; attacked by Clay, 
 787 ; attacked by press, 746 ; attacked 
 
INDEX. 
 
 793 
 
 by Poindexter, 745; attacked by Kau- 
 dolph, 547 ; attitude toward Bank, 619, 
 836 ; attitude toward South Carolina, 
 518 ; Bank policy, 593 ; belief in Inten- 
 tional disrespect ot Senate, 599, 600 ; 
 Biddle's interview with, 619, 619« ; 
 Biddle's misunderstanding of, 647» ; 
 Cabinet, 244, 249, 251, 269, ,340, 341, 
 508, POl, 601», 608, 614; Cabinet ap- 
 pointment troubles, 593, 594, 596 ; Cabi- 
 net changes, 596, 604, 606 ; Cabinet din- 
 ner, 348 ; Cabinet disappointments, 229, 
 230, 231 ; Cabinet disruption, 520 ; Cabi- 
 net's federal tendencies, 545, 546 ; Cabi- 
 net meetings, 250, 320 ; Cabinet differ- 
 ences of opinion and Jackson's method 
 of settling, 262 ; Cabinet resignations, 
 350, 356, 406, 407, 612, 613; Cabinet 
 scheme of Webster, 672, 701, 706 ; Cabi- 
 net worries, 610 ; character, 229, 267, 
 275, 276, 312, 313, 353, 380, 397, 403, 
 543, 544, 710 ; charges against, 756 ; con- 
 duct In Florida, 373, 375, 383, 754, 755 ; 
 conduct at New Orleans, 383 ; conduct 
 In Seminole War, 754, 755 ; Cooper s 
 opinion of, 160 ; correspondence with 
 Calhoun, 366, 375, 376, 376n, 383, 38-1; 
 course In West India trade negotiation, 
 527, 528, 529 ; decides to remove de- 
 posits, 657, 658 ; denounced, 424, 425, 
 696, 739, 758 ; desires to aid South Caro- 
 lina, 653 ; diplomatic corps' adverse ideas 
 of, 260, 261, 262 ; dismissal of Duane, 
 603, eOSn., 658, 696, 704; domestic 
 policy, 275 ; Eastern tour, 602 ; Eaton 
 affair, 339, 341, 353, 358, 359, 360, 361, 
 364, 365 ; last call on Mrs. Eaton, 407, 
 408 ; efforts to pay off public debt, 647 ; 
 elected President, 220 ; election (of 1824) , 
 449 ; embarrassed by question of Consti- 
 tutional theory in nullification excite- 
 ment, 545 ; enemies, 658, 659 ; escorts Van 
 Buren to Capitol on latter's return from 
 England, 566 ; faith In the people, 625 ; 
 feeling as to Cabinet meetings, 250 ; feel- 
 ing of English people toward, 449, 450 ; 
 feels Van Buren's absence, 508 ; friend- 
 ship, 314, 582, 755 ; friendship severed by 
 Calhoun, 749 ; health, 625, 637 ; horse 
 racing, 755 ; Inaugural address, 246 ; in- 
 clination to personally arrest Calhoun and 
 others, 544 ; Indian policy, 276, 285, 286, 
 286)t, 294, 295 ; Internal Improvement 
 policy, 297, 310, 311, 312, 315, 320, 321, 
 327, 335, 336, 337, 363 ; "Judicious tarill," 
 116, 240 ; the King's estimate of, 450, 
 451, 457; letters, 198, 198», 224, 224n, 
 233, 234, 235, 238, 248, 263, 264, 321, 
 322, 354, 361», 374, 387, 507, 507m, 508. 
 508n> 595, 603, 604, 705, 705« ; letters 
 on removal of deposits not published by 
 opponents, 608 ; letters to, 245, 261, 321, 
 361m, 546, 578, 580, 598, 605, 606 ; Liv- 
 ingston's opinion of, 229 ; Livingston's 
 opposition to, 705 ; McLane's attempt to 
 sow dissension between Van Buren and, 
 569 ; mail pressure on, 607 ; meeting 
 
 with Van Buren, 232 ; meeting with Van 
 Buren and Grundy, 671, 672 ; meets 
 nullification threat, 415, 416, 417; 
 message, 420, 421, 543, 544, 546, 
 595 ; annual message, 835, 337, 420, 421, 
 445, 045 ; message on Georgia Indian 
 land case, 280, 281, 286, 286m; see also 
 under veto infra; message to McLane, 
 582 ; method of settling Cabinet dlfEer- 
 enees, 262; the Monrot letter, 233, 234, 
 235, 236, 237, 238, 239; New Orleans 
 visit, 368, 369 ; nominated for President, 
 515 ; nullification dinner toast, 415, 416, 
 .417 ; Nullification Proclamation, 54;}, 
 546, 547, 548, 550, 552, 553, 680, 684, 
 698, 705, 705m, 706; nullification threat 
 and preparations to meet It, 413, 414 . 
 offers Van Buren Secretary of State port- 
 folio, 224 ; openess In public matters, 
 322 ; opinion of Livingston, 704, 705 ; 
 opinion of Van Buren, 12, 503 ; opinion 
 of Cass and McLane's resignation, 608 ; 
 opposed by Bank, 531, 616, 617, 640, 
 644 ; see also under Bank ( Second) , U. 
 S. ; opposed by Calhoun, 663, 749, 750, 
 751, 752 ; see also under Calhoun ; op- 
 posed by monled Interests, 449, 450 ; op- 
 posed by South Carolina, 542 ; opposition 
 to, 713, 716; opposition to Bank, 620, 
 047, 656, 657, 777; opposition to cor- 
 porations with the Government as ii 
 sharsholder, 595 ; overthrows Internal 
 improvement policy, 172 ; paper read to 
 Cabinet on removal of deposits, 601, 
 601.?, 608, 737; papers, 321, 321m, 571; 
 Parton's Life of, 749, 749n ; personal 
 feeling against J. Q. Adams, 269, 270, 
 -*71 ; personal relations with Van Buren, 
 232, 233, 242, 243, 245, 402, 403, 405, 
 406, 506, 507, 515, 516 ; plan of electing 
 Van Buren Vice-President and then re- 
 signing the Presidency in his favor, 506, 
 507 ; pledge to pay off the public debt, 
 324 ; Polndexter's support, 754 ; Poin- 
 dexter's antagonism, 755, 756 ; policies, 
 313, 321 ; popularity, 253, 255, 710 ; por- 
 trayal by Van Buren, 312 ;^ position on 
 tariff, 116, 239, 240, 241, 242, 554, 
 prefe''ence for Pennsylvania in selecting 
 a Secretary of the Treasury, 596, 597 : 
 preparation of public papers, 313 ; Presi- 
 dential receptions, 230 ; proposed foi- 
 President, 198 ; quarrel with Calhoun, 
 366, 367, 373, 374, 375, 377, 378, 379, 
 380, 381, 384, 388, 410, 505, 506, 520; 
 quarrel with Clay, 560 ; reelection, 626, 
 636, 639, 657 ; refuses to send to Senate 
 paper read to Cabinet, 737 ; regards re- 
 election as mandate to suppress the 
 Bank, 657 ; relations with White, 226n, 
 674 ; remark about the Bank, 625 ; re- 
 moval of deposits, 600, 601, 601m, 60'i, 
 603, 603m, 604, 607, 608, 657, 658, 716, 
 726, 727 ; resemblance to Duke of 
 Wellington, 464 ; resignation from Sen- 
 ate, 242 ; retirement, 508 ; at Rip Raps, 
 eoim, 603, 605, 607, 608 ; scheme to de- 
 
794 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 feat, 384 ; second term, 506 ; Seminole 
 War controversy, 271, 366, 368, 371, 
 373, 374, 383, 388, 506; Senatorial sup- 
 port, 723, 724 ; sends troops to South 
 Carolina, 543 ; struggle with the Bank, 
 625, 626 ; successor to, 504, 505, 506 ; 
 suggests Duane for Secretary of the 
 Treasury, 596 ; talk to Creeks, 285 ; 
 urges modification of tariff, 554 ; Van 
 Buren and Calhoun cooperate to elect, 
 514 ; Van Buren's defense of removal of 
 deposits, 603«; Van Buren's opinion of, 
 245, 250; veto of Clay's Public Land 
 Sales bill, 743, 744 ; veto of Bank i;e- 
 eharter, 294, 510, 531, 566, 601, 603, 
 622, 623, 624, 629, 647, 662; veto of 
 Maysville turnpike bill, 172, 172», 322, 
 
 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 
 335, 337; Vice-Presidential candidate 
 for, 584, 587, 589 ; visit to Eastern 
 States, 689, 690 ; vote against thanks to 
 Washington, 313 ; Whig effort to sepa- 
 
 , rate from Van Boren, 549 ; wishes Van 
 Buren to return to Secretary of State 
 position, 70571 ; wishes Van Buren to 
 return to TJ. S., 508 ; wishes Van Buren 
 to be Vice-President, 589, 590. 
 
 Jackson, Rachel (Mrs. Andrew), attack on, 
 269. 
 
 Jackson, William, 120. 
 
 James River, barons of the, 431, 
 
 Jay, John, 18, 19, 142. 
 
 Jay, Peter A,, 73, 547, 549, 
 
 .Tefferson, Thomas, 9, 28, 36, 117, 119, 121, 
 122, 124, 126, 127, 134, 139, 140, 141, 
 147, 156, 159, 168^ 177, 184, 185, 186, 
 188, 189, 192. 193. 218, 219, 249, 318, 
 319, 412, 413, 418, 428, 432, 433, 435, 
 448, 449, 494, 495, 650, 705; account 
 of Patrick Henry, 186, 187 ; belief in 
 Hamilton's personal honesty, 650 ; birth- 
 day celebration dinner at which nul- 
 lification was launched, 413, 414, 415, 
 416 ; freedom from political rancor, 183 ; 
 letters, 185, 186, 186n, 190, 190n, 
 432, 432a, 441, 441» ; mistake as to 
 Henry, 433 ; on evils of life tenure In 
 Supreme Court, 183, 184 ; on impeach- 
 ment, 184 ; on Internal Improvements, 
 297 ; on Patrick Henry, 186, 187, 441 ; on 
 punctuality, 187, 188 ; opinion of Hamil- 
 ton, 186, 650 ; opinion of Washington, 185, 
 186 ; policy, 140 ; political relations with 
 Henry, 444 ; principle of patronage, 123 ; 
 Randolph's hostility, 208 ; repugnance to 
 slavery, 133, 136 ; Van Buren's visit to. 
 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188. 
 
 Jenkins, Elisha, 67, 70. 
 
 Jenkins, Robert, 30, 32. 
 
 Jenkins, Seth, 30, 31. 
 
 Johnson, Francis, 150. 
 
 Johnson, Peter, 436. 
 
 Johnson, Richard M., 201n, 213, 213n, 323, 
 
 324, 325, 355, 358, 359, 361, 377, 381, 
 568, 751 ; character, 745 ; desires Vice- 
 Presidency, 584, 589; letters, 359, 360; 
 Van Buren's opinion of, 881, 382. 
 
 Johnson, William, 64n, 292, 292«. 
 
 Johnston, Josiah S., 201», 454, 454», 511, 
 566, 566». 
 
 Johnston, Josiah Stoddard, Mrs., 128. 
 
 Jones, Henry F., letter, 100»i ; letter to, 
 100«. 
 
 Jones, James, 149. 
 
 Jones, Samuel, 401 ; confirmed as Chan- 
 cellor, 158. 
 
 Jones, Dr., visit to Van Buren, 751, 752. 
 
 Judiciary Bill, 198. 
 
 Judiciary officers, appointment, 107. 
 
 Judjciary system, 218, 219. 220 ; as a politi- 
 cal machine, 219. 
 
 Justices of the peace, appointment, 107. 
 
 Kane, Blias K., 201», 570, 573, 676; sup- 
 
 I>orts Jackson, 724. 
 Keese, Mrs., 42. 
 
 Kendall, Amos, 584, 601», 602, 607. 610. 
 Kent, James, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 64n, 
 
 102, 175, 547, 549 ; anecdotes of, 64, 65 ; 
 
 decisions reversed, 64, 64?} ; legal ability, 
 
 63, 64, 64ji ; Memoirs and Letters, 64». 
 Kent, J:oseph, 677. 
 Kentucky Argus (The), 385. 
 Kentucky Resolutions, 319. 
 Keyes, Perley, 82, 85, 161, 163. 
 Keystone State, 314. 
 Klnderhook, N. Y., the Van Burens at, 10, 
 
 lOn. 
 King, Adam, 763. 
 King, Charles, 109, 110. 
 King, James Gore, 109re. 
 King, John A., 89», 99n, lOOn, 101«. 
 King, John P., 676. 
 King, Eufu.s, 59, 89ji. 99n, lOOn, 102n, 104n, 
 
 105, 114, 130, 138, 139, 139», 140, 141, 
 
 146, 147, 149,. 461, 574, 574m ; appoint- 
 ment, 139h ; attacks council of appoint- 
 ment, 107 ; attacks Shaker petition, 153, 
 154 ; career, 155 ; character, 155, 156 ; 
 death, 155 ; election, 45, 48 ; Jefferson's 
 characterization of, 156 ; letter, lOln ; 
 Life and Correspondence, 46, 49n, 59n, 
 73«, 76n, 100»; Minister to England, 
 155 ; opinion of Crawford, 131 ; opposi- 
 tion to slavery, 139 ; reelected U. S. Sena- 
 tor, 100 ; relations with Van Buren, 100, 
 lOln., 108, 130, 131, 132, 130, 140, 141, 
 
 147, 154, 155 ; support of War of 1812, 
 139 ; Van Buren's pamphlet on, 139)k 
 
 King, William, 41. 
 
 King, William R., 209, 210, 744, 744n; 
 
 supports Jackson, 724. 
 Knight, Nehemlah M., 676. 
 Knower, Benjamin, 165, 169, 170, 171, 562, 
 
 563. 
 Knox, Henry, 190. 
 Kossuth, Louis, dinner, 608. 
 Krehmer, George, 235, 238, .'iOO ; letter to, 
 
 238. 
 Krudener, Baron, 352, 353, .3ii4. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 795 
 
 t 
 
 L. 
 
 Labouchere, Henry, 479. 
 
 Lacy, Drury, 435. 
 
 Lafayette, Marquis de, Adams' address on, 
 226n. 
 
 Lands, Public, cession, 391 ; chairman of 
 Senate Committee on, 745 ; frauds, 745 ; 
 Indians, 279, 280, 290, 291 ; proceeds of 
 sale of, 117, 742, 742n. 
 
 Lansdowne, Marquis of, 461. 
 
 LarwlU, Joseph H., 586, 586n, 587 ; hon- 
 esty, 586. 
 
 Latimer, , 572. 
 
 Lealie, — ■. , 96. 
 
 Leavenworth, ; — , 47. 
 
 Lee, William, 769,'769». 
 
 Lee, Henry, 434, 444 ; plot against Henry, 
 433, 434 ; letter, 433 ; letter to, 433. 
 
 Leigh, Benjamin Watkins, 422, 425, 557, 
 733 ; attitude on Bank question, 659 ; 
 visit to Clay, 743. 
 
 Leiper, George G., 119, 289. 
 
 Letcher, Robert, visit to Clay, 743, 744. 
 
 Lewis, Morgan, 13, 28, 32, 44, 45, 605 ; Van 
 Buren supports, 15. 
 
 Lewis, William B., 232, 325, 325»i, 340, 369, 
 371, 372, 373, 376, 387, 388, 389, 403, 
 405, 406, 579, 580, 581, 586, 588, 592. 
 616 ; letters, 243n-, 370, 583, 586, 591 ; 
 letters to, 370, 582, 590. 
 
 "Little Band" (Burrites), 109. 
 
 Little Prince, Indian chief, 280; 
 
 Livingston, Edward, 181, 508, 565, 014, 
 688, 701, 702, 704, 705, 705» ; appointed 
 Minister to France, 229, 251, 258, 259; 
 declines French Mission, 259, 260, 260n ; 
 forebodings of .Jackson's administration, 
 229, 261 ; French Mission, 593, 595, 598, 
 705, 705_n ; defalcation charges against, 
 705 ; drafts Nullification Proclamation, 
 705, 705», 706, 707 ; Jackson's opinion 
 of, T^i, 705 ; letter, 260ii ; opinion of 
 Jackson, 229 ; opposes Bank charter veto 
 and removal of deposits, 603 ; opposes 
 Jackson on the Bank, 705 ; relations with 
 Webster, 715 ; report to Webster, 705, 
 706 ; resentment against Clay, 705, 706 ; 
 Secretary of State, 705 ; Van Buren's 
 friendship for, 704. 
 
 Livingston, Edward P., 32, 33. 
 
 Livingston, Harry, 27. 
 
 Livingston, Peter R., 50. 
 
 Livingston, Robert, land patents, 22, 23. 
 
 Livingston, Robert B., 44, 50, 259; letter 
 to, 189. 
 
 Livingston Manor, patent suit, 22, 23, 24 ; 
 town meetings', 25. 
 
 Uoyd, James, 209, 210. 
 
 Loans, curtailment by D. S. Bank, 652, 
 653, 654, 656. 
 
 London Times (The), opposition to Aboli- 
 tionist eflEorts in U. S., 492. 
 
 Londonderry, Marquis of, 459. 
 
 Loomis, , 84. 
 
 Lot, , 99. 
 
 Louis Napoleon, 585. 
 
 Louisiana, and slavery, 130. 
 
 Lowndes, William J., 122, 300, 301, 411, 
 411TC, 412. 
 
 Lowrle, Walter, 235, 235», 239, 242 ; char- 
 acter, 238, 239 ; controversy with Mon- 
 roe, 236, 237 ; elected Secretary of the 
 Senate, 238, 239. 
 
 Lucas, Robert, 591. 
 
 Ludlow, Thomas W., 773. 
 
 Lyon, Matthew, imprisoned under the 
 Allen and Sedition law, 439, 440. 
 
 M. 
 
 McArthur, Duncan, 181. 
 
 Macauley, Thomas Babington, Lord, 464, 
 468, 469. 
 
 McDuffle, George, 394, 416, 560, 560n.; an- 
 tagonism to Jackson, 713 ; cooperation 
 with Clay, 717 ; Jackson's desire to 
 arrest, 544 ; supports Bank, 713. 
 
 Mclntyre, Archibald, 99 ; letter, 95, 95n. ; 
 letters to, 95n. 
 
 McKean, Samuel, 763, 766. 
 
 McKenzie, William L., 536, 538; Lives 
 and opinions of B. F. Butler and Jesse 
 Hoyt, etc., 536n, 538. 
 
 McLane, Louis, 146, 149, 149», 150, 151, 
 211, 273, 422, 482, 502, 503, 508, 510, 
 511, 575, 575», 580, 598, 599, 600, 602, 
 606, 609, 612, 613, . 614 ; accepts Eng- 
 lish mission, 258 ; aided by Van Buren, 
 577, 578, 605, 609, 610, 615; appointed 
 president of banking company, 617 ; ap 
 proves of Duane as Secretary of Treas- 
 ury, 597, 601 ; belief in failure of Jack- 
 son's administration, 230, 579 ; chance 
 of appointment on Supreme Court, 577, 
 578 ; character, 577, 579, 590, 592 ; con- 
 firmed as Secretary of Treasury, 531, 
 532 ; continuance in office, 609, 611 ; 
 conversation with Jackson on cabinet 
 changes, 596, 597 ; course on protest of 
 French draft, 612 ; desires Supreme 
 Court appointment, 583, 584 ; differences 
 of opinion with Van Buren, 605 ; dis- 
 appointment at not being in Jackson's 
 cabinet, 230 ; disposition to meddle in 
 the Bank controversy, 601 ; duplicity in 
 obtaining appointment of Duane, 594, 
 596 ; first annual report as Secretary of 
 Treasury, 581, 600, 601 ; friend attacks 
 Van Buren, 569 ; friendship for Van 
 Buren, 581, 601 ; hostility to Van Buren, 
 569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 581, 582, 583, 
 584, 588, 589, 590, 592 ; instructions to, 
 521, 526, 529, 530, 531», 595; Ir- 
 ving^s feeling towards," 610, 611 ; Jack- 
 son's message to, 582 ; Jackson's opinion 
 on resignation, 608 ; letters, 230, 530», 
 548, 548re, 571, 575, 579, 596, 600, 601, 
 602 ; letters to, 572, 578 ; mission to 
 England, 257, 274, ,523, 531, 583, 614; 
 offered Attorney Generalship, 257 ; on 
 aid to destitute Americana abroad, B46 ; 
 
796 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 opposes veto of bank charter and re- 
 moTal of deposit®, 603, 60i; partiality 
 for Bank, 593, 600, 601, 602, 605, 616, 
 617 ; personal relations with Van Buren, 
 573, 574, 575, 576, 577, 578, 579, 593, 
 611, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617; political 
 practices, 614 ; presidential aspirations, 
 583, 588, 615, 616, 617 ; recommends re- 
 charter of TJ. S. Bank, 531 ; on removal 
 of deposits, 602 ; requests explanation 
 from Van Buren, 572 ; resignation, 605, 
 608, 609, 610, 612, 613, 614, 615, 617; 
 Secretary of State, 593, 598 ; Secretary 
 of Treasury, 598 ; self interest, 614, 616, 
 617 ; successful negotiation with Great 
 Britain, 274, 523, 531 ; suggests Van 
 Buren's declining Secretary of State ap- 
 pointment, 230 ; suggestion as to bis 
 instructions, 530 ; threat to retire from 
 public life, 594 ; visits Van Buren, 570. 
 
 McLeod, Alexander, case, 466, 466«. 
 
 McNairys, the, 755. 
 
 Macomb, Alexander, 349, 349n. 
 
 Macpn, Nathaniel, 129, 129n, 200, 211, 221, 
 236, 241, 242, 368, 665, 667; Intercedes 
 with Jackson to change removal of depoe- ' 
 its plan, 607. 
 
 Madison, James, 28, 36, 37, 40, 41, 42, 43, 
 47, 57, 63, 117, 119, 121, 122, 124, 126, 
 139, 192, 193, 319, 328, 411, 412, 418, 
 421, 449, 471, 494, 631 ; defeated for U. S. 
 Senator, 432 ; on Internal improvements, 
 330, 331, 334 ; letters, 330, 331, 334 ; let- 
 ters to, 190, 190n, 330 ; principle of pat- 
 ronage, 123; Randolph's hostility, 208; 
 report on Allen and Sedition laws, 302 ; 
 repugnance to slavery, 133 ; tactics in 
 securing first amendments to U. S. Con- 
 stitution, 468n ; veto of Bonus bill, 299, 
 300, 330, 331, 334. 
 
 "Magician, The" (Van Buren), 226n. 
 
 Maison Rouge Tract, bill, 128, 129, 130. 
 
 Mallary, Rollin C, 169, 170n. 
 
 Mangum, Willie P., 677. 
 
 Manufacturers, annual petition to Congress. 
 169 ; craving for tariff benefits, 569. 
 
 Manufactures, Hamilton's report on, 297. 
 
 Marbury vs. Madison, 291. 
 
 March, Charles W., 681, 689, 702, 703, 704, 
 706, 707, 708 ; Reminiscences of Congress, 
 700, 700» ; Van Buren's opinion of, 701 ; 
 Van Buren's opinion of his book, 708, 
 709. 
 
 Marcy, William L., 101, 163, 165, 169, 503, 
 504, 562, 595, 598 ; letter to, 609. 
 
 Maritime rights, 60, 60». 
 
 Marshall, John, 175, 178, 219, 259, 434, 
 753 ; appointment to Supreme Court, 
 179; citation to State of Georgia, 290; 
 decisions favor TJ. S. Bank, 126, 183 ; 
 decisions undermine Constitution to 
 favor TJ. S. Bank, 126 ; elected to Con- 
 gress, 179 ; extra-judicial opinions, 291 ; 
 Jefferson's dislike of his decisions, 183 ; 
 quoits with Tazewell, and others, 259 ; 
 report on Henry, 433. 
 
 Maryland State Bank, failure, 7.S7. 
 
 Mason, George, repugnance to slavery, 133. 
 
 Masons, Anti, excitement, 220. 
 
 Massachusetts, Jackson in, 689, 690 ; and 
 the protective tariff, 633 ; resolutions of 
 legislature, 732, 733. 
 
 Mayo, , Dr., 11. 
 
 Maysvllle, Washington, Paris & lexlngton 
 Turnpike Company, bill, 311, 320, 321 ; 
 Constitution on, 327, 328 ; Pennsylvania 
 Congressmen favor, 325 ; veto of, 1 72, 
 172n, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 
 330, 335, 337. 
 
 Meigs, William M., Life of Calhoun, 300», 
 576nv 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, 528 ; administration, 465. 
 
 Memorials, counter distr^3S, 724, 725, 727 ; 
 "distress," 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 727, 
 736, 739, 740, 748 ; Van Buren's opinion 
 on discretion of President of Senate in 
 presenting, 774, 775, 776. 
 
 Mercer, Charles Fenton, 575, 575n. 
 
 Mercer, Charles Francis, 177. 
 
 Merchants, financial situation of, 652, 656. 
 
 Middle States, free of passion for official dis- 
 tinction, 259. 
 
 Middleton, Henry, 419, 419«. 
 
 Miller, Stephen D., 454, 454)i. 
 
 Militia, officers, election, 107. 
 
 Milnes, Monckton, 483. 
 
 Minister to England, Van Buren's appoint- 
 ment to, 225. 
 
 Missionaries, to Indians, 284, 285. 
 
 Missionary, Georgia, imposture, 626. 
 
 Mississippi, Indians claim self government 
 in, 277. 
 
 Missouri, admission as a slave state, 137, 
 138, 140 ; and slavery, 136, 137. 
 
 Missouri Question, 135, 137, 138, 139, 684 ; 
 Van Buren's attitude, 99, 100. 
 
 Monarchy, strength of idea in Europe, 484, 
 485 ; struggle with democracy perpetual, 
 485. 
 
 Money, Government's power to rals^ 304. 
 
 Money Power, the, 449 ; attempts to prej- 
 udice England against Jackson, 450 ; 
 opposes Jackson, 449. 
 
 Monopolies, odium of In public mind, 658. 
 
 Monroe, James, 56, 56», 57, 75, 76n, 80, 94, 
 115, 116, 122, 123, 126, 128, 140, 177, 
 181, 192, 193, 233, 238, 277, 279, 300, 
 304, 306, 307, 308, 319, 412, 418, 429, 
 433, 495, 595, 769 ; cabinet deliberations 
 on Jackson and the Seminole War, 366, 
 368, 369, 370, 371, 373, 374, 375, 376n, 
 380, 387, 388; character, 119, 121; com- 
 mittee to Investigate charges against 
 Hamilton, 119 ; course with Lowrie, 236, 
 237 ; election to Presidency, 122 ; fusion 
 policy, 197 ; Indian message to Congress, 
 277, 278 ; Indian power at close of ad- 
 ministration, 276 ; the Jackson letter, 
 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239; Jack- 
 son's private letter to, 383; letters to, 
 88«, 198, 198n, 233, 234, 235, 383, 432, 
 432n; message, 302, 302n, 306, 308; 
 political policy, 234 ; position on internal 
 Improvements, 301, 302, 303, 304, 306, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 797 
 
 306, 307, 308 ; principle of patronage, 
 124, 125, 126, 127 ; Eandplph's hostility, 
 208; In the Eeynolds affair, 119, 120, 
 121 ; successor to, 116 ; Van Buren's last 
 visit to, 153 ; Van Buren's opinion of, 
 121 ; Teto of Cumberland Eoad bill, 117, 
 315. 
 
 Moore, Gabriel, 454, 454h, 676. 
 
 Moore, John L., 103». 
 
 Morell, , 25, 27, 28. 
 
 Morgan, John J., 536. 
 
 Morgan, ■William, abduction, 220. 
 
 Morning Chronicle, The, 109. 
 
 Morris Caval & Banlslng Company, 617n. 
 
 Morris, Thomas, 676. 
 
 Mount Vernon, Van Buren's visit to, 177. 
 
 N. 
 
 Napier, Lord, 495, 497. 
 
 Napoleon I, 484 ; distrust of Talleyrand, 
 459. See also Louis Napoleon. 
 
 National Advocate (The), 101, 138. 
 
 National Gazette and Literary Register, 
 199, 199». 
 
 National Intelligencer (The), 359, 366, 416, 
 417, 525, 526, 690. 
 
 National Eepublicans. See Eepublicans. 
 
 Nandaln, Arnold, 677. 
 
 Navigation Acts, a political deal for pro- 
 longing slave trade, 135. 
 
 Nelson, John, 575, 575n. 
 
 Newburgh Telegraph (The), 759. 
 
 New England, character. Van Buren on, 
 710 ; Jael5S0n's visit, 689, 690 ; liking for 
 official distinction, 258 ; senators attack 
 Van Buren, 524 ; senators delay denun- 
 ciation of West India trade negotiation 
 success, 523 ; senators vote for resump- 
 tion of West India trade and denounce 
 it when accomplished by Van Buren, 522 ; 
 tariff, 116. 
 
 New Hampshire, legislature, recommends 
 a convention, 584. 
 
 New Jersey plan, for amendment to the 
 Constitution, 118. 
 
 New Orleans, battle of, feeling of English 
 toward, 451. 
 
 New York auctioneer officers, 223 ; Cham- 
 ber of Commerce, 263 ; cholera In, 510 ; 
 Collector of Customs, 262, 263, 505, 536 ; 
 Constitution, adopted, 112, 112m. 
 
 Constitutional Convention, 102, 102m, 
 105, 110, 111, 112; committee on ap- 
 pointments, 106, 106«; Van Buren's 
 course in, 112. 
 
 Contested election, 73 ; Democratic clti- 
 * zens, letter to Van Buren and the 
 reply, 503, 503»; election, 73, 158; elec- 
 tion (of 1814), 53; (of 1820), 102; 
 electors favor Crawford, 142; Federalist 
 conduct in, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 59 ; Gov- 
 ernorship, Van Buren, 220, 225, 227, 
 591. 
 
 Legislature : 550, 552 ; struggle to con- 
 trol, 80, 86; support of administration, 
 729, 730, 731. 
 
 .Vssembly : attitude in War of 1812, 44 : 
 investigation of Van Ness bribery, 110, 
 
 llOtt ; Senate : Van Buren's election to, 
 224. 
 
 Loan to TJ. 8., 44 ; Middle district Con- 
 vention, 88» ; militia bill, 55, 56, 57, 58 ; 
 politics, 142, 145, 147, 157; protective 
 tariff, 169, 170, 693, 696; Eepubllcan 
 struggle with Federalists, 81, 82, 90; 
 Safety fund system attacked, 741, 742 ; 
 supports John Quincy Adams, 142, 145 ; 
 supports War of 1812, 57 ; tariff con- 
 vention, 169, 170 ; Union meeting on 
 Nullification Proclamation, 547 ; TJ. S. 
 district attorney for southern district, 
 265. 
 
 New York vs. John Jacob Astor, 175. 
 
 New York American (The), 109; charges 
 against Van Ness, 110. 
 
 New York Courier and Enquirer (The), 
 398. 
 
 New York Evening Post (The), comments 
 on New York legislature's report ou 
 Nullification proclamation, 552. 
 
 New York Journal of Commerce (The), 
 421. 
 
 Newspapers. See Press, The. 
 
 Nicholas, Wilson Cary, 412, 412«. 
 
 Nicholson, John, 258, 536. 
 
 Niles' Register, 282, 526, 526n, 654, 691, 
 
 694, 696. 
 
 Noah, M. M., 398 ; letter to, 101, 101«. 138. 
 
 Nobility, English, simplicity of, 473, 474. 
 
 North Carolina. See Carolina, North. 
 
 North Eastern boundary question, 273, 452, 
 465. 
 
 Northern Whig, newspaper, 26«. 
 
 Northwest Territory, Ordinance of 1787. 
 134, 135. 
 
 Noyes, .John, 76«. 
 
 Nullification, 382, 395, 396, 409, 410, 562, 
 679, 680, 681, 682, 684, 685, 691, 692, 
 696, 697, 698, 758 ; Cahoun committed 
 to, 541 ; crisis, 554 ; doctrine, 542 ; 
 Hayne's proclamation, 681 ; Jackson's 
 toast at dinner, 415, 416 ; launched at 
 Jefferson birthday banquet, 413, 414, 
 415; meeting at Albany, 562, 563, 564; 
 meeting at Boston, 547 ; meeting at New 
 York, 547 ; meeting at Shocco Springs, 
 562; Proclamation: 543, 680, 684, 694, 
 
 695, 698, 706, 707; defects, 546, 547, 
 548 ; denounced, 424, 425 ; federal ten- 
 dencies In, 706,, 707 ; Livingston's draft, 
 705, 705n ; newspaper comment on, 552, 
 553 ; political capital made out of, .547, 
 553 ; Van Buren's report on for New 
 York legislature, 550, 552 ; South Caro- 
 lina's ordinance of, 542, 680, 683 ; toasts 
 at banquet, 415, 416, 417. 
 
 NuUiflers, 698, 697. 
 
 O. 
 
 Oakley, Thomas J., 33, 94n, 166n, 401. 
 O'Connell, Daniel, 476. 
 Office seekers, importunity of, 231. 
 Officers, Revolutionary War, half pay, 211, 
 212. 
 
798 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 OfiBcial distinction, a New England feel- 
 ing, 258. 
 
 Ogden, David B., 21, 50, 127, 173, 401. 
 
 Ohio, circuit jndge in, 219 ; protective tariff, 
 693, 696. 
 
 O'Neale, P^gy. See Baton, Mrs. Jolin 
 Henry. 
 
 Ontario County, N. T., contested election, 
 73 ; senator from, 86, 87. 
 
 Ordinance of 1787, 134, 135. 
 
 Oswego, N. Y., brancli of Brie canal to, 85. 
 
 Otis, Harrison Grey, 429, 547, 574, 575», 
 695. 
 
 Otranto, Duke of, 445. 
 
 Otsego county, N. T., 105 ; senator from, 86. 
 
 Overton, John, 587, 587n, 588, 589, 591. 
 
 Owen, George W., 181. 
 
 Pageot, 
 
 585. 
 
 Parliamentary reform, 453. 
 
 Palmorston, Lord, 456, 457, 458, 460, 477, 
 528, 529 ; attacit on administration (in 
 1855), 467, 468; on. Van Buren's rejec- 
 tion by Senate, 455 ; opinion of Talley- 
 rand, 458 ; Van Buren's negotiation with, 
 452, 453 ; Van Buren's opinion of, 465, 
 466, 467. 
 
 Panama Mission, 198, 199, 200, 200», 201, 
 202, 202«., 204, 248 ; abandoned, 201 ; de- 
 feated, 203 ; vote on, 201». 
 
 Panic, distress committees, 727 ; distress 
 memorials, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726, 
 727 ; efforts to cause, 717, 718, 719, 738, 
 739, 740, 741, 742, 745, 746, 747, 748; 
 engineered by Bank, 640, 641, 642, 651, 
 651», 654, 655, 656, 657, 696; 712, 717, 
 722, 723, 725, 726, 736; plan of action 
 In Congress, 712, 713 ; responsibility 
 charged for, 722. 
 
 Panic session, 618, 632, 633, 664, 671, 688, 
 707, 712, 713, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 
 726, 727, 735, 736, 742, 757, 782; how 
 named, 618. 
 
 Paris, Maritime congress at, 60«. 
 
 Parker, Richard Elliott, 606. 
 
 Parrls, Daniel, 44, 44«. 
 
 Parties, political, 125. 
 
 Parton, James M., Life of Jackson, 313n, 
 749, 749n. 
 
 Patronage, political, 106, 123, 124, 125, 
 126, 127, 223, 399, 401; under Jackson, 
 247, 249, 250 ; Van Buren on, 448. 
 
 Patterson, Walter, 574. 
 
 Paulding, J. K., 536. 
 
 Paulding, William, 161, 163. 
 
 Pea Patch Island, Delaware River, 576, 
 576m. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 456, 529 ; Van Buren's 
 opinion of, 464 ; sketch of, 464, 465. 
 
 Pendleton, Edmund, 187. 
 
 Pennsylvania, aid in electing Jackson, 314, 
 320; DOane's appointment a compliment 
 to, 596 ; on Internal improvements, 314 ; 
 the " Keystone State," 314 ; mem- 
 bers of Congress fail to support Jackson 
 
 on Indian bill, 289 ; members of Con- 
 gress in favor of MaysvlUe turnpike bill, 
 325 ; on removal of Indians, 314, 320 ; 
 Secretary of Treasury from, 596, 597 ; 
 senators, York memorial submitted to, 
 765 ; support of Jackson, 239, 314, 320 ; 
 tariff, 239, 314, 691, 696; western dis- 
 trict marshal appointment, 127, 234, 235. 
 
 Pensacola, Florida, Jackson's occupation of, 
 375. 
 
 Pension agency, 649. 
 
 Pension funds, control of, 649»t. 
 
 Perkins, Thomas H., 547, 547«. 
 
 Perkins, , 695. 
 
 Peters, Richard, 292, 293. 
 
 Peyton, Baylie, 196. 
 
 Philadelphia, Board of Trade, memorial, 
 722, 724, 725 ; building mechanics, memo- 
 rial, 727 ; State banks' memorial to re- 
 store deposits, 721, 724, 725. 
 
 Pickering, Timothy, 179, 188, 188k, 299, 
 486, 488 ; letter to, 488 ; removed as Sec- 
 retary of State, 190; Review of corre- 
 spondence of John Adams and William 
 Cunningham, 188tc. 
 
 Pierce, Franklin, 496. 
 
 Plnckney, Charles Cotesworth, 190. 
 
 Pinckney, Thomas, 171. 
 
 Piracy, slave trade declared, 135 ; Van 
 Buren on, 118. 
 
 Pitt, William, 468, 469. 
 
 Pittsburg, Webster's speech at, 691, 692, 
 693, 695, 696, 697, 698, 700, 703. 
 
 Piatt, , Judge, 64, 64>i, 102. 
 
 Polndexter, George, 454, 454n, 677, 681)i, 
 759 ; altercation with Forsyth, 757 : 
 antagonism to Jackson, 745, 755, 756 ; 
 antagonism to Van Buren, 756, 757; at- 
 tack on Webster, 681, 686, 686», 687, 
 758 ; attacks York memorial, 766 ; "brag" 
 game with Clay, 754, 755 ; bribery charge 
 against, 77T; calumnies against Van 
 Buren, 757, 776 ; chairman of committee 
 on public lands, 745 ; character, 756, 758 ; 
 course In Senate in aid of Bank, 723, 
 731 ; efforts to cause panic, 745 ; efforts 
 to embroil Van Buren, 758, 759, 760, 761, 
 762 ; letter, 759 ; letter to, 761 ; meeting 
 with Jackson, 754, 7 55 ; personal rela- 
 tions with Van Buren, 754, 757 ; politi- 
 cal relations with Van Buren, 749 ; sup- 
 port of Jackson, 754 ; Van Buren's opin- 
 ion of, 755, 756. 
 
 Politics, campaign (of 1840), 8; delegated 
 power abused, 184 ; difference between 
 state and national, 401 ; early national; 
 122, 123, 124; New York, 13, 26, 142 
 see also under Npw York ; party, 125 
 partisan, 712 ; partisan prejudice, 746 
 parties growing out of War of 1812, 671 
 qualiScations necessary for leadership in, 
 469, 470 ; rivalry within organization, 
 519n.; Van Buren on, 124,, 125. 
 
 Polk, James K, 226», 614. 
 
 Porter, David, 269. 
 
 Porter, Peter B., 70, 71, 72, 81, 82, 145, 
 282, 283, 295, 637, 537», 
 
INDEX. 
 
 799 
 
 Post Office, inquiry intO) 745, 
 
 Preble, William Pitt, 273 ; appointed U. b. 
 minister to the Netlierlanas, 260, 260». 
 
 Prendergast, John I., 76n. 
 
 Prentiss, Samuel, 454, 454n, 533, 676. 
 
 President of the Umt«d States, 742, 742» ; 
 appointing power, 742 ; canvass (of 
 1824), 665; election by House of Kepre- 
 sentatives, 118 ; evils to which an admin- 
 istration is exposed by the Secretary of 
 State desiring succession to the, 39S ; 
 Jackson's plan to resign in favor of Van 
 Buren, 506, 507 ; loss of power at close 
 of an administration, 284 ; maneuvers 
 for, 616, 617 ; prejudice against England 
 capitalized to gain, 494, 495, 496, 497, 
 498, 499, 500 ; removal power, 742 ; step- 
 ping stone to, 122 ; successor to Jackson, 
 518 ; Van Buren's chances of, 446, 447 ; 
 Van Buren's idea of the honor, 448 ; Van 
 Buren's nominations, 225, 226, 227; 
 White's nomination, 226». 
 
 President, packet, 445, 459. 
 
 Press (The), (newspapers), aids Bank and 
 opposes Jackson, 746 ; auxiliary of parti- 
 san political advantage, 290 ; controlled 
 by Bank, 658 ; freedom endangered by 
 Jackson's political appointments, 247 ; 
 power of, 197 ; panic rumors, 747, 748 ; 
 rumors Bank stock transactions in Lon- 
 don, 746. 
 
 Preston, William C, 677, 766 ; attack on 
 Van Buren, 766, 767, 768, 772 ; personal 
 relations with Van Buren, 769, 770 ; rea- 
 sonable atonement for his attack, 769. 
 
 Preston family, characteristics, 769. 
 
 Priestly, Joseph, 159, 159«. 
 
 Privateers (N. Y.), bill to encourage, 57, 
 58. 
 
 Prussia, 485. 
 
 Public debt, payment of, 621. 
 
 Public opinion, control of by Bank funds, 
 642 ; power in England, 481, 483. 
 _ Punctuality, Jefferson on, 188. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quakers. See Friends. 
 R. 
 
 Ramsay, Robert, 326, 326», 327. 
 
 Randall. Henry S., 442. 
 
 Randall, , 175. 
 
 Randolph, Edmund, 189. 
 
 Randolph, Ellen Wayles, 183«. 
 
 Randolph, John, of Roanoke, 12, 135, 181, 
 221, 238, 326, 435, 554, 594, 695 ; ap- 
 pointed minister to Russia, 260, 260», 
 418, 419 ; approves Jackson's Bank veto, 
 424 ; assails Adams, 439 ; assails Holmes, 
 205, 206, 209 ; attempts to sow discord 
 between Van Buren and Jackson, 420 ; 
 character, 205, 426, 427, 428, 429, 430, 
 J31 ; charges against Jacksdn, 547 ; 
 
 Charlotte resolutions, 424, 425; on com- 
 mittee of- rules of Senate, 208 ; death, 
 426 ; debate with Henry, 435, 436, 437, 
 438, 439, 440; demands letters from 
 Jackson, 425, 426 ; denounces the Nulli- 
 fication Proclamation, 424, 425, -547 ; duel 
 with Clay, 204, 207, 534 ; entertaining 
 qualities, 208 ; fails in reelection, 207, 
 208 ; hostility to Jefferson, Madison, and 
 Monroe, 208 ; letter, 423m ; leaves Russia, 
 420, 421, 427, 428, 429 ; leaves Senate, 
 210, 429, 430 ; opinion of Washington 
 City, 208 ; personal relations with Van 
 Buren, 421, 423, 426, 427, 429, 430, 431 ; 
 physical appearance, 205, 207 ; political 
 services, 121, 428, 429 ; presents a horse 
 to Van Buren, 421, 422 ; protest, 121 ; 
 quarrels, 418 ; .speech against Alien and 
 Sedition law, 439, 440 ; speeches, 425 ; 
 Van Buren's reasons for appointing, 418, 
 419 ; on Van Buren's resignation, 423« ; 
 violence in debate, 204, 205, 206. 
 
 Randolph, Mrs. Thomas Mann, 349, 580. 
 
 Redfield, Herman J., 158. 
 
 Reform, political, 247, 248. 
 
 Reform Bill (English), 460, 461, 462, 463, 
 477, 478, 482. 
 
 Reid, , 436. 
 
 Religion, 284; in politics, 293. 
 
 Reminiscences of Congress (March's), 700, 
 700k. 
 
 RenssalacrswycU , ship, 11«. 
 
 R'epublican creed, 124. 
 
 Republican party, 192, 195, 196, 197, 198, 
 303 ; advocate of State theory of adop- 
 tion of Constitution, 545 ; danger of de- 
 struction, 665 ; foreign policy, 494 ; in- 
 trigues for Presidency, 398. 
 
 Republican (The Washington), 576». 
 
 Republicans, 220 ; desire appointment of 
 Van Huron, 224 ; factional split, 226« ; 
 National, 108 ; New York, Clintonians 
 and Van Buren's anti-federalist address, 
 88« ; split with Clintonians, 89 ; Vir- 
 ginia, 208. 
 
 Revision, Council of (New York), 57, 102, 
 102»i. 
 
 Reynolds, James, 119. 
 
 Reynold's Affair, 119, 120. 
 
 Rice, John H., 435, 437. 
 
 Richardson, , Judge, 38. 
 
 Richmond, Duke of, 451, 461. 
 
 Richmond Enquirer (The), 126. 
 
 Rikcr, Richard, 38, 39, 41, 43. 
 
 Rip Raps, Hampton Roads, Virginia, Jack- 
 ' son at, 601)!, 605, 607, 608. 
 
 Ritchie, Thomas, 245, 246, 248, 249, 255, 
 425, 514; letters, 245, 385; letters to, 
 249, 514. 
 
 Rives, William Cabell, 273, 612, 676; ap- 
 pointed Minister to Great Britain, 260 ; 
 success in' negotiation with France, 274. 
 
 Rhea, John, 383. 
 
 Rhinelander, , 106». 
 
 Roads, Buffalo to New Orleans, 311, 
 
800 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Roads and canals, 194, 298, 299, 300, 301, 
 315, 329; reports on, 314. 
 
 Roane, Spencer, 300, 770 ; articles on Mar- 
 shall's decisions, 126 ; support of Jack- 
 son, 723 ; Van Buren's visit to, 126. 
 
 Roane, WjUiam H., 390. 
 
 Robbins, Asher, 454, 454», 671. 
 
 Robbins, Jonathan, 179. 
 
 Robinson, John M., 676. 
 
 Rochester, William B., 164 ; nomination for 
 governor, 162, 163. 
 
 Romalne, , 104». 
 
 Root, Brastus, 44, 47, 56, 95, 110. 
 
 Rose, William Lucius, 41, 43. 
 
 Rosencrantz, George, 89». 
 
 Ross, F. William, 89». 
 
 Ross, James, 691. 
 
 Ross, William, 43, 43», 86, 103;i. 
 
 Ruffln, Thomas, 606. 
 
 Ruggles, Benjamin, 454, 454» ; Van Buren's 
 opinion of, 566, 566n, 567. 
 
 Rush, Richard, 521. 
 
 Russell, Benjamin, 200, 209)i. 
 
 Russell, Lord .John, Van Buren's opinion 
 of, 477, 478. 
 
 Russia, 485 ; appointment of minister to, 
 418, 419 ; Great Britain's war with, 467 ; 
 treaty with, 419, 420. 
 
 Rutgers, , 77. 
 
 Rutledge, Henry M., 419, 419n. 
 
 S. 
 
 Safety Fund System, N. Y., 221, 222 ; at- 
 tacked, 741, 742. 
 
 Sailor's Snug Harbor, suit, 172, 175. 
 
 St. Marks, Florida, Jackson's occupation 
 of, 375. 
 
 St. Paul, 468n. 
 
 Sanford, Nathan, 67, 68, 69, 70, 213, 2i:;)i, 
 263, 2e3n, 515, 563 ; candidate for V. S. 
 Senate, 66, 67, 67m, 104, 104k. 
 
 Sardinia, 483, 485. 
 
 Sargeant, , 82. 
 
 Schuyler, Philip, 227. 
 
 Scotch character, 496. 
 
 Scott, Wlnfleld, 56, 353 ; nomination vote, 
 500. 
 
 Seamen, destitute, aid for, 546. 
 
 Search, right of, on Mgh seas, 203 ; Great 
 Britain's claim, 528, 529. 
 
 Sedgwick, , 18. 
 
 Sefton, Lord and Lady, 473. 
 
 Seminole War, Jackson's conduct in, 383, 
 388, 754, 755 ; Jackson's correspondence 
 with Calhoun on, 366, 368, 394. 
 
 Senate, U. S., action on rechrfrter of U. S. 
 Bank, 618 ; aid to panic, 747, 748 ; see 
 also under Calhoun, Clay, Poindexter and 
 Webster ; attack on Van Buren in, 764, 
 771, 772, 773, 774; Bank majority in, 
 714 ; bitterness of debate in, 748 ; breach 
 with President on Panama mission, 201 ; 
 choosing of standing committees, 671, 
 673, 674, 675, 676, 677, 711, 713, 759; 
 debate on panic memorials, 722, 723, 724, 
 739, 740 ; debate prolonged in, 716 ; 
 
 finance committee, 715, 718; Jackson 
 support in, 723, 724 ; motives inducing 
 rejection of Van Buren's nomination, 
 531 ; President of, 673 ; President pro 
 tem, 673, 674, 675 ; President's discretion 
 in presenting memorials, 774, 775, 776 ; 
 rejection of Simpson's nomination, 599 ; 
 rejection of Van Buren's nomination as 
 minister to Great Britain, 273, 395, 396, 
 453, 454, 455, 456, 457, 509, 511, 512, 
 513, 531, 584, 585, 587, 590, 591, 748, 
 756, 757 ; resolution changing method of 
 committee selection, 675, 676, 677 ; rules, 
 amendments, 208, 209, 210 ; standing 
 committees intrigue against Van Buren. 
 671 ; suspected of Intentional disrespect 
 by Jackson, 599, 600 ; treatment of new 
 Senators, 217 ; Van Buren's first appear- 
 ance as Vice President in. 671, 672 ; Van 
 Buren's opponents in, 673, 763 ; Van 
 Buren's reception in on his return from 
 England, 566 ; Van Buren triumphs over, 
 595; York memorial in, 766, 767, 768, 
 770, 771, 772, 773, 774, 775, 776. 
 
 Senators, V. S., New York, 100, 100», 104, 
 104«. 
 
 Sergeant, John, 201, 612. 
 
 Seward, William II., 549, 549ft. 
 
 Seymour, Henry, 91. 
 
 Seymour, Horatio, 91, 129, 4.54, 454)i. 
 
 Shakers, petition exemption from military 
 service, 153, 154. 
 
 Shenandoah County, Virginia, memorial, 
 766. 
 
 Sheplcy, Ether, 676 ; supports Jackson, 
 724. 
 
 Shoeco Springs, North Carolina, meeting, 
 562. 
 
 Silsbee, Nathaniel, 213, 213», 677, 733. 
 
 Silvester, Cornelius, 14. 
 
 Silvester, Francis, 13?i. 
 
 Silvester Famil.v. 13. 
 
 Simpson, Stephen, nomination rejected by 
 Senate, 599. 
 
 Singleton, . 394. 
 
 Skinner, Roger, 103, 103n, 106, 144. 
 
 Slave States, 136. 
 
 Slave Trade, abolition of, 135, 203; de- 
 clared piracy, 135. 
 
 Slavery, 136, 137, 138, 130 ; agitation, 411, 
 412 ; Slave and Free States representa- 
 tion in Congress, 135 ; Van Buren on, 
 132, 133, 134, 135. 
 
 Smith, Nathan, 677. 
 
 Smith, Samuel. 201n, 213, 213», 613; can- 
 didacy for Vice President, 588. 
 
 Smith, Mrs. Samuel Harrison, 753. 
 
 Smith, William, 198 ; offered seat on V. S. 
 Supreme Bench, 199. 
 
 South, free from passion for official dis- 
 tinction, 258 ; injuries inflicted on, 411. 
 
 South America, flee .4merlca, South. 
 
 South Carolina. See Carolina, South. 
 
 Southard, Samuel L., 803, 303n, 369, 677. 
 
 Southwick, Solomon, 19, 48, 96, 12.'j. 220, 
 401. 
 
 Spain, V. S. Minister to. 252, 253, 260. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 801 
 
 Spanish claims, payment of, 662. 
 Specie, curtailment, 653, 654, 656. 
 Spencer, Ambrose, 38, 41, 42, 43, 47, 64, 
 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 71», 72, 73, 75, 
 76n, 79, 80, 88, 89, 89«, 90, 91, 102, 111, 
 170, 224, 401, 548; attempt to restore 
 Clinton, 74, 75, 76, 76)i, 77, 79, 80, 85; 
 Interview with Van Bureii, 92, 93 ; op- 
 posed to Van Buren, 67, 68, 69, 70 ; po- 
 litical intrigue, 86, 91, 92 ; political lead- 
 ership, 74, 79. 
 Spencer, John C, 100, lOOn. 
 
 Spencer, Earl. See Altrop, Lord. 
 
 Spotswood, Mrs., 441. 
 
 Sprague, Peleg, 677; attaclts Van Buren, 
 
 524. 
 State Department, no secrets can be Iscpt 
 in, 270. 
 
 State Secretary of, (New Tork>, 69, 70. 
 
 State, Secretary of (United States), 230; 
 appointed, 224, 225, 310, 517, 598, 614; 
 Clay's nomination, 666 ; Jackson's wish 
 for Van Buren's return to, 705» ; labor 
 of, 273; Livingston as, 705; McLane. ap- 
 pointed, 598 ; offered to Henry, 433, 434 ; 
 stepping stone to Presidency, 121, 122, 
 398; Van Buren appointed, 224, 225, 
 517 ; Van Buren's resignation, 268, 398, 
 399, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 423» ; 
 Van Buren selection for, 267. 
 
 States, plan of districting, 118 ; proceeds 
 of sale of public lands distributed among, 
 742, 742«; rights, 416, 424, 425, 546, 
 547; rights as to roads and canals, 317, 
 318, 319. 
 
 Stebbins, Francis, 26». 
 
 Steuben county, N. T., election result, 164. 
 
 Stevenson, Andrew, 146, 237, 237«., 364, 
 528, 528», 575, 575)^, 589. 
 
 Stocks, American, rumors of lack of Euro- 
 pean confidence In, 747. 
 
 Stone, William L., 85. 
 
 Stranahan, Farrand, 67, 68, 69, 71». 
 
 Strong, — ^ , 71. 
 
 Strother's Hotel, Washington, D. C, 574. 
 
 Sublime Porte, treaty with, 257, 270, 756. 
 
 Suffrage (Votes), restriction in N. Y., 112. 
 
 Sullivan, George, 272. 
 
 Supreme Court, New York, increase of, 68 ; 
 Van Buren offered a place on, 90, 91. 
 
 Supreme Court of U. S., assumption of 
 authority, 184 ; elective, 185 ; justices, 
 110 ; justices and the circuit, 218, 219 ; 
 undermines Constitution to support U. S. 
 Bank, 126 ; used for political partisan 
 purpose, 292, 293 ; Van Buren offered a 
 place on, 140, 141. 
 
 Survey bill, 328, 329. 
 
 Sussex, Duke of, 456, 459. 
 
 Suydam, John, diflSculty with Van Buren, 
 27,' 28. 
 
 Swart, Moak, 80. 
 
 Swartwout, Samuel, 377, 381 ; appointment 
 as Collector of New York, 262, 263, 266, 
 268, 272. 505 ; opposition to, 264, 268. 
 
 Swift, Benjamin, 677. 
 
 127483°— VOL 2—20 51 
 
 T. 
 
 Taghfcanle (Tackkanic) patent, 22. 
 Talcott, Samuel A., 21 ; appointed attorney 
 general, of N. Y., 174 ; intemperance, 
 174, 175, 176 ; relations with Van Buren, 
 173, 174, 176; talent, 175, 176. 
 Talleyrand, Charles Maurice Pcrigord, 
 Prince, 457, 460, 473; attacked, 459; 
 defended by Wellington, 459 ; distrust of 
 Napoleon, 459 ; inability to speak Eng- 
 lish,, 458, 460 ; Palmerston's opinion of, 
 458. 
 Tallmadge, James, 143. 
 Tallmadge, Nathaniel P., 549, 677, 741. 
 Tammany Society, 265 ; dinner, 233. 
 Taney, Roger B., 364, 511, 579, 580, 597, 
 598, e05, 601«, 605, 613, 057 ; appointed 
 Secretary of Treasury, 603 ; appointed to 
 Supreme Court, 584 ; charge against, 644, 
 738 ; defended by Forsyth, 738 ; prophecy 
 of result of Cass and McLane remaining 
 in Cabinet, 608 ; refutation of Clay's 
 charge, 739 ; report on Bank, 643, 643», 
 644 ; report on removal of the deposits, 
 652, 653, 654, 655, 656; Van Buren ap- 
 proves for Secretary of Treasury, 593. 
 
 Tariff, 200, 541, 559; (of 1824), Jackson's 
 position, 239, 240, 242; opposition to, 
 240, 242 ; Van Buren's vote on, 241, 242 ; 
 (of 1832), act, 542, 542»; Clay's 
 "American System," 554, 555, 556 ; modi- 
 flcation, 554, 555, 557, 558, 562, 563, 
 564; protective, 115, 116, 117, 169, 172, 
 409, 411, 412, 555, 671, 682, 683, 691, 
 693, 693n., 694, 696. 
 
 Abuses, 275 ; bill, 170m. ; character, 171 ; 
 opposition, 240, 242 ; reduction, 553 ; re- 
 port on amount of duties, 740, 741 ; sys- 
 tem, 409, 555, 682, 683; Van Buren's 
 opinion of as a political issue, 555 ; Web- 
 ster on, 698, 699 ; Webster's speech sus- 
 taining, 683, 684. 
 
 "Tarquin," 351. 
 
 Tayloe, Benjamin Ogle, 612. 
 
 Taylor, Creed, 436. 
 
 Taylor, John, 40, 41, 43, 46, 47, 228, 412 ; 
 death, 227 ; relations with Van Buren, 
 227, 228. 
 
 Taylor, John W., 181, 158 ; Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives, 157. 
 
 Taylor, Zachary, 196. 
 
 Tazewell, Lyttleton W., 209, 210, 210m, 
 256, 258, 259, 454, 454«, 756; appoint- 
 ment as minister to England, 251 ; de- 
 clines, 256 ; quoits with Marshall and 
 others, 259. 
 
 Telegraph (The), 357, 358. 
 
 Tennessee, U. S. Attorney, appointment left 
 to Van Buren, 265. 
 
 Thomas, , 48, 49, 96. 
 
 Thompson, Smith, 19«., 74, 75, 77, 81, 88, 
 96, 138, 140, 141, 141«, 173; appointed 
 Secretary of the Navy, 94, 140, 140»i ; 
 defeated for Governor of New York, 220, 
 221 ; Presidential aspirations, 141)h 
 
802 
 
 IHDEX. 
 
 Thompson, William, nominated for speaker, 
 90. 
 
 Throop, Elnos Thompson, 88, 562, 595, 598. 
 
 Timberlake, J. B., 341. 
 
 Tipton, John, 677. 
 
 TomllnBon, Gideon, 454, 454», 677. 
 
 Tompkins, Daniel D., 28, 29, 46, 48, 49, 53, 
 69, 70, 75, 76, 76», 79, 98, 100, 106, 110, 
 122, 138 ; accounts, 95, 9T, 99, 99n ; 
 charges against, 95, 97, 98 ; intemper- 
 ance, 96, 97 ; joint letter with Van Buren, 
 125, 126 ; letter, 95» ; letter to, 95« ; 
 nominated for governor, 99n, 105, 225 ; 
 reply to charges, 98 ; resignation, 76n ; 
 Secretary of State position offered to, 57, 
 95 ; Van Buren's pamphlet in favor of, 
 101. 
 
 Townsend, J., 170. 
 
 Townsend, , 103». 
 
 Towson, , 358. 
 
 Trade, with Indians, 280. 
 
 Treasury, U. S., besiegers of, 745. 
 
 Treasury, Secretary of, 593, 594, 597, 737 ; 
 appointed, 593, 594, 596, 597, 598, 603, 
 605, 614; called on for and reports on 
 amount of duties, 740, 741 ; censured for 
 removing deposits, 717, 717m, 720 ; 
 charges against, 737, 738 ; dismissed, 603, 
 603» ; Jackson's difficulty in finding a, 
 595 ; power to remove deposits, 714 ; 
 reasons for removal of deposits, 731 ; re- 
 port on Bank, 643 ; report on removal of 
 deposits, 715, 716, 7i7. 
 
 Treaty, obligations disregarded by nations, 
 485 ; with Eussla, 419, 420. 
 
 Trimble, William A., 307, 307>t. 
 
 "Trio," 416. 
 
 Trist, Nicholas P., 345, 349, 441, 580. 
 
 Trlst, Mrs. Nicholas P., 349. 
 
 Troup, George Mcintosh, 415, 416 ; toast, 
 416. 
 
 Tucker,, Henry St. George, 300, 300», 412. 
 
 Tyler, John, 124, 208, 454, 454», 671, 677, 
 766 ; opposition to removal of deposits 
 and to the Bank, 766, 766)i ; vote against 
 the Force Bill, 710n. 
 
 U. 
 
 Union, sustaining of, 416. 
 
 Union Bank of Maryland, 644 ; Secretary 
 of Treasury charged with being a stock- 
 holder in, 737, 738, 739. 
 
 United States, accession of territory, 136 ; 
 advantage derived from War of 1812, 
 490, 491 ; alliance with England, 485, 
 486, 488, 491, 492, 493, 494 ; allows time 
 limit of West India trade regulations to 
 elapse, 521 ; attitude in West India trade 
 negotiation, 522 ; authorizes resumption 
 of West India trade, 522, 522n ; disre- 
 gard of treaty obligation, 485 ; domestic 
 wrangles over foreign situation, 487, 
 489 ; Interdicts West India trade, 522 ; 
 New Tork loan to, 44 ; refused West 
 India trade privileges, 522 ; remonstrance 
 
 with West Indies, 522, 522n, 527 ; sys- 
 tem of government compared with Eng- 
 lish, 480, 481, 482, 483 ; treatment re- 
 ceived from England, 486, 487, 488; 
 treatment received from France, 487, 488. 
 
 United States Telegraph (The), 378, 380, 
 384, 398, 399, 506, 512, 514, 520, 532, 
 533 ; Article in, 386. 
 
 University, National, 195. 
 
 University of Virginia, president, 159. 
 
 Vail, Aaron, 445. 
 
 Van Alen, Johannes, lOn. 
 
 Van Buren, Abraham, 10. 
 
 Van Buren, Catalynje Martense, 10». 
 
 Van Buren, Cornells Maessen, lOn. 
 
 Van Buren, John, 109, 196, 402, 445, 576. 
 
 Van Buren, Marten, 10, 10». 
 
 Van Buren, Martin (grandfather), 10 lOn. 
 
 Van Buren, Martin, abandons chance of 
 presidency, 446, 447 ; absence felt by 
 Jackson, 508 ; absence, from Senate on 
 Woolens bill vote, 169 ; absence from Sen- 
 ate as Vice President, 673 ; abused by 
 wealthy, 56 ; acquires Van Ness estate at 
 Klnderhook, 17 ; action on Clay's nom- 
 ination as Secretary of State, 667 ; action 
 to arouse opposition to Swartwout's ap- 
 pointment, 263 ; address on death of Clin- 
 ton, 166, 166n, 167 ; address to people on 
 nomination of Tompkins and Taylor, 47, 
 47n ; address to Senate in York memorial 
 debate, 774, 775, 776 ; administration, 
 392 ; on admission of Missouri, 138, 140 ; 
 admitted to bar, 13 ; advice on Jackson's 
 message, 546 ; advice on handling nulli- 
 fication proclamation in New York legis- 
 lature, 549 ; advised to decline appoint- 
 ment as Secretary of State, 230, 231 ; 
 Albany resolutions, 50, 51, 52, 52n ; on 
 alliance with England, 485, 486, 488, 493 ; 
 aids McLane, 609, 610, 615; analysis of 
 Bank situation, 636, 637, 638 ; analysis 
 of claim of Webster's aid to Jackson, 
 709 ; analysis of McLane's resignation, 
 617 ; analysis of New York political situa- 
 tion, 162 ; analysis of working of the 
 public mind, 168 ; answer of N. Y. Senate 
 to governor's speech, 53, 55n ; appoint- 
 ment as attorney general of N. Y., 71n, 
 96, 224 ; appointed Minister to England, 
 225 ; appointed Secretary of State, 224, 
 517 ; appointed U. S. Senator, 99, 225 ; 
 on appointments, 107 ; arrival at Wash- 
 ington as Vice President, 677 ; article on 
 Chancellor Kent, 61, 62 ; attacked for 
 Cherokee policy, 293 ; attacked by Clay 
 and Calhoun, 675 ; attacked by Clay, 
 759 ; attacked by McLane's friend, 569 ; 
 attacked In Senate, 748, 758, 759, 760, 
 764, 765, 767, 768, 770, 771, see aUo 
 confirmation as Minister to England; at- 
 tacked by Webster and Sprague, 524 ; 
 attacked on West India trade instruction, 
 523, 627 ; attacks on, 169, 764, 765, 768, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 803 
 
 7,69; attempt to injure, 539; attends 
 N. T. tariff convention, 170. 
 
 Attitude : toward Bank, 36, 44 ; on the 
 Bank, of the TJ. S., 184, 184n ; on a Bank 
 debate in Senate, 724 ; on bankrupt law, 
 214, 218 ; on Erie canal, 84, 84», 85 ; to- 
 ward Federalists, S8n; on protest of 
 French draft, 612 ; In Jackson-Calhoun 
 quarrel, 376 ; on Missouri Question, 99, 
 100 ; on political patronage appointments, 
 399, 401 ; on slavery, 136, 137, 138 ; to- 
 ward War of 1812, 36, 37, 44, 48. 
 
 Belief in Biddle's personal honesty, 651 ; 
 belief that party feeling should not influ- 
 ence foreign policy, 512 ; belief in the peo- 
 ple, 8, 0, 19, 34, 112, 509, 678, 772 ; Bell's 
 Interview with, 226n ; besieged by of- 
 fice seekers, 231 ; break with Clinton, 
 45, 46, 47, 48, 101 ; break with 
 Hogeboom, 47, 48 ; brief on Internal Im- 
 provements, 319, 321 ; Cabinet dinner, 
 348, 349, 350, 750 ; Cabinet reception, 
 351, 352 ; call on J. Q. Adams, 269 ; candi- 
 date for attorney general of N. T., 38, 
 42, 68, 69, 70, 71; candidate for State 
 Senate, 29, 30, 31, 32 ; candidate for U. S. 
 Senator, 104, 104n-; candidate for Vice 
 President, 584, 585, 586, 587, 588, 589, 
 590, 591 ; carries pistols, 761, 762 ; charge 
 of non-committalism against, 196, 197, 
 198, 198n ; charged with aspiring to 
 Presidency, 398, 899 ; charged with pur- 
 chase of gold spoons for the White House, 
 769, 770 ; charged with authorship of 
 Maysville veto message, 329 ; charges 
 against, 25, 366, 367, 368, 380, 381, 384, 
 385, 386, 387, 389, 397 ; character sketch 
 of John Randolph of Roanoke, 426, 427, 
 428, 429, 430, 431 ; Clay's visit to, 534, 
 664 ; commencement of his term as Presi- 
 dent of the Senate, 673, 674 ; compares 
 TJ. S. and English governmental systems, 
 480, 481, 482, 483, 492, 493 ; conduct 
 as presiding officer of the Senate, 708 ; 
 confirmation as Minister to England re- 
 fused by Senate, 273, 395, 396, 453, 454, 
 455, 456, 457, 509, 511, 512, 513, 581, 
 539, 540, 584, 585, 587, 590, 591. 748, 
 756, 757 ; " Considerations in favor of ap- 
 pointment of Rufus King" (pamphlet), 
 139» ; considers resigning as Secretary 
 of State, 262, 266, 267 ; on Constitution's 
 implied powers, 297, 298 ; controversy 
 with Chancellor Kent, 58, 60 ; conver- 
 sation with Aaron Burr, 400 ; coopera- 
 tion with Calhoun to elect Jackson, 514 ; 
 county convention delegate, 13, 14 ; 
 course on Internal Improvements, 315, 
 316; course in N. T. Constitutional Con- 
 vention, 112 ; course in Presidential elec- 
 tion In House of Representatives, 149, 
 150 ; on Cumberland Road veto, 117 ; de- 
 feated for renomlnation for President, 8, 
 226, 227, 394, 513; defended, 539, 540; 
 defends administration's action resulting 
 in his rejection as Minister to England, 
 510n ; defends removal of deposits, 602 ; 
 
 defends Van Ness, 110, 111 ; on Delaware 
 county circuit, 93, 94 ; delegate to N. T. 
 Constitutional Convention, , 106; on 
 democracy's struggle with monarchy, 485 ; 
 denounced for success in West India trade 
 negotiation, 522, 524 ; deserted by 
 Holmes, 756 ; describes debate in House 
 of liOrds on Reform Bill, 460, 461 ; de- 
 scribes Jefferson dinner at which nullifica- 
 tion was launched, 414, 415, 416, 417 ; 
 difference of opinion with McLane, 605 ; 
 dHBculty with Suydam, 27, 28 ; diplomatic 
 activities, 452, 453 ; discourages succes- 
 sion to Presidency, 398 ; discusses Web- 
 ster's dealings with the Bank, 778, 779, 
 780, 781, 782 ; dissension with Jackson 
 attempted by McLane, 569, 671 ; on 
 Dua^ie's selection as Secretary of the 
 Treasury, 598, 600 ; early politics, 15, 28, 
 29, 80, 31, 32, 33 ; efforts to abolish im- 
 prisonment for debt, 212 ; efforts to ad- 
 just nullification difficulty, 541 ; effort to 
 deal Justly in autobiography, 367 ; efforts 
 to induce Clay to run as Vice President 
 with Crawford, 665 ; efforts to reconcile 
 Jackson and J. Q. Adams, 270, 271 ; an 
 effort to trap, 772 ; elected Governor of 
 N. Y., 220, 221 ; elected President of 
 U. S., 225n, 510 ; elected Vice President, 
 510,. 618 ; elected to N. Y. Senate, 33, 73, 
 224, 225 ; election bets, 149 ; on election 
 of President in House of Representatives, 
 118 ; escorted to Capitol by Jackson on 
 his return from England, 566 ; estimate 
 of N. T. political situation, 160, 161 ; 
 faith in Jackson's friendship, 700 ; faith 
 in the people, 8, 9, 19, 34, 112, 509, 678, 
 772 ; false reports about, 127 ; feeling re- 
 garding Federal tendencies in Jackson's 
 cabinet, 545, 546 ; first political office, 
 28 ; first vote, 13, 15 ; friendship for Mc- 
 Lane, 601 ; friendship for Livingston, 
 704 ; Governor of N. Y., 221, 225 ; guber- 
 natorial canvass, 19 ; on Hamilton's Im- 
 plied powers of Constitution and internal 
 improvements, 297, 298 ; handwriting, 
 321 ; in Holland, 9, 10 ; horse presented 
 to, 421, 422 ;hostility of McLane, 571, 572, 
 573 ; idea of political power, 447 ; Idea of 
 the Presidency, 447, 448 ; instructions for 
 West India trade negotiations, 526, 521, 
 523, 524, 526, 529, 530, 531» ; on im- 
 plied powers of Constitution, 297, 298 ; 
 on Internal Improvements, 117, 297, 298, 
 315, 316 ; on politics of the Internal Im- 
 provements question, 809 ; Intrigue 
 against as President of Senate, 672 ; in- 
 vitation to Calhoun to dinner, 749, 750 ; 
 Jackson's opinion of, 12 ; Jackson's plan 
 to elect as Vice President and resign the 
 Presidency in favor of, 506 ; Jackson's 
 remark to about the Bank, 625 ; Jackson's 
 wish for him to return to office of Secre- 
 tary of State, 705» ; Dr. Jones' visit to, 
 751, 752 ; Joint letter with Tompkins, 
 126 ; King of England's feeling on his re- 
 jection by the Senate, 455, 456, 457; 
 
804 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 labor on instructions to V. S. ministers, 
 
 272, 273 ; last visit to Monroe, 153 ; in 
 law oflSces, 13, 14 ; learns of McLane's 
 resignation, 612 ; legal practice, 21, 26, 
 27 ; length of oflBce as Governor of N. T., 
 221 ; letters, 15n, 25, 138, 245, 249, 261, 
 
 321, 330, 361, 361», 394m, 407», 509, 517, 
 546, 558, 563, 572, 578, 580, 582, 598, 
 605, 606, 611, 669, 761 ; letter on Mis- 
 souri Question, lOOn ; letter to Noali, 101, 
 101»; letters to, 15«, 109m, 185, 186, 
 186», 197, 198«., 245, 248, 263, 264, 321, 
 
 322, 330, 331, 334, 346, 354, 385, 387, 
 394n, 407«, 423, 502, 503, 503», 507, 
 507n, 508m, 514, 516, 518, 530m, 548, 
 548m, 571, 575, 579, 583, 586, 595, 596, 
 600, 601, 603, 604, 607, 610, 611, 614, 
 615, 668, 705, 705m, 759 ; " Life of Van 
 Buren " by McKenzie, 536tc ; Livingston 
 land patent case, 22, 23, 24, 26 ; loss of 
 state votes, 225m ; McLane's visit to, 570 ; 
 tlie " Magician," 226m, 447 ; meeting with 
 Clay, 557, 558 ; meeting with Jaclsson, 
 232 ; meeting with Jaclison and Grundy, 
 671, 672 ; meeting with Webster, 567 ; on 
 his " Memoirs," 34, 35 ; message to N. T. 
 legislature, 221 ; method adopted to re- 
 move diplomatic corps' wrong impression 
 of Jackson, 261, 262; militia bill (N. 
 T.), 56, 57; Minister to England, 404, 
 405, 539, 540 ; misrepresented on re- 
 moval of deposits, 602 ; mistalse as to 
 Clinton, 96 ; mistaljes in nullification 
 proclamation, 548, 549 ; mother and 
 father, 10 ; negatives plan of Jackson's 
 resigning the Presidency in his favor, 506, 
 507 ; on the New England character, 710 ; 
 on New Jersey plan, 118 ; in New York 
 Constitutional Convention, 106 ; New 
 York Senate committee, to answer Gover- 
 nor's speech, 41, 53 ; first and last nom- 
 ination for office, 29 ; nominated for gov- 
 ernor of New York, 225 ; nominated for 
 President, 225, 226 ; nomination as Min- 
 ister to England rejected by the Senate, 
 
 273, 325, 395, 396, 453, 454, 455, 456, 
 457, 502, 508, 509, *511, 512, 513, 531, 
 584, 585, 587, 590, 591, 748, 756, 757; 
 nomination rejected because of Maysville 
 veto, 325 ; nominee for Vice President, 
 503, 508, 509 ; on nUlliflcation crisis, 558, 
 559, 562, 662», 563, 564 ; objections to 
 Swartwout, 264, 268 ; oIEered seat on N. 
 T. Supreme Court, 90, 91 ; offered seat on 
 U. S. Supreme Court, 140, 141, 141« ; 
 offices held by, 7, 33. 
 
 Opinions : of J. Q. Adams, 192 ; of 
 Lord Althorp, 476, 477 ; of Broug- 
 ham, 472, 473,, 474, 475; of Camp 
 brellng, 655 ; on discretion as Presi- 
 dent of Senate in presenting memorials, 
 774, 775, 776 ; of Lord Derby, 475, 576 ; 
 on duelling, 27 ; of English people, 463 ; 
 of Lord Grey, 460, 461 ; of Hamilton, 
 121; of Hayne, 216; of Joseph Hume, 
 478, 479; of Ingham, 504, 505, 506; of 
 Jackson, 245, 250 ; of R. M. Johnson, 381, 
 
 382 ; on Livingston and Tazewell appoint- 
 ments, 251 ; of March, 701 ; of March's 
 book, 708, 709 ; of Monroe, 121 ; on ob- 
 ligation to class, 461 ; of Palmerston, 
 465, 466, 467 ; on. patronage, 106, 
 223, 448; of Sir Robert Peel, 464; 
 of Poindexter, 755, 761 ; on political 
 patronage, 106, 223, 448; of Spencer 
 Eoane, 126 ; of qualities necessary for 
 political leadership, 469, 470 ; of Lord 
 Eussell, 477, 478 ; of tariff as a political 
 question, 555; of Webster, 561, 710; of 
 Wellington, 462, 463 ; of Washington, 179. 
 Opponents in Seaaate, 673, 674, 675, 
 763 ; opportunity for knowing the truth 
 about the Panic Session, 618 ; opposed to 
 Adams' administration, 192, 198, 199 ; 
 opposed to Bank, 221, 222, 626 ; opposed 
 to Clinton, 76, 76n, 77, 78, 93, 105; op- 
 posed to coalition of Jackson with Web- 
 ster, 678 ; opposed to N. Y. Judiciary bill, 
 198 ; opposed to Monroe, 197 ; opposed to 
 Panama mission, 198, 200, 201 ; opposed 
 to tariff, 171 ; opposed to vacating judi- 
 ciary offices by N. Y. Constitutional Con- 
 vention, 110, 111 ; opposition to, 505, 
 517, 518, 519, 520, 526, 527, 531, 
 532, 581, 582, 583, 584, 586, 588, 589, 
 590, 592, 663, 756, 757, 768 ; pamphlet in 
 favor of Tompkins, 101 ; part in Eaton 
 Affair, 340, 342, 343, 344, 345, 348, 350, 
 351, 352, 355, 361 ; part in Webster's at- 
 tempt to regain control in Senate, 728 ; 
 personal relations with Calhoun, 513, 514, 
 515, 516, 534, 535, 749, 750, 753 ; personal 
 relations with Clay, 534, 535, 568, 665, 
 667, 668, 669, 670; personal relations 
 with Jackson, 232, 233, 242, 243, 245, 
 402, 403, 405, 506, 507 ; personal rela- 
 tions with McLane, 573, 57-4, 575, 576, 
 577, 578, 579, 611, 613, 614, 615, 616, 
 617 ; personal relations with Preston, 769, 
 7t0; personal irelations with Poindexter, 
 754, 757, 758, 759, 760, 761, 762; per- 
 sonal relations with Eandolph, 421, 422, 
 423, 426, 427, 429, 430, 431 ; on piracy, 
 118 ; plans political course, 448 ; pleads 
 with Jackson for McLane, 605 ; Poindex- 
 ter's effort to quarrel with, 758, 759, 
 760, 761, 762; political enemies, 15, 
 16, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26; poUtical labors, 
 445 ; political principles, 112 ; political 
 relations with Poindexter, 749, 758, 
 759, 760, 761, 762; on politics, 124, 
 125 ; portrayal of Jackson, 312 ; post- 
 ponement of speech on his rejection, 
 510 ; prepares N. T. legislature's re- 
 port on Nulliflcation proclamation, 550, 
 553, 558 ; President of the Senate, 
 618, 673, 674 ; Presidential chances, 508, 
 584 ; prophecy as to Clay, 150 ; pro- 
 poses amendment to Constitution, 315, 
 316 ; proposes Jackson for President, 198 ; 
 public offices unsolicited by, 224, 225 ; 
 questioned on Nullification, 562 ; reason 
 of his appointment as Secretary of State, 
 267, 268 ; reasons for desiring appoint- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 805 
 
 mcnt of Randolph to Bussia, 419, 427, 
 428, 429 ; recalls Baton from Spain, 364 ; 
 record as governor of N. Y., 221 ; received 
 by the King and his minister, 448 ; recep- 
 tion in House of Representatives on re- 
 turn from Europe, 567, 568 ; reception 
 in Senate, 566, 568 ; reelected to Senate, 
 165 ; regard shown by Albany citizens 
 for, 227 ; rejection by Senate vote, 454, 
 454», 532, 533 ; rejection, 539, 540, 584, 
 587, 590, 591 ; rejection fails to humiliate, 
 457 ; relations with Berrien and Hayne, 
 216 ; relations with Burr, 15 ; relations 
 with Calhoun, 387, 389, 390, 391, 392, 
 393, 394, 395; relations with Clinton, 
 149, 164, 165 ; relations with Cooper, 
 160 ; relations with the " Highminded 
 Federalists," 105 ; relations with Sir 
 Robert Inglis, 482, 483; relations with 
 Chancellor Kent, 62, 63 ; relations with 
 Rufus King, 100, 101», 105, 108, 130, 131, 
 132, 141, 147, 154, 155; relations with 
 Talcott, 173, 174, 176; relatione with 
 Taylor, 227, 228 ; relations with Van 
 Ness, 14, 15, 17, 18, 111 ; relations with 
 Webster, 535, 536 ; relations with Wright, 
 728 ; relations with Yates, 113, 114, 146 ; 
 relinquishes all thought of the Presi- 
 dency, 508 ; on removal of deposits, 602 ; 
 removal from . N. Y. attorney-general- 
 ship, 88, 92, 93, 94, 225 ; renomination 
 for Presidency, 393, 394 ; reply to Clay 
 in York memorial Rebate, 772, 773 ; re- 
 quested to suggest a Secretary of the 
 Treasury, 595 ; resignation as Governor 
 of N. Y., 227m; resignation as Secretary 
 of State, 262, 266, 267, 268, 350, 356, 
 398, 399, 400, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 
 407, 423» ; resolutions in favor of Tomp- 
 kins nomination as Governor, 99n ; re- 
 sponsibility for political sharp practice, 
 73 ; retaliates on Van Schaack, 16 ; re- 
 view of bank controversy, 618, 619, 620, 
 621, 622, 623, 624, 636, 637, 638, 639, 
 640 ; reviews his political course, 446 ; 
 return home from England, 502, 503, 508, 
 566 ; " Rising Sun " story, 199 ; school- 
 ing, 10, 12 ; self-analysis, 8, 9, 11, 12, 33, 
 34, 447, 568, 573, 574; in Senate, 111, 
 113, 115, 128, 129, 396, 748, 749, 763; 
 on Senate committees, 115 ; in Senate as 
 Vice President, 671, 672; on Senate's 
 refusal to confirm him as Minister to 
 England, 511 ; separation from Jackson 
 attempted by Whigs, 549 ; share in Jack- 
 son's annual message, 445 ; on slavery 
 and Southern States management of 
 slavery, 132, 133, 134, 135; social rela- 
 tions with Senate, 748, 749, 763. 
 
 Speeches: on amendment of Constitu- 
 tion, 316, 317 ; against Bank, 184, 184n ; 
 on bankruptcy bill, 215, 215n; first in Sen- 
 ate, 128, 129 ; on half pay to Revolution- 
 ary officers, 211 ; on Judiciary Bill, 219, 
 219m ; on the Panama Mission, 202, 202m ; 
 on Tompkins' claim, 99, 99m; on West 
 
 India trade, 511, 512 ; on the Woolens 
 bill, 170, 171, 172. 
 
 Stay at Windsor Castle, 456, 457 ; study 
 of Internal Improvements, 312 ; submits 
 York memorial to Pennsylvania senators, 
 765 ; success in State politics, 400, 401 ; 
 successor to Jackson, 518 ; on suffrage re- 
 striction, 112 ; suggested as Governor of 
 N. Y., 591 ; suggests alMjllshing N. Y. Coun- 
 cil of Appointments, 106, 107 ; suggests 
 terms of expression of Jackson's attitude 
 toward foreign countries to diplomats at 
 reception, 262 ; suggests Duane as com- 
 missioner under the French treaty, 600 ; 
 suggests William .B. Rochester as gover- 
 nor of N. Y., 162 ; supports Clinton, 37, 
 38, 40, 41, 42, 76, 76n, 77, 89, 93, 159 ; ' 
 supports Crawford, 140 ; supports N. Y. 
 loan to U. S., 44 ; on Supreme Court, 184, 
 185 ; suspects Calhoun's nullification 
 scheme, 413, 414 ; sympathy of English 
 on his rejection by Senate, 455, 456 ; 
 talk with Wright, 729 ; tarifE conversa- 
 tion with Calhoun, 409 ; thwarts Web- 
 ster, 672 ; title of " Magician," 226«, 447 ; 
 toast at Nullification banquet, 416 ; (rain- 
 ing, 11, 12, 13 ; triumph over Senate, 595 ; 
 urged to become a Federalist, 14, 15 ; 
 urged to become Vice - Presidential 
 nominee, 503, 508, 509 ; views coincide 
 with Jackson's, 595. 
 
 Visits : to Adams, 188 ; to and from 
 Clay, 153 ; to Crawford, 367, 368 ; to Mrs. 
 Eaton, 407, 408; to England (second), 
 474, 475 ; to Holland, 9, 10 ; to Jefferson, 
 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188 ; to Mon- 
 roe (last), 153; to Mount Vernon, 177; 
 to Richmond, Va., 126 ; to Talleyrand, 
 458 ; vote cjiallenged, 144 ; vote on Cum- 
 berland road, 315 ; vote on tarifE, 241, 
 242 ; voyage to England as TJ. S. Minis- 
 ter, 445, 446 ; warns against superficiality, 
 12 ; Webster's actions towards, 776, 777 ; 
 Webster's attack on, 764, 765 ; Webster 
 refrains from attacking, 675 ; Webster's 
 hostility, 524, 525, 535, 536 ; willingness 
 to accept Vice-Presidential nomination, 
 509. 
 
 Van Buren, Martin, jr., 9, 585. 
 
 Van Buren, Pieter Martense, lOm^ 
 
 Van Buren Family, 9, 9m, 10, 10m ; eml- 
 igrate to America, 10; name, 10, 10m; 
 record, 9», 10. 
 
 Van Courtlandt, , 47. 
 
 Van Dyke, Nicholas, 201m. 
 
 Van Ness, Cornelius Peter, appointed U. S. 
 minister to Spain, 260, 260m. 
 
 Van Ness, John P., 13, 16, 17, 18, 64, 419, 
 419m ; death, 18 ; elected to Congress, 14 ; 
 monument to his father, 18 ; relations 
 with Van Buren, 14, 15, 17, 18. 
 
 Van Ness, Peter, 15, 16, 17, 18. 
 
 Van Ness, William P., 14, 15, 29, 30, 31, 32, 
 62, 109, 401 ; attempt to Impeach, 109, 
 110, llOn ; death. 111 ; letter, 15m ; let- 
 ter to, 15» ; relations with Van Buren, 
 
806 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ill ; second to Burr In duel with Hamil- 
 ton, 16, 29 ; Van Buren's defense of, 110, 
 111. 
 
 Van Ness, William W., 83, 90, 92, 401. 
 
 Van Ness, , 102. 
 
 Van Ness Family, 13. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Jacob Rutsen, 24, 27, 70 ; 
 cliarge against Van Buren, 25, 26. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Solomon, 89, 125. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 47, 71, 91, 146, 
 149, 149», 158, 169», 170, 171, 207, 514, 
 574, 575», 576 ; course in election of John 
 Quincy Adams, 150, 151, 152 ; influences 
 that made him vote ifor Adams, 152. 
 
 Van Rensselaer property, lire. 
 . Van Schaack, Peter, 13, 15, 21, 27 ; bio- 
 graphical sketch of, 18, 19, 20 ; death, 
 20 ; relations with Van Buren, 16, 18, 19 ; 
 son, 15, 16. 
 
 Van Schaack Family, 13. 
 
 Van Vechten, Abraham, 21, 24, 71», 401. 
 
 Vanderpoel, Aaron, 547, 547«, 548. 
 
 Vaughan, Sir Charles R., 256, 261, 351, 
 457 ; knowledge of Jackson, 450. 
 
 VenaWe, Abraham B., 119. 
 
 Venison, 469. 
 
 Verplanck. Gulian C, 544, 553. 
 
 Verplanck, Johnston, 110 ; letter, 109«. 
 
 Vice President, U. S., absents himself by 
 custom at commencement 6f the session, 
 673, 674, 759 ; as presiding oflScer of the 
 Senate, 673 ; candidates for, 584, 587, 
 588, 589 ; election by House of Represent- 
 atives, 118 ; Van Buren's candidacy, 582, 
 583, 584, 587, 588, 589, 591; Van Bu- 
 ren's first appearance in Senate as, 671, 
 672. 
 
 Vienna, Congress, 467. 
 
 Virginia, 424, 425, 431 ; Constitutional Con- 
 vention, 443 ; legislature, 733 ; producer 
 of Presidents, 121 ; resolution denying 
 power of Congress to establish a bank, 
 733 ; resolutions, 319 ; used as stalking 
 horse by nulllflers, 413, 414. 
 
 Votes. See Suffrage. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wager, (Judge), 30, 31. 
 
 Waggaman, George A., 566, 566». 
 
 Walsh, Robert, 199, 199», 416, 416». 
 
 War, Secretary of, appointed, 300 ; Jack- 
 son's wish for Eaton's return as, 705 ; 
 resignation, 406, 407. See also Eaton, 
 John Henry. 
 
 War of 1812, 60, 192, 493 ; advantage de- 
 rived from, 490 ; Albany meeting on, 49, 
 50 ; British demands, 59, 60 ; British 
 depredations, 58 ; feeling of English 
 toward, 451 ; military and naval vic- 
 tories of, 490, 491 ; New York Federalist 
 opposition to, 48, 44, 49 ; political reor- 
 ganization growing out of, 671 ; Web- 
 ster's conduct In, 682, 685». 
 
 Warfield, Henry W., 575, 576«. 
 
 Warner, Daniel, 52. 
 
 Warrington, Lewis, 349, 349n. 
 
 Washington, Bushrod, 63, 177, 179, 219; 
 appointment to Supreme Court, 179. 
 
 Washington, George, 123, 177, .190, 249, 
 433, 434, 435, 437, 471, 485, 486, 650, 
 695 ; death, 179, 180 ; impression of 
 Henry, 443, 444 ; Jackson's vote against, 
 313, 419 ; Jefferson's opinion of, 185, 
 186 ; letter, 433 ; letter to, 433 ; repug- 
 nance to slavery, 133; wishes Marshall 
 and Bushrod Washington to run for Con- 
 gress, 178 ; Van Buren's opinion of, 179. 
 
 Washington, D. C., burned by British, 53, 
 54, 58. 
 
 Washington Journal (The), 351; attacks 
 Mrs. Jackson, 269. 
 
 Washington Republican (The), 181. 
 
 Wayne, James Moore, 415. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 21, 151, 175, 181, 219, 
 226n, 259, 300, 304, 364, 390, 425, 454, 
 464, 520, 525, 529, 532, 536, 547, 617, 
 631, 635, 652, 663, 663», 676, 677, 683, 
 692, 700, 702, 704, 705, 706, 709, 718, 
 719, 734, 740, 741, 764, 767, 772, 773; 
 replied to by C3ay, 556, . 557 ; reply to 
 Hayne, 680; reply' to Wright, 730, 731; 
 seat In Jackson's cabinet, 701, 706 ; 
 speech in defense of Bank, 779, 780 ; 
 speech on Force BUI, 681 ; speech on 
 French Spoliations, 271 ; speech against 
 Bank veto, 623, 624,- 624»i ; advances 
 toward Van Buren, 535, 536 ; alliance 
 with Jackson, 707, 709, 711 ; antagonism 
 toward Van Buren, 524, 525, 536, 764, 
 776, 777; attacked by Polndexter, 681, 
 685, 685», 758 ; Bank's power over, 661 ; 
 bill to recharter Bank, 733 ; biography, 
 700, 700«; "Bob and Sinker" speech, 
 498, 499, 500 ; bribery charge against, 
 764, 766, 777, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782; 
 capitalizes prejudice against England to 
 gain Presidency, 498, 499. 500; chair- 
 man of Finance Committee of Senate, 
 716 ; chance of Presidency, 711 ; change 
 of politics Intended, 672 ; change of posi- 
 tion on slavery, 500 ; character, 525. 
 526, 535, 536, 561, 776; Cincinnati 
 speech, 690, 691 ; Clay's opinion of, 670 ; 
 claim of aid to Jackson analyzed by Van 
 Buren, 709 ; claims credit, by inference, 
 for Nullification proclamation principles, 
 
 680, 689 ; commends Nullification procla-- 
 mation, 680, 688, 694, 707; conduct In 
 Bank's behalf, 723, 733, 763, 764, 765, 
 766 ; conduct contrasted with Clay's, 560, 
 561 ; conduct on Nullification, 561, 680, 
 
 681, 682, 683, 684, 688, 691, 693, 694, 
 698, 699, 707 ; conduct In War of 1812, 
 681, 685»; conduct toward Van Buren, 
 539 ; credited with passing the Force 
 Bill, 708 ; defeated for nomination for 
 Presidency, 500; defense of, 777, 778, 
 779 ; deficient in physical and moral 
 courage, 662 ; desire for Presidency, 497, 
 498, 499 ; effort to regain control of 
 Bank question in Senate, 728, 731, 732, 
 733, 734, 736; England's knowledge of 
 his character, 499, 500 ; English press on 
 
INDEX. 
 
 807 
 
 the Marshfleld speech, 500 ; excluded 
 from leadership In Senate, 716 ; Faneuil 
 Hall meeting, 680, 689, 695; fear of 
 Clay, 682, 728, 734; financial dealings 
 ■with Banlj, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782 ; hope 
 to obtain place in Jackson's cabinet, 672 ; 
 hostility to Clay, 679, 680, 684; influ- 
 enced by Curtis, 536, 537 ; influences 
 Van Rensselaer, 152 ; Intended alliance 
 ■with Jackson, 688, 689, 690, 691, 697, 
 698, 699, 700, 701 ; knowledge of Intended 
 publication of McKenzle's book, 539 ; lack 
 of influence in Senate, 710 ; leadership in 
 Bank campaign, 661, 662, 663, 664; let- 
 ter to, 528 ; Livingston's report to, 705, 
 706 ; manoeuver when Jackson visited 
 New England, 689, 69p, 691, 692, 693, 
 702, 703; Marshfleld speech, 498, 499, 
 500 ; nomination vote, 500 ; Nullification 
 proclamation an aid to, 680 ; opposition 
 to Clay's bill for pacification of South 
 Carolina, 679, 680, 681, 682, 683, 684, 
 685, 699 ; panic efforts, 741 ; part in 
 Senate intrigue against Tan Buren, 672 ; 
 passion for oflBcial distinction, 258 ; per- 
 sonal apprehensions, 680, 682, 683 ; per- 
 sonal relations with Clay, 734, 735, 736 ; 
 Philadelphia mechanics distress memo- 
 rial, 727 ; Pittsburg speech, 691, 692, 693, 
 
 694, 695, 696, 697, 698, 700, 703 ; politi- 
 cal manoeuvers, 688, 693, 694; political 
 relations with Clay, 681, 682, 683, 686, 
 687, 688. 689, 694, 696, 698, 699, 700. 
 705, 706, 715; political sense, 682, 694, 
 698 ; position on South Carolina's sub- 
 mission, 557 ; prepared article on the 
 West India trade, 525 ; presidential as- 
 pirations, 663, 688 ; questioned by the 
 Globe, 778, 779 ; recklessness in financial 
 matters, 661 ; refrains from hostility 
 toward Van Buren, 675 ; relations with 
 Clay, 660, 662, 663, 670; relations with 
 Livingston, 715 ; remarks on postponing 
 Senate committee appointments, 676 ; on 
 removal of deposits, 703 ; speech against 
 York memorial, 766 ; speeches, 498, 499, 
 500, 676, 680, 690, 691, 692, 693, 694, 
 
 695, 696, 697, 698,' 700, 703 ; on tariff, 
 698; thwarted by Van Buren, 672; un- 
 patriotic speech on French Spoliations, 
 271 r Van Buren's meeting with, 567 ; 
 Van Buren's opinion) of, 561, 710 ; visit to 
 Biddle, 779 ; western tour, 690, 691, 693, 
 701, 702, 703 ; willingness to cooperate 
 with Jackson, 677, 678; Worcester 
 speech, 680; Works, 708. 
 
 Weed, Thurlow, 537. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, attitude on Reform 
 Bill, 463 ; defends Talleyrand, 459 ; ora- 
 torical power, 463, 464; Van Buren's 
 opinion of, 461, 462, 463, 464. 
 
 Wells, Jchn, 21. 
 
 Wessels, Derlck, 10. 
 
 West, excitement caused in by Polndexter's 
 charges of land frauds, 745, 746. 
 
 West Indies, British trade regulations, 521 ; 
 trade negotiations, 251, 256, 272, 274, 
 511, 522, 523, 525, 526, 530; Jackson's 
 course in, 527, 528 ; McLane's instruc- 
 tions, 595 ; Van Buren's instructions, 
 520, 521, 523, 524, 526, 529, 530, 531n ; 
 U. S. resumption of trade, 522, 522n, 
 527. 
 
 Westmoreland, Earl of, 456. 
 
 Whallon, , Van Buren's letter to, 25. 
 
 Wharton's Digest of International Law, 
 60n. 
 
 Wheaton, Henry, 143. 
 
 Whig Party, 735 ; attitude toward nullifica- 
 tion, 553 ; convention (1852) votes, 500, 
 500n ; use of Nullification Proclamation 
 to attempt a separation of Van Buren 
 and Jackson, 549. 
 
 Whigs, 124, 125 ; attempt to make political 
 capital out of Nullification Proclamation, 
 546 ; " Hlghminded Federalists " become, 
 108. 
 
 White, Hugh Lawson, 226re, 382, 382», 595, 
 674, 674», 675, 677; coalition with Cal- 
 houn, 225« ; deserts Jackson, 226» ; ex- 
 cused from voting on committee appoint- 
 ment resolution, 675 ; nomination for 
 President, 226«.; Presidential nominee, 
 674 ; relations with Jackson, 674 ; speech 
 against the Bank, 734. 
 
 White House, French furniture, 769 ; gold 
 spoons, 769, 770. 
 
 Wickham, John, 259, 259n. 
 
 Wilkin, John W., 45. 
 
 Wllkins, Martin S., 97, 98. 
 
 Wllkins, William, 544to, 591, 597, 677, 763, 
 765, 766, 767 ; desire for vice presidency, 
 584, 589, 590 ; failure to withdraw in 
 favor of Van Buren, 590 ; supports 
 Jackson, 723. 
 
 Williams, David R., 368 ; letter, 518 ; letter 
 to, 517. 
 
 Williams, Elisha, 13, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 50, 
 62, 92, 104, 401 ; legal skill, 21, 22. 
 
 Williams, Nathan, 82. 
 
 Wilson, Henry, 314, 314«.. 
 
 Wirt, William, 291, 292, 293, 303, 435, 436, 
 437, 438, 441; letter to, 441«. 
 
 Wood, , 171. 
 
 Woodbury, Levi, 201», 255, 256, 258, 259, 
 260, 598, 602, 606 ; disappointment at 
 not being In Jackson's Cabinet, 229 ; fore- 
 bodings of Jackson's administration, 229 ; 
 letters to, 252n, 254 ; offered Spanish 
 mission, 252, 253, 254. 
 
 Woodworth, John, 67, 68, 69, 71, 71»i, 82, 
 90, 102, 548 ; candidacy for attorney gen- 
 eral of N. T., 68, 71. 
 
 Woolens' Bill, 169, 170. 
 
 Worthlngton, Thomas, 297, 297». 
 
808 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 WrigBt, Silas, Jr., 161, 163, 172, 503, 59S, 
 614, 677, 741, 743, 761, 765; asked to 
 present administration's side ol Banl: 
 controversy, 730 ; character, 728 ; faitli 
 in tlic people, 625 ; letter to, 563, 564 ; 
 relations with Van Buren, 728; speech 
 against the Bank, 733 ; speech in support 
 of the administration, 730 ; support of 
 Jackson, 723, 729, 730 ; Webster's reply 
 to, 730, 733. 
 
 Wythe, George, 186. 
 
 Yates, Henry, jr., 39». 
 Yates, John Van Ness, 148. 
 Yates, Joseph C, 64, 75, 80, 89», 102, 112, 
 113, 114, 145, 147, 147n., 148; message 
 
 as governor, 14«, 14e»; position on 
 mode of appointing electors, 146, 146n, 
 147 ; relations with Van Buren, 113, H-t, 
 115, 146; retirement, 148; sketch of, 
 113. 
 
 Yazoo frauds, 429. 
 
 York County, Pa., attacks Webster's Bank 
 course, 763, 777 ; charges bribery of Web- 
 ster by Bank, 778 ; Democratic memorial, 
 763, 764i 766, 768, 769, 771, 777 ; erasure 
 in memorial from, 765, 766, 767, 768, 
 770, 771, 772, 773, 774, 775, 776; 
 memorial sent to Van Buren, 763, 764 ; 
 supports the President, 763. 
 
 Young, Samuel E., 57, 58, 60, 67, 69, 70, 71, 
 100, 100», 104«, 115, 145, 147», 148. 
 
 o 
 
E 387 A3 
 
 Author 
 
 Van Buren, Martin 
 
 Vol. 
 
 ™' The Autobiography of Martin *^'""' 
 van Buren 
 
 Date 
 
 Borrower's Name