Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1886 — JACKSON AND CALHOUN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JACKSON AND CALHOUN.

.’he Celebrated Rupture Between the President and Vice President in 183031 — Political Leaders of That Day. A. Washington correspondent of The Louisville Courier-Journal writes: During the session of congress in 1829-30 Senator Foote, of Connecticut, introduced a resolulution which proposed to limit the sales of the public lands to those then in the market, and to abolish the office of surveyor general.— This resolution was deemed the beginning of an effort on the part of New England to check the growth of the west. It finally led to the great debate between Robert Y. Hayne and Daniel Webster on nullification. I think that Mr. W ebster had the best of the argument, but he could not have h°d a more intellectual opponent than Robert Y. Hayne. I met this gentleman at Nashville in 1837, when he made an address to the Tennessee legislature in behalf of the proposed railroad from Charleston to Cincinnati. He kept the large audience assembled to hear him entranced for more than two hours by his eloquence. He had a lovable face and the manners of an accomplished gentleman. The rupture between President Jackson and Vice President John C. Calhoun occurred in thwinter of 1830-1. It is known to the reader that Gen. Jackson, in 1818, followed the Seminole Indians, who had come out of Florida, then belonging to Spain, and made war on the citizens of Georgia and Alabama, into that territory, and took possessi n of St. Marks and Pensacola. He believed that he had the right to do so, and, moreover, he knew that it was the only way to put an end to the war, for these Indians were fed and protected by the Spanish officials in those towns. After it- close Gen. Jackson was informed and believed that William H. Crawford had proposed, as a memk er of Mr. Monroe s cabinet, a court of inquiry into’his conduct with regard to this affuir, with a view to hi* ultimate trial and punishment. He continued to entertain this opinion till the latter part of the year, when he received a letter from Senator John Forsyth, of Georgia, inclosing one to him from William th Crawford. In this letter Mr. Crawford declared that he had justified the invasion of Florida by Gen. Jackson, and it was Mr. Calhoun who made the proposition referred to. In this same letter Mr. Crawford says: “Mr. Calhoun’s proposition in the cabinet was that Gen. Jackson should be punished in some form, or reprehended in some form, I am not positively certain which.” Gen. J ackson immediately wrote Mr. Calhoun a note, inclosing Mr. Crawford’s letter to Mr. Forsyth, and asking him whether Mr. Crawford’s statejfxnt was true. Mr. Calhoun replied that it was substantially correct. Right there all intercourse between these illustrious men ceased. They were never reconciled to each other. I do not propose to make any comment on their unfortunate quarrel. Nine years afterward I boarded in the same mess with Mr. Calhoun in Washington, and I became so fond of him, personally, that I can not find it in my heart to say a word against him. The quarrel between the two highest officers of the government, and two of our greatest men, led to the establishment of The Globe newspaper. lhe United States Telegraph, published in W shington city, was the leading organ of the democratic party in the presidential contest of|lß2B. Its editor, Gen. Duff Green, was abundantly rewarded for his s rvices in that contest by the congressional friends of Gen. Jackson and by the administration itself. He was given the printing of the two houses of congress and the organship of the new administration. He was

a friend to t;e president but a still greater friend to the vice president, who took him into his confidence and disclosed to him the correspondence he had had with Gen. Jackson. The conversation that then took place between Mr. Calhoun and his friend Green was not known, but this much was known, and known to Gen. Jackson. Green undertook at once to organize a syndicate of able democratic editors in ever / part of the country, who, as soon as the hostile relations between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calhoun were made known to the public, should denounce the one and eulogize the other. It so happened that one of the first men tojwhom he opened his programme threatened to tell Gen. Jackson, and did till him. About this time Gen. Jackson read a communication to The Kentucky Argus, which was an exceedingly strong argument against the doctrine of nullification. On inquiry he learned that Francis P. Blair, of Frankfort, Ky., was the author of that communication. He had him immediately wutten to o" 'he subject of taking charge of a newspaper in Wfshington. Here I will let a writer who is familiar v.'th all the facts in this Case tell the rest of the story: “The application took Mr. Blair by surprise. He was not thinking of changing his residence or pursuits. He was well occupied where he was—clerk of the lucrative office of the state circuit court at the capital of the state, salaried president of the Commonwealth bank (by the election of the legislature), and proprietor of a farm and slaves in that rich state. But he was devoted to Gen. Jackson- and his measures, and did ndt hesitate to relinquish his secure advantages at home to engage in the untried business of editor at Washington. Be came —established The Globe newspaper—and soon after associated with John C. Rives, a gentleman worthy of the association and of the confidence of Gen. Jackson and of the democratic party; and under their management the paper became the efficient and faithful organ of the administration during the whole period of his service and that of his successor, Mr. Van Buren. It was established in time — and just in time —to meet the advancing events at Washington city. All that Gen. Jackson had foreseen in regard to the conduct of The Telegraph, and all that had been communicated to him through Mr. Duncanson, came to pass, and he found himself, early in the first part of his administration, engaged in a triple war—with nullification, the Bank of the United States, and the whig party—and would have been without defense or support from the newspaper press at Washington had it not been for his foresight in establishing The Glol e ’ Three of Gen. Jackson’s cabinet were friends to Mr. Calhoun. — These were the secretary of the treasury, Mr. Ingham; the secretary of the navy, Mr. Branch, and the attorney general, Mr. Berrien. This fact, with of hers not necessary to mention, determined Gen. Jackson to form a new cabinet. — Mr. Van Buren was the first to resign, and Mr. Eaton the secondno doubt according to a programme previously agreed upon. It was thought that these two resignations would soon bring the others, but they did not, and Gen. Jackson had to inform Messrs. Ingham, Branch and Berrien of his intention to make a complete change in his cabinet, and to request their resignations. He performed that unpleasant task in the most pleasant manner, and asked each to continue in his position until his suc- < essor was appointed. William T. Barry, who was the first postmaster general to sit in the cabinet, did not resign, nor did the president wish him to resign. He continued to fill that office until April, 1835, when he was appointed a minister to Spain. He died at Liverpool in the following August while on his way to Madrid. John H. Eaton was made governor of the territory

of Florida in 1834, and served in that position till he was appointed minister to Spain in 1836. Mr. Van Buren was appointed minister to England. Mr. Ingham soon die- out of the public mind; Mr. Branch went back to North Carolina, and was immediately elected to the twent --second congress as a democrat, serving from December, 1831, to the 4th of March, 1833; was the democratic candidate tor governor in 1838, and defeated by his whig competitor; was appointed governor of the territory of Florida by President Tyler, and served till Florida was admitted into the union as a state in 1845. Mr. Berrien was elected a senator in congress by the whigs in 1841, was re-elected in 1847, and resigned in 1852 on account of ill-health.

The new cabinet was compo ed of the following members: Edward Livingston, ol Louisiana, secretary of state; Louis McLane, of Delaware, secretary of the treasury; Lewis Oass, of Ohio, secretary of war; Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, secretary of the navy, and Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, attorney general. Mr. Livingston was a native of New York. He was a representative in '.ongress from Hie city of New York from 1795 to 1801; was United States district attorney from 1801 to 1803; removed to New Orleans in 1804; was the author of a civil and criminal code for Louisiana; served aid-de-camp to Gen. Jackson in the batile of New Orleans, Jan. 8, 1815; represented New’ Orleans in congress from 1823 to 1829; was elected to the United States Senate in 1828, but resigne 1 in 1831 on being appointed secretary of state. He was minister so France from 1833 to 1835, and died in 1836, aged 72 years.

Mr. McLane represented Delaware in congress from 1817 to ’27; w T as a senator in congress from 1827 to 1829, when he resigned and was appointed minister to England which position he was filling when called to the treasury department. He was again appointed minister to England by President Polk in 1845. He was the father of our present accomplished minister at the French court, Robert M. McLane. He died in 1857, in the 72d year of his age. Mr. Cass was a conspicous public man in his day. Not to go into a history of his early life, I will say that he was secretary of war from 1831 to 1836; was minister to France from 1836 to 1842; was the Democratic candidate for President in 1848, and defeated by Gen. Tayloi; was a senator in congress from Michigan from 1845 to 1857; was secretary of state under President Buchanan from 1857 to December, 1860, when he resigned and retired to private life. He died in 1866, aged nearly 84 years. Speaking of Gen. Cass brings to my mind the last conversation I ever had with Gen. Jackson. I paid him a visit at the Hermitage in September, 1843, and found him alone. I remained and took dinner with him. He was decidedly in favor of the nomination of Martin Van Buren for president in 1844. Said I: “Gen. Jackson, 1 have been thinking of Gen. Cass; what is your opinion of him?” — “Well,” he replied, “I think well of Gen. Cass, and next to Mr. Van Buren, I think I would prefer him. He has one defect of character howeveI’, 1 ’, and he once mentioned it to me. Said he: ‘Gen. Jackson, I wish I could say “no” as promptly as you can.’ ” Twelve years after that, when I became acquainted with Gen. Cass, I he was a very kind-hearted man, and hated to say “no” to a fsvor asked. Mr. Woodbury was a senator in congress from 1825 to 1831; was secretary of tne navy from 1831 to 1834, when he was appointed secretary of the treasury, which position he continued to fill during the remainder of Gener 1 Jackson’s second te . m, and the entire term of President Van Buren. He was elected a second time to the United States senate in 1841,

aud served to November, 1845, when he was appointed a justice of the supreme court of the United States by Pre. iUnt Polk. lie died in 1851, aged 62 years. Roger B. Taney, after serving a little more than two years as attorney general, w s appointed secretary of the treasury. On the death of John Marshall, in "836, he was appointed chief justice of the United States. Next to Marshall, he was the greatest chief justice that ever sat upon that bench. He died with the judicial harness upon him, Oct. “2, “864, in the 88th year of his age. Ex-Sheriff John W. Powell has leased the Halloran Livery and Feed Stables, and respectfully solicits a liberal share of the public patronage.

At the Dickens! Inimitable Orations

Bewitching Tableaux, Enquisite Singing.