determination, we have further evidence in the confessions of the President and the wily Secretary.

The President having invited to a private audience one of the Secretaries, (Mr. Branch) whom he was about to dismiss, for the purpose of making known to him the new arrangements, on which he had determined, said, with an air of diplomatic caution and studied precision, "Sir, I submit to you two letters, which I have received from the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War, resigning their respective offices, and ask for them your serious consideration." "Sir," replied the astonished Secretary, "I am a plain man, and your friend. Our intercourse has been of long duration, and you know, that diplomacy is no part of my character or of yours. Be so good, therefore, as to tell me, frankly, what you intend, and what you desire of me.” “Then, sir, I will inform you that I mean to re-organize my Cabinet." "Very well, sir, I hope you will profit by the change. I have not been your friend for the sake of office, and I wish only to be informed, whether my conduct, while in your Cabinet, was satisfactory to you." Sir," said the President, "I have no fault to find with you." "With this assurance," said the Secretary, "I am contented but allow me to inquire, who is to be your Secretary of State?" Mr. Livingston," was the reply. "Who is to take the Treasury Department?" "Mr. McLane, now minister in England." "Who will occupy the Navy Department?" "Mr. Woodbury." "And pray, sir, who is to replace Mr. McLane in England?" "Mr. Van Buren."

Soon after the dissolution of the Cabinet, whilst Mr. Van Buren was waiting, at New York, the arrival of Mr. McLane from England, he replied to the inquiry of a partisan friend, that he had the offer of the mission to the Court of St. James, but had not yet decided as to the propriety of accepting it. His friends, he said, differed as to the policy of his leaving the country at that time, there being some arrangements to: make in the republican party, for future operations--and observed, that he was anxious to have an interview with Mr. McLane, before departure, should he determine to go. Being interrogated, as to the real causes of the dissolution of the Cabinet, he answered, that Mrs. Eaton had no agency in the matter; but that it was caused more by the conduct of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Ingham, who desired the retirement of General Jackson from office at the expiration of the first four years of his term of service, and who had endeavoured to consummate their designs by traducing the character of a

chaste and virtuous woman. To the remark, that he, Mr. Van Buren, had managed well to pass unscathed through the fiery ordeal, he, laughingly, replied, "Yes, I had seen for some two or three months the approach of trouble, and that a dissolution of the Cabinet must ensue-the materials being too discordant to continue together in harmony-and to save myself, I thought it better to retire in time, knowing that if I led the way, the rest must follow."

Had the President taken the ground, at once, that his Cabinet was divided, in relation to his own re-election, and thereupon dismissed those who might have been opposed to him, or even all its members, he would have acted with that frankness and good faith which would have commanded respect. The public weal, his own peace, required that his Cabinet should possess his confidence and his esteem. The want of harmony between the members, or between the members and himself, was a proper ground for dissolution. But the pretence, and the manner of breaking up the Cabinet, are disingenuous, insincere, false; and savours more of the petty intrigue of a chamber maid or valet,-more of Martin Van Buren, than of General Jackson. There was no ground for the allegation of the want of harmony in the Cabinet upon public measures. There had not been a single difference of opinion in relation to any act of the administration; nor could the members of the Cabinet be justly reproached, at the time of the dissolution, with hostility against the re-election of the General. If any had participated in complots for this purpose, they had seen the vanity of the attempt and were sincerely disposed to support him for another term. Mr. Ingham solemnly denies having at any period sought to prevent the re-election. There was then, no public cause of difference, unless the dissonance of their wishes relative to a successor be so considered. But there was, in private and from private causes, much ill-blood between some members of the Cabinet, and these feelings had extended to the President, who most cordially and intensely hated Messrs. Ingham, Branch and Berrien, for showing themselves, in private relations, refractory subordinates. This portion of the history of the administration would have been more germain to the Court of Louis XIV. or Louis XV. of France, and the pages of a courtier's memoirs, than to an historical sketch of American politics. We shall endeavour to narrate it, however, with republican modesty and reserve, and with the greatest

possible brevity. The tale has one merit: it exhibits the imperious disposition of the President.

268. The lady of General Eaton was not generally received in the social circles of Washington. She was not invited to the soirees of either Messrs. Ingham, Branch, or Berrien; and, in one instance, at the house of some other person, she had been treated with marked disapprobation, by the lady of a foreign ambassador. The exclusion from the parties of the Secretaries, gave ground for a rumour, that they had conspired, by this means, to drive the Secretary of War from the Cabinet, and from Washington. The President, who entertained for Mr. Eaton the most friendly sentiments, became the champion of the lady, and resolved to establish her upon a respectable footing in the Washington circles, and, to that end, to compel the Secretaries to receive her at their public entertainments. This was an adventure of knight errantry, which inexperience alone could have excused. He might have, with greater prospect of success, fought again his Indian wars, or another British army, than encounter the will of ladies on subjects of established propriety, or even of etiquette. They, and, perhaps, they, only, could, in such cases, oppose a will more indomitable than his own.

269. Determining to have harmony in his Cabinet, the President employed a member of Congress, the friend of all the parties, to represent to the "exclusives" his resolution, unless they consented to receive the lady of the Secretary of War, at their large parties, to remove them from the Cabinet. This message was communicated to them, personally, and at a meeting appointed for the purpose. The answer was such as might be expected from men of moral reputation. They, promptly refused to suffer the dictation of any one in the government of their families and the arrangement of their intercourse, and braved the threatened penalty, and the anger of the "roaring lion," as he was termed by the internuncio. But the friends of the President, instructed in the new trait about to be introduced into American politics, collected about him, and, finally, convinced him, that, the American public would not tolerate the prostration of a ministry, because it refused to sustain the reputation of a lady. When the ministers assembled around the President to hear their fate, he had become calm, and, instead of pronouncing their exile, spoke of harmony, and solicited their assistance in protecting injured innocence. The storm of passion had passed away; but its ef fects were not wholly removed. The refractoriness of the

subordinates ever rankled in the mind of the Chief, and the unscrupulous perversion of his power, impaired their respect for him, and shook their confidence in the stability of their position. Indeed, they have since declared, that, they would have made him fully sensible of their indignation, at this presumptuous interference with their domestic relations, by throwing up their commissions, only, such a measure was not then quite convenient.

How grateful should the country be, to these kind friends of the General, (would that we knew them, that we might preserve their names for history) who turned away his wrath, before it had involved the nation in all the horror of foreign war. The danger was really imminent. The wife of a foreign minister had offended the lady of the Secretary at War, and the President had resolved to "send her and her husband home, and teach him and his master that the wife of a minister of his Cabinet was not to be thus treated, with impunity. This would have been, indeed, a trnly royal cause of quarrel, but would have looked rather awkward in the annals of our republic. We were saved, however, historic page, and country, from this direful consequence of gallant indignation. Laus Deo!

270.

"Sweet are the uses of adversity;'
Which, like the toad, ugly and venorrong,
We
ears yet a precious jewel in his head."

So, has Shakspeare sung and philosophy taught, and our dismissed ministers, derived improvement from the lesson. At least, we have full evidence, that the ex-Secretary of the Treasury received full edification from the occasion. In an address to his friends, who assembled to receive him, on his return, to the shades of New Hope, he said, “I regard the moment in which my separation from the public service was determined on, as the most propitious moment of my life; ard|| although it might now be difficult to persuade those who partake deeply of the prevailing passion for office, of the sincerity of this declaration, yet, I perfectly know, that the time will come, when it will be readily believed. As to pecuniary advantage, (if any think of this,) much less labor than I should have bestowed on official business, well directed, will easily procure something more than a bare subsistence, which all know is scarcely afforded by the salaries at Washington.

I can have no cause of resentment, therefore, on this account. It will not be thought profanity, I hope, to say, the President is but mortal; subject to all infirmities incident to human nature; his displeasure or denunciations are not directed by an omniscient eye, nor do they carry with them political or corporeal death. And even, if, as he suggested in his correspondence with me, of the 20th of April, (1931) I was intended as a sacrifice to propitiate public opinion, for others whom he loved, and whom it had severely threatened, that of itself is not good cause of resentment. It was not the ancient custom, even in idolatrous sacrifices, to select the worst of the flock for those purposes. But whatever may have been the motive for my removal, I shall enjoy the effect; and I feel like a mariner who has safely returned from a long, toilsome and somewhat perilous voyage, to receive the joyous greetings of his companions and friends."

Again, in his letter to the President, of the 26th of July, 1831, he remarks; "This (his defence) has been, irresistibly, forced upon me, at the moment of my retirement from public service, and when satiated with its enjoyments and fortified by vivid experience against its allurements, I had fondly cherished the hope of spending my days in the quiet of domestic life, out of the reach of the disturbing conflicts of political controversy.”

That admirable observer, Shakspeare, who, like his own Cassius, "looked quite through the deeds of men,” has given us a parallel, in the Cardinal Wolsey, to the case before us, from which we would think Mr. Ingham had borrowed his philosophy, did we not know, that it was common to all reformed politicians, and that, the great master, in Wolsey, painted a class, and not an individual.

Why well;

Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.

I know myself now; and I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A still and quiet conscience. The King has cur'd me,
I humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken

A load would sink a navy, too much honour:

O, 'tis a burden, Cromwell, 'tis a burden

Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven."

He might, indeed, should any longing, lingering reminis