and adding, "My object in making this communication is to announce to you the great surprize which is felt, and to learn of you, whether it be possible, that the information given is correct; whether it can be, under áll the circumstances of which you and I are both informed, that any attempt seriously to affect me, was moved and sustained by you, in the cabinet council, when it was known to you I was but executing the wishes of the Government, and clothed with authority to 'conduct the war in the manner I might judge best?""

Mr. Calhoun replied, on the 29th of May, denying the right of the General to claim an account of his conduct, as a public functionary; but expressing his gratification at an opportunity, thus furnished him, by Mr. Crawford, of putting his conduct, in relation to an interesting public transaction, in a proper light-repelling the charge of duplicity, by referring to testimonials long in possession of the General, showing that he and Mr. C. had placed different constructions on the order under which the General acted in the Seminole war;-acknowledging, that, as under his conviction, the General had exceeded his orders, he had proposed an inquiry, as due to the General and the Government, and supported the proposition with all the arguments that occurred to him; but, that he concurred, after deliberation, in the course adopted, unanimously, by the council; which was, to defend the General's conduct in the discussion with Spain;-commenting upon the course pursued by Mr. Crawford and his friends; and announcing his conviction, that, "the whole affair was a political manouvre, in which the design was, that the President should be the instrument, and he the victim; but in which the real actors were carefully concealed, by an artful movement."..

General Jackson replied, on the succeeding day, that Mr. Calhoun had mistaken his note of the 13th. That, he did not question Mr. C.'s conduct or motives, but that, it had been intimated to him, years ago, that it was Mr. Calhoun, and not Mr. Crawford," who had been secretly endeavouring to destroy his reputation;" that he had repelled these insinuations "upon the ground that Mr. Calhoun had professed to be his personal friend, and approved, entirely, his conduct in relation to the Seminole campaign;" and that, "understanding him now, no further communication with him was necessary." Some further correspondence took place, between the President, Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Forsyth, and Mr. Crawford, and others, but it shed no additional light upon this particular

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transaction; though it developes, fully, that Mr. Monroe believed, that the General had transgressed his orders, but that, it was deemed by him and his cabinet, under all circumstances, most politic for the country, to take the responsibil ity, as the conduct of the Spanish functionaries in Florida gave them means of defence.

256. In February 1831, the correspondence of which we have given an abstract, was published by Mr. Calhoun, in consequence of partial communications having been made to the public. On the 25th of that month, Mr. Van Buren published a card, denying all participation in the proceedings, in 1827 and 1828, to obtain information of the measures of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet, relative to the Seminole war; and avering, "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 General Jackson, or at any time, is alike unfounded and unjust. He had no motive or desire to create such an impression, and neither took, advised, nor countenanced, directly or indirectly, any steps to effect that object."

On the 26th of February, Mr. Hamilton published his exposé of the case, so far as he admits his concern with it; and denied that "he either knew or believed in any such práctices as charged by Mr. Calhoun against him, or that he, if they did exist, participated in them in any respect whatever.” 257. It is the privilege of the accused, in all cases, nay, custom makes it almost a duty, to plead "not guilty," before a popular or judicial tribunal; but the question still remains, whether the evidence be sufficient to convict. It may be, that the proceedings of Mr. Hamilton, in 1827 and 1828, as we have already observed, were without the participation or knowledge, of Mr. Van Buren; but, that he was unacquainted with the result, is not pretended. He was, then, in a condition to use them, should he deem it necessary. The knowledge of them, too, the President possessed, for years, but no attempt was made to obtain an explanation, until a period, when a rupture between the President and Vice President was useful to the President and to Mr. Van Buren. When it became obvious, that a dissolution of the combination which had elected General Jackson was about to take place, and that the Vice President might become the rival of the President, the resolution is taken to sever the friendly connection which had existed between the chief officers of

the nation. Mr. Hamilton is brought upon the stage, and, deemed, from the part he had already played, the fittest instrument, for further development, is directed to obtain from Mr. Crawford, the necessary accusation, and the Vice President is put upon his defence, for an act of which General Jackson had no right to complain. The result of all this was, that, the Vice President was separated from the favour of the President, was denounced as his enemy, deprived of his countenance, and exposed to the enmity of all the friends of General Jackson-and was thereby thrown hors de combat, leaving the field to Mr. Van Buren, uncontested by a rival whose high station, and great services to the cause in which he had engaged, gave him rich hopes of the succession. Mr. Van Buren avers that he had neither motive nor interest in thus assailing Mr. Calhoun. But all men see, that the motive was powerful, and the interest direct; and they cannot see, that, he was restrained, judging from his political life, by any principle, in thus playing off the President against his most dangerous rival. If, we repeat, Mr. Van Buren was not implicated in this plot, its concoction and explosion was, for him, a providential event. Had any reason for making the inquiry, been steadily adhered to, more consistency and more probability would be given to the defence of those who were not interested in the political ruin of the Vice President. But these reasons are perpetually changing; at one time the ob ject of the application to Mr. Crawford is stated to be the defence of General Jackson; at another, to reconcile him and Mr. Crawford; at a third, to reply to a supposed book which Mr. Monroe was about to write.

258. But had General Jackson cause to complain of Mr. Calhoun? We cannot perceive it. Mr. Calhoun, as Secretary of War, had issued orders to the General. The conduct of the General was hostile to a nation at peace with the United States, and was so far a breach of the Constitution, In this he was, or was not, warranted by his instructions. If warranted, then, the offence was removed from the General, to the Secretary, and he would become liable to impeach. ment. But the latter knew the sense which his orders were intended to bear, and in proposing a court of inquiry, he gave a proper opportunity for determining the question which must arise, upon the instructions. Had he been the enemy of the General, he would have adhered pertinaciously to his proposition; but as soon as an opportunity was offered of taking other ground, with honour to himself, he cordially gave all

the support in his power to the General. In all this, there was no cause of offence to the General, had he not been in search of a cause, and resolved to make, if he could not find, one. The only semblance of double dealing, on the part of the Vice President, seems in his reply to the question of Mr. Hamilton; but, of this, he has given his explanation; and it is not of this the President complains, but of the irreproachable conduct of Mr. Calhoun in the Cabinet.

260. This, quarrel so artfully and sedulously sought, was most rancorously pursued. The, editor of the Washington Telegraph, who had most zealously fought the present administration into power, and had, as was universally charged upon him, an almost sovereign influence over the President, but which had of late been assumed and exercised by others, took the field in defence of Mr. Calhoun, The Washington Globe, which had been established upon the knowledge that the Telegraph was endeavouring to sustain the interests of Mr. Calhoun, in opposition to those of the General, and more especially of Mr. Van Buren, supported the administration, In the fierce war that ensued, all discretion was abandoned. The selfishness of the several sections was most disgustingly exhibited, and, the incompetency of the President most broadly proclaimed by one, who for two years had hourly opportu nities, to observe, and to abuse it, for extending and maintaining the influence of the party. If there could have been a doubt of the sheer selfishness of the combination, that doubt was now dissipated, by the avowal of both sections, that they struggled for dominion only. Now became apparent, the advantages which a party derives from the purchase of the press. The subsidized editors, in every State of the Union, supported the administration; and, thus strengthened, Mr. Van Buren was emboldened to a coup d'etat, for, which the personal quarrel between the President and Vice President had prepared the way.

CHAPTER X.

A UNIT FRACTURED BY MAGIC.

261. We have seen, that the JACKSON PARTY (shame to the citizen who bears a name which devotes him to the will of a chief,) was composed of the fragments of all parties; and if like begets like, the administration should be as parti-colored and heterogeneous as the columns of Breccia of the Capitol. Had these fragments been united by good faith and patriotic purposes, like those columns, the party might have become firm, and, polished by use, have been the support and the ornament of the country. But held together by the liquescent cement of selfishness only, it dissolved with the slightest effort of the magician, who presided over it.

262. Mr. Van Buren, Secretary of State and first minister of the party, was long known, to the country, as one of the most skilful politicians it possessed. Disciplined and graduated at Tammany Hall, the most renowned seminary for demagogues on earth, he, an apt pupil, readily acquired the ordinary arts of the vocation; to which, however, his peculiar genius gave an air of ease and grace, rarely attained by graduates, even, of that institution. Keen-eyed in discerning his interests, a happy temperament rendered him imperturbable amid the strongest excitements, in its pursuit; whilst a phi-' losophic command of the passions saved him from ever being long, unpleasantly or unprofitably pledged to any man or measure. All his liens were of the lightest kind, easily knotted and as readily dissolved. Like the humming bird, he flew, rapidly, from flower to flower, gently touching each, but drawing sustenance and delight from all that he touched. In the days of his early political practice, he followed De Witt Clinton, but, when full-fledged, he left his protector, and trusted to his own strength of pinion for the highest flights. He passed, rapidly, through the grades of party exaltation in his own State, and soon became as distinguished, in Congress, as at home, for his partisan talents. He embraced the fortunes of Mr. Crawford with the assured hope of becoming his Secretary of State, and his successor in the Presidency.

Upon the defeat of Mr. Crawford, the election of Mr. Adams, the non-gratification of his willingness to accept from