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that gentleman the Mission to England, and the nomination of Mr. Clay, he, having failed to obtain the confidence of the new administration, formed the great combination of 1826-7, which succeeded in electing General Jackson; and such were his services in that cause, that all sections of the party, though he was an eleventh hour man, ceded him the first place in the Jackson administration. He stepped to it, from the gubernatorial chair of New York, to which he had been raised but a few months, only, before his nomination to the department of State. Mr. Van Buren has been called a Clintonite, a Crawfordite, a Jacksonite, and has borne, perhaps, some half dozen other cognomens. But these are all misnomers; he was never else, than a Van Burenite.

Mr. Ingham, who was distinguished, by industrious and earnest application to study, business, and politics, and, in the latter, by violence and little scrupulosity; who had entered the political arena as a mongrel federalist, but who soon fell into the democratic ranks, and was, there, as every where, proscriptive and intolerant; who was the friend and devoted partisan of Mr. Calhoun, but with that gentleman's friends in Pennsylvania became, on his recession, the worshipper of General Jackson; and who was the fiercest assailant of Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, was, as a reward to the faithfulness of Pennsylvania, and in consideration that she was the first State which had invited the General to the Chief Magistracy, appointed Secretary of the Treasury.

Mr. Branch, a Senator from North Carolina, distinguished also for his hostility to Mr. Adams and for his violence in opposing the Panama mission, but whò, nevertheless, enjoyed a reputation for honesty if not for sagacity, was named Secretary of the Navy, at the instance of Major Eaton, who had been his class-mate at college and his friend in mature life:

Mr. Eaton, notorious, for having his name connected with a biography of General Jackson, for his implicit devotion to, and dependence on, the General, and for his incompetency, was made Secretary of War:

Mr. Berrien, of Georgia, once devoted to Mr. Crawford, was made Attorney General:

And, Mr. Barry, whose unparalleled service in disciplining the party, through the influence of Post Office appointments; whose profuse expenditures, and unconstitutional borrowings of money, have put him under perpetual inquisition, and have secured for him no enviable place in his country's history, was constituted Post Master, with a place, we believe,

in the Cabinet, which had not, heretofore, been given to this officer.

263. Thus, General Jackson's Cabinet was composed of one Van Buren man, four Jackson men, and one Calhoun man. Now, had all these men been earnestly disposed to promote the public service, instead of their private ends, there was nothing in their predilections which could have interfered with their public duty; and, all who were competent might have been continued in office. But, their official stations gave patronage and influence, which might be serviceable to the leaders, to whom they were respectively devoted; and Mr. Van Buren, who, from long experience, well knew the value of these, resolved to wrest them from hands which would employ them, adversely, to himself; and to such a purpose, it was supposed, Messrs. Ingham, Branch, and Berrien, were devoted. He had just succeeded in overthrowing a powerful rival, and the dispersion of these enemies seemed, as it truly was, a trivial matter.

264. On the 11th of April 1831, Mr. Van Buren took the new and successful course of sacrificing his enemies, by an apparent offering up of himself; addressing a letter to the President, declaring "he felt it his duty to retire from the office to which the President's confidence and partiality had called him." The reasons assigned for this event are somewhat mystified; (it is not easy to overcome a habit, even when we are sincerely disposed so to do,) yet we think we can draw from the letter of the Secretary and the reply of the President, that the following, according to pre-arrangement, were intended to be impressed on the public mind. 1. That, notwithstanding his, Mr. Van Buren's efforts to the contrary, the canvass for the next Presidency had commenced; that as some opinions were abroad unfavourable to the order of succession by the office of Secretary of State, he was not disposed to disfranchise himself by continuance in office; but, that, whilst he sought his interest, by abandoning it, he made it "his ambition to set an example, which should it, in the progress of the Government, be deemed, notwithstanding the humility of its origin, worthy of respect and observance, could not, he thought, fail to prove, essentially and permanently, beneficial." 2. That, "diversities of ulterior preferences, (that is, different views as to the succession), among the friends of an administration were unavoidable; and where a member of the Cabinet looked to the succession, an injurious effect must result to public affairs,

inasmuch, as his colleagues in the ministry would, or would be supposed to, embarrass the branch of public service committed to his charge, and that mutual alienation and hostility must necessarily result, and opposition to the course of the Government would thence acquire new power. 3. That, as the President would be re-elected, and as he had been among the most urgent of his advisers to stand a second poll, he could not consent, by continuance in office, to embarrass the future measures of the administration.

These reasons, it seems, were satisfactory to Mr. Van Buren, and sufficiently cogent to produce his resignation; but why should they induce the removal of other members of the cabinet? The force of the reasons in applicability to them, was diminished by that resignation. The ulterior preferences of the remaining ministers were almost unanimous, and none of them were Presidential candidates. All would support the General in a second election, but, three of them, (Mr. Eaton retiring, five being left) would not support Mr. Van Buren for the succession. This was the true reason for the removal of the three ministers. If the harmony which should have prevailed among them, had been broken, from causes of a domestic or private character, it was by the retirement of Mr. Eaton, restored.

265. Mr. Eaton who had been many years in public life, and, to all men's eyes, seemed devoted to public office, and had been admitted to the cabinet much against the wishes and remonstrances of some of General Jackson's friends, it now appears, "had entered it contrary to his own wishes, and having nothing to desire, either as it regarded himself or friends, (with a Jackson man this desire seems ever in consideration,) had ever since cherished a determination to avail himself of the first favourable moment, after the administration should be in successful operation, to retire." And on the 7th of April, 1831, he tendered his resignation. In the appeal Mr. Eaton has made to the public, he renders these motives doubtful, by displaying an unabated love for office, and showing that he retired, that he might not be the occasion of embarrassment to the President, in the reorganization of his cabinet, to be accomplished by dismissing the disaffected portions.

266. On the 18th of April the President communicated to Mr. Ingham the resignations of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War, and submitted the letter of the former; remarking, that this proceeding was made known to him, as

one of those whom the President had associated, with himself, in the administration of the Government, and that, he would, after a few days' reflection, have further conversation with him upon the subject. This was an intimation of the President's wish that Mr. Ingham should follow the example of the Secretaries who had retired. But this Mr. Ingham would not understand, and by a note of that date, he sought a more distinct expression of the President's wishes. An interview ensued, in which the Secretary of the Treasury was "gratified to find himself relieved from the uncertainty," caused by the President's previous communication; and by a note of the 19th, he apologized, for not following the example set him, by a voluntary resignation of his office, being wholly unconscious of the application to himself of any of the reasons, so far as he was apprised of them, which had induced them to withdraw from the public service, and that it was, therefore, due to his character that he should find a reason for resigning in the distinct expression of the President's wish to that effect; having that, he tendered his commission; his resignation to take effect so soon as his services might be dispensed with, which were required, to perfect a report on Weights and Measures, until the 26th of June.

On the succeeding day, the President, by letter, accepted the resignation, and observed," When the resignations of the Secretary of State and Secretary of War were tendered, I considered fully the reasons offered, and all the circumstances connected with the subject. After mature deliberation, I concluded to accept those resignations. But, when this conclusion was come to, it was accompanied by the conviction that, I must entirely renew my Cabinet. Its members had been invited by me to the stations they occupied, it had come together in great harmony, and as a UNIT. Under the circumstances in which I found myself, I could not but perceive the propriety of selecting a Cabinet composed of entirely new materials, as being calculated in this respect, at least, to command public confidence and satisfy public opinion. Neither could I be insensible to the fact, that to permit two, only, to retire, would be to afford room for unjust misconceptions and malignant representations concerning the influence of their particular presence upon the conduct of public affairs. Justice to the individuals whose public spirit had impelled them to tender their resignations, also required, then, in my opinion, the decision which I have stated; how

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ever painful to my own feelings, it became necessary that I should frankly make known to you the whole subject." The President, also, took this opportunity to profess his entire satisfaction with the manner in which the Secretary had discharged the duties of his office.

Now, it is apparent, that there is a total want of keeping between the reasons here assigned and those given by the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War. The former retired, as he says, because his position was unfavourable to his ambition, and his ambition might prove injurious to the President; the latter because, he cherished the love of retirement. But the reason for the dismissal of the remnant, was, according to the President, that he might have a Cabinet of entire new materials, which might command public confidence and satisfy public opinion; intimating, clearly, that such was not the character of his present council.

A duplicate act of this farce was played with Mr. Branch, to whom a copy of the last letter to Mr. Ingham, so clear and satisfactory of the President's views, was also communicated. A copy also, with some variations, was probably sent to Mr. Berrien, then absent in Georgia upon business, who, on his return to Washington, resigned his office.

267. The true reason of the dissolution of the Cabinet was at length declared in the Globe, in a semi-official statement of the 11th of July 1831, in which is the following paragraph. "At the succeeding session of Congress, (1831,) meetings of the friends of Mr. Calhoun took place, with a view of addressing the President to remove Major Eaton from his councils. Mr. Van Buren was next embraced in the denunciation. Arrangements were made in Congress to embarrass the measures of the administration in that body. The Calhoun Telegraph and the Ingham Sentinel evinced their disaffection. The appointment of Mr. Baldwin was denounced in advance. Remote editors, as has been proved, were sounded, in the hope of bringing them out, in opposition to the re-election of the President, and finally, Mr. Calhoun came out with a horrible plot. When this issue was made with himself, personally, the President found his Cabinet divided, and an entire reorganization was determined upon."

That, the true motives for breaking up the Cabinet, were not those assigned by the President, that, it was an act premeditated, and that the resignations of Messrs. Van Buren and Eaton were the consequence, and not the cause of the

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