editorial next morning. This was the first savage attack on the United States Bank in the columns of the Courier and Enquirer."

GENERAL JACKSON prepared his Messages very much as the editor of a metropolitan journal "gets up" his thundering leaders; only not quite so expeditiously. He used to begin to think about his Message three or four months before the meeting of Congress. Whenever he had "an idea," he would make a brief memorandum of it on any stray piece of paper that presented itself, and put it into his capacious white hat for safe keeping. By the time it became necessary to put the document into shape, he would have a large accumulation of these memoranda, some of them consisting of a few words on the margin of a newspaper, and some of a page or two of foolscap. These were all confided to the hands of Major Donelson, the President's faithful and diligent private secretary, whose duty it was to write them out into orderly and correct English. Thus was formed the basis of the Message, to which the members of the Cabinet added each his proportion. It is not difficult, in reading over the volume of General Jackson's Messages, to detect the traces of the General's own large steel pen.

Congress met on the seventh of December. Such was the strength of the administration in the House of Representatives, that Andrew Stephenson was re-elected to the Speakership by one hundred and fifty-two votes out of one hundred and ninety-one. This Congress, however, came in, with the administration, and had been elected when General Jackson was elected.

The Message, eagerly looked for, as a first Message always

is, was delivered on the day following that of the organization of the House. A calm deliberateness of tone marked this important paper. If any where the hand of the chief was particularly apparent, it was where, on opening the subject of the foreign relations, in the midst of friendly declarations. and confident hopes of a peaceful settlement of all points in dispute, the President observed that, the country being blessed with every thing which constitutes national strength, he should ask nothing of foreign governments that was not right, and submit to nothing that was wrong; flattering himself, he said, that, aided by the intelligence and patriotism of the people, we shall be able to cause all our just rights to be respected. After this Jacksonian ripple, the Message flowed on with Van Buren placidity to its close.

But who would have thought to find, in a first Message of Andrew Jackson, Great Britain singled out for compliment? "With Great Britain," said the Message, "alike distinguished in peace and war, we may look forward to years of peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition. Every thing in the condition and history of the two nations is calculated to inspire sentiments of mutual respect, and to carry conviction to the minds of both, that it is their policy to preserve the most cordial relations. Such are my own views; and it is not to be doubted that such are also the prevailing sentiments of our constituents." What does this mean? We shall see ere long.

The Message recommended that all "intermediate agency" in the election of the President and Vice-President shall be abolished, and the service of the President limited to a single term of four or six years. One passage in this part of the Message was, doubtless, designed to be particularly interesting to Mr. Clay and his friends. In case the election, through the number of candidates, devolves upon the House of Representatives, remarked the President, the will of the people may not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained, may not be regarded. Circumstances may give the power of deciding the election to a single individual. "May he not be tempted to

name his reward?" In any case, thought the President, it is worthy of consideration, whether representatives should not be disqualified from holding office under a President of their own electing.

In two brief, pregnant paragraphs, every sentence a distinct proposition, and every proposition an error, the message defended the course of the government in its removals and appointments. The leading ideas of this passage were, that a long tenure of office is almost necessarily corrupting; that an office-holder has no more right to his office than the office-seeker; and that if any one had a right to complain of a removal from office it was not the luckless individual who had been suddenly deprived of the means of subsistence with

out cause.

The tariff was referred to with the vagueness unavoidable by a writer who was a protectionist in principle and a freetrader from necessity. The late tariff, said the message, had neither injured agriculture and commerce, nor benefited manufacturers, as much as had been anticipated; but "some modifications" were desirable, which should be considered and discussed not as party or sectional questions. The time was near at hand when the public debt would be all discharged. The gradual reduction and speedy abolition of the duties on tea and coffee were, therefore, recommended.

The finances of the country were in a satisfactory condition. Nearly six millions in the treasury; receipts for the year 1830 estimated at twenty-four millions six hundred thousand dollars; expenditures to be little more than twentysix millions. Nearly twelve and a half millions of the public debt had been paid during the year, leaving only forty-eight and a half millions. When this debt shall have been discharged, the President continued, then will arise the great question, whether the surplus revenue should not be apportioned among the several States for works of public utility, and thus put to rest for ever the long-vexed question of internal improvements. In connection with this subject there was an emphatic declaration: "Nothing is clearer, in my

view, than that we are chiefly indebted for the success of the constitution under which we are now acting to the watchful and auxiliary operation of the State authorities. This is not the reflection of a day, but belongs to the most deeply rooted convictions of my mind. I can not, therefore, too strongly or too earnestly for my own sense of its importance, warn you against all encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty."

The message suggested the formation of a Home Department to relieve the pressure on the Department of State.

The policy of the government on the Cherokee question was clearly foreshadowed. The Cherokees were given to understand that an independent sovereignty within the bounds of a sovereign State could not, in any circumstances whatever, be tolerated, and Congress was advised to set apart an ample district west of the Mississippi for the permanent occupancy of such tribes as could be induced to emigrate thither. "But," added the President, "this emigration should be voluntary; for it would be as cruel as unjust to compel the aborigines to abandon the graves of their fathers, and seek a home in a distant land.”

Near the close of the message were the famous little paragraphs which sounded the first note of war against the United States Bank:

"The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its stockholders will most probably apply for a renewal of their privileges. In order to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy in a measure involving such important principles, and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I can not, in justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the deliberate consideration of the legislature and the people. Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are well questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citizens; and it must be admitted by all, that it has failed in the great end of establishing a uniform an 1 sound currency. Under these circumstances, if such an institution is deemed essential to the fiscal operations of the goverement, I submit to the wisdom of the legislature whether a national one, founded, upon the credit of the government and its revenues, might not be devised, which would avoid all constitutional difficulties; and, at the same time, secure all the advantages

to the government and country that were expected to result from the present bank."

The President did not enumerate among the advantages of the bank which he suggested, that it would add to the patronage of a democratic administration. Such a bank as he proposed would be merely an appendage to the Treasury Department, and all its employées would be as much at the mercy of the government as a treasury-clerk.

Such was the message; in which the fortiler in re was so happily veiled by the suaviter in modo. It was, upon the whole, a candid and straightforward document. It gave no uncertain sound. The glove was fairly thrown down, though thrown with a certain grace, and the glove of finer kid than usual. What was thus plainly announced as the policy of the administration was carried out with a consistency and resolution rarely paralleled.

The debates began. No president ever watched the proceedings of Congress with more attention than President Jackson. Nothing escaped him. No matter to how late an hour of the night the debates were protracted, he never went to sleep till Major Lewis or Major Donelson came from the capitol and told him what had been said and done there. We must note such events of the session as were of particular interest to him.

CHAPTER XXII.

INCIDENTS

OF THE SESSION.

THE proceedings of the Senate were the first to kindle the President's ire. The Senate was not so disposed to confirm as the President had been to appoint. The executive sessions, that had previously been so short and so harmonious, were now protracted and exciting. Sometimes the Senate

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