proach it in a spirit of conciliation. The revenue of the year had been $24,161,018; the expenditures, exclusive of the public debt, $13,742,311; the payment on account of the public debt had been $11,354,630; balance in the treasury, $4,819,781.

The message concluded with a second and louder warning to the United States bank. Nothing has occurred," said the President," to lessen, in any degree, the dangers which many of our citizens apprehend from that institution, as at present organized. In the spirit of improvement and compromise which distinguishes our country and its institutions, it becomes us to inquire, whether it be not possible to secure the advantages afforded by the present bank, through the agency of a bank of the United States, so modified in its principles and structure as to obviate constitutional and other objections. It is thought practicable to organize such a bank, with the necessary officers, as a branch of the Treasury Department, based on the public and individual deposits, without power to make loans or purchase property, which shall remit the funds of the government, and the expense of which may be paid, if thought advisable, by allowing its officers to sell bills of exchange to private individuals at a moderate premium. Not being a corporate body, having no stockholders, debtors, or property, and but few officers, it would not be obnoxious to the constitutional objections which are urged against the present bank; and having no means to operate on the hopes, fears, or interests of large masses of the community, it would be shorn of the influence which makes that bank formidable."

This message was one of the longest ever presented to Congress. The care and elaboration of the argumentative portions of it show how deeply its leading topics were agitating the public mind, and how resolutely the administration was marching toward the objects it had prescribed to itself.

One event only of this session of Congress need detain us -Colonel Benton's first formal attack upon the Bank of the

United States. "The current," says the author of the "Thirty Years' View," "was all setting one way. I determined to raise a voice against it in the Senate, and made several efforts before I succeeded-the thick array of the Bank friends throwing every obstacle in my way, and even friends holding me back for the regular course, which was to wait until the application for the renewed charter should be presented; and then to oppose it. I foresaw that, if this course was followed, the Bank would triumph without a contestthat she would wait until a majority was installed in both Houses of Congress-then present her application-hear a few barren speeches in opposition;-and then gallop the renewed charter through."

The speech of Mr. Benton, on this occasion, was one of the ablest and most effective of his whole senatorial career of thirty years. It emptied the Senate chamber, but it roused the people. We shall have, in a future page, to give the substance of his arguments against the Bank, and, therefore, pass over this truly Bentonian fulmination.

"This speech," continues Colonel Benton, "was not answered. Confident in its strength, and insolent in its nature, the great moneyed power had adopted a system in which she persevered until hard knocks drove her out of it: it was to have an anti-Bank speech treated with the contempt of silence in the House, and caricatured and belittled in the newspapers; and according to this system my speech was treated. The instant it was delivered, Mr. Webster called for the vote, and to be taken by yeas and nays, which was done; and resulted differently from what was expected-a strong vote against the Bank-twenty to twenty-three; enough to excite uneasiness, but not enough to pass the resolution and legitimate a debate on the subject. The debate stopped with the single speech; but it was a speech to be read by the peoplethe masses-the millions; and was conceived and delivered for that purpose; and was read by them; and has been complimented since as having crippled the Bank, and given it the wound of which it afterward died; but not within the year

and a day which would make the slayer responsible for the homicide. The list of yeas and nays was also favorable to the effect of the speech. Though not a party vote, it was sufficiently so to show how it stood-the mass of the democracy against the Bank-the mass of the anti-democrats for it."

This being the "short session," Congress adjourned on the third of March, when the Twenty-first Congress ceased to exist.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET.

TOWARD the close of this brief and uneventful session of Congress, Mr. Calhoun published his " Book," as it was sneeringly called at the time; a pamphlet of fifty pages octavo, containing his late correspondence with the President, and a mass of letters, statements, and certificates illustrative thereof. In a prefatory address to the people of the United States, Mr. Calhoun explained his reasons for making a publication so unusual and unexpected.

"Previous to my arrival at Washington" (in December, 1830), said he, "I had confined the knowledge of the existence of the correspondence to a few confidential friends, who were politically attached both to General Jackson and myself; not that I had any thing to apprehend from its disclosure, but because I was unwilling to increase the existing excitement in the present highly critical state of our public affairs. But when I arrived here, late in December, I found my caution had been of no avail, and that the correspondence was a subject of conversation in every circle, and soon became a topic of free comment in most of the public journals. The accounts of the affair, as is usually the case on such occasions, were, for the most part, grossly distorted, and were, in many instances, highly injurious to my character. Still I

deemed it my duty to take no hasty step, being determined to afford time for justice to be done me without appeal to you; and, if it should be, to remain silent, as my only object was the vindication of my conduct and character. Believing that further delay would be useless, I can see no adequate motive to postpone, any longer, the submission of all the facts of the case to your deliberate and final decision."

The pamphlet was discussed in a strictly partisan spirit; all the Jackson papers condemning it, all the opposition papers applauding it. A few weeks after its appearance, the New York Courier and Enquirer gave extracts from nearly two hundred democratic papers, vindicating the President and condemning the course of Mr. Calhoun. "Every republican paper in the Middle and Northern States," said the Courier, "friendly to Andrew Jackson's reëlection, has unequivocally condemned the publication made by Mr. Calhoun of his attack on the President. In the South, out of South Carolina, it is nearly the same; and even in South Carolina, a strong party is forming against him, and in favor of Jack

son."

"Mr. Calhoun's attack on the President !" "Condemns unequivocally Mr. Calhoun and the nullifiers !" Artful conjunction! Were the politicians far astray when they said, that "General Jackson's popularity could stand any thing?"

The President's retort was prompt, adroit, audacious, and overwhelming. By a series of skillful movements, he shelved the three members of his cabinet-Messrs. Ingham, Branch, and Berrien-who were Mr. Calhoun's friends and political allies. This was done about a month after the adjournment of Congress, and the moment was admirably chosen. It was long enough after the publication of Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet for it to have been well ridiculed in the administration papers, and to have ceased to be an exciting topic. It was in the lull preceding the excitement of the coming presidential election. It was nine months before there could be any trouble with the Senate respecting confirmations. Indeed, we may truly say of this disruption of the cabinet in 1831.

that of all known political management it was the consummate stroke. Jacksonian boldness united with Van Buren tact could alone have achieved it.

A dissolution of the cabinet was the expedient hit upon. Mr. Van Buren and Major Eaton were to resign and to be provided for. Mr. Barry, the Postmaster-General, should retain his place awhile. The obnoxious Three were expected to take a hint and leave; if not, the President was prepared to ask their resignations. Go they should.

Every thing was considered, and, as far as possible, provided for before the first step was taken. Mr. Edward Livingston, Senator from Louisiana, was notified of coming events, and offered the post of Secretary of State, which he agreed to accept. He had recently paid off, principal and interest, the sum due from him to the government, on account of the misconduct of his clerks in 1803. Thus, a possible objection to his appointment was removed. Mr. Louis McLane, Minister to England, was recalled; which provided a place for Mr. Van Buren and a new Secretary of the Treasury for General Jackson. Judge Hugh L. White, Senator from Tennessee, was the gentleman designed to fill the place about to be vacated by Major Eaton. If Judge White accepted, of which there was then no doubt, there would be a vacant seat in the Senate for Major Eaton, to which, it was thought, he could be appointed. Mr. Levi Woodbury was ready to take the place of Secretary of the Navy.

By the bold and artful measures contemplated a great many desirable objects were expected to be gained. A united cabinet, devoted to General Jackson and to the furtherance of his schemes, was one object. The removal of Mr. Van Buren from the scene of strife to a safe and commanding position abroad was thought to be a proceeding well calculated to promote his interests. Moreover, the President had made known to many persons, at the beginning of his administration, his resolve that no member of his cabinet should be his successor. A minor object was, to retrieve the unhappy