soon to fill the vacancy created in the Senate of the United States by the election of Mr. Hayne to the governorship. John C. Calhoun, Vice-President of the United States, was the individual selected, and Mr. Calhoun accepted the seat. He resigned the vice-presidency, and began his journey to Washington in December, leaving his State in the wildest ferment. Two months of the autumn of this year, as we have before mentioned, General Jackson spent in visiting his beloved Hermitage. But he had had an eye upon South Carolina. Soon after his return to Washington in October, came news that the convention of the South Carolina nullifiers was appointed to meet on the nineteenth of November. On the sixth of that month, the President sent secret orders to the collector of the port of Charleston of an energetic character: "Upon the supposition that the measures of the convention, or the acts of the legislature may consist, in part, at least, in declaring the laws of the United States imposing duties unconstitutional, and null and void, and in forbidding their execution, and the collection of the duties within the State of South Carolina, you will, immediately after it shall be formally announced, resort to all the means provided by the laws, and particularly by the act of the 2d of March, 1799, to counteract the measures which may be adopted to give effect to that declaration. "For this purpose you will consider yourself authorized to employ the revenue cutters which may be within your district, and provide as many boats, and employ as many inspectors, as may be necessary for the execution of the law, and for the purposes of the act already referred to. You will, moreover, cause a sufficient number of officers of cutters and inspectors to be placed on board, and in charge of every vessel arriving from a foreign port or place, with goods, wares, or merchandise, as soon as practicable after her first coming within your district, and direct them to anchor her in some safe place within the harbor, where she may be secure from any act of violence, and from any unauthorized attempt to discharge her cargo before a compliance with the laws; and they will remain on board of her at such place until the reports and entries required by law shall be made, both of vessel and cargo, and the duties paid, or secured to be paid to your satisfaction, and until the regular permit shall be granted for landing the cargo; and it will be your duty, against any forcible attempt, to retain and defend the custody of the said vessel, by the aid of the officers of the customs, inspectors, and officers of the cutters, until the requisitions of the law, shall be fully complied with; and in case of any attempt to remove her or her cargo from the custody of the officers of the customs, by the form of legal process from State tribunals, you will not yield the custody to such attempt, but will consult the law officer of the district, and employ such means as, under the particular circumstances, you may legally do, to resist such process, and prevent the removal of the vessel and cargo. "Should the entry of such vessel and cargo not be completed, and the duties paid, or secured to be paid, by bond or bonds, with sureties to your satisfaction, within the time limited by law, you will, at the expiration of that time, take possession of the cargo, and land and store the same at Castle Pinckney, or some other safe place, and in due time, if the duties are not paid, sell the same, according to the direction of the 56th section of the act of the 2d of March, 1799; and you are authorized to provide such stores as may be necessary for that purpose." A few days after the dispatch of these orders, General Scott was quietly ordered to Charleston, for the purpose, as the President confidentially informed the collector, "of superintending the safety of the ports of the United States in that vicinity." Other changes were made in the disposition of naval and military forces, designed to enable the President to act with swift efficiency, if there should be occasion to act. If ever a man was resolved to accomplish a purpose, General Jackson was resolved on this occasion to preserve intact the authority with which he had been entrusted. Nor can any language do justice to the fury of his contemptuous wrath against the author and fomenter of all this trouble. The recently published autobiography of Gen. Sam. Dale, of Mississippi, contains a passage which affords us a peep into the White House when nullification was the ruling topic. Dale had distinguished himself during the New Orleans campaign as a bearer of despatches, in which capacity he had rendered General Jackson much service, and won his regard. At the height of the nullification excitement, "Big Sam" found himself at the city of Washington : "The third day, Colonel William R. King, of the Senate, brought me word that President Jackson desired to see me. 'Tell Dale,' said he to Colonel King, 'that if I had as little to do as he has, I should have seen him before now.' The General was walking in the lawn in front of his mansion as we approached. He advanced, and grasped me warmly by the hand. "No introduction is needed,' said the Colonel. "'Oh no,' said the General, shaking my hand again, 'I shall never forget Sam Dale.' We walked into his reception-room, and I was introduced to Col. Benton, and five or six other distinguished men. They were all very civil, and invited me to visit them. They were talking over 'Nullification,' the engrossing subject at that period, and the President, turning to me, said, 'General Dale, if this thing goes on, our country will be like a bag of meal with both ends open. Pick it up in the middle or endwise, and it will run out. I must tie the bag and save the country.' The company now took leave, but when I rose to retire with Col. King, the General detained me, ordered up some whisky, and directed his servant to refuse all visitors until one o'clock. He talked over our campaigns, and then of the business that brought me to Washington. He then said, 'Sam, you have been true to your country, but you have made one mistake in life. You are now old and solitary, and without a bosom friend or family to comfort you. God called mine away. But all I have achieved-fame, power, every thing-would I exchange if she could be restored to me for a moment.' "The iron man trembled with emotion, and for some time covered his face with his hands, and tears dropped on his knee. I was deeply affected myself. He took two or three turns across the room, and then abruptly said, 'Dale, they are trying me here; you will witness it; but, by the God of heaven, I will uphold the laws.' "I understood him to be referring to nullification again, his mind evidently having recurred to it, and I expressed the hope that things would go right. "They SHALL go right, sir,' he exclaimed, passionately, shivering his pipe upon the table. "He calmed down after this, and showed me his collection of pipes, many of a most costly and curious kind, sent to him from every quarter, his propensity for smoking being well known. 'These,' said he,' will do to look at. I still smoke my corn-cob, Sam, as you and I have often done together it is the sweetest and best pipe.' "When I rose to take leave, he pressed me to accept a room there. 'I can talk to you at night; in the day I am beset.' I declined on the plea of business, but dined with him several times, always, no matter what dignitaries were present, sitting at his right hand. He ate very sparingly, only taking a single glass of wine, though his table was magnificent. When we parted for the last time, he said, 'My friend, farewell; we shall see each other no more; let us meet in heaven.' "I could only answer him with tears, for I felt that we should meet no more on earth." CHAPTER XXXIV. NULLIFICATION EXPLODES AND TRIUMPHS. CONGRESS met on the third of December. Mr. Calhoun had not reached Washington, and his intention to resign the vice-presidency was not known there. Judge White, of Tennessee, was elected president of the Senate, pro tem., and the President of the United States was then notified that Congress was ready to receive the annual message. The message of 1832 reveals few traces of the loud and threatening contentions amid which it was produced. It is an unusually quiet and business-like document. The ravages and the subsidence of the cholera were briefly referred to. The recall of Mr. Van Buren from England was merely mentioned as an "unexpected" and "unfortunate" circumstance, which had interrupted sundry negotiations with the English government. The income of the year would reach twenty-eight millions of dollars; the expenditures sixteen millions and a half; the payments on the public debt eighteen millions. The President was now enabled to announce that on the 1st of January, 1833, there would remain of the public debt less than seven millions, which would be extinguished early in the course of that year. "I can not," he said, "too cordially congratulate Congress and my fellow-citizens on the near approach of that memorable and happy event, the extinction of the public debt of this great and free nation. Faithful to the wise and patriotic policy marked out by the legislation of the country for this object, the present admin istration has devoted to it all the means which a flourishing commerce has supplied, and a prudent economy preserved, for the public treasury. Within the four years for which the people have confided the executive power to my charge, fiftyeight millions of dollars will have been applied to the payment of the public debt." It remained, the message continued, for Congress to revise the tariff, so as to reduce the revenue to the reduced necessities of the government. This must be done: but so done, if possible, as not to injure the manufacturing interest. "Large interests have grown up under the implied pledge of our national legislation, which it would seem a violation of public faith suddenly to abandon. Nothing could justify it but the public safety, which is the supreme law. But those who have vested their capital in manufacturing establishments can not expect that the people will continue permanently to pay high taxes for their benefit, when the money is not required for any legitimate purpose in the administration of the government. Is it not enough that the high duties have been paid as long as the money arising from them could be applied to the common benefit in the extinguishment of the public debt ?" This was not the doctrine of the first message, which contemplated a permanent surplus revenue for division among the States. The President here recommended all, or nearly all, that the nullifiers demanded. The troubles in South Carolina were dismissed in a single paragraph, which expressed a hope of a speedy adjustment of the difficulty. The United States Bank was not suffered to die in peace. "I recommend," said the President," that provision be made to dispose of all stocks now held by the general government in corporations, whether created by the general or State governments, and to place the proceeds in the treasury." But this was not all. Congress was urged to institute an inquiry "whether the public deposits in that institution may be entirely safe." Rumors were abroad, said the President, im |