quish their more savage allies, the British, at New Orleans, which gave security to your borders, and peace to the nation. I, Sir, was only a humble instrument in the hands of a wise and superintending Providence, for the accomplishment of those important and beneficial objects.

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My humble efforts in the service of my country, whether in the field or cabinet, I am fearful, are too highly appreciated by you. I can with candor, however, declare, that in every situation, to which I have been called by my fellow citizens, my best judgment has been exercised, and unceasing exertions been employed, to promote the best interests of my country. How far I have succeeded, is evidenced by your approba tion.

"You, Sir, have been pleased to pass in review my conduct in the late presidential contest. I trust you will believe me candid, when I assure you, that I have too long practised the pure principles of republicanism to abandon them at this late period of my life. I have always been taught to believe that ours is a government based upon the will of the people, and established for their prosperity and happiness exclusively.— In the adoption of our Constitution, the people secured to themselves the right of choosing their own agents to administer the government agreeably to their own will, as expressed by the voice of a majority. Surely, then, in the exercise of these important rights, they ought to be left to the dictates of their own unbiassed judgments. Acting, Sir, in accordance to these fundamental principles of our government, and having laid it down as a rule from which I have never departed, 'neither to seek, nor decline office, when freely offered by the people,' I could not interfere, in any manner whatever, in that contest, while either before the people, or the people's representatives. Your approbation of my course is, therefore, truly gratifying, and particularly so, as my conduct on that occasion was dictated by my best judgment.

"For the kind solicitude you have expressed for my promotion in the estimation of my fellow-citizens, I tender you my sincere thanks."

In 1828, General Jackson was present at New Orleans, at the celebration of the eighth of January; the anniversary of the victory, to which his energy and decision had contributed so much. He was hospitably welcomed by the city authorities, and the enthusiasm of the day was greatly augmented by his presence.

As the period, which was to decide the new Presidential election ap. proached, the excitement of the contending parties increased. In the autumn of 1828, the election took place, and the result was the choice of General Jackson as President of the United States. Before departing for the seat of government, he met with a severe affliction in the death of Mrs. Jackson. The loss bore heavily upon him for some time.

Towards the close of January, 1829, General Jackson and suite left the Hermitage for the seat of Government. He reached Washington early in February, in a plain carriage, and escorted by ten or twelve horsemen. On the 4th of March, the ceremony of his inauguration took place in the Senate chamber. His address upon the occasion was short, but appropriate and sufficient.

President Jackson organized his Cabinet by appointing Martin Van Buren, of New York, Secretary of State; Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Treasury; John H. Eaton, of Tennessee, Secretary of War; John Branch, of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; and John M. Berrien, of Georgia, Attorney General.

One of the first acts of the new administration was a sweeping removal from office of all those who had been actively opposed to his election. For this he was much censured by many, and there is no doubt but that a good deal of private calamity was occasioned by the act. His friends, however, have asserted, though without the shadow of truth, that such persons only were removed, as the public good required.

On the opening of Congress in December, 1829, the first message of the President was delivered. In this document, he recommended the amendment of that rart of our Constitution, which relates to the election of President and Vice President, so that all intermediate agency in the election might be removed.

He believed, that the purity of our government would be promoted by the exclusion of members of Congress, from all appointments in the gift of the President.

He advised, that the attention of Congress should be directed to the modification of the Tariff.

He recommended that no more first-rate ships should be built, but that the materials of marine architecture should rather be collected and placed in situations where they might readily be put to use.

On the 27th of May, the President rejected the bill, which originated in the House of Representatives, and passed that House, and also the Senate, authorizing a subscription of stock in the Maysville and Washington Turnpike Road Company, in Kentucky. This bill was returned to the House of Representatives, with the President's objections thereto. In December, 1830, Congress again assembled, and President Jackson presented his second message to the Representatives of the nation. Previous to the close of this Congressional session, a rupture took place between the President and Mr. Calhoun, Vice-President of the United States, which gave rise to a voluminous correspondence between the parties concerned.

The correspondence was published at the adjournment of Congress. This decisive step plainly indicated a division among the friends of the administration; and as the influence of the Vice President predominated in the Southern, and he was not without friends in the Middle States, his appeal began to affect injuriously the administration itself, from a conviction that its head was operated upon by improper feelings and prejudices.

"In this posture of affairs, the country was astonished by the information promulgated through the official journal at the seat of Government, April 20th, 1831, that the Cabinet Ministers of the President had resigned, and the most lively curiosity was manifested to learn the causes of this unexpected and unprecedented movement. This curiosity

American Annual Register.

was not speedily gratified. The letters of the several members of the Cabinet were published, but they served to inflame rather than to gratify the public feeling.

"The mystery was finally developed by a communication of the Attorney General to the public, in which the cause of the want of harmony in the adminstration was attributed to a determination to compel the fainilies of the dismissed members to associate with the wife of the Secretary

of War.

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By this statement it appeared that these ladies had, in accordance with the general understanding of the female part of society at Washington, declined to visit the family of the Secretary of War, and that this neglect, being resented by that gentleman, had produced a coolness between him and the heads of those families. As the President warmly espoused the feelings of the Secretary of War, as of an old and confidential friend, it was rumored, early in the year, that their removal would be a consequence of this resentment; and the Attorney General stated, that about that time a confidential friend of the President (Richard M. Johnson) called upon him and the other refractory members, as from the President, and intimated to them, that unless they would consent to at least a formal intercourse between their families and that of the Secretary of War, he had determined to remove them from office. They replied, that while they felt bound to maintain a frank and harmonious intercourse with their colleagues, they would not permit any interference with the social relations of their families, and wholly refused to comply with the request. Other friends, however, interfered, and the President was induced to waive any further prosecution of the subject at that time.

"To that refusal, however, he attributed the want of harmony of the Cabinet, and its consequent dissolution.

"This charge, from a high and unquestioned source, imputing so discreditable and undignified an interference with the private and domestic relations of the members of his Cabinet, produced a strong impression upon the public mind; and, with the view of obviating that unfavorable impression, a different version was soon furnished of these transactions, by the friends of the administration. According to this version, it seemed that the President, believing that a combination had been entered into by the Vice-President and a portion of his Cabinet, to drive the Secreta ry of War from the administration, by excluding his family from society, had determined on re-organizing his Cabinet, unless its members would consent to meet upon terms of harmonious intercourse. With the view of averting that result, Mr. Johnson called upon the members of the Cabinet, and suggested to them the propriety of associating with the family of the Secretary of War, or at least of assenting to a formal intercourse, which would be all that the President could desire. In making this proposition, Colonel Johnson asserted, that he was actuated solely by a desire to prevent a dissolution of the Cabinet; that it was upon his own authority; and that he was in no shape authorized by the President to make any such requisition.

"This version was sustained by an authorized publication on the part

of the President, while that of the Attorney General was supported by the testimony of the Secretaries of the Navy and of the Treasury. It was lowever, impossible to avoid the conclusion, that, to the influence of these domestic dissensions, the dissolution of the Cabinet was to be solely attributed, and that the cause assigned in the letter of the Secretary of State, was merely ostensible, and with the design of diverting the public attention from these discreditable occurrences. The satisfaction that was felt by the community at large at the breaking up of the most incompetent Cabinet, that was ever called to the administration of the Government of the United States, in some measure compensated for the manner in which it was dissolved. This satisfaction was increased by the character of the gentlemen invited to act as their successors."

The new Cabinet, which was not completely organized until late in the summer of 1831, was constituted as follows:

EDWARD LIVINGSTON, of Louisiana, Secretary of State.
LOUIS MCLANE, of Delaware, Secretary of the Treasury.
LEWIS CASS, of Ohio, Secretary of War.

LEVI WOODBURY, of New-Hampshire, Secretary of the Navy.
ROGER B. TANEY, of Maryland, Attorney General.

This Cabinet was not only, in every particular, superior to that which preceded it, but might fairly compare, in point of talent and ability, with that of any previous administration, and its character furnished strong testimony of the tribute paid to public opinion in the selection of his public advisers by a Chief Magistrate of great personal popularity.

The determination adopted by General Jackson, upon his accession to the Presidency, not to enforce the Indian intercourse act, whenever its provisions should bring the Government of a State into collision with that of the United States, now began to produce the most unhappy consequences. Encouraged by the conviction, that they could proceed without molestation, the Government of Georgia commenced the execution of what it had only threatened, under the preceding administration. Shortly after the period designated for the extension of the jurisdiction of the State, over the Cherokee territory, the writs of the State Courts were issued against residents in the Indian territory, and the Cherokees were tried before the State tribunals, without any regard being paid to their pleas to the jurisdiction of the Court before which they were summoned.

"In the case of George Tassel, a Cherokee, charged with the murder of another Cherokee upon the Indian Territory, an effort was made to procure the decision of the Supreme Court, upon the constitutionality of the State laws. After his trial and condemnation, by the Superior Court for Hall County, a writ of error was issued from the Supreme Court of the United States, and a citation was served upon Governor Gilmer, on the 22d of December, 1830, requiring the State of Georgia, to appear before the Supreme Court, at Washington, on the second Monday of January, to shew cause why the judgment in that case should not be reversed. As the question in this cause was simply concerning the validity of the treaties between the United States and the Cherokee tribe, it was obviously within the jurisdiction of the Federal Judiciary

which, by the second section of the third article of the Constitution, is declared to extend 'to all cases in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States and treaties made or which shall be made, under their authority.""

"Governor Gilmer, however, regarding it as an usurpation of authori ty, immediately transmitted the citation to the Legislature, with a message exhorting that body to take measures to resist any interference on the part of the Federal Judiciary, with the jurisdiction of the criminal Courts of the State.

Upon the reception of this message, the following resolutions were proposed by the committee to which the subject was referred, and were passed by the Legislature.

"Resolved, That the State of Georgia will never so far compromit her sovereignty as an independent State, as to become a party to the case sought to be made before the Supreme Court of the United States, by the writ in question.

"Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor, be, and he is hereby authorized, to communicate to the Sheriff of Hall County, by express, so much of the foregoing resolutions, and such orders as are necessary to insure the full execution of the laws, in the case of George Tassel, convicted of murder in Hall County.""

"Orders were accordingly given to the Court and the Sheriff, to disregard any process from the United States' Courts, and the execution of the unfortunate Indian took place on the 28th of December, pursuant to his sentence.

The subsequent arrest and treatment of the missionaries are well remembered. These acts apparently received the countenance and support of the General Government.

The twenty-second Congress of the United States convened in December, 1831. The customary message of the President at this time was received with considerable favor by the people.

One of the most prominent acts of this session of Congress, was the rejection by the Senate, of the nomination of Martin Van Buren, by the President, as Minister to England. This rejection is said to have been a subject of much irritation to General Jackson.

Another and more important question which agitated Congress, was that of renewing the charter of the present Bank of the United States. After much discussion, this bill passed the House and Senate, and was submitted to the President, by whom it was rejected, and returned with his objections. These objections have been too recently before the reader to be acceptable in this place. A great sensation was produced throughout the Union by the promulgation of the veto message; and the result of the excitement was perhaps favorable to the man, who had possessed the independence to pursue such a course. On the 13th of July, the Senate resumed the bank subject, and, after some debate, the question was put, "whether the bill should become a law, the President's objections to the contrary notwithstanding," and was decided in the negative.

The next public paper of moment, which proceeded from the President, was the proclamation issued against the ordinance of the South