BREAKING UP OF THE CABINET, AND APPOINTMENT OF ANOTHER.
The publication of Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet was quickly followed by
an event which seemed to be its natural consequence--that of a
breaking up, and reconstructing the President's cabinet. Several
of its members classed as the political friends of Mr. Calhoun,
and could hardly expect to remain as ministers to General Jackson
while adhering to that gentleman. The Secretary of State, Mr.
Van Buren, was in the category of future presidential aspirants;
and in that character obnoxious to Mr. Calhoun, and became the
cause of attacks upon the President. He determined to resign; and
that determination carried with it the voluntary, or obligatory
resignations of all the others--each one of whom published his
reasons for his act. Mr. Eaton, Secretary at War, placed his
upon the ground of original disinclination to take the place,
and a design to quit it at the first suitable moment--which he
believed had now arrived. Mr. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury,
Mr. Branch, of the Navy, and Mr. Berrien, Attorney General, placed
theirs upon the ground of compliance with the President's wishes.
Of the three latter, the two first classed as the friends of Mr.
Calhoun; the Attorney General, on this occasion, was considered
as favoring him, but not of his political party. The unpleasant
business was courteously conducted--transacted in writing as well
as in personal conversations, and all in terms of the utmost
decorum. Far from attempting to find an excuse for his conduct in
the imputed misconduct of the retiring Secretaries, the President
gave them letters of respect, in which he bore testimony to their
acceptable deportment while associated with him, and placed the
required resignations exclusively on the ground of a determination
to reorganize his cabinet. And, in fact, that determination became
unavoidable after the appearance of Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet. After
that Mr. Van Buren could not remain, as being viewed under the
aspect of "Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at the king's gate." Mr.
Eaton, as his supporter, found a reason to do what he wished, in
following his example. The supporters of Mr. Calhoun, howsoever
unexceptionable their conduct had been, and might be, could neither
expect, nor desire, to remain among the President's confidential
advisers after the broad rupture with that gentleman. Mr. Barry,
Postmaster General, and the first of that office who had been called
to the cabinet councils, and classing as friendly to Mr. Van Buren,
did not resign, but soon had his place vacated by the appointment
of minister to Spain. Mr. Van Buren's resignation was soon followed
by the appointment of minister to London; and Mr. Eaton was made
Governor of Florida; and, on the early death of Mr. Barry, became
his successor at Madrid.
The new cabinet was composed of Edward Livingston of Louisiana,
Secretary of State; Louis McLane of Delaware (recalled from the
London mission for that purpose), Secretary of the Treasury; Lewis
Cass of Ohio, Secretary at War; Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire,
Secretary of the Navy; Amos Kendall of Kentucky, Postmaster General;
Roger Brooke Taney of Maryland, Attorney General. This change in
the cabinet made a great figure in the party politics of the day,
and filled all the opposition newspapers, and had many sinister
reasons assigned for it--all to the prejudice of General Jackson,
and Mr. Van Buren--to which neither of them replied, though having
the easy means of vindication in their hands--the former in the then
prepared "Exposition" which is now first given to the public--the
latter in the testimony of General Jackson, also first published
in this THIRTY YEARS' VIEW, and in the history of the real cause
of the breach between General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, which the
"Exposition" contains. Mr. Crawford was also sought to be injured
in the published "correspondence," chiefly as the alleged divulger,
and for a wicked purpose, of the proceedings in Mr. Monroe's
cabinet in relation to the proposed military court on General
Jackson. Mr. Calhoun arraigned him as the divulger of that cabinet
secret, to the faithful keeping of which, as well as of all the
cabinet proceedings, every member of that council is most strictly
enjoined. Mr. Crawford's answer to this arraignment was brief and
pointed. He denied the divulgation--affirmed that the disclosure
had been made immediately after the cabinet consultation, in a
letter sent to Nashville, Tennessee, and published in a paper of
that city, in which the facts were reversed--Mr. Crawford being
made the mover of the court of inquiry proposition, and Mr. Calhoun
the defender of the General; and he expressed his belief that Mr.
Calhoun procured that letter to be written and published, for the
purpose of exciting General Jackson against him; (which belief the
Exposition seems to confirm)--and declaring that he only spoke of
the cabinet proposition after the publication of that letter, and
for the purpose of contradicting it, and telling the fact, that Mr.
Calhoun made the proposition for the court, and that Mr. Adams and
himself resisted, and defeated it. His words were: "My apology for
having disclosed what passed in a cabinet meeting, is this: In the
summer after that meeting, an extract of a letter from Washington
was published in a Nashville paper, in which it was stated that I
had proposed to arrest General Jackson, but that he was triumphantly
defended by Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Adams. This letter I have always
believed was written by Mr. Calhoun, or by his direction. It had
the desired effect. General Jackson became extremely inimical to
me, and friendly to Mr. Calhoun. In stating the arguments of Mr.
Adams to induce Mr. Monroe to support General Jackson's conduct
throughout, adverting to Mr. Monroe's apparent admission, that if a
young officer had acted so, he might be safely punished, Mr. Adams
said--that if General Jackson had acted so, that if he had been a
subaltern officer, _shooting was too good for him_. This, however,
was said with a view of driving Mr. Monroe to an unlimited support
of what General Jackson had done, and not with an unfriendly view
to the General. Mr. Calhoun's proposition in the cabinet was,
that General Jackson should be punished in some form, I am not
positive which. As Mr. Calhoun did not propose to _arrest_ General
Jackson, I feel confident that I could not have made use of _that_
word in my relation to you of the circumstances which transpired
in the cabinet." This was in the letter to Mr. Forsyth, of April
30th, 1830, and which was shown to General Jackson, and by him
communicated to Mr. Calhoun; and which was the second thing that
brought him to suspect Mr. Calhoun, having repulsed all previous
intimations of his hostility to the General, or been quieted by Mr.
Calhoun's answers. The Nashville letter is strongly presented in the
"Exposition" as having come from Mr. Calhoun, as believed by Mr.
Crawford.
Upon the publication of the "correspondence," the _Telegraph_,
formerly the Jackson organ, changed its course, as had been revealed
to Mr. Duncanson--came out for Mr. Calhoun, and against General
Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, followed by all the affiliated presses
which awaited its lead. The _Globe_ took the stand for which it was
established; and became the faithful, fearless, incorruptible, and
powerful supporter of General Jackson and his administration, in
the long, vehement, and eventful contests in which he became engaged.