MR. POLK'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, AND CABINET.
This was the longest address of the kind which had yet been
delivered, and although condemned by its nature to declarations of
general principles, there were some topics on which it dwelt with
more particularity. The blessings of the Union, and the necessity
of its preservation were largely enforced, and not without point,
considering recent manifestations. Our title to the Oregon Territory
was asserted as clear and indisputable, and the determination
avowed to protect our settlers there. The sentiments were good,
but the necessity or propriety of avowing them so positively, was
quite questionable, seeing that this title was then a subject
of negotiation with Great Britain, upon the harmony of which a
declaration so positive might have an ill effect: and in fact did.
The return voice from London was equally positive on the other side;
and the inevitability of war became the immediate cry. The passage
by Congress of the Texas annexation resolution was dwelt upon with
great exultation, and the measure considered as consummated from the
real disposition of Texas for the measure, and her great desire to
get a partner in the war with Mexico, which would take its expenses
and burdens off her hands.
The cabinet ministers were nominated and confirmed the same
day--the Senate, as always, being convened on the 4th day of March
for that purpose: James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of
State; Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, Secretary of the Treasury;
William L. Marcy, of New York, Secretary at War; George Bancroft, of
Massachusetts, Secretary of the Navy; Cave Johnson, of Tennessee,
Postmaster-general; John Y. Mason, of Virginia, Attorney-general.
The last was the only one retained of the late cabinet. Mr. Calhoun
expected to be, and desired it, to prosecute, as he said, the
Oregon negotiations, which he had commenced; and also to continue
a certain diplomatic correspondence with France, on the subject of
slavery, which he opened through Wm. R. King--greatly to the puzzle
of the King, Louis Phillippe, and his ministers. In place of the
State Department he was offered the mission to London, which he
refused; and the same being offered to his friend, Mr. Francis W.
Pickens, it was refused by him also: and the word became current,
and was justified by the event, that neither Mr. Calhoun, nor any
of his friends, would take office under this administration. In
other respects, there was some balk and change after the cabinet had
been agreed upon--which was done in Tennessee. General William O.
Butler, the particular friend of General Jackson, had been brought
on to receive the place of Secretary at War. He came in company
with the President elect, at his special request, from Louisville,
Kentucky, and was not spared to stop at his own house to get his
wardrobe, though in sight of it: he was thrown out by the effect
of a circuitous arrangement of which Mr. Polk was the dupe, and
himself the victim. In the original cast of the cabinet, Mr. Silas
Wright, the Governor elect of New York, and to whom Mr. Polk was
indebted for his election, was to be Secretary of the Treasury. It
was offered to him. He refused it, as he did all office: it was
then intended for Mr. Azariah Flagg, the able and incorruptible
comptroller of New York, the friend of Wright and Van Buren. He was
superseded by the same intrigue which displaced General Butler.
Mr. Robert J. Walker had been intended for Attorney-general: he
brought an influence to bear upon Mr. Polk, which carried him into
the Treasury. That displaced Mr. Flagg. But New York was not a
State to be left out of the cabinet, and no place could be made for
her except in the War Department; and Mr. Van Buren and Governor
Wright were notified accordingly, with the intimation that the place
belonged to one of their friends; and to name him. They did so
upon the instant, and named Mr. Benjamin F. Butler; and, beginning
to be a little suspicious, and to guard against all danger of
losing, or delaying the name on the road, a special messenger was
despatched to Washington, to travel day and night, and go straight
to the President, and deposit the name in his hands. The messenger
did so--and was informed that he was fifteen minutes too late!
that the place had been assigned to Mr. Wm. L. Marcy. And that was
the beginning of the material damage (not in Kossuth's sense of
the word), which Mr. Polk's administration did to Mr. Van Buren,
Governor Wright, and their friends.