all the measures you have adopted to terminate the rupture with the Indians.' My object in making this communication, is to announce to you the great surprise which I felt, and to learn of you whether it be possible that the information given is correct; whether it can be, under all the circumstances of which you and I are both informed, that any attempt seriously to affect me was moved and sustained by you in the cabinet council, when, as is known to you, I was but executing the wishes of the government, and clothed with the authority to conduct the war in the manner I might judge best.''

The reply of Mr. Calhoun to General Jackson's letter was not the frank yea or nay which was all that was required. He commenced an answer of great length, by denying his responsibility to General Jackson for what passed in Mr. Monroe's cabinet. This was entirely uncalled for; the president, nor any one else, having claimed such responsibility on the part of Mr. Calhoun. He also stated that it was not his intention to offer any apologies or excuses for his conduct. General Jackson required no apologies or excuses. that conduct was?

He only asked what

Mr. Calhoun then affected not to understand the president, but supposed he meant that they did not put the same construction upon his orders in the Seminole campaign, and that he had been guilty of some duplicity in that respect. The president's letter was a direct inquiry of Mr. Calhoun, whether his course had been hostile to him in Mr. Monroe's cabinet, as was represented. He did not ask how Mr. Calhoun understood his orders, or whether they understood them alike. He only desired to know, whether he had been secretly hostile, while professedly and publicly his friend. But Mr. Calhoun, instead of answering directly, led off into a long discussion about the orders and the manner in which they were

understood, points, which were not at all involved in the inquiry to which he was replying.

The disappointment of General Jackson in not receiving a direct reply to the inquiry made in his letter, is evinced in the following extract from his reply to the answer of Mr. Calhoun: "I regret to find that you have entirely mistaken my note of the 13th instant. There is no part of it which calls in question either your conduct or your motives in the case alluded to. Motives are to be inferred from actions, and judged of by our God. It had been intimated to me many years ago, that it was you and not Mr. Crawford, who had been secretly endeavoring to destroy my reputation. These insinuations I indignantly repelled, upon the ground that you, in all of your letters to me, professed to be my personal friend, and approved entirely of my conduct in the Seminole campaign. I had too exalted an opinion of your honor and frankness, to believe for one moment that you could be capable of such deception. Under the influence of these friendly feelings, (which I always entertained for you) when I was presented with a copy of Mr. Crawford's letter, with that frankness which ever has, and I hope ever will characterize my conduct, I considered it due to you and to the friendly relations which had always existed between us, to lay it forthwith before you, and ask if the statements contained in that letter could be true? I repeat, I had a right to believe that you were my sincere friend, and until now, never expected to have occasion to say of you in the language of Caesar, Et tu Brute? The evidence which brought me to this conclusion is abundantly contained in your letter now before me. your and Mr. Crawford's dispute, I have no interest whatever; but it may become necessary for me hereafter when I shall have more leisure, and the documents at hand, to place the subject in its proper light, to notice the

In

historical facts and references in your communication, which will give a very different view of the subject. It is due to myself, however, to state that the knowledge of the executive documents and orders in my possession will show conclusively, that I had authority for all I did, and that your explanation of my powers as declared to Governor Bibb, shows your own understanding of them. Your letter to me of the 29th, handed to-day, and now before me, is the first intimation to me that you ever entertained any other opinion or view of them. Your conduct, words, actions, and letters, I have ever thought show this. Understanding you now, no further communication on this subject is necessary."

After much unnecessary verbosity and circumlocution, Mr. Calhoun at length admitted that Mr. Crawford's statement was substantially true! He said to the president, "I was of the impression that you had exceeded your orders-I came to the meeting of the cabinet under the impression that the usual course ought to be pursued in this case, which I supported by presenting fully and freely all the arguments that occurred to me."

Here the charge, so far as General Jackson was concerned, was admitted to be true. No room for controversy was left, except in relation to Mr. Calhoun's conduct towards General Jackson. The general says to him, "in all your letters to me, you professed to be my personal friend, and approved entirely my conduct in relation to the Seminole campaign."

But this correspondence convinced the General of the aggravated nature of the deception that had been practised upon him, and in his last communication to Mr. Calhoun, after repeating, that he had always met the intimations of Mr. Calhoun's having made injurious movements before the cabinet, in secret council against him, with flat and positive denial-after stating that he had

rebutted every insinuation against Mr. Calhoun for having thus conducted, by bringing into view his uniform and full approval of the conduction of the Seminole campaign-after stating that the high character that Mr. Calhoun had sustained for fair, open, and honorable conduct in all things, was entirely opposed to the secret, uncandid, and unmanly course ascribed to him, and that he had ever banished from his mind what he conceived to be unjust imputations upon that gentleman's honor, by ascribing duplicity to him, until he had learned the import of the written statement of Mr. Crawford, and had requested to see it with the object of laying it before Mr. Calhoun, supposing it would meet his prompt and positive negative, he concluded as follows: "But I regret that instead of a negative, which I had a right to expect, I had the poignant mortification to see in your letter an admission of its truth. Understanding the matter now, I feel no interest in this altercation, and leave you and Mr. Crawford, and all concerned, to settle the affair in your own way, and now close this correspondence for ever."

A defence of General Jackson's measures in the Seminole campaign, has before been given to the reader : nothing further on that subject will therefore be necessary. This correspondence resulted to the benefit of no one except General Jackson, he learned from it, that the man whom he had ever supposed to be his firm friend and defender from the assaults of his enemies, was his secret and inveterate foe; and on the other hand, the individual who he had been led to believe was his enemy, who in secret had endeavored to blight his reputation as a soldier and a patriot, was innocent of the imputations which reflected upon his ingenuousness and honor.

CHAPTER XIX.

Dissolution of the cabinet Letter of resignation from the secretary of state-General Jackson's reply-Causes which led to the dissolution-Its effects-Reorganization of the cabinet-Meeting of the 22d congressPresident's message-Remarks upon it-Rejection by the senate of Mr. Van Buren's nomination-Motives that led to it-Bill for re-chartering the United States' bank, passes both houses of congress-Is presented to the president-He returns it with his veto— Veto messageIts effects-His honor and character-Anecdotes-Conclusion.

AN interesting crisis was now approaching in the cabinet, which General Jackson had selected to aid him in the discharge of the arduous duties of government. This was its dissolution. The causes which led to this result, were clearly and concisely developed in the letter of Mr. Martin Van Buren, secretary of state, tendering his resignation to the president. The subsequent detail of Major Eaton entered more minutely into the particulars, and gave a clear, consistent, and satisfactory relation of the primary, and other causes, which produced the dissolution.

The following is the letter of Mr. Van Buren tendering his resignation of the department of state; in which the grounds for taking the step, are fully and distinctly stated. "Washington, April 11th, 1831. "Dear Sir-I feel it to be my duty to retire from the