possible brevity. The tale has one merit: it exhibits the imperious disposition of the President.

268. The lady of General Eaton was not generally received in the social circles of Washington. She was not invited to the soirees of either Messrs. Ingham, Branch, or Berrien; and, in one instance, at the house of some other person, she had been treated with marked disapprobation, by the lady of a foreign ambassador. The exclusion from the parties of the Secretaries, gave ground for a rumour, that they had conspired, by this means, to drive the Secretary of War from the Cabinet, and from Washington. The President, who entertained for Mr. Eaton the most friendly sentiments, became the champion of the lady, and resolved to establish her upon a respectable footing in the Washington circles, and, to that end, to compel the Secretaries to receive her at their public entertainments. This was an adventure of knight errantry, which inexperience alone could have excused. He might have, with greater prospect of success, fought again his Indian wars, or another British army, than encounter the will of ladies on subjects of established propriety, or even of etiquette.. They, and, perhaps, they, only, could, in such cases, oppose a will more indomitable than his own.

269. Determining to have harmony in his Cabinet, the President employed a member of Congress, the friend of all the parties, to represent to the "exclusives" his resolution, unless they consented to receive the lady of the Secretary of War, at their large parties, to remove them from the Cabinet. This message was communicated to them, personally, and at a meeting appointed for the purpose, The answer was such as might be expected from men of moral reputation. They, promptly refused to suffer the dictation of any one in the government of their families and the arrangement of their intercourse, and braved the threatened penalty, and the anger of the "roaring lion," as he was termed by the internuncio. But the friends of the President, instructed in the new trait about to be introduced into American politics, collected about him, and, finally, convinced him, that, the American public would not tolerate the prostration of a ministry, because it refused to sustain the reputation of a lady. When the ministers assembled around the President to hear their fate, he had become calm, and, instead of pronouncing their exile, spoke of harmony, and solicited their assistance in protecting injured innocence. The storm of passion had passed away; but its effects were not wholly removed, The refractoriness of the

subordinates ever rankled in the mind of the Chief, and the unscrupulous perversion of his power, impaired their respect for him, and shook their confidence in the stability of their position. Indeed, they have since declared, that, they would have made him fully sensible of their indignation, at this presumptuous interference with their domestic relations, by throwing up their commissions, only, such a measure was not then quite convenient.

How grateful should the country be, to these kind friends of the General, (would that we knew them, that we might preserve their names for history) who turned away his wrath, before it had involved the nation in all the horror of foreign war. The danger was really imminent. The wife of a foreign minister had offended the lady of the Secretary at War, and the President had resolved to "send her and her husband home, and teach him and his master that the wife of a minister of his Cabinet was not to be thus treated, with impunity. This would have been, indeed, a truly royal cause of quarrel, but would have looked rather awkward in the annals of our republic. We were saved, however, historic page, and country, from this direful consequence of gallant indignation. Laus Deo!.

270.

"Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."

So, has Shakspeare sung and philosophy taught, and our dismissed ministers, derived improvement from the lesson. At least, we have full evidence, that the ex-Secretary of the Treasury received full edification from the occasion. In an address to his friends, who assembled to receive him, on his return, to the shades of New Hope, he said, "I regard the moment in which my separation from the public service was determined on, as the most propitious moment of my life; and although it might now be difficult to persuade those who partake deeply of the prevailing passion for office, of the sincerity of this declaration, yet, I perfectly know, that the time will come, when it will be readily believed. As to pecuniary advantage, (if any think of this,) much less labor than I should have bestowed on official business, well directed, will easily procure something more than a bare subsistence, which all know is scarcely afforded by the salaries at Washington.

I can have no cause of resentment, therefore, on this account. It will not be thought profanity, I hope, to say, the President is but mortal; subject to all infirmities incident to human nature; his displeasure or denunciations are not directed by an omniscient eye, nor do they carry with them political or corporeal death. And even, if, as he suggested in his correspondence with me, of the 20th of April, (1931) I was intended as a sacrifice to propitiate public opinion, for others whom he loved, and whom it had severely threatened, that of itself is not good cause of resentment. It was not the ancient custom, even in idolatrous sacrifices, to select the worst of the

flock for those purposes. But whatever may have been the motive for my removal, I shall enjoy the effect; and I feel like a mariner who has safely returned from a long, toilsome and somewhat perilous voyage, to receive the joyous greetings of his companions and friends."

Again, in his letter to the President, of the 26th of July, 1831, he remarks; "This (his defence) has been, irresistibly, forced upon me, at the moment of my retirement from public service, and when satiated with its enjoyments and fortified by vivid experience against its allurements, I had fondly cherished the hope of spending my days in the quiet of domestic life, out of the reach of the disturbing conflicts of political controversy."

That admirable observer, Shakspeare, who, like his own Cassius, "looked quite through the deeds of men," has given 'us a parallel, in the Cardinal Wolsey, to the case before us, from which we would think Mr. Ingham had borrowed his philosophy, did we not know, that it was common to all reformed politicians, and that, the great master, in. Wolsey, painted a class, and not an individual.

Why well;

Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.

I know myself now; and I feel within me

A peace above all earthly diguities,

A still and quiet conscience.. The King has cur'd me,
I humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders,

These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken

A load would sink a navy, too much honour:

O, 'tis a burden, Cromwell, 'tis a burden

Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven."

He might, indeed, should any longing, lingering reminis

cence of departed greatness come upon him, exclaim with the same fallen statesman,

"There was the weight that pulled me down;
O Cromwell,

The King has gone beyond me, all my glories
In that one woman I have lost forever."

How admirable was this conversion of Mr. Ingham! No feat performed by the General was more meritorious, none > more difficult, when it is considered that, the besetting sin of the convert was lust of office, and to the gratification of which, he had devoted the full half of his life. The malicious, however, may say, that even in the confession there are symptoms that the conversion is neither full nor permanent, and may recur to the distich;

"The Devil was sick, the Devil a Saint would be,
The Devil got well, the Devil a Saint was he."

But if there be circumstances throwing doubt over the sincerity of the conversion, Mr. Ingham is entitled to the benefit of his refusal of the prostituted mission to Russia.

We have dwelt upon the case of Mr. Ingham, because he was the most conspicuous actor among the aggrieved of the deranged Cabinet. We must not, however, dismiss it without adverting to the personal violence with which he was threatened, by the ex-Secretary of War, which put in jeopardy his life, and in which, he accused the President of the United States of being an accessary.

To the citizens of the United States, the whole subject is a painful one. They have beheld the administration rent asunder by the fierce contentions of their public servants, in attempts to prostitute their stations, which should be used for the public weal, to the promotion of their private interests, and the affairs of the nation involved in scandalous discussions of a lady's reputation. They have been mortified in beholding their First Magistrate descending into the coteries of female scandal, and, attempting to sustain, by the weight of political authority, one whom the society of the metropolis was supposed to reject; displaying a want of consideration for his character and station, and a disposition, imperiously and unwarrantably, to control those whom he held dependent upon him in the private and most sacred concerns of their domi

cils, a stretch of power, paralleled only in the most absolute despotism, or in the corruption of a superannuated monarchy.

271. Happily for Mr. Barry, the abuses in his office, had brought his conduct under the examination of the Senate; and though it is understood, that, he also tendered his commission, it was refused, for the very proper reason, that his retirement at this juncture, might be deemed a confession of malversation, and for the no less cogent reason, that, his efficiency as a party agent could not be readily supplied. This sole fraction of the Union Cabinet was preserved to become the leaven of future batches.

272. The second Cabinet of General Jackson consisted of Mr. Livingston, Secretary of State; Mr. McLane, Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. Cass, Secretary of War; Mr. Woodbury, Secretary of the Navy; and Mr. Taney, Attorney General.