Probably he applied to Mr. Calhoun for information, and Mr. Calhoun went to the President, and requested a sight of that letter that he might communicate its contents to Mr. Lacock. Mr. Lacock was appointed upon the committee on the Seminole war, on the 18th December. On the 21st of that month the recollection of the confidential letter was first in the mind of Mr. Monroe, for on that day, in a letter to General Jackson, he gives an account of its reception, and the disposition made of it. Probably, therefore, it was about the time that Mr. Lacock undertook the investigation of this affair in the Senate, and that it was for his information that Mr. Calhoun called on Mr. Monroe to inquire about this letter.

"Nay, it is certain that the existence and contents of this letter were about that time communicated to Mr. Lacock: that he conversed freely and repeatedly with Mr. Calhoun upon the whole subject: that he was informed of all that had passed: the views of the President, of Mr. Calhoun, and the cabinet, and that Mr. Calhoun coincided with Mr. Lacock in all his views.

"These facts are stated upon the authority of Mr. Lacock himself.

approved beforehand of his proceedings. But had he known that Mr. Calhoun was attempting to destroy him by secretly using one side of the correspondence, he would have been justified by the laws of self-defence in making known the other. He saw not, heard not, ima gined not, that means so perfidious and dishonorable were in use to destroy him. It never entered his confiding heart that the hand he shook with the cordiality of a warm friend was secretly pointing out to his enemies the path by which they might ambuscade and destroy him. He was incapable of conceiving that the honeyed tongue, which to him spake nothing but kindness, was secretly conveying poison into the ears of Mr. Lacock, and other members of Congress. It could not enter his mind that his confidential letters, the secrets of the cabinet, and the opinions of its members, were all secretly arrayed against him by the friend in whom he implicitly confided, misinterpreted and distorted, without giving him an opportu nity for self defence or explanation.

"Mr. Calhoun's object was accomplished. Mr. Lacock made a report far transcending in bitterness any thing which even in the opinion of General Jackson's enemies the evidence seemed to justify. This extraordinary and unaccountable severity is now explained. It proceeded from the secret and perfidious representations of Mr. Calhoun, based on General Jackson's confidential letter. Mr. Lacock ought to be partially excused, and stand before the world comparatively justified. For most of the injustice done by his report to the soldier who had risked all for his country, Mr. Calhoun is the

"The motives of these secret communications to Mr. Lacock by Mr. Calhoun cannot be mistaken. By communicating the contents of the confidential letter, and withholding the fact that an approving answer had been returned, he wished to impress Mr. Lacock with the belief that General Jackson had predetermined before he entered Florida, to seize the Spanish posts, right or wrong, with orders or without. Acting under this impression, he would be pre-responsible man. pared to discredit and disbelieve all General Jackson's explanations and defences, and put the worst construction upon every circumstance disclosed in the investigation. By this perfidy General Jackson was deprived of all opportunity to make an effectual defence. To him Mr. Calhoun was all smiles and kindness. He believed him bis friend, seeking by all proper means, in public and private, to shield him from the attacks of his enemies. Having implicit confidence in Mr. Calhoun and the President, he would sooner have endured the tortures of the inquisition than have disclosed their answer to his letter through Mr. Rhea. The tie which he felt, Mr. Calhoun felt not. He did not scruple to use one side of a correspondence to destroy a man, his friend, who confided in him with the faith and affection of a brother-when he knew that man felt bound by obligations from which no considerations short of a knowledge of his own perfidy could absolve him, to hold the other side in eternal silence. General Jackson had no objection to a disclosure of the whole correspondence. There was nothing in it of which he was ashamed, or which on his own account be wished to conceal. Public policy made it inexpedient that the world should know at that time how far the government had

As dark as this transaction is, a shade is yet to be added. It was not enough that General Jackson had been deceived and betrayed by a professing friend; that the contents of his confidential correspondence had been secretly communicated to his open enemies, while all information of the reply was withheld: it was not enough that an official report overflowing with bitterness had gone out to the world to blast his fame, which must stand for ever recorded in the history of his country. Lest some accident might expose the evidences of the understanding under which he acted, and the duplicity of his secret accuser, means must be taken to procure the destruction of the answer to the confidential letter through Mr. Rhea. They were these. About the time Mr. Lacock made his report General Jackson and Mr. Rhea were both in the city of Washington. Mr. Rhea called on General Jackson, as he said, at the request of Mr. Monroe, and begged him on his return home to burn his reply. He said the President feared that by the death of General Jackson, or some other accident, it might fall into the hands of those who would make an improper use of it. He therefore conjured him by the friendship which had always existed between them (and by his obligations as a brother

mason) to destroy it on his return to Nashville.
Believing Mr. Monroe and Mr. Calhoun to be
his devoted friends, and not deeming it possible
that any incident could occur which would re-
quire or justify its use, he gave Mr. Rhea the
promise he solicited, and accordingly after his re-
turn to Nashville he burnt Mr. Rhea's letter, and
on his letter-book opposite the copy of his confi-
dential letter to Mr. Monroe made this entry :-
"Mr. Rhea's letter in answer is burnt this
12th April, 1819.'

Certainly the history of the world scarcely presents a parallel to this transaction. It has been seen with what severity Mr. Calhoun denounced Mr. Crawford for revealing the secret proceedings of the cabinet: with what justice may a retort of tenfold severity be made upon him, when he not only reveals to Mr. Lacock the proceedings of the cabinet, but the confidential letter of a confiding friend, not for the benefit of that friend, but through misrepresentation of the transaction and concealment "Mr. Calhoun's management was thus far of the reply, to aid his enemies in accomplishcompletely triumphant. He had secretly as- ing his destruction. It was doubtless expected sailed General Jackson in cabinet council, and that Mr. Lacock would produce a document caused it to be publicly announced that he was which would overwhelm General Jackson and his friend. While the confiding soldier was destroy him in public estimation. In that event toasting him as 'an honest man, the noblest the proceedings of the cabinet would no longer work of God,' he was betraying his confiden- have been held sacred. The erroneous imprestial correspondence to his enemy, and laying sion made on the public mind would have been the basis of a document which was intended to corrected, and the world have been informed blast his fame and ruin his character in the es- that Mr. Calhoun not only disapproved the acts timation of his countrymen. Lest accident of General Jackson, but had in the cabinet atshould bring the truth to light, and expose his tempted in vain to procure his punishment. As duplicity, he procures through the President the matter stood, the responsibility of attacking and Mr. Rhea the destruction of the approving the General rested on Mr. Crawford, and had the answer to the confidential letter. Mr. Rhea decision of the people been different, the responsiwas an old man and General Jackson's health | bility of defending him would have been thrown feeble. In a few years all who were supposed exclusively upon Mr. Adams, and Mr. Calhoun to have any knowledge of the reply would be in would have claimed the merit of the attack. But their graves. Every trace of the approval given until the public should decide, it was not prubeforehand by the government to the opera-dent to lose the friendship of General Jackson, tions of General Jackson would soon be obliter- which might be of more service to Mr. Calhoun ated, and the undivided responsibility would than the truth. It was thus at the sacrifice of forever rest on his head. At least, should acci- every principle of honor and friendship that dent or policy bring to light the duplicity of Mr. Calhoun managed to throw all responsibilMr. Calhoun, he might deny all knowledge of ity on his political rivals, and profit by the re this reply, and challenge its production. He sult of these movements whatever it might be. might defend his course in the cabinet and ex- It cannot be doubted, however, that Mr. Caltenuate his disclosures to Mr. Lacock, by main- houn expected the entire prostration of Genetaining before the public that he had always ral Jackson, and managed to procure the destrucbelieved General Jackson violated his orders tion of Mr. Rhea's letter, for the purpose of and ought to have been punished. At the worst, disarming the friend he had betrayed, that he the written reply if once destroyed could never might, with impunity when the public should be recalled from the flames; and should Gen- have pronounced a sentence of condemnation, eral Jackson still be living, his assertion might have come forward and claimed the merit of not be considered more conclusive than Mr. having been the first to denounce him. Calhoun's denial. In any view it was desirable to him that this letter should be destroyed, and through his management, as is verily believed, it was destroyed.

"Happily however for the truth of history and the cause of public justice, the writer of the reply is still alive; and from a journal kept at the time, is able to give an accurate account of this transaction. He testifies directly to the writing of the letter, to its contents, and the means taken to secure its destruction. Judge Overton, to whom the letter was confidentially shown, testifies directly to the existence of the letter, and to the fact that General Jackson afterwards told him it was destroyed.

"The people however sustained General Jackson against the attacks of all his enemies, public and private, open and secret, and therefore it became convenient for Mr. Calhoun to retain his mask, to appear as the friend of one whom the people had pronounced their friend, and to let Mr. Crawford bear the unjust imputation of having assailed him in the cabinet.

"It must be confessed that the mask was worn with consummate skill. Mr. Calhoun was understood by all of General Jackson's friends to be his warm and able defender. When, in 1824, Mr. Calhoun was withdrawn from the lists as a candidate for the Presidency, the impression made on the friends of General Jack

"These, with the statement of General Jackson was that he did it to favor the election of son himself, and the entry in his letter-book which was seen by several persons many years ago, fix these facts beyond à doubt.

their favorite, when it is believed to be susceptible of proof that he secretly flattered the friends of Mr. Adams with the idea that he was

to be distinctly brought out that he had either BREAKING UP OF THE CABINET, AND APPOINTnever read, or had entirely forgotten General Jackson's confidential letter, to be answered through the venerable representative from Tennessee (Mr. John Rhea), and the production of which in the cabinet had such a decided influence on Mr. Calhoun's proposition-and against it. This is well told in the letter of Mr. Crawford to Mr. Forsyth-is enforced in the "Exposition," and referred to in the "correspondence," but deserves to be reproduced in Mr. Crawford's

Of

of Mr. Barry, became his successor at Madrid.

tary of State, Mr. Van Buren, was in the category of future presidential aspirants; and in that character obnoxious to Mr. Calhoun, and The new cabinet was composed of Edward became the cause of attacks upon the Presi- Livingston of Louisiana, Secretary of State; dent. He determined to resign; and that de- Louis McLane of Delaware (recalled from the termination carried with it the voluntary, or London mission for that purpose), Secretary of obligatory resignations of all the others-each the Treasury; Lewis Cass of Ohio, Secretary one of whom published his reasons for his act. at War; Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, Mr. Eaton, Secretary at War, placed his upon Secretary of the Navy; Amos Kendall of Kenthe ground of original disinclination to take the tucky, Postmaster General; Roger Brooke place, and a design to quit it at the first suita- Taney of Maryland, Attorney General. This ble moment-which he believed had now arriv- change in the cabinet made a great figure in the ed. Mr. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury, party politics of the day, and filled all the oppoMr. Branch, of the Navy, and Mr. Berrien, At-sition newspapers, and had many sinister reatorney General, placed theirs upon the ground sons assigned for it-all to the prejudice of of compliance with the President's wishes. General Jackson, and Mr. Van Buren-to the three latter, the two first classed as the which neither of them replied, though having friends of Mr. Calhoun; the Attorney General, the easy means of vindication in their handson this occasion, was considered as favoring the former in the then prepared "Exposition" him, but not of his political party. The unplea- which is now first given to the public-the latsant business was courteously conducted-ter in the testimony of General Jackson, also transacted in writing as well as in personal first published in this THIRTY YEARS' VIEW, conversations, and all in terms of the utmost and in the history of the real cause of the breach lecorum. Far from attempting to find an ex-between General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, euse for his conduct in the imputed misconduct which the "Exposition" contains. Mr. Crawof the retiring Secretaries, the President gave ford was also sought to be injured in the pubthem letters of respect, in which he bore testi-lished "correspondence," chiefly as the alleged mony 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

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 expresed 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, supporter of General Jackson and his adminisand defeated it. His words were: "My apol-tration, in the long, vehement, and eventful ogy for having disclosed what passed in a cabi- contests in which he became engaged.

net 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

CHAPTER LV.

MILITARY ACADEMY.

THE small military establishment of the United
States seemed to be almost in a state of dissolu-

tion about this time, from the frequency of de

extremely inimical to me, and friendly to Mr. Calhoun. In stating the arguments of Mr. Adams to induce Mr. Monroe to support Gen-sertion; and the wisdom of Congress was taxed eral 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

to find a remedy for the evil. It could devise no other than an increase of pay to the rank and file and non-commissioned officers; which upon trial, was found to answer but little purpose. In an army of 6000 the desertions were from his home in North Carolina, having his 1450 in the year; and increasing. Mr. Macon attention directed to the subject by the debates his finger upon the true cause of these deser in Congress, wrote me a letter, in which he laid tions, and consequently showed what should be the true remedy. He wrote thus:

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. Cal- "Why does the army, of late years, deser houn did not propose to arrest General Jack-more than formerly? Because the officers have been brought up at West Point, and not among son, I feel confident that I could not have made the people. Soldiers desert because not attachuse of that word in my relation to you of the ed to the service, or not attached to the officers. circumstances which transpired in the cabinet." West Point cadets prevent the promotion of This was in the letter to Mr. Forsyth, of April good sergeants, and men cannot like a service which denies them promotion, nor like officers 30th, 1830, and which was shown to General who get all the commissions. The increase of Jackson, and by him communicated to Mr. Cal- pay will not cure the evil, and nothing but prohoun; and which was the second thing that motion will. In the Revolutionary army, we brought him to suspect Mr. Calhoun, having had many distinguished officers, who entered repulsed all previous intimations of his hostility army as privates.' 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

the

This is wisdom, and besides carrying conviction for the truth of all it says, it leads to reflections upon the nature and effects of our national military school, which extend beyond the evil which was the cause of writing it. Since the act of 1812, which placed this institution upon its present footing, giving its students a legal right to appointment (as constructed and practised), it may be assumed that there is not a government in Europe, and has been none since the commencement of the French revolution (when the nobles had pretty nearly a monopoly of army appointments), so unfriendly to the rights of the people, and giving such un