Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1831-08-04

uoHHcSuC "ha"S, VI private HtcICouIbc,
and he told you so. The record of what
the President said to you, declares, that
he claimed no right to interfere Sin the
domestic relations or personal intercourse
of any member Of his Cabinet" and, in
allusion to the same conversation, you
say, he "disclaimed any disposition to
press such a req,ssiiion." When no such
requisition had been made by Col. John
son; when he told you the President
made none; and when yon do not pretend
he made amy, eiiher directly or indirectly,
! could not but understand your declara-
ton, that, "he disciaimed any disposition
TO press such requisition," as declara-
ton that he made no such requisiton.
But find, in the character you have
always sustained before the public, 9TH
or conclusive proof, that no such requisi-
ton was ever made of you, and that you
knem It. Ifthe President had signifed
to you, directly or indirectly, that he re-
quired you to compel your family to as
sociate with any one, contrary to their
will and yours, you would not, as man
of honor, have waited for an irritation to
resign. You would have thrown your
commission in the face Of the President,
and said TO him, "Sir, l am no longer
adviser or associate with man who re-
quircs me to disgrace myself and family,
though he be the President of the u.
Statesw In your public character !
had guarantee that you would not, for
the sake of your honor, salary and emOl-
uments, as Attorney General, sink your
character as man, by tameIy listening
to such requisition. No, Sir; it is i'm
possible to believe that you could have
listened to such requisition; dismissed
your self-respect, forgot your southern
honor, and humbly bowed in seeming
reverence to the man who had insuted
you, until politely inrited to resign! 1t is
impossible that you could bury such an
insult, profess to be the friend Of tIe
President, make the speech that you did
recently in Georgia, and now that you are
out Of office, disclose fact which would
seal your own shame. No, Sir; no such
proposition was ever made to you; you
had no cause to complain Of the Presi-
dent; you eulogized him in public and
private; and YOU would have gladly act
ed as Attorney General to the end of his
administration, had you not been inrited to
resign.
But the circumstance es under which the
harmony Of the late Cabinet was restor-
ed, repel the inference, which you will
have it, in your last note, that the ex-
tract from your letter TO Major Eaton,
leaves open in the ambiguousness Of its
expression. From the moment that you
denied 20 the President any participation
in the political combination to drive Ma
jor Eaton from the Cabinet, the usual
courtesies were renewed among its mem
bers, without any association between
their respective families. Major Eaton
would have been as reluctant to receive
visiters, driven into his doors by the pow
or of the President, as they could possi-
bly, have been TO submit to such tyranny
and degradation. His house was throng-
ed by those who were among the most
respectable people of the city, by the
most honorable families visiting, annual
ly, here, and by those from abroad, most
distinguished by station. TO the gaiety
and respectabilty of parties thus atten-
ded, the appearance ofpersons constrain-
ed by the authority Of the Executive, if
it could have been exerted for such pur-
pose, would have added nothing. 1t
could have served no purpose to have
exacted such requisition as that now
imputed, TO the injury of the President.
To have forced the wife the Secretary
of War, upon that portion Of society
which was unwilling to receive her, could
have added nothing to her reputation
1t is ridiculous to impute to the failure of
such design, the dissolution of the late
Cabinet. You, l think, must know that
this step was the result Of The diversity OF
political views, which attached the t,co
parties in the Cabinet to different divis-
ions Of the new parties which became
apparent in the dissension between the
President and Vice President. This
produced, in the then state of the Cabi-
net, combinations in Congress, calcula-
ted to defeat the most salutary measures
of the administration. In the opposition
which showed itself with regard to the
Turkish negotiation, the members of the
Cabinet favorable to the newborn OPP
position, were expressly exempted in the
denunciations Of those members Of the
Senate, who then came out and disclosed
for the first time, their hostility to the
President and part Of his Cabinet
That wish to bring Major Eaton and
his family into society here, had no in
fluence IN producing the dissolution Of
the Cabinet, is apparent from the fact
that il operated to consign them and him
to privacy. The want of the harmony
essential to the public welfare, however
oricinatcd. was prepnant with political