Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-03-05
: Natioaal Afaus,
-. - From the New Orleans Delta.
GHE :GAHBlF--PAST AND PRESENT.
BY J. H. CLAIBORNE.

"
Specuiations in relation to the incoming
cabinet may be Improbable, but not unpleas-
ant. It gives every one an opportunity to
have "his say" or his fling, at this or that
man.
The importance attached to the cabinet is
very much exaggerated. Those who are
curious as to the origin Of the departments
may refer to Laws of the United States, vol.
l., Bioren & Duane's edition. In England
the cabinet is everything and the crown a
symbol, an effgy. In this country, with a
great man for chief magistrate, cabinets are
mere conveniences for administration.
Gen. Washington was firm, safe and pru-
dent man, with Jefferson, Hamilton, Picker
ing, Wolcott and Knox in his cabinet-in
spite of the jealousy and counter-intrigues
of the two frst-the early and trying stages
of a new government were passed in safety.
John Adams was self-willed, crotchety,
suspicious, impulsive, cgotistical and ambi-
tious man, but full of the stuff of which pa
triots are made He was "never," as he
said of himself in ITS, emuch of John
Bull" ri was John Yankee, and as such
I shall live and die" This bold, high-spir
tied, but pig headed man, got on badly with
his cabinet. sjealousy Of Hamilton made
him distrustful of every one about him.
Thomas Jefferson threw his cabinet into
deep shadow. There were very able men
in it, but his views, not theirs, were stamp
ed upon the administration.
James Madison was closet statesman-
philosopher-pur but timid to infrmity
Ignorant of Neutrality-suspicious. and con-
fding. lie required bold, energetic advi-
sers to counteract his idiosyncratic tendency
to hesitate. For the most part his ministers
we're, in this respect, as deficient as himself,
and hencethe blunders that occurred during
his administration, both in our financial poll
cy and in the war with Great Britain.
President Monroe was 4 dull, weak man
-singularly so !; a man of phraseology and
ceremonial; elevated by the traditional as
cendancy of Virginia, and combination of
factions comprising the highest talent of the
nation; all jealous of each other, but willing
to put him in power as one easily moulded
to their own personal views and aspirations.
The consequence of this state of things was
cabinet of matchless ability. John Quin-
cy Adams, Wm. IT. Crawford, John G. CAL
houn, William Writ, were members of it
all struggling for the presidency. There
was but one point in which those distinguish
ed men resembled each other-insatiable
ambition. In everything else-fgure, coun-
tenance, manners, temperament, opinions,
tastes-they differed.
The first was low, swart, cold and repul-
sive, irritable and eccentric; more deeply
read than his father, yet knowing even less
of mankind; splendid writer, a master of
rhetoric, defiant in his opinions, easily in
famed, brave to martyrdom, yet so frigid,
formal and saturnine that few could ap-
proach, and none could love him. His po-
litical opinions were erratic and variable,
and were, all his life, controlled. more or
less, by personal rescntmcDts Ills first
great apps ;acy may be traced TO this source,
and to the same feeling may be justly attrlb,
uted the war that he waged against domes-
tic servitudc in his latter dayS-a war utter
" at variance with his recorded and de!iber-
ate opinions when Secretary of State
Dir. Crawford was q man Of colossal sta
turc, and of massive intellect. In astrono
my or mathematics he would have been pre-
eminent. No man in this or any other coun
try had more thorough and orthodox know
edge of political economy, and especially OF
finance. He spoke with great cogency, and
welded a luminous pen. \ Eirglnan by
birth and education, he carried the political
opinions Of the renowned commonwealth in.
to Georgia, and, until he was stricken down
by paralysis on the threshold of the Presi'
dency, she never wavercd from the true Jef:
fersonian faith. Her subsequent career has
been one of inconsistency and error, unit
lately she has taken her stand as the empire
State of Democracy-grcat in her resources
great in her moral and physical development
great in the ability and reputation OF he'
sons.
The third on this list-the proud and sen
s;tive Carolinian-was tall but not stately
rather with the slight stoop of a student thai