The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1871-07-28
JACKSON AND BUCHANAN.

he was sure to reproduce to every new
| visitor who ate his excellent dinners
and drank his nutty old Maderia.-
One of these il related to President
Jackson. 1t was custom of Buch-
anan's enemies to say that he never
had tho confidence of Old Hickory
Certain it il, he never had the support
of Amos Kendall, Francis +. Blair,
or Andrew J. Donelson, Jackson's
immediate friends, or Kitchen Cabi-
net; yet not less true it is that when
James X. Polk was chosen President
in 1874, the venerable Jackson, then
ut the Hermitage, near Nashville,
wrote strong letter to his friend and
neighbor, the new chief magistrate,
recommending Buchanan for Secreta-
ry of State. George NJ. Dallas, of
Hennsyvania, was chosen Vice Prssi-
dent on the same ticket with Polk
He, like Buchanan, was standing
candidate for the first Office in the ma
ton, and il may well be conceived
that there was no love lost between
the rivals and their friends. What
reader of these sketches who lives in
those days?
A host more, many since dead,
stood forth to fight for those two
men in the Democratic State Conyen-
ton with devotion not usual in
these more selfish times. The cleo
ton of Dallas was q hard blow at our
Buchanan side of the house, but J. Il.
was not easily baiiied; and 50 when
we got Old Hickory To indorse him
for Secretary of State, We felt that we
had checkmated the Philadelphia IA
vorite. And we were right, for no
Vice President was ever more ignored
than George II. Dallas--not even
John c. Breckenridge, who fell under
the suspicion of President buchanan
the moment he was nominated, and
never fully recovered from it. Not
withsanding this, James Buchanan re-
tanned George II. Dallas as Minister
To England all through his rule, and
thereby proved that il he could forget
friend, he could also forgive a foe.
Bu, to my anecdote. ~ heard Bu-
chanan repeat it the last time at the
Sunday dinner-table of John T. Sui
liyan of Washington, one of the most
interesting and genial of men, known
and beloved alike at the nations capi-
tai and in Pennsylvania. He was
Democrat was Government Direc-
tor in the Bank of the United States
with Peter Wagner and Henry ID.
Gilpin; and yet he was SO cosmopoli-
tan and catholic that every man OF his
distinction was glad to receive and
prompt TO accept his Invitations
Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Crittcnden,
Clayton, Siias Wright, DIR. Lynn, Col
oncl Benton, Sam Houston, William
c. Rives. Charles Jared Ingersoll,
Edward Everett and Rufus Choa;e
frequently discussed public affairs
over his roast beef, baked potatoes
and iced wines. | was boy when
first asked into this select circle, with
its feast of reason and its How of soul
its generous inaugural of soup, re-
inforced by good wines, and supple
mented after dinner by unforgottcn
punch, brcwed by the hand of the
good old man now in his grave. AT
one of these dinners heard Old Buck
repeat his story of General Jackson
probably for the nundredth time.
Shortly after Buchanan's sreturn from
Russia, in 1884, whittier he had been
sent by President Jackson in 1892,
and Immediately following his election
TO the Senate of the United States by
the Legislature of Pennsylvania, to fill
the unexpired term of William Wilkins
resigned, who, in his turn was sent to
succeed Buchanan in the same foreign
mission, Buchanan called upon Old
Hickory with fair English lady,
whom he desired to present to the
head of the American nation. Leav-
ing her in the reception room down
stairs, he asscendcd to the Presidents
private quarters and found General
Jackson unshaved, unkcmpt in his
dressing gown, with his slippered feet
on the fender before blazing wood
fire, smoking corncob pipe of the
old Southern school. He stated his
object, when the General said he
would be very glad to meet the hand
some acquaintance of the new bache-
lor Senator. Buchanan was always
careful of his personal appearance,
and, in some respects, was sort of
masculine Miss Fribble, addicted to
srotless cravats and huge collars -
rather proud ef o small foot for a
man of his large stature, and to the
last of his life what the ladies would
call "a very good figure"
Having Just returned from visit
to the fashionable continental circles,
after two years of thoroughintercourse
with the etiquette of one of the state
liest courts in Europe, he was some
what shocked at the idea of the Pres
ident meeting the eminent English
lady in such guise, and ventured to
ask if he did not intend to change his
attire, whereupon the old warrior rose
with his long pipe in his hand, and de-
liberately knocking the ashes out of
the bowl, said to his friend: "Buch-
anan, want to give little piece of
advice, which hope you will remem-
ber. | knew man once who made a
fortune by attending to his own busi-
ness. Tell the lady / will see her
presently"
The man who became president in
1856 was fond of saying that this re-
mark of Andrew Jackson humiliated
him more than any rebuke he had
ever received. He walked down
stairs to meet his fair charge, and in a
very short time President Jackson
entered the room, dressed in full
suit of black, cleanly shaved, with his
stubborn white hair forced back from
his remarkable face and advancing to