The times., 1899-03-05

| stration. The notification was the pur-
pose of the South Carolina chieftains, un-
der the lead of Calhoun, to take steps to
F, suspend, or nullify. in that State. the tariff
| act of 1923. which they called the tariff OF
denominations" jackson led off at the
banquet by the toast, Our Federal Union:
1t Must Be Preserved. This made Jack
sons position on the nullification question
plain. 1t was a bombshell in the Calhoun
camp. Calhoun's toast showed that he
| knew what Jackson meant. 1t was, THE
Union. Next to our liberty the most dear.
May we all remember that 1t can only be
preserved by respecting the rights of the
| States, and distributing equally the bene-
! fits and burdens of the Union"
The country quickly learned that war
| between Jackson and Calhoun had begun.
Three weeks later the letter from Craw
| ford accusing Calhoun reached jackson,
| who at once sent copy to Calhoun, de-
| manding an explanation. Calhoun wrote
| to Jackson, making an elaborate exp ana
| tion. He wrote several letters subse-
quently in the same strain. None Of them
| satisfied Jackson.
During this time the disturbance grow
| ing out of the Mrs. Eaton affair was under
way. The origin of it was this. John H.
Eaton, personal friend Of Jackson, was
appointed by Jackson Secretary OF War,
and took his seat in the Cabinet in March.
1929, on Jackson's entrance into the White
House. Eaton, few months earlier, mar
ried Mrs. Timberlake, whose maiden name
was Margaret L. O'Neill commonly called
Peggy O'NeilD, a woman of great beauty,
of some accomplishments. and Of un-
bounded ambition. She was the daughter
of a Washington tavern keeper. Gossip
had been free with her name during her
welded life with Undertake, and when,
after Eaton's marriage to her and the in
telligence that he was member of the
Cabinet reached the public, some of ia X
sons friends told him that Eaton's en-
trance into the Cabinet would cause some
embarrassment to the Administration.
Jackson, who was creditably Sow to BE-
lieve anything Ill OF woman, responded
that Mrs. Eaton was not to be in the Cab
met. He made 1t known to his personal
friends Immediately after the Administra-
tion began that he desired that Mrs. Ea-
ton should be accorded all the courtesies
to which her station entitled her. The
wife of Vice President Calhoun and the
wives of all the members of the Cabinet
who had any wives refused to recognize
Mrs Eaton. Jackson took up her cause
with his usual energy, and the question
entered politics.
Van Buren. the Secretary of State. had
no wife (he was a wdower). He had no
daughters. He was thus free to extend
to Mrs. Eaton the conventional courtesies,
which he did with the dignity and grace
for which he was noted.
This made Van Burens political for
tune. There had been keen rivalry be-
tween Calhoun and Van Buren previously
for the succession to Jackson to the Presi-
dency. The Democratic party was irwin
chile. and the man who got the Presiden-
tial candidacy was certain of election.
Jackson was the party's dictator. Calhoun.
by his position as Vice President and by
his prominence in the party, was popular
ly believed to stand next in the line to
Jackson. In the first year or two of Jack
sons first term Jacksons feeble health
was thought to be barrier in the way
of his acceptance of a nomination for
second term. and Calhoun was popularity
supposed to be his political heir. The
discovery. through the Crawford disclos-
ures, of the unfriendliness of Calhoun for
Jackson in 1918. in the Monroe Cabinet
and the quarrel which the Mrs. Eaton in
cident brought, destroyed this hope. Van
Buren's championship of Mrs. Eaton's
cause endeared him to Jackson
Van Buren's call upon Mrs Eaton at
her residence had mighty political conse-
quences. Like the shot of the "embat-
tied farmers at Concord bridge the
sound OF the silver knocker touched at
Mrs. Eaton's door by Martin Van Buren,
was heard round the world. or at least
round that part of the world comprised
in the United States. As a result of the
Peggy O'Neill war Supplemented In Cal
houn's case by the Crawford disclosures)
Calhoun was shut out from the Presi-
dency, was dwarfed from national into sec
tional fight, and his brooding over his ef-
facement probably assisted in citing that
system OF political philosophy out of which
resulted secession and civil war. Eaton
and Van Buren resigned in April, 1881. in
order to facilitate a general reconstruction
OF the Cabinet which would free Jackson
from the husbands and wives who had dis
regarded his Eaton ukase-especially Of
Ingram, Secretary of the Treasury: Branch,
Secretary OF the Navy, and Berrien At
torney General. The country was con-
vulsed, large fragment of the Democratic
party was cast OFF and united with the ele-
ments which founded the Whig party three
years later. that party received strength
which 1t would not otherwise have gained
at the outset
The quarrel which Stephen A. Douglas
had with President Buchanan had conse-
quences which are felt by the country TO
this day. Douglas Kansas Nebraska act
of 1854, which repealed the Missouri com
promise, gave an equal chance for slavery
and freedom in territories from which sla-
very had been excluded by the Missouri
X,
the Lecompton Slavery Constitution which
President Buchanan and the Southern ele-
ment was endeavoring to force upon Kan
sas did not allow the people of that locality
the liberty OF choice which his doctrine of
popular sovereignty demanded he deter
mined to oppose it. Cass was the author |
by his letter 10 Nicholson in 1S47. of that
doctrine but Douglas had leaned in that
direction even earlier than that and he !
made the doctrine tenet in the creed of |
the Northern section of the Democratic !
party by the Kansas Nebraska act. which !
the South had aided in passing and which, |
when passed, forced a coalition of all the
antislavery elements of the country in the
party which took the Republican name.
The divergence between Buchanan and
Douglas asserted itself at the opening of
the first Congress of Buchanan's Admins
tratiOn. Calling on the President early in
December. 1857 on his arrival in Wash
ington TO attend the Thrty-fifth Congress
which opened on the seventh day of that
month, Douglas, with his accustomed di-
rectness and vigor of speech. made plain
the position he intended to take in the
Lecompton issue. Buchanan, now knowing
that he would have Douglas for an enemy.
rose exctedly and exclaimed: "Mr. Doug
las desire you to remember that no DEM
ocrat ever yet differed from an Admins
tration of his own choice without being
crushed. Beware Of the fate of Talmadge
and Rives.' Douglas, equally emphatic.
retorted: MIR. President, l want you to
remember that General Jackson is dead"
This meant war. Douglas friends were
removed from Federal positions the Ad-
ministration's influence was cast against
Douglas in his contest for the Senatorship
with Lincoln in 1858, and the defeat of
the LecomDton scheme in the fight against