Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-04-12
Five Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents
The Heir Apparent
BY y MORGAN.

~ AhtAh
Before Van Buren, had been in the
Cabinet a year, jackson publicly point
| ed him out as his successor in the
Presidency and he remained through
the eight years of the administration
the first. last INC only choice of his
Iimperious old chief. In the idle gossip
of history. he is said to have won
that high favor by his courtesies to-
ward Peggy O'Neal Eaton when other
officials were snubbing her.
1t was easy and natural for Van
Buren, to be polite to Peggy since he
could make up his calling list with
out having to consider my feminine
sensibilities in his own family. For
his wife had died 10 years before. leav-
ing him four sons n a memory, to
which he remained loyal through 43
years of widowerhood and until the
close of a life free from the breath of
social scandal.
There were more serious factors than
Peggy O'Neal in the advancement OF
Van Buren,. The choice lay naturally
between him n John c. Calhoun, and
the latter had given Jackson personal
reasons enough for disliking him be-
fore his adoption of notification added
political reasons for that dislike.
To promote the candidacy of van
Buren,. the President deprived HIM
self of his counsels in the Cabinet after
two years and sent him off as Minister
to England, where he would be re-
moved to a safe distance from the
enmities of domestic politics in a Bit
ter period. But those enmities pur-
sued him beyond the waters edge, the
Senate refusing to confirm his appoint
ment. The underlying motive was ex-
lection to his policy toward Great Brit
ain while he was in the State Depart
'ment. The underlying motive was ex-
pressed in Calhoun's e%xultant words.
1T will kill him. sir; kill him dead.
He will never kick. sir; never kick"
This victim of Senatorial hostility
already was in London n frankly
enjoying the life there, not the least
of it's delights being a coaching trip
with Washington Irving, who was
Secretary of the Legation. Learning
of his rejection on the eve of a ball
at Talleyrand's, he successfully mask
ed his wounded feelings as he moved
about the brilliant scene at the French
Ambassadors and received the more
or less indignant sympathies of the
notables. One of these. Lord Auck-
land, was prophetic when he assured
the rejected minister. 1T is an ad-
vantage to a public man TO be the
subject of an outrage" Before he a
landed in America again. a Buren,
was nominated as Vice President to
preside over the body that had re-
tected him as a foreign minister.
The Vice President, to which a
Buren, was elected in the great VIC
tory that swept Jackson into his Sec
ond term. always Is a blank page in
q ~biograph, but there is a story worth
telling in this instance. The oppo-
nents of the Administration were
charging a passing financial distur-
bance to the withdrawal of the public
deposits from the United States Bank.
Henry Clay in the Senate made a
pretty play to the gallery by implor-
ing the Vice President TO go to the
President and beg him to spare the
poor country FROM ruin.
a Buren, followed the melodra-
matte outburSt seemingly with the
most respectful attention, listening
with a guileless countenance as If
anxious to catch every fearful word
of the appeal and bear it to the White
House. Leaving his chair at the close
of the speech and with all eyes upon
him he walked down the aisle toward
Clay, but not to discuss with him
the message which he had been so
solemnly charged to carry to Jackson.
On the contrary, he asked him, with
a beaming smile n a sweeping bow,
for a bit of his fine old Maccaboy.
Having taken a pinch of h snuff
from the o of the astonished Sena-
tor, the Vice President administered
it to his nose with a mocking twirl
of his fingers and then carelessly
sauntered out of the chamber
1t was a smart and it may have
been a fitting retort to Clay's theatrics;
but in great public meetings Van Buren,
was gravely denounced as an unfeel-
in Nero. Sarcasm always is a treach-
erous weapon in politics.