there is more than one hostile magician to be slaughtered before our success may be secured-magicians in the shape of treacherous agents, insolvent debtors, sharpers and speculators-and of crosses and disappointments, of which the world is full. Give me a man like our old friend Judge E., who, without making any noise in the world, has been going on adding a child and a new farm to his stock every year, for the last fifteen of his life;-he and they are all well provided for and even rich. While your splendid and showy men are every where writhing under pecuniary embarrassments, dying in despair and leaving their families in beggary. Young men, at your time of life, are not apt to think of these things, and the subject is likely to be irksome to them; but they who are wise will not disdain a lesson of wisdom from their fathers, and will lay it to heart and practise upon it as I am sure you will do. If I had a glass window in my breast, and you could have drawn a chair and sat down before it, and looked in—as Sterne says as into a "a dioptric beehive," and seen the anxieties that have been working there for the last ten years, on account of this retrospect of my lost time, you would not be surprised at the frequency and earnestness with which I press this subject on your

attention.

Yours affectionately,

WM. WIRT.

These few fragments of letters give us some pretty distinct glimpses into that "dioptric beehive," the heart of the writer, and open to us interior views into the character of a man who, before the world, seemed, perhaps, a graver and more ambitious person than they unfold. This current of gaiety which runs so transparently through the depths of his mind, and which seems to mingle its waters even with its most earnest meditations, is never discolored by an impure thought, but reflects at all times, upon its surface, an innocent and religious nature.

The months of August and September-the Attorney General's usual term of exemption from business-were agreeably spent in a tour with some of his children, to the Falls of Niagara, thence, by way of Lake Champlain, to Montreal, and back to Washing

ton, a tour which furnished occasion for many pleasant descriptive letters to those he had left behind.

As the presidential canvass advanced, the demonstrations of popular opinion pointed more and more clearly to the probability, and even certainty, of the success of General Jackson. The party then in power regarded such an event as hostile to the political predominance with which they were associated. They foresaw that it must necessarily result in the establishment of a new political combination, and in the overthrow of that system of administration and party organization which was derived, through a lineal succession, from Jefferson and Madison, and had held the reins of Government through seven continuous presidential terms.

A question now arose as to the duty of the cabinet officers in such an event. On the part of the gentlemen who composed the cabinet, I believe, there was no dissenting opinion, as to the propriety of their own resignations. But this was, by no means, a settled opinion, at that time, in the country. The election of Mr. Jefferson in 1800, presented the only case which yet had arisen for the establishment of a precedent, in the history of the Government; and that single instance was not deemed, by many, sufficient to settle the question. This would be the second occasion, if General Jackson should be elected, when there had been a party revolution in the administration of affairs. Mr. Jefferson's election put an end to the rule of the federal party-superseding it by one adverse in all points. General Jackson's election would do the same thing with the successors of Jefferson;-not superseding it, however, so distinctly and with such specific antagonism, as in the first case, but, still, sufficiently so, to present a question whether the members of the existing cabinet were not placed under a clear obligation to withdraw from their posts by voluntary resignation.

Upon this question, I am able to present the opinion of Mr. Monroe in a letter casually written to the Attorney General in the course of a friendly correspondence whilst the issue of the pending election was yet unascertained:

The practice of the cabinet on the point discussed in this letter, has been so decisively settled since that date, as to make it a matter of surprise that it should ever have been a subject for question.

MR. MONROE TO WILLIAM WIRT.

OAK HILL, October 24, 1828.

DEAR SIR:

Whether the present administration ought to withdraw, in the event of Mr. Adams not being re-elected, is a question of great delicacy as to the members, and of interest, by way of example, as to principle. They hold their offices as others do, as servants of the public, not the President's. Their appointments do not cease with his. They are responsible, each, for the faithful performance of his duties. He, likewise, is responsible for them. In this respect, there is a difference between our Government and that of Great Britain. In the latter, the minister alone is responsible. The office of the chief being hereditary, he is beyond the reach of impeachment. With us, both may be impeached-the chief and the ministers. They are also his counsellors. In some views, therefore, they may be considered as holding an independent ground: that is, as depending on their good conduct in office, and not on the change of the incumbent. In others, the opposite argument appears to have force. When a difference of principle is involved, it would seem as if a change would be necessary. But where such difference does not exist, the danger is, by connecting the members with the fortune of the incumbent, of making them the mere appendages and creatures of the individual,—which may have, in certain views, in the progress of affairs, an unfavorable effect on our system. Whenever things get to that state, that measures are approved or disapproved by parties contending for power to promote the success of their favorite, principle is lost sight of, and the people cease to be sovereign-or rather, to exercise the sovereign power in a manner to preserve it. They become instruments whereby the basis of the system will be shaken.

Still, as the heads of departments are counsellors, and wield important branches of the Government, I do not see how they can remain in office without the President's sanction, nor wait after his election till apprised of his decision by himself.

This view is much less applicable, in every instance and circumstance to your case than to the others. Your duties are different. The President has less connection with and less responsibility

CHAP. XIII.] ON THE RELATIONS OF THE CABINET.

257

for the performance of them. Your standing is, likewise, such,nothing unfriendly having occurred between you—that I should think he (General Jackson) would wish to retain you.

*

Your friend,

JAMES MONROE.

CHAPTER XIV.

1829.

GENERAL JACKSON ELECTED.-STATE OF PARTIES.-WIRT REMOVES TO BALTIMORE. CHARACTER OF THAT BAR.- LETTERS TO CARR AND POPE.CHANGES AT WASHINGTON.-IS CALLED TO BOSTON ON BUSINESS. TRIALS OF CAUSES BEFORE THIS IN PHILADELPHIA.-PARTICULARS OF HIS BOSTON VISIT IN LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY-HIS RECEPTION IN BOSTON. HOSPITALITY. THE INTEREST TAKEN IN THE TRIAL.-LETTERS TO CARR AND POPE ON THE SUBJECT OF THIS VISIT.-HIS OPINION OF NEW ENGLAND CHARACTER COMPARED WITH VIRGINIA.

THE election terminated in favor of General Jackson. He was inaugurated, as President of the United States, on the 4th of March 1829. On this day the democratic party, which had been predominant in the administration of the affairs of the general government for twenty-eight years, surrendered its power into the hands of that new party which had been brought together by the popularity of the hero of New Orleans. The new party was a miscellaneous one. It embraced all that portion of the federalists who were anxious to come into power,-by no means a small host.— It absorbed a large number of the young politicians who had grown up to manhood during the period of General Jackson's military career. It attracted and embodied such portions of the masses of the people, as conceived the chief magistracy to be an appropriate reward for distinguished military exploits-always a large number of persons in every government. The leaders in this combination were eager and practised politicians, bred in the schools of both of the parties which had heretofore divided the country. Their political creed, therefore, was various, according to the school in which each had been educated; but it was accommodating and sufficiently held in the back-ground, to enable it to await events. The opinions of the chief himself were so far indefinite as to give each section of his party hopes of finding it an easy matter to comply with his taste in respect to measures. Old democrats and old federalists were united in his cabinet, without