time of the South Carolina nullification was prepared, and never saw it until it was in print, and certainly should have objected to some of the principles stated in it, if I had been in Washington. R. B. Taney. July, 1861."

The proclamation warned the people of South Carolina of the fatal consequences of nullification, and, with parental solicitude, begged them to desist from their purpose of open hostility to the authority of the Federal Government. But so infuriated were the people of the State, that, relying on support from other Southern States, they put themselves in an attitude of military defiance. The whole country was smitten with fearful anticipations at the thought of a fratricidal war. All knew that a man of imperious will held the sword of the country. They knew, too, that a personal dislike of Mr. Calhoun, the leader of this incipient rebellion against the laws of the Federal Government, influenced General Jackson's feelings as the executive head of the Government. The worst forebodings filled the country. That States, which had marched shoulder to shoulder in the war that achieved independence from foreign rule, should now slaughter each other in civil war, so roused the magnanimous patriotism of Mr. Clay, that, casting behind him all party feelings, he threw himself between the Government of the United States and South Carolina, and, like a true statesman, compromised the difficulty and

rescued his country from disgrace. He introduced a revenue bill, which virtually gave up the policy of a protective tariff, that was accepted by the Congress of the United States, and achieved for himself an honor, as a statesman, that is a glory in our history. No blood was shed; and South Carolina, because of wise statesmanship, again embraced her sister States, and moved on with them in the march of nations. General Jackson felt great relief in being spared the dreadful necessity of enforcing the laws by the sword and by criminal prosecutions.

Mr. Taney was now unusually engaged in questions submitted to him by the President. Hurrying, one very cold morning, to his office, at an early hour, he saw a little negro girl striving in vain to bring water into a tin bucket hanging on the spout of a pump. When he came up to the pump, and saw the little girl shivering in the cold wind, he took the pump-handle and filled the bucket, and then placing it upon her head, said, "Tell whoever sent you to the pump, that it is too cold a morning to send out such a little girl." A negro woman, who came up just as Mr. Taney finished his act of kindness, communicated the fact to me, which had already been told me by a lady who heard of it when it occurred.

Mr. Taney, by his personal and official intercourse, had, by this time, so won upon the regard of General Jackson that he had become his most trusted and his

most confidential adviser. And as the great issue which the administration had made with the Bank of the United States and its adherents was now to be tried, General Jackson relied especially upon the faithfulness and the sagacious statesmanship of Mr. Taney. He had learned that Mr. Taney, long before he could have expected to be called into his Cabinet, had often, to his friends, intimated the policy in regard to the bank that he was now about to make the policy of his administration. He, with his intuitive sagacity, had come to know that, with a moral courage and a clearness of conviction in regard to duty never surpassed by any statesman, Mr. Taney would, if duty required it, sacrifice his aims in life for the good of his country. Mr. Taney was, in fact, a man after Jackson's own heart.

In his first annual message after his second election, General Jackson cordially congratulated Congress and the people on the near approach of the extinction of the national debt. The Government would thereby cease to be a debtor to the people. And a high tariff, raising revenue upon one section of the country and expending it in another, would no longer be needed. This policy was distasteful to the money power. The deposits in the Bank of the United States would thereby be diminished, its discounts lessened, and its influence in the politics of the country circumscribed. The bank was, therefore, averse to the extinguishment

of the national debt; and so was the money power of the country, and also the politicians, who were debtors or attorneys of the bank, or expected to be aided by the bank influence in any way. The bank was considered by the whole country as solvent as the sun. It was no more supposed that the deposits of the Federal Government in the bank were in danger of being lost in bankruptcy than that the light of the sun would be lost in universal darkness. But not so thought General Jackson and his Attorney-General, Mr. Taney. Mr. Taney thoroughly understood finance and banking. Abhorring, as he did, all alliance between the Government and the money power of the country, as fatal to liberty and a high civilization, he had for years watched the conduct of the United States Bank, and believed that, while it was corrupting the country, it was risking bankruptcy by its adventurous dealings. He was calm while all were excited by passion or suspicion or party feeling. In the storm of party struggles, his judgment was as sagacious and as unclouded as that of justice, with even scales weighing the opposite considerations of a dispute. His party could no more influence his judgment or his conduct than his political adversaries could. General Jackson saw this, and trusted him. For Jackson was, with all the fiery energy of his nature, cautious in listening to trusted counsellors, and, like Washington, enlightening and confirming his judgment by their advice.

It was Mr. Taney as well as General Jackson who startled the country, when the annual message of the President intimated that the deposits of the Government were not safe in the Bank of the United States, in these terms. "Such measures as are within the reach of the Secretary of the Treasury have been taken to enable him to judge whether the public deposits in that institution may be regarded as entirely safe; but as his limited power may prove inadequate to this object, I recommend the subject to the attention of Congress, under the firm belief that it is worthy of their serious investigation. An inquiry into the transactions of the institution, embracing its branches as well as the principal bank, seems called for by the credit which is given throughout the country to many serious charges impeaching its character, and which, if true, may justly excite the apprehension that it is no longer a safe depository of the money of the people." The message recommended that the seven millions of stock held in the bank by the United States be sold; and also all other stock held by the United States in joint-stock companies: so as to sever the Government from all pursuits properly belonging to individuals.

A motion for a select committee to inquire into the condition of the bank was scornfully rejected by the House of Representatives, and the subject was referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. This com