“He was for putting down the monster ‘party,’ and being the President of the people.  Well, in one sense, this he tried to do:  he put down every one he could who was opposed to him, either by reward or punishment; and could all have come into his notions, and bowed the knee to his image, I suppose it might have done very well, so far as he was concerned.  Whether it would have been a fair reading of his famous letter to Mr. Monroe, is rather questionable.  “He was to reform the Government.  Now, if reformation consists in turning out and putting in, he did it with a vengeance.

“He was, last of all, to retrench the expenditures.  Well, in time, I have no doubt, this must be done; but it will not consist in the abolishing useless expenditures of former Administrations.  No, gentlemen; the spoils belonged to the victor; and it would never do to lessen the teats when the litter was doubled.  The treasury trough had to be extended, and the pap thickened; kin were to be provided for; and if all things keep on as they are, his own extravagances will have to be retrenched, or you will get your tariff up again as high as you please.

“I recollect a boy once, who was told to turn the pigs out of the corn-field.  Well, he made a great noise, hallooing and calling the dogs—­and came back.  By-and-by his master said, ’Jim, you rascal! you didn’t turn out the pigs.’  ‘Sir,’ said he, ’I called the dogs, and set them a-barking.’

“So it was with that big Retrenchment Report, in 1828.  Major Hamilton got Chilton’s place as chairman—­and called the dogs.  Ingham worked honestly, like a beaver; Wickliff was as keen as a cutworm:  all of them worked hard; and they did really, I suppose, convince themselves that they had found out a great deal of iniquity; or, what was more desirable, convinced the people that Andrew Jackson and his boys were the only fellows to mend shoes for nothing, and find their own candles.  Everett and Sargeant, who made the minority report, were scouted at.  What has come of all this?  Nothing—­worse than nothing.  Jackson used these very men like dogs:  they knew too much, and must be got rid off, or they would stop his profligacy too.  They were greased and swallowed:  and he gave them up to the torments of an anti-Jackson conscience.

“Yes, gentlemen, as long as you think with him, very well; but if not—­clear out; make way for some fellow who has saved his wind; and because he has just begun to huzza, has more wind to spare.  General Jackson has turned out more men for opinion’s sake, than all other Presidents put together, five times over:  and the broom sweeps so low that it reaches the humblest officer who happens to have a mean neighbor to retail any little story which he may pick up.

“I voted for Andrew Jackson because I believed he possessed certain principles, and not because his name was Andrew Jackson, or the Hero, or Old Hickory.  And when he left those principles which induced me to support him, I considered myself justified in opposing him.  This thing of man-worship I am a stranger to; I don’t like it; it taints every action of life; it is like a skunk getting into a house—­long after he has cleared out, you smell him in every room and closet, from the cellar to the garret.