edness of thousands of the working classes cast out of employment. Tell him of the tears of helpless widows, no longer able to earn their bread; and of unclad and unfed orphans who have been driven by his policy out of an honest livelihood.”
So he went on, through the whole catalogue of misery, with increasing urgency impressing upon the Vice-President the solemn message. It would have been a deeply affecting scene but for the circumstance that it was Martin Van Buren who received the pathetic commission. Benton describes it thus: —
“During the delivery of this apostrophe the Vice-President maintained the utmost decorum of countenance, looking respectfully and even innocently at the speaker all the while, as if treasuring up every word he said, to be faithfully repeated to the President. After it was over and the Vice-President had called some Senator to the chair, he went up to Mr. Clay and asked him for a pinch of his fine maccaboy snuff, and, having received it, walked away.”
But elsewhere the matter was taken more seriously. At a public meeting in Philadelphia a resolution was adopted “that Martin Van Buren deserves and will receive the execration of all good men, should he shrink from the responsibility of conveying to Andrew Jackson the message sent by the Hon. Henry Clay.”
This storm of hostile demonstrations did not stagger Jackson's indomitable spirit in the least. Having been made to believe that the business
