Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/171

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
152
Nullification Controversy in South Carolina

The Union papers, of course, were all his admirers and supporters.[1]

The rupture between Jackson and Calhoun was caused by the story of an incident which occurred in a cabinet meeting in 1818, after Jackson had seized some Spanish posts in Florida and had placed the United States government in an embarrassing situation. Calhoun had suggested that Jackson had transcended his orders in conducting the campaign and that in all such cases a court of inquiry was indispensable to preserve the discipline of the army and maintain the dignity of the government. The proposal was not sustained and Jackson did not know until near the middle of 1830 that Calhoun had made it. When Calhoun admitted that he had suggested the court of inquiry, Jackson became at once and forever the foe of the man whom he had toasted at a public dinner not long before as the "noblest work of God."[2] Even after the split between Jackson and Calhoun, however, some State Rights men tried to show that friendship toCal-

  1. Journal, January 8, May 14, July 16, November 12, 1831; Mercury, February 24, March 29; Messenger, March 9; Mountaineer, August 27, September 3.
  2. William J. Grayson's Memoirs. MSS.