David Crockett: His Life and AdventuresAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
David Crockett: His Life and Adventures
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Crockett, Davy, 1786-1836
"I had considered a treaty as the sovereign law of the land; but now
saw it considered as a matter of expedience, or not, as it pleased the
powers that be. Georgia bid defiance to the treaty-making power, and
set at nought the Intercourse Act of 1802; she trampled it under foot;
she nullified it: and for this, she received the smiles and approbation
of Andrew Jackson. And this induced South Carolina to nullify the
Tariff. She had a right to expect that the President was favorable to
the principle: but he took up the rod of correction, and shook it over
South Carolina, and said at the same time to Georgia, 'You may nullify,
but South Carolina shall not.'
"This was like his consistency in many other matters. When he was a
Senator in Congress, he was a friend to internal improvements, and
voted for them. Everything then that could cement the States together,
by giving them access the one to the other, was right. When he got into
power, some of his friends had hard work to dodge, and follow, and
shout. I called off my dogs, and quit the hunt. Yes, gentlemen,
Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and Tennessee, and other States, voted for him,
as a supporter of internal improvements.
"Was he not a Tariff man? Who dare deny it! When did we first hear of
his opposition? Certainly not in his expression that he was in favor of
a judicious tariff. That was supposed to be a clincher, even in New
England, until after power lifted him above the opposition of the
supporters of a tariff.
"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.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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