Calling at the General’s lodgings in “the Seven Buildings,” Mr. Buchanan accompanied him, on his own invitation, in a walk as far as the War Department, where the General had to call on public business. After a suitable introduction and reference to the rumor afloat, Mr. Buchanan requested him to state whether he had ever declared that in case he should be elected President he would appoint Mr. Adams Secretary of State. To this he replied by saying that whilst he thought well of Mr. Adams, he had never said or intimated that he would or would not make this appointment. With this answer, Mr. Buchanan was entirely satisfied, and so expressed himself. The object of his mission was thus accomplished. The General’s answer was positive and emphatic. It made a deep and lasting impression on his only auditor, who requested permission to repeat it, and he gave it without reserve. This, however, was not the whole of the conversation; and in order to explain how this conversation became afterwards distorted into the appearance of an application by Mr. Buchanan to General Jackson on behalf of Mr. Clay, it is necessary to advert to something which took place between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Philip S. Markley, another Representative from the State of Pennsylvania, before Mr. Buchanan spoke to General Jackson. Mr. Markley had been a devoted advocate of Mr. Clay for the Presidency. He urged Mr. Buchanan to see General Jackson, and to persuade him either to say that Mr. Clay should be Secretary of State, or to remain absolutely silent as between Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams; “for then,” as he remarked, “the friends of Mr. Clay would be placed upon the same footing with the friends of Mr. Adams, and fight them with their own weapons.” If Mr. Buchanan had made any proposition to General Jackson respecting Mr. Clay, there might have been some foundation for the subsequent charge that Mr. Buchanan approached the General as an emissary of Mr. Clay. But, in point of fact, Mr. Buchanan did nothing of the kind. After the General had given him the assurance that he had never said he would or would not appoint Mr. Adams Secretary of State, and before they parted, Mr. Buchanan mentioned, as an item of current news, what he had heard Mr. Markley say. It does not appear to have produced upon General Jackson, at the time, any impression that Mr. Buchanan wished him to hold out any encouragement to the friends of Mr. Clay that in the event of his election he would make Mr. Clay Secretary of State. On the contrary, from what General Jackson said in answer to Mr. Buchanan’s sole inquiry, it is apparent that Mr. Buchanan obtained the only answer that he sought to obtain, namely, that the General had not said that he would or would not appoint Mr. Adams as his Secretary of State. Mr. Buchanan continues his account of the interview as follows: