At a White House levee in the winter of 1830-31, under the very nose of Jackson, and under his roof, the intriguing Green drew the proprietor of a Washington printing-house aside to tell him confidentially of the hastening rupture of Jackson and Calhoun, and of the plans in incubation for the advancement of the presidential aspirations of the latter. Calhoun organs were to be acquired or established in all the strategic political points in the country, and when the rupture came these were to follow the lead of the “Telegraph” in a nationwide denunciation of Jackson. The printer was offered the editorship of one of these papers, and a liberal amount for his Washington plant. Thoroughly devoted to the political fortunes of the President, and not relishing the idea of being the depositary of a secret which threatened the President’s position, the printer consulted freely with his friends, and, on their advice, carried the story to the White House. Benton tells us that the story did not surprise Jackson, who was “preparing for it.”[361] Thus we are told that in the summer of 1830 he had been impressed with a powerful editorial attack on Nullification in the “Frankfort Argus,” had made inquiries as to the identity of the author, and had authorized the extension of an invitation to assume the editorship of an Administration paper in the capital. The version of Benton differs in material points from the version of Amos Kendall,[362] who was far more intimately identified with the launching of the new paper than either Benton or Van Buren. Here we have it that the idea was not Jackson’s, and that when plans for a Jacksonian organ were presented to him “he entirely disapproved.” At that time Jackson was unable to bring himself to believe in the treachery of Green. When ultimately, however, he saw the drift, he gave his “tacit consent.” Here Kendall’s story clashes with the theory, put forth by Green, that Van Buren was the directing genius behind the whole project. When the President finally gave his “tacit consent,” the practical politicians of the Kitchen Cabinet took charge. The various governmental offices were visited for an understanding as to what portion of the Government printing could be expected. When Van Buren, then at the head of the State Department, was approached, he announced that he would not give a dollar of the printing of his department, on the ground that “were such a paper established its origin would be attributed to him, and he was resolved to be able to say that he had nothing to do with it.” This is typical of Van Buren, and is no doubt true. But the responses from all the other departments were satisfactory and the plans were pushed.