dent, gave General Jackson a plurality, but not a majority of votes. The house of representatives were required, by the constitutional provision, to make a selection from the three who received the greatest number of votes, and the suffrages of the states gave the majority to Mr. Adams. General Jackson was at once nominated to succeed; Mr. Adams at the close of his term of service, and the elections of the colleges were reported to Congress on February 11, 1829, as giving to General Jackson, one hundred and seventy-eight votes, and to Mr. Adams his only competitor eighty-three. In 1833, Jackson was again chosen by an increased and overwhelming majority.

The eight years of his administration have not been barren of important incidents. The interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures-foreign treaties, internal improvements, and the removal of the Cherokee Indians-the United States' Bank, the South Carolina Ordinance, the Proclamation of the 10th of December, 1832-the removal of the deposits and the French question, have been among the subjects which have been agitated and discussed in congress and in the state legislatures,―in popular assemblies, and the public press, with a zeal and earnestness, we had almost said, unparalleled in the history of our country; but when we look back to former administrations, we find that in all of them, there has been something which has been made the rallying point of party; something to attach one portion of our citizens to the measures of government and to give discontent to others. By the constitution, it is made the duty of the president to recommend to congress such measures as he may judge necessary and expedient, and for such meas,

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ares he is of course responsible to his country; but any member of congress may also introduce such as he may think necessary and expedient, and if he can carry them through the legislative branch of the government, the executive must either approve, or disapprove of them, and thus be made responsible ia one way or the other for the effect. As it is impossible for any measure of the government to be equally advantageous to every citizen, nor can all citizens possess precisely the same views, on subjects in which they have no immediate interest; there will and must be parties in the country; and whoever is, or may be president, there will be some to approve and praise, and others to censure and condemn him.

In March, 1837, Andrew Jackson was succeeded in the presidency by Martin Van Buren. In retiring from public life, full of years and honors, he issued a "Farewell Address" to his countrymen, breathing all that interest and anxiety for the future welfare of our country that would naturally emanate from one whose talents and patriotism in the field and cabinet have so largely contributed to establish.

The person of Jackson is tall and thin, and indicates a life of arduous toil. His countenance, though affected by the same cause, is animated and striking. In his manners, he is as though he had never dwelt in camps, nor been removed from scenes of gentlest courtesy. His name will go down to posterity as the Hero of New Orleans, whose military ability covered with glory our citizen soldiers: and his presidential career will afford to the future historian and the political economist many important incidents and lessons of wisdom.

BIOGRAPHY

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MARTIN VAN BUREN.

THE subject of this memoir is the eldest son of Abraham Van Buren, an upright and intelligent cit⚫ izen of the state of New York, whose ancestors were among the most respectable of those emigrants from Holland, who established themselves on the banks of the Hudson, in the earliest period of our colonial history, His mother, Maria Goes, a woman of excellent sense and pleasing manners, was also of Dutch descent. They died at advanced ages, the former in 1814, the latter in 1818, having lived to witness and enjoy the prosperity and well merited reputation of their son, not less distinguished by the unabated warmth of his personal affections, than by the public honors he had already received.

Martin Van Buren was born at Kinderhook, in the county of Columbia, and state of New York, on the the fifth of December, 1782. In early boyhood, he displayed endowments so superior, that his father resolved to educate him for the law, a science for which he evinced both fitness and predilection. After obtaining the best course of instruction which the schools of the neighborhood afforded, he entered, in 1797, the office of Francis Sylvester, a lawyer of Kinderhook, and a man of estimable private character. Aspiring, from the first, to distinction, his legal studies were pursued with great zeal; he was early aware of the competition with able men in