discerned
through the haze of ambiguous and diplomatic language, it was that his
name had been connected with that distracting topic, the question of
successorship, which rendered his continuance in the cabinet
embarrassing, and might be injurious to the public service. The two
other secretaries, Ingham and Branch, were kept in ignorance of these
resignations until the 19th of April, when Jackson informed them that,
to command public confidence and satisfy public opinion, he deemed it
proper to select a cabinet of entirely new materials,[6] and therefore
requested them to resign their respective offices. They accordingly
tendered their resignations, which were accepted by the President, in a
letter to each, couched in language perfectly identical, in which he
admits that the dismissed officers had faithfully performed their
respective official duties, but intimates that the want of harmony in
the cabinet "made its entire renovation requisite."[7] Branch and Ingham
both denied any want of harmony in the cabinet, and the latter declared
that "it had never been interrupted for a moment, nor been divided in a
single instance by difference of opinion as to the measures of the
government."[8] These contradictions, thus openly made, created intense
curiosity, and public clamor for a full development of facts. Branch, in
a letter dated May 31st, 1831, addressed to certain citizens of Bertie
County, North Carolina, declared that "discord had been introduced into
the ranks of the administration by the intrigues of selfish
politicians."[9]

[5] See _Niles' Weekly Register_, vol. XL., pp. 129-145.

[6] Ibid., pp. 152-3.

[7] _Niles' Register_, vol. XL., p. 201.

[8] Ibid., p. 220.

[9] Ibid., p. 253.

The Attorney-General, Mr. Berrien, did not resign until the 15th of June
ensuing, nor until he also had been invited to do so by Jackson. He then
declared that he resigned "simply on account of the President's will,"
and that he knew of no want of harmony in the cabinet which either had
or ought to have impeded the operations of the administration.[10] In
July, Mr. Ingham, on returning home, was received by a great cavalcade
of his fellow-citizens, and was called upon for an explanation of "the
extraordinary measure, the dissolution of the cabinet, which had shocked
the public mind." He replied, that it was exclusively the act of the
President, who alone could perfectly explain his own motives, an