ipple upon the surface of the deep and strong
current which is sweeping the country to its destiny. Nothing has
prevented me from removing myself from the list of future candidates
for the Presidency, except the injury this might do to the Democratic
cause in Pennsylvania. On this subject I am resolved, and whenever
it may be proper I shall make known my resolution. Nothing on
earth could induce me again to accept a Cabinet appointment." Yet
never did a wily politician more industriously plot and plan to
secure a nomination than Mr. Buchanan did, in his still-hunt for
the Presidency.

William Learned Marcy, the Secretary of War, was the "wheel-horse"
of President Polk's Cabinet. Heavily built, rather sluggish in
his movements, and always absorbed with some subject, he was not
what is generally termed "companionable," and neither bores nor
office-seekers regarded him as an amiable man. He used to write
his most important dispatches in the library of his own house.
When thus engaged he would at once, after breakfast, begin his work
and write till nearly noon, when he would go to the Department,
receive calls, and attend to the regular routine duties of his
position. During hours of composition he was so completely engrossed
with the subject that persons might enter, go out, or talk in the
same room without in the least obtaining his notice. He usually
sat in his dressing-gown, with an old red handkerchief on the table
before him, and one could judge of the relative activity of his
mind by the frequency of his application to the snuff-box. In
truth, he was an inveterate snuff-taker, and his immoderate
consumption of that article appeared to have injuriously affected
his voice.

President Polk, anxious to placate his defeated rival, Mr. Van
Buren, tendered the appointment of Secretary of the Treasury to
Silas Wright. He declined it, having been elected Governor of the
State of New York, but recommended for the position Mr. A. C. Flagg.
Governor Marcy objected to the appointment of Mr. Flagg, then to
the appointment of Mr. George Bancroft, the historian, and finally
accepted himself the place of Secretary of War. Mr. Robert J.
Walker, a Pennsylvanian by birth and a Mississippian by adoption,
who had in the United States Senate advocated the admission of
Texas and opposed the protection of American industries by a high
tariff, was made Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. George Bancroft
was appointed Secretary of t