nd who
circulated industriously the contemptible slander. Poindexter was an
active supporter of General Jackson's first election. He believed him
honest and capable, and deserving of the reward of the Presidency for
his services to the country. He thought, too, that he would bring back
the Government to its early simplicity and purity, and administer it
upon strictly republican principles. He, with very many of the
Jeffersonian school, felt it had diverged from the true track.

These people were opposed to protective tariffs, internal improvements
by the United States Government within the limits of a State without
the consent of the State, and a national bank, deeming all these
measures unconstitutional. The constitutionality of the bank had been
affirmed by the Supreme Court, and Poindexter had acquiesced in the
decision. Nevertheless, as a senator from the State of Mississippi, he
was in harmony with the Administration of Jackson, until Jackson began
to send his personal friends and especial favorites from Tennessee to
fill the national offices located in Mississippi. Poindexter felt this
as an insult to his State, and in the case of Gwinn's appointment as
register of the Land-Office at Clinton, Mississippi, he opposed the
nomination when sent to the Senate. He was successful in having it
rejected.

He urged that though the office was national, and every man in the
nation was eligible to fill it, yet it was due to the State that the
incumbent should be selected from her own people, provided she could
furnish one in every way qualified, and that it was a reflection upon
the people of his State to fill the offices within her borders with
aliens to her soil and interests--strangers to her people, with no
motive to be obliging and respectful to them in the discharge of the
duties of the office; that the offices belonged to the people and not
to the President, and it was respectful to the people of a State to
tender to her people these offices, as had been heretofore the custom;
that simply being the President's favorite was not a qualification for
office, and this departure from the established usages of former
Administrations was a dangerous precedent, and would seem to establish
a property in the office, belonging to the President.

This opposition enraged Jackson, who denounced Poindexter and persisted
in his determination to give the office to Gwinn. In this he finally
succeeded; but most unfortunately for Gwinn,