HKB
[Sidenote: Peggy O'Neill]
Jackson's first Cabinet was headed by Van Buren, with Samuel D. Ingham for Secretary of the Treasury. The President also encouraged a set of confidential advisers, among whom Kendall, Lewis and Hill were the most influential. They came to be known as the "Kitchen Cabinet." The regular members of the Cabinet were treated as mere head clerks. In one week Jackson vetoed more bills than any of his predecessors had done in four years. Other bills he held back until after the adjournment of Congress, and then failed to sign them. The bills remained, as it were, in the President's pocket. This new method of vetoing became notorious as the "Pocket Veto." In other respects Jackson's first administration was stormy. International relations were repeatedly threatened by the long-standing controversy over the indemnity for French spoliations. An adjustment of the indemnity claims with Denmark was likewise forced to an issue. At home, Jackson's abandonment of the principle of extreme protection and his hostility to the United States Bank lost him the support of the loose constructionists. As a Freemason, the President was likewise opposed by the new anti-Masonic party in politics. In a quarrel over the character of the wife of Secretary Eaton, the beautiful Peggy O'Neill, all Washington was involved. It was commonly believed that the subsequent break-up of Jackson's Cabinet was caused by the social bickerings among the wives of the members. Van Buren was the first to resign. Soon he was appointed Minister to England, but the Senate rejected him through the vote of Vice-President Calhoun. Jackson afterward took his revenge by defeating Calhoun's aspirations to the Presidency through Van Buren. The new Cabinet consisted of Livingston, McLean, Cass, Woodbury, Tracy and Berry. By reason of the new protective tariff, the States of Georgia and South Carolina, toward the close of 1829, returning to the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799, affirmed the right of any State to declare null and void any act of Congress which the State Legislature deemed unconstitutional. This was the doctrine of nullification which grew to secession in 1860.
[Sidenote: American development]
The industrial progress of the United States was little affected by the political dissensions during Jackson's first Presidential year. On July 4, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was opened. The first trip of an American locomotive was made on the Carbondale and Honesdale road. Throughout the country many canals were opened; to wit, the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, the Delaware and Hudson, and the Oswego in New York; the Farmington in Connecticut, and the Cumberland and Oxford Canal in Maine. Among the literary productions of the year were a collection of minor poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Parkman's earlier essays, Cooper's "Wept of the Wish-ton-Wish," Sparks's "John Ledyard," and Washington Irving's "Granada."
[Sidenote: Early automobile vehicles]
In England the first successful experiments with steam-propelled stage coaches were made by Sir Goldsworth Gurney. These machines were the precursors of the latter-day automobile vehicle. This account of a ride in the Gurney stage coach was published by the "United Service Journal":
[Sidenote: A contemporary description]
"We numbered four in a coach attached to the steam carriage, and we had travelled without difficulty or mishap as far as Longford, where they were repairing the bridge over the Cambria. On this was a large pile of bricks, so high as to conceal what was happening on the other side. Precisely at the moment we began to cross the bridge the mail-coach from Bath arrived on the other end. As soon as we perceived it we shouted to the driver to take care; but, as he was not aware of the extraordinary vehicle he was going to meet, he did not slacken speed. To avoid a collision, Mr. Gurney guided our steam carriage into the pile of bricks. Some damage to our apparatus resulted, but was repaired in less than a quarter of an hour. As to the horses of the coach, they had taken the bit between their teeth and had to be cut loose.