Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/31

MARTIN VAN BUREN 13 between the United States and England with regard to the West India trade. Having an eye to the presidential succession after Jackson s second term, and not wishing meanwhile to compromise the administration or himself, he resigned his secretaryship in June, 1831, and was sent as min ister to England. The senate refused in 1832 to confirm his nomination, by the casting-vote of John C. Calhoun, the vice-president. Conscientious Whigs, like Theodore Frelinghuysen, confessed in after days the reluctance with which they consented to this doubtful act. A clause in one of Van Buren s despatches while secretary, containing an invidious reference to the preceding administration, was alleged as the ground of his rejection. The offence was venial, compared with the license taken by Robert R. Livingston when, in negotiating the Louisiana purchase, he cited the spectre of a Fed eralist administration playing into the hands of "the British faction." Moreover, the pretext was an afterthought, as the clause had excited no re mark when first published, and, when the outcry was raised, Jackson "took the responsibility" for it. The tactical blunder of the Whigs soon avenged itself by bringing increased popularity to Van Buren. He became, with Jackson, the symbol of his party, and, elected vice-president in 1832, he came in 1833 to preside over the body which a year before had rejected him as foreign minister. He