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11 the kitchen cabinet On his way back to the Hermitage in late June 1830 Andrew Jackson wrote an angry letter to William B. Lewis. It was time, he said, to replace Duff Green as party spokesman. The president was outraged by Green’s failure to reply to the congressional reports defending the BUS. Calhoun controlled Green, he expostulated, just as a puppeteer pulled the strings on his dolls. Jackson’s letter was the first step toward a crisis in the administration and ultimately the formation of the Democratic party.1 Lewis shared the letter with Kendall, and the two men began looking for an editor. Lewis, a Van Buren man, approached Claiborne W. Gooch, who was copublisher of the Richmond Enquirer and close to the Little Magician. Kendall, on the other hand, consulted William T. Barry, and the two men decided to write to Francis P. Blair. Knowing that Jackson was not ready to cut his ties with Green, Kendall made it clear in his letter that the new paper would have to coexist with the United States Telegraph, even though it would be the “real administration paper.” Gooch was very much interested, but he made too many demands and soon fell out of the running. The matter then dragged on until October when the president returned from Tennessee and readily agreed that Blair was the man for the job.2 In spelling out the terms of the arrangement Kendall listed the same priorities that he had shared with Blair in earlier letters. The newspaper would have to support “a thorough reform in the government” and take a stand against the BUS. It must be “mildly opposed to the South Carolina nullifiers, in favor of a judicious tariff, . . . the payment of the national debt, . . . and . . . 1. Jackson to Lewis, 26, 28 June 1830, Jackson, Correspondence, 4:156–58. 2. Kendall to Blair, 10 July 1830, Blair Family Papers (quotation); Kendall to Blair, 22 Aug., 2–4, 14 Oct. 1830, Blair-Lee Papers; Blair to Kendall, 24 Dec. 1842, Van Buren Papers; Michael W. Singletary, “The New Editorial Voice for Andrew Jackson: Happenstance or Plan?” Journalism Quarterly 53 (1976): 672–78. The Kitchen Cabinet 145 leaving the states to manage their own affairs.” Blair must also agree to be pledged to Jackson alone, not to Van Buren or anyone else. This was a balanced states’ rights program designed to hold the southern base while reaching out to other interests.3 To make sure that Blair took the job, Kendall made it as attractive as possible . Although Green would keep the congressional printing, Blair could count on executive patronage worth at least $4,000 a year and eventually $15,000. Dress for the family would be no more expensive than in Kentucky. Blair, an avid hunter and fisherman, could hunt deer in Virginia and catch “cats, perch, pike, rock, sturgeon . . . shad and herring” in the Potomac. This rosy picture helped win over Blair and his wife, Eliza, and as soon as Blair settled his debts, he accepted the job.4 To keep peace in the party Kendall tried to convince Green that Blair was coming as an ally, not as a rival. A second newspaper was needed, he explained , to help the party compete with the six opposition presses in the city. Green was not fooled. He called on Barry and Eaton, “threatened, protested and remonstrated,” but finally said grudgingly that he would meet Blair “on friendly terms.” For the time being he was no more interested in open warfare than Kendall and Jackson.5 The appointment of Blair was a coup for Kendall. His rivals Lewis and Van Buren would have much preferred the traditionally republican Virginian Gooch over the more democratic westerner Blair. Calhoun and Green of course would have preferred no one at all. Kendall had deftly added Blair to his growing list of party friends in Washington. He had sent Blair the names of these friends so that the new editor would know where to turn for help and patronage. The list included prominent figures such as Van Buren, Barry, Eaton, and Lewis, and lesser men—Treasurer John Campbell, Register Thomas L. Smith, Second Comptroller James B. Thornton (who had replaced Isaac Hill), and Land Commissioner Elijah Hayward. This was an emerging core of Jackson loyalists within the administration.6 3. Kendall to Blair, 2–4 Oct. 1830, Blair-Lee Papers. 4. Kendall to Blair, 22 Aug., 2, 29 (quotation) Oct., 1 Nov. 1830, ibid.; Smith, Francis...

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