stance of free government having disappeared, some pretorian band would arise, and, with the general concurrence of a distracted people, put an end to useless forms.” This was the protest of the good old order of things against the new disorder. Such warnings, however, were in vain. They might move impartially thinking men to serious reflections. But Jackson was convinced that the political opponents he dismissed from office were really very dangerous persons, whom it was a patriotic duty to render harmless; and the Democratic masses thought that Jackson could do no wrong. Many of them found something peculiarly flattering in this new conception of democratic government, that neither high character nor special ability, but only political opinions of the right kind, should be required to fit an American citizen for the service of his country; that, while none but a good accountant would be accepted to keep the books of a dry-goods shop, anybody might keep the books of the United States Treasury; that, while nobody would think of taking as manager of an importing business a man who did not know something of merchandise, anybody was good enough to be an appraiser in a custom-house.
Indeed, the manner in which Jackson selected his cabinet was characteristic of the ruling idea. Colonel James A. Hamilton, one of his confidential advisers at that time, tells us in his “Reminiscences”: “In this important work by President Jackson, no thought appeared to be given as to the
