"Did you ever know Andrew Jackson to wait for anything when his mind was made up!"
"You didn't finish about the revenues at Charleston—were they collected?"
"Yes, and the President wouldn't hear to the debate of Hayne and Webster. He took matters into his own hands and issued a proclamation denying the right of any state to nullify the laws of Congress."
"There they go again, making us into a worse monarchy than we've just thrown off. In ten years we won't have any rights. I suppose if Andrew Jackson took a notion, he'd abolish slavery. But if he does, do you know what we'll do down here?" Jervais' voice thundered out irritably, and he struck the table with his fist. "We'll secede."
For a second the questions stopped, and in the silence Everett saw that a subject had been mentioned that threw a sullen anger over the entire group.
"So Charleston had to back down, did she!" drawled Mr. Suggs.
"I don't know whether you'd call it backing down or not, but when Scott reached there with his troops and a man-of-war, the nullifying party had disappeared."
"Hmp!" grunted the Tennessean, "I reckon I'll have to go up to the Hermitage and see Andy, he's getting to be such a big bug now-a-days."
"He won't know you any longer, Suggs—better not go. And the Indians, Mr. Everett, how about them?"
Everett went into a long discussion of the formation of the Indian Territory which was being urged by Andrew Jackson as a solution of the Indian problem.