An account of the quarrel that the major had with Mr.
Van Buren at Concord, after they went up chamber
to bed, and the declaration of his intentions to run
for the presidency.

[figure description] Page 139.[end figure description]

Washington City, July 20, 1833.
To my old friend, the editor of the Portland Courier, away
down east in the state of Maine.

My dear old Friend, you.—I dont know but you
might think strange on 't, that I should be back here to
Washington more than a fortnight, and not write to
you. But I hant forgot you. You need n't never be
afraid of that. We aint very apt to forget our best
friends; and you may depend upon it Jack Downing
will never forget the editor of the Portland Courier any
more than Andrew Jackson will forget Jack Downing.
You was the first person that ever give me a lift into
public life, and you 've been a boosting me along ever
since. And jest between you and me I think I 'm getting
into a way now where I shall be able by and by to
do something to pay you for it. The reason that I have
n't writ to you before, is, that we have had pretty serious
business to attend to since we got back. But we
've jest got through with it, and Mr. Van Buren has
cleared out and gone back about the quickest to New
York, and I guess with a bed-bug in his ear. Now
jest between you and me in confidence, I'll tell you
how 'tis; but pray dont let on about it to any body
else for the world. Did n't you think plaguy strange
what made us cut back so quick from Concord without
going to Portland or Portsmouth or Downingville?
You know the papers have said it was because the president
want very well, and the president had to make
that excuse himself in some of his letters; but it was
no such thing. The president could a marched on foot
twenty miles a day then, and only let him been at the

[figure description] Page 140.[end figure description]

head of my Downingville company and he 'd a whole
British regiment scamper like a flock of sheep.

But you see the trouble ont was, there was some difficulty
between I and Mr. Van Buren. Some how or
other Mr. Van Buren always looked kind of jealous at
me all the time after he met us at New York; and I
could n't help minding every time the folks hollered
`hoorah for Major Downing' he would turn as red as a
blaze of fire. And wherever we stopped to take a bite
or to have a chat, he would always work it, if he could,
somehow or other so as to crowd in between me and
the president. Well, ye see, I would n't mind much
about it, but would jest step round 'tother side. And
though I say it myself, the folks would look at me, let
me be on which side I would; and after they'd cried
hoorah for the president, they'd most always sing out
`hoorah for Major Downing.' Mr. Van Buren kept
growing more and more fidgety till we got to Concord.
And there we had a room full of sturdy old democrats
of New Hampshire, and after they had all flocked
round the old president and shook hands with him, he
happened to introduce me to some of 'em before he did
Mr. Van Buren. At that the fat was all in the fire.
Mr. Van Buren wheeled about and marched out of the
room looking as though he could bite a board nail off.
The president had to send for him three times before
he could get him back into the room again. And when
he did come, he didn't speak to me for the whole evening.
However we kept it from the company pretty
much; but when we come to go up to bed that night,
we had a real quarrel. It was nothing but jaw, jaw,
the whole night. Mr. Woodbury and Mr. Cass tried
to pacify us all they could, but it was all in vain, we
didn't one of us get a wink of sleep, and shouldn't if
the night had lasted a fortnight. Mr. Van Buren said
the president had dishonoured the country by placing a
military major on half pay before the second officer of
the government. The president begged him to consider
that I was a very particular friend of his; that I

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had been a great help to him at both ends of the country;
that I had kept the British out of Madawaska
away down in Maine, and had marched my company
clear from Downingville to Washington, on my way
to South Carolina, to put down the nullifiers; and he
thought I was entitled to as much respect as any man
in the country.

This nettled Mr. Van Buren peskily. He said he
thought it was a fine time of day if a raw jockey from
an obscure village away down east, jest because he had
a major's commission, was going to throw the vice president
of the United States and the heads of departments
into the back ground. At this my dander began
to rise, and I stepped right up to him; and says I, Mr.
Van Buren, you are the last man that ought to call me
a jockey. And if you 'll go to Downingville and stand
up before my company with Sargeant Joel at their head,
and call Downingville an obscure village, I'll let you
use my head for a foot-ball as long as you live afterwards.
For if they wouldn't blow you into ten thousand
atoms, I'll never guess again. We got so high at
last that the old president hopt off the bed like a boy;
for he had laid down to rest him, bein it was near daylight,
though he couldn't get to sleep. And says he,
Mr. Donaldson, set down and write Mr. Anderson at
Portland, and my friend Joshua Downing at Downingville,
that I can't come. I'm going to start for Washington
this morning. What, says Mr. Cass, and not
go to Portsmouth and Exeter and round there! I tell
you, says the president, I'm going to start for Washington
this morning, and in three days I'll be there.
What, says Mr. Woodbury, and not go to Portland,
where they have spent so much money to get ready for
us! I tell you, says the president, my foot is down:
I go not a step further, but turn about this morning for
Washington. What, says I, and not go to Downingville,
what will Uncle Joshua say? At this the president
looked a little hurt; and says he, Major Downing,
I can't help it. As for going any further with

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such a din as this about my ears, I cannot, and will not,
and I am resolved not to budge another inch. And sure
enough the president was as good as his word, and we
were all packed up by sunrise, and in three days we
were in Washington.

And here we've been ever since, battling the watch
about the next presidency. Mr. Van Buren says the
president promised it to him, and now he charges me
and the president with a plot to work myself into it and
leave him out. It's true I've been nominated in a good
many papers, in the National Intelligencer, and in the
Munch Chunk Courier printed away off among the coal
diggers in Pennsylvany, and a good many more. And
them are Pennsylvany chaps are real pealers for electing
folks when they take hold; and that's what makes
Mr. Van Buren so uneasy. The president tells him as
he has promised to help him, he shall do what he can for
him; but if the folks will vote for me he can't help it.
Mr. Van Buren wanted I should come out in the National
Intelligencer and resign, and so be put up for vice
president under him. But I told him no; bein it had
gone so fur I wouldn't do nothing about it. I hadn't asked
for the office, and if the folks had a mind to give it to
me I wouldn't refuse it. So after we had battled it
about a fortnight, Mr. Van Buren found it was no use
to try to dicker with me, and he's cleared out and gone
to New York to see what he can do there.

I never thought of getting in to be president so soon,
though I 've had a kind of bankering for it this two
years. But now, seeing it's turned out as it has, I'm
determined to make a bold push, and if I can get in by
the free votes of the people, I mean to. The president
says he'd rather I should have it than any body else, and
if he had n't promised Mr. Van Buren before hand, he
would use his influence for me.

I remember when I was a boy about a dozen years
old, there was an old woman come to our house to tell
fortunes. And after she 'd told the rest of 'em, father
says he, here's Jack, you have n't told his fortunes yet,

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and I dont spose it 's worth a telling, for he 's a real
mutton-headed boy. At that the old woman catched
hold of my hair, and pulled my head back and looked
into my face, and I never shall forget how she looked
right through me, as long as I live. At last, says she,
and she gin me a shove that sent me almost through the
side of the house, Jack will beat the whole of you. He
'll be a famous climber in his day, and wherever he sets
out to climb, you may depend upon it, he will go to the
top of the ladder. Now, putting all these things together,
and the nominations in the papers, and the `hoorahs
for Major Downing,' I dont know what it means,
unless it means that I must be president. So, as I said
afore, I'm determined to make a bold push. I 've writ
to Col. Crocket to see if I can get the support of the
western states, and his reply is, `go ahead.' I shall
depend upon you and uncle Joshua to carry the state
of Maine for me; and, in order to secure the other
states, I spose it will be necessary to publish my life
and writings. President Jackson had his life published
before he was elected, and when Mr. Clay was a
candidate he had hisn published. I 've talked with the
president about it, and he says, publish it by all means,
and set the printer of the Portland Courier right about
it.

So I want you to go to work as soon as you get this,
and pick up my letters, and begin to print 'em in a
book; and I 'll set down and write a history of my
life to put into it, and send it along as fast as I can get
it done. But I want you to be very careful not to get
any of them are confounded counterfeit letters, that
the rascally fellers have been sending to the printers,
mixed in long with mine. It would be as bad as breaking
a rotten egg in long with the good ones; it would
spile the whole puddin. You can tell all my letters,
for they were all sent to you first.

The president says I must have a picter of me made
and put into the book.—He says he had one put into
his, and Mr. Clay had one put into his. So I believe I

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dozen years ago, were some as big republicans as there
was any where about. Well, they got to be considerable
old, and had been in office sometime, so the Argus took
and clapt 'em right over on to the federal side. And
you know there was Mr. Holmes, he was a whapping
great republican. But he begun to grow old, and so the
Argus put him over. And there was Mr. Sprague; he
was such a nice dimocrat every one said it was a pitty
to put him over. But bein he 'd been to Congress sometime,
the Argus would n't hear a word, but shoved him
right over.

And this summer the Argus is putting of 'em over
considerable younger on to the federal side. It has put
Judge Preble over, and Judge Ware, and Mr. Mitchell
the Post Master at Portland, and he is n't near so old as
uncle Joshua, and it has put Mr. Megquier over, only
think, such a young man as Mr. Megquier, that's only
been in the Sinnet three or four years. Now dont you
think, according to dimocratic usage, it is high time old
uncle Joshua was put over. I wish you would jest write
to the Argus and have it done, for I feel a good deal
worried about it.

And as soon as it comes out in the Argus that he is
fairly over, I want you to tell the President that uncle
Joshua is a federalist, and have him removed from the
Post Office, for it would be an everlasting shame to have
the Post Office in Downingville kept by a federalist.

N.B. If uncle Joshua should be removed I wish you
would use your influence to get the President to give the
office to me; for next to Uncle Joshua I spose I've done
more for the republican party than any man in Downingville.
I can have a recommendation from Sargent
Joel and all the company. By attending to this you
will much oblige your friend and cousin,

p378-160

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