ule had seen the civil service revolutionized, the Cabinet
banished from its traditional place in the governmental system, and
the conduct of the executive branch given a wholly new character and
bent. Internal improvements had been checked by the Maysville Road
veto. The United States Bank had been given a blow, through another
veto, which sent it staggering. Political fortunes had been made and
unmade by a wave of the President's hand. The first attempt of a State
to put the stability of the Union to the test had brought the Chief
Executive dramatically into the role of defender of the nation's
dignity and perpetuity. No previous President had so frequently
challenged the attention of the public; none had kept himself more
continuously in the forefront of political controversy.

Frail health and close application to official duties prevented
Jackson from traveling extensively during his eight years in the White
House. He saw the Hermitage but once in this time, and on but one
occasion did he venture far from the capital. This was in the summer
of 1833, when he toured the Middle States and New England northward as
far as Concord, New Hampshire. Accompanied by Van Buren, Lewis Cass,
Levi Woodbury, and other men of prominence, the President set off from
Washington in early June. At Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and
intervening cities the party was received with all possible
demonstrations of regard. Processions moved through crowded streets;
artillery thundered salutes; banquet followed banquet; the enthusiasm
of the masses was unrestrained. At New York the furnishings of the
hotel suite occupied by the President were eventually auctioned off as
mementoes of the occasion.

New England was, in the main, enemy country. None the less, the
President was received there with unstinted goodwill. Edward Everett
said that only two other men had ever been welcomed in Boston as
Jackson was. They were Washington and La Fayette. The President's
determined stand against nullification was fresh in mind, and the
people, regardless of party, were not slow to express their
appreciation. Their cordiality was fully reciprocated. "He is
amazingly tickled with the Yankees," reports a fellow traveler more
noted for veracity than for elegance of speech, "and the more he sees
on 'em, the better he likes 'em. 'No nullification here,' says he.
'No,' says I, 'General; Mr. Calhoun would stand no more chance down
east than a stumped-tail bull