bills remained, as it were, in the
President's pocket. This new method of vetoing became notorious as the
"Pocket Veto." In other respects Jackson's first administration was stormy.
International relations were repeatedly threatened by the long-standing
controversy over the indemnity for French spoliations. An adjustment of the
indemnity claims with Denmark was likewise forced to an issue. At home,
Jackson's abandonment of the principle of extreme protection and his
hostility to the United States Bank lost him the support of the loose
constructionists. As a Freemason, the President was likewise opposed by the
new anti-Masonic party in politics. In a quarrel over the character of the
wife of Secretary Eaton, the beautiful Peggy O'Neill, all Washington was
involved. It was commonly believed that the subsequent break-up of
Jackson's Cabinet was caused by the social bickerings among the wives of
the members. Van Buren was the first to resign. Soon he was appointed
Minister to England, but the Senate rejected him through the vote of
Vice-President Calhoun. Jackson afterward took his revenge by defeating
Calhoun's aspirations to the Presidency through Van Buren. The new Cabinet
consisted of Livingston, McLean, Cass, Woodbury, Tracy and Berry. By reason
of the new protective tariff, the States of Georgia and South Carolina,
toward the close of 1829, returning to the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799,
affirmed the right of any State to declare null and void any act of
Congress which the State Legislature deemed unconstitutional. This was the
doctrine of nullification which grew to secession in 1860.

[Sidenote: American development]

The industrial progress of the United States was little affected by the
political dissensions during Jackson's first Presidential year. On July 4,
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was opened. The first trip of an American
locomotive was made on the Carbondale and Honesdale road. Throughout the
country many canals were opened; to wit, the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal,
the Delaware and Hudson, and the Oswego in New York; the Farmington in
Connecticut, and the Cumberland and Oxford Canal in Maine. Among the
literary productions of the year were a collection of minor poems by Edgar
Allan Poe, Parkman's earlier essays, Cooper's "Wept of the Wish-ton-Wish,"
Sparks's "John Ledyard," and Washington Irving's "Granada."

[Sidenote: Early automobile vehicles]

In England the first successful experiments with ste