This had the full effect desired. Jackson made a peremptory demand
upon the Vice President for an explanation of his perfidy. Calhoun
responded in a letter which explained and explained, yet got nowhere.
Whereupon Jackson replied in a haughty communication, manifestly
prepared by the men who were engineering the whole business, declaring
the former Secretary guilty of the most reprehensible duplicity and
severing all relations with him. This meant the end of Calhoun's
hopes, at all events for the present. He could never be President
while Jackson's influence lasted. Van Buren had won; and the
embittered South Carolinian could only turn for solace to the
nullification movement, in which he was already deeply engulfed.
Pursuing their plans to the final stroke, the Administration managers
forced a reconstruction of the Cabinet, and all of Calhoun's
supporters were displaced. Louis McLane of Delaware became Secretary
of the Treasury; Lewis Cass of Michigan, Secretary of War; Levi
Woodbury of New Hampshire, Secretary of the Navy; and Roger B.
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