The wits of the opposition lost no opportunity to poke fun at
the President's accession to the brotherhood of scholars. As he was
closing a speech some days later an auditor called out, "You must give
them a little Latin, _Doctor_." In nowise abashed, the President
solemnly doffed his hat again, stepped to the front of the platform,
and resumed: "_E pluribus unum_, my friends, _sine qua non_!"
Life at the White House, as one writer has remarked, lost under
Jackson something of the good form of the Virginia regime, but it lost
nothing of the air of domesticity. Throughout the two Administrations
the mistress of the mansion was Mrs. Andrew Jackson Donelson, wife of
the President's secretary and in every respect a very capable woman.
Of formality there was little or none. Major Lewis was a member of the
presidential household, and other intimates--Van Buren, Kendall,
Blair, Hill--dropped in at anytime, "before breakfast, or in the
evening, as inclination prompted." The President was always accessible
to callers, whether or not their business was important.
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