Note 262 — Chapter IV · JACKSON BREAKS WITH CALHOUN

Van Buren is authority for the statement that the President, who had prepared the toast as given in the text, really gave it—“Our Union—it must be preserved,” and that Hayne left his seat and hastened to him to beg him to insert the word “Federal.” “This,” says Van Buren, “was an ingenuous suggestion, as it seemed to make the rebuke less pungent, although it really had no such effect. The President cheerfully assented because, in point of fact, the addition only made the toast what he originally designed it to be—he having rewritten it in the bustle and excitement of the occasion, on the back of the list of regular toasts which had been laid before him, instead of using the copy in his pocket, and having omitted that word inadvertently.” (Van Buren’s Autobiography, 415).