UC-NRLF B 3 Ebb MD3 m IA i 1 LIBRARY -UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS A BRIEF TREATISE UPON CONSTITUTIONAL PARTY QUESTIONS, AND THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES, A3 I RECEIVED IT ORALLY FROM THE LATE SENATOR STEPHEN- A. DOUGLAS, OF ILLINOIS. BY J. MADISON CUTTS, BBEVET LIEUTENANT COLONEL, U. S. A. NEW YORK : D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 443 & 445 BKOADWAY, 1866. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by D. APPLETON & CO., la the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. TO THE FRIENDS OP THE HON. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, NORTH, WEST, AND SOUTH; AND IN AN ESPECIAL MANNER MOST WABMLY AND AFFECTIONATELY TO TUB HON. DANIEL P. KHODES, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, HIS RELATIVE, VERY DEAR FRIEND, AND FAITHFUL EXECUTOR, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE. IN the summer of 1859 Mr. Douglas remained in Washington ; and as I was very desirous of re ceiving from him a statement of his own political faith, with the general views of a statesman upon Constitutional, Political, and Party Questions, I prepared, with his consent, a brief analysis of such subjects as I wished him to explain to me. We were in the habit of spending an hour together each evening, until all the questions I had proposed were answered. The following brief treatise embodies all of these conversations, which were taken down in writing, verbally, at the time Mr. Douglas always pausing long enough to enable me to obtain his exact language. PREFACE. As these conversations were not intended for publication, and were entirely free and unrestrained, wanting all of that method and careful thought which the term "treatise" implies,. I have been induced to rely entirely upon the dignity of the subjects discussed, and their general interest to the friends of the late Senator Douglas, to justify the title I have adopted. I am persuaded that this volume contains a more complete and perfect statement of his opinions than any original work of compilation by another could possibly embody, and that it will be generally ac ceptable to his friends, and be found worthy of their perusal, "because it came from himself. J. MADISON CUTTS, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, F. S. A. NEW YORK CITY, June 1, 1866. CONTENTS. PAGK THE PREAMBLE OF THE CONSTITUTION DISCUSSED, . 11 THE LEGISLATIVE POWER OP THE GOVERNMENT, . 12 Right of Suffrage under the Constitution, . . . .13 THE POWERS OF CONGRESS CONSIDERED, ... 16 HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL BANK, 20 Removal of the deposits, 23 Specie circulars, 26 The Sub-Treasury, '.,..- .27 Popular argument against the Sub-Treasury, ... 29 Arguments in its favor, . . ; .s . , 30 The financial policy of the Democratic party adopted by the people, . . . . . ... . 32 PROHIBITION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE, . . 33 SUSPENSION OF THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, . 35 History of General Jackson's suspension of the writ in New Orleans, and arguments for and against the bill refund ing the fine imposed upon him, . . . . .37 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, AND RIVER AND HARBOR IM PROVEMENTS, . . . ' . ..... 41 OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER, . . . . ... 47 Power of the President to make removals,, and to fill vacancies, 48 OF THE JUDICIAL POWER, ... . . . 49 8 CONTENTS. PAGE SLAVERY, 50 POWER TO ACQUIRE TERRITORY, 61 ADMISSION OF NEW STATES, 52 POWER TO DISPOSE OF PUBLIC PROPERTY, . . 53 HISTORY OF THE ACQUISITIONS OF TERRITORY BY THE UNITED STATES, . .55 1. Of the Louisiana purchase, . . . . 55 2. Of Florida, and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louis iana, 59 3. Of Oregon, Texas, California, and New Mexico, . . 60 The Re-annexation of Texas, Re-occupation of Oregon, and the Mexican war, 61 HISTORY OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE, ... 69 THE WILMOT PROVISO, AND THE COMPROMISE OF 1850, 75 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL, AND THE SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF KANSAS UNDER THAT LAW THE KANSAS-LECOMPTON CONTROVERSY, AND THE PERFIDY OF MR.. BUCHANAN AND HIS ADMINISTRATION, . . .' . . . .84 POPULAR AND SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY DEFINED AND DISTINGUISHED, . . . . . . . 123 ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND STATE OF PARTIES, FROM THE FORMATION OF THE GOVERNMENT DOWN TO THE ADMINIS TRATION OF PRESIDENT PIERCE, ._ . . . .-., < . 125 Republican and Federal parties, . . . . 127 Alien and Sedition Laws, . . A .* . . . 128 Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, . . . ... . . 129 Hartford Convention War of 1812, . ^ . . . .132 The Era of Good Feeling, . . , '. . . '; -. . 133 Defeat of GeneralJackson, . . -.. . . . 135 Charges of bribery and corruption against Henry Clay, . 137 Democratic party assumes its name, . . . . . 137 South Carolina Nullification doctrine, .... 138 General Jackson' suppresses nullification, . . . . 139 CONTENTS. 9 PAGE) Clay's Compromise Tariff Bill, 140 Origin of the name of the Whig party, and its chief measures stated, 141 General Jackson reorganizes his Cabinet, .... 143 Mr. Van Buren's rejection by the Senate as minister to Eng land, and his subsequent election as President of the United States, 143 Van Buren's Administration, . . . . . . 145 Election of General Harrison, his death, Tyler's succession and administration, . . . . . ; ...'.. . . 147 The Texas question : it defeats Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Clay, and elects President Polk, .149 Election of General Taylor in consequence of the division in the New York Democracy : this division explained, . 155 THE TARIFF POSITION OF PARTIES THEREON, .... 158 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES, 161 THE HOMESTEAD BILL, . . 174 HISTORY OF THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD BILL, 187 INDIANS AND INDIAN INTERCOURSE LAWS, . . 200 THE RECIPROCITY TREATY, . . . .... .203 THE MONROE DOCTRINE, . "..'"'.'. ... 207 CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY, . . . .- 209 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD, . V - 217 A BRIEF TREATISE ON CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARTY QUESTIONS. PREAMBLE. " WE, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tran quillity, provide for the common Defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." The Constitution is an amendment, in the form of a substitute, for the Articles of Confederation ; the successor of the government of the Confeder ation. Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, says not : that it was a new government. " In order to form a more perfect Union" de notes and implies that it is a continuation. 12 PREAMBLE OF THE CONSTITUTION. " We, the people of the United States." The Constitution was made bj the States, and not bj the people united. It should therefore read, " We, the people of the States united." It was voted for by States in the Convention, submitted to the people of each State severally, and became the Constitution only of the States adopting it. It is a Federal Constitution, and not a National Govern ment. " Promote the general Welfare." The Federalist party contended that this gave Congress power to do whatever it thought would promote the general welfare. But the preamble gives no power. It neither confers, enlarges, nor restrains power ; but simply declares the objects for which, and the reasons why the powers subsequently and elsewhere conferred, were conferred. ARTICLE FIRST. OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER. In the Confederation all powers were granted to one body, namely, " the United States in Congress assembled." Experience under the Confederation taught that the British system of three depart- THE LEGISLATIVE POWER. 13 ments, with which they had been familiar, was the best. The Constitution was not made, manufac tured. It grew as a plant, and was the develop ment of the experience of ages. The Articles of Confederation were a departure from, and they re turned to the system with which they had been familiar, both in the British Constitution and in the organization of their own colonial assemblies. Section 2. " And the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature." One of the great difficulties encountered and overcome in the formation of the Constitution was to determine the Right of Suffrage. Who should be the constituency of the House of Represent atives ? Should it be uniform in all the States, or not? Each State had its own system, and wanted it adopted. Some required property qualifications, others not. The compromise was to let each State adopt its own system, with the limitation contained in the section under consideration. Here I call your attention to two general propositions : 1st. A man may be a citizen and not a voter, and he may be a voter and not a citizen. 2d. Citizen of a State, 14 EIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. means citizen of the United States resident in a State. No power except that of the Federal Govern ment can create a citizen. But the privileges may be conferred, by virtue of the sovereignty of the State, and are good within its limits. It is difficult to give a construction, and the courts have only glanced at it. See the Dred Scott decision, where the court decides Dred not a citi zen so as to have the right to sue under Art. 3, Sec. 2 of the Constitution. How many members a State may send, and what their qualifications, is elsewhere determined. But each State is left to decide for itself who shall send them. So also as to who shall be the electors of the President. Each State prescribes who shall be, and the manner of the election. May be a ne gro, a w r oman, an unnaturalized person, and may be elected in any way. In South Carolina, now, by the Legislature, and formerly so in nearly if not all the States. The impression is that an unnaturalized person cannot vote for a Federal officer, and so would an- 'swer ninety-nine out of a hundred. Design and necessity gave rise to the clause under discussion. I first raised that question. It is reported in Illinois EIGHT OF SUFFEAGE. 15 in 1838 or 1839. So that right to vote is not affect ed by naturalization, and is not one of the rights conferred by naturalization. See the contested case of Jones and Botts of Virginia in 1843. In 1836 the Whigs, Clay among them, opposed the admis sion of Michigan because she gave unnaturalized persons the right to vote. Each State may prescribe its own terms of suffrage, but cannot prescribe the qualifications of the man who is to hold the office. That he should be " an inhabitant of the State in which he shall be chosen," was a provision of the Constitution in tended to correct abuses which had sprung up in England. A State may elect by district, or by general ticket, unless Congress should itself divide the States into districts, but it cannot compel the States to district themselves. See a report made by me upon this subject. A State cannot so far make a man a citizen as to confer upon him a right to sue in the United States courts. It can only confer upon him such privileges of citizenship as its own citizens enjoy, but cannot make him a citizen. A State cannot enlarge or diminish the quali fications of Senators or Representatives. The only 16 POWERS OF CONGRESS. inquiry is, have they the qualifications required by the Constitution, namely, age and inhabitancy of the State in which or for which they are elected. See the case of Trumbull of Illinois, in the Senate, and, at the same time, of Marshall of Illinois, in the House. As to who are " inhabitants," see the cases of Felix Grundy of Tennessee, John Forsyth of Georgia, and Bayly of Massachusetts. Dallas passed the revenue tariff of 1846 by his casting vote as President of the Senate. Under Art. I., Sec. 6, Clause 2, a question has arisen, and some have held that the position of min ister to a foreign country is not an office under the Constitution, and that the President could appoint one without a law creating. I hold no such thing. ARTICLE I., SECTION 8. THE POWERS OP CONGRESS. You may strain a power beyond the moral right. The general rule is, that few of these powers are concurrent, and most of them exclusive. The pecu liar phraseology and subject matter give rise to the exceptions in which they are held concurrent. Art. I., Sec. 8, Clause V. The Congress shall have power " to establish Post-Offices and Post-Koads." POWERS OF CONGRESS. IT But not to construct and build simply to indi cate the line, the route. " To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court." But not to confer a jurisdiction not authorized in the third article of the Constitution. "To promote the progress of science and the useful arts," etc. But no power to establish a University. The power is limited to the mode mentioned, namely, "by securing for limited times to authors and in ventors the exclusive right to their respective writ ings and discoveries." Mr. Madison offered in the Convention a provi sion which would have authorized the establishment of a University, but it was not adopted. It has been said that Congress would have power to establish a University in the District of Columbia, on the ground of its exclusive jurisdiction. But ex clusive jurisdiction means here, that there shall ~be no other, not that it shall be unlimited. It must l}e subordinate to the limitations of the Constitution, and thus confined in its means. It has power to establish schools for the District, but this would not authorize a University in its character national, but might of a local character. 2 18 POWEKS OF CONGRESS. Congress makes appropriations for railroads, for example, the Illinois Central, under its "power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States," conferred in Art. 4, Sec. 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution. It might give the land away, but there is a moral obligation not to do so. Congress gave the land to the Illinois Central, on the ground of the increase of value. The lands had been for forty years unsold. They gave alternate sections, and sold readily the other half for more than they had asked for the whole. There was also a provision that the railroad should carry the mails for a just and fair compensation, which, in case of disagreement, was to be fixed by the Congress. The grant was made to the State, and thence to the company. Art. I., Section 8, Claim 18. " To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Consti tution in the Government of the United States, or in any De partment or Officer thereof." This clause confers no new powers. It is only declaratory of a rule of construction, which would have been precisely the same without it ; for powers POWERS OF CONGRESS. 19 were already given, and necessarily include the means of using them. It would have been implied without this declaration. " Necessary and proper." Some say essentially, absolutely necessary. But see the reasoning of Chief Justice Marshall in the case of McCulloch vs. State of Maryland. Carried to the extent of his doctrine, you would substitute the discretion of Congress for the Constitution. The true doctrine is, that where there are several means adapted to the s-ame end, Congress may fairly choose. The means must be appropriate and adapt ed to the end authorized by the Constitution, and that end must be the one for which the means is used, and not incidentally the end proposed. Hence we exclude a National Bank, because you establish it to issue money, regulate the currency, while the Treasury Agency you make incidental. I will here give you the history of the National Bank. HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL BAJSK. IMMEDIATELY after the first Congress of 1791, Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, recommended a bank, as one of the means necessary to restore the credit of the Government, and to act as its financial agent. The two Houses of Congress, on his recommendation, passed the first bank charter. General Washington expressed serious doubts of the power to pass the law, and took the opinions of his Cabinet, in writing. Thomas Jefferson, Secre tary of State, was against it. Edmund Randolph, Attorney-General, expressed the same opinion ; while General Henry Knox, Secretary of War, sustained Hamilton in its constitutionality. Washington re ferred the opinions of Jefferson and others to Hamil ton for his reply, who gave an elaborate opinion, sustaining the right of Congress to establish the bank. On consideration of the whole subject, General HISTOEY OF THE NATIONAL BANK. 21 Washington was of the opinion that the bank was unconstitutional, and that he ought to veto it, and called on Mr. Madison to prepare for him a veto message, which he accordingly did. Upon the pre sentation of that message, Washington again ex pressed himself in doubt, inclining to the impression that the power did not exist. Jefferson still ad hered to his opinion that it was clearly unconstitu tional, but he advised the President, that in cases of great and serious doubt, the doubt should "be weighed in favor of legislative authority. Where upon Washington signed the bill. That first charter ran twenty years, from 1791 to 1811. On application for its renewal in 1811, the Democratic party generally resisted on Constitu tional grounds, and the Federal party sustained it. Henry Clay made his first great speech against it in 1811, and the bill for re-charter was defeated, and the bank expired. The war of 1812 immediately intervened. The finance, currency, and credit of the country became greatly disturbed, and an im pression was made on the minds of the American people that a bank was necessary to restore them. In 1815 a bank charter passed, received votes from both parties, and opposition from both, and Mr. Madison vetoed it. The next year John C. Cal- 22 HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL BANK. houn, as a leader in the Republican or Democratic party, introduced a bill, with the sanction of a large portion of the party, for a National Bank. It passed both houses, and Mr. Madison, waiving his scruples, and yielding to what seemed the public opinion of the country, signed it. That charter also ran for twenty years, until 1836, and for the ensuing five years ceased to be a party question. All acquiesced in it, though a great portion of all the leading Demo crats still retained their opposition ; but it did not go into the elections, and nobody knew whether it would ever become a party question again. But General Jackson became President in 1829, and, in his message of 1830 or 1831, called the at tention of the country to the bank, whose charter would expire in 1836, with intimations of doubts as to its constitutionality. In 1832, preceding the Presidential election, and with a view to influence it, the opponents of General Jackson brought in a bill for the re-charter of the bank, and pressed it through both houses of Congress, in order to com pel Jackson to sign it before the election, or to en counter the opposition of the bank, and all its friends, in the coming election. Large numbers of Jackson's best friends, probably including a majority of the leading men in both houses of Congress, IIISTOKY OF THE NATIONAL BANK. 23 urged him to sign the bill. Not that they believed, or pretended to believe, that the bank ought to be re-chartered, but they were clearly of the opinion that if he did veto it, he would be defeated for re election, and the opposite party would come into power, and not only re-charter the bank, but carry out all their other measures, to which the Democratic party were opposed. Jackson replied, that the bank was unconstitutional, corrupt, and insolvent. He persisted in declaring it insolvent, though then at 130, but ultimately, not a cent on the dollar. He declared that he would veto it, if it was the last act of his life, and it sank the party with him ; telling those of his friends who were afraid of the conse quences, that they could desert and go over to the bank, and he would whip the whole of them. He vetoed it on the 10th of July, 1832, and was re- elected by a large majority in November of the same year on that issue. In September, 1833, Duane was removed from the Treasury Department because he refused to re move the deposits, which Jackson insisted on, upon the ground that the bank was corrupt and insolvent, using its funds to control elections, and to corrupt the people. Jackson sent for Roger B. Taney, and said to him, " You are Secretary of the Treasury. 24: HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL BANK. / want the deposits removed" Taney removed them, and then the excitement was still greater. Immediately the bank curtailed discounts in every part of the country at once, and refusing to discount for those who opposed the bank, broke every man not in its favor, still extending loans to those in favor, to buy the property of those who were obliged to sacrifice. The distress was terrible ; you can examine for yourself the petitions portraying it. There was the greatest panic, and the wildest frenzy, when Congress met in the winter of 1833. The Senate passed resolutions of censure. Jack son protested ; said he was not before them for im peachment. Many of Jackson's friends deserted him in the House, and they passed resolutions in favor of the return of the deposits. The Govern ment had seven, out of the thirty-five directors of the bank, and Jackson called on them to furnish a list of loans, by which he showed that nearly every member who had deserted him, had received loans from the bank. Henry Clay had got round for the bank, so also had Webster, who, in 1815, was against it, but was now a leader, and for it. It was a Whig measure. But Calhoun, who was the author of the bank charter in 1817, had got round, and was now declaring it palpably unconstitutional, HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL BANK. 25 but still declared that Jackson had violated the Con stitution in removing the deposits, and the opposi tion to Jackson on that question was conducted by Clay, Calhoun, and "Webster, in concert. Jackson appealed to the people at the next State elections on these questions, on the ground that the bank was unconstitutional and corrupt, using money to control elections and the people, and to buy up their representatives. This was in 1834 and 1835. The people responded, and returned a majority in favor of Jackson and his policy; and the Senate, there being a majority in both Houses in his favor, expunged the resolutions against him. The bank then again enlarged its discounts, stimulated the prices of property, of stocks, and the importation of goods, and the consequent means of revenue, beyond any parallel known in the world. The revenue was being piled up in the State banks to an unparalleled extent. The banks, on the strength of the surplus not used, increased dis counts, which increased importations and revenue. Speculations in the public lands raged in the same ratio, until their sales ran up in 1836 to twenty-four millions, as against the ordinary amount of three millions all paid for in bank notes, which same went into the bank again, and formed the basis of 26 HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL BANK. additional discounts, thus aggravating the evil, until Jackson discovered that unless that system could be checked, the State banks and all the banks in the country would necessarily be exploded, and the whole become insolvent ; the Government thus having its revenues piled up in them, which would exist on their books, but not in fact. With a view to check this, Jackson issued a circular, called Specie Circular, authorizing all receivers of public money to refuse any thing but gold or silver in pay ment of duties, or for lands. Instantly speculation was. checked, but every speculator became and was the inveterate enemy of Jackson and of his party. On the 4th of March, 1837, the charter of the National Bank expired, but the State of Pennsyl vania had, in the mean time, re-chartered it as a State bank, and under its new organization it had still increased its discounts. In May, 1837, the ex plosion came. The United States banks and State banks throughout the whole country suspended, be ginning in New York and Pennsylvania, and fol lowing in every city and town, as the news reached them, until in ten days there was not a specie-pay ing bank in the country. The Federal Government was instantly reduced to insolvency, without a dol lar ; the State banks being unable to pay, and the THE SUB-TREASURY. 27 national banks holding on to the specie. Every State became insolvent for the same reason, namely, keeping deposits in the banks, and the banks all failed. Merchants, insurance companies, all failed, and there was universal bankruptcy, Federal, State, and individual, throughout the length and breadth of the land. Mr. Yan Buren being President (1837) imme diately issued a proclamation to assemble Congress to provide a revenue, and in his message recom mended to Congress his celebrated Sub-Treasury scheme, which in the language of the day, proposed to divorce the Government from all banking insti tutions, and in place of them, as fiscal agents, to ap point Assistant Treasurers of the United States in the principal cities, who should receive and disburse the public revenue, keeping it in the United States Treasury, and making it a criminal ofience to re ceive or pay any thing but gold or silver, loan any public money, deposit it in any bank, or use it for any but public purposes. Calhoun joined Yan Buren, and dissolved his connection with Clay and Webster on the Sub- Treasury, and the Sub-Treasury then became the issue between the Whigs and Democrats. The banks and speculators all joined the Whigs. The 28 THE SUB-TREASCRY. Sub-Treasury bill passed in 1838 or 1839, and thus freed the Government from the banks. It took the country many years to recover from the general bankruptcy, and in 1840 the Whigs, with Harrison and Tyler, appealed to the public to make a change in the Government, charging the Democratic party as responsible for all the evils which had befallen the country ; that its policy had broken the National Bank and the State banks, and all the moneyed institutions of the country, and brought universal bankruptcy to every man's door, and crushed the merchants. The whole people be ing convinced that no change could be for the worse, financially speaking, determined to see if it could be for the better. Mr. Yan Buren was defeated, carrying but seven States two free, New Hamp shire and Illinois, with five Southern, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas. The Whig party having thus acquired the power, proceeded to repeal the Sub-Treasury, and to char ter a Bank of the United States, to take its place as the fiscal agent of the Government. General Harrison having died, Mr. Tyler became President, and vetoed the bank charter, in accordance with the principles which he had proclaimed during his whole life. It is here to be remembered that Har- POPULAR ARGUMENT AGAINST THE SUB-TREASURY. 29 rison and Tyler had been elected by the Whigs, but the "Whigs during the election had sunk the bank issue, keeping up their opposition to the Sub-Treas ury as an issue, and this in order to get the votes of the anti-bank Jackson men, who were opposed to Mr. Yan Buren and to his Sub-Treasury policy. But they revived the bank issue the moment they had succeeded in getting power. Harrison and Tyler were both against the bank. Mr. Tyler was always an anti-bank man, but was opposed to the Sub-Treasury. He therefore vetoed the bank char ter, but signed the bill repealing the Sub-Treasury. The popular argument against the Sub- Treasury was, that it provided one currency for the people and another for the Government ; that it increased the patronage of the Federal Government, by the ap pointment of sub-treasurers and agents at great cost, to keep the money, which had been previously kept by the banks for nothing ; that it would have the effect of drawing all the gold and silver through land offices and the customs into the Federal Treas ury, there to be locked up beyond the reach of the people, thus depriving the banks which furnished the currency of the country from having any specie basis with which to redeem their paper; that it made an odious, unjust distinction between the em- 30 ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF THE SUB-TREASURY. ployes of the Federal Government, who received their pay in specie, and the workingmen throughout the country, who received their wages in broken- bank paper. The argument in favor .was, that by requiring all public dues to be paid in gold and silver, it cre ated, a demand for specie, thus increased the specie basis in our currency, and kept the gold in the country by its constant circulation in being paid in and out of the Treasury in all Federal operations, in full accordance with the Constitution, which pro hibits any other legal tender than gold and silver ; that while the old system of depositing the public money in banks stimulated speculation and over trading by becoming a basis for increased bank issues,- which stimulated additional importations, and thus increased the surplus revenue in the banks as the basis again for additional circulation, this process constantly increasing and aggravating the evils which had lead to the explosion, on the other hand requiring gold and silver in payment of reve nue, and keeping that revenue in the Treasury of the country, produced a check upon the over-issues of the banks, and tended to restrain the excesses of speculation and overtrading, by withdrawing the surplus revenue from the circulation of the country, MEASURES OF TYLEE ? S ADMINISTRATION. 31 and confining the business of the country within its legitimate limits, while at the same time it rendered the Government independent of the banks, by al ways placing and having its revenue within its own keeping, not exposed to the danger of bank failures. In addition to the repeal of the Sub-Treasury, and the chartering of a National Bank, the Whigs in 1842 passed a high protective tariff, carrying the protective principle to a greater extent than had ever been done in the history of the country, and at the same time they withdrew their support from Mr. Tyler and his administration, denouncing him and his supporters as traitors to the Whig party for having vetoed the bank, although he had signed their bills for the repeal of the Sub-Treasury and for the protective tariff. Upon the expiration of Mr. Tyler's term of office the Democratic party again regained possession of the Government on those distinct issues by the election of ]tfr. Polk over Mr. Clay. It is proper to remark, however, that during the last years of Mr. Tyler's administration a treaty was made with the Republic of Texas for the annexation of that State to the Federal Union, which having been rejected by the Senate became one of the issues of the Presidential election, supported by the Dem ocrats and opposed by the Whigs. It had not been 32 MEASURES OF POLK ? S ADMINISTRATION. in the Senate, however, a party question. The old fogies of the Democratic party joined with the Whigs to reject the treaty. Immediately after their accession to power the Democratic party reestablished the Sub-Treasury system and repealed the protective tariff of 1842, and enacted in its place the revenue tariff of 1846, and also annexed Texas and admitted it into the Union, which gave rise to the Mexican war. The country acquiesced in the financial policy adopted by the Democratic party in 1846, since which time the tariff has ceased to be a party ques tion, the great majority of both parties now acqui escing substantially in the revenue principle in an tagonism to the protective policy, and the Sub- Treasury having worked so satisfactorily as to re ceive the support of all parties under every admin istration which has succeeded, without opposition or complaint. Here ends the financial chapter in our history ! ! PEOHIBITIOJST OF THE AFKICAN SLAYE TEADE. Art. I., Section 9, Clause 1. " The migration or impor tation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not exceed ing ten dollars for each person." THE section of the Constitution authorizing the prohibition of the African slave trade after the year 1808, had its origin in a disagreement between the delegates in the convention which framed the Con stitution. One party, particularly the delegates of South Carolina and Georgia, demanded the instant and unconditional prohibition of the African slave trade on moral and religious grounds, while the dele gates from the extreme South insisted that it was a legitimate commerce, involving no other considera tions than those of a sound public policy, which each 34 AFRICAN SLAVE TKADE. State ought to be permitted to determine for itself. Each party adhered to its position resolutely, with the distinct avowal that they would maintain it at all hazards, until both became convinced that the convention must break up without forming a Con stitution, and the Confederacy divide into two or more fractions, thus blotting out all the glories of the Revolution, and destroying its benefits, unless a com promise could be effected on the common ground of .such mutual concessions as were necessary to pre serve the Union, and independence of the States. Such a compromise was effected, and incorporated into the Constitution, by which it was understood that the slave trade should continue a legitimate commerce in those States which chose to sanction it, until the year 1808, from and after which time Con gress might, and would prohibit it forever through out the limits of America, and pass all laws neces sary to make such prohibition effectual. This was the understanding with which this section was incor porated into the Constitution. SUSPENSION OF THE WEIT OF HABEAS COKPUS. Art. I., Sec. 9, Clause 2. " The privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not he suspended, unless when in cases of Eehellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." WE have to consider the suspension of the writ, the power of anybody to suspend, except the Con gress, and then only under the circumstances de scribed, by the Constitution. The most memorable case in our history of sus pending the writ of habeas corpus without the au thority of statute was in 1814, when General Jack son was in command of the Southwest division of the United States, and was engaged in repelling an invasion of the British army under the command of General Packenham. General Jackson established his headquarters in the city of New Orleans, where he found an immense number of foreigners (they 36 WRIT OF HABEAS COBPUS. had recently come into the Union, and were French and Spanish), who had no sympathy with the United States, and were either friendly to the British, or preparing to make terms with the enemy to save their property. General Jackson suspected, among others, a man by the name of Lonelier with being a spy, and furnishing information to the British commander. Relying upon these suspicions, which he believed to be well founded, but without having legal evidence of the fact, and, having to provide for all this, previously declared martial law, he arrested and imprisoned him, and his supposed con federates. Judge Hall, of the United States District Court, issued a writ of habeas corpus for the release of Lonelier, and directed Jackson to bring him before the Court. To which Jackson replied by arresting the Judge, and sending him outside of the limits of the city, which he had previously declared to be un der martial law. About the same time General Jackson was in formed and believed, that the Legislature of the State of Louisiana, then in session in the city of New Orleans, were about passing an act surrender ing the city into the hands of the enemy ; and in order to prevent such a result, he sent a detachment WKIT OF HABEAS COEPUS. 37 of troops to surround the Legislative Hall, and hold the members as prisoners in their own hall, cutting off all communication with anybody except himself. He then proceeded to meet the enemy, which he did, first on the night of the 23d of December, 1814, and, finally, on the 8th of January, 1815, won the final battle, by which the British arrny were routed and returned to their ships, peace having been previously signed in Europe, and news of the fact reaching E"ew Orleans after the battle. General Jackson then withdrew his declaration of martial law, and restored the civil authorities. He then de livered himself up to the court, and was fined one thousand dollars, which he immediately paid. Afterwards, while General Jackson was Presi dent of the United States, he would never permit any of his friends to propose an act of Congress for the remission of his fine ; but after he retired from the Presidency such a proposition was introduced, from time to time, until it passed eventually, at the session of 1843, or 1844. Pending the bill for the remission of the fine, the opponents of General Jackson opposed the measure, upon the ground that his declaration of martial law and imprisonment of the civil author ities was a violation of the Constitution of the 38 GENEEAL JACKSON ? S FINE REFUNDED. United States ; consequently that it was the duty of Judge Hall to vindicate the dignity of his Court and the civil authorities by arresting and imprisoning him, and that the fine should not be refunded, for the reason that it would be licensing and sanction ing a violation of the Constitution, and cast a re flection upon the Court for having performed its solemn duty. In reply, the friends of General Jackson had all admitted the violation of the Constitution and laws by the declaration of martial law, but justified the act upon the ground that it was necessary to save the city of New Orleans, and the State of Louisiana from the ravages of the enemy. This necessity was admitted by the other side, but still it was argued, that having violated the Constitution, he must bear the consequences, although governed by patriotic motives. I was the first man who denied that Gen eral Jackson violated the Constitution, by his decla ration of martial law, and insisted that General Jackson having been charged under the Consti tution and laws with the preservation of the city of New Orleans and the surrounding country from the assaults of the enemy, was clothed with all the power necessary to the performance of that duty ; that by imposing a duty, the means necessary to its performance were included, and if the declaration of martial law was necessary and indispensable, as was admitted on all hands, that necessity conferred the authority and limited its extent and duration. The authority went just so far as the necessity ex tended, and ceased when it ceased. John Quincy Adams, while he denied the neces sity, admitted my argument, and though he voted against refunding the fine, he censured those who, believing in the necessity, also voted in the negative. The money was refunded. Art. I., Sec. 9, Clause 5. " No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State." For commercial purposes the whole United States are one State, or commercial district. They are not foreign to each other. Art. L, Sec. 9, Clause 6. " No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another ; nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another." This clause means simply that duties shall not be imposed simply because the vessel goes across the State line, nor that on entering State ports the ves- 40 RIVER AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. sel may not be obliged to pay the same duties of tonnage, etc., as vessels of the 'State to which the ports belong. See in this connection Art. I., See. 10, Clause 3. " No State shall without the consent of Congress" etc. Hence I hold that a duty may be imposed for river and harbor improvements, which question we will here consider, together with that of internal improvements. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. RIVER AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. THE advocates of a system of internal improve ments, by the Federal Government, do not agree among themselves in respect to the clause of the Constitution which confers the power. Some con tend that the power exists under the clause for " common defence and general welfare." The ad vocates of the power under this clause are again divided into those who claim it under the war power for the common defence, and who limit its exercise to such works as are necessary for the de fence of the country, while others claim that Con gress may make any road, canal, or other work of internal improvement which is for the general wel fare of the United States. Others again derive the power from the clause which authorizes Congress " to establish post-offices and post-roads ; " while the general opinion among those who advocate internal BIVER AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. improvements by the General Government,' and es pecially the friends of river and harbor improve ments, claim to derive the power from the clause which authorizes Congress " to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes." I, and others, contend that it is wiser and better to allow each State to improve its own rivers and harbors ; that the " duty of tonnage" was inserted for this express purpose, and for that reason, as asserted in delate at the time, and the form originally was, "that the States reserve the power for imposing duties of tonnage." But it was suggested that this would interfere with the power of Congress to regu late commerce, which ought to be exclusive, and it was then modified, as in the Constitution, so as to read, " without the consent of Congress" so that the States might not conflict with the general power of Congress, hut that ivith the consent of Congress ', they might lay duties of tonnage. It is generally conceded now that under the pro vision to provide for the general defence, Congress may construct such military works and roads as are necessary for that purpose, and are made for that purpose, but must not, under pretence of general defence, make artificial channels of commerce for INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 43 commercial, arid not military purposes. The gen eral welfare power is generally abandoned. Post- offices and post-roads are generally construed now, to confer the right to designate the route over which the mail shall go, ~but not to make the road. Under the power to regulate commerce a majority believe that Congress may improve rivers and harbors, but they doubt the expediency. A majority do not yet believe that the States may do so by means of duties. Calhoun spent the greater portion of his life in advocating internal improvements. He proposed to build an arched covered road from Buffalo to New Orleans. He was a visionary ! No Statesman ! On the subject of internal improvements, I refer you to the report of J. C. Calhoun, as Secretary of War under Mr. Monroe, and the message of Mr. Monroe in favor of a system of internal improve ments under the General Government. See also the veto messages of General Jackson upon the Maysville road bill, in Kentucky, and upon the Wabash River improvement bill ; the veto message of President Polk upon the Eiver and Harbor Im provement bill ; report of J. C. Calhoun to the Mem phis Convention, upon the improvement of the "Western rivers, in which he called them " inland 44: INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. seas," and to the history of the internal improve ment question in Wheeler's " Biographical Diction ary of Congress." In the beginning this question of internal im provements was as much a Southern as a ISTorthern one. In later periods the Democratic party of the South opposed it, except where members had works of improvement in their own districts. The Whig party generally, North and South, were for the system, and the Republicans, in 1856, endorsed the River and Harbor improvement system. I believe the power to improve navigation and natural channels to exist, but not to construct arti ficial ones. It has been held by the Supreme Court that the Federal Government, under the Constitu tion, by virtue of the power to regulate commerce, has jurisdiction over all navigable waters, whether within the States, or ~between, or upon the high seas. Hence the right to improve that navigation does not conflict with the reserved rights of the States, so long as it is confined within the acknowledged juris diction of the United States. But the right to con struct canals and railroads, and other artificial chan nels of commerce, within the limits of the several States, presupposes the right to exercise jurisdiction over the works thus constructed, which involves an POWER TO IMPROVE NAVIGATION. 45 invasion of the jurisdiction and reserved rights of the States. The Federal Government has exercised legisla tive jurisdiction over the navigable waters between and within the States in a variety of cases, such as the passage of laws regulating steamboats upon the rivers and lakes, as well as upon tidewater, even in cluding ferry-boats, and providing for the inspection of their boilers, and granting certificates by Federal agents of their capacity and soundness. This shows that the Legislative Department recognize this juris diction, as well as the Judiciary. The common law had its origin in England. It grew up from custom and immemorial usage. It was a principle of the common law that the mari time jurisdiction extended only so far as the tide ebbs and flows, because beyond that, they in England had no rivers or lakes which were navigable, and therefore no commerce. The principle of law, thus, merely conformed to the fact. "With us, we have lakes and rivers navigable beyond the ebb and flow of the tide, and while we have adopted the common law, the Court has held that we may extend the jurisdiction and legislate. We have legislated for rivers and lakes beyond the ebb and flow of the tide. 46 ADMIRALTY AND MARITIME JURISDICTION. though we have not extended admiralty and mari time jurisdiction. We thus conform to the reality, the principle, and not the name and the fact of the English common law. ARTICLE SECOND. OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER THE Convention had once agreed to fix the Presidential term of office for seven years, and in eligible. It was also proposed for life, for fifteen or twenty years, and afterwards changed to four years, and not made ineligible. General Washing ton fixed the principle of not more than two terms, and it has obtained the force of law. POWEE OF THE PRESIDENT TO MAKE REMOVALS AND TO FILL VACANCIES. Nothing said in the Constitution. In the early years of the Government it was decided, and has since been held, that the power of appointment in volves the power of removal, in all cases where the tenure of office is not prescribed in the Constitution. This was so- fixed by discussion in the first Congress of 1789, 1790, or 1791, in establishing some of the 48 POWER OF PRESIDENT TO FILL VACANCIES. Departments of the Government. It has also been held, and universally acquiesced in, that in cases where the appointment can only be made with the advice and consent of the Senate, the removal can be made by the President alone. The reason of this decision is not apparent, but practice and universal acquiescence have given it the force of law. Under the power to fill vacancies during the recess of the Senate, it has been held that the President cannot make an original appointment to an office which has been created by law but never filled. The commis sion the President gives during the recess of the Senate does not expire until the end of the next session, so that if on assembling the Senate do not confirm, he can wait until the end of their session, and then reappoint ; the person appointed remain ing in the mean time in the full and legal exercise of his office. This course was pursued by General Jackson when the Senate refused to confirm some of his appointments. ARTICLE THIRD. OF THE JUDICIAL POWER Section 2. " The judicial power shall extend to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction." To those cases only which were then known to the common and statute law, or to those also which should be subsequently added by law ? The better opinion is, that Congress may define what cases come within admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, but under this clause ought to confine themselves to such cases as are of that nature. " To controversies between citizens of different States." The Court has made a decision which it will be obliged to reverse, namely, that a citizen of a Terri tory is not a citizen of a State within the meaning of this clause. But they have decided that within the clause providing for uniform taxation he is a citizen of a State ; that he is for taxation but not 4 50 SLAVERY. for judicial purposes. They have got to reverse this decision. " The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." This clause is confined to civil rights, and does not extend to political privileges. The word "State" includes Territory. " No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." This clause defines who may be slaves, what a slave is, where he may exist as such, and by what authority. In a State only and under the laws thereof, and not under the Constitution of the United States. By virtue of State authority, not Federal. No person can be a slave under any other circumstances. The word State includes Territory, and every other political community recognized by law, and existing under the Constitution of the United States. "New States maybe admitted by the Congress into this Union." " New States " means what are now called Ter- POWER TO ACQUIRE TERRITORY. 51 ritories. According to present phraseology it would read, " Territories may be admitted," in the same sense in which Mr. Jefferson used it in his plan of 1784, and in which Mr. Madison used it in the Convention, in his proposition of powers to be added. The Dred Scott case decides that this is the only clause of the Constitution which authorizes the en largement of the boundaries of the United States, and the acquisition of territory, for the purpose of making new States. That the power to acquire, includes the power to apply tile territory to the purposes for which it was acquired, and to institute governments for the inhabitants living therein, and that these powers are all embraced within the clause authorizing Congress to admit new States. That this clause authorizes the acquisition of territory for the purpose of making new States, which is not in a condition at the time to be admitted into the Union, but may be retained until it has the requi site population, and is in a condition to be admitted. The requisite population is not fixed by the Constitution. The rule of Mr. Jefferson, in his plan of 1784, was, that the population of the new State to be admitted should be equal to that of the small est of the original thirteen. The rule now gener- 52 ADMISSION OF NEW STATES. ally considered correct is, that it should contain a population equal to that requisite for members of Congress under the existing ratio. The first time that the doctrine was advanced, that the right to acquire territory was included within the power to admit new States, was in a speech made by me on the annexation of Texas ; and the first time the doctrine was advanced that the power to establish territorial governments was like wise so included, was in a report made by me as chairman of the Committee on Territories, in Senate of the United States, on the 12th day of March, 1856. The general impression had previously been that the power to institute territorial governments was in cluded within the power " to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the ter ritory or other property belonging to the United States," which has been exploded by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, and the power traced to the provision to admit new States. The Supreme Court had previously recognized, or rather inti mated, but not expressly decided, the latter princi ple ; and some laughed at my report of 1856. " The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States ; and nothing in POWER TO DISPOSE OF PUBLIC PROPERTY. 53 this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State." Tliis clause relates to property, and not to per sons or communities. Its original form, as intro duced by Mr. Madison in the Convention, was, " Congress shall have power to dispose of the waste and unappropriated lands of the United States." It was referred, in this form, to the committee of detail, to be revised and incorporated into the Con stitution. The committee of detail changed " lands " into "territory," and added "other property," so that Congress should have the same power to dis pose of the old ships, munitions of war, and every other description of property belonging to the United States, which was no longer needed for public use. The committee also added the right to make " needful rules and regulations," in order that Congress might protect and regulate all such prop erty until it was disposed of. The history of this power clearly shows that it relates to property, and not to persons or communities. In the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court say that this clause was confined in its operation to the territory which the United States then owned at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and has no force in Florida, the Louisiana purchase, or the Mexi- 54 POWER TO DISPOSE OF PUBLIC PROPERTY. can or any other territory subsequently acquired. This is clearly an error, for unless the clause is in force in all the new Territories and States acquired since the- adoption of the Constitution, Congress would have no power to provide for the surveys and sales of the public lands, or for the appointment of land offices, t and the issuing of land patents, nor could Congress authorize the sale of military sites and other property not needed for public uses. HISTOEY OF THE ACQUISITIONS OF TEE- KITOEY BY THE UNITED STATES. THE LOUISIANA PUECHASE. THE first foreign territory acquired by the United States is known as the Louisiana Purchase. It was purchased of France in 1803, and comprises the whole country west of the Mississippi, as far as the Eocky Mountains, and, taken in connection with the explorations of Lewis and Clarke, was one of the sources of our claim to Oregon. When Mr. Jefferson instructed our ministers, Monroe and Pinckney, to acquire from Napoleon, then First Consul, a tract of country near the mouth of the Mississippi Eiver, they were only authorized to purchase that portion lying east of the Mississippi Eiver, and known as the Island of New Orleans, being bounded by the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi, the Iberville Eiver, or Pass Man- i 56 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. chac, as now called, and Lakes Ponchartrain and Borgne. "When our ministers made the proposition to Napoleon, he refused to sell the Island of New Or leans by itself, on any terms, but told them that they could have the whole of the province of Louisiana. They replied that their instructions limited them to the country east of the Mississippi, as the United States only desired the free navigation of that river, and possession of one of its banks, in order to secure that right. Napoleon persisted in his refusal to sell a part, but insisted upon their taking the whole, and it is said that he subsequently gave as a reason, that England and the other European powers were form ing a new combination against him, and that the British navy were about to sail against Louisiana, at a time when he had no means to prevent its cap ture ; that he was reduced to the alternative of per mitting that vast province to be captured by his most formidable enemy, or to transfer it to the United States upon whatever terms they would ac cept it, adding, whatever nation held the Valley of the Mississippi, would eventually be the most power ful on earth, and that, consequently, he preferred that a friendly nation should possess it, instead of the national, implacable enemy of France. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 57 Monroe and Pinckney took the responsibility of making the treaty for the whole country, without authority from the Government; and when it was presented to Mr. Jefferson, he hesitated in accept ing it, upon the ground that there was no authority in the Constitution for the acquisition of foreign territory ; and while he was willing to take the re sponsibility of acquiring a small district, which was necessary for the common defence, as well as the navigation of the Mississippi, which was the channel of commerce for at least one-half of the Eepublic, he doubted whether he ought to accept a grant of such gigantic proportions, which, when subdivided and formed into States, would change the character of the entire Confederacy. When he determined to accept the provisions of the treaty, he still hesitated whether he should not first submit the question to the several States, in the form of a proposition to t amend the Constitution for that purpose. At last he gave his own consent to accept the treaty, and send it to the Senate for ratification. This acquisition of territory became a partisan issue between the Federal and Eepublican parties of that day the former opposing, and the latter sustaining. The Senate ratified the treaty by the constitutional majority, and Congress immediately 3* 58 THE LOtftSIANA PURCHASE. passed a law authorizing the President to accept the possession of the territory, and to preserve order therein, and protect the inhabitants in their rights of person, property, and religion, until a regular ter ritorial government should be established. In 1805 so much of the Louisiana purchase as is embraced within the present State of Louisiana, was organized into a Territory, under the title and style of the Territory of Orleans, and the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio Eiver, with the ex ception of the Sixth Article, prohibiting slavery, were adopted as the basis of that government. The residue of the purchase, including the present States of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, the greater part of Minnesota, the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and what is known as the Dakota country, was formed into a separate Territory, under the name of the Territory of Louisiana. In 1812 the Terri tory of Orleans was admitted into the Union, under the name of the State of Louisiana, and the name of the Territory of Louisiana was changed to that of Missouri. FLORIDA, ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, AND LOUISIANA. 59 ACQUISITION OF FLOEIDA AND PAKTS OF ALABAMA, MIS SISSIPPI, AND LOUISIANA. In 1811 Congress in secret session passed an act, in vague and doubtful terms, to authorize the Presi dent of the United States, in certain contingencies, to take possession of a district of country south of the thirty-first parallel of latitude, and on the east of the Mississippi and Iberville Rivers, having refer ence to that portion of Alabama and Mississippi which fronts on the Gulf of Mexico, and so much of the State of Louisiana (I speak of the present State) as was not included within the Louisiana purchase, and which country was at the time not in the actual possession of any civilized power, although claimed by Spain as part of the Floridas, and upon which several lawless communities were residing; some deriving their titles from Spanish, and others from English grants, made while England was in tempo rary occupation of Florida, while the greater portion of them held by no other title than actual posses sion. Under this act Mr. Madison fitted out an expe dition on the Ohio River, which floated down the Mississippi, and took possession of the country, part of which was subsequently annexed to the State of 60 OREGON, TEXAS, CALIFORNIA, AND NEW MEXICO. Louisiana, and the residue was incorporated into the States of Mississippi and Alabama, by which those States were extended to the Gulf. FLORIDA, OKEGON, AND TEXAS, AND THE MEXICAN WAR, CALIFORNIA, AND NEW MEXICO. In 1819 a treaty was made between the United States and Spain for the acquisition of the Floridas, which was ratified in this country the same year, and rejected by Spain, but was subsequently recon sidered and ratified by Spain in 1821, by which our title to Florida takes effect from the date of the treaty in 1819. Florida was immediately organized into a Territory, and governed herself in that condi tion until 1838, when she called a convention, framed a Constitution, and applied for admission into the Union. Congress took no notice of this application, leaving Florida under the territorial government until 1845, when the State was admitted under the Constitution adopted in 1838. In the treaty of 1819, for the acquisition of Florida, was a provision establishing and defining the boundaries between the Spanish Mexican prov inces and the United States, by a line up the Sabine River; thence due north to the Red River ; thence up the Red River to a point where the one hundredth EE-ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. Cl degree of longitude, west from Greenwich, crossed tlie same ; thence clue north on said meridian to the Arkansas Eiver; thence up the Arkansas to its source ; thence due north to the forty-second parallel of latitude ; thence due west on said parallel to the Pacific Ocean or South Sea thus ceding to Spain, in part payment for Florida, the claim of the United States, which had been previously supposed to be valid, to the country between the Sabine and Eio Grande, and which was afterwards formed into the Eepublic of Texas. By the resolutions of the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore in 1844, when Mr. Polk was nominated for the Presidency, the Democratic party declared the ^-annexation of Texas, and the re-occupation of Oregon, to be objects which they intended to accomplish in the event of success. Much comment and ridicule has been indulged in, because of the BE-annexation and EE-occupation. By the ^-annexation of Texas, reference was had to the fact that it was originally embraced within the French province of Louisiana, and consequently be came the property of the United States, by virtue of the treaty of 1803, by which that province was acquired, and was subsequently ceded to Spain by the Florida treaty of 1819. By the ^-occupation 62 RE-OCCUPATION OF OREGON. of Oregon, reference was had to the first discovery and navigation of the Columbia River, in or about the year 1789, by Captain Grey, of Boston, with his ship Columbia, and to the exploration of Lewis and Clarke in the year 1805, and to the settlements and establishments of John Jacob Astor and his asso ciates, under the protection and authority of the United States, in the years 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813. During the war of 1812, a British ship-of-war entered the Columbia River and captured Astoria, hauled down the American flag, raised the British, and named the post Fort George, and held exclu sive possession of the country until after the treaty of peace. In 1818 a treaty was formed between the United States and Great Britain in respect to Oregon, by which it was agreed that the disputed title and boundary to the country should remain in abeyance, and that neither party would make any permanent settlements or establishments within the same during the period of the treaty, which was for twenty years, and until abolished. Notwithstanding the stipulations of this treaty, the Hudson Bay Company kept up their settlements throughout the valley of the Columbia, and estab- OEEGON TEEATY OF 1818. 63 lished new ones, under the protection of British laws, and, in fact, held the actual occupation of the country, with the exception of the Wilhamette Valley, in which American settlements commenced forming about 1832 or 1833, and gradually increased from that period. The American Government did not feel itself at liberty, under the existing stipulations of the treaty, to extend the protection of our laws over the American settlements ; and the American citizens finding themselves without government or protection, established a provisional government for themselves, upon the principle of popular sover eignty^ composed of executive, legislative, and judi cial departments, after the model of our State governments. The inhabitants lived peaceably and prosperously under this provisional government, maintaining order and preserving friendly relations with the Indians, until the month of August, 1848, when Congress organized the territorial government of Oregon, notice having been previously given to Great Britain for the termination of the treaty of joint occupation, as it was usually called, but more properly of ?i in all the Territories and "new States" hereafter to be organized and admitted into the Union. It had been the uniform custom of the Republi- 134 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS. can or Democratic party, from the period of its first organization until 1824, to have the Republican Democratic members of the two houses of Congress assemble in caucus near the expiration of each Presidential term, and nominate candidates for President and Yice-President of the United States, to be supported by the party. As the time ap proached, towards the close of Mr. Monroe's second term, for the Congressional caucus to assemble and nominate candidates for the succession, jealousies and rivalries arose in the Republican ranks, which divided the party into several factions, each rally ing around its favorite leader. Mr. John Quincy Adams, who had become a professed Republican, and was Secretary of State under Mr. Monroe, be came a candidate for the Presidency. Mr. "William H. Crawford, who was Secretary of the Treasury under Mr. Monroe, also became a candidate. John C. Calhoun, who was Mr. Monroe's Secretary of War, likewise became a candidate. Henry Clay, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and had acquired great reputation during the war as a popular leader, became a candidate ; while the friends of General Andrew Jackson, who had acquired great glory and renown by his Indian campaigns, and especially by the battle of New PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824. 135 Orleans, presented his name for the Presidency. While these several gentlemen were recognized as candidates by the country, and were supported by their friends as Republicans, and each, in the opinion of their friends, was pronounced the true representa tive of the Republican party ; a small portion of the members of Congress, who still had a great rever ence for the usages of the party, assembled in caucus, and nominated William II. Crawford, of Georgia, for President, and Martin Yan Buren, of New York, for Yice-President, and declared them to be the regularly nominated candidates, according to the usages of the party. The friends of Adams, Clay, Calhoun, and General Jackson, all refused to recog nize the binding force of the nominations made by the Congressional caucus, and appealed to the coun try to support their respective favorites. Before the time of election however arrived, the friends of Mr. Calhoun, in Pennsylvania, in which State he ex pected the largest support, because of his high tariff and internal improvement doctrines, withdrew his name, and united upon General Jackson as their candidate, and presented the name of Mr. Calhoun for Yice-President, in which movement Calhoun acquiesced. When the result of the election was known, it appeared that General Jackson had re- 136 ELECTION OF ME. ADAMS. ceived the highest number of electoral votes, that Mr. Adams stood next highest on the list, Mr. Crawford third, and Mr. Clay fourth, and that no one having received a majority, the election was re ferred to the House of Representatives, where, ac cording to the provisions of the Constitution, the choice was confined to the three highest; conse quently Mr. Clay was ruled out as being ineligible, by the House, where it was supposed that, in con sequence of his personal popularity with the mem bers, he would have been chosen, if eligible. Under these circumstances, it was conceded on all hands that Mr. Clay held the balance of power, and could give the Presidency to whichever of the three he preferred. The extreme ill health and pro tracted sickness of Mr. Crawford put him out of the question, and reduced the contest to the choice of either Jackson or Adams. Great doubts were for a long time entertained which Mr. Clay would choose, there not being cordial relations between himself and General Jackson, and a deadly hostility, in volving an adjourned question of veracity, existing between himself and Mr. Adams, whose conduct at the Treaty of Ghent he had fiercely denounced, charging him with having proposed to sell out the free navigation of the Mississippi River, out of hos- ELECTION OF GENERAL JACKSON. 137 tility to the West, for an interest in the Eastern cod- fisheries. It was charged at the time, and the name of James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, given as the author, that Mr. Clay sent a message to General Jackson, that he would make him President, pro vided General Jackson would appoint him Secretary of State, and that General Jackson indignantly re jected the proposition, declaring that his right hand should never know what his left would do. Im mediately afterwards the friends of Mr. Clay voted for Mr. Adams, and secured his election, and Mr. Adams appointed Mr. Clay Secretary of State. The whole land was filled at once with charges of bargain and corruption between Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, and a coalition was formed between the friends of Jackson, Crawford, and Calhoun, to op pose and break down the administration, and in 1828 all the opposition united upon General Jack son for President and Calhoun for Yice-President, and secured their election by an overwhelming ma jority. From the election of General Jackson dates the reconstruction of the old Republican party, under the name of the Democratic party, which has ever since continued with its organization intact, al though it has modified its position upon some of the questions upon which it was founded, while many 138 SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICATION DOCTRINE. others have in the progress of events become ob solete. Immediately after the inauguration of General Jackson, a violent opposition was organized by Mr. Calhoun and his Southern associates, against the protective tariff which had been adopted in 1828, and which soon gave indications of a settled pur pose to resist the collection of the revenue under the laws of Congress, by interposing State authority, claiming for its sanction the resolutions of 1798 and 1799. This doctrine was for the first time formally proclaimed and avowed in the Senate in 1830, in the famous debate between Hayne and Webster. The Legislature of South Carolina, under the advice of Mr. Calhoun, passed an act calling a Convention of delegates to be elected by the people of the State, to assemble, and by virtue of their sovereign power, as a member of the Confederacy, to annul the act of Congress, the tariff act, by pronouncing it null and void, and declaring that it should never be exe cuted within the limits of that State. Mr. Hayne, the leader of the nullifiers in the Senate, resigned his seat in that body, and accepted the office of Gov ernor of South Carolina, for the purpose of conduct ing in person State resistance to Federal authority, and Mr. Calhoun resigned his office of Yice-Presi- SUPPKESSION OF NULLIFICATION. 139 dent of the United States, and accepted a seat in the Senate to fill Mr. Hayne's vacancy, as the champion of nullification in that body. General Hamilton, of South Carolina, was appointed by Gov ernor Hayne commander-in-chief of the military forces of the State, and in order to produce a collis ion with the Federal authorities, purchased a vessel and sent it to Cuba to be laden with sugar and re turn to Charleston without paying duties. In view of these facts, President Jackson issued a proclama tion, warning the people of South Carolina of the perilous consequences of resisting the laws of the United States, and appealing to their patriotism to return to their allegiance, and avowing his fixed purpose to enforce the laws of the United States, and to reduce all rebels to subjection by the use of the whole power of the country if necessary. He also sent a special message to Congress, communica ting all the facts, and asking for additional powers and authority to enable him to enforce the laws ; and he did not hesitate on all occasions to avow his pur pose to seize and hang Mr. Calhoun the first instant that blood was shed. At this stage of the proceed ings Mr. Clay introduced into the Senate a bill for the modification of the tariff, which is usually known as Clay's Compromise Tariff Bill, by the provisions 140 of which the tariff duties were to be reduced by a regular ratio each year for ten years, when the high est rate of duty should be fixed at 20 per cent, ad va lorem. Mr. Calhoun accepted this bill as a compro mise, and it passed both houses of Congress and be came the law of the land. Thus ended nullification. When the tariff duties, in 1842, reached the standard of twenty per cent, ad valorem by gradual reductions, the Whig party, then being in power, passed a new protective tariff bill, known, accord ing to the party slang of that day, as the Black Tariff, which imposed higher protective duties, and was consequently more obnoxious to the free-traders of the South, than even the tariff of 1828. This tariff bill continued in force until 1846, when the Democrats, having succeeded to power under Mr. Polk, repealed it, and substituted in its place the revenue tariff of 1846, which continued in force until 1856, when, in consequence of the large sur plus revenue received under it, it was modified, with the view of reducing the revenue, without mate rially changing its principles. The Whigs held to the protective principle, and the Democrats the revenue principle. The following is the origin of the name of the Whig party : NAME OF WHIG PARTY. 141 After Genera] Jackson had vetoed the United States Bank in July, 1832, and removed the public deposits from the Bank of the United States in Sep tember, 1833, he was denounced by all the friends of the bank and the opponents of his administration as a tyrant, who carried out his own prejudices and purposes regardless of ]aw, and in violation of the Constitution. The Senate of the United States then consisted of a majority opposed to his adminis tration, in consequence of the coalition between Mr. Calhoun and his followers, and the opposition party, headed by Clay and "Webster, and which, from the time of General Jackson's election to the Presidency, had been known as the National Re publican party. At this period James Watson Webb, editor of the New York " Courier and En quirer," had received a loan from the Bank of the United States of $52,000, and on the next day his paper denounced General Jackson and his adminis tration, which he had previously supported, for ve toing the bank, and increased its denunciations when he removed the deposits, and appealed to all the op position to General Jackson by whatever name they had been previously known, or whatever might have been their past affinities, to unite in rescuing the Government from the hands of the tyrant, under the 142 NAME OF WHIG PARTY. name of Whig. He went into a history of the Whig party of England to show that it was an honored and revered name, and that its chief char acteristic was opposition to the prerogatives, usur pations, and tyrannies of the crown, asserting that such a party was then needed in this country to maintain the same position, and sustain the same principles ; and that for this reason he should here after call the opposition by the name of the Whig party. The opposition papers throughout the coun try generally copied General Webb's article and adopted the name, and in the course of a few months the party was known all over the Union as the Whig party. But while the name was changed from National Republican to Whig, the principles of the party remained the same. They continued to be the advocates of the Bank of the United States, of a protective tariff, and of a system of internal improvements by the Federal Govern ment these being its chief measures. The quarrel between Mr. Calhoun and General Jackson, early in his administration, led to a disso lution of General Jackson's Cabinet, in consequence of one portion of it being devoted to the political fortunes of Mr. Calhoun. Martin Yan Buren, the Secretary of State, who was General Jackson's es- JACKSON REORGANIZES HIS CABINET. 143 pecial friend, set the example to all the other mem bers of the Cabinet by tendering his resignation, upon the ground that no administration could be successful without unity in the Cabinet. The other members all followed Mr. Yan Buren's example, and General Jackson accepted the resignations of all the Cabinet, and, at the same time, recalled Louis McLane, of Delaware, who was minister to England, to accept a seat in his new Cabinet, and appointed Mr. Yan Buren his successor at the Court of St. James. When the Senate assembled, Mr. Calhoun and his friends made a coalition with the National Eepublican party, headed by Clay and Webster, to reject the nomination of Mr. Yan Buren as minister to England, upon the alleged ground that he had referred in an improper manner to our domestic party questions in an official de spatch to the Britisli Government, but on the real ground, as the country believed, of themselves strik ing a mortal blow at the success of General Jack son's administration. This attempt gave rise to a bitter and exciting debate in the Senate, in secret executive session, which was subsequently published. When the vote was taken the Senate was evenly di vided, and consequently it devolved upon Mr. Cal houn, the Yice-President, to give the casting vote, 144 VAN BTJKEN ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT. which he did, against the confirmation of Mr. Yan Buren. The moment this result was announced, the Democratic party throughout the country, and especially the friends of Mr. Yan Buren, raised the cry of persecution, and immediately placed his name at the head of their papers for Yice-P] esident of the United States in place of Mr. Calhoun, to preside over the same body which had rejected his nomina tion to England. A National Convention was held at Baltimore in 1832, by which General Jackson was nominated for the Presidency, and Mr. Yan Buren for the Yice-Presidency, by a unanimous vote, General Jackson having no competitors, and all the previous candidates for the Yice-Presidency with drawing in favor of Mr. Yan Buren. He was elected Yice-President at the same time that Gen eral Jackson was reflected President, and on the 4th of March, 1833, he took his seat as the presid ing officer of the Senate, Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, who had been the chief instruments of his re jection, being then all members of that body. The sympathy and enthusiasm created for Mr. Yan Buren by his rejection as minister to England, and the favor extended to him by General Jackson, in dicated him as General Jackson's successor so plain ly, that all competitors deemed it useless to contest FINANCIAL CEISIS OF 1837. 145 his nomination ; and all of the leading Democrats, who were unwilling to support the election of Mr. Yan Buren, had no other alternative than to take refuge in the ranks of the opposition under the lead of Clay. Webster, and Calhoun. Mr. Yan Buren was nominated at Baltimore in 1835, without oppo sition, as the Democratic candidate for the Presi dency, and, in November, 1836, was elected Presi dent by an overwhelming majority, the opposition to him in the Northern States voting for William Henry Harrison, and in the Southern, for Hugh S. White, of Tennessee. Within a few weeks after the inauguration of Mr. Yan Buren, on the 4th of March, 1837, the pe cuniary revulsion took place which caused all the banks in the country to suspend specie payments, and brought bankruptcy upon the Federal Treasury, being deprived of its revenues and the means of paying its debts and daily expenses, by the failure of the banks, with which the public revenues were deposited. Mr. Yan Buren was reduced to the ne cessity of convening an extra session of Congress, which assembled early in September of that year, and to which, in his annual message, he recom mended his famous Sub-Treasury measure, for the divorce of the Government from all banking insti- 10 146 MEASURES OF VAN BUEEN ? S ADMINISTRATION. tutions, and the collection of all the public revenues in gold and silver to be deposited in and paid out directly from the Federal Treasury. To the astonishment of all his political associates and allies, as well as of his adversaries, Mr. Calhoun gave his efficient and ardent support to the Sub- Treasury measure, and immediately became recon ciled to Mr. Yan Buren, and the ardent supporter of his administration. The Sub-Treasury was adopted by the two Houses of Congress, and became the law of the land. But the pecuniary revulsion was so great, and the distress of the community so over whelming, that the people of the country could not be made to believe that the Democratic party, and the Federal administration under General Jackson and Mr. Yan Buren, were not in a great measure responsible for the evils under which they labored. The Whig party assembled in National Convention at Harrisburg, Pa., on the 1st of December, 1839, and nominated General "W. H. Harrison, of Ohio, for President, and John Tyler, of Yirginia, for Yice- President ; and refrained from laying down any platform of principles, leaving the candidates en tirely uncommitted on every measure of public policy, and the party entirely free in each locality to appeal to the peculiar local prejudice, and to ELECTION OF GENERAL HAEEISON. 147 represent their candidates to be for or against each measure of Government, according as it was popu lar or unpopular in that particular neighborhood. The cry of change in the Government was the great rallying point, and the consequence was that Harrison and Tyler carried a majority in all the States of the Union except six, one Northern and five Southern. General Harrison died at the end of one month from the day of his inauguration, and Mr. Tyler took the oath and assumed the duties of the office of President. He immediately issued his procla mation for a special session of Congress, and invited the Cabinet of General Harrison all to retain their places as his Cabinet. When Congress assembled Mr. Clay assumed the leadership of the party, and arraigned the Democratic party as responsible for the evils which had befallen the country, and held them up as condemned criminals, with halters around their necks, ready to be led out to exe cution. His programme of measures for the new administration was the same that he had advocated as a member of Mr. Adams's administration, and as the leader of the National Republican or opposition party under the first term of General Jackson, and of the Whig opposition party during the second 148 TYLER'S SUCCESSION AND ADMINISTRATION. term of General Jackson and the one term of Mr. Yan Buren's administration, to wit : A National Bank, in the place of the Sub-Treasury ; a high pro tective tariff, in the place of his own compromise tariff of 1832 ; and a system of internal improve ments by the Federal Government. The Sub- Treasury was repealed, and a protective tariff passed. The latter was approved by President Ty ler ; but when they presented to him the bill char tering the Bank of the United States for his ap proval, he returned it with a veto message, giving his reasons for not signing it, upon the ground of want of power in Congress to pass the law, and re ferred to his votes and speeches and reports in Con gress, and, in short, to his whole political life, to show that he had always been opposed to a United States Bank, and was irrevocably committed against its constitutionality. Mr. Clay immediately denounced Mr. Tyler as a traitor to the Whig party and as false to those by whom he had been elected, and called upon the party throughout the country, and in both Houses of Congress, to withdraw their confidence, and to make war upon his administration. The leaders of the Democratic party, while they approved Mr. Tyler's veto of the bank, and sustained him in that THE TEXAS QUESTION. 149 one measure, withheld their support and counte nance from his administration, and left him without any party to rely upon for support, except five or six members of the House, headed by Henry A. Wise and Caleb Gushing, who were known as the " Corporal's Guard." All of the cabinet resigned instantly, with the exception of the Secretary of State, Mr. Webster, who continued to administer his department. When the annexation of Texas was urged by Mr. Tyler, Mr. Webster resigned, and Mr. Upshur, of Virginia, became Secretary of State ; and upon the explosion on board of the steamer Princeton, by which Judge Upshur was killed, Mr. Calhoun was appointed Secretary of State, and negotiated the treaty with Texas for the annexation of that Repub lic to the United States, which treaty was rejected by the Senate by a union of the leaders of both parties, more in consequence of hostility to Mr. Tyler and Mr. Calhoun, and to deprive them of the credit of the measure, than of any well-founded opposition to the measure itself. Upon the rejection of this treaty, the young men of the Democratic party, in the House of Repre sentatives, who did not participate in the intensity of the prejudice against Mr. Tyler, took up the measure and passed a joint resolution for the annex- 150 THE TEXAS QUESTION. ation of Texas. Under that form the measure passed both Houses of Congress, and was approved by Mr. Tyler only one or two days previous to the inauguration of President Polk. Texas accepted the propositions contained in the joint resolution for annexation, and in December, 1845, was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States. The Texas question, thus sprung upon the coun try by Mr. Tyler's administration, was the con trolling element in the Presidential election of 1844. The Whig party assembled in convention at Balti more early in May of that year, and nominated Henry Clay as their candidate for President. The delegates had already been elected by the con ventions in the several States to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, in June, 1844, a large majority, and in fact nearly all of them, pledged and instructed to vote for the nomination of Mr. Yan Buren, as the Democratic candidate. Mr. Clay and Mr. Yan Buren had, for months previous to the assembling of either convention, been universally regarded as the chosen candidates of their respective parties, and no other candidates had been thought of by either party, until Mr. Tyler threw this Texas fire-brand or bomb-shell PKESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1844. 151 into their midst. Mr. Clay and Mr. Van Buren each was confident that he could beat the other, on the old issues which divided the two parties, and were alike afraid to take either side of the Texas question, for fear of giving the other the advantage. Mr. Clay had been spending the winter with his friend Dr. Mercer in New Orleans, and in the months of March and April made a tour through the Southern States, on his way to Washington and Baltimore, to attend the "Whig National Convention. When he arrived at Raleigh, in North Carolina, he remained a few days, where he was met by Mr. Crittenden and other friends from Washington, who it was understood and believed bore assurances from Silas Wright and Mr. Benton, in behalf of Mr. Yan Buren, that if he, Mr. Clay, would take moder ate grounds against the annexation of Texas, and especially would ignore it in the approaching Presi dential election, he, Mr. Yan Buren, in behalf of the Democratic party, and already regarded as virtually the nominee, would do the same thing, and thus the leaders of the two great parties would crush out Tylerism and Calhounism, by ignoring the Texas question, and having a fair fight upon the old issues of their respective parties. Accordingly, Mr. Clay published at Raleigh his celebrated letter upon the 152 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1844. annexation of Texas, and a few days afterwards Mr. Yan Buren published at Kinderhook a similar letter upon the same question. While Mr. Clay had suffi cient control over the Whig party to induce them to accept the issue which he had made, Mr. Yan Buren's letter created a general revolt in the Demo cratic ranks. In Yirginia, the State central com mittee was immediately assembled, and released the delegates from that State from their instructions to support Mr. Yan Buren, there not being time to call a State convention for that purpose. The example of Yirginia was followed in other States, wherever there was time to act, and public meetings were called throughout the country, denouncing the position of Mr. Yan Buren on the Texas question, and demanding the nomination of some new man who was pledged to that measure. New candidates came into the field, springing up on all sides, ready to pledge themselves to the annexation of Texas, and joined in the general cry against Yan Buren, each supposing that he would get the nomination, if by their joint efforts they could defeat Yan Buren's nomination. When the Democratic Na tional Convention assembled at Baltimore, it was ascertained that there was still a majority of the delegates who considered themselves bound in honor THE TWO-THIRDS BULE. 153 by their instructions to vote for the nomination of Mr. Yan Buren, a large number of whom were, however, reluctant to give the vote, from the con viction that his nomination would inevitably result in the defeat of the party. On the other hand, the peculiar friends of Mr. Yan Buren, who comprised nearly one-half of the delegates, insisted upon his nomination, and declared openly that they preferred defeat with him to success with any other living man. In this state of the case, those who felt bound to vote for Mr. Yan Buren's nomination, but who were anxious that he should not be nominated, from the fear that it would result in the defeat of the party, joined with his open enemies in the readop- tion of an old rule which had prevailed in the pre vious conventions, requiring two-thirds of all the votes to constitute a nomination, and the two-thirds rule was adopted. Mr. Yan Buren received a ma jority of the votes on several ballots, but less than two-thirds, when his vote became less and less, until he was withdrawn ; when his friends, with a view of defeating the nomination of General Cass, who was the strongest candidate against him, and whom they regarded as the chief instrument in organizing the opposition to him, presented the name of James K. Polk, of Tennessee, having a letter already in their 7* 154 ELECTION OF ME. POLK. possession, committing him to the annexation of Texas. Mr. Polk was nominated by a large majority, by a union of a portion of the friends of Texas with the Yan Buren men. The nomination of ]VIr. Polk, with his known position in favor of the annexation of Texas, and also in favor of firm, high ground against the pre tensions of England in the Oregon question, made these two the leading issues in the election, and en abled him to defeat Mr. Clay. The annexation of Texas during Mr. Polk's ad ministration resulted in the Mexican war, the re- adoption of the Sub-Treasury, and the enactment of a revenue tariff, in place of the protective tariff of 1842. During the war, however, and when he asked for an appropriation of money to enable him to pay the first installment for any territory which he might acquire by a treaty of peace, the Wilmot Proviso, prohibiting slavery in the territory to be acquired, was suddenly sprung upon the House and the country, by the peculiar friends of Mr. Yan Buren, who had become very hostile to Mr. Polk, in consequence of his appointing Governor Marcy into his Cabinet, as the representative of the anti-Yan Buren wing of the party in New York, and now DIVISION IN THE NEW YORK DEMOCRACY. 155 took this course for the purpose of embarrassing him and of crippling his administration. As the time approached for the assembling of the National Convention at Baltimore, in the spring of 1848, to nominate the Democratic candidates for President and Yice-President, the contest became very fierce in the Democratic party in regard to the Wilmot Proviso; and two sets of delegates made their appearance at Baltimore from the State of New York, each claiming to be the true representa tives of the party, the one supporting and the other opposing the proviso. The Convention sympathized with the delegates who were opposed to the Wilmot Proviso, but, under the impression that the others had the regular organization of the party, declined to decide upon their respective claims, and passed a resolution for the admission of both sets of delegates, who should jointly, and in such a manner as they might agree upon among themselves, cast the thirty- six votes for the State of New York. The Wilmot Proviso Yan Buren delegates, however, refused to accede to this proposition, and declined to take seats in the Convention, upon the ground that they were the regularly appointed delegates, and had a right to cast the entire vote of the State. General Cass, of Michigan, was nominated for 156 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1848. President, and William O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Yice-President ; and when the Wilmot Proviso dele gates returned home to New York, they immedi ately issued a call for a State Convention of their followers, or wing of the party, to assemble at Her- kimer, at which Convention it was resolved to call a Convention of all the opponents to the extension of slavery, at Buffalo, in the month of August of that year. At the Buffalo Convention, composed of delegates from all the free States, Mr. Van Buren was nominated for President, and Charles Francis Adams for Yice-President. The "Whigs nominated Taylor and Fillmore, having no platform, and leav ing each State Convention to make their own. In consequence of the division of the Democratic party in the State of 'New York into two equal parts, be tween Van Buren and Cass, General Taylor received the electoral vote of that State, and was elected President of the United States. When the division in the New York Democracy arose, they were first called " Hunkers " and " Barn burners." The former were national men, the latter Wilmot Proviso men. Subsequently a compromise was made between the Hunkers and Barnburners, by which the party was reunited, and the electoral vote of the State given to General Pierce in 1852 ; THE NEW YORK DEMOCRACY. 157 but in consequence of the removal of Judge Bron- son from the office of Collector of the Port of New York, by Mr. Pierce's administration, the old con troversy was reopened, and when the old " Hunk ers," under the lead of Daniel S. Dickinson, with drew from the regular organization, and denounced Mr. Pierce's administration, Governor Marcy, who was Secretary of State under Mr. Pierce, and was the leader of the old " Hunker " party during the Wilmot Proviso controversy under Mr. Polk's ad ministration, together with Governor Seymour and other " Hunkers," remained with the regular or ganization of the party, and sustained Mr. Pierce. From this time Marcy and his "Hunker" friends, who had become identified with the " Barnburners," were called the "Softs," and Dickinson and his party of bolters assumed the name of the "Hards." THE TAEIFF. CLAY and Webster were leading protective tariff men. In 1816 or 1817 Webster was the champion of free trade. Commerce was then the leading interest of his constituency. But all this changed, and manufactures began largely to employ the labor and the capital of New England. Then Webster became a protectionist. On the other hand, in 1816 and 181 7, Calhoun was the champion of protection and when Webster became a protectionist, Calhoun became 2, free trader. Henry Clay was throughout always a protec tionist. This question of a protective tariff has been ar gued more upon grounds of its expediency and jus tice than of its constitutionality. Nobody even ar gued that the Supreme Court would have declared it unconstitutional. The Court would have said it THE TARIFF. 159 was a political question, which the Government must determine, and would not have annulled it. It would have said the political department had determined the question, and Government must have the choice of means. The clause of the Constitution which authorizes Congress " to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers," confers no power, but is declaratory of a rule of construction which would have been implied if it had not been specified, and is the best rule of construction. The means must be necessary, but need not be indispensable proper, but not the only proper ones ; and the discretion in choosing the means, where there are a variety of means, is vested within the scope of the Constitution, in the political department of the Government. The argument of the Democrats upon the tariff question has been, that the Government is limited to the powers delegated by the Constitution, and that those powers must be executed for tiiQ purposes of the Constitution ; and that while the Government has the right to tax imports for the purposes of revenue, it has not for the purpose of protection. The argument on the other side is, that while it imposes taxes on imports for revenue, it may do it 160 THE TARIFF. in such a manner as to protect domestic manufac tures; for example, tax high the foreign manu factured article, and admit free, or with a small tax, the materials of which that article is composed, so as to be manufactured in this country. The Democrats say this is an abuse of the power. The present tariff is, however, incidentally protective. The tariff question has ceased to be a political issue, there being men in both parties, and in all parts of the country, who take different views and stand upon both sides. THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. THE foundation of the present system was laid about the time the Constitution was adopted. It consists of a system of surveys, by which the public lands are first laid out into townships, six miles square ; each township is subdivided into sections of one mile square, so that there are thirty -six sections in a township ; each section is subdivided into four quarters, each one-half mile square ; each quarter section is divided into two eighty acre tracts, which are called half quarters, and are designated respec- tivelv as the east and west half of the northeast, northwest, southeast, or southwest quarter, and each eighty acre tract is again divided into two forty acre tracts. The following figure will illustrate : In this figure, A B represents the base line, and C D the meridian. The meridians are all numbered. The one chosen for illustration is in Illinois, and is the third principal meridian. 11 162 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. The figure represents a district of country divided into townships. A township must lie north or south of the base line A B, and east or west of the merid ian (third principal) C D. O. M. !N". P. would therefore be described as township 1, north 1, east 1, of the third principal meridian; or, T. 1, K 1, E. 1, 3 P. M. THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 163 Figure 2 represents a township divided into sections. They commence by numbering the sec tions at the northeast corner of each township. Snp- WEST Fig. 2. NORTH A EAST 6 5 4- 3 2 / 7 8 9 10 11 12 18 17 IS IS /4 /3 19 20 21 22 23 2k 30 29 28 27 28 25~ 3/ 32 33 3 35- 36 SOUTH pose this figure to represent township I, !N". 1, E. 1, 3 P. M., and that we wish to describe section thirty- five. It would be section thirty-five, township 1, north 1, east 1, 3 P. M. Formerly only one section in each township was given for school purposes, and this was section six teen. Since the admission of Minnesota two sec tions in each township are given, and these" are 164 THE PUBLIC LAltt) SYSTEM. Fig. 3. NORTH sections sixteen and thirty-six. I introduced this improvement. Figure three represents a section subdivided into quarters, which are the K E., S. E., K W., and S. "W. quarters of the sec tion respectively. Sup pose it to represent sec tion one, township one, north one, east one, -third SOUTH . . i . T j principal meridian, and you wish to describe the northeast quarter. It would be K E. i, S. 1, T. 1, K 1, E. 1, 3 P. M. WEST Fig. 4. A B EAST C EAST D Sour// C Figure four represents the same northeast quarter of same section, or any other quarter and section divided into eighty acre tracts, which are THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 165 designated as the east and west half of the north east quarter, section one, and so on. Figure five represents the same northeast quarter same section, or any other, divided into forty-eight tracts, or quarters of a quarter, and would be described as the N". E. J of the !N". E. J, and so on. This is the perfected system. The first step is the extinguishment of the Indian title by a treaty with the Indian tribe owning the possessory right, and which, like all other treaties, must be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate. The next step is the survey of the land according to the system above described. According to the existing laws, there is a pre emption right given to the settlers upon the lands. By the preemption law of 1841, and its subsequent amendments, a person may go and settle upon any lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished, erect his house, enclose a portion of the land, and cultivate the same. By making proof of these facts, residence, cultivation, and enclosure, before the land officers of the proper district, prior to the day of sale, the preemptor becomes entitled to buy the tract upon which he resides, and upon which his improve ments are located, not exceeding one quarter section, or one hundred and sixty acres, at one dollar and 166 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. twenty-five cents per acre, which is the minimum price at which the lands are sold. After the surveys are completed, Congress pro vides by law that all the lands situated within the following limits, describing them, shall constitute a land distract, by the following name or number, designating the district, and that there shall be -a laud office established therein, for the sale of the public lands within said district, and that the Presi dent shall appoint, by and with the advice and con sent of the Senate, a Register and Receiver for said land office. It is the duty of the Register to keep the records and plans of survey of all the lands within the district, and of the Receiver to receive all moneys in payment of lands sold by the Register. Before any of the lands are allowed to be sold at private sale, the President of the United States issues his proclamation, designating some future day, usually from three to six months distant, at which all or a portion of the lands within said dis trict will be offered at public auction, describing the lands in the proclamation by their numbers, and giving notice that, before the day of sale, all persons claiming preemption on any of said lands will be required to appear at the land office and make the requisite proofs in support of their claims, and to THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 167 pay the money for the same, otherwise they will be sold at auction the same as the other lands. When the day of sale arrives, the Register of the land office, with the maps before him, puts up each tract at auction, beginning with the east half of the northeast quarter of section one, in the "township, and thus exposing in their order each eighty acre tract or half quarter section to the highest bidder, receiving no bid less than one dollar and a quarter per acre, and striking oif the tract to the highest bidders. When the sales of the day shall have closed, a certificate is made out to each purchaser, describing the tract purchased by him, by its num ber and description, according to the system already explained. The purchaser presents this certificate to the Receiver as the evidence that he is entitled to that tract of land upon the payment of the money. The Receiver receives the money, and takes up the certificate, and gives the purchaser a receipt certify ing that he has paid the money for the land therein described, and stating the number of acres in the tract, the amount paid, and the rate per acre. This receipt is called a duplicate, for the reason that the Receiver makes out two at the same time, the other of which is forwarded to the United States land office at Washington, and upon which a patent 168 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. issues to the purchaser, over the signature of the President and the seal of the United States, written on parchment, which becomes the title deed of the land. When any tract of land is thus offered by the Eegister, and nobody present bids one dollar and a quarter per acre, the tract is struck off to the United States, and the next tract is offered in its order. The sales continue in this manner from day to day, until all the lands specified in the President's proclamation have been offered for sale, when the sale is declared to be closed, and all further business in the office is suspended for a certain number of days, to enable the land officers to make up their records, and transmit their returns of sales in due form to the General Land Office ; which being done, the land office, upon proper notice by the Register, is again opened, and all the lands are exposed from that time to private sale, with the privilege on the part of any person who wishes to purchase, to do so by applying to the Register for a certificate to the Receiver for any tract or tracts he may select, at one dollar and a quarter per acre, the minimum price fixed ; and upon delivering that certificate to the Receiver, and paying his money, he receives his duplicate, as in the case of a sale made at public THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 169 auction. But in case two or more persons apply to the Register at the same time, and for the same tract of land, the Register receives bids from each in the presence of the others^ and issues his certiiicate to the highest bidder, specifying the rate per acre, the number of acres, and the amount of money to be paid. Prior to 1820 the public lands were sold on a credit of one, two, three, four, and five years, at two dollars per acre, and that fact gave rise to the pro vision in the compacts between the United States, and the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Louisiana, and in short all the States admitted into the Union previous to 1820, by which each of said States pledged their faith, in consideration of certain grants of land for schools and internal improve ments, not to tax the lands of the United States within their respective limits for the period of five years after the date of sale. The object of this stipu lation was to prevent any person from obtaining a tax title under the authority of the State, before the United States had received the full amount of the purchase money. The credit system, for tjie sale of the public lands, produced the most ruinous consequences in stimulating s\3eculation and inducing people to pur- 1YO THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. chase vast quantities, for which they were not able to make payments in cases of pecuniary revulsions. This was partly the case in 181T-'18, and 1819, when the settlers upon the public lands, and others who were speculating in them, found themselves indebted to the United States for many millions of dollars which they were unable to pay, and being unwilling to forfeit the installments which they had paid, they petitioned Congress for relief, and a compromise, by which they might be permitted to receive a quantity of the land purchased equal to the payments they had made, and be released from the remainder, was asked for. The relief was granted, and the land system was changed so far as to abolish the credit system entirely, and to reduce the price from $2 to $1.25 per acre. A few years ago Congress passed an act known as the " Graduation Bill," to the effect that all lands which had been offered at public sale, and remained unsold at private sale for the period often years, should be reduced in price to one dollar per acre ; over ten years and less than fifteen, seventy-five cents ; over fifteen and less than twenty, fifty cents ; over twenty and less than twenty-five, twenty-five cents ; and over twenty-five years, twelve and a half cents per acre, provided that no person was permitted to enter THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 171 any land at these reduced prices, unless lie was an actual settler upon the same, and should make oath that he purchased the same for his own use and cul tivation, or that the lands were adjoining the farm upon which he did reside, and that the purchase was made for the purpose of enlarging his farm and for his own use, and not to be transferred to another ; and that in no case should any one person purchase more than one quarter section at the reduced prices. Under this law the most shameful abuses were per petrated by men making false oaths, entering vast tracts of lands, in some instances in the names of their infant children and grandchildren not even three weeks old, oftentimes by connivance of the public officers, and by hiring persons to enter lands in different districts. By reference to the compacts between the United States and the several new States admitted into the Union, it will be observed that the section numbered sixteen in each township throughout the entire State has been granted for the purpose of public schools ; seventy-two sections, equal to two entire townships, for the purpose of establishing a State University, and five per cent, of the gross proceeds of all the sales of the public lands within such State, together with all the salt springs, not exceeding twelve in 172 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. number, and one section to each, were granted to the State for the purposes of education and internal improvements, which grant was deemed and held to be in consideration of the surrender by such State of any equitable claim it might have to tax the lands and property of the United States within their limits. Some thirty years ago Congress granted to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the alternate sections for five miles on each side of the lines of certain canals, which said States proposed to make, to aid in their construction. No other reason seems to have actu ated or induced the action of Congress in these cases, except to aid those States in the construction of their works. In 1850 a Senator from Illinois introduced a bill granting to that State the alternate sections for six miles on each side of the line of the Illinois Central Railroad and its branches, on condition that the said State should make or cause said railroad to be made, within ten years from the date of the grant, and that the United States mails should be forever transported on the same, under the direction of the Post-office Department, at a fair compensation ; and in the event of a disagreement Congress should fix the same; and on the further condition that the other alternate sections should be sold at $2.50 per acre, so as to enable the United States to receive for the THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 173 reserved half as much as they claimed for the whole, and which thirty years' experience had shown that she could not get for the whole these lands hav ing been in the market during that period at $1.25 per acre, and remaining unsold. The bill passed, and the State granted the lands to the Illinois Cen tral Railroad Company, on condition that the com pany would complete the road within six years in stead of ten, and forever comply with the terms and conditions of the act of Congress in all respects. The -company completed the road in four years, and the United States sold all the lands within a few months at prices ranging from $2.50 to $7.25 per acre. All the grants which have been made to other States for railroads were founded upon ^the same principles as the Illinois case, ~but candor forces the admission that the same results have not been pro duced in any of the other cases. THE HOMESTEAD BILL. THE Homestead Bill, as it is called, has been advocated by its friends upon the principle that the United States had the power, under the express clause of the Constitution, to dispose of the public lands for any purpose which would promote the in terests of the United States, and that those interests would be more advanced by granting a quarter sec tion of land to every citizen who would build a house upon it and reside there with his family, and cultivate a crop each year for five years, than by keeping them out of market waiting for a purchaser, and then permitting them to go into the hands of speculators in vast quantities, to be held at prices ranging from $10 to $20 per acre, as is now the case with many millions of acres in the new States. My own idea is that the true policy would.be to stop the public sales altogether, and to grant the lands or sell them at advanced prices to actual settlers only, and THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 175 that in quantities not exceeding one quarter sec tion. Experience has proven that wherever the lands were surveyed and brought into market before the country was settled, the majority of the lands, com prising the timber, water privileges, and most val uable portions, have been purchased by capitalists and speculators in the old States, who have imme diately raised the price to $5- and $10 per acre, and waited until the few scattered settlers, by their im provements, should create demand and increase the value ; while in those portions of the country where the Government failed to complete the surveys, and bring the lands into market, for several years after the Indian title was extinguished, emigrants poured into the country in the mean time, and each settler occupied one quarter section for the use of his own family, and the country became more densely popu lated before the lands were offered in market than those other portions of the country were in twenty years after the lands were sold. This fact accounts for the denser population in the southern counties of Minnesota, and in the northern counties of Illi nois, as also for the sparse settlements in a large por tion of Iowa. The public lands stand on a "different footing from money raised by taxation, and the discretion 176 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. of Congress only controls the mode and manner of their disposition ; but Congress is bound by a moral obligation to exercise the power for the good of the Union. Reverting to the system of survey, I here call your attention to the fact that all persons must pur chase " legal subdivisions '." No one can buy by the single acre, unless that happens to be a legal sub division that is, a fractional quarter section con taining only that amount. Figure 6 is designed to show what is done with the fractions. It represents part of a township lying on the Illinois River. ,It will be observed that sec tion 16 is complete, and that sections 14, ABC, 15, C B D G H, 22, H G K, and 21, G F M N K, are fractional and incomplete. ABC not being a fraction within any section, constitutes a section by itself, and would do so if it only contained a single acre, and would be described as fractional section 14, and so on. In the same figure we have a similar fraction, ]ST O P, which does lie within a section, and if small in area, as we suppose in the present case, would be added to the !N" E fractional quarter, K G S P, and the whole would be described as the east fractional half of section 21, and so in any similar case. THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. m H G K in the figure is a fractional section. If the fraction N O P were large enough to be surveyed, it would then be the S. E. fractional quar ter of section 21. If, in the case of B K H, the smaller portion were added to the greater, it would be indicated by dots (n) on its line, as in the figure, and it would be the east fractional half of section 15 ; so also the dots in G S P 1ST O would indicate this addition of the smaller part, N O P. These marks are sometimes 12 178 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. fraudulently erased, or accidentally omitted by the surveyor, and great speculations are sometimes made in these fractions. A case occurred some years ago where a man applied to enter five or ten acres in Cincinnati, which were built upon, and were im mensely valuable, and the commissioner refused, on the ground that not knowing whether the dots had been there or not he would suppose them to be there, and Congress subsequently passed a law confirming the title of the other proprietors. So also there was a case in Chicago involving the question whether these dots were on the line C D in figure 7 or not. If the dots ( 1 1 ) were on the line C D, then C E F D was included in the fractional quarter section, section 10, 1 believe ; so that it was included in the entry and purchase made by a man named Kinzie in 1815 or 1820. About 1835 Murray McConnell, being familiar with land speculations, came to Chi cago, and, on looking over the map, concluded that C E F D was not so included, and he entered it. The people raised a mob and compelled him to give up his duplicate, and the land office rescinded the entry, and Congress subsequently passed a law con firming the Kinzie title. The lots had been sub divided by him, running down to the river as in the THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 179 figure. A suit lias now arisen between other parties involving title, and McConnell steps forward and claims it on the ground that he had entered it, and of being compelled by force to give it up, that the Fig. 7. FRACTIONAL QUARTER OF SECTION 10. land office could not rescind the purchase, and that the subsequent act of Congress divesting title was unconstitutional, and therefore that the land is his. This case involves the question of the dots, and illus trates to you the speculations in fractions. The Illinois Central Railroad case involves this principle again, arising out of the same tract of land. (See figure 8.) 180 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. Fig. 8. A m NEW MOUTH In the first place, were these dots or cross lines on the line C D, as in the last case ? The Chicago River formerly took a bend, leav ing the sand-bar F H. An appropriation being made for the improvement of the Chicago River and harbor, the engineer cut right through this bar as indicated above, and it was subsequently washed away. M N" O P \vas a military reservation. The THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 181 Illinois Central Railroad brought their road into the city, in front of Michigan Avenue, on the lake, as indicated by the dotted lines, and bought of the War Department the small tract M R S P, so as to secure the water right, and then built out, by filling in, the square K S T Y, on which they located their depots, and which comprises several acres, and is worth two millions of dollars. A Mr. Bates bought the portion D C E F, which would include the sand-bar. I advised the railroad at the time of this fact, but they paid no attention to it. The sand-bar would be included in Mr. Bates' purchase. McConnell interposes his claim as already explained, and in all probability the railroad will have to pay either the one or the other. I have stated that a man buys legal subdivision, but it is to be added that they are subdivisions ac cording to the maps and surveys of the United States, which, though often inaccurate, are yet taken to le true, and no proof is admitted to the contrary. So that a man must buy according to their surveys, and consequently pays for whatever the maps show, and gets whatever there actually is, whether more or less than the maps indicate. The following figure will serve to show you the inac curacies in the surveys : 182 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. Fig. 9. Suppose, first, a winding river, as they often are, and navigable. The surveyor fixes upon A, as a point from which to measure his actional line A B, one mile in length, divides at C, and makes his survey as far toward the river as the dotted line, excluding the other as marsh land, and not worth any thing, and calling it fifty acres. A man buys this marsh land, and there is in reality one hundred acres. He pays for fifty and gets a hundred. Again, the river takes a bend, and the surveyor imagines a line M O, as if it took that direction, and calls M N P one THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 183 hundred and fifty acres, and there are but one hun dred. Generally speaking, there is more land in these fractions than the maps show. A preemption right not entered and paid up is not transferable, or, in other words, all transfers of preemption rights made before the patent issues are void. Good, of course, afterwards. BOUNTY LANDS GIVEN TO SOLDIERS AND SPECULATIONS THEREIN. After the close of the Mexican war, Congress passed a law granting one hundred and sixty acres of land to each volunteer for his military services, in addition to his pay, in the same manner as Con gress had previously done for the soldiers in the war of 1812 with Great Britain. Since the Mexican war Congress had also made grants of bounty lands to all soldiers, whether in the war of 1812 or the Mexican war, or any of the Indian wars, of one hundred and sixty acres each, to all who had served a certain length of time, three months, as I recollect, or of eighty acres for a less period, which, I think, extended to at least fourteen days. A paper called a land warrant was issued to each soldier, specify ing the particular service for which it was issued, the act of Congress authorizing it, and the amount 184: THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. of land to which he was entitled, which warrant he was at liberty to locate upon any of the surveyed lands of the United States which had been offered at public sale, and still remained unsold. By a subsequent act of Congress these land warrants were made assignable by endorsements upon the back, ac cording to the form prescribed by the department. The warrants thus became a subject of speculation, the same as State bonds or any other securities, and were located by the holder in his own name, as the assignee of the soldier, and when presented at the land office were received in payment for the amount of lands specified in the warrant, in lieu of money, and the land officers were required in their reports to specify each tract of land thus paid for by war rant, in contradistinction to the lands sold for cash. These grants of land proved of no service to the poor men who were intended to be benefited. The land warrants were bought up for a song by land agents and speculators. SALT SPETBTGS. When Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were Terri tories, there were several salt springs in different portions of them, which were deemed valuable for the manufacture of salt, and which for that reason THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. 185 were reserved from public sale by the United States, and were leased to persons who wished to work them. When these States were admitted into the Union, the Government having found the manage ment of the salt springs inconvenient, and costing more than the rents obtained for them, ceded them to the States in which they were situated. Since that time the grant of the salt springs in each new State has been made for no other or better reason than that there were precedents on the statute-book, and that each State claimed them, although the springs have ceased to be of any considerable value, and have nearly all been long since abandoned for salt works. In the grant to each State the number is limited to twelve, because, wherever there was brackish water, the State might undertake to con sider it a salt spring, and on this pretext claim many entire sections of land. BAD RESULTS OF LAND GEANTS. One of the principal bad results has been, that they have produced great corruption in Congress in procuring the grants. It having been supposed that the Illinois Central Railroad would make immense profits in consequence of the great value of the lands granted, combinations were formed in other States 186 THE PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM. where the public lands were situated, to procure charters from those States for the construction of railroads on certain specified lines, and containing clauses transferring to the companies all lands granted or to be granted by Congress in aid of the construction of the said roads. The corporators in these companies immediately acquired large pecu niary interest in procuring large grants from Con gress, which would enure to themselves the mo- O 7 ment they were granted, and, in order to procure these grants, would make combinations in Con gress, by which they would convey in advance large tracts of land to the friends of the members of Con gress as a compensation for their influence in pro curing the grants. HISTOEY OF THE ILLINOIS CENTEAL EAILEOAD BILL. THE Illinois bill was the pioneer bill, and went through without a dollar, pure, uncorrupt, and is the only one which has worked well. As early as 1835 the Illinois Legislature granted to D. B. Holbrooke a charter for the Illinois Central Eailroad, and also for the construction of a city at the mouth of the Ohio Eiver, called Cairo, and vari ous other charters for enterprises connected with his proposed improvements at Cairo. Before Mr. Hol brooke had taken any steps to construct the road, the Illinois Legislature, at the session of 1836 and 1837, commenced a system of internal improve ments at the expense and under the control of the State, which system embraced the construction of the Illinois Central Eailroad among other works, and they repealed the charter granted to Mr. Hol brooke for that road. After spending a large 188 ILLINOIS CENTRAL BAILBOAD. amount of money on these various works, including over a million of dollars upon the Illinois Central road, the credit of the State failed during the pecu niary revulsion in 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840, and the works were all abandoned. Mr. Holbrooke again applied to the State for a charter to construct the road, which was granted to him and to his asso ciates, together with all the work that had been already done, on condition that he would proceed and construct the road. Mr. Holbrooke, through his friend and partner Judge Breese, Senator from Illinois, applied to Congress for a preemption right to enter all the lands at any period within ten years, on each side of the line of said road, at one dollar and a quarter per acre, and Senator Breese reported a bill to that effect from the Committee on Public Lands of the Senate, and urged its passage. His colleague, Mr. Douglas, denounced the proposition as one of extravagant speculation, injurious to the interest of the State, inasmuch as its effect would be to withhold eight or ten million acres of land from settlement and cultivation for the period of ten years, until they should become valuable in conse quence of the improvements made by the settlers upon the adjacent lands, without imposing any obli gation on the company to make the road, or to pay ILLINOIS CENTEAL BAILKOAD. 189 for any of the lands, except those which they should in the mean time sell at advanced prices the bill, in fact, creating a vast monopoly of the public lands. Mr. Douglas then introduced into the Senate a counter-proposition, which was to make the grant to the State of Illinois, of alternate sections. For details see the bill itself. Mr. Holbrooke and his agents used their influence to defeat this bill, be cause the grant was made to the State, instead of to the company. Mr. Douglas succeeded in passing it through tne Senate, with almost a certain prospect of its passage in the House. When it was supposed that the grant was certain to become a law, Mr. Holbrooke and his agents went directly to Illinois, when the Legislature was in session, but at a time when no person in Illinois supposed that the bill would pass Congress, and procured the passage of a law making several important amendments to his charter. After the Legislature adjourned, and after the land grant had been defeated in Congress, fortunately, but unexpectedly, by two votes, Mr. Douglas returned home, and upon examining the manuscript acts of the Legislature before they were printed, discovered that a clause had been surrepti tiously inserted into the amendments of Mr. Hol brooke's charter, conveying to his company all the 190 ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. lands -granted or which should be granted to the State of Illinois, to aid in the construction of rail roads in that State! This act purported to have passed the Illinois Legislature on the very day on which the final vote was taken in Congress upon the grant of lands. Upon inquiry of the Governor, Secretary of State, and members of the Legislature, they all denied any knowledge of this particular clause in the act, and no one could account for its being in the act, nor did any one know at what time it was inserted, or by whom. By an examina tion of the journals it appeared that the Legislature had at the same time passed resolutions instructing their Senators and requesting their Representatives in Congress to vote for the grant of land, although it had already passed the Senate, and all the Repre sentatives were supporting it in the House. Mr. Douglas repaired immediately to Chicago, and made a public speech, in which he exposed this act of the Illinois Legislature in giving away the lands which Congress proposed to grant to the State, and de nounced it as an act of fraud and corruption, and pledged himself to defeat any grant of land in Con gress which should come to Mr. Holbrooke or his associates, or to anybody except the State of Illinois. It was never ascertained how the amendment was in- ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. 191 troduced ; probably some enrolling clerk was bribed. When Congress assembled at the next session, Mr. Holbrooke made his appearance, and urged Mr. Douglas to renew his bill for the grant of land. Mr. Douglas showed him a bill which he was about to introduce, commencing the road at a dif ferent point on the Ohio River, and running it to Chicago on a different line from the Illinois Central, and making it a condition of the grant that it should not enure to any railroad company then in exist ence. Mr. Holbrooke begged Mr. Douglas to save Cairo, where he had lodged his entire fortune. Mr. Douglas consented, provided he would release his charter for the road, and his charters for the various improvements at Cairo. Holbrooke went to New York, and as president of the company executed the release, and returned with it to Washington. Mr. Douglas then told him he thought he was a swindler, and had resolved to cheat somebody, but was not wise enough to cheat him, and that he ought to know, and did know, that neither the president nor the directors alone could make a valid release ; that he must first summon a meeting of the stockholders, have them instruct the directors, and the directors instruct the president. He 192 ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. thereupon returned to New York, and brought back a satisfactory release, setting forth the meet ing of the stockholders and of the directors. I had furnished him with an outline of a proper release. I don't know whether the stockholders ever did actually meet, but there was the seal, the signature, and the proceedings set forth, and that was enough. I immediately sent the release to the Secretary of State of Illinois, to be filed and recorded, and requested him to telegraph me upon its reception. I waited until I received the telegraphic despatch, and then called up the bill and passed it through the Senate. I had previously told Holbrooke that if he did not leave the city I would denounce him in open Senate, as I did to the Senate, and that I would not allow even a suspicion that so great a scoundrel as he, was in any way connected with the measure. The bill passed the House by three majority, and I was confined to my room in great pain by an abscess in my thigh, rendering a surgical operation necessary, when Mr. Holbrooke returned and walked into my room. I allowed his presence, it being no longer necessary to quarrel with him. We had some conversation, when he offered, if I would surrender the release, to deed to me one-half of the lands granted, over two and a half ILLINOIS CENTRAL KAILKOAD. 193 millions, and worth twenty millions. I jumped for my crutches, he ran from the room, and I gave him a parting blow on the head. He did not know that I had sent the release home to Illinois, to the Secre tary of State. The bill, when first introduced, had been opposed by the Senators from Mississippi, Davis and Foote, on the ground of its unconstitutionally, and also by the Senators from Alabama, King and Clemens, and by the members of the House from those States. Immediately after its first defeat, I went to my children's plantation in Mississippi, and from there to Mobile, intending to see the president of the Mobile Eailroad, then building, but which had been stopped, and failed for want of means. I inquired the way to his office, found it and himself, and for tunately all the directors, who had just had a meet ing, and knew what to do. I proposed to him to procure a grant of lands, by making it part of rny Illinois Central Eailroad Bill, which they assented to. I then told them that their Senators and Repre sentatives must vote for the bill. They said they would. " No I " I replied, " they have already voted against it. It is necessary to instruct them by the Legislatures of your States." One of the directors, Foote, was related to Senator Foote, of Mississippi, 13 194 ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. and said he would have this done, and that Foote should never be reflected to the Senate unless he did vote as was required. The others all thought they had sufficient influence to secure instructions from the Legislatures of Alabama and Mississippi. I told them it was necessary to keep quiet, and secret, as to my connection in the matter. They promised this, and we all returned to Montgomery, Alabama. They begged me to stop with them, but I went straight on to Washington, being afraid to be seen in those parts. After I arrived in Wash ington, the instructions came from Alabama, and King came, and cursed the Legislature. Davis did not know what in the world was the matter, and refused to believe it. Soon after came instructions, by telegraphic report, from Mississippi ; Davis swore, and a few days after came his letters and written instructions. Then they wanted me to assist them. I told them, by way of brag, and to conceal my connection with their instructions, that they had refused to support my bill, and that I could carry it without them ; but I finally yielded, and consented to King's proposition (I allowed it to come from him), to amend my bill, so as to connect the Mobile road thus making a connection be tween the latter and the Gulf of Mexico. Some ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. 195 time afterwards I prepared an amendment Mr. Rockwell, of Connecticut, a good lawyer, assisting me and gave them notice that I was going to call up the bill in the Senate. When I did so, I found that Foote, Davis, King, and others were absent from the Senate room, and I sent a boy to their committee rooms to summon them. They came in haste, King saying that he had not pre pared an amendment, and that he did not know what was required, and asking me to draw one for him. I told him I had anticipated this, and showed him the amendment which I had prepared. I then made my motion in the Senate, and Mr. King then rose, and with great dignity asked the Senator from Illinois to accept an amendment which he had to offer. I did so. They all voted for the bill, and it passed the Senate, and went to the House. All this occurred during the excited times of slavery discussion and agitation in 1850. When the bill stood at the head of the calendar, Harris, of Illinois, moved to proceed to clear the Speaker's table, and the motion was carried. We had counted up, and had fifteen majority for the bill pledged to support it. We had gained votes by lending our support to many local measures. The House proceeded to clear the Speaker's table, 196 ILLINOIS CENTRAL BAILROAD. and the Clerk announced " A bill granting lands to the State of Illinois," et cetera. Then you could see the opposition start up. A motion was imme diately made by the opposition, which brought on a vote, and we found ourselves in a minority of one. I was standing in the lobby, paying eager atten tion, and would have given the world to be at Harris's side, but was too far off to get there in time ; and it was all in an instant, and the next moment a motion would have been made, which would have brought on a decided vote, and have defeated the bill. Harris, quick as thought, pale and white as a sheet, jumped to his feet, and moved that the House go into committee of the whole on the slavery question. There were fifty members ready with speeches on this subject, and the motion was carried. Harris came to me in the lobby, and asked me if he had made the right motion. I said, " Yes," and asked him if he knew what was the effect of his motion. He replied it placed the bill at the foot of the calendar. I asked him how long it would be before it came up again. He said, " it would not come up this session ; it was impossible, there were ninety-seven bills ahead of it." "Why not then have suffered defeat ? It was better that we did not. We then racked our brains, or I did, ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. 197 for many nights, to find a way to get at the bill, and at last it occurred to me that the same course pur sued with the other bills would place them, each in its turn, at the foot of the calendar, and thus bring the Illinois bill at the head. But how to do this was the question. The motions to clear the Speaker's table, and to go into " com mittee of the whole" on the slavery question, would each have to be made ninety-seven times, and while the first motion might be made by some of our friends, or the friends of the other bills, it would not do for us, or any one known to be a warm friend or connected with us, to make the second motion, as it would defeat the other bills, and alienate from us the support of their friends. I thought a long while, and finally fixed on Mr. of , who, though bitterly opposed to me, we having often had warm and excited passages of arms on political questions, I yet knew to be my warm admirer and personal friend. Living up in , he supported the bill, but did not care much one way or the other whether it passed or not; voted for it, but was lukewarm. I called him aside one day, stated my case, and asked him if he would place me under obligations to him by making the second motion, as often as was necessary. He said 198 ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. yes, provided that Mr. , of , whom he hated, should have no credit in the event of the success of the measure. I replied that he would have none. Harris, then in the House, sometimes twice 6n the same day, on others once, either made himself, or caused the friends of the other bills to make the first motion, when Mr. would im mediately make the second. All praised us ; said we were acting nobly in supporting them. We replied, " Yes, having defeated our bill, we thought we would be generous, and assist you." All cursed Mr. . Some asked me if I had not influ ence enough to prevent his motion. I replied, he was an ardent antagonist, and that I had nothing to do with him, to the truth of which they assented. Finally, by this means, the Illinois bill got to the head of the docket. Harris, that morning, made the first motion. We had counted noses, and found, as we thought, twenty-eight majority, all pledged. The Clerk announced " a bill granting lands to the State of Illinois," and so on, reading by its title. The opposition again started, were taken completely by surprise, said there must be some mistake, that the bill had gone to the foot of the calendar. It was explained, and tne Speaker declared it all right. A motion was immediately made by the opposition ILLINOIS CENTRAL EAILEOAD. 199 'to go into committee of the whole ; it was negatived by one majority, and we passed the bill by three majority. If any man ever passed a bill, I did that one. I. did the whole work, and was devoted to it for two entire years. The people in Illinois are beginning to forget it. It is sometimes said, " Douglas never made a speech upon it." The Illinois Central Railroad Company hold their lands now by virtue of the release from Holbrooke, which I procured. INDIANS AND INDIAN INTEECOUKSE LAWS. THE Government of the United States recog nizes the possessory right of the Indian tribes to the country occupied by them, and protects the In dians in the enjoyment of such rights against mo lestation % or invasion by anybody. While it recog nizes this possessory right in the Indians, of which they cannot be deprived without their consent, it denies the irright to dispose of their lands, or to hold intercourse with anybody except the United States or their duly appointed agents. The mode adopted for extinguishing the Indian title is by treaty between the United States and the several tribes, which treaties, like all other treaties, are to be ratified by the Senate. In order to protect the Indians in their right to occupy their lands, Con gress has enacted a system of laws which are usually known as the " Indian Intercourse Laws." These INDIAN INTEECOUESE LAWS. 201 laws make it a criminal offence for any person to invade or enter the Indian Territories without per mission of the Government, or to trade with the In dians in any respect whatever, and also make it a criminal offence for the Government agents or any body else to sell ardent spirits to the Indians. They provide for the appointment of Indian agents by the President and Senate, to reside among the various tribes, and to see that the Indians are not molested by white people, and that the intercourse laws are not violated either by the Indians or whites. They provide also for the appointment of licensed traders among the various tribes, who supply the Indians with blankets, clothing, provisions, and other articles adapted to their use, at certain fixed rates of profit above the wholesale cost, and prohibit all other persons from trading with the Indians. They pro vide also for the appointment of persons called " farmers," who reside among the Indians, and teach them the arts of agriculture, the use of the implements, and the mode of planting, cultivating, and preserving the crops. These traders, farmers, and licensed persons residing among the Indians, are all under the general superintendence of the In dian agents of the respective tribes, and these agents themselves act under the direction and instructions 202 INDIAN INTERCOURSE LAWS. of tlie Superintendent of Indian Affairs for each territory or district for which a superintendent is appointed ; and the superintendents act under the direct authority of, and are responsible to, the Com missioner of Indian Affairs, who resides in "Wash ington, and is the head of the Bureau in the Depart ment of the Interior known as the Indian Bureau. THE KECIPKOCITY TEEATY. THE increase of population and business along the entire extent of our Northern frontier, and upon the great lakes, rendered a more intimate and liberal in tercourse between the Canadas and the United States necessary to the interest and convenience of both countries, and also created a necessity for procuring, on the part of the United States, the right to use and navigate the Welland Canal, connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario, and by which the Falls of Niagara are avoided ; and also for the navigation of the river St. Lawrence, and the use of the locks and short canals around the falls, arid obstructions in said river. The necessity for an arrangement to cover these points was deeply felt by the Canadians as well as by the Americans interested in the trade of the great 204: THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. lakes. As an illustration of the inconveniences aris ing out of the former restrictive policy, it will be borne in mind that the transportation from Chicago and all other points west to the eastward, consisted chiefly in wheat, corn, beef, pork, and other heavy and bulky articles ; whereas the freights up the lakes, westward, consisted in drygoods, manufac tured articles, and ordinary merchandise, so that one vessel freighted with these articles could carry up the lakes goods of sufficient value to pay for the freight of ten vessels down the lakes, and conse quently a large portion of the vessels which carried full cargoes down the lakes were under the neces sity of returning with very slight or no cargoes. It soon became the habit of vessels to touch upon the Canadian shore, and to take in building-stone, fire wood, and lumber, for the purposes of ballast. But when they arrived in Chicago with their cargoes, the duty was frequently greater than the value of the cargo, and the consequence was that hundreds of vessels were known to throw their entire cargo over board into the lake, rather than pay the duty, and this at a time when the articles were in demand at Chicago and at all other points on the lakes. These in conveniences were felt also in the shipments of wheat and other American products from the upper THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. 205 lakes to Oswego, and other points below on their way to New York, not only in consequence of the high duties on the Welland Canal, but from the fact that they had to pay duties in Canada for the im portation of those articles from the United States, when they were only in transitu / while the Cana dians, who found it to their interest during a great portion of the year, when the St. Lawrence was closed by ice, to send their wheat and other prod ucts to New York by the railroads and canals, were prevented from doing so by the duties which they were compelled to pay by the United States, in con sequence of entering our territory. These considerations suggested the propriety of an arrangement between the two countries by which certain articles of growth and manufacture in each might enter the other free of duty, and permitting the United States to use the canals and the St. Law rence River for purposes of navigation on an equal footing with the British subjects, and without paying any other or higher duties. Failing to procure any such arrangement by treaty, General Dix, of New York, Mr. Douglas, and others, proposed bills in the Senate, making the propositions in the form of re ciprocal legislation, for the accomplishment of their object. Pending these measures, however, a treaty 206 THE RECIPROCITY TREATY. was made between the United States and Great Britain, which is known as the Reciprocity Treaty, by which these objects were accomplished. This was in 1850 or 1851. THE MONKOE DOCTRUSTK WHAT is known as the " Monroe Doctrine " had its origin and name in a recommendation of Presi dent Monroe, in one of his messages to Congress, at a time when Spain was making arrangements to re conquer and subdue her various colonies in America which had revolted, and established their independ ence in 1819-'20, and ? 21. It was apprehended by the American Government that the despotic powers of Europe, after the overthrow of Napoleon and the reestablish ment of the despotic sway in Europe, would lend their aid to conquer and subject these Spanish colonies, which had then become inde pendent States ; and that while a portion of them would, in this event, be restored to Spain, the others might be divided among the various powers of Eu rope. In view of this probable result, President Monroe declared, in his message to Congress, with a view of its being taken as notice to all Europe, 208 THE MONEOE DOCTRINE. that no portion of the American continent was here after to be deemed open to European colonization, and that the United States would consider any such attempt as imposing upon them the obligation to take such steps as were necessary to prevent it. This declaration assumed the name of the Monroe Doctrine ; and it has frequently been appealed to by American statesmen as a rule to l>e inflexibly ad hered to, whenever any European power has threat ened or attempted to extend its dominions upon the American continent North, South, or Central America. This doctrine did not contemplate any in terference on the part of the United States with the existing rights or colonial possessions of any Eu ropean power, "but was a protest against the exten sion of their power and policy in the future. CENTKAL AMERICA. THE CLAYTON AND BULWER TREATY. THE oldest possession which Great Britain claims in Central America is that which is known as the " Balize Settlement," dividing Nicaragua and Hon duras on the one side from the Mexican State of Yucatan on the other. More than a century ago some British merchants sent out ships, and cut and loaded them with logwood at the Balize, which at that time belonged to Spain. In making a treaty of peace between Spain and England, a clause was in serted continuing the permission to cut logwood, without conveying any right of soil or dominion to England. Under the permission to cut logwood, England founded a settlement at the Balize, with no fixed or definite boundaries ; and she has en larged and extended it from time to time, and or ganized it into a colony, without paying any atten- 14 210 CENTRAL AMERICA. tion to the territorial rights or boundaries of the adjoining States. About the same time England pretended to have made a treaty with a small tribe of Indians called the Mosquitos, upon the coast of Central America, and to have guaranteed to the Indians the protec tion of the British Government. Some years ago, perhaps twenty, the British Government sent an agent to the Mosquito coast, and found an Indian boy part Indian and part mulatto who was said to have been the son of a Mosquito Indian chief, and took him over to Jamaica and had him crowned as the king of the Mosquitos, took him back again to his own country, and put him in nominal pos session of his alleged inheritance, but, in fact, under the direction and control of a British consul on that coast. This Mosquito country was within the char tered limits of the State of Nicaragua, and conse quently the Indian tribes, the Mosquitos included, were subjects of the State of Nicaragua, and in capable of establishing a government independent of that State. This was the condition of affairs in Central America when the war between the United States and Mexico was brought to a close. It was under stood, and in fact not denied, that Great Britain THE CLAYTON AND BULWER TREATY. 211 used her entire powers of diplomacy to encourage Mexico, and to defeat any treaty of peace by which the United States would acquire any Mexican ter ritory. On the day that it became known at Yera Cruz that a treaty of peace had been signed, by which California and New Mexico were transferred to the United States, the British fleet set sail from Vera Cruz and proceeded directly to the mouth of the San Juan River, in Central America, and took possession of the town of San Juan at the mouth of the river, changed its name to Greytown, and established British authority there, in the name of the Mosquito king, to be exercised by the British consul, and, in fact, converted into a British depend ency. The United States protested against this act, as being an aggression upon the territorial rights of Nicaragua, and as being prompted by hostile mo tives toward the United States, it having for its object to close up the only channel through which the United States could establish and maintain com munication between the Atlantic States and our newly acquired possessions on the Pacific. The controversy growing out of this seizure of that transit route lead to the Clayton and Bulwer treaty. It is proper, however, to remark, that during the last years of Mr. Folk's administration, 212 THE CLAYTON AND BULWER TKEATY. he had appointed Judge Hise, of Kentucky, minister to the Central American States, and that Judge Hise had negotiated a treaty on the part of the United States, with the State of Nicaragua, by which the United States were invested with the ex clusive right of constructing a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, through the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, together with the right of establishing towns and free ports at each end of the canal, and of fortifying the same and placing the whole line of the canal and its banks, from ocean to ocean, under the exclusive protection of the United States. This Hise treaty was signed in Central America while Mr. Polk was President, but did not reach the United States until after the inauguration of General Taylor, and the appoint ment of Mr. Clayton as Secretary of State. Mr. Clayton refused to accept this treaty, and sent an agent to Central America to have it cancelled, and a new treaty made by which the said canal should be placed under i\\Q joint protection of Great Britain and the United States. Mr. Clayton then negoti ated with Sir Henry Bulwer the Clayton treaty, by which his scheme of a joint protection to the transit route was recognized, and a provision in serted, by which Great Britain and the United THE CLAYTON AND BULWER TREATY. 213 States pledged their faith, each to the other, that neither of them would ever colonize, annex, fortify, or exercise exclusive dominion over any portion of Central America. After the terms of this treaty were agreed to by Clayton and Bulwer, Mr. Clayton refused to sign it until he could procure from two- thirds of the Senators a private pledge that they would ratify it, which being done, he signed the treaty, and sent it to the Senate for ratification. Mr. Douglas was the only man in the Senate who made any active opposition to the ratification of the treaty. He opposed it upon the ground that he wanted no partnerships with Great Britain in re spect to the transit route ; that such a partnership would be productive of constant misunderstanding and disputes, instead of being a bond of peace ; and he urged that the Senate reject the treaty, and call upon the Executive to send to the Senate the Hise treaty, that it might be ratified, with such amend ments as the Senate might see fit to make, in order that we should have the exclusive control over the transit route, and might open it to the world on such terms as were compatible with American in terests. Mr. Douglas especially opposed the treaty, upon the ground that he would never enter into any compact with Great Britain or any other European 214: THE CLAYTON AND BULWER TREATY. power in respect to the American continent, by which the faith of the nation should be pledged, for all time to come, never to annex or colonize such portions of the continent as our interest and safety would inevitably compel us to annex at some future day. He did not desire to annex the country then, but insisted that the time would come when we would be compelled to exercise jurisdiction over that transit route. All objection, however, to the treaty proved useless, as nearly the whole Senate had been committed to it privately, in advance, and when the vote was taken there were but eight votes recorded in the negative in the whole Senate. The main argument urged in favor of the ratifi cation of the treaty, was that it drove Great Britain out of Central America, by abolishing the British protectorate over the Mosquito coast. To this Mr. Douglas replied, that while Great Britain had no right to any protectorate over that coast, such pre tended right was not abolished by the treaty, but on the contrary, equivocal language was used in it, which, when ratified, Great Britain would claim recognized the existence of such protectorate, and gave her the right to maintain it in the future. The treaty had been no sooner ratified, than Great Britain did claim that her protectorate was THE CLAYTON AND BULWER TREATY. 215 still in existence, recognized and acknowledged by the United States, and she has from that day to this persisted in this claim to a protectorate. All this occured in secret session in 1850, and within the next three years I tried often to get the Senate to remove the injunction of secrecy, so that I might publish my views. In 1853, three years afterwards, the English extended their influence, and took possession of Ruatan. Cass, in the Senate, began to get frightened. All that I had predicted had come to pass. Cass made a speech denouncing Clayton and the treaty. This was occurring about the time when Clayton retired from the office of Secretary of State. Soule entered into the discus sion, and in the course of their speeches, both he and Cass, forgetting that the injunction of secrecy had not been removed, quoted what had occurred during the secret session of 1850, or thereabouts. Nobody interrupted them, and I thought now is the time to get my speech and my views before the public, so I went to a Senator and said to him, " Look here, Soule and Cass are quoting what occur red in secret session ; suppose you move the Senate to go into secret session, and have the injunction removed, so that they can do so." The Senator started up, mischievously ; Soule apologized, said he 216 THE CLAYTON AND BULWER TREATY. was not aware that the injunction had not been re moved; the Senate went into secret session, and the injunction was removed. Clayton retired from the office of Secretary of State, went back to Delaware, and said Cass had been abusing and slandering him, and that it was necessary for him to reply, in order to vindicate himself, promising to annihilate Cass. He was re- elected to the Senate, and could have annihilated Cass, for the latter had taken the wrong ground, and Clayton was very powerful in debate. Cass vanished, said his wife was sick, and that he had to go home to Detroit. Clayton came on ready with a speech, which would have just fitted Cass, and asked where he was. He was told Cass's wife was sick, and that he had gone home, and then turning to me, said, " No matter, what he had to say could equally be addressed to me as Cass's follower." When Clayton got through, I made my speech, which used him up. I stated all that I had previously said in the secret session, when the treaty was ratified, and a good deal more. The speech made a great impression upon the country, and gained me great fame and reputation, and the treaty has been odious ever since. THE PACIFIC KAILKOAD. THE first idea of a railroad to the Pacific origi nated more than twenty years ago, and the first demonstration, that I am aware of in favor of the project was in a public meeting at Dubuque, Iowa, about 1838. A man by the name of Eli Whitney some fifteen years ago petitioned Congress to make a grant of one hundred millions of acres of land to him, to enable him to construct a railroad to the Pacific, and offered, as security for the faithful appli cation of the lands to that object, the pledge of his honor, he being a broken-down merchant at the time, and having no means of support, and he now keeps a dairy farm near this city. His application was renewed for several sessions, and was backed by a large number of speculators in and out of Congress, but it received very little favor. The measure was more seriously entertained 218 THE PACIFIC KAILKOAD. after the acquisition of New Mexico and California, and the settlement of the northern boundary of Oregon, and the organization of the Oregon Terri tory. As early as 1845, Mr. Douglas proposed a grant of alternate sections of land to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, to aid in the con struction of a railroad from Lake Erie, via Chicago and Rock Island, to the Missouri River, and pre pared a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, extending from the Missouri River to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and the Territory of Ore gon, to extend from the same summit to the Pacific Ocean, and to reserve to each of said Territories the alternate sections of land for forty miles on each side of a line of railroad, from such point on the Missouri River as the road from Lake Erie should cross the same, and thence to the navigable waters of the Pacific, in the Territory of Oregon, or on the Bay of San Francisco, in the event that California should l>e annexed in time. Not that this annexa tion was then improbable, but -this was inserted to attract public attention to the subject. With a view of calling public attention to the importance of this road, Mr. Douglas issued an address to the people of Illinois, in support of the measure, which was widely circulated throughout the country. THE PACIFIC EAILKOAD. 219 Since the admission of California into the Union in 1850, a project for a Pacific Railroad has been introduced into both Houses of Congress at each session, and has been favorably reported upon by a select committee in each House. The main pro visions of these bills were, that Congress should make an appropriation of lands, varying in the dif ferent bills from fifteen to forty sections per mile, from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and then providing that the President of the United States should receive sealed proposals from contract ors for the construction of the road ; the contract ors to construct the road at their own expense, and to own it as their property, when constructed ; and that the United States would make a donation of the lands to be conveyed to the company so far and so fast as the road should be completed through the same ; and that the United States would make a con tract in advance for the transportation of the United States mails, army and navy supplies, and all other freights for the use of the Government at fair prices to be determined by the bids. These bids were to be received on the following points : first, within how short a time will the contractors complete the road ? second, at what rate per annum will the con tractors carry the mails and other Government 220 THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. freight, for a period of twenty years, from the com pletion of the road ? When all the bids were re ceived, it was made the duty of the President, in the presence of his Cabinet, and such other persons as chose to be present, to open the bids and assign the contract to those contractors whose bids should be most favorable to the interests of the United States, having in view the shortness of time within which they would construct the road, and the cheap ness of transportation upon it. The last bill reported to the Senate also proposed that the United States should loan to the contractors their five per cent, bonds to the amount of twelve thousand five hundred dollars per mile, for each mile of the road, which was to be repaid to the United States in mail and other Government service upon the road. During the Presidential canvass of 1856, the Democratic party pledged itself, by a resolution of the Cincinnati Convention, to support a Pacific Railroad ; and the Republican party, by a resolution of their National Convention at Philadelphia, gave a similar pledge ; and during the canvass, each of the Presidential candidates, Buchanan, Fremont, and Fillmore, wrote letters advocating the measure. But notwithstanding these pledges by all the par ties and all the candidates, the friends of the rneas- THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 221 ure have never been able to get a majority vote in its favor in either House of Congress. I doubt whether there has been a majority for the measure ; not a majority in fact, only a professing majority. They are divided on routes and plans. Can a great work like this go in advance of the growth and settlement of the country ? No, it will hardly be executed in advance of the growth and settlement of the country, THE END. D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. A STANDARD BOOK OF REFERENCE. T KE HOUSEHOLD BOOK OF POETRY. Collected and Edited by CBARLES A. DAM. Tenth Edition. Royal 8 vo. 798 pp. Beautifully printed. Half mor., gilt top, $ ; half calf, extra, $ ; mor. ant. , $ . "The purpose of this book is to comprise within the bounds of a single volume whatever is truly beautiful and admirable among the minor poems of the English language. * * * Especial care has also been taken to give every poem entire and unmutilated, as \vell as in the most authentic form which could be procured." Extract from Preface. " This work is an immense improvement on all its predecessors. The editor, who is one of the most erudite of scholars, and a man of excellent taste, has arranged his selections under ten heads, namely : Poems of Nature, of Childhood, of Friend ship, of Love, of Ambition, of Comedy, of Tragedy and Sorrow, of the Imagination, of Sentiment and Reflection, and of Religion. The entire number of poems given is about two thousand, taken from the writings of English and American poets, and including some of the finest versions of poems from ancient and modern languages. The selections appear to be admirably made, nor do we think that it would be possible for any one to improve upon this collection." Boston Traveller. " Within a similar compass, there is no collection of poetry in the language that equals this in variety, in richness of thought and expression, and of poetic imagery." Worcester Palladium. "This is a choice collection of the finest poems in the English language, and supplies in some measure the place of an extensive library. 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