o HI if TiHlE HI .11 DTTEE) SIM IKICt, E(Do LL THE HISTORY .OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WITH A CONTINUATION, INCLUDING TUB BY CHARLES MACKAY, ESQ., LL.D. ti\\\ Sled (Jngrabings anb Colaurcb VOL. IT. LONDON : TIRTUE & CO., CITY KOAD AND IVY LANE. \ iv f CONTENTS. BOOK III. THE ADMINISTRATION OF JACKSON AND VAN BUREN. PAQB CHAP. I. Progress of the Union under Jackson's Presidency. Removals from Office. The United States' Land System. Protection. "Nullification." Jackson's Vetoes/- Changes in the Cabinet. The Great Bank Question. Jackson Re-elected." Nullifica- tion" Extinguished. The " Compromise" of 1833. The Bank and Currency Controversy. Public Distress. Clay's Resolutions. The Gold Coinage. Attempt to Assassinate Jackson. Commercial Speculations. Election of Van Buren 216 CHAP. II. Progress of the Union under Van Buren's Presidency. Monetary and Mercantile Embarrassments. A New Party in Opposition. The Independent, or Sub-Treasury Scheme. Opening of the Twenty-sixth Congress. .Movements and Combinations Preparatory to the ensuing Presidential Election. Break-down of the Reform and Retrenchment Policy. Election of General Harrison 290 CHAP. III. The Independence of Texas. Filibustering in the North, and the Affair of the Caroline. The Exploring Expedition 306 CHAP. IV. Northern or Free States. Michigan State. Iowa and Wisconsin Territories. State Constitutions amended. Local and Sectional Affairs. Indian Removal. Com- merce and Manufactures . . . . 31 8 CHAP. V. Southern or Slave-holding States. Arkansas State. The Constitution of Florida. State Constitutions Revised and Amended. State Action on Public Questions. " Nullification," and the Ordinance of South Carolina. The Cherokee Controversy with Georgia. The Florida War. Indian Removal. Gold Mines. Trade and Agriculture. Slavery. Texas V, .*' >" . . . .327 BOOK IV. THE ADMINISTRATION OF HARRISON AND TYLER. CHAP. I. National Affairs during this Period. Death of Harrison. Extra Session of Congress. National Bank Schemes Bank Vetoes. Changes in the Cabinet. The Whig Mani- festo. M'Leod's Trial. Texian Filibustering. The New Tariff. The Exchequer Plan. Treaty of Washington. Right of Search. The Brig " Creole." Settlement of the North east Boundary Question. The Oregon Question. Treaty with China. Sympathy for Ireland. The " Native American " Party. Annexation of Texas. Election ot James KnoxPolk 356 CHAP. II. States' Affairs during this Period. Florida. Iowa. State Constitutions amended. Local Affairs. Mormonism. Filibustering. " Hunters' Lodges." Repudiation. Trade and Commerce. Relations with tht Indians. Slavery 393 BOOK V. THE ADMINISTRATION OF POLK ; AND THE MEXICAN WAR. CHAP. I. National Affairs during this Period. The Annexation of Texas. The Oregon Question. The new Tariff. The Sub-Treasury." The Wilmot Proviso." The Oregon Convention. Aid for Ireland. The Compromise Bill. New Parties, and Changes in old Parties. Election of Taylor and Fillmore. The Coast Survey. El Dorado discovered. Treaties with Foreign Powers. Organisation of California. Railways to the Pacific. The Slave-state Convention . . . . . . . . . -..-., .412 CHAP. II. The Mexican War. Mexico. Texas. Hostilities Commenced on the Rio Grande, Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca De la Palma. Convention of Monterey. Expeditions against California and New Mexico. Expedition against Vera Cruz. Battles of Biiena Vista, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Cherubusco, and Molino Del Rey. Mexico taken. Termination of Hostilities. Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo . . ',_> .* -/ . . 432 III. States' Affairs during this Period. Texas. Iowa. Wisconsin. Territories of Oregon and Minnesota. Constitutions amended and renewed. Local Affairs. President's Tour. Trade and Commerce. Indian Affairs. Slavery . . . .482 CONTENTS. T BOOK VI. THE ADMINISTRATION OF ZACIIARY TAYLOR AND MILLARD FILLMORE. riQB CHAP. I. Memoir of General Taylor. His Inauguration, Address, and Cabinet. The Census of 1850 492 CHAP. TI. Discovery of Gold in California. Acts of Congress relating to the Discovery of Minerals 500 CHAP. III. Meeting of Congress. President Taylor's First Message. The Skvery Question in Congress : Clay's and Bell's Resolutions. Death of President Taylor, and Succession of Fillmore "... 503 CHAP. IV. Biography of Fillmore. Passing of the Fugitive Slave Act. Northern Opposition to it. The Reasons that rendered it necessary .532 CHAP. V. Death of Senator Calhoun. Biographical Notice. Memorial Speeches by Webster and Clay .541 CHAP. VI. President Fillmore's First Annual Message. Close of the Thirty-first Congress. Acts of the past Session. Opposition to the Fillmore Administration. Meeting of the Thirty-second Congress. Presidential Message . . 545 CHAP. VII. Acts of Congress. The Expedition to Cuba. Proposal of England and France for a Treaty to secure the Spanish Possession of Cuba. President Fiiltnore rejects the Proposal. Letter of the Secretary of State. Arrival of Kossuth. He applies for Intervention . . >.,;.>'; . . -V . . -. .* . . . . . . 553 CHAP. VIII. Meeting of Congress. Presidential Message. Foreign Affairs. Prosperity of the States on the Pacific Coast. Financial Statement. The Tariff. Relations with the Indians. Land Sales. The Army and Navy. Policy of Non-intervention. Condition of the Country. Acts of Congress 563 CHAP. IX. Various Expeditions to Foreign Countries. Death of Senators Clay and Webster : Memoirs, and eulogistic Speeches on the Occasions 568 BOOK VII. THE ADMINISTRATION OP FRANKLIN PIERCE. CHAP. I. Election of Franklin Pierce to the Presidency. Biography of Pierce. His Inaugura- tion and Address. The Monroe Doctrine. The President's Cabinet. Debate on the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty . . .536 CHAP. II. Meeting of Congress. Message from the President. Acts of Congress. Treaties with Japan and Mexico. The Reciprocity Treaty. Increase of Commerce . . . 595 CHAP. III. Meeting of Congress. Presidential Message.' Foreign Affairs. Central America. Financial Statement. State of the Indian Territory. Report of the Postmaster- General. The Public Lands. Acts of Congress. Baron de Kalb .... 605 CHAP. IV. Meeting of Cong'res s. Contest for the Speakership. The President's Message. Disputes with Great Britain. The Sound Dues. Treaties effected. Financial State- ment. The Army and Navy. Indian Hostilities. The Doctrine of State Rights : how- affected by Slavery. Danger of Interference by one State with the Affairs of Another. Northern Aggression, as set forth in the History of the States. Repeal of the Missouri Restrictions. The Dissolution of the Union a probable Effect of Sectional Agitation. The Cause contrasted with the Effects . . ... . . . '. .616 CHAP. V. Legislation in Congress. Affairs in Kansas. Extra Session of Congress. Dispute with Great Britain. Complaints against Spain. Retort of the Osteud Conference. Election of President and Vice-President 628 CHAP. VI. Meeting of Congress. The President's Message. Northern Aggression and Agitation. " Southern Encroachments." Affairs in Kansas. Financial Statement. Department of the Interior. Foreign Relations. The Reciprocity Treaty. The Sound Dues. Neutral Commerce. Central American Affairs. Act of Congress. The Atlantic Telegraph. Review of Pierce's Administration . . . . . . , 6-^1 Vi CONTENTS. BOOK VIII. THE" ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BUCHANAN. CHAP. I. Biography of President Buchanan. His Inauguration. The President's Cabinet . 650 CIJAP. II. Meeting of Congress. President Buchanan's First Message. Foreign Affairs. Expedition to Nicaragua. Proceedings in Kansas. "Hostilities in Utah. The Finances. The Department of the Interior. A National Balance-sheet for Sixty-Eight Years . 652 CHAP. III. Meeting of Congress. Presidential Message. Agitation in Kansas. Hostilities in Utah. Relations with Foreign Countries. Affairs in Central America. The Recent Commercial Revulsion- Financial Condition of the Country. The Post-Office Deficit Capture of a Slave Ship. Speech by Senator Hammond on the Prospects of a Separate Organisation of the Southern States .......... 659 CHAP. IV. Meeting of Congress. The "John Brown Conspiracy." President's Message. Slavery. Foreign Affairs. Unsettled State of Mexico. The Post-Office Deficit. Financial Statement 674 CHAP. V. The Presidential Election The Republican Convention Nominate Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln Elected to the Presidency. South Carolina withdraws from the Union, and declares her Independence.- -Letters by General Scott on the Southern Forts * . 681 CHAP. VI. Biography of Abraham Lincoln 698 CHAP. VII. President Buchanan's Last Message. Remarks on the Crisis. Foreign Relations. Secession of several States. Organisation of the Confederate States. Jefferson Davis elected First President. History of South Carolina. The Doctrine of State Rights. Conclusion .**<< 704 APPENDIX . 4 4 < * . * . , * -717 ILLUSTUATKD SUPPLEMENT . . 745 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. II. BIBDS-EYE VIEW off WASHINGTON Frontispiece. STORMING OF CHAPULTEPflc Vignette Title. MAP OP NORTH AMERICA ... 1 PORTRAIT OF JAMES MONROE . 127 PORTRAIT OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS t 153 PORTRAIT OF ANDREW JACKSON . 217 PORTRAIT OF THOMAS H. BENTON . 226 PORTRAIT OF M. VAN BUREN . . 290 PORTRAIT OF SAMUEL HOUSTON . 808 BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF NEW ORLEANS . 326 PORTRAIT OF JOHN TYLER . * , 859 VIEW OF BALTIMORE . . * . 384 PORTRAIT OF W. H. SEWARD 404 PORTRAIT OF JAMES K. POLK . . 412 PORTRAIT OF S. A, DOUGLAS . . 419 MAP OF BRITISH COLUMBIA AND VAN- COUVER ISLAND . . , , 422 MAP OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 432 PORTRAIT OF J. C. FREMONT , 455 PORTRAIT OF WINFIELD SCOTT . , 468 PORTRAIT or ZACUARY TAYLOR , 494 -MAP OF THE UNITED STATES , 500 PORTRAIT OF MILLARD FILLMORB 632 PORTRAIT oF J. C. CALUOUN 4 541 PORTRAIT OF H. CLAY . . 570 PORTRAIT OF DANIEL WEBSTER 574 PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN PIERCE 587 PORTRAIT OF BUCHANAN . . 650 HARPER'S FERRY , < 674 SUPPLEMENT. PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GEN. BURNSIDE 746 PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE FOOTE . 748 PORTRAIT OF GENERAL BEAUREGARD 750 PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON IRVING . 752 CHARGE OF HAWKINS'S ZOUAVES^ ROANOKE ISLAND . < . . 756 INCIDENT IN TJIE RETREAT AT THE BATTLE OF MANASSAS . * * 757 BATTLE OF BALL'S BLUFF (RESCUE OF BAKER'S BODY) * 762 BOMBARDMENT OF PORT ROYAL . 766 CAPTURE OF ISLAND No. 10 . 768 ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE MONITOR AND MEKRIMAC . , 769 r J&\*V&f'f cfe\l is -: \ V V ,v 7 < $ jyium*,/ ^ J ' "vrjSTv r Sk :fri' *R- v^ -? : 11 1' *j 1 .\ \\ -i* 4 jJ| ./ - ?.: \ %% ; to the same effect. We may observe here, that when these proposals were actually made to the British government, matters had advanced so far, that nothing but actual negociations could be admitted respecting them ; and Russell had received no authority to enter into a treaty respecting them. There had been sent out also, by Admiral Warren so the minister with whom Russell communicated informed him proposals to conclude an armistice, as the " Orders " had been repealed, to give room to negociate respecting the other debated questions. The impressed seamen, of whose American citizenship little or no doubt existed, above two thousand in number, were, when the war really began, assigned to Dartmoor prison, and other depots for prisoners of war. To return. Notwithstanding the proposal for an armistice entrusted to Russell by Madison, this provisionally concluded armistice between Sir George Prevost and General Dearborn was disavowed by the administration; with whom also Foster had directly communicated respecting it. The reasons for the disavowal have too plainly the air of mere pretexts, and real ground is most manifest behind them. Hull's invasion of Canada having ended so disastrously, and the realisation of the other two projects not having been attempted, the apparent relinquishment of the war would have brought the President into collision with his political supporters, upon whose adherence he was now relying for success in his election for another term of office, the canvass for which was at this very time proceeding. And the successes which had attended the efforts of the new policy of the war-party at sea, would have inflamed their expectation of a speedy and complete triumph too greatly to allow them to perceive the prudence or wisdom of a suspension of hostilities at this moment. By all these means it was made most clearly manifest that the " Orders in A..D. 18 J 2.] PUBLIC FEELING IN NEW ENGLAND. 63 Council " had been only in pretence the ground of the war. And the reiterated assurances that, if they were revoked, an end would be put to the disagreements and disputes which were continually interrupting the intercourse between the United States and Great Britain, were demonstrated to be without foundation. The disaffection of the Federalists of New England could not fail to be increased in consequence of this disclosure, which justified all that they had declared respecting the preliminary measures of the administration, although it did not discountenance the war-party, who thus unmasked their real designs. Nor was this the only matter in the war, which showed how entirely con- tradictory the allegations of the United States' government concerning the reasons for the war, and their real policy, were. Great Britain gave liberty to American vessels in the harbours of the United Kingdom, when the tidings of the declaration of war arrived, to depart without hindrance or molestation, and extended this license to the term of six weeks, giving them (of course) protection against the cruisers, so that they should not be captured as they returned. But, under the Non-importation Act, the vessels which Great Britain had spared, the United States themselves were bound to confiscate ! Great Britain also did not issue ' ' letters of marque " until it was certain that all attempts to prevent the prosecution of hostilities, and to suspend the war upon the impressment question alone, as if a war could settle such a point in international relations not, in fact, till the very end of this autumn, and the first campaign was as good as over. Nor did she cease through the whole war to afford " protections " to United States' ships chartered for the convey- ance of flour to Spain a branch of trade profitable in the extreme to America, and useful to Britain, whose armies in the Peninsula were thus in part supplied. But Congress declared this trade contraband, and pursued it by fine and con- fiscation, in the hopes of putting it down ! These things could not fail to exasperate the feelings of the peace party in New England, already excited to a high pitch of indignation by the removal of the United States' troops " from the Atlantic coast, in order to march them to the frontiers of Canada/' thus leaving, as they said, " the inhabitants for several hundred miles upon the coast, exposed to the horrors of invasion; [which] could not in the nature of things reconcile them to a war, which they originally considered unnecessary and extremely impolitic." No less indignation had been roused against the administration in New England, by the manner in which the provisions of the constitution regarding the militia had been openly contravened, and the sovereignty of the states, as far as the command and control of their civic soldiery implied it, had been set at nought, by the very parties who had most loudly proclaimed themselves its defenders. " Within the first month of the war," says Sullivan, " an unconsti- tutional demand was made on the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut for militia, even before the news of this astonishing measure could have reached the British Isles, and three months before there was the slightest probability that the United States could be invaded. This demand proved to be in prose- cution of the design to invade and conquer Canada with militia ! " Governor Strong and Governor Griswold gained great glory by refusing obedience to this illegal demand, and they were sustained in their resistance to 6 4 AMERICAN ATTACK ON QtTEENSTOWN. [CHAP. III. the general government by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts at the time, and by the best interpreters of the constitution ever since. The occasion did not justify the demand; nor was it in accordance with the instrument of government to put the militia under the command of the officers of the regular army by the trick of calling forth the soldiers only, and in small numbers at a time 'without their own officers. " If the New England States," says Dwight, "had given up their militia at the requisition of the President of the United States, and in a total disregard of the federal constitution, a precedent would have been established that might, and one day or other in all probability would, have proved fatal to the liberties of the country." Van Rensellaer's head-quarters were at Lewistown, on the river Niagara, and on the opposite bank stood Queenstown, a fortified British post. Some six thousand men were under his command there ; and both commander and men were made exceedingly impatient for the fight, by the success of those forays and border skirmishes, which, under similar circumstances, are sure to occur ; especially where, by the employment of militia in offensive war, the distinction between regular warfare and mere brigandage is not clearly preserved. The incidents we refer to were the interception of the supplies for the British posts, effected by various parties stationed along the frontier river ; the repulse of the British from Ogdensburgh, where some of these captives were taken, but more particularly the capture and carrying off of a small vessel, named the Caledonia, from under the guns of a British fort on Lake Erie, by Lieutenant Elliot. Accordingly, General Van Rensellaer (whose position here was rather re- markable, for he was one of the opposition party, which has led some to suspect an election ruse in his appointment) determined to seize upon Queens- town if he could, and get a footing in Canada. It seems to have been an ill-contrived attempt, and blunderingly carried out. The general has the credit of having neglected to invite the co-operation of General Alexander Smythe, who lay at Buffalo, lest he should eclipse a kinsman of his own, Colonel Solomon Van Rensellaer, and his men should outshine the New York militia by the brilliancy of their feats of arms and daring. The most prodigious mistakes were made in the management of the boats for carrying the expedition across the stream ; and one attempt failed utterly, from that cause alone. On the 13th of October, however, about thirteen hundred men were sent across, in various parties, and at considerable intervals, the first party setting out in a furious storm, and getting separated into two in passing over, and the commanders actually exchanging their men in consequence. Colonel Van Rensellaer and Colonel Chrystie were in this predicament ; and the former was severely wounded very soon after landing ; but the British general, Brock, lost his life, as he cheered on the grenadiers of the forty-ninth, to the defence of the works, which were attacked by Captains Ogilvie and Wood. Discouraged by the fall of their leader, the British feU back, and the position was lost. It seemed as if victory would crown the arms of the United States on this day. But General Sheaffe, who succeeded Brock in command, now brought up from Fort St. George a strong reinforcement, consisting in part of Canadian militia, and partly of regulars. Attacking the Americans in front and on one flank A.D. 1812.] SUCCESS OF THE BRITISH. G5 with these troops and artillery, and menacing them on the other by the Indians under the chief named Norton, the aspect of affairs speedily changed, and the triumph was torn from those who thought the day their own. Whilst great numbers of the militia were on the American side of the river, waiting for the means of crossing, the general, with admirable want of judg- ment, contrived to dishearten them by allowing them to see the horrid spectacle of the wounded and dying, who were brought back from the scene of combat ; and they refused to go into the fight. Van Rensellaer had gone over with General Wadsworth and one party, and hearing of the misconduct of the militia, he returned, leaving Wadsworth in command. But not all the oratory tic was master of, nor that of some of their own officers, with Judge Peck to aid them, could persuade the " miscreant militia," as Ingersoll styles them, to second him, and follow up the advantage won by their companions in arms, before Sheaffe and his reinforcements could arrive, and take part in the action. By the most disastrously mul-a-propos exercise of their civic and sovereign privileges, they urged "constitutional objections to extra-territorial service!" And so, as General Armstrong said, fifteen hundred able-bodied men, well armed and equipped, shortly before swelling with prowess and uutam cable spirit, now " put on the mask of lawfulness, to hide their cowardice." It was a terrible retribution for the vainglorious exclusion of Smythe's regulars. All that the unhappy general could do, was " send a supply of ammunition to Wadsworth, with a message leaving it to him to resist or retreat, as he chose." " Wadsworth," as Ingersoll relates, " could do neither. Surrender, nearly unconditional, was all he could do, or get for his troops, who from before day- break in the morning till late in the afternoon had been constantly engaged. They did not yield at once, without a sharp conflict, however ; but panic seized some of the militia, and complete rout soon took place instead of orderly retreat, a movement beyond the discipline of unpractised troops. Rushing to the shore and finding no boats, many brave men had no alternative but to surrender on the enemy's terms. An armistice of three days, however, was arranged, and the Americans were humanely treated." Nine hundred prisoners were taken by the British on this occasion, including Wadsworth and Scott ; and one gun and two colours also fell into their hands. In a few days Van Rensellaer resigned the command. " This battle of Queens- town added another to numerous proofs, that undisciplined valour, though the basis of all martial success, is unavailing without energetic commanders capable of enforcing obedience, a virtue as indispensable as valour to insure victory. Without obedience in the soldier, and energy in the commander, an army is but a mob." Upon General Smythe the command, thus laid down by Van Rensellaer, devolved ; who, although forbidden to imitate his predecessor, was determined to signalise himself amongst the notables of this campaign of failures. Un- happily imitating Hull's first step, he issued a proclamation, as pompous as that panic-stricken invader had inaugurated his misfortunes by ; and (as if to make assurance doubly sure) even followed it up by a second in the same vein. These calls were certainly addressed to " the men of New York," and not to oppressed Canadians, and instead of producing almost no effect, they brought to VOL. II. K 66 GENERAL SMYTIJE'S ABORTIVE INVASION. [CHAP. IIL Smvthe's standard between four and five thousand men. Yet, in the end, they produced a failure more absurd, though not so calamitous, as that of the com- mander of Detroit. Early in the morning of the 28th of November, General Smythe commenced the invasion of Upper Canada, by crossing the St. Lawrence between Chippewa and Fort Erie, with about five hundred men." They made good their landing, carried the British batteries by storm; and then just as with Van Rensellaer's attempt, the enemy came upon them from distant stations/' and Smythe did no more to reinforce them than the militia did in the former case ; and the adventurers who had begun so gallantly, were in part overpowered and killed or made prisoners, and in part driven back into the territory of the United States. The whole affair was, in fact, managed as clumsily by the regular officer, as it had been by the militia-men. Colonel Boerstler wholly failed in cutting off the enemy's communications; General Porter of the New York volunteers, " with two thousand men, ready and eager for action," was half-way across the river, and was then recalled by Smythe ! A council of war (facetiously so called) was held, and the completion of the invasion was postponed for a few days ! On the 1st of December (which was the latest of several days that had been fixed), the troops received orders to be in readiness to pass the river, and they were all at their posts. The volunteers set out, General Porter in the leading boat, with a nag to indicate his position ; fifteen hundred men were found willing to make the attempt, in spite of all the ill omens. But before the other bank could be reached, another council of war was held, and the general recalled the expedition, ordered the volun- teers to return home, and the regulars into winter quarters, Canada remaining intact. General Porter posted Smythe in the newspapers as a coward; and this truly unfortunate (and something more) officer, " never tried but in the public journals and by common opinion, was actually driven away to be no more heard of, mobbed by the militia and the populace, not without strenuous vindication by himself and others in the newspapers, but without favours or further employ- ment." Porter and Smythe got up a duel out of this newspaper squabble, and exchanged shots and compliments ; whereat Ingersoll says, ' ' The public would have preferred a battle in Canada " undoubtedly. Beside these affairs, there were several others, " slight eructations of com- bat," as Ingersoll with characteristic classicality designates them, " and border outbreaks hardly worth mentioning." Colonel Pike burned a block -house here ; Captain Lyon there captured forty English with baggage, despatches, and a stand of colours ; and there, again, " the enemy captured a couple of our officers, with some forty men and four boats." But " the crowning act of our military misdeeds that year absurd end of all was Dearborn's, the feeblest of all the attempts at invading Canada." "It was General Dearborn's misfortune to have an army to form; an inex- perienced, not over-ardent executive ; a secretary of war constrained to resign ; a Senate inclined to distrust the executive; Congress withholding taxes and supplies for near twelve months after war was declared ; waiting upon a presi- dential election [which was, however, not the fault of Congress, but of the President, who dared not to jeopardise his re-election by proposing the taxes A.D. 1812.J GENERAL DEARBORN'S FUTILE ATTEMPT. 67 that were needful for carrying on the war he had begun] ; disaffected states, Dearborn's own state, Massachusetts, at the head of disaffection ; a country destitute of military means and men, unaccustomed to restraints, and impatient for exploit." He had the largest discretion in respect of the materiel of war, and had under him more than three thousand regular troops ; two thousand Vermont, and one thousand New York militia on Lake Champlain. And opposed to him were, as General Armstrong insisted, not three thousand men altogether, who had to protect nine hundred miles of frontier. And after due council of war, on the 20th of November, Dearborn was to enter Canada, and achieve some deed of daring, to redeem the military character of the United States. Duane, he of the Aurora, and, like Dearborn, one of Jefferson's adherents, gave due preliminary nourish in his newspaper, to celebrate the coming triumph. By some means, the British commander, three days before, heard that the invasion was about to take place ; and on the 20th, in the morning, one of the regiments sent forward to meet them actually came upon the invaders. "A confused and incomprehensible skirmish ensued, in which each party's object seemed to be to get away from the other, till the Americans, in the dark, mistaking themselves for enemies, began to fire on each other, killed four or five, and wounded as many, of themselves, and then returned, leaving their dead behind, which Indians would never have done. Where Generals Dearborn, Chandler, and Bloomfield were during this wretched foray, did not then appear, nor can now be told. On no occasion did General Dearborn ever lead his troops into action." " On this occasion, again, the militia were infected by the leprosy of con- stitutional right, to refuse orders to wage war as its appointed chiefs ordain. Of the three thousand militia who marched with Dearborn for Canada, nearly all refused to cross the line ; including a company who advanced with Colonel Pike [who led the invading host], but halted at the very border." One solitary success made the absurdity of this failure the greater : a British post in au Indian village was surprised, and the men made prisoners ; also, for want of a more authentic trophy, the Indian agent's flag was exhibited as a British flag, taken on the occasion. After these feats in arms, the troops were led back to winter- quarters, to sickness, and to " military idleness, the worst form of that worst of all distempers." Such was the campaign of 1812. But the events of the war were not all gloomy ; at sea, the arms of the United States were crowned with several most unexpected successes, and though these victories were not of the most illustrious class, they were victories, and the only ones that this year could boast. The first naval action of the war was the fruitless chase of the Belvidera, 36, by the President, 44, on the 23rd of June. The British frigate was sole convoy to a large fleet of West India merchantmen, on their way home. Rodgers, who commanded the President, had with him besides the United States, 44, Congress, 38, the Hornet, 18, and Argus, 16; all of which joined in the chase, though the President played the chief part, and received all the blows. This chase was rather a running fight, and it was maintained for a whole day ; the fig AMERICAN NAVAL SUCCESSES. [CHAP. Ill- Belvidera losing twenty-two men killed and wounded, and the ' President as many, sixteen of whom suffered by the bursting of a gun. f < The result," says Alison, "was favourable to the British, as the American squadron failed in taking the single English frigate, and the whole of the merchantmen escaped untouched. After a cruise of seventy days, the American squadron returned to port, having captured only seven merchantmen in that time, although they fell upon the British commerce when wholly unaware of impending hostilities.'^ Earlv in July, when the enemy had despatched a squadron into the American waters, the Nautilus, 14, leaving New York for the purpose of cruising in the track of the English Indiamen, fell in with the squadron of war-ships and was chased, her gallant commander doing everything he could to escape, but unavailingly ; she therefore struck without a conflict, to the Shannon ; and this was the first vessel of war captured on either side. The next success was on the side of the United States. The Constitution, 44, Captain Hull, was the victor in this affair; and she had just returned from Europe, where she narrowly escaped an overhauling from the English cruisers, on the pretence of looking for deserters. Proceeding to the north from the Chesapeake river, for the purpose of joining the squadron of Commodore Rodgers, she fell in with the British squadron, and for "four days was chased by all the vessels composing it, the Africa, 64, taking the lead. Few such chases have ever occurred in the history of naval warfare, and seldom, if ever, has a vessel escaped from such odds, by dint of seamanship alone. Now towed by boats, and now forced along by hauling at a kedge anchor carried out near half a mile ahead, and let go ; using every breath of air that blew fitf'ully ; the Constitution contrived to distance her pursuers, who resorted to the same means, but without coming up to the object of their endeavours. Once and again it seemed as if she must fall into the hands of one or another of her keen enemies; but ever some sudden breeze sprang up, and preserved her. At length, on the fourth day, the wind freshened sufficiently for the American to prove her superior fleetness ; and whilst all the five frigates were on the same tack, and under clouds of canvas, from the truck to the water, the Constitution slowly drew ahead of her pursuers ; and in fine a heavy squall in the evening carried her completely out of view. This was the first act in the triumphant naval pageant now enacted in the American seas. We may justly notice, in passing, the capture of the Alert, 20, by the Essex, 32. The latter vessel, after a daring attempt upon a convoy of transports, one of which, having on board a hundred and fifty soldiers, she captured, was sailing under the disguise of a merchantman, and was attacked by the gallant little British ship. But the Essex unexpectedly opened upon her so tremendous a fire, that the crew deserted their quarters and ran below, and in eight minutes the Alert struck. The victory was not such as to cause any surprise, as beside the greater number of guns, those of the Essex were thirty-two pounders, whilst those of the Alert were but eighteens. On the 19th of August, the " second act " was played. In the alternoon of this day, the Constitution descried a British frigate, which, when approached, showed herself ready and willing for the combat. After a running fight, the vessels closed, and the mizen-mast of the stranger went by the board ; never- A.D. 1812.] AMERICAN NAVAL SUCCESSES. 69 theless, both parties, as the vessels fouled, prepared to board, which was pre- vented on both sides by a tremendous fire of musketry, and the heavy sea. The Constitution, therefore, got clear, and at the same instant the fore-mast and main-mast of the enemy fell, leaving her a helpless wreck. Having refitted, in about half an hour she took up a favourable position for raking, when a jack, which had been kept flying on the stump of the mizen-mast of the British vessel, was lowered. She proved to be the Guerriere, 38, Captain Dacres, and she was in so crippled a condition, that Captain Hull took the crew on board the Constitution, and set fire to his prize, which blew up in a quarter of an hour. Seventy-nine men were killed or wounded on the Guerriere, but only fourteen of the Constitution's crew were disabled. The American vessel had prodigiously the advantage in the number of her crew, the weight of her broadside, and her tonnage ; and it would have argued gross incapability in her commander if he had suffered himself to be beaten. " Captain Dacres lost no professional reputation by his defeat. He had handled his ship in a manner to win the applause of his enemies, fought her gallantly, and only submitted when further resistance would have been as culpable as, in fact, it was impossible. " It is not easy," says Cooper, " at this distant day, to convey to the reader the full force of the moral impression created in America by this victory of one frigate over another. So deep had been the effect produced on the public mind by the constant accounts of the successes of the English over their enemies at sea, that the opinion, already mentioned, of their invincibility on that element generally prevailed ; and it had been publicly predicted, that before the contest had continued six months, British sloops of war would lie alongside of American frigates with impunity." But these were not the whole of the naval disasters of Britain. On the night of the 16th of October, the British sloop of war, Frolic, 18, convoying six merchant ships, fell in with the American sloop Wasp, also 18, but sur- passing the Frolic in the number of her men, and also in her tonnage. British historians say the Wasp had the advantage in weight of metal, which Americans not only deny, but ascribe to the Frolic an excess of four guns above the number borne by the Wasp. The crew of the Frolic were busy repairing their rigging, which had been damaged in a gale on the preceding day, the main-yard was on the deck, and the vessel was changed, in effect, into " a half-rigged brig." She shortened sail as the Wasp approached, with the manifest intention of covering her convoy and giving battle ; and without any manoeuvring, the vessels ranged alongside of each other, and the battle began. The British fired much more rapidly than the Americans, and at first it seemed with the greatest effect, for the main- topmast and mi/en-top-gallant-mast of the latter were shot down, and the vessels ran foul of each other, the fight continuing when they were so close that, in loading some of the Wasp's guns, the rammers hit the bows of her antagonist. The Americans in fouling had fallen so as to rake the Frolic, and the consequences speedily appeared when the boarders sprang on her deck, for there was not a man to offer any resistance, the dead and wounded alone were seen. Not a man was at his station but the man at the wheel. 70 AMERICAN NAVAL SUCCESSES. [ CHAP - HI- Seventy of the Frolic's crew at least were killed or wounded ; she had been hulled at almost every discharge, and both her masts fell when the Wasp cleared herself from her. The Wasp was much damaged in her rigging, but her spars and hull had received in comparison little damage. Five only were killed and five wounded on board of her. This victory caused greater exultation in the United States than others of greater intrinsic importance, because the force on both sides was more nearly equal, and the credit of the success, in consequence, the greater. It did un- doubtedly very effectually dissipate the notion of British invincibility at sea : but the most valuable result was the testimony afforded to the superiority of cool and scientific gunnery in naval combat. Sea-fights had been for the most part decided by mere animal courage and brute force. The only science shown had been in the handling of the ships, and the manoeuvring of the fleets. The Americans, not neglecting this department of strategics, took aim when they discharged their guns, and decided these engagements not less by not aimlessly squandering their shot, than by the superiority of their force in every instance. No amount of courage, backed mainly by noise and smoke and artillery badly aimed, or not aimed at all, is no more could stand against the heavy metal, flying true to its mark, of the American guns. The lesson thus terribly im- pressed on the British, thanks to one of the junior officers in their Atlantic fleet, Lieutenant (since Admiral) Chads, was not thrown away. Nothing but the glory of this victory, however, remained to the United States, for a few hours after the action, the Poictiers, 74, hove in sight, recaptured the Frolic, and made the Wasp also a prisoner, by a summons merely. But it was soon made up to them. For, on the 25th of October, Commodore Decatur, in the frigate United States, 44, having captured a few days before the British packet Swallow, with a large amount of specie, fell in with the Mace- donian, 38, and a combat at once commenced, the vessels passing and repassing each other for about an hour, when the mizen-mast of the British frigate fell, and the vessel became almost unmanageable, from the fearful injuries she had received. The heavier metal and more numerous guns of the United States told fearfully against her antagonist, and the superior number of her crew gave her the advantage in manoeuvring. At this period, the United States stood athwart the bows of the Macedonian, and passed out of shot without firing a gun ; and her antagonist's crew, supposing she had given up the fight, set a union- jack in the main-rigging, and gave three cheers. But it was only to refill her cartridges, and she soon came back, and took up a raking position across the stern of her defenceless foe ; whereupon the Macedonian struck. She had thirty-six killed and sixty-eight wounded, and had received nearly a hundred shot in her hull ; whilst the United States had lost but twelve' killed and wounded, and suffered surprisingly little, considering the length of the can- nonade. The Argus, 16, under Captain Sinclair, which had set out on a cruise at the same time as the United States, was very successful in making prizes ; and was chased for three days, and as many moonlight nights, by a squadron of the enemy ; and not only escaped, but actually took and manned a prize during the A.D. 1812.] AMERICAN NAVAL SUCCESSES. 71 chase ! The capture of the Vixen, 14, by the British ship Southampton, 32 ; merely requires little mention. One more naval victory is recorded in this year. The Constitution, 44, Commodore Bainbridge, on December the 28th, met with the Java, 38, and maintained with her for about forty minutes a contest, in which seamanship more than gunnery or courage was conspicuous. The English captain then resolved to attempt to board his antagonist, and ran down on the Constitution's quarter for that purpose. But before this could be accomplished the fore-mast fell with a tremendous crash, the main-topmast came down, the head of the bowsprit was shot away, and the captain fell, mortally wounded. Lieutenant Chads, who took the command, carried on the fight ; but after the American commodore had passed out of the combat, for the purpose of refitting, and returned, he found his vessel a complete wreck, and struck. Finding it im- possible to save their prize, after removing the crew, the captors blew it up. A hundred and twenty-four, killed and wounded, were said by the British to have been lost on board the Java ; but Bainbridge reckoned their loss as much higher. Thirty-four alone suffered, in both ways, on board the American ship. "Although there was more manosuvring than common, the Java had been literally picked to pieces by shot, spar following spar until she had not one left. Her fore-mast was first cut away near the oat-harpings, and afterwards by a double-headed shot, about five and twenty feet from the deck. The main- topmast went early, and the main-mast fell after the Constitution hauled off. The mizen-mast was shot out of the ship, a few feet from the deck, and the bowsprit near the cap. Her hull was also greatly injured." On the other hand, Cooper assures us, " The Constitution did not lose a spar ! .... An eighteen-pound shot passed through the mizen-mast ; the fore-mast was slightly wounded, and the main-mast was untouched. The main-topmast was also slightly wounded, a few other spars were hit, without being carried away ; the running rigging was a good deal cut, several shrouds were parted, and the ship received a few round shot in her hull." This was the British Admiral Chads' first lesson ! Nothing else worthy of particular mention occurred during the year 1812, for the unaccepted challenge sent by the captain of the Hornet to the com- mander of the Bonne Citoyenne was deemed by many contrary to the rules of the service ; and the one prize made by the Essex was recaptured, though not till the specie she carried was appropriated, and, to make assurance doubly sure, spent on account of the government. Above five hundred prizes were made by privateers and cruisers in the first seven months of the war, but that number includes several American vessels which were captured and condemned by the Americans themselves, for sailing with British licenses. Enough has been said of the proposals for an armistice, made first by Madison himself, but rejected when they came from the other side; and this, not only when made by the governor-general of Canada, and Foster, but also when Admiral Warren brought them direct from the government at home. Arid on the latter occasion the rejection was professedly grounded on the inability of Warren to treat with the United States' government, concerning 72 CAMPAIGN OF 1813. [dlAP. IV. the proposals it had forwarded to England to Russell ! And such were the attempts made by both parties to this contest, to carry on or to renew negocia- tions, with a view to peace ; attempts that on the American side could not but fail, from the circumstances, and the form in which they were made ; but which showed that the straggle could not be a very long one, inasmuch as it arose from none of those causes which touch the hearts and fire the consciences of nations. CHAPTER IV. CAMPAIGN OF 1813. THE WAR IN THE NORTH. COAST WARFARE. A BLOCKADE ESTABLISHED, THE SHANNON AND THE CHESAPEAKE. NEGOCIATIONS AGAIN VAINLY ATTEMPTED THE MEDIATION OP RUSSIA. WHEN Madison opened Congress on the 4th of November, 1812, he had not heard of the most signal of those disasters which marked the whole of the campaign on land; nor yet of the most striking of the successes at sea, the worth of which was exaggerated by all parties : by the war-party to hide the shame of their failures in the invasion of Canada; and by their opponents, because they always said that it was by sea that the United States- ought always to be victorious. In his Message he bent all his endeavours to prevent the legislators from despairing concerning the war he had induced them to declare, or from suspecting that history could do other than commend the spirit which had originated hostilities. " The situation of our country," said he, " is not without its difficulties, though it abounds in animating considerations With more than one nation we have serious and unsettled controversies ; and with one, powerful in the means and habits of war, we are at war. The spirit and strength of the nation are, nevertheless, equal to the support of all its rights, and to carry it through all its trials. They can be met in that confidence. Above all, we have the inestimable consolation of knowing that the war in which we are actually engaged is a war neither of ambition nor of vain glory ; that it is waged, not in violation of the rights of others, but in the maintenance of our own ; that it was preceded by a patience, without example, under wrongs accumulating without end ; and that it was, finally, not declared until every hope of averting it was extinguished, by the transfer of the British sceptre into new hands clinging to former councils ; and until declarations were reiterated to the last hour, through the British envoy here, that the hostile edicts against our commercial rights and our maritime independence would not be revoked ; nay, that they could not be revoked without violating the obligations of Great Britain to other powers as well as to her own interests. To have shrank under such circumstances from manly resistance would have been a degradation . . . [and therefore] war was chosen. The nation felt the necessity of it, and called for it." The Message also called for the reorganisation of the militia, and for some A..D 1813.] LEGISLATION FOR THE WAR 73 more stringent measures to repress the use of British licenses, which it stigma- tised as " corrupt and perfidious intercourse with the enemy," if not " treason." And yet it congratulated Congress on the receipt of " the duties on the late unexpected importations of British manufacture;" which surely was a sort of misprision of " treason." Congress, animated by the same spirit as the President for a new election of representatives was also drawing near for the most part avoided the questions which might compromise its popularity, and render its members distasteful to their various constituencies. The session extended to the 3rd of March, 1813, and laws were passed for the more effective organisation of the army, for its increase, and for the provision of the means requisite for the prosecution of the Avar. Authority was given for the construction of four ships of the line, six frigates, and six sloops of war. And by one Act vaccination was encouraged generally amongst the people, with a view to prevent the ravages of that frightful disease, the small-pox, in the army. But it was not until the result of the presidential election was known that the financial measures of the government were submitted to Congress, and (as we have already related) one law passed providing for a loan of 16,000,000 dollars, and another for the issue of 5,000,000 dollars' worth of treasury notes, by which the whole amount of the debts incurred by this Congress for the prosecution of hostilities, without the imposition of a single additional tax as a provision for its redemption, was raised to 37,000,000 dollars. Amongst the other laws made by Congress during this session, was one prohibiting the employment of any seamen, other than the citizens of the United States, or native persons of colour, on board the public and private armed vessels of the United States, after the close of the war. And this was said to be meant as a tender of " the olive-branch " to Great Britain, and to induce the British government to come to some arrangement respecting the impressment of seamen. But considering the great facilities for naturalisation, which Jefferson had introduced into American legislation, it was an extremely illusory concession to the demands of the mother country ; and one not calcu- lated to lead to such a settlement of the impressment question, as the American government, or rather the democratic party demanded, although the naturali- sation of foreign seamen was, by one clause of the Act, in words at least, almost prohibited. One other bill gave the President the power of retaliation for any injury inflicted on the United States by the British or their Indian allies, in violation of the usages of civilised warfare ; a permission not required, since, as a matter of fact, such retaliation was always practised, and sometimes in anticipation of the injury; whilst the formal allowance could act only as a provocation to the commission of such outrages. For other transactions of this session, we may refer to the closing chapters of our first volume, in which the domestic enactments of the legislature are treated of. And in the same place will be found a sufficient account of the ministerial changes effected at this time, which exercised so great an influence on the conduct of the war. First, both in order of time and in importance, of the military undertakings VOL. II. L 74 ATTACK ON FRENCIITOWN. [CHAP. IV of this second year of the war, come the operations in the north, which were animated not only by the original desire to act upon Britain through Canada, but now also by a burning determination to retrieve or to revenge the disasters of the preceding campaign. We left Harrison preparing for an advance, which should not prove like those of the "unconquerable" heroes under Hull and Van Rensellaer, Wadsworth and Smythe, and Dearborn, but should teach the British the real worth of such citizen-soldiers as the United States relied upon for the defence of their frontiers, and the chastisement of their enemies. By dint of great efforts, and by means of some manoeuvring, a considerable force was raised in Kentucky and the adjoining states, and placed under the command of General Harrison, who was commissioned by the governor of Kentucky in a higher grade than the general appointed by the Federal Govern- ment, Winchester, who was not popular amongst the backwoodsmen, as Harrison was. ' This, we learn with some comfort, was effected by Henry Clay, whose skill in devising compromises might almost entitle him to be considered the type American statesman of this time. Unable to effect anything before the end of 1812, Harrison, with the very beginning of 1813, put his troops in motion. Winchester was sent to take possession of the tract about the Rapids of the Miami, or Maura ee, "which had been vainly attacked by General Tupper two months before. And he effected this, although he had to march through a deep snow ; dispersing the Indians who had taken posts there, and making all needful provisions, such as the collection of corn from the Indians' fields near (without payment, of course, the owners having fled, but not being the less exasperated at the plunder on that account), and the erection of a storehouse, &c. Whilst thus engaged, information was brought him from Frenchtown of the straits to which the inhabitants were reduced by the Canadians and Indians in the British service, who were ready to occupy the place, and they feared a massacre would ensue. A council of officers having been called, it was determined to send a detachment sufficiently strong to defeat the enemy at that place. Six hundred and sixty men were therefore detached under the command of Colonels Lewis and Allen, who set out on the morning of the 17th of January ; and their movements being quickened by the intelligence that Colonel Elliot was expected from Maiden, on his way to attack the camp at the Rapids, marching partly on the ice of Miami Bay, and the border of Lake Erie, and driving back the Indians whom they met in the woods ; about three o' clock on the next afternoon, they fell upon the enemy, consisting of about five hundred men, four hundred being Indians, and after a smart engagement, which lasted till it was dark, drove them out of Frenchtown, and pursued them for two miles beyond it ; returning then in good order, with a loss of twelve killed and fifty- five wounded, they encamped before the town. The proximity of Frenchtown to Maiden, from which it could be reached on the ice, rendered the position of Lewis and Allen one of great danger, and as soon as the tidings of their success reached the Falls, ' ' a complete ferment " was produced in the camp. " All were anxious to proceed to Frenchtown in support of the advanced corps," says M f Affee, in his " History of the Western War j " but Ingersoll seems rather to deserve credit, when he states that the A.D. 1313.] DEFEAT OF GENERAL WINCHESTER. 75 triumph of Lewis' soldiers "inspired their comrades under Winchester to almost invidious eagerness for further conflict." " Not a man under [Winchester's] command could be restrained from rushing forward to join Lewis, renew his triumphs, and share his glory. General Winchester was well disposed to lead them." Instead of recalling them with genuine strategical foresight, the com- mander suffered himself to be hurried away by the passion for combat, which always characterises raw unproved troops, and with two hundred and fifty men, on the evening of the 19th, marched to Frenchtown. "Guards were placed out," M'Affee's relation proceeds, "on the night of the 21st as usual ; but as it was extremely cold, no picket guard was placed on the road on which the enemy was to be expected. The night passed away with- out any alarm, and the reveillee began to beat at daybreak on the morning of the 22nd. A few minutes afterwards, three guns were fired in quick succession bv the sentinels. The troops were instantly formed, and the British opened a heavy fire on the camp from several pieces of artillery, loaded with bombs, balls, and grape-shot, at the distance of three hundred yards. This was quickly followed by a charge made by the British regulars, and by a general fire of small arms, and the Indian yell on the right and left. The British had approached in the night with the most profound silence, and stationed their cannon behind a small ravine which ran across the open fields on the right." The detachment, whose position was to be fortified on the morrow, was driven back, and in spite of the efforts of their officers, of Colonels Lewis and Allen, and of General Winchester (when he reached the field), to rally them, in spite of the assistance of two companies sent from the cover of the pickets, routed utterly; and after a retreat of three miles, through the deep snow, wholly destroyed or made prisoners. Winchester and Lewis were in the latter case ; Colonel Allen was shot by an Indian whilst he paused, exhausted by a wound received in a flight he had used his utmost to prevent ; Captain Simpson, over whom Ingersoll lavishes his sympathy, for he was " six feet six inches tall," and a " member elect " from Kentucky, was shot and tomahawked at the edge of the woods. The Indians " gathered round his body where it lay, to admire its gigantic proportions." Proctor, who commanded the British, had suffered severely in his attack upon the pickets, but when he found that Winchester was captured, he at once resolved to use the advantage afforded him by his prize (" basely," as M'Affee says, who is naturally indignant at the British for possessing such an advantage), " and to procure the surrender of the party in the picketing." He therefore " assured General Winchester, that if the remainder of the Americans would immediately surrender, they should be protected from massacre ; but otherwise he would set fire to the village, and would not be responsible for the conduct of the savages." Such is the American account in brief; and thereupon it says, " intimidated by this threat," Winchester " sent an order to the troops to surrender, which they obeyed." The unfortunate general had lost, it appears, three hundred men ; and five hundred men. with thirty-two officers, capitulated at his bidding. " Colonel Proctor, leaving the wounded without a guard, marched back im- mediately to Maiden. The Indians accompanied them a few miles but returned 70 RESULTS OF THE DEFEAT. [CHAP. IV. early the next morning. Deeds of horror followed. The wounded officers were dragged from the houses, killed and scalped in the streets ; the buildings were set on fire; some who attempted to escape were forced back into the flames, others were put to death by the tomahawk, and left shockingly mangled in the highway." This is the account given by Hale and Frost, and it may be taken as agreeing with the facts as far as so general a statement can. Ingersoll says, " The Wyandot Indians, who were the principal perpetrators of the butchery, were considerably advanced in civilisation, many of them tolerably educated, most of them professing the Christian religion, to which their progenitors had probably been converted by French missionaries." Christie's narrative of this transaction, deposes that this massacre of the wounded prisoners was effected " in spite of the British," a statement which the writers of the war party strongly object to and deny, appealing to the restraint which the American commanders exercised over their Indian allies; but forgetting that the hold which the British had upon the Indians who fought on their side was very different from that of their own government, in whose suzerainty the lands of the aborigines were included; and also that the Indians who fought at the Raisin had a quarrel of their own to settle, the original dispute which Tecumseh and Elskwatawa took up, and to which the defeat at Tippecanoe had but added new desire of vengeance. We have followed the American story in our relation, but we must observe that the " General Order " issued by the commander-in-chief of the British forces in Canada, presents a very different view of the matter ; and in effect alleges that the main body at Frenchtown, after the flight of Winchester's own detachment, were attacked in the houses, from the windows of which they had galled the British troops, and "finding further resistance unavailing, they surrendered themselves at discretion." It also praises the ' ' gallantry " of Proctor, as displayed "in his humane and unwearied exertions, which suc- ceeded in rescuing the vanquished from the revenge of the Indian warriors." Knowing the tendency of the United States' soldiers and historians, we can but allow that this statement deserves to be taken into consideration in forming our conclusions respecting the facts of this case, respecting which, unhappily, as in so many other instances, great doubt exists as to what they actually were. But, whatever they were, there can be no doubt that the results of this collision with the enemy " clothed Kentucky and Ohio in mourning ; " nor yet that it roused the indignation of these states to a far higher pitch than it had ever before attained. The whole Union shared in these feelings, and whilst all agreed in reprobating the victorious foe Congress even passing that Act we have spoken of, authorising reprisals the various cliques .and parties blamed, some Winchester, and some Harrison, whilst others pointed to this new and more unexpected disaster as demonstrating the unrighteousness and folly of the war altogether. In the meantime Harrison, who reached the camp at the Rapids on the )th, as we have said, and who had left orders to his troops at Sandusky to follow him with all speed, when the tidings of the affair at the Raisin reached him, fell back behind the Portage river, fearing to be himself attacked. But very soon he advanced again, and constructed a stronghold at the Rapids,, on A.D. 1813. SUCCESS AT YOHK. 77 the right bank of the river, which, in honour of the governor of Ohio, he named Camp Meigs. All the vicissitudes of hope and fear, respecting supplies, reinforcements, roads, &c., which the biographer of the general for whose work (undigested though it is) we are heartily thankful has affectionately recorded, we must leave to be pictured by our readers for themselves. They must also conceive his troubles arising from the expiration of the term of service for which the gallant Kentucky troops had enlisted ; and how (anxious to avail himself of the short period which remained before the Ohio troops, and the brigades from Pennsylvania and Virginia, should depart) he planned an attack upon the enemy 's vessels at Maiden, which " there is little doubt," so Moses Dawson says, " would have been completely successful," had it not (in fact, like so many others of those schemes on the northern frontiers) failed. General Dearborn was still in command on Lake Cham plain, and Commo- dore Chauncey was directed to co-operate with him in the attack of various places upon the shores of the smaller lakes, by the possession of which the communications of the enemy could be effectually interrupted. Great exertions had been made to build and equip such a squadron in those inland waters, as should enable the commanders to cope with the British ; and in the spring of this year Chauncey had under him two sloops and eleven schooners, manned with crews who regarded themselves as possessed of all the prestige which once they had ascribed to the British navy. On the 25th of April, with sixteen hundred picked troops on board, Chauncey sailed from Sackett's Harbour, for Kingston as was supposed. But instead of landing them at that place, on the 27th, he carried them to York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada. Sheaffe commanded the British forces there, but he could only collect seven hundred regulars and militia, and a hundred Indians. With these he endeavoured to prevent the landing, and maintained a stout though ineffectual resistance; until being beaten back by numbers through the woods and thickets (in the course of which, we are told, the grenadiers of the 8th regiment lost more than half their numbers), he took refuge behind the works of York. These were incapable of being maintained long, but whilst the Americans, headed by the gallant General Zebulon Mont- gomery Pike, were advancing to assault them, a large magazine of powder near the place blew up, killing at least two hundred of the assailants, with their commander ; and also throwing down the few vestiges of defences which existed there. Whereupon Sheaffe for Chauncey had made his way into the harbour profiting by the confusion, set fire to such of his stores as he could reach, and to a vessel on the stocks, and retreated towards Kingston, with about four hundred regulars, who alone remained unhurt. The militia who were in York capitulated, and the victors seized upon the stores which were unconsumed, and bore away as their great trophies, a standard, a musical snuff-box, and a mace taken from the parliament house of the provincial legislature, " over which hung a human scalp," and this was presented by Chauncey to General Dearborn. What the scalp did there is not very clear ; but it proved very useful in the hands of the orators of the war party. Ingersoll, in the impetuosity of his eloquence, whilst enlarging upon this discovery, not only quotes Benjamin 78 VAKIOTJS FORTS ATTACKED [CHAP. IV Franklin'? fictitious State Papers, as we have said, but assures us that, when Chauncey left York, after two or three days spent in " embarking the booty/' and the wine in particular, it was " with the scalp taken as suspended, with the mace of the serjeant-at-arms, near the Speaker's chair (killed in the action) in the parliament house," Which leads us to believe that he may have made many other mistakes, both in conceiving and in narrating the matters he treats of. After visiting Sackett's Harbour, and disposing of the wounded and the prisoners, having taken reinforcements on board, to the number of above five thousand, the fleet sailed for Fort George, on the Niagara river, at the head of the lake. There, under cover of the vessels, the advance, five hundred strong, landed, under the command of Colonel Scott and Major Forsyth; and being followed by the brigades of Generals Boyd, Winder, and Chandler, the enemy fled, giving up his works and blowing up his magazines, or else " Captain Hindman, entering first, was fortunately able to remove the match, before the fire had reached the powder." " In a few hours, Fort George, Fort Erie, and the other fortifications in the vicinity received new masters." In this affair, it is said that the British lost a hundred and eight killed, and half as many more wounded, while six hundred were made prisoners ; of the Americans, as many were wounded as were killed on the part of the British, and only thirty-nine were killed. Captain Perry was now, too, busy at Presque Isle, " preparing the timber for the construction of those vessels, with which he afterwards obtained such imperishable renown," and withal inflicted new and unusual losses on the enemy. But in the meanwhile, " Colonel Proctor, crossing Lake Erie, made a dash with nine hundred regulars and militia, and twelve hundred Indians, at General Harrison, who lay with his division near the Rapids of the Miami," as we have seen, and who was beset with so many difficulties and perplexities, according to his biographer, as to make his very existence there a matter of marvel, if not of miracle. " On the 1st of May, a cannonade was opened upon the fort. General Clay, at the head of twelve hundred Kentucky troops, arrived near the Rapids on the morning of the 5th of May. He was met by a messenger from Harrison, who communicated to him his orders. Dividing his force into two parties, he sent one of them, consisting of about eight hundred men, under the command of Colonel Dudley, to attack the enemies' batteries on the side of the river opposite the fort ; the other he led himself against those near it. He succeeded, by the aid of a sally from the besieged, in fighting his way into the fort. Colonel Dudley, making an impetuous onset, drove the enemy from their works. His troops, supposing the victory complete, and disregarding the orders of their commander, dispersed into the woods." The result we may tell in Alison's words. " Having incautiously followed up their success too far, these regiments were surrounded by the British and Indians, and after a desperate struggle, totally defeated, with the loss of two hundred killed and wounded, and five hundred prisoners, whilst the English lost only fifteen killed and forty-five wounded." On embarking for York, General Dearborn had left Sackett's Harbour in rather a defenceless state ; which induced Sir George Prevost, at the head of A.D. 1813 ] ATTACK ON SACKETT'S HARBOUR. 79 seven hundred troops, to combine with Sir James Yeo, whose squadron on Lake Ontario had recently been very considerably reinforced, to put to sea on the 28th of May from Kingstown, and attack that American post both by land and water. The expedition excited great interest both in Canada and Great Britain, and the most sanguine hopes were entertained by the British, that it would lead to the destruction of this growing and formidable naval establishment of the enemy. These hopes, however, were disappointed. General Brown, of the New York militia, had the chief command at the Harbour, and on the 29th he detached Colonel Mills with the militia (whom he charged strictly to reserve their fire) and the Albany volunteers to oppose the landing of the British. Brown had hastily thrown up a slight breastwork at the only place where this could be effected. At first, although exceeding the attacking force by four or five hundred men, the Americans were driven back. The militia, true to their principle of personal independence of all orders, fired before it was possible for a shot to tell ; the skirmishers were driven back, and the civilians, with far better dis- cretion than valour, fled, notwithstanding the efforts of Mills to rally them, and unmoved by his death, for he fell in the attempt. The invaders, thus left in possession of the peninsula, advanced against the loop-holed blockhouses ; before which some four hundred regulars, under Colonel Backus, were drawn up. But the resistance made by this small band was so desperate, and the fire from the blockhouses so tremendous, and Brown, having succeeded in rallying about a hundred of the fugitives, made so well-timed an attack upon their rear, that the bravest of the British recoiled. Prevost advanced with his staff to encourage the men ; one of his officers fell dead at his side, but, notwithstanding all his efforts, the strait could not be passed. Meanwhile the utmost terror prevailed among the Americans in the rear : in the first moment of alarm, when the militia fled, their officers actually set fire to their naval storehouses, arsenal, and barracks, which were speedily consumed.* While the flames were yet burning, however, Colonel Tootle, with a reinforcement of six hundred militia, approached the American works. The British were reduced to three hundred and fifty men by the terrible discharges of grape and musketry which issued from them : they had not a single gun to beat down the palisades, or silence the enemy's cannon ; and the fleet could not approach the shore to co-operate in the attack, owing to adverse winds. In these circumstances ultimate success was hopeless, and in fact the capture of the place must have been immediately followed by the surrender of the handful of British who remained for the assault. Prevost, therefore, wisely drew off his forces, and returned to the British shore. Brown was rewarded for his services by the appointment of Brigadier in the regular army. Prevost was assailed with all the acrimony that could be generated by disappointment in the minds of those who had exulted in the anticipation of success. Nevertheless, the principal object of the expedition, the destruction of the stores, had been accomplished; and that, too, by the * The spoils of York perished with the other stores, so that the flag, the mace, and that scalp taken from the " Speaker's chair (killed in the action)," according to Ingersoll, were all that remained. HO ANOTHER NAVAL SUCCESS. [dlAP. IV Americans themselves : it " caused the loss of the supplies which were essential to the success of the campaign/' say the American authorities. According to them, also, this was " the last American success in 1813, on Lake Ontario, or the St. Lawrence, where the enemy's good fortune afterwards never failed, except in Chauncey's partial success on the lake." It would be as uninteresting as it would be useless to detail all the incidents of this border warfare. We pass on to the more important events of the strife upon the ocean, which was carried on with various fortune. The first victory this year was won by the Hornet, 18, Captain Lawrence. In the preceding year, this vessel had endeavoured to decoy the Bonne Citoyenne, a British sloop of the same rate as itself, out of the port of St. Salvador, or Bahia, by challenging her captain. After three weeks, however, one of the enemy's seventy-fours drove the Hornet away, and thus relieved the Bonne Citoyenne " from the awkward necessity of fighting with considerable treasure on board, or of the still more unpleasant dilemma of appearing indisposed to meet a ship of equal force." Soon afterwards, on February 24th, the Hornet, having captured several prizes, fell in with the Peacock, 18, off the mouth of the Demerara river. The British vessel was, as in other instances, inferior to the American in tonnage, weight of metal, and crew ; and in like manner with the others, it was completely vanquished. As soon as Captain Lawrence was satisfied that the vessel he had discovered was an enemy, the Hornet was "cleared for action, and her people went to quarters." She was kept close by the wind, too, in order to gain the weather- gage of her antagonist, who continued running free. The two vessels "passed within half pistol shot, delivering their broadsides as the guns bore, each vessel using the larboard battery. As soon as they were clear, the Englishman put his helm hard up, with the intention to wear short round, and, get a raking fire at the Hornet, but the manoeuvre was closely watched and promptly imitated, and, firing his starboard guns, he was obliged to right his helm, as the Hornet was coming down on his quarter in a perfect blaze of fire. The latter closed, and maintaining the admirable position she had got, poured in her shot with such vigour, that" within an hour and a half from the com- mencement of the action, " the enemy not only lowered his ensign, but hoisted it, union down, in the fore-rigging, as a signal of distress. His mainmast soon after fell." The signal of distress, says Alison, " was answered with praiseworthy humanity by the brave Americans, and every effort was made by the crews of both vessels to save the disabled ship. But, notwithstanding all their efforts, she went down in a few minutes, with thirteen of her own crew and three of the Hornet's, who were engaged in the noble act of striving to save their enemies." The captain of the Peacock and four men were killed, and thirty- three wounded; whilst there were but one man killed, and two wounded on board the Hornet. Only one shot fired by the Peacock struck the hull of her adversary, and it did no more damage than that of "indenting a plank beneath the cat-head." So many disasters at sea impressed the British government with the necessity for the most vigorous efforts, both to retrieve their naval losses, and to prevent the recurrence of such ignominious defeats. A.D. 1813.] A BLOCKADE ESTABLISHED. 81 All along the Atlantic coast, this year, an annoying and predatory warfare was carried on by the British. In February, two ships of the line, four frigates, and several smaller ships of war, under the command of Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, took possession of Hampton Roads, in Chesapeake Bay; and in the following month, Captain Beresford, with a seventy-four and a frigate, made himself master of Delaware Bay. The entire force of the British fleets on the American coast, between Halifax and the Bermudas, at this time consisted of some six seventy-fours, thirteen frigates, varying in rate from thirty-eight to thirty-two guns, and eighteen sloops, carrying about twenty guns each; so that, notwithstanding the successes of the Americans in the combats we have related, ship against ship, they were totally unable to make good their claim to be considered a naval power in opposition to Great Britain. Congress, however, had, under the influence of the new democratic party, passed measures for the purpose of offering some resistance, at least, to the armament which thus rode triumphantly in the American waters; that is to say, if it would be so courteous as to look upon the Acts of Congress, as a chivalric challenge, and wait until the four seventy-fours, and six frigates of the first class, which the President was authorised to build, should be ready for action ! It may also be recorded, that it was by a very small majority that this truly Federalist policy was adopted by the House. And whilst this navy was preparing, premiums were offered to induce inventive and adventurous individuals, by means of submarine infernal machines, to protect the harbours of the United States; which Jefferson's gun-boats were once more demonstrated to be in- capable of defending. Some of the state legislatures, too, of a democratic complexion, projected patriotic contributions of ships of war, to be built, armed, and equipped at the expense of their states, severally, to the infant marine. But the spirit of the original democracy, which was so near prevailing in Congress, prevented the accomplishment of these projects. On the 20th of March, the whole Atlantic border of the United States, with the exception of the coasts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, was declared to be in a state of blockade ; and with respect to the more important harbours, this blockade was strictly enforced. From time to time, expeditions of light vessels, or boats, were despatched from the blockading squadron, against different points of the coast; whilst the ships themselves menaced, now "Washington, now Annapolis, and now Baltimore; so that the entire sea-board was kept in a continual state of alarm, and the militia ex- hausted by being ceaselessly on active duty. Lewistown, a village near the mouth of the Delaware, was bombarded, the Americans said, because the inhabitants had refused to supply fresh provisions to the enemy. Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Georgetown, and Fredericton, were plundered and burnt. An attack on Craney Island failed, it having been fortified, and the water being too shallow to allow the boats to get sufficiently near the shore to land the troops, and Norfolk and Portsmouth arsenals were, in consequence, saved. The fortified post at Hampton was, however, stormed ; and in Ocracoke harbour, two fine brigs were captured. Hampton, the Ame- ricans alleged, was given up to the will of the victorious soldiers ; and it wag admitted by the British, that "some acts of violence were committed against VOL. II. M 82 THE SHANNON AND THE CHESAPEAKE. [CHAP. IV. the inhabitants in the heat of the assault." The name of Admiral Cockburn became a terror to the inhabitants of the banks of the Chesapeake and Delaware. Although no great results attended these operations, they demonstrated to such of the people as had not joined the fanatical war-party, how terrible a mistake the administration had committed, in declaring hostilities against Great Britain. During this summer the first proof was afforded of the beneficial results to the Britisli government of the numerous defeats which their ships had expe- rienced. The command of the Chesapeake had been given to the gallant com- mander of the Hornet, and while she was refitting at Boston, the two British frigates, the Shannon and the Tenedos, frequently appeared off the harbour, as if to challenge some of the vessels lying there to combat. On the 1st of June the Shannon alone made its appearance, Captain Broke having sent away his consort, with instructions not to return for three weeks. "This able officer," says Alison, " commanded a frigate pierced for thirty-eight guns, but really mounting fifty-two ; and, contrary to the general practice in the British navy, he had for many years trained the crew, whom by admirable management he had brought to the highest state of discipline and subordination, to the practice of ball firing with great, guns." Some disaffection existed among the crew of the Chesapeake, on account of the prize-money of the last cruise, which was still unpaid. She had also an unusual number of mercenaries and landsmen in her ; some of the officers, too, were deficient in experience. But she exceeded the Shannon, both in the number of her crew, and in the weight of her broadside. In the number of guns the vessels were equal. Understanding that the Chesapeake was ready for sea, Captain Broke stood in to the mouth of the harbour, and despatched to Captain Lawrence a courteous invitation to single combat, " to try the fortunes of their respective flags." But before this cartel could be received, the American captain, seeing the British vessel lying close in to the lighthouse, with colours flying, determined to chastise its commander for so daring a defiance, and weighing anchor, went " gallantly down, with three flags flying, on one of which was inscribed, ' Sailors' rights and free trade/ " " Numerous barges and pleasure-boats, amidst loud cheers, accompanied her some way out, to what they deemed a certain victory." It was twelve, meridian, when the Chesapeake weighed, and Broke, finding his challenge accepted, at once stood out to sea. "When about thirty miles from the light, at about five, p.m., the Chesapeake signalled the Shannon to heave to, and, with three cheers, ran up alongside her, at the distance of about two hundred yards. As she passed, not more than a stone's throw off, the Shannon's guns, beginning with her cabin guns, were fired in succession from aft forward, and as they were heavily loaded with two round shot and a hundred and fifty musket balls, or one round and one double-headed shot in each, they did fear- ful execution. The Chesapeake did not fire till all her guns bore, when she delivered a very destructive broadside. Two or three broadsides were then exchanged ; and, " so far as the general effect of the fire was concerned," the Chesapeake had the best of it ; but some of her rigging had been shot away, and in attempting to haul her foresail up, she fell on board the Shannon, whose starboard bower anchor locked with her mizen channels, and she lay exposed to A.D. 1813.] THE SHANNON AND THE CHESAPEAKE. 83 a taking fire from the enemy, who swept her decks with the contents of two thirty-two pounders carronades, beat in her sternposts, and drove the men from their quarters. Tiie veteran boatswain of the Shannon, at the cost of his own life, lashed the two ships together, while their marines exchanged a sharp and galling fire of musketry. Captain Lawrence was severely wounded before the vessels fouled, and in preparation for that, he directed the boarders to be called; but instead of a drummer, there was only a bugleman, and he, a negro, " was so much alarmed at the effects of the conflict, that he had concealed himself under the launch, and, when found, was so completely paralysed by fear as to be totally unable to sound a note." The word was then passed for the boarders to come on deck ; but at this very instant, the captain fell, with a ball through his body. No other officer, higher in rank than a midshipman, remained on the upper deck, and when the boarders came from below, such was the confusion, that they were unarmed, and the enemy was now in possession of the vessel : for the British on their side, as soon as the vessels were made fast, were prepared to board, and their captain, at the head of the boarding party, leapt upon the Chesapeake's quarter-deck, quickly followed by another party to the forecastle, whilst the sailors of the Shannon's foreyard forced their way into the Chesapeake' s tops, and cleared them. Three American sailors, who had previously submitted, made a furious assault upon Captain Broke, as he stood almost alone on the Chesapeake quarter-deck, but he succeeded in parrying a mortal thrust, though he was badly wounded with a sabre-cut and a blow from the butt end of a musket. " Fifteen minutes after the first gun was fired, the Chesapeake was entirely in the hands of the British." On board the American ship forty-eight were killed and ninety- eight were wounded ; while the Shannon lost twenty-four killed and fifty-nine wounded, principally by the Chesapeake's broadsides. Lawrence died of his wounds five days later, and was buried with military honours at Halifax, whither both ships proceeded very soon after the action ; his words (or such as were attributed to him), "Don't give up the ship ! " " Fire faster \" uttered as he fell mortally stricken, have become a " saying " in the United States ; and when Perry went into action on Lake Erie, a flag inscribed with them was flying at his mast-head. Both in America and in Great Britain the effect of this engagement was prodigious. In the latter country it was hailed as a demonstration that the reiterated defeats which had been inflicted on its ships were not owing to any decline in its naval might, but were to be ascribed rather to the superiority of the American vessels in every combat, and to their assiduous practice of naval gun- nery. Whilst the Americans, having begun to fancy themselves invincible at sea, experienced an amount of chagrin, on seeing their prestige thus early dashed, that cannot be described ; and which neither all the considerations that could be discovered or invented to account for the defeat, without relinquishing the notion of American invincibility, nor the years which have elapsed have, even at the present day, entirely assuaged. The President's second Inaugural Address, and the Message with which he opened the extraordinary session of Congress, on the 25th of May, relate almost 84 FRUITLESS MEDIATION OP RUSSIA [CHAP. IV, wholly to the war, but they are not possessed of the least value as state papers, since they are, in fact, nierely exaggerative echoes of the expressions of the esprits exaltes of the war party. The same may be said of most of the Message sent to Congress on December the 7th ; for not only is the summary of the events of the half-year preceding strongly tinged with mere party feeling; but the favourite and oft-repelled and refuted charges against the British government are repeated and enlarged upon, as if it were a concio ad populum, instead of the address from the executive of a great nation to its legislative bodies. The sole interest attaching to such documents is that which they share with all the other provocative publications and appliances resorted to by the American sciolists in statesmanship, who, having hurried the country into hostilities, could see safety for themselves and their " policy " only in perseverance. The matter of greatest importance mentioned in these quasi state papers, was the attempt to negociate a peace, by the mediation of Russia. The incli- nation of the democratic party to this potentate we have repeatedly been apprised of; and, taken in conjunction with their resolute Gallomania, even when the most absolute of absolute monarchs, Napoleon, was France, it affords us a fair measure of their love of popular liberty ; and of the same kind as we meet with in another quarter their fanatical maintenance, both in practice and in theory, of slave-holding. In the autumn of the preceding year, the Russian minister at St. Peters- burg, Romanzov, suggested to John Quincy Adams, that his master could, perhaps, and certainly would, offer to mediate between the United States and their parent country. On March the 8th, 1813, Daschkov, ambassador from Russia at Washington, formally offered to the President the use of his good offices in this way ; declaring, it is alleged, that " the Emperor took pleasure in doing justice to the wisdom of the United States' government, and that he was convinced that it had done all it could to prevent the rupture." From which we can draw certain conclusions respecting the Emperor, which it is very probable other sayings and doings of his will justify. Three days later Madison formally accepted Alexander's offer, and very soon appointed Messrs. Albert Gallatin who, as finance minister for a war he disapproved, held a difficult and thankless position in the cabinet John Quincy Adams (out of compliment to the Czar, amongst other reasons), and James A. Bayard, commissioners, or envoys, to negociate with Great Britain, under the mediation of Russia, a treaty of peace. Gallatin and Bayard immediately embarked at Philadelphia in the Neptune, under a flag of truce, to join Adams at St. Petersburg, where they arrived about midsummer. Adams did not hear of the declaration of war until October, 1812 ; and did not receive the official communication regarding it till December. This was when that unparalleled struggle was over, which proved to be the first of the long series of catastrophes whereby the colossal power of Napoleon was overthrown and broken ; and the offer of mediation appears to have been made by the Czar, in the first flush of his triumph, and as a trial of his capability to play the part which Russian ambition seems then to have aspired to play that of umpire and arbiter of the civilised world. A.D. 1814-15.] CAMPAIGN OF 1814. 85 Castlereagh, and the British government, then in the full enjoyment of their triumphant combinations against the French emperor, and foreseeing in his repulses at the two extremities of Europe the pledge of his ultimate downfall, declined the offer of their stipendiary ally. From the English newspapers it appears that they naturally revolted from the thought of submitting the decision of the extent of the maritime rights of Great Britain to the proposer of " the Armed Neutrality." But two months later, they expressed their willingness to open communications directly with the United States, and pro- posed London, or Gottenburg, in Sweden, as the place of meeting for the commissioners of both parties; "the established maxims of public law, and the maritime rights [which to the Americans then, and to Britain herself after- wards, were merely claims] of the British empire," being always excepted from the list of matters to be discussed. This offer the American envoys were unable to accept ; their powers being limited to negociating peace under the mediation of Russia. CHAPTER V. CAMPAIGN OF 1814, AND END OF THE WAR. WAR MEASURES. THE BRITISH IN THE CHESAPEAKE AND THE POTOMAC. WASHINGTON BURNT. ATTACK UPON BALTIMORE. NAVAL WARFARE. THE WAR IN THE SOUTH. INVASION OF LOUISIANA. JACKSON'S VICTORY AT NEW ORLEANS. FRESH NEGOCIATIONS. PEACE OF GHENT. HOSTILITIES between the United States and Great Britain had now reached the internecine stage. But the circumstances of the belligerents had undergone a considerable change. America was almost exhausted by the contest ; and so greatly torn by internal dissension though the numerical strength of the two parties was most disproportionate that the breaking-up of the Confederation was confidently expected. The spirit of the war party, however, failed not. Volunteers were ever ready for limited periods of service, in the ultramontane states ; and though money was more scarce than ever, and even weapons were sometimes wanting, men to fight the battles of their country could always be found. Great Britain, too, was exhausted by war, but owing to the peculiar cha- racter of her institutions, and the yet more peculiar temper of her sons albeit that she too was rent by civil discord neither men, nor money, nor any of the material or moral requisites for the war were lacking ; whilst by the triumphant, though temporary, extinction of the great European contest, she was now at liberty to direct against the United States a stronger amount of force than hitherto she had employed. Her chief attention, nevertheless, was still devoted to the affairs of the Old World, for it was with the older states of Europe that her most intimate and momentous relations, both hostile and pacific, had been contracted ; and she did not understand the importance of her connections with the Imperial Republic of the West she did, indeed, #6 CAMPAIGN OF 1814. ~ [dlAP. V. entertain even a contemptuous feeling for America, and continued to despatch against it small armaments, and undistinguished leaders, as if she either did not comprehend its warlike energy, or did not care for such laurels as could be gathered on its shores. We mentioned the capture of Fort Mackinaw, or Michilmackinac, by the British, at the first outbreak of hostilities, and its retention when Upper Canada was invaded and occupied by the Americans. Colonel M'Dowall had been left in command of this place, when Proctor retreated from Amherstberg ; and its importance, as a means of communication with the Indians of the western territories, was correctly estimated by him. To ensure the reduction of this important post, " three "different expeditions/' says Alison, " were set on foot by the Americans at the same time, in spring, 1814 ; one from Fort Lewis on the Mississippi, one from Detroit, and one from Chicuco. M'Dowall had under his command only two hundred and thirty-two men, of whom sixty were Canadian militia, and a hundred Indians. Out of this diminutive force he fitted out a small body, about a hundred strong, under the command of Major Mackay, of the Canadian militia, who succeeded, by extraordinary gallantry, in making themselves masters of about five hundred miles of territory, and cap- turing and holding an American fort on the Mississippi." But, during their absence, the American cruising squadron, consisting of two ships of twenty-six guns each, and several large schooners and small boats hove in sight, under Commodore Sinclair, having upwards of nine hundred land troops on board. To oppose this force, M'Dowall had now only one hundred and fifty men ; * but such was the ability of the dispositions which he made, that he gained the advantage in every encounter, and drove the Americans back to their ships with great loss. A tedious blockade was now established, but from that also the gallantry of a British officer relieved the fort. " On a cloudy and dismal night, the 3rd of September, Lieutenant "Worsley," with tiger spring, contrived to get possession of one of the blockading schooners, and two nights later, of the second " and the Americans were obliged to raise the siege and abandon the enterprise." During the winter great exertions were made in Canada to prepare for the warfare, which the coming spring would certainly see renewed upon its frontiers. Liberal grants of money were made by the houses of assembly ; the most dis- tinguished commanders in the previous campaign received votes of thanks for their services ; and the military establishment was increased till it was, according to Ingersoll, " much more respectable than that of the United States. Six battalions of embodied militia, nearly four thousand strong, other militia and provincial corps, frontier light infantry, voltigeurs, and lake sailors, at least as good as the common British seamen, constituted altogether, with their Indian allies, a considerable force, better disciplined and more obedient than ours." Ingersoll speaks lightly of a great council held at Quebec, in the month of March, attended by chieftains and warriors from almost 'all the northern tribes of Indians. And yet it showed how deeply the deprivation of their lands, whether by exchange, or purchase, or by whatever means, had embittered their * Not nine hundred, as Ingersoll states. A.D. 1814-1815.] CAPTURE OP FORT ERIE. 87 hearts against the Americans ; and that this was the ground of their joining with Great Britain in the present conflict. The outcry of the American government and the democratic party against the employment of these savages, in a warfare where the belligerents were civilised nations, was this year deprived of what little propriety it originally possessed, by the enlistment of as strong a body of them as could be raised by the administration, by a regular treaty, and under the circumstances which the following sentence indicates : " From the 20th of June till July, 1814, Generals Harrison and Cass received the tribes, to the number of one thousand warriors, with three thousand followers, most of whom had been employed with the English in the war against the United States, who engaged to take*the tomahawk against their old allies." We may, however, state here, that the Indians do not appear to have served the American side with the efficiency they displayed when in the pay of the British, for before the campaign was over they had either " departed," or had been " dismissed ; " whilst they continued to be the portion of the British forces most dreaded by the regulars, volunteers, and militia of the United States. The army on the northern frontier, disheartened by failure, and never sub- jected to very exact discipline, was rendered still more incapable by commanders without influence or military skill, and a plan of operations constructed by men who had not the power to "organise victory." At length nothing was thought of except the defence of the boundary line; Wilkinson was stationed at Plattsburgh, and Brown at Sackett's Harbour; and matters rested for awhile. Several minor affairs took place, however, at different points, and marked by various success. In one of them, Captain Holmes had the good fortune to see his victory acknowledged in the British general orders, as well as to win a majorship for himself. In another, Wilkinson lost yet more of his already diminished reputation, by suffering a severe repulse, with considerable loss, from the outpost at La Cole Mill ; and he was shortly afterwards removed from his command. About midsummer, the invasion of Upper Canada was once more attempted by the American forces, which had been collected at Buffalo, Black Rock, and other places on the Niagara frontier, under Generals Brown and Scott. Early in. July, General Ripley was sent across the river with two strong brigades, but not, as Alison states, at the head of nearly five thousand men, the whole invading army not amounting to that number. They not only effected their landing without opposition, but captured Fort Erie and its entire garrison of a hundred and seventy men, without firing a shot. And thus, at the very outset of the campaign, Brown's good fortune was apparent. Not far from Erie was the intrenched position of Chippewa, and having secured a stronghold like Fort Erie as a base of operations, Brown resolved to attack it. General Eiall, who commanded there, could easily have checked the advance of the invaders by removing the bridge over the Chippewa river, but he omitted this precaution. His force was inferior to that of the Americans, consisting of only fifteen hundred regulars, and about a thousand militia and Indians. Within two miles of the enemy Brown halted, and drew up in regular order ; and on the following day Biall left his intrenchments and accepted the challenge to battle. At five in the morning of the 5th of July the action 88 FAILURE OF THE SECOND INVASION OF CANADA. [CHAP. V commenced, the Canadian militia and Indian allies attacking the American volunteers, the redoubted marksmen of Kentucky, who stood their ground so bravely, and dealt such deadly shots into the ranks of the enemy, that not till some of the regulars came up were they driven back. " The main body," says Alison, ' ' advanced to the attack in column, the Americans receiving them in line, thus reversing the usual order of the British and French in the Peninsula campaigns. The result was the same as what had there so often occurred, the head of the British column Avas crushed by the discharges of the American line, which stood bravely, and fired with great precision ; and though they succeeded in deploying with much steadiness, the loss sustained in doing so was so serious, that General Riall was obliged to retreat with the loss of one hundred and fifty men killed, and three hundred and twenty wounded.-" Towson's artillery was served with remarkable skill and effect, and the victory was ascribed in no small part to a daring movement a bayonet charge by Major Jessup, in the midst of a destructive fire from the British troops. The Americans lost three hundred and twenty-eight men. As this was the first decided victory gained on land during the war, the Americans, overlooking and even denying the advantages of their superior numbers, hailed it with unbounded joy as an augury of coming triumphs. The prestige of British invincibility appeared to be broken on both elements, and the most confident anticipations were now indulged of the acquisition of the whole of Canada, as a second and more nobly-gained Louisiana, to add to the grandeur of the Union. Soon afterwards, Riall, finding his communications threatened, withdrew from his intrenchments and fell back upon Queenstown, and thence to Twenty- mile Creek, abandoning Queenstown to the Americans. Brown followed him in his retreat as far as Fort George, into which Riall threw part of his forces, but there his advance ended. According to the plan of the campaign, Chauncey should have met Brown there with the flotilla, both for supplies and reinforce- ments ; but the British held the mastery of the lakes, and their vessels only were to be seen at Fort George when the Americans arrived in its vicinity. There seems to have been some misapprehension on the part of Chauncey as to the part he was expected to take in this campaign ; or else, as we have seen in the case of other co-ordinate commanders, he chose rather to see his country defeated than contribute to her triumph in a subordinate position. Disappointed thus of the co-operation of the fleet, not reinforced as he expected, deserted by the Indians, who certainly had no reason for ranging themselves on. the American side, and could not be regarded as faithful allies, Brown had no resource but retreat, yet, resolved not to abandon the enter- prise he had so hopefully begun, he formed the desperate, or, as Ingersoll designates it, heroic determination to leave his baggage, and make a dash at Burlington Heights. For this purpose it was needful to return to Chippewa, which he reached on the evening of the 24th. General Riall, reinforced so that he now had about three thousand men, immediately proceeded from his mtrenchments in pursuit. On the 25th, at Bridgewater, near the falls of lagara, the two armies met, and a most bloody battle ensued, which lasted till midnight, and ended in the defeat of the Americans. Both sides claimed the A.D. 1314-1815.] WASHINGTON MENACED BY THE BRITISH. 89 victory, the Americans, because they captured most of the British guns, and drove the enemy from his position ; the British, because they recovered all their guns, and, as Ingcrsoll says, "found a cannon accidentally left" by the Ame- ricans in their retreat, and because they were eventually left masters of the field the Americans not only not venturing to attack them on the morning after the fight, but actually withdrawing in an almost precipitate flight. Each side also exaggerated the comparative numbers of the enemy, both as to his forces in the field, and his loss in the battle. " The result of the action was of the highest importance " to the British, " as it entirely stopped the invasion of Upper Canada, and threw the Americans, lately so confident of success, back into Fort E/ie, where they were immediately besieged by a force little more than half their amount." Another series of incidents in the north requires notice. In July, the British attempted by a new method to settle the long-disputed question of the north-eastern boundary. Under the pretext that they considered it a part of the British dominions, Eastport, situated on Moose Island in Maine, was occupied by the troops of the enemy. The other islands in Passamaquoddy Bay were also taken possession of by the British. On the 1st of September a squadron of British vessels entered the mouth of the Pcnobscot, and took possession of Castine and Belfast. They destroyed all the vessels which they found there, garrisoned the former place, and thence proceeded against other places in the vicinity. All the country east of the Penobscot river, which Great Britain had formerly contended was the true St. Croix, was at the same time claimed as British territory; and it would undoubtedly have proved extremely valuable to Great Britain could she have made good her claim, since the only convenient route between Canada and Nova Scotia crossed this very tract. Thus, as the democrats said, " without a blow struck, part of Massachusetts passed under the British yoke; and so re- mained, without the least resistance, till restored at the peace. It was the only part of the United States under undisputed British dominion." They who, besides refusing to this part of the Union the protection of the regular troops, unconstitutionally ordered the local militia to serve in the invasion of Canada, ought, however, to have been sparing in their reproaches against New England. Admiral Cockburn had more than once menaced Washington in the pre- ceding year ; and much patriotic oratory, Avith reports of the every way perfect and complete naval and military defences of the seat of government, the appoint- ment of a fast-day, and satirical triumph when the squadron in the Potomac turned aside in pursuit of some other object, had shown the sense of their clanger, which the administration and the war party generally possessed. We shall now test the value of these reports, and see if either humiliation or triumph were indications of such wisdom in any branch of the government as the circum- stances of the nation required. Not that the need of preparation was altogether overlooked. Nearly a hundred thousand militia were called for by the President without any Act of Congress ; fortifications began to rise in the vicinity of exposed places ; volun- teers hastened to the defence of the coast ; the gun-boats were collected into VOL. II. N 90 PREPARATIONS OF TI1E AMERICANS. [CHAP V squadrons, to act more effectively (if they would act at all) wheii they seemed most to be required. Most astonishing thing of all, half the idle and angry private discussions on the justice of the war, and its past fortunes and mis- fortunes, were quashed ; for the protection of the country from invasion grew to be the question of paramount importance, wherever there was any wealth or shipping that appeared likely to attract the invaders. The assembling of transport ships and convoys at the " still-vexed Bermoothes," bade fair to inaugurate such unanimity in the states as had not been known since the declaration of independence. In the middle of August the hostile squadron effected a junction with Cock- burn's in Chesapeake Bay. Passing the mouth of the Potomac, the armament ascended the Patuxent, by which route it was more easy for the army to reach the metropolis; and on the 16th, without meeting with the least semblance of opposition, the forces were disembarked at Benedict, and leaving their ships there, began the march upon Washington. Including negroes and sailors, the number engaged in this daring exploit did not exceed four thousand five hundred men. The advance was slow; for not only did the total absence of resistance suggest the need of precaution against ambuscades, but the soldiers, long cooped up in the ships, were too much fatigued by the weight of their accoutrements and provisions to proceed rapidly. After a day or two, a few of the famous riflemen of the backwoods showed themselves to the invading force, who also caught sight of bodies of American soldiery, now posted on some rising ground, whence they hastily withdrew as the British advanced, now rapidly evacuating some town, as the British entered, and now enveloped in clouds of dust, as they crossed the line of the British march. Later still, at night, the outposts were conscious of the near approach of small parties of Americans, apparently intent on the capture or death of stragglers ; and they were so many, in con- sequence of the heat of the weather and the peculiarities of the country and climate, that the halting-places were never many miles apart. The inhabitants of both country and towns disappeared in mass before the face of the invaders. Could a " paper-muster" (as an English writer has designated such arrays) have preserved the American territory from being violated, Washington was amply guarded. Raised to the dignity of a distinct military district, Columbia, and the parts of Virginia and Maryland immediately adjoining it, ought to have been in no danger. Sixteen thousand six hundred men had been placed at the disposal of General Winder, the chief of the district, to cover the capital; and behind that imposing force appeared at least ninety -three thousand militia, the whole strength of the Old Dominion and Pennsylvania, which had even " cheer- fully" been granted, in answer to the requisition of the government, for the defence of the lares and penates of the nation. But the only part of all this civic army which could not well shrink from its duty the artillery, actually made its appear- ance in the field. r l he strong flotilla of gun-boats was commanded by the same Joshua Barney, who once, under letters of marque on a naval commission from the French revolutionary authorities, had plundered the merchantmen of his country, and threatened the vengeance of France if a Federalist President should be elected. But though the gun-boats, like himself, were undoubted republicans, instead of resisting by so much as a single gun fired at the enemy, the descent AD. 1814-1815.] BRITISH ATTACK ON WASHINGTON. 91 of this English armada, they only fled before the squadron, and sought refuge in the deepest recesses of the waters they thus had suffered to be violated. Three days after the British had landed, Barney, unable to save his vessels, blew up, or burnt, fifteen of them the whole fleet, save one, which, with thirteen merchant ships, tell into the hands of the enemy. Madison's position we do not pretend to describe ; nor to report the pro- ceedings of cabinet councils and other meetings, now that the war, which he never had much heart for, stood threatening at his own doors. Let Ingersoll depict for us his circumstances at this season of alarm : " There were no funds, though the city banks proffered a few hundred thousand dollars of their depreciated, and in a very few days unconvertible paper, as, with the fall of Washington, all banks south of New England stopped payments in coin. There were no rifles ; not flints enough ; American gunpowder was inferior to English ; there was not a cannon mounted for the defence of the seat of government ; not a regular soldier there ; not a fortress, breastwork, or military fortification of any kind within twelve miles. The neighbouring militia of Maryland and Virginia were worn down by disastrous and mortifying service, routed and disheartened. The proportion of regular troops, all of them mere recruits, never tried in .fire, was like that of coin to paper, in the wretched currency so small an infusion of the precious metal, that there was scarcely any substance to rely upon." General Winder's camp and army were encumbered rather than encouraged by the presence of the executive of the United States himself, with his secretaries of state, war, and navy, and attorney-general. Contradictory rumours, and, in general, " great alarm," prevailed there, and made it a scene as remark- able as that " Camp of Wallenstein " in Schiller's immortal drama. " Such was the laxity of discipline, insubordination, and turbulence, probably unavoid- able in a heterogeneous assemblage on a sudden, of citizens armed and unarmed, that an old officer present described the camp as open as a race-field, and noisy as a fair ; the militia and sailors boisterous with mirth or quarrels, the counter- sign given so loudly by the sentinels that it might be heard fifty yards." On the 23rd, the British, falling in with a strong body of Americans, practised a very stale trick iipon them : they wheeled off from the main road, and took the direction of Alexandria. Yet the bait took, General Winder abandoned the strong position he had seized on the main road, " harassed his troops by a needless march towards that town, and discovered his mistake only time enough to occupy the heights of Bladensburg," just before the enemy came in sight, on the following day. Before this unwise retreat was undertaken, the President reviewed above three thousand men, in Winder's camp, in the hope of raising in the breasts of the soldiers a courageous animation he did not himself possess. New bands of militia and volunteers joined subsequently ; but not in such numbers as the war party boasted of, as Avaiting only the call of their country, to fly to her standards. One account makes the force which occupied the road at Bladensburg consist of seven thousand four hundred men ; another, based upon official statements, raises it to nearly nine thousand. We may also observe, that they fully believed the invading army to number at least ten thousand men ; though it really was less than half that strength. 92 BRITISH ATTACK ON WASHINGTON. [CHAP. V. Leaving Winder posted in three lines on the rising ground above Bladens- burg, with twenty-six guns commanding the only bridge by which the narrow ravine and stream in his front could be crossed, let us mark the conduct of the executive and his heads of departments. Every man appears to have been willing to contribute whatever he had, that was to assist in making a. general and an army. Monroe rode over to the field early in the day, and counselled the loan of General Armstrong to the dejected commander at Bladensburg ; the secretary of the treasury, whom the state of the finances had plunged in a very "slough of despond," lent his duelling pistofcs (proved, it is said in mortal conflict on the spot where the army now stood) to the President. Madison and his staff of civilians, hearing of the approach of the enemy., and desirous of affording his countenance to Winder and his men, were very near riding into the ranks of the British, by mistake. He soon found out that he could do- little to aid, and at the first onset he returned to Washington. Though ready to drop with fatigue, when commanded to advance, the British pushed into the village, which the Americans had neglected to occupy. After a short reconnaissance, during which the column sheltered itself from the fire of the American guns behind the houses, they made a dash at the narrow bridge, where they suffered severely both from the artillery and from Pinkney's riflemen. " If it rain militia," said Ross, " we will go on." Covered in their attack by volleys of rockets, they wheeled off to the right and left of the road, and quickly cleared the thicket .of the American skirmishers, who, falling back with precipitation upon the first line, threw it into disorder before it had fired a shot. In a period of time incredibly short, and when the British had scarcely shown themselves, the whole of that line, being ordered to retreat by General Winder, gave way, and fled in the utmost confusion. For a little time, the second line not only stood their ground, but drove back the enemy who, lightening themselves by throwing away their knap- sacks, extended their ranks so as to show an equal front with the Americans almost to the wooded bank of the river. But now the second brigade of the British had crossed, and having formed, was advancing to the charge in firm and steady array. Threatened thus, and their left flank being turned, the whole American line wavered, broke, and rushed from the field in total and indiscriminate flight. Not more than fifty of the Americans were killed, or wounded, upon this memorable occasion ; " the only death on the retreat was said to be that of a captain of the regular army, of approved courage, who, taken with the contagion of unanimous panic, ran with the crowd till he fell, fainted, and expired." The loss on the part of the English was upwards of five hundred killed, wounded, and missing, including several officers of rank and distinction. The Americans left ten of their guns in the hands of the victors. None of their artillery, except that which the sailors worked, was fired more than twice or thrice. The British were able to bring only one of their guns into action. The conquerors in this extraordinary engagement, which lasted from one o'clock to four in the after- noon, unprovided with cavalry, and completely exhausted with heat and toil, were unable to pursue the flying Americans. Rest was so indispensable to them, that they laid down and slept upon the field of battle ; nor could they A.D. 1814-15.] BRITISH ATTACK ON WASHINGTON. 93 resume the march till after some two hours' sleep, when, in the cool of the evening, they set out towards Washington. The few efforts made by General Winder to " methodise " the route, and convert it into a retreat, were but partially successful. About two thousand well-armed men including a Virginian regiment, which, though it came up the preceding evening, could not get supplied with flints, until the last gun was discharged on their side in the battle were kept together, and halted for a moment about two miles from Washington. " But General Winder," says Ingersoll, " deemed it prudent to order them to fall back from the position they occupied and reluctantly left, to another nearer the city, where he contemplated making a stand. Arrived and halted there, however, he ordered them again to retire to the Capitol, where they were finally to await the enemy. There General Armstrong suggested throwing them into the two wings of that stone, strong building; .... but General Winder with warmth rejected the proposal Colonel Monroe coincided with General Winder's opinion. The Capitol, he feared, might prove a cul-de-sac, from which there would be no escape; the only safety was to rally on the heights of Georgetown, beyond Washington. For the seventh time that day, a retreat therefore was once more commanded." " To preserve order in ranks so demoralised and degraded, was impossible. Broken, scattered, licentious, and tumultuous, they wandered along the cen- tral, solitary avenue, which is the great entry of Washington. When arrived at Georgetown, they were a mere mob, from which it was preposterous to suppose that an army could be organised, to make a stand there. And, in nearly as great disorder as the runagates, who preceded them across the fields without venturing into the city, the remnant of disgraced freemen reached Tenlytown in utter mortification. At the first alarm, the secretary of the navy set fire to a new sloop of war with ten guns, afloat ; a new schooner, five barges, and two gun- boats ; and to a large frigate on the stocks, just ready to be launched; the whole of which, with a vast quantity of stores and machinery, and the buildings containing them, we*e destroyed. The appearance of the fugitives from Bladensburg was the signal for a panic in the city, as well as that which had lost the battle. Amongst them might be seen the President, labouring under such excessive terror, that not even the loan of Campbell's duelling pistols had made him feel himself safe. He was even said to have ordered the bridge, by which he escaped from the doomed city, to be destroyed as soon as he had crossed, leaving those who were not so happy as to have preceded him, to get over the river in the best way they could. Mrs. Madison, before she fled, secured "some of the most precious cabinet papers " belonging to the President, " some clothing and other important articles," and, at the suggestion of the grandson-in-law of General Washington, the full-length portrait of the first President, which still adorns the White House. We are happy to know, that after enduring great fatigue and worse alarm, the brave lady reached a place of refuge in safety. Madison might have learned a useful lesson, concerning the trustworthiness of those who had persuaded him that the war with Great Britain was approved by all the people, 9J, BRITISH ATTACK ON WASHINGTON. [dlAP. V. excepting the Federalist leaders of New England ;-for during the forty-eight hours which followed his escape from Washington, he experienced more mortifi- cation and insult than the whole term of his presidencies else exposed him to. Armstrong was discovered in a farm-house; the other members of the adminis- tration shifted as best they could. Some of the most valuable public records were preserved from destruction, by the exertions of the clerks m that depart- ment. Washington itself, before the arrival of the enemy, was plundered by gangs of escaped slaves and ruffians. But history is happy to learn, that 'although "the secretary of the treasury's fine duelling pistols, which the President took from his holsters and laid on a table, were carried off, and never recovered/' the President's own parrot was saved by the French minister's cook. In the midst of this frightful confusion, the advanced guard of the British army arrived at the outskirts of the city, and a flag of truce was sent forward with a proposal respecting the ransom of the public property in the place, which of course now belonged to them as conquerors. General Hoss himself accompanied the party bearing the flag. But the terms they offered were not so much as heard, for scarcely had they entered the street, when they were fired upon from the windows of a house near, and the general's horse was killed. " Every thought of accommodation was instantly laid aside ; the troops advanced forthwith into the town, and having first put to the sword all who were found in the house from which the shots were fired, and reduced it to ashes, they proceeded without a moment's delay to burn and destroy everything in the most distant degree connected with government." The two wings of the Capitol, which were the only parts finished, were gutted by fire, whereby the library of Congress and many valuable public documents perished. The President's official residence, with the offices of the treasury and state departments near it, shared the same fate. Great numbers of cannon were destroyed, and many others were spiked, had their trunnions knocked off, and were thrown into the river. Quantities of shot, shell, grenades, and cartridges were also cast into the river. This night of the 24th was indeed a night of terror. There had been indications of an approaching storm whilst the British were drawing nigh Washington ; in the course of the night it rolled up ; and near morning, for two hours, the city suffered from a most furious tornado. The flames of the burning Capitol, and of the numerous other conflagrations, were paled by incessant flashes of lightning ; and the roar of the guns which were used for destroying the buildings and stores, and the explosions of depots of gun- powder, were drowned by continuous bursts of thunder. Some houses were destroyed* by the violence of this tornado, and about thirty British soldiers perished in the ruins, Next day the work of destruction was continued. The war office was burnt. The printing office of The National Intelligencer was sacked, and the letter thrown into the street. Two rope-walks were burnt, and by accident a torch was flung into a dry well in the arsenal at Greenleaf's Point, which had been used as a receptacle for old cartridges, waste powder, and other combustibles. 4 terrible explosion instantly ensued, the houses and buildings near were A.D. 18U-15.J ATTACK ON BALTIMORE REPELLED 95 shattered and thrown down, and a great number of British soldiers lost their lives, or were frightfully mutilated. There was also some injury done to private houses and stores by the invaders, but the most trustworthy American authorities themselves declare the "British, to be guiltless of the worst depre- dations of this kind. The bridge across the Potomac was likewise set on fire, at both ends, as it proved ; for so greatly did the Americans fear pursuit, that they attempted to destroy the bridge, as the surest protection from it. Encouraged by the success of the attack upon Washington, the British deter- mined to make a similar descent upon Baltimore; and on September the llth, a squadron made its appearance at the mouth of the Patapsco, which leads to that city. Next day the troops were landed at North Point, about fifteen miles from the place they hoped to seize. While the land forces advanced along the northern shore of the estuary, several vessels of light draught were ordered to ascend the river, to co-operate with them in the capture of Fort M'Henry, an open fortification about two miles from the city. For the first six miles, the troops met with no opposition upon their march. The Americans abandoned one strong position, which they had not time to fortify, and made a stand in a thick wood, through which the road passed, to the number of about three thousand. These were the advanced guard of the militia and volunteers, to whom the defence of Baltimore had been entrusted. Here the first disaster of the invaders occurred, which ultimately produced the defeat of the expedition. General Ross, who had advanced with the skirmishers to the front, was shot through the side, and expired before he could be taken to the boats. Colonel Brook immediately assuming the command, the light troops advanced, and a spirited action ensued. The artillery on both sides, the rifles of the Americans and the British rockets did great execution ; but the Americans could not stand the bayonet charge of the enemy. A complete rout followed the advance of the British line; infantry, cavalry, and artillery, huddled together, seemed only bent upon trying which should first escape. In the two hours, during which the action lasted, the British lost about two hundred and fifty killed and wounded ; while the American loss must have exceeded it greatly. On the following morning the march was resumed ; but when Brook arrived within sight of Baltimore he perceived the whole American army, amounting now to near fifteen thousand men, with a large train of artillery, strongly posted on the heights before the city, which were covered with formidable intrench- ments and field-works. The shallowness of the. river made the co-operation of the ships extremely difficult, and before they got within range of Fort M'Henry, some vessels sunk in the bed of the stream prevented their further progress. Equally fruitless was an attempt made to carry the fort by a boat attack. Brook therefore determined to retreat ; for his handful of men, without the support of the ships, could do nothing against the American position. Withdrawing in the night, the invaders retraced their steps, and were suffered to re-embark without pursuit. One fact connected with this attack upon Baltimore was very remarkable: while the British vessels were vainly trying to throw their shot into Fort M'Henry, and the batteries were as idly replying, an American, who had gone to the British fleet to negociate the release of some prisoners, composed that popular song, " Star-spangled Banner," on board the admiral's ship. 96 XAYAL WARFARE. [CHAP. V. The naval warfare on the whole, this year, led to the same results as that of former years. Captain Porter in the Pacific, having refitted his vessel at the Marquesas, and established a station there to secure the means of future repairs, set out Avith the Essex and Essex Junior, about the end of 1813, for the coast of South America. At Valparaiso, the British frigate Phoebe, mounting thirty long eighteens, sixteen thirty-two pound carronades, with one howitzer, and six threes in her tops, supported also by the Cherub, a brig mounting twenty-eight guns, found the American ships. The Essex at this time carried forty thirty- two pound carronades, and six long twelves ; her consort mounted twenty guns ; altogether a much heavier armament than that of the British vessels. The Essex, trusting to the greater weight of her metal, for several weeks attempted, by mano3uvring, to bring the Phoebe into action without the Cherub, having the Essex Junior with her ; but the British captain was too wary to risk a conflict in which he must have been beaten, and he (for his part) endeavoured, by all means he could devise, to lure the Essex into an engagement Avith both his vessels. One dark night, Captain Porter, having remarked that the Cherub occupied the same place for several nights before, prepared and sent out a boat expedition to capture her, but it failed ; for, on reaching the spot, the Cherub was not there, and the sea all round was illuminated with blue lights, so that, detected and defeated, without a stroke given or received, the boats returned to their ships. At length, on February the 28th, hoping by the superior sailing qualities of his ship to escape from their tedious blockade, Porter endeavoured to run out of the harbour, between the British vessels and the shore. Unfortunately, in doubling the headland which closes it in, he lost his main-topmast, together Avith several of his men, who fell into the sea and were droAvned, and was com- pelled to return. The enemy thereupon came down upon him, Avith colours flying, and the motto " God and our country ; traitors offend both," displayed. Porter immediately cleared for action, and hung out as his motto, the old " Free trade and sailors' rights," which, however Avell it defined the position of the war party as it regarded Great Britain, did not in the least describe their commercial policy. The greatest excitement prevailed on both sides. On board the Essex, owing in good part to the presence of a great number of British deserters, it almost amounted to frenzy. Early in the action, the Cherub was driven back, so battered by .the terrible fire of the Essex as to require immediate repair ; and the Phoebe, which came under fire later, received a shot in her rigging, and so many in her hull, that she too drew off, and the crew losing the management of her, she dropped almost out of shot. But the injuries being speedily repaired, the action was renewed, both Phoebe and Cherub availing themselves of their long guns, and firing with the most destructive precision; while scarcely an American gun could be brought to bear upon them, or thrown so far as the position they had taken; and they cut down the people of the Essex with their plunging fire, and disabled her guns almost at their pleasure. The carnage was so frightful, that one gun of the American ship saw nearly three entire crews fall round it in the course of the action. Finding it impossible to contend successfully against his antagonists, Porter now attempted to run his vessel ashore, and set her on A.D. 1814-15.] NAVAL WARFARE. 97 fire ; but a sudden shift of the wind prevented it, and not only so, but brought her round so as to expose her to a raking fire, worse than she had experienced before. Twice she took fire, part of her powder exploded, she was hulled at almost every shot; until at last, seventy-five men, officers included, were all that remained for duty, and the colours were hauled down. The Essex lost fifty-eight men killed, and sixty-six wounded, or, including the drowned and the missing, a hundred and fifty-two out of two hundred and fifty-five. Nearly a hundred British sailors were on board the American vessel when the engagement commenced, who jumped overboard when it appeared likely she would be taken ; forty of these reached the shore, thirty-one were drowned, and sixteen were picked up when at the point of perishing. The loss of the victors was trifling, five killed and ten wounded a fact which demon- strates the engagement to have been most unequal, in one respect, for the Americans ; and also the skill of the British commander, who had effected so important a victory at so slight a cost. The fight lasted for two hours and a half, and was witnessed by great crowds of people on the shore. Great ado was made about the violation of a neutral port, by this action on the outside of it. And the way in which the British commander availed himself of his superiority, and manoeuvred so, that the American captain could not make use of the advantages which he had over his antagonists, was (as we can see by Ingersoll) spoken of as if he had been guilty of unfairness. But we must observe that the actual "violation of a neutral port" by Captain Porter, who resorted to Valparaiso as a station whence he could molest and capture the mercantile shipping of Great Britain, seems to have been considered as a perfectly proper thing ; and that nothing is ever said of the great superiority of the two American vessels over the two British in the weight of their broad- sides, nor the greater advantage which the Essex alone had in that respect over the Phoebe alone. The desperation of the combat on the American side, which chiefly distinguishes it from the other naval incidents of the war, arose, as we have seen, in good part, from the presence of British renegadoes in such numbers on board the Essex. This fact has also been unaccountably passed over in such notices of the affair as Ingersoll has given. Historical impartiality demands these notifications concerning this fight; and we have further only to state that the consort of the Essex was converted into a cartel, that Captain Porter, on slight provocation, broke his parole; and that the station at Nukahivah was soon broken up by the natives. Other combats of less consequence also occurred ; but we must refer to histories of the navy of the United States those who desire more ample and minute accounts. Some mention has already been made of the private armed vessels of the United States, their audacity and remarkable success. No history of this war could be complete, without a passing notice of them. Encouraged by bounties appointed by Congress; enabled by the total destruction of regular commerce to bring great gain to their owners ; presenting just the kind of attractions which would draw to them the most reckless and vigorous of adventurers by sea and land, namely, the complete absence of discipline, and the certainty of violent excitement; affording, moreover, the amplest opportunities for the VOL. n. o Q8 ATTACK ON FORT BOWYER. [CIIAP. V gratification of private pique, and consecrated by the appellation "patriotic," it is not wonderful that these privateers, and their buccaneering enterprises, should figure so largely in the annals of the war on the American side. Nevertheless, privateering was not universally approved. The democrats of the eastern and middle states were its principal advocates and agents ; and the commerce of England was so extensive, and protected by so prodigious a fleet, that the results of the war on the ocean showed pretty nearly an equality in the number of prizes made by each of the belligerents ; the total of the captures of all descriptions, on each side (according to the most trustworthy accounts), falling but little short of eighteen hundred, although the number of prizes made by British privateers was very small. How much greater in proportion to the whole marine of the country was the loss sustained by the United States, than that which Great Britain suffered, we need not stay to declare. During the summer of 1814, the British did undoubtedly effect the landing of a small force at Pensacola, and received into their service there many of the Creeks who had escaped General Jackson's exterminating sword. It happened that there had been raised, at the end of a tongue of land in Mobile Bay, a redoubt, called Fort Bowyer, mounting twenty guns, and garrisoned by one hundred and sixty men. It had been erected with a view to ulterior operations in the direction of Florida, but had been neglected as insufficient for either attack or defence. Jackson, however, who was appointed this autumn com- mander of the Seventh Military District, discerned the use that might be made of this exposed station, to delay the advance of a hostile force against Mobile, which was only thirty miles off, and armed and manned it as has been stated. Meanwhile, the force under his command at Mobile, justly seeming to him too weak to offer any effective resistance to the enemy, and knowing how tardily the orders of the government were attended to, Jackson, as soon as he heard that the British had landed, sent the most pressing requests to the government of his own state for assistance. But promptly as the " Volunteers of Tennessee " responded to the summons of their favourite leader, this little campaign was finished before they could reach his standard. On the 12th of September a squadron of two sloops and two brigs appeared before Fort Bowyer, a body of soldiers, marines, and Indians was landed to attack the fort in the rear, while the ships bombarded it from the bay. Ingersoll says, that the men composing the garrison were not artillerists, and that their means were extremely slender ; nevertheless, they not only endured for three hours a bombardment from four ships of war, and a mortar battery on shore, but returned it with such hearty good will, that the enemy was glad to escape with the loss of more than two hundred men, and one of his ships, which, having its cable cut by a shot, drifted so close to the fort, that its crew were compelled to desert and burn it. .'., Such was the first disaster of the British in the South ; the effect of which upon the American forces in that quarter, was as great as that of the first victory at sea had been, in encouraging the hope of triumphing over British Invincibility. " In the campaign which began and ended at Fort Bowyer," says Ingersoll, " General Jackson acted without specific, if indeed any, orders, A.D. 1814-15.] JACKSON CAPTURES PENSACOLA 99 sometimes almost against orders, performing exploits of warfare and civil ad- ministration, which paved his way to the presidency." Discovering that the British were admitted at Pensacola, on their retreat from Fort Bowyer, Jackson without any difficulty came to the conclusion that he must occupy that place. He had already sent several urgent requests to the secretary at war for permission to do so, which had at last and reluc- tantly been accorded, and then timorously countermanded. Congress having got wind of the affair, and inquired what actually were the relations of the United States with Spain. Neither of these communications, however, reached Jackson in time to influence his proceedings a circumstance which occasioned him not the least embarrassment or hesitation. " His authority to call out militia was exhausted, or fulfilled. Military chest, or funds, he had none, or scarcely any." But he had his Tennessee riflemen, together with the scanty force placed under him by government, and with them he determined to drive the enemy out of Pensacola, and compel the governor to observe an American, instead of a British, neutrality. Accordingly, he advanced upon the place with a force of about four thousand men, including Indians, and on the 6th of November reached it, and imme- diately sent a flag with a message to Manriquez. As it advanced, the fort opened its fire and compelled it to return. Encamping, therefore, for the night, and discovering (or believing that he had discovered) that the place was defended by British, as well as Spanish soldiers, he determined to storm it on the next day. On the morrow, deceiving the Spaniards as to the quarter on which he meant to attack them, three thousand men, in three columns, were marched along the beach, so as to avoid the fire of the fort and the shipping. Ap- proaching the town, the advance of the artillery being retarded by deep sand, the middle column was ordered to charge. It advanced briskly to the attack ; entering the principal street, a battery of two guns opened its fire upon it, but it was immediately carried by the Americans at the point of the bayonet ; and the governor directly afterwards surrendered the town and fort unconditionally. The British did not appear in this affair, but Jackson says they abandoned a fort at theBarancas, seven miles below Pensacola, on the night after his arrival, and on the day after he captured the town, blew it up. After occupying Pensacola two days, perceiving that no more annoyance was to be expected from that direction, Jackson restored the place to the Spaniards, and returned to Mobile. Thence he proceeded westward, to arrange measures for the defence of New Orleans, which seemed to be (as in fact it was) the point against which the attack of the British was next to be directed. Jackson's independence of the Federal authority was no more than a " flagrant instance " of the spirit which animated the leaders in all the states along the coast. Even in New England fortifications were raised for the defence of the most exposed places. Above a hundred and twenty-five thousand militia, it was calculated, were under arms, at the command of the governments of the several states. The Democratic party, which at first accused the Fede- ralists of trying to establish too strong a national government, and afterwards accomplished an almost despotic centralisation, were at this very time charging their opponents with the attempt to dissolve the Union, and yet it was by their 100 MEETING OF CONGRESS. [CHAP. V. own measures that this actual independence of the general authority of the Union was effected. Whilst these events were proceeding in the south, Congress, summoned at an earlier period than was usual, met amid the smoking ruins of the Capitol at Washington. The Message, sent on the 20th of September, began by accusing Great Britain of needlessly continuing the war, and manifesting " increased violence " in her warlike operations ; and attributed it to the absence of all check upon " her overbearing power on the ocean/' and " the intoxication of success," leading her to cherish hopes of " still further aggrandising a power, already formidable in its abuses to the tranquillity of the civilised and com- mercial world." It next proceeded to give a most encouraging picture of the events of the campaign, as far as they were then known ; and drew from both victories and defeats the comfortable conclusion that " the longer the enemy protracted his hostile efforts, the more certain and decisive would be his final discomfiture." Nevertheless, it added, " it is not to be disguised that the situation of our country calls for its greatest efforts. Our enemy is powerful in men and money ; on the land and on the water. Availing himself of fortuitous advantages, he is aiming, 'with his undivided force, a deadly blow at our growing prosperity; perhaps at our national existence. He has avowed his purpose of trampling on the usages of civilised warfare, and given earnests of it, in the plunder and wanton destruction of private property. In his pride of maritime dominion, and in his thirst of commercial monopoly, he strikes with peculiar animosity at the progress of our navigation and of our manufactures. His barbarous policy has not even ' spared those monuments of the arts, and models of taste, with which our country had enriched and embellished its infant metropolis. From such an adversary, hostility in its greatest force and in its worst forms may be looked for/' It therefore called upon Congress to deliberate only " on the means most effectual for defeating the extravagant views and unwarrantable passions, with which alone," it said, " the war can now be pursued against us." Reference was also made to the negociations attempted under the mediation of Russia, and to the delay in the commencement of a direct negociation, which Great Britain herself had proposed. In the previous volume we gave some details of the financial schemes by which Dallas, the new secretary of the treasury, proposed to save the country from internal dissolution and hostile violence at the same time. We also briefly alluded to the grand scheme of Monroe for recruiting the army, and putting the country upon a war footing on the largest scale, and wr> will now proceed to notice the plan at greater length. The object of this scheme, as unfolded by the proposer, was to complete and preserve the existing military establishment of sixty-two thousand four hundred and forty-eight men, and to raise, for the defence of the cities and frontiers, an additional force, permanent like the regular army, of at least forty thousand men. " Such a force," said the new secretary at war, " aided, in extraordinary emergencies, by volunteers and militia, will place us above all inquietude as to the final result of this contest. It will fix on a solid and imperishable founda- tion our Union and independence, on which the liberties and happiness of A.D. ISM-IS.] MONROE'S CONSCRIPTION SCHEME. 101 our fellow-citizens so essentially depend. It will secure to the United States an early and advantageous peace/' Four plans were suggested for accomplishing this object to draft men from the militia into the regular service ; to classify the whole militia of the States in three divisions, according to age, each class to serve two years, when re- quired ; to exempt every five men, who should supply one as long as the war lasted, from militia service ; and to recruit in the ordinary way, but instead of one hundred and sixty acres of land, given as bounty at the outset, it was proposed to give each recruit a hundred acres every year that the war lasted. The first of these plans best pleased the secretary, who regarded it as less cc-stly, less burdensome to the people, and more effectual against the enemy. The first bill, therefore, proposed the division of the whole white male population of the country, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years (that is, the whole militia of the United States), into classes of one hundred each, by assessors selected from the county courts, or the militia officers of the counties, or from the county generally. And each class was to furnish and maintain, under penalties, one man or more for the national service. The bounty was to be paid, not by government, but by the inhabitants of the district to which each class belonged, according to the value of their property, and to be levied on the property if not paid Avithin a given time. Many even of the war party shrank from a scheme which the opponents of the administration at once branded with the name of Conscription. The chief objections urged by the opponents of the administration were founded upon the xmconstitutionality of the assumption of authority over the militia by the central government. " One general principle is," said one member in the House of Representatives, " that the militia of the several states belong to the people and governments of the states, and not to the government of the United States This militia, being the very people, belong to the people, or to the state governments, for their use and protection Neither the people nor their state governments have ever surrendered this their property in the militia to the general government, but have carefully kept and preserved their general dominion or control, for their own use, protection, and defence/' And then he proceeded to expound the clauses in the constitution bearing upon this momentous question. Monroe had endeavoured, though in vain, to provide against this class of objections, by insisting that, " the men are not drawn from the militia, but from the population of the country : when they enlist voluntarily, it is not as militiamen that they act, but as citizens. If they are drafted, it must be in the same sense. In both instances, they are enrolled in the militia corps; but that, as is presumed, cannot prevent the voluntary act in one instance, or the compulsive in the other. The whole population of the United States, within certain ages, belong to these corps. If the United States could not form regular armies from them, they could raise none." The most effective point made by the orators of the war party, was that by Troup of Georgia, the introducer of the whole subject. This gentleman drew from the archives of government the Message sent by General Washington to Congress, in January, 1790, which contained a plan, devised by secretary Knox, wherein, after due eulogy of the militia system, anil due condemnation 102 CONSCRIPTION AND IMPRESSMENT. [CHAP. V. of the system of voluntary enlistment, was suggested a division of the whole militia of the United States, into classes of twelve men each, from each of which the federal government should draft one man for the regular army. But the introduction of Washington as an authority, by the democratic party, was felt by all to be an impropriety, and, therefore, it could not conduce to the success of their measures. Some warmth of feeling was excited, as was invariably the case, whatever the subject of debate, by allusions to the peculiar " institutions " of the south, where there were no apprentices, and, therefore, where the pressure of one of the government bills would not be felt at all. But although the bill releasing minors from their obligations was carried, the principal portions of the scheme were rejected, in consequence of a dispute between the houses arising out of an amendment, proposed by Jefferson's son-in-law Eppes ; and, in consequence, all that the government could effect, was the passage of a law, making further provision for filling the ranks of the regular army, by which recruiting officers were authorised to enlist all free, able-bodied, effective men, from eighteen years of age to fifty, allowing recruits that were under age four days after enlistment to withdraw it, and giving the masters of apprentices who should enlist part of the bounty-money. The bounty in land, due to soldiers and non- commissioned officers when honourably discharged from service, was doubled ; and a clause was added, by which it accrued to the next of kin, in cases where the recruit was killed, or died in the service. It is worthy of notice, that in a report from the secretary of the navy, recommending a better organisation of that branch of the service, notwith- standing the manifest failure of Great Britain notwithstanding the insulting reproaches unsparingly dealt out to her by the democrats generally, on account of it, and the boast that British impressment was the strength of their own navy a plan of impressment was actually proposed, and Monroe's scheme for drafting from the militia was referred to, as an established legal right, although it was not so fortunate even as to receive the support of the legislature. This plan of course fell to the ground with the other, upon which it was thus based. ' ' It is highly probable," writes Dr. Sullivan, " that if it had been attempted to enforce the system of impressment and military conscription by law, the government would have come to an end. The citizens of the United States could not, and would not, have submitted themselves to its operation." It was, we know, the terror of this conscription that, more than anything else, led to the assembling of the " Hartford Convention." We now return to Louisiana, where we left Jackson endeavouring to make good the defences of the district against the anticipated descent of the British. There was more than enough to occupy all his care. The indolence of Flournoy, and the removal of Wilkinson to the north, before his defensive preparations had been half completed, had left the capital city of the south entirely unpro- tected. " The magazines were empty ; there was a deficiency of munitions and stores, of clothing and ammunition, and all the requisites of defensive warfare. There were no funds and no credit. The banks paid no coin, of which the rich hoarded what they had. Committees of the legislature and self-constituted A.D. 18H-16.] JACKSON'S DEFENCE OF NEW ORLEANS. 103 committees of safety differed in their projects. All business was at a stand, con- fidence annihilated." New Orleans itself seemed wholly unable, or disinclined, to take up arms against the threatened invasion. The peculiar character of its population, in part French, in part Spanish, in part Anglo-American, with a vast servile class of African origin ; its principal occupation trade ; its wealth, with the inevitable consequences in a warm climate and a slave state, the most unbounded profligacy and luxury ; these things were altogether unfavourable to the existence of a spirit which would contend to the death pro aris et focis against an invading foe. Worse than all the hindrances arising from the motley population, with its various tongues, its indolence and cowardice, and from the divided counsels of its public officers and the few of its private citizens who were not overwhelmed with despondency there was treachery to contend against. Disaffected persons, foreigners if people of any nation could be deemed so in this mart of the world were said to be in New Orleans, who discouraged the disposition (of itself faint enotigh) to resist the approach of the enemy ; and, according to the account furnished by one of Jackson's biographers, communicated to the enemy every species of information which could be helpful to him and injurious to the United States. Add to this, that the city was without fortifications, the militia in want of arms, many of the muskets without flints, some persons armed with pikes only, the whole regular force under a thousand in number, and those raw recruits ; while it was uncertain if the militia of Kentucky and Tennessee would arrive in time, or, indeed, whether they would come at all. Jackson himself, too, was enfeebled by disease, but he possessed, in addition to inflexible resolu- tion, that inestimable quality in a military commander, the capability of con- cealing his private feelings under a perfectly composed exterior. Before he left Mobile, Jackson directed Governor Claiborne to close, as well as he could, the communications between the river and the lakes, and issued a proclamation, summoning the free people of colour whom he styled, for the occasion, " noble-hearted" and "generous" " to embody themselves and arm for the defence of the country, of which," remarks Ingersoll, " though inhabitants, they were not, and never could be, citizens." Immediately on his arriving at New Orleans, in the first days of December, " he called, through the governor, for large gangs of slaves, the only workmen to withstand the climate," that he might erect fortifications in the marshes ; and they were furnished in greater numbers than he required. Lest, however, we should think that this generous promptitude was the virtue of their owners alone, Ingersoll states, that, " if necessary," these poor bondsmen were " ready to be embodied and led to action against the British." Gradually, there was infused into the citizens of New Orleans itself, at least, the resolution to oppose the enemy, if not the hope of doing so with success. For, intent upon increasing his forces to the numbers which he deemed necessary for making the stand he had determined on, Jackson had admitted into his ranks the Baratarian pirates, whose establishment at Barataria had been broken up ; and had actually released and embodied the convicts in the prison ; from Lafitte, too, he procured enough pistol-flints to render the flintless muskets serviceable for a time; and every class of the community received 104 DESTRUCTION OF THE GUN-BOATS. [CHAP. V. incessant and most pressing intimations of what the indefatigable general expected of it in aid of his great undertaking. At length, on the Hth of December, in the midst of these preparations, the British squadron appeared off the shoals of the Mississippi. After ail the efforts which had been made, the affected secrecy, the unspeakable terror which heralded the arrival of the force, the speculations regarding its ultimate desti- nation, whether the plunder of New Orleans merely, or the detachment of Louisiana from the United States, after all, it is amazing to read, that the army that was to do, and had already done, such wonders, amounted to no more than some five thousand combatants in all; whilst, owing to circum- stances, " there were not more than three thousand four hundred men upon whom a general could fully depend ! " Irigersoll reckons six thousand, but without sufficient authority. Others have even doubled this last number, drawing, without acknowledgment, on their inraginations. For though the age of legends has passed away, the faculties which produced the legends still exist in every man, and under favourable circumstances, will start forth into most energetic action, to the infinite perplexity of historians of after times. We are not called upon to explain at length the natural defences of ' ' the Crescent City," its peculiar situation, the difficult navigation of its large river, the vast lagunes, with their intercommunicating creeks and channels, and the impassable swamps which breed pestilence around it, these are known to most readers ; and every one of these things was a defence against the foe. At New Orleans there was, too, one detachment of Jefferson's "cheap and effective" national defences, the famous gun-boats ; and the first exploit of the invaders was the destruction of this flotilla. Attacked by some fifty barges and launches, mounting nearly double their number of guns, and manned by crews more than double the total of theirs, after a desperate resistance, they were taken and destroyed ; and there were now only two public vessels left to dispute the passage of the invaders up the river, the Louisiana, 16, which had been bought, armed, and manned with an impressed crew, at the last moment, and the Carolina, 14, commanded by Captain Patterson, the principal naval officer at the port. Jackson made admirable use of this advance of the enemy, and his dearly- bought victory in "the battle of the boats." Every measure of defence was pushed on with redoubled speed and energy; thrilling addresses called the brave to arms, and for a season made all who read them courageous; a levy was ordered of the whole civic soldiery of the state, and the governor put himself and his militia entirely at Jackson's disposal; fortifications rose here and there; the general's eye seemed to be on each part of the work, and all moved on rapidly towards completion; even the men of Tennessee and Kentucky, keen of sight, sure of aim, unequalled in combats where the rifle was employed, were likely to arrive in time to share in the battle against the invaders of the republic. On the 15th, two days only after the destruction of the gun-boats had given the British the command of lakes, and rivers, and every other way of access to New Orleans, the general, finding the proceedings of the state legislature far too slow for the hot haste Avith which events were moving, and that the proposal A.D. 1814-15.] MA11TIAL LAW PROCLAIMED. 105 to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, which either he or Patterson had made, for the purpose (worthy of note, on our part) of facilitating the impressment of seamen for the Louisiana, met with no acceptance, Jackson proclaimed Martial Law ; and the legislature, after a feeble attempt to resist, enacted a law, which might connect the regulated proceedings in matters commercial after the removal of this overbearing external pressure, with those which preceded the imposition of it. ' ' Martial Law was expected wherever Jackson came," says Ingersoll. "At a meeting of the most respectable citizens, civil and military, at his quarters, Hall, the district judge of the United States, together with other judges and eminent lawyers among them, unanimously recommended it ; and declared, as soon as it went into effect, that it would save the state. Its operation was instantly excellent. All the brave and patriotic thronged to Jackson's banner. The whole of Louisiana became one vast camp, animated by one superior spirit, controlled by his iron will. The genius and firmness of one man constrained the prejudices and concentrated the energies of the entire chaotic community. From heterogeneous, inert, discordant, and even traitorous materials, a mass of invincible force was combined, which crashed a formidable invasion." Of this more will appear in the sequel; but we may credit Ingersoll's assertion that the declaration of martial law was, with Jackson, no empty formality. Disputes with the state legislature rose even higher : honourable members could not be made to understand, that, at this particular juncture, the enemy coming every day nearer to the city, "parliamentary eloquence" was not the one thing needed ; but precisely that which Jackson could supply adequate military skill and daring. Much pressed to inform the senate what his plans were he averred that he would cut the hair off his head, if he thought it had divined his intentions ; and added, "you may expect a warm session if I am driven from my lines into the city ! " Domiciliary visitations, in search of arms, and of anything else that could be used for the defence ; the enrolment of all men capable of bearing arms ; the prohibition of any one from going abroad after nine o'clock at night, except by special permission ; these measures, and others more insupportable still, did undoubtedly look very much like " despotic severity ; " but martial law includes any and every step, which appears to him who proclaims it requisite for securing the object he has in view ; and although the theory of democracy and state-rights was opposed to Jackson's course, he was not the first who in practice renounced his party principles, and the odium ought rather to rest upon those who made such rigour necessary. Moreover, as Jackson was appointed to repel the invaders, not to negociate with them, nor to do at New Orleans what Hull had done in the north, there was only one plan that his opponents should have adopted, to charge him before the judicial tribunal of the union, with the violation of the constitution, and leave him to its sentence, after all the circumstances of the case had been ascertained and considered. One instance in which this was done, will come under our notice before we conclude this chapter. After the affair with the gun-boats, the British expedition, not being able tc advance in the transports and war- ships up the river, landed in force on a swampy island, called Pine Island ; and here the first sufferings of the army VOL. II. P 106 ADVANCE OF TIIE BRITISH. [CHAP. V. began. Drenciied with rain by day, stiff with frost at night ; without suflicient food, in a pestilent atmosphere, having no means of maintaining the bodily and mental health of the men, it is a wonder that it did not become wholly dis- organised at the very outset. Nothing but the high state of discipline can account for its preservation. The black troops suffered most severely j unused to such a climate, many of them perished with the cold every night. When all were assembled on this spot, they were eighty miles distant from the place that was fixed upon for the landing, and the whole of the way was to be accomplished ; in boats. On the 23rd, the first division, consisting of sixteen hundred light troops, under General Keane, was safely landed in the midst of a huge wilderness of reeds beside one arm of the Mississippi, and at once advanced towards the city. One party of this division succeeded in capturing the whole of Jackson's most advanced picquet, and thus they were enabled to move forward without the least impediment. About noontime, having left the swamp for the cultivated region, they surprised another outpost, but carelessly allowed one man to escape, M r ho was the first to announce at New Orleans the arrival of the enemy. It is a question whether they might not have succeeded in capturing the city, which was- then almost in sight, had they attacked it immediately. The prestige of their victories in the Peninsula might have compensated for their want of numbers, and the subsequent course of events, both in England and America, been altogether different. Instead of this, the young general halted his men within pistol-shot of the river, without the least pretence of conceal- ment. They piled their arms, and a regular bivouack was formed. Recon- noitring parties sent out in different directions brought back no tidings of an enemy in sight ; and the foragers collected from every house they could enter with safety (to IngersolPs infinite disgust) no end of good cheer, which was consumed by both officers and men with the greatest satisfaction and mirth. About half-past seven in the evening the first interruption to this scene of careless hilarity occurred ; for the momentary appearance of a few horsemen had occasioned them no concern. The watch-fires had just been replenished, and preparations were almost completed for passing the night, as comfortably as circumstances would allow, when a large vessel was observed just anchoring near the opposite bank of the river, and furling her sails most leisurely. At first the British thought it was one of their own ships which had made its way so far up the stream ; but no answer was returned to their anxious hail. Several musket-shots were discharged at her, but without producing any reply. At length, having made fast all her sails, and brought her broadside round to bear on the invaders, on the words, " Give them this for the honour of America ! " a deadly shower of grape was discharged amongst them. They had enjoyed, in those few hours, the only respite from mortal conflict which was allotted them during the whole time that they were upon American ground. Whilst the British, who had discovered that they had no means of returning the fire of the American vessel, were sheltering themselves in the best way they could from its terrible discharges of grape and round shot, on a sudden, through the densely black night, a new terror burst upon them. After no more warning than a scnltrrpd, or drooping firr, at the extreme outposts, they wore roused by A.D. 1814-15.] PROGRESS OF THE DEFENCE. 107 a fearful yell, and a simultaneous discharge of musketry on almost every land- ward side of them. They were, in fact, surrounded by a greatly superior force, and, had it consisted of regulars instead of militia and volunteers, they might have been compelled to surrender at discretion. As it was, they showed a brave enough front ; and a fearful combat was maintained for four or five hours in the night, when the assailants, having accomplished all that they intended, in giving the enemy this first taste of genuine Transatlantic warfare, drew off. The British general reported above three hundred killed, wounded, or missing, in this first night attack; but the loss on the American side was not much less. In the course of this conflict, and early in the following day, reinforcements arrived from the ships. There was, however, little fighting on the 24th, although the Louisiana had joined her consort, the Carolina, and menaced the invaders with a more destructive cannonade ; and although, before the end of the day, the whole British force had reached the field of battle, the only care of General Keane was to withdraw his men farther from the river bank, that they might be less exposed to the chance of such casualties as those of the preceding night. Next day the real commanders of the expedition, Sir Edward Pakenham and General Gibbs, arrived. And having made themselves acquainted with the position of affairs, they suffered the men to enjoy their " merry Christmas " as well as they could, under an incessant fire from the ships ; and as soon as night fell, threw up a battery opposite the Carolina, mounting nine field-pieces, two howitzers, and one mortar. At dawn, on the 26th, the battery was opened upon the Carolina with red- hot shot, and she was very soon set on fire and destroyed. The Louisiana was next attacked, but escaped up the river, so that the way was now clear for an advance upon New Orleans ; and the needful stores, artillery, ammunition, &c., were brought up from the ships, that the grand attack might be made without delay, Jackson, in the meantime, had not been idle. In these and the imme- diately following days and nights, sleepless himself, and allowing none around lam to sleep, until an available position for defence had been secured, he had constructed a lengthened rampart about four miles below New Orleans, of the most formidable description for his purpose. Beside the earth, which was thrown up out of the deep ditch in front, bales or bags of cotton, impressed for the service, were unsparingly used. The line extended from the river to a low swamp about a mile off, and the ditch was filled with water nearly to the top. In the river, the Louisiana protected the right flank, and a work mounting twenty guns on the opposite bank, added yet more to the strength of the position. The levee, or embankment of the river, also was by Jackson's direction cut through, both above and below the position of the British, thus embarrassing their movements in front as well as in the rear. But the night attacks upon their camp were the means of annoyance which most distressed the invaders. In the Peninsula, as if by an understood arrange- ment, the outposts of the contending armies were seldom molested, and British and French sentinels not unfrequently paced their nightly walks within musket- shot of one another. In countries where war is the normal, and peace the exceptional, condition, and where, in consequence, soldiership is a profession, 108 FEELING IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE. - - [CHAP. V. such comity, even in a state of active hostilities, can be practised. In America, on the contrary, everything forbade such a chivalric procedure. The contest was upon their own ground, and for property, liberty, and life itself even the regulars in the American service were more citizens than soldiers and the only school of war which (happily) the country possessed, was in the western states, and engagements with the Indians had no tendency to foster habits of civilised warfare. On the 26th, the first attempt was made to carry Jackson's intrenchments, but it was met by such a terrific discharge of round and grape shot, that the enemy was totally unable to make any impression upon them. On New Year's iay, the attempt was renewed; but although the British generals had with great secrecy erected regular 'breaching batteries, and mounted them with heavy cannon, "bringing up ammunition, and making such preparations as might have sufficed for a siege;" and although, when first opened, the fire of the thirty pieces of siege artillery threw the Americans into confusion, no better success was achieved than on the former occasion. All hands were therefore set to deepen a canal in the rear of the British position, by which boats might be brought up to the Mississippi, and troops ferried across, to carry the battery on the right bank of the river ; but this proved a work of such extraordinary labour, that it was not till the evening of the 6th of January that the cut was declared passable. The boats were imme- diately brought up, and secreted near the river, and dispositions for an assault were made at five o'clock on the morning of the 8th. Matters were thus proceeding, wholly to Jackson's satisfaction, in this part of his command. In New Orleans, on the contrary, things went not so well. It happened that at this time, the speaker of the senate of Louisiana was that same Tulwar Skipwith whom we saw at the conclusion of the famous "X. Y. Z. affair," acting as self-appointed, or at least " provisional," plenipotentiary at Paris, though we can scarcely say in behalf of the United States. His Gallo- mania would sufficiently mark him as a follower of Jefferson, and as one incapable of collusion with the British. Nevertheless, so strongly marked is the distinction between the old Jeffersonian democrats and those of the new school, that we find this very man talking of " offering terms of capitulation to the enemy," rather than second Jackson's final scheme of defence against him. For Jackson was undoubtedly resolved, rather than suffer New Orleans, with its rich spoils, to fall into the hands of the British, to burn the city to the ground, and lay waste the whole country near it ; and defeat the invasion by making it impossible for the invaders to find subsistence. And this was a sacrifice which the legislature of the state did not feel itself capable of making. From other quarters also, it is plain that Jackson heard so much of the fears of the legislature and their scheme for capitulation, that he authorised Claiborne (to the great contentment of his "Volunteers"), if the legislators persisted in their scheme, "to blow them up" an order which Claiborne prevented the necessity of executing, by placing a strong guard at the door of the house of the legislature, and preventing them from sitting. Some of the members thereupon held unsatisfactory meetings in other places, but no thought of capitulation could be entertained after so summary a manifestation against it. A.D. 18U-15.J FINAL ATTACK BY TilE B1UTIS1I. 109 The incessant fire from Jackson's lines, from the shipping, and from the opposite side of the river, allowed the British 110 rest clay or night. Grape shot dispersed every group of men that showed itself. It was absolutely im- possible to reconnoitre the position of the Americans on the first approach they made to it, the generals themselves were taken by surprise. Every attempt to raise a battery was disturbed by showers of balls ; so that, at last, they could work only by night, and in total darkness ; and even then they were not free from that terrible annoyance. AH night long, and frequently in the day, they were surrounded by reconnoitring parties, who not only discovered all their movements, but took advantage of every opportunity of using their unerring rifles against them. " If they made a fire in the cold night air, it attracted shot like lightning by the rod." Neither in the thickets nor near them could one piquet be stationed. Supplies were scanty in quantity, and not of the kind which men labouring in cold and wet required. Add to all this, the discourage- ment produced by the endurance of three defeats in one week a discouragement which not even the arrival of reinforcements, raising their number of effective combatants to about six thousand, could abate and we can see, that few indeed of the Americans could be induced to desert. At length the 8th of January came, when the grand attack was to be made. Colonel Thornton, at the head of fourteen hundred men, was to cross the river in fifty boats, carry the works there which enfiladed Jackson's lines, and employ them vigorously in support of the main assault; whilst two columns, com- manded by General Gibbs and General Keane, were to advance upon the iutrenchments in front, as soon as ever a signal from Thornton should apprise them of the success of his operations. But the rapid falling of the river prevented the boats from reaching the place where the men were to embark at the time appointed ; and at length, instead of the number expected, sufficient to accommodate about three hundred and fifty men alone made their appear- ance. Unable to repair the delay, but determined to do all that he could, Thornton set out with his little band, and day had broken when he touched the opposite shore, at a distance of four miles from the batteries he ought to have carried before the preceding midnight. As he landed, a signal rocket from the left bank sprang into the air, telling him that, with or without his co-operation, Pakenham was advancing. For, wearied out with anxiously listening for the musketry, which should tell of Thornton's attack with anxiously watching for their rocket, which should make known his victory consumed by impatience to commence the assault, and knowing how irretrievable was every moment's delay, Pakenham at length gave the word to move forward. Silently, but swiftly, through the wintry morning the day just beginning to dawn the first column advanced against the works. But they were soon perceived by the enemy, and a dreadful fire was opened upon them, which mowed them down by hundreds. For, consistent only in blunders, which cost brave men their lives, and the whole army shame in addition to defeat, it was found, whilst they were in the heat of the charge, that both fascines and scaling ladders had been forgotten ; and on the very crest of the glacis, the attacking column was forced to halt, without the means of crossing the ditch or mounting 110 JACKSON'S SUCCESSFUL DEFENCE. .- [CHAP. v. the parapet ; incapable, too, of defending themselves against the storm of shot which was poured on them from those unim pregnable ramparts. A few, indeed, mounting on one another's shoulders, succeeded in entering the works ; but it was only to be overpowered by numbers. One small battery, in front of the lines, was carried at the point of the bayonet. But when the captors, with desperate courage, endeavoured to force their way across a single plank into the body of the works, they were repulsed with frightful slaughter, and the battery was re-captured. " It was in vain," says the Subaltern, " that the most obstinate courage was displayed. They fell by the hands of men whom they absolutely did not see ; for the Americans, without so much as lifting their faces above the rampart, swung their firelocks by one arm over the wall, and discharged them directly upon their heads. The whole of the guns, likewise, from the opposite bank, kept up a well-directed and deadly cannonade upon the flank ; and thus were they destroyed without an opportunity being given of displaying their valour, or obtaining so much as revenge." The ladders and fascines were never brought even near to the ditch ; the regiments, which should have taken them, being sent back to correct their fatal mistake, never recovered their place in the column again, and the ladders and other apparatus for the storm were scattered about the field. It was while matters were in this disastrous position, that a cry arose in the rear of "retreat," 11 there's an order to retreat ! " and the survivors, as if dazzled and confounded by the unintermitting blaze, and the reverberating roar of that tremendous can- nonade, broke and fled. Pakenham, followed shortly afterwards by the second column, hoping yet by mere courage to retrieve the day, hastened to the front, and used the most passionate endeavours to rally the panic-stricken men. Waving his hat, and calling on them to follow, he reached the edge of the ditch, but only to fall death-stricken by two balls. Generals Gibbs and Keane succeeded in bringing the troops a second time to the charge. Even the Americans marvelled at the cool daring of the 93rd Highlanders, who stood like statues until they had lost more than half their numbers. A few, this time also, penetrated the works, but every roan that did so perished. Both Gibbs and Keane were soon carried from the field wounded, the first mortally ; and a second time the troops recoiled before that awful fire, and fled. General Lambert, upon whom the command now devolved, finding that it was impossible to restore the fortune of the day, the carnage having been so terrible, withdrew his reserve from the reach of the American artillery, and collected the wreck of the routed army. Thornton, on the other bank of the river, had been more fortunate. Placing himself at the head of his handful of men, by a sudden charge on the flank of the works, he succeeded in making himself master of the redoubt, with very little loss, although it was manned by fifteen hundred Kentuckians and other militia, and mounted full twenty guns. When daylight broke, he was pre- paring to turn those guns upon the flank of Jackson's line, which lay entirely exposed to their fire ; but he desisted, on receiving the news of the total defeat of the main attack. " Colonel Dickson was sent over to examine the situation of the battery which had been Avon, and report whether it was tenable ; but he AD. 1814-15.] STATISTICS OF THE BATTLE. Ill did not deem it defensible, except with a larger force than Lambert could dispose of for that purpose, and therefore this detachment was drawn back to the left bank of the river, and the troops at all points returned to their camp-" A flag of truce was despatched by the British commander, with proposals for the burial of the dead ; and a truce of two days was arranged for that purpose. Out of so confused a medley of conflicting and contradictory state- ments as the "official" and other reports of the events of this campaign present, it is more than ordinarily difficult to gather the simple facts of the case. No part of a historian's task is more perplexing than that of reconciling, or selecting from, the discrepant accounts of the numbers present on the opposite sides in an engagement, and of the amount of the loss on each part. For strategical, political, and other far less noble considerations, misrepresen- tations on these points are continually made. With regard to the forces en- gaged and the losses sustained on the two sides, in this campaign of New Orleans, the great diversity which we find in the several American narratives alone, would lead us very strongly to suspect their correctness, unless any of them is confirmed, not only by the British accounts, but also by the other undoubted facts of the case. It is plain from the recital of all that Jackson did to annoy and exterminate the invading army, that he had at command a force much more numerous than it. Remembering that his troops were, for the most part, militia and volunteers, and that the enemy's men were nearly all Peninsula veterans ; and admitting that never were brave soldiers worse generalled on this side, nor indifferently trained, or untrained, fighting men more sagaciously commanded on the other, Jackson could not have accomplished all he did unquestionably achieve, had he not, as the British said, been at the head of at least twelve thousand effective men, and had not the British effective force been less than half that number. In respect of the losses, again, we must observe, that sheltered as the Americans were during this fiercely-fought engagement, the numbers given at last, as re- presenting the whole loss, in killed, and wounded, and missing, on both sides of the river seventy -one does not appear incorrect ; the other tales are pal- pable mistakes, imperfect totals, or idle and mendacious braggadocio. The higher estimates of the British loss need no attention, being simply absurd ; but it is at first sight inexplicable, that the number stated to have perished on that fatal day, on the plains of Chalmette, and that too by some that were present there, should exceed the entire number of killed and wounded during the whole campaign as finally ascertained. Nor is it until we reflect upon the impossibility of accurate enumeration in the heat of an action, even if the excitement of such a season would suffer it, nor until we have taken into consideration how many more fall than are killed, that we can be content to accept the authenticated numbers as correct. A few more than four hundred of the British died in battle, between the first landing and the final re- embarkation of the expedition; less than sixteen hundred were wounded, a small per centage of whom died of their wounds at subsequent periods. Fifteen hundred, and that is a large proportion of the entire numbers engaged in this invasion, will be the total of killed, wounded, and missing, for this 112 EXULTATION IN NEAV ORLEANS- [dlAP. V disastrous day before New Orleans. Jackson's loss during the entire campaign, in every way, amounted only to three hundred and sixty-three ! We have not the heart to follow the British in their deplorable retreat, which was effected on the night of the 18th. The six days intervening between the expiration of the truce and the evacuation of the bivouack (for it was not an encampment), were spent by the British in assuring themselves that their cause was hopeless, and in withdrawing by stealth, in the dark, through swamps, amongst alligators, and along causeways, impassable to the thoroughly defeated men in consequence of the rain ; and by the Americans, in throwing shot of every kind, by night and day, into the quagmire where the enemy sheltered himself. The whole of the field artillery, most of the ammunition, and all the stores of the invading force, were carried away on their retreat, except the siege artillery, which was already in part destroyed, and some powder barrels and piles of shot left in the useless batteries. Only eighty of the wounded were left, with an appeal to the humanity of the Americans] " a duty, which General Jackson discharged with a zeal and attention worthy of the ability and gallantry he had displayed in the action." We have not described the British retreat, neither shall we attempt to describe the exultation, heaven-high, which took possession of the war party and the administration. Yet must we observe, that inasmuch as Jackson baffled and drove away the most seriously-attempted invasion of the United States, by adopting a species of warfare suited to the capability of his irregular and undis- ciplined levies, which to regular and disciplined troops could but prove in the last degree difficult to resist, and with admirable skill took advantage of the utter want of strategic ability in the British commander, compelling him to give battle under circumstances most unfavourable to himself, most propitious to the Americans, there was no need for misrepresentations of the comparative numbers of his own men and the enemy to swell his triumph. Whilst the British, veterans all of them, ought not to have felt bound to insist upon Jack- ton's numerical superiority by way of accounting for their complete overthrow. Such a series, not of mistakes (for that word implies the possession of some generalship, however defective), . but of glaring proofs of the absence of every intellectual quality that enters into the composition of a military leader, no one could have imagined possible before now. Nor was there any occasion to insult the memory of the commander whose personal bravery was as conspicuous as his professional incapacity, especially since he had fallen a victim to his own misdirected courage with so hateful an invention as that of his having given " Beauty and Booty" for the watchword, on the day when he fell. As if to abate the brilliancy of so excessive a triumph, no sooner were the good news of the peace, established by the treaty of Ghent, known in New Orleans, than the wildest insubordination to military restraint seized upon the raw militia-men and volunteers, who had been compelled by Jackson's iron resolution, under cover of night and the ramparts of cotton bales, to become soldiers. " Intoxicated with victory, and confident of security, they almost dis- banded themselves, in defiance of all their commander could do to keep them in order." " Six weeks of intestine controversy, as trying as war," followed, and the hardly-pressed general found these pacific contests, with the excited members A.D. 1814-15.] JACKSON'S AHBITRARY CONDUCT. 113 of his own party, harder to conduct to victory than hostile conflict with an invading enemy had been. Martial law; how needful soever when Jackson proclaimed it, is wholly alien from the spirit of the United States' constitution and people. Mob law itself, by manifold experiments, has been demonstrated to be by no means so opposed to that spirit as law military. Contrary to universal expectation, Jackson chose to regard the treaty of peace as nil, until it was ratified by the President, and. refused to rescind his proclamation. The corporation of "able editors/' who had drunk deeply into Jefferson's opposition-democracy, took the lead in this revolt. But, yet more vexatiously, the French inhabitants of Louisiana, some of them naturalised as American citizens (whom we may excuse for having impli- citly trusted to the Gallomania of the great democratic leader), surpassed the men of the press in rebellion. " Jackson had with them a more difficult contest than with the printers ; and was led on, step by step, to measures of such rigour as involved questions of great moment." " Resolved to subdue them," Jackson ordered all French subjects to leave New Orleans, and retire into the interior ; an order which, it must be admitted, went to the full extent of the endurance of the class referred to. A champion appeared for them in the person of a Mr. Louallier, who had resisted martial law in the state legislature ; and who now, in a local newspaper, characterised the general's proceedings with impartial fidelity, and intimated that the Judiciary would declare his martial law unconstitutional and void. Having obtained the name of the writer of this daring challenge, Jackson had him arrested in broad day, and " taken as a spy to the barracks, where he was placed under military guard." Dominic A. Hall, district judge of the United States' court for Louisiana, at Louallier's application, issued a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf, but suggested that Jackson should be apprised of it before it was served on him. To the astonishment of all the world, the general instantly ordered the judge himself to be arrested, and had him confined in the barracks, in the same room with Louallier, "for aiding, and abetting, and exciting mutiny within his camp." For he strongly suspected that the judge and the representative were acting in concert, with a view to procure by judicial condemnation the annulling of his martial law. According to Judge Martin, Jackson's conduct in this affair was marked by " vulgarity, ignorance, ferocity, and violence." It certainly is very difficult to discover the Tennessee lawyer in the major-general of the United States on this occasion. As we can easily believe, feeling ran high on all sides. The circumstance of Hall's being the judge of a federal court, was quite enough to enlist the democratic multitude on Jackson's side ; although, by his over-riding of all law, both state and federal, by his proclamation, issued on the authority of his federal commission, he was the real violator of state rights, and against him the popular wrath should have been directed. We cannot trace through all its steps this extraordinary affair. We can only say, that not until he received official notification that Madison had ratified the treaty, did Jackson lay down his arbitrary power, although he endeavoured to make it appear that he was compelled to maintain it, by the refusal of General Lambert to agree to an armistice. He next disbanded his militia. Louallier VOL. II. Q 114 NEGOCIATIONS FOR PEACE. [CHAP. V had been tried by court martial, and acquitted. The judge had been released also, but banished from New Orleans. Jackson was now attacked for contempt of court, after having in vain shown cause against it. Sustained by the counte- nance of a tumultuous throng of disbanded militia and other admirers, Jackson assumed the air of judge rather than that of delinquent ; refused to answer any questions, and encouraged Hall to proceed with the trial, by the insolent assurance that he should submit to his sentence. He was condemned to pay a thousand dollars; but no alternative was provided in case of his refusal, the judge being manifestly overawed by the prisoner's adherents. Jackson never- theless paid the fine, declining the assistance of a subscription, and was borne off in triumph by his adorers, whose affections he had fascinated by showing himself to be superior to the laws of his country. It was by this means, as well as by his generalship on the plains of Chalmette, that he paved the way for himself to the presidential chair. And nine and twenty years afterwards, on the motion of Ingersoll, Congress itself, the national legislature, to illustrate its reverence for the national law, by large majorities in both houses, and by special act, refunded both principal and interest of this fine. We must now return to the point at which we left the negociations, in the last chapter, the offer made by the British government to treat directly with the government of the United States, and to commence proceedings at once, either at London or Gottenburg. This proposal was immediately accepted; and Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell were appointed with John Quincy Adams, Gallatin, and Bayard, plenipotentiaries to treat with the British envoys. If we may regard the armies and ships of war of the United States as expressions of the spirit of the people, that of the administration to the leader of the dominant party now found befitting expression in the tone and conduct of its ambassadors. So intensely anxious was Madison for peace, and so completely had his representatives imbibed his feelings, that one of them, George L. Dallas, actually ventured to enter England under the passport of a Russian courier, for the purpose of securing an arrangement for negociations, by the instrumentality of the Russian ambassador there and Mr. Alexander Baring. In the spring of 1814, Gallatin and Bayard proceeded to London, where it was at first intended to conduct the proceedings; but Ghent was afterwards fixed upon, as a more suitable place than either of the others which had been mentioned. And Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and Dr. W. Adams, were appointed commissioners by the British government. The hopes of the American commissioners had been by no means buoyant, during their stay in London ; they had even communicated their despondency to their government, and the administration which had gone to war with Britain, in defence of "seamen's rights," and in resistance to impressment, actually consented to drop the subject of impressment altogether; merely stipu- lating, and that only for domestic reasons, that in giving up this single point in. dispute, they did not admit the British claims. The government of Great Britain, although its suggestions had been almost implicitly carried out, appeared to be in no haste to commence negociations. It had the more arduous negociations, which followed the overthrow of Bonaparte, in hand ; and it was also beut upon making one trial, at least 4.D. 1814-15.] NEGOCIATIONS FOR PEACE. 115 (which it was vainly hoped would prove satisfactory }, to settle the quarrel with the United States by force of arms. So it was not until the 6th of August that the British commissioners found their way to Ghent ; but no delay was then made in commencing business. The proceedings were, as is commonly the case, and especially in circum- stances like those under which these commissioners met, tedious enough. More than once, the negociations seemed upon the very verge of being broken off. The demands put forward by the British commissioners were undoubtedly exorbitant, whilst the resistance offered to them by the Americans not unnatu- rally appeared to the others indecorously vexatious. At every difference which arose between them, the British commissioners were able to consult their government without delay, and to act upon instructions adapted almost to the daily changes in the aspect of affairs ; but the Americans, " by reason of their remoteness from home, were under the necessity of deciding upon the spot, and on their own responsibility/' all the questions which arose. But, notwithstanding this great disadvantage, the credit of the United States was not diminished by the conduct of her envoys at Ghent. They had, it is true, the advantage of superior numbers ; and they were opposed by no very eminent diplomatist ; less practised, less acute men, and men less imbued with the feeling respecting England, then all but universal in the United States, might, nevertheless, have compromised their country. Our readers will remember, that we have insisted upon the necessity of this war, upon quite other grounds than those taken by the promoters and vindicators of it. It was most manifest, that the reasons assigned for it were related to it as rhetorical defences rather than effective causes. Otherwise the hostilities and depredations of the French would have required the declaration of war against France also; the tidings of the repeal of the "Orders in Council " would have been immediately followed by an armistice and negociations; and the impressment question could not, under any pretence, have been passed by sub sitentio. Other- wise, how can we account for the prominence given to the North-east Boundary question, Avhich had been under pacific discussion ever since the treaty of 1783, and was brought no nearer to a conclusion by this treaty ? Or to the Fishery question, which had not been agitated in a hostile manner before this time, though it has been since ? Or to the appearance of nothing else in the negocia- tions, except theses selected from the " Law of Nations," and subjects originat- ing in the war armaments on the Lakes, Indian relations, stolen negroes ! Nothing less minute and detailed than a monograph of the treaty of Ghent would be adequate to the subject ; or to show how many a sine qua non was dis- pensed with, how many an ultimatum was set aside, without closing the negocia- tions. Only in such a work could be shown the close connection between the phases of the British demands and proposals, and the variations of failure and success in the war, or the different movements amongst the powers assembled in congress at Vienna. But we observe most distinctly, that neither the British ministry, nor their plenipotentiaries at Ghent, so well understood the moment of this negociation as the Americans aid. To Castlereagh, and the government which carried the Corn Laws, the matters discussed at Vienna, the blustering pretences of the Czar of Russia that remarkable ally of America and all that 116 RATIFICATION OF TEE TREATY OF GHENT. [CHAP. V. savoured of aristocracy and absolutism, were more real than the interests -which were risked by a war with the United States corn and cotton, the necessaries of the people ! It is to the daring astucity of Clay that we ascribe the praise of having changed the tone of the American commission from hopeless despondency to that of energetic resistance to the astounding demands of the British. Had he, or one of his temper, devised the " instructions " also, this treaty would have worn a vastly different form, or never have been concluded. Yet we must admit that a much wider basis of victories was required to give the United States even the shadow of a claim to dictate their own terms to Britain ; and that, themselves exclusive in their maritime policy, and not free from disagreeable involvements in respect of that impressment question, it was in the last degree difficult for any administration or envoys of America to compel their opponent to give up either the claims or the practices she had established. Of the differences between the members of the United States commission, arising out of that bottomless abyss of domestic politics, the antagonism between the north and south ; of the divulgation of the correspondence between the negociators through the American newspapers; of Madison's (or Monroe's) suspicion that Great Britain would demand Louisiana for Spain, which she did not; of the "Rowland for an Oliver" which Henry Clay favoured Henry Goul- burn with, giving him tidings of Prevost's defeat, in exchange for the news of the burning of the Capitol ; of the popular, academical, and other honours con- ferred upon the plenipotentiaries of the republic of the west, and many other matters equally instructive and delectable, our space allows us to say nothing. We can only add, that at length, on the 24th of December, 1814, the treaty was concluded, and ratified by Madison on the 17th of February, 1815. Throughout the Union, the return of peace was hailed with the most extra- vagant manifestations of joy. It was satirically said, that in Massachusetts alone more caanons were fired and more men wounded, during these festivities, than had been in all the war. But far better than these rejoicings, the disaffec- tion of New England was remedied, the insoluble difficulties of the administra- tion were terminated, the war party was gratified beyond its most audacious hopes and a new stage in the career of the nation inaugurated. Such were the substantial consequences of this war, and in sight of them we may well leave unrecorded the festive and other celebrations of the victory of New Orleans and the treaty of Ghent. How Clay and Jackson rose into clear eminence, and how the distinction of the latter the man of courage and will, " thorough-going" in whatever he took in hand transcended that of the other, who excelled chiefly in audacity and adroitness, and was the Avatar of " compromise;" all this the immediately following Books of our History will declare. A.D. 1815-17.] DIPLOMATIC CHANGES. 117 CHAPTER VI. AFTKR THE WAR. THE TREATY. WAR WITH THE BARBARY STATES. NKW MEASURES AND ARRANGE- MENTS REQUIRED BY THE PEACE. THE DARTMOOR "MASSACRE." NAVIGATION ACT. COMMERCIAL. CONVENTION WITH GREAT BRITAIN. THE President, in his Message to Congress on the 18th of February, 1815, expressed his satisfaction at the return of peace. And with much reason, for both America and Great Britain had suffered severely during the contest ; and though in proportion to its enormous wealth and power, the losses of the latter might be reckoned as less in amount than those of the United States, the English historians are compelled to admit that they had been far too great, considering the objects of the war, its actual upshot, and its influence upon those material interests by which the well-being of the Old Country was most intimately connected with that of its offspring. Several changes were now made in the ministers resident at the various European courts. Gallatin (whose French was "perfect," but whose English was not so good as that of poor, weak Louis XVIII., according to Louis' own account) was deputed to Paris. Quincy Adams, perhaps on account of his father's friendliness there, was sent to London. Bayard was to replace him in Muscovy, but the anxieties of the negociation at Ghent had been too great for his physical powers, and he could not accept the post. Instead, he returned home, and soon afterwards died. At the court of the Netherlands, Eustis represented the United States, and even in Spain was now found an ambassador from the western republic. But the labours of the plenipotentiaries who had negociated the treaty of Ghent were not yet completed. Gallatin, Clay, and Quincy Adams, after a short delay, proceeded to London, where they at once entered upon the arrange- ment of a commercial convention, which had been proposed, as a supplement to the peace ; and that without adopting Jefferson's advice, to insist first upon the relinquishment of the claim to impress American seamen, or, in other words, to recover deserters. The commissioners did, however, attempt to introduce "neutral rights" into this new negociation, but as the British government refused to treat with them upon that basis, the commercial relations of the two countries alone were dealt with. We do not trace in the result of the tediously protracted negociations at London, any more than we do in those at Ghent, much of that positive diplomatic skill, for which credit seems to be taken in behalf of the commis- sioners. The British kept out of the convention, as they had kept out of the treaty, every matter that they chose, and withdrew only arrogant but really immaterial demands. But on the subject of commercial legislation, neither government entertained, at this time, very enlightened views. Not for many a year afterwards did Great Britain begin even to suspect the wisdom of her protective policy ; and the American government, mistaking, by a very common process, post for propter, considered the British restrictive system as the cause 118 COMMERCIAL CONVENTION AT LONDON. . [CHAP. VI. of her immense commerce ; and, with a view to foster their infant trade,, adopted all the swaddling clothes and bandages which had repressed and imperilled the growth of the mercantile traffic of Britain. The " Free trade " which they used as their watchword during the war, and which their commissioners were instructed to strive for, was not absolutely that, but merely in relation to the British system. Their own trade they did not mean to open ; on the contrary, at this very period, Clay and his associates in Congress were labouring to establish what they called the American system, which was essentially pro- tective ; and it was deemed a capital stroke of diplomacy, when Clay edged out of the British draft of the treaty of peace, the acknowledgment of the right to navigate the Mississippi. It was British trade that they maintained should be free ; and to themselves only, not to every nation. This we must carefully bear in mind all through our history. For the political vocabulary of the United States is very peculiar, and many remarkable juggles have been effected by the employment of common and generally understood terms in a peculiar and American sense. Little difficulty was felt in agreeing to the abolition of discriminating duties, on the imports into either nation, whether in the ships of one or the other. But, looking at the subject from the stand-point of the politics of the times, we are not surprised that the British statesmen should object to throwing open their colonial trade to the Americans, who (as they then would say) could offer nothing in return for such a privilege. Whilst this, which has ever been regarded as the most valuable branch of commerce, was most lovingly coveted by the Americans. After all the negociations, notes, and conferences had been completed, a convention for four years was signed on the 3rd of July, 1815, which differed in no respect for the better (as the United States government could regard it) from that first treaty on commercial relations with Britain, which Jay nego- ciated, and respecting which Jefferson and his party made so great a stir; and this notwithstanding the lapse of years since 1794; and notwithstanding the waging of a war which the United States claimed as successful for their side. And from this point of view an American annalist was justified in calling it a ' ' meagre convention, by no means worth the time and talents spent in obtain- ing it." On other accounts, a different opinion of it must be expressed, for it has actually served as a basis for a lucrative and advantageous commercial intercourse between the countries ; and until the commencement of the true " free-trade policy " of Great Britain, was not interfered with except by other conventions, hereafter to be spoken of, and by what Macgregor very justifiably calls, " absurdly conceived British orders in council, and President's proclama- tions." Which absurdities have, in conjunction with the protective and re- stricted trade measures of the democrats, from the time of Jefferson, and the results of the British free-trade measures, lately demonstrated (a truism, indeed, but one which required demonstration) that the most hopeless of all plans for fostering and extending commerce, is that of putting a stop to it by embargoes and non-intercourse acts, or a check by discriminating duties and the like. In substance, this convention amounted to the placing of the direct trade AD. 1815-17.] WAR WITH THE BARBARY STATES. 119 between the United States and Great Britain upon a strictly reciprocal basis. But the trade with the British possessions in the East Indies was to be carried on in American ships, directly, only with the United States ; and the traffic between the United States and the British possessions beyond the Atlantic, was not to be affected by the reciprocity article; "but," as the convention said, " each party was to remain in complete possession of its rights with respect to such an intercourse/' which meant, that the United States should not be admitted to this branch of trade at all. Out of this latter portion of the treaty arose many " difficulties " between the two governments, as was, indeed, so inevitable, that it might safely have been predicted, at the time the treaty was made. For, as one commentator upon it has remarked, " the direct trade between the United States and Great Britain was so interwoven with that between the United States and the colonies, that the end which the American government had in view would have been defeated if, while the European part of the intercourse was placed upon a reciprocal basis, the colonial trade had been monopolised by British navigators. The reciprocity aimed at would have been relinquished, because the advantage exclusively secured to British vessels, by a combination of voyages, in the course of which supplies could be carried to the West Indies, would not be less real and operative in the trade with Europe, than if they were directly given by bounties or discriminating duties." In the midst of these pacific proceedings, however whilst the waves were thus composing themselves to their ordinary, measured roll, after their rude tossings and heavings before the storm-blast of war another gust, from a different quarter of the heavens, smote them, and crested them with foam again. Our readers will remember the former war with the Barbary States the first naval war in which the United States engaged, after they had fought their way to freedom. The annual tribute also, and Avhat poor Mr. Wood, suppressed by the hands of his friends, said about it, will likewise be re- membered. With such powers, peace was as little to be desired as war ; indeed, a heartily done war was in many respects to be preferred to any peace, and particularly to one purchased by the payment of a yearly tribute. Barbarians as they were, the most humane principle of dealing with them, was first to drub them soundly, and then to reduce them to the necessity of earning an honest subsistence. Washington, hoping by other treatment to lead them into the ways of civilisation, only deferred the settlement of the dispute. And unhappily the practice of almost all the European nations was based upon the same fallacious hope ; so that the delusion under which these nations of corsairs laboured was really inveterate. Algiers was the first to make an open rupture with the United States. The Dey complained of the quantity, quality, and worth of the goods sent to him, in the summer of 1812 ; and not only would he not receive them, but he ordered the vessel which brought them to quit the port immediately, and the American consul with her, in spite of every attempt made by that officer to explain matters. A new demand was also made, which showed the Dey to have been an adept in the kind of cunning that enabled him to tyrannise over his own subjects with effect. The year of the Mohammedans consists qf three 120 WAR WITH THE BA.RBAIIY STATES. , [CHAP. VI. hundred and fifty-four days only, and therefore there would be a greater number of their years, in any given period, than of years computed in the Christian manner. This peremptory potentate now insisted that the years contemplated in the agreement to send a yearly tribute, were Mohammedan, not Christian, years ; and that there were, in consequence, arrears of half a year's payments due to him, amounting in value to twenty-seven thousand dollars. The consul was told that unless he paid this immediately, he should be sent in chains to the galleys, the vessel and the tribute sent in her should be confiscated, every American in Algiers condemned to slavery, and war declared against the United States. Finding that by no other means than compliance with this insane order he could avert the threatened penalties, the consul was compelled to get the money as he could and pay it on the spot. But immediately that this was done, and ship, cargo, and consul gone, the Dey commenced a piratical warfare against United States' vessels, and captured all he could. Madison, whose hands were filled with hostile troubles, attempted by confidential and friendly negociation to ransom ^he prisoners thus made ; but the terms demanded by the insolent barbarian were so outrageous, that nothing could be done ; and the war with Great Britain following immediately, the prisoners were obliged to rest in hope that they should be rescued, until the peace. To this praise, and it is no slight one, for it more than realises the philo- sophic ideal of a republic, Madison is undoubtedly entitled : he lost no -time, when peace was actually made, in taking steps for the recovery of the Algerine captives. On the 18th of February, 1815, the signature and ratification of the Treaty of Ghent was intimated to Congress ; on the 20th a Message was sent " relative to the Barbary powers," and three days later a declaration of war against Algiers was recommended in another Message. Congress, more wary, or more slow to feel as the executive could, the life of the nation in each in- dividual citizen thereof, responded to this recommendation by passing an Act, on the 2nd of March, for the protection of commerce from Algerine cruisers. This, though it did not contain a formal declaration of war, authorised the President to send a sufficient force to the Mediterranean and adjoining seas, to protect the commerce of the United States, and, in short, to do everything but " declare " war. Madison, accordingly, immediately fitted out the most effective squadron that he could. The Guerriere, Constellation, and Macedonian, all famed in combats on the sea, with six smaller ships of war, were put under the command of Decatur, and sent to the Mediterranean. In little more than three weeks his squadron was at Gibraltar, and there received intelligence which induced him to proceed at once against the enemy. On the 17th of June he fell in w r ith the Massauda, 46, commanded by Rais Hammida, once a Berber chief, now a famous corsair captain, and admiral of the Dey's fleet. A running fight of near half an hour ensued, and at the end of it the Algerine struck to the Guerriere. Hammida was cut in two by a chain shot, at the first broadside ; and at the second, the pirates, not relishing such sharp shot, left their quarters and ran below, in fact, abandoning the ship to her fate. Despatching his prize to Carthagena, the Commodore continued his search, and two days afterwards A.T). 1815-17.] WAR WITH THE I3A1113ARY STATES. 121 came up with a brig of twenty-two guns, which, after a chase of three hours, ran into shoal water off the Spanish coast, and was there attacked and captured Oy the small vessels. On the 28th of June, the squadron proceeded to Algiers, both to intercept the rest of the Dey's fleet, and to open communication with him, if it should he possible. Taking a position out of reach of their guns, Decatur signalled the Swedish consul on board, and by him sent ashore the letter of the President to the Dey. In reply, the captain of the port came on board, and the terms pro- posed to him, as the basis of a treaty, were the absolute and unqualified re- linquishment of all claims to tribute from the United States. The Algerine rejected this proposal with indignation, until he was assured of the destruction of the two ships, and the death of the admiral. When he found that the American commander was in a condition to enforce whatever terms he pleased, and after offering fruitless objections to some of the articles in the draft produced by Decatur, the negociation was closed. All the American captives were released, and the treaty was executed in three hours afterwards, to the satisfaction of the Dey, as it proved ; for another of the Algerine vessels hov~- in sight during the interval, and another hour's delay would have been repaid by its capture. After giving up the two captured vessels, which was as politic on Decatur's part as it was gratifying to the Dey, the squadron proceeded along the coast to Tunis. News of the first success was sent home by the Epervier, which un- happily perished on the voyage with all hands on board. The object of the extended cruise was, to impress upon the piratical states of northern Africa, the conviction that the United States, though so recently engaged in such a contest with the greatest maritime power in the world, were fully able to protect their mercantile marine ; and with that view a relief squadron of heavier ships, the Independence, 74, the United States, and Congress, with five smaller vessels, under Commander Bainbridge, was despatched in June to follow Decatui', and increase the effect of his demonstration. Learning at Tunis that two American prizes, during the late war, had been taken out of that port, and carried off by a British cruiser, and that other injuries to the United States had been allowed, Decatur demanded and pro- cured instant satisfaction for the insults, and full restoration of the property. At Tripoli, the pacha had permitted two American vessels to be taken under the guns of his castle, and had refused protection to an American cruiser within his jurisdiction ; and for these wrongs, in like manner, full compensation was demanded and given. When Bainbridge's squadron arrived, it was found that everything required by the honour and the interest of the United States had been accomplished ; and in consequence, leaving part of his force to winter in the Mediterranean, he returned home, where he found Decatur, who had arrived a few days before. The Dey made one more attempt to recover the position he had lost - refusing to recognise the ratified copy of the treaty, when sent him in the following summer. But his understanding having been. assisted by the appear- ance of the American squadron in the bay of Algiers, he offered no further resistance : having, indeea,' another and more mighty antagonist at that time, VOL. ii. a 122 AMERICAN PRISONERS AT DAliTMOOR. .- [CHAP. VI. Great Britain, who shortly afterwards bombarded the city, and opened the way for the final destruction of the state by the French. Allusion has been made in the First Volume to the Message to Congress read on the 4th of December, 1815 ; and in the same place will be found mention of some measures of the legislature and the administration, by which the relations of the United States with foreign nations were, in certain respects, regulated ; and of some other acts, by which the state of things resulting from the war was brought back, in design at least, to the ordinary course of affairs in times of external tranquillity. Very remarkably, when the ratification of the com- mercial convention came to be discussed in Congress, the same question was revived, which the Republican party, in 1794, had so warmly agitated the power, namely, of the President to conclude a treaty with any foreign nation, without the concurrence of the House of Representatives. Considerable dif- ference of opinion prevailed between the two Houses upon the proper method for giving effect to the reciprocity clause of that convention. The Senate, on this occasion, took the Federalist view of the subject; while the House maintained that the formal repeal of the discriminating duties was required. To obviate the difficulty, the passing of an Act, simply declaring that those duties were repealed, was proposed by the Senate; and after some objections, upon the recommendation of a committee of conference, agreed to by the House. Another subject discussed in Congress during this session, was one which threatened to interrupt the amicable relations of Great Britain with the United States before they were fully re-established. An outline of this incident will be sufficient. In Dartmoor prison, in Great Britain, almost all the American prisoners of war were confined. It does not appear that they were subjected to worse treat- ment than persons in their unhappy condition customarily experienced in those times. We know, however, from unexceptionable evidence, that the feeling with which the combatants and prisoners on either side regarded each other was extremely bitter. As soon as the conclusion of a treaty of peace between the two countries became known to the detenus in Dartmoor, the greatest ex- citement prevailed amongst them. Under their circumstances, no ordinary amount of philosophy would have been required to enable them to receive such intelligence, unaccompanied by the proclamation of their own personal liberty, with calmness. Every hour's delay in opening the prison-gates to them was to that extent an abridgment of their liberty, and was propor- tionally resented. The effects of the manifestation of which feelings upon the soldiers on guard, without ascribing to them any excessive amount of the in- solence of office, could not but have been extremely unfavourable. Early in the month of April, 1815, as v/e learn by the report of the com- missioners appointed by the two governments to inquire into the matter, " an increased degree of restlessness, and impatience of confinement," " principally indicated by threats of breaking out, if not soon released," appears to have prevailed amongst the prisoners. On the 4th, they were guilty of much insub- ordination, but not such as to make the employment of force necessary. Two days afterwards, in the evening, so many things, trifling in themselves, but all seeming to show a determination oir the part of the prisoners to obtain their A.D. 1815-17.] CLAIMS ON EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS. 123 liberty in spite of the guard, occurred, that the officer on duty rang the alarm hell, which not being understood by the prisoners, they proceeded to more daring acts of disobedience. The greatest possible confusion prevails in the evidence which was subsequently taken, and much of it we can receive only as showing the exasperated feelings of both sides. Making all reductions on this account, it appears that the soldiers felt themselves compelled to use their fire- arms for the pui-pose of intimidating the prisoners. But as they proceeded in what is called the humane way, firing over the heads of the rioters, nothing but irritation and fresh insults were the consequences; whereupon the military fired in earnest upon the unarmed crowd, killing in all seven, and wounding thirty dangerously, and as many more slightly. Clay and Gallatin, at that very time in London, engaged in negociating the commercial convention, immediately put themselves in communication with Lord Castlereagh, and a complete, if not a very satisfactory, investigation of the affair took place. And finally, the Prince Regent communicated to Monroe his disapprobation of the conduct of the soldiers, and his desire to make com- pensation to the widows and families of the sufferers, which proposition the' President, " doing full justice to the motives which dictated it/' declined to accept. This was the " Dartmoor massacre," and, happily, it led to no rupture between the governments. The attention of the administration had been, since the termination of the war, earnestly directed to the subject of the claims of American citizens on the belligerent governments of Europe, on the ground of commercial spoliations. The Treaty of Ghent had settled the question of these claims as far as Great Britain was concerned ; but there still remained those against France, Spain, Naples, Holland, and Denmark some of them dating from before 1800 to be settled. Pinkney, the new ambassador to Russia, was sent to Naples first, to enforce the claims we speak of; but although he paraded the new seventy-four, with other parts of the Mediterranean squadron, in the bay of Naples, the Bourbon sovereign, acting upon the advice of the emperors of Russia and Austria, declined to hold himself responsible for what had occurred under the dominion of Murat ; and Pinkney was compelled to depart without having effected anything. Nor was Eustis more successful at the Hague. There, also, the acts of the Bonapartean sovereign were formally disclaimed, and no satisfaction could be had. With Denmark likewise nothing could be done. Similar objections to many of the claims made upon the Spanish government also were urged. Neither did an offer to accept the cession of Florida as full compensation of these claims lead to a more satisfactory result, although it was supported by the proposal to be contented with a narrower boundary for Loui- siana on the side next Texas. The Spanish ambassador declined to open nego- ciations until that part of Florida, of which we have said in another place the United States had taken possession, was restored. He also complained, and that with sufficient justice, of the filibustering which had been tolerated (though proclaimed against), if not privately sanctioned, by the government of the United States ; and still more of the privateering which was carried on against Spanish commerce, by citizens of the United States, under the flags of the insurgent colonies of Spain. 124 " SEAMEN'S RIGHTS." [CHAP. vi. * But although no satisfaction for mercantile losses could be obtained from Spain., the President felt bound, after tlie representation made by the Spanish ambassador, to secure the passage of an Act of Congress against the privateers, which was as effectual as such acts usually were. There was one outrage of which, as it appears, the ambassador did not com- plain ; and yet for it, more than for any other, the United States were bound to give satisfaction. While Bainbridge was idly cruising in the Mediterranean, intent upon demonstrating to the weaker powers there the naval strength of the Anglo-Saxon republic, which had even dared to measure swords with Great Britain, it chanced, one July day, that he lay off Malaga. There, remarkably enough, one of his crew deserted, and being apprehended by one of his officers in the streets of the place, was set at large again by the authorities, for the per- fectly astounding reason, that he was a subject of Spain ! We of course fully admit that this was altogether untenable, and we marvel at the perverted taste of the fellow who made such a choice ; but still we learn with the most unfeigned astonishment that Bainbridge, reading the motto on the flag of his navy exactly backwards since " the case was altered" now enforced " seamen's rights," by threatening to bombard the city and to seize and carry his man off by force if he were not peaceably given up to him ! We do not regard the method of enforcing the giving up of deserters practised by the British as one to be imitated, nor can we consider their disregard of the laws of naturalisation prevalent in the United States as dignified ; although we have been compelled to grant that, viewed from their own ground, they frequently had the right on their side in their collisions with the Americans on this subject. But from the American starting-point, how any man could arrive at such a practical issue wholly passes our comprehension ; and we can only place this note of unmiti- gated admiration at the stupendous inconsistency of the men who aspired to recast the laws by which the intercourse of nations was governed, and to break the tyrannical rod of the Queen of the Seas ! France proved as little disposed as any of the other powers we have spoken of, to make compensation for the depredations she had committed upon the commerce of America. But it must be remembered, that in the height of philo-Gallican frenzy, during Washington's presidency, Monroe had assured the Directory that the United States would cheerfully submit to such spolia- tions, for the benefit of their generous ally, and the whole of Jefferson's party, now in the ascendant, had (though informally) ratified his bombast. The tameness with which Bonaparte's demands and outrages had always been received, would have warranted any ruler in believing that no objections of the least weight were so much as felt by them. And besides, Napoleon had insisted upon the setting off of all demands on France, for depredations com- mitted between 1800 and 1803, as part payment for Louisiana; and before this had refused to accept Jefferson's ratification of the convention, negociated under John Adams' auspices, unless one of the articles relating to spoliations committed before 1800, which he had himself introduced and ratified, were withdrawn ! ' These proceedings, as well as the directing of hostilities against Great Britain only, when both France and Great Britain were complained of, as A.D. 1815-17.] CLOSE OF MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 125 molesting and harassing the commerce of the States, would have been quite sufficient to explain, if not to justify, the refusal of France to admit the claims now urged against her. And, at the same time, we shall not be amazed at seeing the unsatisfied claimants for this compensation grow almost into an " institution," in America ; nor will it, on the whole, displease us greatly that we should be able, by such an instance as this, to show how sternly righteous a Nemesis presides over the doings of nations, and makes their seemingly trivial indulgences in wrong, all, at the fitting moment, prove means of national chastisement, for this is one function of history in relation to the present and coming generations. For some account of Madison's last Message, which bears date December the 3rd, 1816, we refer our readers to the chapter devoted to the internal affairs of the Union ; quoting, however, one brief passage from the conclusion. In taking his final leave of Congress, he eulogises the American people and constitution, and expresses his hopes respecting the future of his country ; desiring, amongst other things, that it should " exhibit " " A government which avoids intrusion on the internal repose of other nations, and repels them from its own ; which docs justice to all nations with a readiness equal to the firmness with which it requires justice from them ; and which, whilst it refines its domestic code from every ingredient not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened eye, and the sentiments of a virtuous people [from all the horrors of its slave laws, for example!], seeks, by appeals to reason and by its liberal examples, to infuse into the law which governs the civilised world a spirit which may diminish the frequency, or circumscribe the calamities, of war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of peace. A government, in a word, whose conduct, within and without, may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions, that of promoting peace on earth and good-will to man." An aspiration which, alas ! yet seems to be far from its realisation. The Navigation Act, cursorily mentioned in an earlier page, was merely an imitation of the narrow policy of the British. It was intended, in part, to supplement the protective tariff; and, in part, to operate upon Great Britain in the direction indicated by the claims made at the negociatioii of the com- mercial convention ; and its details do not need to be specified. Placed in a position so advantageous for the introduction of a large and liberal policy, as never was occupied by nation before, the United States not only lost the opportunity of signalising themselves as truly the leaders in the mighty march of civilisation, but just as with the Jeffersonian embargo schemes imposed needless burdens of fetters on themselves, because the mother country would not treat their independent government as a daughter state, and admit it to share its own illusory gains. Could it be to the accident that the political force of the Union was wielded by the anti- commercial party, whilst the chief or only ground for them to show their opposition to Great Britain, was commerce, that this was owing ? Here we may take leave of the administration of Madison. It was a period of trial for the United States ; but, as it now appears, trial which was appointed for high ends if wisely used, though if unwisely received, for unspeakable woe and injury. The sequel of our history will assist in determining how it actually 126 CLOSE OF MALISON'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. vi. was used. But though we thus regard the events, those who guided and originated them we must judge as men ; and on this principle we can accord but little praise to the successor of Jefferson. His condemnation may be summed up in a word. He hurried the nation into war, without conviction, to do the behests of the party which had made him President, and alone could extend his term of office. Nor can the eulogy of the Federalist writer, who has so unpityingly exposed the political immoralities of his more eminent master, that he ' ' retired with dignity from his high station," and " maintained that dignity in. retirement, exhibiting an honourable and exemplary virtue, as a private citizen, through a prolonged life," be pleaded in extenuation of this grievous fault. BOOK II. THE ADMINISTRATION OF MONROE AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. CHAPTER I. PROGRESS OF THE UNION UNDER MONROE'S PRESIDENCY. CHARACTER OF THE PERIOD COMPRISED IN THIS BOOK. FINANCIAL EMBARRASSMENTS. THE FLAG. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. DISSEN- SIONS ON SLAVERY. THE CENSUS. MONROE RE-ELECTED. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. BANK- RUPTCY LAW.'. STATE OF PARTIES. KING'S EMANCIPATION SCHEME. THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. THE period which now opens before us was one distinguished in its most essential features from all those which preceded it. The old parties, which had maintained a perpetual contest in the political arena, gradually died out, and new combinations took their place, both in the conduct of home and foreign affairs, and in the management, of matters affecting the states severally and in confederation. Not, as will soon be seen, that the ultimate grounds of these party divisions were different from what we have discerned them to be, for the Federalists and the Republicans ; but that the opposing policies, based upon the maintenance of state-rights and union-rights, upon commerce and agriculture, upon freedom and slavery, were differently blended, and tinctured variously, by the introduction of other and less fundamental opinions. We may say, gene- rally, that the political system, of which Clay is representative and exponent, was in the ascendant when Monroe first took his seat in the President's chair; but when John Quincy Adams, after a single term of office, left the White House, the dominant system was that with which the name of his successor, Andrew Jackson, has become most completely identified. Moreover, it was not a season in which the constitution and the Union were called upon to resist any very severe shock. On the whole, it was a time of considerable tranquillity, both externally and internally. And, as cause and consequence of this, in part, and at once, a new branch of trade, which we have noticed as growing rapidly and surely, both in peace and during war, and to 1 which, perhaps, the new combinations of parties (of which we spoke) may be in good part owing, home manufactures ; this new branch of trade, less narrow than agriculture, less cosmopolitan than commerce, now throve most vigorously. Perhaps we may in some degree ascribe the tranquillity of this period, or at least of its former part, to the undistinguished character of the President, Monroe. The appointment of so inconspicuous a person to a station of such eminence, was the lowest fall accomplished by party votings up to that date. Neither as a diplomatist nor as a statesman had he shone in the annals of America. The embrace given him by Merlin Suspect, his unratified treaty with 128 MONROE'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. [CHAP. i. Great Britain, his conscription scheme, and his pledging his own good name for the purpose of obtaining supplies for Jackson at New Orleans, these the last of which alone had any merit, and that rather of a private than a public sor t these were his claims to fame. He did not increase them by the oppor- tunities afforded him in the eight years he occupied the presidential chair. The ceremony of inauguration took place 011 the 4th of March, 1817, in the usual manner. The newly-elected President and Vice-President, accompanied by a numerous cavalcade of citizens, proceeded from Monroe's house to the Hall of Congress. Madison was there, with the judges of the Supreme Court, the members of the Senate, the corps diplomatique, and other high dignitaries of state. In the Senate chamber, Tompkins took the oath of office as Vice- President, and was conducted to the chair, where he delivered a brief address. Then, having adjourned, the Senate attended the President to an elevated portico, erected for J;he occasion ; where, in presence of a great concourse of people, Monroe delivered his inaugural address, and the oath of office was adminstered to him by Chief Justice Marshall. In the address he sketched " the highly favoured condition of the country," in which was involved the consideration of "the interest of every citizen to maintain it," and further discussed the dangers which menaced it. " The government," he said, " has been in the hands of the people. To the people, therefore, and to the faithful and able depositaries of their trust, is the credit due. Had the people of the United States been educated in different principles, had they been less intelligent, less independent, or less virtuous, can it be believed that we should have maintained the same steady and consistent career, or been blessed with the same success ? "While, then, the constituent body retains its present sound and healthful state, everything will be safe. They will choose competent and faithful representatives for every department. It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usur- pation is then an easy attainment, and a usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us then look to the great cause, and endeavour to pursue it in full force. Let us, by all wise and constitutional measures, promote intelligence among the people, as the best means of preserving our liberties." Next, considering the possibility of war again arising, and the duty of supporting the rights of the nation, and cherishing its strength, Monroe pro- ceeded to detail a perfect system of national defences, further mention of which we postpone for the present. " -,*; ' l Other interests," he added, " of high importance, will claim attention ; among which the improvement of our country by roads and canals, proceeding always with a constitutional sanction, holds a distinguished place. By thus facilitating the intercourse between the states, we shall add much to the convenience and comfort of our fellow-citizens, much to the ornament of the country, and, what is of greater importance, we shall shorten distances, and by making each part more accessible to and dependent on the other, we shall bind the Union more closely together." " Our manufactures will likewise require the systematic and fostering care of the government. Possessing, as we do, all A.D. 1817-25.] MONROE'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 129 the raw materials, the fruit of our own soil and industry, we ought not to depend, in the degree we have done, on supplies from other countries It is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our manufactures should be domestic [And] equally important is it to provide at home a market for oui raw materials, as by extending the competition, it will enhance the price, and protect the cultivator against the casualties incident to foreign markets." The Indians, the revenue, the public lands, and the public debt, were dismissed with a few words ; the need of " every facility " to enable the executive (which was spoken of as " charged, officially, with the disbursement of the public money ") " to bring the public agents, entrusted with the public money, strictly and promptly to account," because of "defaulters," was also urged ; and the satisfaction experienced on account of the establishment of peace without, arid the growth of harmony within, was duly intimated, with the correlated duties of cherishing and extending both. " Never," said the new President, in conclusion, " did a government com- mence under auspices so favourable, nor ever was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy. In contemplating what we have still to perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy, when he reflects how near our government has approached to perfection ; that, in respect to it, we have no essential improvement to make ; that the great object is, to preserve it in the essential principles and features which characterise it, and that that is to be done by preserving the virtue and enlightening the minds of the people ; and, as a security against foreign dangers, to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the support of our independence, our rights, and liberties. If we persevere in the career in which we have advanced so far, and in the path already traced, we cannot fail, under the favour of a gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny which seems to await us." And so, for we may omit the complimentary allusions to his predecessor, and his hopes of aid from the other branches of government, with this most remarkable eulogy upon a polity which allowed such an enormity and anachro- nism as slavery to exist, with every proviso for a revolution in case its abolition should be attempted, so did James Monroe " read himself in " to his exalted office. It must have been a strange thing to John Adams, and to Jefferson, to hear what their successor had announced as the outline of his plan of political procedure. Disciple of Jefferson though he was, it was Federalism, rather than Republicanism, which Monroe's address declared. But most of all, it was the system of Henry Clay, which (as we have before observed), was constructed of fragments of the old Federal ' ' platform," the Federalism being omitted. In the same manner did Monroe select the members of his cabinet. John Quincy Adams, recalled from his post at London, was made secretary of state ; William H. Crawford, who had formerly represented the United States at Paris, took the place left vacant by Dallas' death ; Crowninshield was continued at the head of the navy department, and Meigs as postmaster-general. The office of secretary of war was offered to Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, but he considered VOL. II. 8 130 NEW APPOINTMENTS. [CHAP. I. himself too old for its duties, and no appointment was made till the end of the year, when Calhoun accepted it. The attorney-generalship, which Rush held under Madison, was at last given to William Wirt, whom we have met with at the time of Aaron Burr's trial; Rush acting as secretary of state till Adams' return, when he was sent as his successor to England. Not only were they all democratic partisans, but all of them were of Monroe's particular shade of demo- cracy advocates of the war and believers in the ascendancy of Virginia. He followed nearly the same course with the subordinate offices in the gift of the executive. Most of them were filled by Republicans, whom he did not, " for his own popularity/' remove ; but such as he could dispose of, he bestowed upon his own adherents. " The Federalists," says one historian of his administration, " had nothing to hope from him ; his course as minister of France and secretary of state had rendered him particularly obnoxious to them, and he had shown, throughout his whole public career, that his party predilections were strong and decided." In fact, no Federalist of any earnestness could have acted along with a democratic President and cabinet; for the real distinction of the parties were too deep and fundamental to admit of either compromise or co-operation. The bad success of Washington's experiment with Jefferson for secretary of state was enough, of itself, to deter any of his successors from a similar endeavour. And now that the executive was always the representative of a party, the very thought of consulting for the Union at large in such a matter as the choice of a ministry, could no more find admission than in the appointment of collectors of customs and postmasters the consideration of trustworthiness and fitness for duty. And there was always a whole herd of candidates for offices, all of them distinguished by their zeal in the elections, all of them ready to accept any place which would confer on them a modicum of pay and distinction, without too much responsibility or labour. The cabinet would seem on the whole to have been well chosen, and to have given general satisfaction ; for the only changes made in it during the whole of Monroe's continuance in office were the appointment of Smith Thompson, in Crowninshield's place, as secretary of the navy, late in 1818 ; and, at the end of 1 823, the appointment of S. L. Southard, as successor to Thompson, when he was made a judge; and of John M'Lean, instead of Meigs, as postmaster-general. And if the opinion, entertained by some, that the measures of the government could not have been more liberal be not quite correct, it is certain that the fusion of parties, which happened under this presidency, is to be ascribed, in good part, to the moderation of those who had the conduct of public affairs. No sooner were the ceremonies of the inauguration, and the other constitu- tional formalitfes required by the change in the administration, concluded, than the President made preparations for a tour of inspection through the northern states. Having been in various subordinate situations of government, he under- stood the necessity of seeing with his own eyes whatever it was necessary for him to be informed upon. Wherefore, for the sake of ascertaining the strength of the various fortified places along the Atlantic coast j of removing such works as were constructed in improper situations ; of selecting new points for the erection of strong and sufficient batteries, against invasion ; and of posting the A.D. 1817-25.] MEETING OF CONGRESS. 131 regular forces where they would be able to act, in case of need, speedily anc effectively, he now set out from Washington. Nor was he less moved to under- take this journey by "his desire to become acquainted with the people and learn their wants, to ascertain how the machinery of government, remote from the central power, performed its functions, and to inform himself in regard to the resources of the country, and the means necessary to develop them." He also intimated publicly, that a regard to the economical expenditure of the national funds, appropriated by Congress to the construction of the coast defences, induced him to make this tour. Little, however, could in reality be expected from so cursory a view as he would be able thus to take ; and there were other objects, important enough to him personally and to his party, which would probably be accomplished by this means. A visit from the most exalted personage in the country, whether he is called president or emperor, is at all times gratifying to the communities selected for the honour ; and there was a large section of the population of the northern states politically opposed to him, which might be conciliated to him by this very cheap contrivance. The acerbity of party feeling, too, and especially of the Federalists of '98 " the Essex Junto," that terror of the democrats might be greatly softened thereby; and if dissentients should not be brought into the republican fold, they might, at least, be induced to be content with the repub- lican President. We shall relate some of the incidents of this tour hereafter, and confine ourselves at present to the narration of the fact, that on the 18th of September, the President returned to Washington, after having been absent from the seat of government three months and a half, and having performed a journey of more than two thousand miles. The fifteenth Congress met for its first session at the beginning of December, 1817. The majority of the democratic party was still greater than on former occasions, there being but very few Federalists of note returned, and the greater number of the members being new, in both Houses. In the Senate, Hanson, from Maryland; Harrison G. Otis, of Massachusetts; and Rufus King, of New York, were the only distinguished Federalists ; the last-mentioned senator already contemplated desertion from the ranks of his decaying party. On the other side were found, Campbell, of Tennessee he' whose duelling nistols proved of so little service to Madison in the rout of Bladensburg and the sack of Washington ; Eppes, of Virginia ; Macon, of North Carolina ; Claiborne, of Louisiana ; Troup, of Georgia ; and Crittenden, of Kentucky. Pitkin, of Connecticut ; Shaw, of Massachusetts ; and Sergeant, of Penn- sylvania, were the chief Federalists in the House of Representatives. The leading Republican members of that House were, Morton, of Massachusetts; Seybert, of Pennsylvania; Samuel Smith, of Maryland; Taylor and Tall- madge, of New York ; Barbour, Burwell, and Mercer, of Virginia; Lowndes, of South Carolina; Forsytb, of Georgia; and Henry Clay, of Kentucky. Calhoun, as we have related, had already been promoted to the 'ministry of war. A hundred and forty-four votes, out of one hundred and fifty, replaced Clay in the Speaker's chair, and John Gaillard was chosen to act as president pro tern, in the Senate. * 132 MONROE'S FIRST MESSAGE. [CHAP. i. The Message was read on December the 2nd. It congratulated the legis- lature upon the general condition of the country ; told how arrangements with the British government, respecting naval armaments on the lakes, the north- eastern boundary, and the fisheries, were proceeding ; how relations with Spain were in no more favourable condition than before, but rather, indeed, in a less favourable condition, from the " sympathy " of the citizens of the United States with the patriot party in the revolted colonies of Spain, and from the inveterate habit of filibustering in the southern states, against which so many proclamations had been idly emitted, and about which we must speak in a future chapter. The statement respecting the internal concerns of the country was described as " peculiarly gratifying." After satisfying the appropriations made by law for the support of the civil government and of the military and naval establisk- ments, embracing suitable provision for fortifications and for the gradual increase of the navy, paying the interest of the public debt, and extinguishing more than eighteen millions of the principal, within the current year, it- estimated that a balance of more than six millions of dollars would remain in the Treasury, on the 1st day of January, applicable to the service of the year ensuing. The receipts for the next year were estimated at twenty-four millions and a half of dollars, and the outgoings at nearly twenty-two millions; so that there would be an excess of revenue beyond expenditure amounting to nearly two millions and three-quarters, exclusive of the balance expected, to be in the Treasury at the beginning of the year. The financial prospects of the country were, therefore, most bright and promising. Manufactures and machinery, the public buildings at Washington, and " the surviving officers and soldiers of our revolutionary army," all received their share of attention ; but the best part of the Message was the concluding para- graph, in which, like a true disciple of Jefferson, Monroe said, " It appearing in a satisfactory manner that the revenue arising from imposts and tonnage, and from the public lands, will be fully adequate to the support of the civil government, of the present military and naval establishments, including the annual augmentation of the latter to the extent provided for, to the payment of the interest on the public debt, and to the extinguishment of it at the time authorised, without the aid of the internal taxes, I consider it my duty to recommend to Congress their repeal." But he added a promise to recommend the re-imposition of them, if circumstances should seem to indicate the necessity for such a step. First amongst the matters attended to by the legislature, was the removing of the war taxes. The duties on licences to distillers and others, on sales by auction, pleasure carriages, stamps, and refined sugar, were, by one Act, swept away. The duty on salt was also marked for repeal ; but, prosperous as the finances seemed, apprehension was expressed by the secretary of the Treasury, that instead of a surplus there would be a deficit, if all that the President promised, and the people expected, were given up ; this, therefore, was retained. A considerable section of the members desired a gradual repeal of these duties, that so the larger reliefs to be effected by removing all burdens entailed by the war might be the more speedily accomplished. The people, however, willed it AD. 1817-25.] LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENTS. otherwise. Jefferson had made internal taxation, save under pressure of the direst necessity, an impossibility ; and that was one form in which his success had to be paid for by his partisans and successors. The debate on this bill showed that the couleur de rose picture of the state of the country, presented in the Message, was not perfectly accurate. The finances did undoubtedly prosper greatly, and the public funds were at a premium; but commerce had not recovered from the embargoes, and other asphyxying Acts preceding and accompanying the war, which without them would have been sufficiently injurious. Excessive importations had raised the public revenue, but ruined the private trader, it was said : and the most profit- able of all departments of mercantile enterprise the carrying trade was, by treaty, as good as closed against American ships. Neither were the banks without their share of condemnation ; they, it seems, were contracting their credits, and endeavouring to close bad accounts, and to recover their debts proceedings never popular amongst those affected by them, and yet indispen- sable both for the banks and the public in general. With the Bank of the United States, and its numerous kindred institutions, nothing was attempted in the legislature. But against the other commercial " lion in the way " of the democrats Great Britain, the old machinery of acts, called " retaliatory," was set in motion, without the least beneficial effect, as might have been predicted, from the experience of former years. For the twofold purpose of compensating for the loss of the internal duties, the abolition of which made it "necessary," says a writer friendly to the administration, u to provide some means for raising the revenue required for the support of government," and of " affording protection to the infant manu- factures of the country/' another change was made in the tariff. Of which, also, fuller mention will be made in the chapter on the foreign relations of the Union, under Monroe's presidency. Yet we may remark in this place upon the singular choice made by both the people and their leaders, in the United States, to be, not a pattern which other nations should follow, but a warning, just as Great Britain was ; but more emphatic, because it was not by monarchy or aristocracy, but by the democracy of America, that the policy of taking out of one pocket, throwing part away, and putting the remainder into the other pocket, was strenuously pursued and. advocated, as the only way to national Avealth ! Laws were likewise enacted, fixing the pay of members of Congress at eight dollars a day, and as many for every twenty miles they had to travel to the seat of government, instead of fifteen hundred dollars a year, as the last Act had determined; and for pensioning the survivors of the army of the Revolu- tion, as Monroe had suggested. This paying by the day the labours of the legislators of the nation at large, and conversion of the becoming honorarium into a salary to be fixed by the work done, or the time spent in doing it, does not seem to us fitted to increase either the efficiency or the dignity of the legislators. In respect of the last Act, it must be noted that, essentially just as the claim of the old soldiers of the Revolution was, the way in which its allowance was secured partook far too much of vulgar trickery. It ought to have been 134 LEG ISLATIVE ENACTMENTS. .- [CHAP. I. sufficient for Congress to have been reminded, that when payment was made at the end of the war to those who had fought the battle of independence, the currency in which it was made had been most frightfully depreciated ; so that the sums actually realised did not amount to a fourth of what had been nominally received ; with which fact Congress in former years had cause to be tolerably familiar. It surely could not be requisite, in order to the satisfac- tion of a demand rather of justice than of favour, to misrepresent the grounds of the case, and to pretend that the money required was less than it was known to be. Yet this was done ; and not only so, but other claims equally just, which had long been most scandalously neglected, received but stinted attention from the legislature now. Of these, however, we have no need to speak particularly. One matter of public moment which, for a time, engrossed the attention of Congress during this session, was the insignia of the national flag, The result of the deliberations was, that the vertical stripes of white and red alternately covering the field, were ordered to be thirteen in number, in commemoration of the original number of the confederating states, whilst a chief, or canton, of blue was to be charged with as many stars in silver as there were states actually confederated in the Union. Notwithstanding the emphatically delivered opinion of the President respect- ing "internal improvements," the subject was warmly discussed by Congress : a series of resolutions, declaring " the power of Congress to appropriate -money for the construction of military roads, post roads, and canals," having been proposed early in the session. This question, as we shall discover, is one of the " points" distinguishing the last school of democrats in the United States from its immediate prede- cessor, and connecting it with the original school founded by Jefferson. Henry Clay who found himself still in the Speaker's chair of the House, when others of the party, less able, less daring, less useful in former years, had been promoted to offices of state availed himself of the oversight to play the part of inde- pendent member. " His examination of President Monroe's Message," says one admiring biographer, " though perfectly courteous and dignified, was close and severe ; and his demonstration of the constitutionality of the proposed system was complete and conclusive." A committee, to whose consideration the matter was referred, counselled the appropriation of the dividends received by the United States from the shai-es held in the National Bank, to the objects named ; and the votes taken, upon the whole, showed that there was a majority of the representatives who were in favour of such an employment of them. " But those members of Congress, [who were] understood to be more in the confidence of the President, combated the views " both of Clay and of the committee, " and opposed the adoption of any system or measure relating to the subject, at least until the constitution had been properly amended, so as to confer the power." When the current in the legislature for the Senate debated the matter at the same time, and with a result, on the whole, favourable to the adoption of the resolutions was seen to be setting strongly in the direction pointed out by Clay, "it was whispered about in the political circles of the capital, that the President would A I). 1817-25.] CLOSE OF THE FIRST SESSION OF CONGRESS. 135 feel constrained, in conformity with the views and principles he had avowed in his Message, to veto any bill of that character [that is to say, framed upon "the views and principles he had avowed in his " inaugural address,] presented to him for his signature, prior to the amendment of the constitution, which he had suggested." So the subject was postponed for the present; but we shall see that it has proved one of those thorns in the side of the government, which could not be removed, nor the smart of it soothed by any kind of policy. How Clay wrested a triumph from it will in due time appear. Slavery, as a matter of course, was brought before both Houses of Congress. A. new law on the subject of fugitive slaves was introduced, and debated with much greater warmth than could have been excited upon any other theme; but, in spite of all the efforts made to secure its passage, its supporters suffered it to drop. And this happened, although there was scarcely a spark of public feeling aroused against the bill in the free states ; so that we can only suppose that democracy was making rapid way amongst the opponents of slavery, and that it was thought desirable to attach these converts to the party securely, before contesting any of their special opinions. An Act confirming the former Acts against the foreign slave trade, was likewise passed ; and the new depart- ment of this hideous branch of commerce, that, namely, which was carried on between the slave-breeding states and the most southerly portions of the Union, was discussed in consequence of a petition against the practice of kidnapping free persons of colour, and even citizens of the United States, and selling them as slaves in the south, which nothing but the entire removal of the inducement to such nefarious conduct can remedy. Out of one of the claims for compensation for losses sustained during the revolutionary struggle, arose a question regarding the privileges of the House. The details are of no importance to us, but the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States on Colonel Anderson's case, determined that both Houses of Congress were competent to punish contempt, by whomsoever committed, with imprisonment. Which decision, it appears, was grounded as much upon the precedents furnished by the British parliament, as upon the right reason of the case. Congress rose on the 20th of April, 1818, and during the recess, the Presi- dent visited the towns and coasts of Chesapeake Bay, for the purpose of examining the forts and 'defences in that quarter, and of selecting a site for a naval depot. He returned by the interior of Virginia to Washington, about the middle of June; and the legislature re-assembled on the 16th of November. The President's Message contained nothing of special note in relation to home affairs. The revenue, he said, exceeded the estimates, there was, in fact, a surplus of two millions, and was adequate to all the exigencies of the healthy season, with peace at home, and favourable prospects abroad, and with a population rapidly increasing, and spreading even farther over the wide western territories, the United States appeared to Monroe to be "in the full tide of successful experiment." Foremost amongst the subjects which demanded and received the attention of Congress, was the United States Bank. At this time it appears to have merited the outcry which was generally raised against it ; although it cannot be 136 THE UNITED STATES BANK. ,- [dlAP. I affirmed that those who were the loudest in condemning it did so honestly and really for the reasons assigned. We have shown, on the occasions on which this matter has come under notice before, that political motives of the very lowest order have always been in the United States operating to the hindrance and injury of the national bank. And in addition to all the perplexities arising from the universal habit of regarding everything in its bearing upon the acquisition of political office and patronage, and of appealing to mere numerical majorities for the final decision of whatever question which could wear a political aspect ; in addition to the difficulties occasioned by the general ignorance of the meaning and intent of a bank, and by the complete and disastrous disarrange- ment of all the monetary affairs of the country, first by the anti-commercial policy of Madison's administration, and afterwards by the war; that morbid and unappeaseable appetite for speculation to attacks of which all nations are subject at times, and which has since become almost chronic in America was most energetically active ; so that the institution, to which so many of the most prudent and experienced minds in the whole Union looked as the only means of saving the country, became a very " cesspool of agio." At the time when Congress assembled, and Monroe presented his nattering picture of the state of things in the United States generally, the bank was evidently getting into an unsatisfactory condition, and the greatest fears were everywhere entertained in consequence. A committee of inquiry ascertained some of the immediate causes of this, and they require the best attention we can give them. Two millions of specie being all the real capital which the bank possessed when first set in action for the transaction of business a sum absurdly insuffi- cient for the purpose a special agent was sent to England, at a salary of 20,000 dollars, to contract for specie, and between July, 1817, and December, 1818, upwards of 7,250,000 dollars were obtained and imported into the United States. But the cost of this sum was more than 500,000 dollars ! Numerically, as it might have been expected under the then existing circum- stances, the speculators who held shares in the bank far exceeded the capitalists, and the former class having thus gained the direction of its operations, they took care to guide them so as to secure advantages and profit for themselves, without regard either to the legitimate object of the establishment of the bank, or the claims of those whose capital, put into the concern, was its only available means of working or subsisting. The particular way in which they employed their power, was the device and perfection of a scheme of stockjobbing in bank shares, the like to which has not often been attempted in agiotage. " It was agreed to discount the notes of stockholders for the payment of their instalments, upon the pledge of their stock, without any other security ; first, at par, and afterwards for 25 per cent, more than the nominal amount, requiring, however, an endorser for the excess. These ' stock-notes/ as they were termed, were received indefinitely, at the pleasure of the stockholders." And, as a necessary and foreseen consequence, " shares were bought without the advance of a cent. An adventurer would engage a certain number of shares, apply to the directors for a loan on the pledge of the stock engaged, and by what was called a ' simultaneous operation/ the stock was transferred to him, A.D. 1817-25.] THE UNITED STATES BANK. 137 pledged to the bank, and the discount made, with the avails of which he paid for his stock : a rise in the market would enable him to sell his stock at an advance, pocket the difference, and commence new operations." As a further consequence, the price of shares rose, till, about the beginning of September, 1817, they reached 156| dollars per share; and at last, suddenly soon after Congress had begun to inquire respecting the business, and no doubt because of the inquiry the bubble burst, and they fell from 156 to 110, and thence to 90 dollars a share ; dissipating hundreds of imaginary fortunes, and changing many shareholders in the bank into bankrupts. " Baltimore was the principal scene of these operations ; the management of that branch had fallen almost exclusively into the hands of persons without capital and without principle. Two or three houses, in which some of the directors had an interest, drew, from the bank 1,500,000; and the defalcations in the Baltimore branch alone amounted to 1,700,000 dollars a sum about equal to the aggregate amount of losses at the parent bank and all the other branches." Nor was this the only way in which this useful institution was injured by these speculations. One of the chief benefits expected from it, for the Union at large, was the creation of a , general currency of uniform value, by which the greater part of the evils affecting the business transactions of the country would have been remedied or prevented. And for this purpose it was requisite that bills issued by any particular branch, and, according to their tenour, payable at that branch only, should be received and paid both at the parent bank and all its branches. Until July, 1818, this plan was followed; but most of the enormous quantity of paper emitted in the southern and western states, by the regular course of trade, found its way to the north, and in self-defence the branches were compelled to refuse payment, and then the bank ordered payment of bills at the branches issuing them alone, so that this first attempt to get a uniform currency proved fruitless. One of the worst features in the whole case was this : some of the most prominent of the directors, both those elected by the shareholders and those nominated by the government, were implicated in these schemes and specula- tions ; and thus the parent bank of Philadelphia itself was induced to imitate the dishonest proceedings at Baltimore, to the injury of Boston and New York; and even the Treasury of the United States conspired against the stability of the branches in the middle and eastern states, by furnishing Baltimore and Phila- delphia with large drafts on the public funds at New York and Boston, as a means of reversing the balance in favour of the branches of these last-named places. After a close investigation of the whole affair, and a report which exposed the real causes of the embarrassments of the bank, the speculating managers resigned, and in January, 1819, a new direction was chosen. Langdon Cheves was placed first on the government list, and appointed president; and under his vigilant control matters assumed a brighter aspect. The stock found its way into the hands of real capitalists, and rose in value to 120 dollars per share. The affairs of the institution were minutely examined, and a careful statement was published, which completely reassured the minds of the share- VOL. ir. T 138" INTERNAL IMPUOVK.MKNTS. [CHAP. I. holders. The most prudent measures, in borrowing specie, curtailing discounts, arranging the relations of the branches, and prosecuting defaulters, -were adopted; and not only was bankruptcy averted, but the establishment, after a short season of uncertainty and unpopularity, began to recover from its losses, and to regain the confidence of the mercantile world. Congress contributed, as its share in the rehabilitation of the national bank, an Act restricting 'the votes of any shareholder, whatever the number of his shares might be, and in how many names soever he might hold them, to the chartered limit of thirty. For, in the first instance, the Northerners alone being considered able to take many shares, and the old suspicion of the monarchising designs of the Federalists being far more active in the legisla- ture than any desire effectually to serve or to protect the real interests of trade, it was settled by the charter, that though a single share should confer a single vote, no individual should possess more than thirty votes, whatever the number of his shares might be. The democratic speculators of Baltimore ingeniously evaded the force of this provision, and enhanced their power in the bank, by subscribing (on the " simultaneous operation " plan) for single shares in the names of other people, who gave them powers of attorney to vote for them at the meetings, and charged "twelve and a half cents" for the risk entailed by their participation in the fraud ! Internal improvements, in the form of road-making, were brought before Congress in this session, by the report of Calhouri, as secretary of war, on the facilities required for such military operations as the rapid transit and as- sembling of troops, and the transportation of the materiel of war. For, as we might have noticed in respect of several other incidents recorded in this chapter, the possibility of another war with Great Britain does not seem to have been at any time far removed from the speculations of the leaders of the party in power. In this report he said, that he regarded a judicious system of roads and canals, constructed for the convenience of commerce, and the transmission of the mail, alone, without reference to military operations, as amongst the most efficient means of defence ; since the same roads and canals would, with few exceptions, be required for these operations ; and such a system, by consolidating the Union, and increasing its wealth and fiscal capacity, would greatly add to the resources of war. He also suggested the employment of the regular troops in the construction of some of the lines of communication which he indicated ; and Congress so far adopted the suggestion as to appropriate 10,000 dollars for the increase of the pay of the soldiers who should be so employed. Half a million was appropriated also towards the construction of the Cumberland Road, a project with which Clay soon became personally identified. This session also saw the commencement of a new struggle respecting slavery. It must be kept in mind, that when Jefferson first struck out his scheme for the erection of new states in the ultramontane region, the pro- hibition of slave-holding in them formed a prominent and characteristic feature in it. Subsequently, as we must remember too, it was agreed that the Ohio should be the northern limit of the slave region. Moreover, in the same spirit which had in so many other remarkable ways shown the distinct understanding A.D. 1817-25.] DISSENSIONS ON SLAVERY 139 of the origina- want of unity in the United States, the admissions of new states into the confederation had been of free states and slave-holding states alternately. Our readers may also be reminded, on the other hand, that one of the stipulations respecting the purchase of Louisiana from France, was that the existing status, and privileges of its inhabitants, under the dominion of France or Spain, should not be interfered with. A condition which could refer to slavery alone, because the change of the country from a colony dependent on a European monarchy into an independent and sovereign state, did very considerably alter the status of all but the enslaved population; and their condition, too, after a time it changed but much for the worse. With these preliminaries we can now turn to the Missouri Question. It was in the month of February, 1819, that when the permission for that part of Louisiana, which has since been known as the State of Missouri, to form a constitution, and to ask recognition as an independent sovereignty, was sought of Congress, the question arose, whether a clause prohibiting the future in- troduction of slaves, and providing for the attainment of freedom by the children of those already there, should not be introduced. The considerations we have stated in the preceding paragraph were vehemently urged on both sides; together with all others customarily resorted to as argumentative weapons, by North and South, in the battle over this peculiar " institution." The members from the slave states surpassed themselves in that species of oratory which they had made their own. Speeches, almost wholly composed of the most atrocious threats and the vilest accusations, were suffered by Clay to be delivered in resistance of a proposition, which ought to have enlisted the hearty approbation and support of every member of the House. A few endeavoured to com- promise the difficulty, and several suggestions were offered for dividing the whole vast region west of the Mississippi in such a manner between the partisans of African thraldom and African liberty, as that the pro-slavery men should have their way (as they always had) on the subject mooted, but that no further ques- tion of the same kind should arise if such men could be brought to hold any obligation, which narrowed the fullest exercise of all they claimed as their per- sonal rights, to be binding on them ; and it was one of these which, at a later stage of the business, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, faithful to his instincts, chose to advocate, and carried too, as ' ' the Missouri Compromise." In the House these enlightened and philanthropic proposals were carried, in spite of all the menaces of the Southerners, by majorities of about ten, in houses of a hundred and sixty or seventy : but the Senate rejected the anti- slavery clauses, twenty-two voting against sixteen, in favour of the perpetuation of African bondage in Missouri ; and as in the House the friends of freedom secured the maintenance of them, though by the pitiful majority of two only, the bill was lost, and the period of tutelage in that district of the Union extended to another session. Contemporaneously with these votes, the question of the restricting the duration of slavery in Arkansas territory was also discussed and voted down in both Houses of Congress. The slavery party on this, having the admissions of their opponents, as well as their own argu- ments, to employ, in vindication of their view. Little objection, on the ground of state rights, appears to have been advanced by the democratic members, in 1 40 REASSEMBLING OF CONGRESS. . [CHAP. I. these debates; although, if consistent, they ought to have insisted upon the essential incompetence of Congress to legislate iipon the domestic affairs of any state. Matthew Lyon, as our readers all will remember, was that redoubted Vermonter, who ruined an admirably deserved reputation, by his ultra- democratic violence in the House; and who was one of the most illustrious victims of John Adams' "reign of terror/'' as it was called. He presented to Congress his claim for the reinfbursement of the tine of 1,000 dollars, which had been imposed upon him, with several hundred dollars costs, and the interest to the time of his petition, with a compensation for the losses and injuries sustained by his imprisonment, which lasted for some months. " From the peculiar character of this application, it was referred in the Senate to the committee on the judiciary, who reported unfavourably, and the petition was negatived. " We do not derive a more exalted opinion of the sagacity of this remarkable democrat, from his venturing to make such an application to the legislature as this. Whatever his services to his party had been, the country assuredly was but little indebted to him. A few other Acts passed in this session will come beneath our notice when we speak of foreign affairs ; of mere routine legislation we do not need to make any mention. The Congress separated on the 3rd of March, 1819. During the following summer the President visited the southern states, ostensibly with the same objects as those which induced him to make his northern tour. But he did not need to ingratiate himself with his own party, and therefore this journey was, in many respects, essentially different. He returned to Washington early in the month of August. The sixteenth Congress met for its first session on the 6th of December, 1819, in the new Capitol. Democracy appeared in greater force than ever ; and the number of new members was unusually great. Otis and Dana, Fede- ralists, were still found in the Senate; with the Republicans, Dickerson, Barbour, Macon, and Gaillard. Rufus King, whose seat was temporarily vacated, was re-elected in January, 1820 ; it being now understood that he ,iad definitely forsaken his former principles. The new senators of any note were, William Pinkney, of Maryland, lately ambassador to Russia; Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky; Walter Lowrie, of Pennsylvania; William R. King, of Alabama; and James Brown, of Louisiana. Sergeant, of Pennsylvania; Shaw, of Massachusetts, and Samuel A. Foot, again appeared in the House; with Morton, Holmes, Taylor, M'Lean, Smith of Maryland, Philip P. Barbour, Burwell, Floyd, Mercer, John Randolph, Lowndes, Cobb, and Clay. Henry Clay was once more appointed Speaker by an almost unanimous vote. The chief burden of the Message, which was received on the 7th, was the position of affairs with respect to Spain, of which we shall treat hereafter. The pecuniary embarrassments, which arose from the causes we have spoken of with sufficient fulness already, and which, in spite of the real prosperity of the country, threatened so many classes with ruin, were also dealt with ; and Monroe intimated his willingness to go as far as was possible, in consistency with the constitution, to afford them relief. He was also quite in favour of giving further encouragement to domestic manufactures, due regard being paid A.D. 1817-25.] MISSOURI AND MAINE. 141 to the other great interests of the nation. One very influential reason for these suggestions was the diminution of the receipts at the Treasury, which had followed from the disastrous condition of trade and the currency. They would be no more than twenty-three millions for the year ; and the pensions granted to the soldiers of the revolution had made a larger income than ordinary needful ; but a considerable surplus was, nevertheless, expected. Missouri and Maine supplied the great themes of the session. Intense excitement prevailed in every part of the Union, and gave to the discussion of this question all the' painful interest which could attach to the possibility of an immediate and embittered dissolution of the confederacy. " The debates on this subject," writes Calvin Colton, " were protracted, animated, and often in a high degree acrimonious The speeches were for the most part characterised with strong ingredients of sectional prejudice. There was, however, in the midst of this arena of violent strife one man of truly national feeling ; calm, but not indifferent [Henry Clay, a slaveholder] , with lofty but dignified and not less anxious port, looking down upon the scene as one of deep and unutterable concern. Often did he rise to hush the tempest, and call back reason to its useful offices. He stood up a mediator between the con- flicting parties, imploring, entreating, beseeching. On one occasion, during these debates, Mr. Clay spoke four hours and a half ; pouring forth an uninter- rupted and glowing torrent of his thoughts and feelings, with captivating and convincing power." " With all his power/' says another biographer, he " urged the admission, on the ground that to Missouri alone belonged the subject of her domestic slavery ; declaring, at the same time, that so great was his detestation of the system, were he a citizen of that state, he would never consent to a state con- stitution which should not provide for its extinction. Above all things he urged conciliation and compromise ; for the safety of the Union was threatened, and its stability he deemed of paramount importance. A compromise, through his exertions, was finally effected : committees of conference were appointed, and an Act was passed," assenting to the petition of Missouri, by thirty votes against fifteen in the Senate ; and by a hundred and thirty-four in the Representatives against forty-two ; thirty-five of these being southern men. It was the 6th of March, 1820, when this bill became law; the bill for admitting Maine was signed three days earlier. Senator Benton, of Missouri, looking back to this point over the interval of " thirty years," avers, ' ' This was all clear gain to the anti-slavery side of the question, and was done under the lead of the united slave vote in the Senate, the majority of that vote in the House of Representatives, and the undivided sanction of a southern administra- tion. It was a southern measure, and divided free and slave soil far more favourably to the North than the ordinance of 1787. That divided about equally ; this of 1820 gave about all to the North. It abolished slavery over an immense extent of territory where it might then legally exist, over nearly the whole of Louisiana, left it only in Florida and Arkansas territory, and opened no new territory to its existence [the plain fact being that all the territory south of the parallel of 36 30' north latitude, except the State of Missouri was given up " for ever" to slavery]. It was an immense concession to the non-slave-holding 142 COMMODORES BARRON AND DLCATUR. [CHAP. I states; but the genius of slavery agitation was not laid/' as we shall in time discover. From this period the relations of the Union, and of the states severally, to this question of slavery were changed. It had been one of subordinate interest to such as those of state-sovereignty versus national-sovereignty, now it con- stituted a broad and impassable line of distinction between the north and south. After a laborious session, Congress adjourned on the 12th of May, 1820. Previous to the adjournment, Smith, of Maryland, summoned a Congres- sional caucus, for the nomination of candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President at the next election. But so entirely were the angry passions of parties stilled, or so well had the Federalists been routed, that no meeting could be got together, and the re-election of Monroe and Tompkins was treated by all classes as already settled. In fact,, there was now no party opposing the administration upon Federalist principles ; Boston itself joined the President's side by "pronouncing" in favour of what is designated " the Washington - Monroe policy." But at the same time the most rancorous anti-Federalists fouiid that their occupation too was gone ; and in vain did they complain that the spirit of the early days of democratic triumphs was dead. In the con- solidation of the victory of American democracy, the most vehement of the successful combatants found themselves as complete passes as were those of the vanquished, and nothing remained for the ultras of both sides, but to wait until some shift in the posture of affairs should give them an opportunity of returning to the fight with happier omens. There is an extensive class of events, or rather of public incidents, which, although they find fitting place in the annals of nations, cannot in general, with any propriety, be introduced into history. Nevertheless, it will happen at times that a wide view of the spirit of an age, or the manners of the people, is afforded by some one of these non-historical facts. From the archives of anecdote and biography we therefore borrow the following lamentable story. When Commodore Barren, of the Chesapeake, suffered his vessel to be attacked by the Leopard, without making so much as the semblance of a defence, he was first of all censured by a court of inquiry. A court-martial was after- wards held, and Commodore Decatur sat as one of the members, although he had begged to be excused on the ground that he had both formed and expressed an opinion unfavourable to the prisoner. Barron was sentenced to suspension for five years, for neglect of duty and unofficer-like conduct. He imputed the severity of this sentence, in good part, to the influence of Decatur, and retired to France, where he remained till the close of the war. The government granted half-pay to his family, but did not encourage him in his desire to be employed again. Yet, after his return, he claimed his former position, and solicited the command of the Columbus, which was refused him; Decatur expressing an unfavourable opinion, to which Barron ascribed his failure. His mortification at being thus, as he imagined, a second time injured by the same man, was greatly increased by hearing that Decatur had somewhere said, that he could insult him with impunity. But he was assured by Decatur, whom he addressed very fiercely on the subject, that he was mistaken; and after a while he seemed to be satisfied. This was in June, 1819; in October a second A.T). 1817-25.] THE CENSUS. 143 and more angry correspondence commenced. Misled by baseless rumours, Barren endeavoured to force upon Decatur the responsibility of having chal- lenged him to a duel ; and at last himself sent a challenge to Decatur. On the 22nd of March, 1820, they met at Bladensburg; where Barren was severely wounded, and Decatur was killed. Congress honoured his funeral by an ad- journment, and the President, with the heads of departments, the foreign ministers, the members of the legislature, and a great concourse of citizens attended his body to the grave, by this means expressing their sense of the loss which in him their country had sustained. And this was the only notice that was publicly taken of this atrocious murder. Not a single member of all the branches of either Federal or state governments took official cognisance of it ; and the rules of the service and the decencies of society were suffered to be outraged with impunity. In the month of August, 1820, the fourth census of the United States was taken ; by which it appeared that there were of free white males, under sixteen years of age, 1,957,755 ; between sixteen and forty-five, 1,542,233 ; over forty- five, 495,065 ; of free white females, under sixteen, 1,885,898; between sixteen and forty-five, 1,517,971 ; above forty-five, 462,788; of free coloured persons, 233,530 ; and of slaves, 1,538,128 (but another account lessens the number by 64); "all other persons except Indians not taxed," amounting to 4,631. The grand total was, 9,637,999; or 9,638,131 ; or, as another statement has it, 9,708,135. Several additional returns were required by the Act of Congress which made arrangements for this census. Of foreigners not naturalised, it appeared, there were 53,687 in the States. The number of persons engaged in commerce was 72,493; in manufactures, 349,506; and in agriculture, 2,070,646. Subsequent statisticians have furnished us with another matter for considera- tion, derived from the results of this census, which is of so much importance that we insert it here. The increase per cent, in the ten years bet\veen 1810 and 18.20, in the non-slave-holding states, on the Atlantic sea-board, was twenty-two; that of the slave-holding states, in the same region, was only five and a third ; in the west, the free states had increased in this period at the rate of a hundred and two per cent., the slave states, at less than fifty-five. The decen- nial increase in 1820, in all the slave states was twenty-nine and one-third per cent., in all the free states, it was thirty-seven and a third. And, lastly, whilst the old Atlantic states had increased only at the rate of twenty and less than half per cent., the western states had increased at above a hundred and eight per cent. Congress reassembled on November the 13th, 1820 ; and the most exciting incident, marking the opening of the session, was the election of a successor in the Speaker's chair to Henry Clay, whose professional engagements disabled him from continuing to hold the post of honour. Three candidates were put forward Smith, of Maryland; Lowndes, of South Carolina; and Taylor, of New York. Sergeant of Pennsylvania was also nominated, but his supporters were too few to entitle him to more than a bare mention in connection with this warm contest. For three days the balloting Avas continued. Five several times was a majority, though not sufficient for the victory, secured by Taylor, on the second day ; while Lowndes enjoyed the same fruitless triumph four 144 MISSOURI PROPOSED AS A STATE. [dlAP. 1 times, and Smith three times. At length, the northern men united their votes, and carried the New York candidate, at the twenty-second balloting, by an actual majority of two votes only, over Lowrides. The President, in his Message, thus described the condition of the country. " The revenue," he said, with an amount of truth remarkable in a state paper, " depends on the resources of the country, and the facility by which the amount required is raised, is a strong proof of the extent of the resources and of the efficiency of the government." And then he drew a contrast between the amount of the United States' debt on the 30th of September, 1815, namely (when all that could by any means be brought into it was included), 158,713,049 dollars; and the amount of the debt on the 39th of the September preceding the date of his Message 91,193,883 dollars; 66,879,165 dollars having been paid off in the interval of five years. And this was in addition to the discharge of all the other obligations of the government, as well ex- traordinary as ordinary. " By the discharge," said he, " of so large a portion of the public debt, and the execution of such extensive and important operations in so short a time, a just estimate may be formed of the great extent of our national resources. The demonstration is the more complete and gratifying, when it is recollected that the direct tax and excise were repealed soon after the termination of the late war, and that the revenue applied to these purposes has been derived almost wholly from other sources." This was, as one annalist states, ' ' a very .pleasing picture of the affairs of the nation;" but momentous omissions are very noticeable in it, by which its truth and, in consequence, its historical value are greatly diminished. On the second day of the session, the President communicated to Congress a copy of the constitution of the State of Missouri, which had been framed during the recess. In each House it was referred to a committee for examina- tion, before the course of action should be determined. Little difficulty, in all probability, would have been made, respecting the final admission of this state into the Union, had not a clause been inserted in its polity, prohibiting free persons of colour from so much as entering the state, " under any pretext whatsoever." This clause revived the discussion with all its former acrimony, and the triumph of the advocates of the compromise seemed in danger of being lost. The committees, indeed, reported in favour of sanctioning the con- stitution, notwithstanding the objectionable clause; and the Senate, after an animated debate, adopted the reqiiisite resolution for admitting Missouri into the confederation. But this example was not followed by the House of Representatives. There, the scheme by which the admission had been carried in the Senate proved wholly unsatisfactory; the first attempt to carry "a resolution of the same tenor, of which Lowndes was the author, failed immediately; although many of the northern men, who had voted for the compromise, remained faithful to their implied engagement. Another resolution was then proposed, calling upon Missouri to expunge that clause, as contrary to the constitution of the United States, by a certain day, and then to be admitted into the Union. But this was rejected by a large majority, and then Henry Clay rose he had been A.I> 1817-25.] MONROE RE-ELECTED. 145 absent from Congress during the first part of the session and once more poured oil upon the troubled waters. He moved the appointment of a select committee of thirteen, to consider the resolution of the Senate and to report thereon. This time the skill of the orator of Kentucky proved unequal to the task he had undertaken. Notwithstanding the care with which "he consulted the feelings of both parties/' in constructing the resolution which he reported notwithstanding the feeling and power of his speeches, which not unfrequently " drew tears from the hearts " of his hearers, and the prophetic tone with which he besought the legislators to consider what they owed to their country, the resolution was thrown out by two votings, and when brought up for recon- sideration, was again lost. The position was indeed most critical. The next day after the reconsideration of this vote was the time appointed for the public counting of the votes for President and Vice-President ; and it was known that Missouri, with that regard to constitutional form which was peculiarly demo- cratic, intended to present its vote, and to claim that it should be counted. In anticipation of the effervesence which this would certainly occasion, it had been arranged, in spite of the objection of John Randolph who contended that the informality would vitiate the election that the Vice-President should, in case of a challenge, announce the votes, first with that of Missouri, and next without it, to show that whether this vote were counted or not, the result would be the same. As had been feared, the scene was one of the greatest turbulence and excitement, until at length the Senate withdrew in a body, leaving the representatives wrangling with each other, in a state of tumult and confusion which very few legislative bodies have ever suffered themselves to be betrayed into. After an hour spent in proposing the most contradictory motions, and in shouts of " Missouri is not a State," and " Missouri is a State," Clay succeeded in procuring a vote, inviting the Senate to return and complete the duty of counting the votes. The Senate accordingly came back, the vote of Missouri was again declared, and the result was announced, first with, and then without, the vote, it being in both cases the same. To crown the disorder of the day, after the Senate had left again, John Randolph proposed a resolution declaring the whole formality invalid, and the House immediately adjourned. We may here for a moment interrupt this narrative, to record the result of the presidential election. The whole of the votes of all the states excepting one from Massachusetts, idly bestowed upon John Quincy Adams, were given to Monroe for the presidency. The total number was two hundred and thirty- one. Tompkins received, for the vice-presidency, two hundred and eighteen votes, including those of all the states, except New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Delaware, and Maryland. Massachusetts gave eight of its votes to Stockton ; Delaware gave all its votes, four in number, to Rodney ; Rush received one from New Hampshire ; and Harper one from Maryland. The votes of Missouri were not counted. Congress and the country, too, were now wearied out by the Missouri question, the principles involved in it had also been sacrificed in the " com- promise," so that this renewed debate was, on all sides, felt to be superfluous. Perceiving this, Henry Clay proposed a joint committee of the two Houses to VOL. II. U 14-6 FINANCIAL EMBARRASSMENTS. CHAP. Jt. determine what should be done ; and this being accepted by large majorities, twenty-three representatives, and seven senators, were selected for the purpose. The result of the conference of this joint committee was the report of a resolu- tion in favour of the admission of the state, provided that its legislature should first declare that the clause which occasioned all this debate should never be construed to authorise the passage of an Act by which any citizen of the United States should be debarred from the enjoyment of all the privileges guaranteed to him by the constitution. This second " compromise " passed the House, on the 26th of February, by a vote of eighty-six against eighty-two ; two days later the Senate concurred in it, by a vote of twenty-eight against fourteen.; and on the 2nd of March, Monroe " approved " and signed it. So ended at length this " distracting " and mischievous contest. Oil the side of the slave-holding states the object aimed at was manifest ; but their antagonists at first put on an appearance of zealous philanthropy, which (as a recent historian remarks) was even less genuine than the regard for " sailors' rights," professed by the southern and western states in the second war. As Rufus King avowed, the northern men contended for political superiority in the Union; their willingness to accept a "compromise " demonstrated this; and it is here, rather than in the fierce propagandism of thraldom displayed by the slave states, that we discover the most hopeless element in this great and pro- foundly interesting question. Brief as this session was, and in spite of its bringing both executive and legislature to the term of their offices, there was another business, of a more pressing nature than the Missouri controversy itself, to dispose of. Monroe's brilliant statements of financial prosperity, always contradicted practically by the commercial distress of the country, at length were refuted by the embar- rassment of the Treasury itself. The loan of the session preceding would not have helped the secretary to the end of the year, had not some of the public creditors been forbearing. And it now became necessary to devise means for realising the magnificent programme, which the President had published at the commencement of the administration. Great was the difficulty and the danger. Government could not reimpose the internal taxes and retain its popularity ; it could not brave the consequences of the falling off in the revenue. Nor durst it adopt the only sure method of securing a remunerative duty on imports that of lowering the imposts upon all things in general demand even if it had the sagacity to perceive this most momentous financial principle. A new loan was the first device, and one of five millions was, on Crawford's recommendation, authorised. But this, without retrenchments, was insufficient. The reduction of the salaries of the executive and legislative departments of the government was proposed ; but such a sacrifice, for the deliverance of the Secretary of the Treasury, was greater than could have been expected. The only thing done in this direction was the abolition of a clerkship in the office of the Attorney-general, which saved the nation 800 dollars a year ; and that was regarded as a gain. The army could, however, be reduced. As we have remarked, in passing, the possibility of a renewal of the war ^vith Britain lurked still in many ardent minds ; and in addition to that, military glory, von so easily at New Orleans, had not a little fascinated the spirits of AD. 1817-25.] NEW SESSION OF CONGRESS. 147 the people. The officers of the army would, of course, resist the disbanding of it. But whatever the feelings were which had saved the military establishment, want of money made it absolutely necessary to disregard them, and four thou- sand out of the ten which had been left when the war was over, were now dismissed to pacific and productive labour. Several of the officers resigned, and no more were retained than the actual strength of the regiments required. Half the annual appropriation for the maintenance of the navy was with- drawn ; and the sums devoted to the construction and armament of fortifica- tions were similarly reduced. The measures did not evince any particular financial ability, but for the time they promised relief: and the real solution of the difficulties was left, as it generally is, to time, and the successors of the actual office-bearer. Measures of relief for the public lands' debtors were adopted, as Monroe had suggested, by which 23,000,000 of dollars, owing to the government, were extinguished, or in good part sacrificed; but the sales for the future were rendered bond fide, and fresh inducements were provided for both settlers and speculators of the honourable sort. A motion in the Senate to declare John Adams' Sedition Law of 1798 unconstitutional, and to repay the fines incurred under it, was lost Congress thus affirming the authority of the Federal Courts. Propositions to establish a national system of education, by means of the revenue arising from the land sales, and for prohibiting the payment of govern- ment demands in bills of state banks, which issued notes of less than five dollars, were also rejected, and by decisive majorities. On the 3rd of March the sessior closed. The second inauguration of Monroe took place on the 5th of March, the 4th being Sunday. The usual ceremonies were observed; and the address was a business-like recital of the principal incidents of his administration, and indica- tion of the resources of the country. The fortification of the sea-coast, and the augmentation of the navy ; neutrality with regard to the revolutionary contests in South America, and the removal of the Indians westward an equivalent for their lands being given in instruction, government, and suste- nance, even ; such were the chief measures of a practical nature which the address proposed. On the 3rd of December, 1821, the seventeenth Congress commenced its first session. Amongst the senators chosen now for the first time were Southard, of New Jersey; Martin Van Buren, of New York; Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri ; and Caesar A. Rodney, of Delaware ; few of the leaders in the preceding Congress were removed. The most prominent Federalist of those now first seen in the House of Representatives, was Henry W. Dwight, of Massachusetts ; on the other side were seen Cambreleng, Cadvvallader C. Golden, William B. Rochester, and Reuben H. Walworth, of New York; Robert Wright, of Maryland; Romulus M. Saunders, of North Carolina; and Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina. Taylor, Sergeant, Eustis, Mallary, Edwards, M'Lean, S. Smith, Mercer, Floyd, Philip P. Barbour, Nelson, John Randolph, and Lowndes, were elected again. Henry Clay was not a member of this Congress. The candidates for the Speakership were, Taylor, the former Speaker; Barbour, of Virginia; Smith, of Maryland; and Rodney and M'Lean. 118 STATE OF PARTIES. [CHAP. I. of Delaware. The election was determined by the anti-Protectionists, who, on the twelfth balloting, carried Barbour, but by a small majority. The Message, sent on the 5th of December, presented a more hopeful picture of affairs, showing that there was a surplus in hand, by the help of the loan ; but it recommended a moderate additional duty on certain articles, for the purpose of securing an increase of revenue. Its communication respecting foreign relations will come before us in another chapter. Acts of Congress affecting particular states, we, according to our usual plan, reserve till we speak of those states specially ; and so with regard to those bearing on the foreign relations of the Union, we remand them to the chapter devoted to that subject. Apart from these, the greatest interest of the session centres in certain bills which did not become laws. Thus, the attempt to establish a general bankruptcy-law was renewed, and once more failed. There were various laws on bankruptcy in force in the states severally ; but they, of course, could not affect the citizens of the Union generally ; and some law which would be of universal application was greatly needed. The arguments adduced in opposition to the plan now proposed, reduced to their real value, merely establish these facts that the former bankruptcy-law, passed in the last year of John Adams' administration, was of a Federalist complexion, and in good part copied from the laws in force in Britain ; and that the chief use of such a law would be to protect the northern against the southern men; and as a natural result, the bill was rejected. During this session it was plain that the new parties, or sections which might coalesce into new parties, were gradually collecting. The question of protection divided the politicians of the Union by perfectly new lines ; and it was the same with the right of Congress to superintend internal improvements. And since the greater number of the Federalists had been absorbed into the democratic body, it was only by schism in this body that new parties could be formed. The prospect of another presidential election, remote as it was, had called forth no fewer than six candidates John Quincy Adams, who was the " successor " according to the precedent established in the cases of Madison and Monroe ; Andrew Jackson, whose undoubted democracy added to the triumph at New Orleans made him the popular candidate ; Henry Clay, whose high standing as a diplomatist and in Congress justified his claims to the first office in the nation ; William H. Crawford, William Lowndes (who died in the year 1822), and John C. Calhoun, who represented sectional feelings and personal or local politics, rather than party preference or national renown. Adams, by virtue of his name alone ; Clay, by reason of the Federalism of his policy and as an opponent of the new democratic party, received the support of the Federalists or of those who had been Federalists. Jackson received that of the democrats universally. It was also observed that New England rallied round Adams, not unnaturally nor unwisely ; the south mostly affected Crawford and Calhoun ; while Jackson and Clay divided the supremacy of the states beyond the mountains. Most remarkably, the rivals were all members of the old Republican or democratic party. The candidates for the vice-presidency were not so early in the field. Leaving these high contests, we note the reassembling of Congress, on the A.D. 1817-25.] STATE OF PARTIES. 1 IS 2nd of December, 1822, for the short session terminating its constitutional existence. On the 4th they received the Message, which has thus been described : " It presented a promising aspect of the foreign and domestic affairs of the nation. It contained nothing of any great interest, because nothing had happened. It recommended no important measure, because none was deemed necessary." The receipts from customs during the year, it said, would probably amount to 23,000,000 dollars. The fostering of manufactures, but with great caution in respect of changes in existing enactments, was very safely recommended; and the reasons for rejecting the bill concerning the Cumberland Road were repeated. Few Acts of note were passed in the session, thus tamely introduced, nor was any stirring political question obtruded upon the attention of the legislature. Government proceeded with the tranquillity which characterises a period of general prosperity, or one in which the energies of the people are stagnant. No increase of the duty on woollen goods could be effected ; nor could imprisonment for debt be abolished ; neither were the proposals to survey various canal routes (chiefly in the north) received; but an appropriation for the repair of the Cumberland Road passed, and received Monroe's signature, as he had intimated his willingness to co-operate to this extent in the cause of internal improvements, the right of exercising jurisdiction and sovereignty on the route not being assumed by the Federal government. One question of a peculiar nature came before Congress, the state of the Vice-President's accounts. In accordance with a bill passed in the preceding session, the payment of his salary was suspended, as it appeared that he was in arrear in respect of the payments due by him to the Treasury. He had, in fact, become involved in his private affairs in consequence of advances he had made for the defence of New York in the late war, and of default in the payment of public moneys by his subordinate agents. In the trial before the Circuit Court, however, he claimed to be in advance in his account with government, to the amount of nearly 136,800 dollars : and a committee of the House of Representa- tives, who investigated the circumstances of the case, reported a sum of 35,190 dollars actually due to him ; the payment of his salary was, therefore, resumed, and the arrears due to him paid. " He had performed," said the partial judges, " all that was required, and more than was promised or expected." Congress broke up on the 3rd of March, 1823, and the eighteenth Congress met for business on the 1st of the following December. The pending contest for the presidency exercised, as was to be expected, considerable influence in the elections to the House of Representatives; for it was expected that, in consequence of the number of candidates, that branch of the legislature would in the end be charged with the choice of the executive, and the friends of the various aspirants exerted themselves to the utmost to secure a return favourable to their hopes. In the Senate there still sat, Rufus King, Van Buren, Southard, Dickerson, Lowrie, S. Smith, J. Barbour, Macon, W. R. King, and Benton. John Branch, of North Carolina ; Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina ; and Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, were conspicuous amongst the newly-appointed senators. The representatives whom we have mentioned again and again as 150 REVISION OF THE TARIFF. [dl.AP. I. retaining their seats in the House, were almost all found there now. Henry Clay was returned for Kentucky once more; Daniel Webster took his seat again, but it was for Massachusetts now ; and there were also sent for the first time to this Congress, Samuel A. Foot, John Forsyth, "William C. River, and Edward Livingston. As was customary, the first trial of strength took place on the election of a Speaker ; and the predominant influence of Clay was manifest, when he was returned at the first ballot by a majority of nearly a hundred over Philip P. Barbour. The Message, sent on the next day after the meeting, dealt with some interesting questions on foreign affairs, which will come before us in due time ; it represented the finances as in a highly favourable condition, promising a surplus of 9,000,000 dollars by the end of the year; and advised a revision of the tariff, for the especial purpose of protecting American manu- factures, and as a means of increasing the national prosperity. It also recom- mended the construction of a canal to connect the Chesapeake and the Ohio, as a great national work, provided the jurisdiction were left in the hands of the states through which the canal should pass. ^-- Most of the attention of Congress was given to the revision of the tariff, according to the President's recommendation. " The expectation appears to have been entertained, that the system of imposts might be so arranged as to afford full protection to American industry, "counteract the impositions of other nations," and operate equally upon all classes and sections of the Union. Many of the members, it is alleged, advocated " the Utopian principle" of leaving trade to protect itself; but this, in the present acceptation of the term, free trade, seems scarcely credible. "The agricultural and manufacturing interests in the east and the west were united in support of the principle of a protecting tariff, and constituted a small majority in both Houses. The commercial and navigating interests of the North, joined with the large planters of the South [they also were agriculturists, but no amount of " protection " could render the United States as good a market for their produce as England was; and hence their remarkable alliance with the un-democratic North], constituted a powerful, intelligent, and persevering minority, opposed to any tariff except for purposes of revenue." This sectional division helped not a little in determining one of the new parties, which were now germinating, the Whigs. For ten tedious weeks was this question debated ; and finally the bill passed the representatives by a majority of five, which might have been less, for two members were absent ; and the Senate accepted it, but amended its details considerably, the majority there being but four. So zealous was the " voting " . in the House, " that several members were brought in upon their sick couches." ; Henry Clay was the leader of the protectionists ; on the other side appeared Daniel Webster. The arguments of the former are too diffuse for us either to j quote or to condense them. On the first Monday in December, 1824, the 6th of the month, Congress assembled for the closing session of both administration and legislature. The ' Message was, as we might have anticipated, a self-laudatory review of the eight years then terminating ; of which the extinction of some thirty-seven millions of debt appears to us to be the best part. How new states had A.D. 1817-25.] KING'S EMANCIPATION SCHEME. 151 been formed and admitted to the Union, and the population had "rapidly increased;" how the government had gained in strength and stability, and the prosperity of the whole Union advanced so greatly, as almost to obliterate the traces of the war, we do not need to hear. Neither does it come to us a new fact, that the old parties were quite defunct, and that, Phcenix-like, /""om their ashes new distinctions had arisen, though the words of the annalist, abridging the expressions of the President in characterisation of these distinctions, are new, as verging upon the excess of candour, " growing out of attachments to, and expectations of office from, rival candidates for the presidency." The three months of this session were almost a void, in respect of legislation. Very soon after the commencement, the result of the voting in the colleges was known, and then the canvass of the representatives began; all men looking forward with a constantly intensifying excitement to the 9th of the next February, when the real choice must be made In this state of things, little regular business could be done ; the post-office was regulated, and the draw- back on goods re-exported was arranged (without regard to Jefferson's denunci- ations of the entire system), the punishment of. certain crimes against the United States was determined, and the appropriations required for carrying on the government, and extending the Cumberland Road, were made. Johnson could not succeed in carrying his bill for abolishing imprisonment for debt : nor could Rufus King persuade the Senate to adopt his scheme for emancipating the coloured races of the United States. One word, in passing, we must bestow upon this well-intentioned, though not well-devised, scheme. It was proposed to apply the proceeds of the sale of public lands, after paying off the national debt, to the ransom of slaves, and the removal of free persons of colour somewhere beyond the limits of the United States. This would not have interfered with the laws and usages of any of the slave states, it is true, and it would have accorded with one of their most inveterate principles ; but it would have pledged the Federal government against slavery, and neither the North nor the South cared to see this done. There would soon have been discovered most serious practical difficulties in the way of carrying out the provisions of such a scheme. Only in a government like that of Great Britain could a compensation which should satisfy the expectations of the slave-owners, be voted as a condition of the release of their thralls. It could have proved in the end only the creation of a more profitable market for the peculiar produce of the slave-breeding states. This attempt demonstrated the incapability of the Federal government to deal with this question, intensely vital though it was to the Union at large, an incapability which resulted from that fundamental " compromise " of the Constituent Convention, whereby the adoption of the constitution was thought to have been secured. We do not discuss this subject now ; in other places we shall find more appropriate occa- sions for presenting such observations, as the riddance of America from so foul and baleful an incubus as slavery seems to us to demand. Jackson, Adams, Crawford, and Clay were the candidates now before the nation ; but, from circumstances, the first two were the only real competitors. The result of the vote of the electoral colleges was, for Andrew Jackson as President, all the votes of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Alabama, 152 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. . [CHAP. I. Mississippi, Tennessee, Indiana, with one from New York, seven from Mary- land, three from Louisiana, and two from Illinois, ninety-nine in all ; for John Quincy Adams, all the votes of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, with twenty-six from New York, one from Delaware, three from Maryland, two from Louisiana, and one from Illinois, in all, eighty-four; for William H. Crawford, all the votes of Virginia and Georgia, with five from New York, two from Delaware, and one from Maryland, in all forty-one ; and for Henry Clay all the votes of Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri, with four from New York, thirty-seven in all. There were two hundred and sixty-one votes to be given, and therefore an absolute majority would have been one hundred and thirty-one, which none of the candidates received ; and in consequence no election was made. For the vice-presidency, John C. Calhoun received the entire vote of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois, with seven from New Hampshire, twenty-nine from New York, one from Delaware, two from Maryland, and seven from Kentucky ; a hundred and eighty-two in all ; Nathan Sanford received all the votes of Ohio, with seven from New York, and as many from Kentucky, in all thirty ; all the votes of Virginia, twenty-four in number, were given for Nathaniel Macon; all the votes of Connecticut and Missouri, with one each from New Hampshire and Maryland, thirteen in all, were given for Andrew Jackson ; the nine votes of Georgia were bestowed on Martin Van Buren ; and Henry Clay received two from Delaware. Thus Calhoun became Vice-President ; and, as Senator Benton observes, although a southern man and a slave-holder, he " was indebted to northern men and non-slave-holders, for the honourable distinction of an election in the electoral colleges, the only one in the electoral colleges, the only one on all the lists of presidential and vice-presidential candidates who had that honour." The canvass in the House was marked by the usual electioneering devices, the details of which need not now delay us ; but we may state that Henry Clay, finding his own election impossible, and considering his prospects at the next vacancy to be better served by the return of Adams now, threw all his weight into his scale. In consequence of this, an accusation of corruption was brought forward in a newspaper against Henry Clay, which he (unwisely, as it appeared to most of his friends) raised into importance, by taking notice of it in the j House. Eventually the matter was dropped, but only to be resumed in a more serious manner on a future opportunity. On the 9th of February, the results of the election were declared officially < in the House of Representatives, and the provisions of the constitution for such a contingency were immediately obeyed, by the House proceeding to choose one I of the three who received the greatest number of votes, to be President. On | the first ballot, thirteen states gave their votes to John Quincy Adams ; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri; seven for Jackson; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Indiana; and only four for Crawford; Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Dubourjal J 0H/VI. ^-xi^^wc-tf t /ra a,i-i - .; . A.I). 1825.] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ELECTED. ib3 and Georgia. John Quincy Adams was thus elected President. Of individual votes of representatives, he received eighty-seven ; seventy-one were given to Jackson, and fifty-four to Crawford. And there have been those who contend that, rightly computed, namely, by the simple scheme of shifting a few of the votes from Jackson's list into that of John Quincy Adams, there was a clear majority in favour of the latter, in the original vote of the colleges ! On the other hand, Senator Benton, on etymological grounds (for he insists much on "the principle demos krateo,") contends that how constitutional soever, this election by the House of Representatives was a thing of naught. Notwith- standing all which opinions, on the 4th of March, 1825, as the next chapter declares, John Quincy Adams assumed the presidential office, and that by virtue of the vote of the House. It was a happy thing for Monroe that his presidency fell in peaceful times ; there was no severe test applied to his executive faculty. With the routine of administration he was perfectly familiar ; and he had at the head of two of the departments of the government, men of reliable judgment and ability. His principle was evidently to let things alone, as far as possible ; and just so far as he was able to carry out this faineant policy, the country prospered; and the praise and gratitude for what was the natural fruit of the circumstances and character of the people, were given to him. He has also had attributed him the praise of having, by his judicious gentleness, completely obliterated the former fiercely-contested lines of party ; but it must be remembered, that the fundamental distinction of party could not be obliterated, and that the minor points in dispute had, by mere lapse of time, passed out of view, so that here also circumstances very remarkably favoured Monroe's unenthusiatic tactics. In the time of his immediate successors was seen most plainly the real worth of his administration to the commercial prosperity and the domestic peace of the United States. CHAPTER II. PROGRESS OF THE UNION UNDER JOHN QUINCT ADAMS* PRESIDENCY. THE " GREAT CONSPIRACY." THE OPPOSITION AND THEIR TACTICS. VISIT OF LA FAYETTE. PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. EXECUTIVE PATRONAGE, AND PLACEMEN. THE JUBILEE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. DEBATES IN CONGRESS. PROTECTION. GENERAL JACKSON ELECTED PRESI- DENT. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SENATE. SUMMARY OF ADAMS' CHARACTER. NOTHING in history so astonishes the inexperienced student as the vitality of party. It is exactly a quarter of a century since the experimentum crucis, as we termed it, was applied to the party system denominated Federalism ; whereby was conclusively demonstrated its entire incapability of serving as a practical political symbol, or creed, to the people of the United States. Yet it is not until the period we have now reached, that we can decisively say, Federalism is VOL. IT. x 154 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. [CHAP. II. dead. The truth in respect of all symbols is, that so long as any number of men can agree to work, or to fight, under them, however monstrous, ana- chronistic, effete, or puerile they may be, they cannot die. Nay, so long as any one man can find in such a symbol the expression of his ideal, for any department of his moral being, it must live. Federalism, such as it was appre- hended, advocated, and carried into practice by Washington and Hamilton, by New England and "the Essex Junto/' was now at length proved, to the satisfaction of all, unfit to be either sign or watchword for any political party in the United States, and so it perished tranquilly, decently, veiling the loss of its vigorous powers and original energy by calling itself " the Washington- Monroe policy." It did a good work in its prime, and was not wholly un- serviceable in its declining years, but, like all other mortal things, its allotted term was run, and in its feebleness it confounded eternal distinctions peace be to it and to the memory of the great and good men who once gloried in being called by its name. The inauguration of the second Adams, as President of the United States, took place on the 4th of March, 1825. Governor Seward, or the " able writer," who completed his biography of John Quincy Adams, expatiates fondly on the " splendid and imposing " scene ; but we must very briefly tell our story of the ceremonial, and leave entirely to our readers the filling up of our meagre outline, with escorts of horse and foot, civilians and military of all grades, judges and ambassadors, and the invariable accompaniment of such spectacles, ' ' a splendid array of beauty and fashion/' Monroe was present, and now obtained the epithet " venerable." The President elect, it is especially noted, wore " a plain suit of black, and made entirely of American manufactures/' When all were duly marshalled in the House of Representatives, first came the reading of the inaugural address ; next the oath, with its response of artillery -salvos ; and then the " congratulations." " General Jackson," says our authority, 1 ' was among the earliest of those who took the hand of the President ; and their looks and deportment towards each other were a rebuke to that littleness of party spirit, which can see no merit in a rival, and feel no joy in the honour of a competitor." Finally, there was the " inaugural ball." A eulogy of the constitution, "that revered instrument," opened the address, and all the fruits of the expansive energy which had its special home in the Transatlantic Republic were ascribed to it. At the same time, it was admitted "that this picture had its shades." "We have suffered," said the new President, " sometimes by the visitation of Heaven through disease ; often by the wrongs and injustice of other nations, even to the extremities of war; and lastly, by dissensions among ourselves dissensions, perhaps inseparable from the enjoyment of freedom, but which have more than once appeared to threaten the dissolution of the Union, and with it, the overthrow of all the enjoyments of our present lot, and all our earthly hopes of the future. The causes of these dissensions have been various, founded upon differences of speculation in the theory of republican government, upon conflicting views of policy in our relations with foreign nations, upon jealousies of partial and sectional interests, aggravated by prejudices and prepossessions, which strangers to each other are ever apt to entertain." .'.0. 1825-29.] MINISTERIAL APPOINTMENTS. 155 From this there naturally followed such a review of the history of parties in the United States, as enabled the Speaker to introduce a panegyric upon his predecessor's term of office, as the time when " this baneful weed of party strife was uprooted." But the candid admission was made, that in spite of the effects of " ten years of peace, at home and abroad," in assuaging " the animosities of political contention," and blending " into harmony the most discordant elements of public opinion " " one effort of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion," remained to be made "that of discarding every remnant of rancour against each other, of embracing as countrymen and friends, and of yielding to talents and virtue alone, that confidence, which in times of contention for principle was bestowed only upon those who bore the badge of party-communion." He next offered a view of the opposing interests in the Union, and of the Federal constitution as the reconciliation of them, and the partial solution of all the theoretical difficulties which had been founded upon them, " as indicating the first traces of the path of duty, in the discharge of his public trust," and a resume of his predecessor's administration, " as the second." Southard, Wirt, and M'Lean remained in their posts as Secretary of the Navy, Attorney-general, and Postmaster-general; the other departments had lost their heads in consequence of the presidential election, and Adams filled up the vacancies, with the consent of the Senate (convened especially for the purpose), by appointing Henry Clay, Secretary of State; Richard Rush, Secretary of the Treasury ; and James Barbour, Secretary of "War. And only one change was made during the four following years, when Peter B. Porter was substituted for Barbour, in May, 1828. The assent of the Senate to these nominations was given, as we said, at a special session, and at the same time that branch of the legislature took into consideration the treaty which had been made with the new State of Columbi v for the suppression of the slave trade. Every precaution for the right under- standing of this novel species of legislation had been taken ; but it could not escape the understanding of Congress, that these treaties must react upon the " domestic institution ; " and for that reason, in part, but also because of the strong opposition which existed to the new President, the sanction of the Senate to the treaty was refused by a majority of more than double the number of those who voted in its favour. This vote, and the others upon the appoint- ments, were the first signs of that systematic resistance, which was made to the administration by a combination of all the parties, who looked upon the executive as not belonging to themselves. During the recess, this hostile feeling showed itself in a still more offensive manner. We observe-d when we spoke of the canvass preceding the last presidential election, that it was disgraced by less personal insult and accusation than was customary ; one instance, however, we said would require to be spoken of again. This was the charge of corruption brought against Henry Clay, which his friends thought he gave undue prominence to, by noticing it in the House. It reappeared, though dimly, during the discussion in the Senate of his appoint- ment as secretary, and before the regular meeting of Congress it grew to the dimension of an affair of state. We will briefly relate as much of this enisod- 156 " THE GREAT CONSPIRACY." . [CHAP. II. in the course of public business as may be necessary to the correct under- standing of its effects. Clay's friends called it " the Great Conspiracy." Shortly before the election by the House of Representatives, on January the J28th, a letter was published in the Columbian Observer, purporting to be from a member of Congress, but without any signature, in which Clay was distinctly charged with consenting to transfer his interest among the repre- sentatives to Adams, in consideration of the guarantee of the office of Secretary of State. His friends were said to have made the converse offer to the friends of Andrew Jackson, and the latter were spoken of as too honourable to "descend to such mean barter and sale," and the "bargain" with Adams was alleged to have been completed. It was soon discovered that the writer was George Kremer, a representative from Pennsylvania, and on the 1st of February, Clay replied to these charges, by a "card" in The National In- telligencer, in which he said of Kremer' s letter, "I believe it to be a forgery; but if it be genuine, I pronounce the member, whoever he may be, a base and infamous calumniator, a dastard, a liar ; and if he dare unveil himself, and avow his name, I will hold him responsible, as I here admit myself to be, to all the laws which govern and regulate men of honour." Two days later Kremer himself published (or Senator Eaton, in his name) "another card" in The Intelligencer, directing "H. Clay" to the editor of the Columbian Observer for the name of the writer of the anonymous letter, and offering " to prove the accuracy of the statements " contained in it, as fat- as they " concerned the course and conduct of H. Clay." Perceiving the drift of this rejoinder, Clay demanded and obtained a committee of investigation in the House ; but Kremer refused to appear before it, " on grounds of the most frivolous description," by which means he virtually retracted not only his boast of being able to demonstrate Clay's corruption, but the charge itself also. It was upon this refusal of Kremer to justify his attack upon the character of Clay, that the friends of the latter grounded their counter-charge of " con- spiracy ; " while the sensitiveness which he displayed to an accusation, evidently framed for electioneering purposes, they regarded as untimely. Of the charge itself we may here state, that nothing could be more unrea- sonable as an invention, as well as more groundless. For Clay's ulterior purpose, that of mounting the President's chair, his commanding position in the House was far more serviceable than office in the cabinet of John Quincy Adams. It was manifestly more to his interest, in that view, that the New Englander should be elected now ; for it was most improbable that the choice of a chief magistrate would be made, in two consecutive instances, from the western states. And the fact that he actually accepted the very office which Kremer had indicated as the price of his vote and influence, and that after the charge had been publicly noticed by himself and by the House, must be allowed its full weight in demonstration of his entire innocence of so grave a fault. Not against Clay, however, but against the President himself, was the edge of this accusation, when it was revived, directed. And it was employed with effect, during the internal preceding the first regular assembling of Congress under the new administration, along with other objections to the President of a personal nature, or based upon his election by the House of Representatives. A.D. 1825-29.] VISIT OF LA FAYETTE. 157 To these no specific answer needs to be given, nor would they deserve even this passing mention, were it not that by them the real animus of the opposition, which was now organising, can be most surely discovered. And it was in this manner that the new parties, which had been silently, and perhaps even uncon- sciously, forming whilst Monroe held the reins of government, showed them- selves as soon as his successor was installed in his room. But before we arrive at the meeting of Congress, we must speak of the visit of La Fayette, " hero of two worlds," who had once more crossed the Atlantic, and trod the soil which he had borne a conspicuous part in severing from the empire of Great Britain. Three years before, he had expressed a wish to look upon the scene of his early exploits again, and to press the hands of the few sur- vivors of the armies and the actors of the revolution, and Congress had, by formal resolution, placed a government vessel at his disposal to convey him to America. Declining this honour, the chivalric marquis came in a common packet-ship, in the last summer of Monroe's presidencies, accompanied by his son, who bore the revered name of Washington, and arrived at New York on the 15th of August. What " celebrations, processions, dinners, illuminations, bonfires, parties, balls, serenades, and rejoicings of every description, attended his way from the moment he set foot on the American soil until his embarkation to return to his native France ;" how his tour through the States was one perpetual ovation, and his reception by the inabitants en masse of one city and town after another, was here " splendid/' and there "sublime;" and how in his gratitude and delight at the apotheosis accorded him, he saw nothing in all the land but " prosperity and ensured security, public and private," " good order, the appendage of true freedom, and a national good sense, the final arbiter of all difficulties," and " a glorious demonstration, to the most timid and prejudiced minds, of the supe- riority over degrading aristocracy or despotism, of popular institutions founded on the plain rights of men ;" all this we leave to other pens. The hero assisted at the ceremony of laying the foundation of a monumental memorial of the battle of Bunker Hill, on the spot where the American marks- men had, for the first time, made their deadly fire felt, and defeat itself was a triumph more noble than victory; he was received in the President's own mansion, as " the nation's guest," and visited Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, now raised, by retirement from the cares and conflicts of office, to the rank of " sages ; " and, finally, on the 7th of September, 1825, in the great hall of the Capitol, amidst a mighty concourse of all ranks, a solemn farewell was spoken to him by the President himself, to which he returned an equally affecting greeting ; and he departed, lingering on his way only to gaze upon the tomb of Washington. Congress had provided for his return to France a new frigate, which, in honour of him, had been named " Brandy- wine," and so ended this remarkable event, in which the most substantial and honourable qualities of the American character had displayed themselves, as well as the love of show and noise, by which they are so largely stigmatised, and which added one more to the many proofs of the profound reverence cherished, in this most democratic and commercial of all republics, for the members of the aristocracies of other lands, and for the military of every country. The nineteenth Congress met on the 5th of December. In the Senate were 158 PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.. [CHAP. II. now to be seen, Holmes and Woodbury, Van Buren, Smith of Maryland, Taze- well and John Randolph, Macon, Gaillard, Hayne, Cobb, Richard M. Johnson, Eaton, Harrison, Ruggles, and Thomas H. Benton. In the House of Repre- sentatives, there were Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, B. W. Crowninshield, Ralph J. Ingersoll, C. C. Cambreleng, John W. Taylor, M'Kean and Krerner, Barbour, Mercer, John Randolph, Rivers, John W. Campbell, James K. Polk, and Louis M'Lane. Upon the first ballot for Speaker, John W. Taylor received eighty-nine, Louis M'Lane thirty-six, J. W. Campbell forty-one, and Andrew Stephenson seventeen votes; and eleven were scattered. On the second ballot, J. W. Taylor received ninety-nine votes, and was declared to be duly chosen. And next day the President sent his first Message. In its general character, this document resembled the Messages of the preceding Presidents. It presented a favourable picture of the general concerns of the nation, both foreign and domestic. Yet several questions arising out of the foreign relations of the Union, were spoken of as unsettled. It recom- mended the entire abolition of discriminating duties on tonnage in respect of all nations who were willing to reciprocate the privilege; a revision of the judiciary system ; a general bankruptcy law ; an extension of the law of patents ; internal improvements on an enlarged scale; the establishment of an observatory, a national university, and a uniform standard of weights and measures ; and the promotion of voyages of discovery. It added, " The constitution under which you are assembled is a charter of limited powers ; after full and solemn delibera- tion upon all or any of the objects which, urged by an irresistible sense of my own duty, I have recommended to your attention, should you come to the con- clusion, that, however desirable in themselves, the enactment of laws for effect- ing them would transcend the powers committed to you by that venerable instrument, which we are all bound to support, let no consideration induce you to assume the exercise of powers not granted to you by the people." The state of the finances was pronounced to be most flourishing. There had been a balance, little short of 2,000,000 dollars, in the treasury at the com- mencement of the year ; and the receipts, to the end of September, were estimated at 16.500,000, while those of the current quarter were expected to exceed 5,000,000 dollars. And this was without reckoning the loan of 5,000,000 which had been authorised by Congress. The expenditure of the year, it was said, would not exceed the receipts by more than 2,000,000 dollars ; but in it was included the extinction of 8,000,000 dollars of the public debt. The revenue for the coming year was calculated at 24,000,000 dollars, which would exceed the whole expenditure of the year. The entire amount of public debt, remaining due on the last day of the current year, was stated to be less than 81,000,000 dollars. The first business of importance which came before the Houses, was a variety of proposals for amending the constitution, in respect of the mode of electing the President and Vice-President. In the Senate, Bentum once more led the way, with a resolution declaring for "the demos-krateo principle;" by which he meant the direct vote of the people. In the House, M'Duffie, of South Carolina, proposed the establishment of a uniform mode of electing the executive officers by districts, instead of leaving it to the state legislatures, who A.iX 1825-29.] PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 15D were capable, as had been seen, of " Gerry -mandering" a state, for unjust and party purposes. He also introduced a declaration in favour of preventing the election from ever devolving upon Congress. Other amendments, one of them prohibiting the re-election of a President for more than a second term of office, were also introduced. There were, in fact, nearly a dozen different resolutions upon this subject before Congress at the same time, and they were all referred by the House of Representatives to a committee of twenty-four ; which, after much discussion, and many efforts to reach some practical conclusion, found it impossible to agree in favour of any scheme, and begged to be discharged. So difficult was it found to apply a remedy to universally admitted evils, even under a form of government like that of the United States, which is allowed by all to be sufficiently compliant with the will of the majority of the people. In the course of this fruitless discussion, by which at least a third part of the whole session was wasted, the charge against Clay was brought forward by M'Duffie, and " a state of feeling produced in the House very unfavourable to the dispassionate decision of the proposed amendments." Near the close of the session, a resolution was offered in the Senate by Macon, regarding the expediency of reducing the patronage of the executive. Nor was this the only endeavour to invade the constitutional privileges of the executive ; and thoughtful observers of the signs of the times perceived, but too clearly, a disposition abroad to neutralise, or destroy, the most wisely con- sidered features of the polity of the United States. Jefferson's principal fear had been the establishment of a despotism, or bastard species of monarchy, by means of the privileges with which the executive was invested; his opponents rather feared that Congress should engross more than its share of power, and a tyranny, like that of the Long Parliament in England, be set up in America. And the fears of the latter now appeared not unlikely to be realised. Another amendment to the constitution, brought under the notice of the Senate during this session, was one intended to prevent the appointment of any member of Congress to any Federal office of trust or profit, during the period for which he was elected. In the defeat of these, and other measures as loudly demanded by the public voice, or by the necessity of the case, may be seen a prominent feature in the tactics of the opposition, which appeared determined to obstruct the course of the administration to the extent of their ability, with the hope of deriving advantage from its unpopularity, of which it would itself be the cause. And it was observed that the President's ill fortune in one respect singularly resembled that of his father, Avhen in office, who had in Jefferson, as Vice-President, a vigilant and inexorable political foe, just as now, John C. Calhoun, the Vice- President, proved. For, being empowered by the rules of the Senate to appoint all the committees in that body, he took care to nominate at least a majority known to be hostile to the administration. So great, indeed, at length became the scandal and inconvenience of such an ungenerous system of strategy, that the Senate took this power out of his hands ; but the remedy was applied too late to prevent the mischief which had been intended. Notwithstanding the astonishing increase of the population of the ultra- montane region, no modification had been made in the arrangement of the ] 60 JUBILEE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. [CHAP. II judiciary department since 1807, when Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee were formed into a circuit ; a singular illustration of the deep root which Jeffer- sonian abhorrence of the enforcement of a supreme national law had taken in the minds of the people. The affairs of the west were becoming sadly entangled in consequence of the want of Federal courts, to which the settlement of most of the litigation there belonged. The commercial intercourse with the states on the Atlantic, from which most of their supplies were derived, was one most fruitful source of business of this kind the traders of the west not being par- ticularly punctual in their payments, and the eastern men, not unnaturally, regarding the lack of this virtue as equivalent to the possession of most mercan- tile vices. And there were, in addition, all the causes arising out of the uncertain and unsatisfactory titles to real estate which prevailed there. Such was the delay in the courts of the western circuit arising hence, that justice can hardly be said to have been administered there at all. One abortive attempt to correct the evil of this state of things a bill to establish the system of circuit courts throughout the United States was made in 1819 ; another of the same kind, for increasing the number of judges of the Supreme Court, was made in the first session of the eighteenth Congress ; but nothing had been done. Daniel Webster, therefore, now, as chairman of a committee on the judiciary, introduced a bill which provided for the creation of three additional associate judges to those at present existing, and an entire re-arrangement of the circuits of the west. " Great opposition was made to the passage of this bill. Some opposed it on the ground that it would render the bench of the Supreme Court too numerous, and thus diminish the responsi- bility and impair the usefulness of the several judges. Others objected to the introduction of so many judges at one time from the west. It was well under- stood that dissatisfaction was felt, in that part of the Union, at some of the late decisions of the Supreme Court ; and fears were expressed that, by the appoint- ment of three new judges, these decisions would be reversed, and the laws of the land unsettled. Objections of a party character were also started, growing out of the patronage which the passage of this bill would place in the hands of the executive." The bill finally passed the House by a considerable majority ; but having been much modified in the Senate, a difference arose between the two branches of the legislature, and in spite of the efforts made to effect an understanding, the bill, the necessity of which was acknowledged by all, was lost. The session ended on the 22nd of May, 1826 ; but though it had continued so long, and the number of enactments made was considerable, the country at large was disappointed, and the wish was universally expressed that the next session should be devoted to business, and that less time should be wasted in idle and virulent attacks upon the administration, and in protracting the debates for the sole purpose of impeding the action of the government. This year, 1826, stands marked in the annals of America as the Jubilee of the Declaration of Independence. Fifty years had passed since those men assembled at Philadelphia and subscribed their names to the most remarkable political instrument the world had then seen, honourably securing for them- selves a place in the roll of history, and lighting up in France that fierce con- A.D. 1825-29.] DEATHS OF ATUMS AND JEFFERSON. 161 flagration in which throne, and altar, and all the social forms that time had rendered venerable perished miserably, and a new age for France and Europe was introduced. Few such anniversaries have ever been kept as this was. Independence-day this year could not be forgotten; and a singular circumstance gave it an unexpected solemnity. On that day, two of the ex-Presidents, one the author, the other a most prominent supporter, of the Declaration of Independence ; one the type of the Federalist party, the other the founder of the democratic party; both of them intensely American, and proved so by every vicissitude of political fortune, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on that fiftieth anniversary! They two, comrades in the noble struggle for freedom, antagonists in the exasperating contest for place and power, friends, when both had been dis- missed with honourable mention from active service in the state, ended their long lives on July the 4th, 1826. Adams was the elder of the two, but he outlived Jefferson by some hours, and he retained the possession of his reason to the last. It was a fine message, that which he sent, by the orator of the day, to the party who were to dine in public, "Independence for ever!" Nor could he think of "a syllable" to add to that toast. About the time that his venerable, though younger, com- patriot expired, Adams said, as if comforting himself amidst his consciousness of fast ebbing life, ' ' Jefferson survives ! " " Nunc dimittis, Domine ; nunc dimittis ! " were Jefferson's last words, in the utterance of which his will was concerned. He had longed to live to see that fiftieth return of the 4th of July, and he saw it, and so died. Of the honours paid to their memory, we cannot, and ve need not, give any account ; not Congress alone, but the whole nation, mourned their decease and honoured their memories. They left living behind them one only of all those who with them signed the Declaration of Indepen- dence Charles Carroll, who for many years continued to linger amidst a generation to which he was as a voice from the dead. The second session of the nineteenth Congress commenced on the 4th of December, and next day the President transmitted his annual Message. The principal part of this document, relating to foreign affairs, does not require attention here ; respecting the financial affairs of the Union, Congress was informed, that although the revenue of the preceding year had not equalled the anticipated amount, above 7,000,000 dollars had been applied to the reduction of the public debt, and nearly 4,000,000 to the payment of interest thereon ; and the balance in the treasury at the close of the year was expected to be 1,200,000 dollars. The prospects for the coming year were represented as more favourable. Amongst the recommendations, which were few in number, and did not include one of those contained in the former Message, to which so little attention had been paid, the principal that we find are a plan for the gradual increase of the navy, and the performance of certain works of internal improve- ment. It being the short and concluding session of the Congress, Adams, no doubt, thought and wisely he did so that there would be little time for attending to the suggestions of the government. Another attempt was now made to introduce a uniform system of bankruptcy, but ineffectually ; the majority affecting to believe, that though such a law VOL. ii. y 1C2 DEBATES IN CONGKESS. [CHAP. It would benefit the wealthy merchants of the Atlantic seaports, the rest of the community would receive from it nothing but harm. A bill for the increase of the duties on imported woollen goods, the design of which was to promote American manufactures by the unhealthy operation of protection, was introduced early, and passed the House of Representatives, but it failed in the Senate, being thrown out by the casting vote of the Vice-President. Various grants and appropriations for the promotion of internal improvements were made in com- pliance with the President's recommendation. The sum of 500,000 dollars yearly was also granted, for six years, for the gradual improvement of the navy. But the proposal to bestow pensions upon the revolutionary veterans failed once more ; as did (and that worthily) a proposition to compensate the " victims" of the Sedition Law, in John Adams's " Reign of Terror," as the democrats said. Great excitement was produced in the House by a resolution, introduced by Saunders, of North Carolina, asking for a list of the newspapers selected for the privilege of publishing the laws of Congress. Throughout the whole of February the time appropriated to such matters generally was wasted in a dreary conflict of accusation, recrimination, and personal quarrels, -arising out of this vexatious inquiry ; and all that Congress learned, at last, was that day had taken from four newspapers, three of which were violently hostile to the administration, the coveted perquisite of 100 or 200 dollars a year for publishing the laws, and given it to four others, published in the same states. The elections for the twentieth Congress took place soon after the adjourn- ment in March, 1827. The result generaly was, that the opposition received a large accession of strength. The northern states returned the greater number of members in support of the administration ; and the majority of those opposed to the government came from the south and west. This happened, too, although there was nothing at all resembling a rally of the remains of the old Federal party around the President, and though the democratic party was by no means unanimous in its adherence to General Jackson. The changes in the Senate which occurred at the same time were also, for the most part, unfavourable to the government. Two hundred and seven members answered to their names when Congress assembled, on the 4th of December. Only six were absent, and only two senators did not take their places ; such was the excitement which attended this renewed struggle between the parties that now divided the United States. The h'rst contest arose respecting the speakership ; and Stevenson, of Virginia, was elected, having received a hundred and four votes, while Taylor, of New York, received ninety-four. On the following day the Message was received, the principal interest of which lay in the intelligence regarding the foreign relations of the Union. The state of the revenue was said to be highly favourable, although there was a small excess of expenditure over the receipts ; because upwards of 6,000,000 out of the 22,250,000 dollars which had been disbursed had been applied to the reduction of the public debt. The balance which was expected to be in the treasury at the end of the year was nearly 5,500,000 dollars. Next came a notice of disturbances among the Indians on the north-western A.D 182;> 29.] PROTECTION. 163 frontier, which had been happily suppressed. Various schemes for internal improvements were then spoken of; these formed a prominent feature in the recommendations to Congress. The increase of the navy and the formation of a naval school were also recommended ; and the necessity of attending to the public lands was urged. Without attending to the suggestions of the President, Congress devoted its chief time and thought to the revisal of the tariff. In relation to the domestic affairs of the country, the tariff was the means by which Henry Clay and his school hoped to secure such protection for American manufactures as would nurture them into the capability of successfully competing with those of other countries. And from this point of view it was a question whether Congress was capable of enacting any laws, the object of which should be " protection " rather than " revenue." There was, too, the liveliest jealousy displayed by the different parts of the Union against each other; every one of them asserting the necessity of " protection " in its own case, and denying it respecting all the other interests, in which it had no concern. In its bearing upon foreign relations, there was no doubt that it was aimed exclusively at Great Britain. " The subject occupied the House almost exclusively from the 1st of February to the 22nd of April, when, a bill passed, much altered from that reported by the committee, but by no means conformable to the wishes of the advocates of the protecting system ; Ayes, one hundred and five ; Noes, ninety-four. In the Senate, it passed on the 13th of May Ayes, twenty-six ; Noes, twenty-one with various amendments, not essentially altering its general character, which were concurred in by the House/' . Into the details of this Act it is not our purpose now to enter ; the following statement by Mr. Pitkin will present a sufficiently clear view of them for our history. ' ' By this Act/' he says (" which has been declared not only highly oppressive to the great mass of the community, and injurious to commerce, but in direct violation of the constitution itself'-'), " the minimum system was extended generally to woollens;" different qualities of woollen fabrics being charged ad valorem duties of forty-five or fifty per cent, upon the " minimum " of their estimated value. " Unmanufactured wool was also subjected to a duty of four cents per lb., and forty per cent, ad valorem. Additional duties were also laid upon iron, hemp, flax, and molasses ; and the minimum price of cottons was raised to thirty-five cents the square yard. The policy of this Act was questioned by many of the merchants of this country, and its constitutionality by most of the people of the southern states. Unfortunately, it was a compound made up by its enemies as well as its friends, and was not satisfactory to either." One passage we must also cite from Senator Benton's " Thirty Years' View," which will show us in how bitter a spirit of sectional hostility the debates on this tariff were conducted, and also how they promoted the downfall of the administration. " The South believed itself impoverished to enrich the North by this system [of protection ; which (be it well noted) had been promoted by Jefferson and Clay, as much, or more, than by any Northern statesmen] ; and certainly a singular and unexpected result had been seen in these two sections. In the colonial state, the Southern were the rich part of the colonies, and expected to 164 THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST. [CHAP. II. do well in a state of independence. They had the exports, and felt secure of their prosperity : not so the North, whose agricultural resources were few, and who expected privations from the loss of British favour. [We will mark this admission ; for it not only explains the anti-British fervour of the South, and the anti-bellicose spirit of the North, in the days of Jefferson and Madison, but also exalts the patriotism of the latter, and greatly depreciates that of the former, in the times of the revolutionary struggle; which certainly was far from being Benton's design here.] But in the first half century after Independence, this expectation was reversed. The wealth of the North was enormously aggran- dised : that of the South had declined. Northern towns had become great cities : southern cities had decayed, or become stationary ; and Charlestown, the principal port of the South, was less considerable than before the revolution. The North became a money-lender to the South, and southern citizens made pilgrimages to northern cities to raise money upon the hypothecation of their patrimonial estates. And this in the face of a southern export since the revolution to the value of 800,000,000 dollars ! a sum equal to the product of the Mexican mines since the days of Cortez ! and twice or thrice the amount of their product in the same fifty years. The southern states attributed this result to the action of the Federal government its double action of levying revenue upon the industry of one section of the Union, and expendiiiig it in another and especially to its protective tariffs. To some degree this attribution was just, but not to the degree assumed ; which is evident from the fact that the protective system had then only been in force for a short time since the year 1816; and the reversed condition of the two sections of the Union had com- menced before that time. Other causes must have had some effect [slavery, for example, as we believe] ; but for the present, we look to the protective system ; and, without admitting it to have done all the mischief of which the South com- plained, it had yet done enough to cause it to be condemned by every friend to equal justice among the states, by every friend to the harmony and stability of the Union, by all who detested sectional legislation, by every enemy to the mischievous combination of partisan politics with national legislation. And this was the feeling with the mass of the democratic members, who voted for the tariff of 1828, and who were determined to act upon that feeling upon the overthrow of the political party which advocated the protective system ; and which over- throw they believed to be certain at the ensuing presidential election." Congress rose once more, to the country's great satisfaction, on the 26th of May, 1828, and the activity of all men was immediately turned to the presidential election, which had absorbed almost all their thought during this protracted and well-nigh fruitless session. Few contests of the kind have ever been so fierce as this of 1828. Truth and decency were scorned by the enraged partisans on both sides. " Judging from the public press," says a writer of the period, " no one would have deemed that one of the candidates was a gallant and successful soldier, who had, with unequalled self-devotion and patriotism, rendered to his country important services in the field; and that he had, on various occasions, manifested rare qualities of decision, firmness, and sagacity ; that the other was the chief magistrate of the Union, a man of extraordinary talents and learning, of tried A.D. 1825-29.] ELECTION OF GENERAL JACKSON. 165 patriotism, of blameless morals, and unimpeachable integrity, and whose whole life had been devoted to rendering equally important services to his country, as a legislator and statesman." From this may be concluded, too readily what was the spirit of the efforts made in the height of the canvass, which occupied the whole of the recess, to the exclusion of all care respecting any other matter affecting the interests of the country. Before the time for the reassembling of Congress, the election had taken place ; and although the result was not officially declared, it was well known, and influenced the course adopted by the administration ; we may therefore present a statement of its issue here. Every vote of Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri ; with twenty from New York, five from Maryland, and one from Maine, in all a hundred and seventy-eight, were given to General Jackson. Calhoun received the same votes, with the exception of seven from Georgia. Jackson and Calhoun were consequently elected Pre- sident and Vice-President. The votes given to Adams, and to Richard Rush for the vice-presidency with him, were the whole number from New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware ; with sixteen from New York, eight from Maine, and six from Maryland, in all but eighty-three, or not half the number given to the victorious candidates. The majority of Jackson and Calhoun, estimated by the "votes at the polls," was only one-sixth of the whole number registered for them ; and this will give us a fairer view of the real strength of the now dominant party in the country. Happily, it does not devolve upon us to write the secret history of this election. On the 1st of December, the concluding session of the legislature during the twentieth Congress, and the sixth administration, commenced. Few changes appeared in the members of either House ; none of sufficient note to require mention ; and on the next day the Message was received. The foreign relations of the Republic occupied, of course, the most prominent place and the largest space. A more favourable account than usual was given of the revenue ; the receipts of the year were 2,000,000 dollars more than had been estimated, but the expenditure had exceeded them by about 1,500,000 dollars : above 9,000,000 dollars of the public debt had been paid off, and more than 5,000,000 were expected to be in the treasury at the end of the current year. It was well remarked, at the outset of the survey of home affairs, that " the great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing nation are so linked in union together, that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them can operate without extending its influence to the others." But the principles of "pro- tection" were not so fitly attached to this statement, by the observation that, " all these interests are alike under the protecting power of the legislative authority ; and the duties of the representative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony together." Adams's former Messages had been complained of by his own supporters, and marvelled at by his opponents, because they contained no reference whatever to the tariff, or its protective principle. He compensated on this final occasion for his former silence regarding them. Holding up the short-sighted and narrow commercial policy pursued at that time by Great Britain, not as a ^TIOCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS. [CHAP. II. warning, but as an example, he laid it clown as the duty of the government to act upon the principle sanctioned by the Tariff Act of the preceding session, and he expressed the hope that to it, one of the principles, " upon which the constitution itself was formed," (little though we had imagined it;) he hoped and trusted the authorities of the Union would adhere. Can we be mistaken in the supposition, that the real intent of this singular passage was the foundation of a practical basis for an opposition party, when Jackson and his adherents, who were known to be, for the most part, opposed to Clay's ' ' American system/' should come into power ? The remainder of the Message was taken up with the condition of the Indians dwelling within the territories of the United States; the need for fortifying the sea-coast, and increasing the navy ; the desirableness of educating the officers of the army, for the purpose of increasing the usefulness of that arm of the service; and the necessity for making provision for taking the fourth census of the country, and of obtaining more complete and specific returns of the ages of the population. And, in conclusion, the President assured Congress of his continued earnest desire for the adoption of the measures he had before recommended, and of his cordial concurrence in every constitutional provision which might receive their sanction during the session, and which tended to the general welfare. But not a word betrayed so much as a suspicion of the fact that he had been defeated, and disappointed of a re-election to the presidency, and that this was the last time he would address the legislature in that manner. Little of the disgraceful and vexatious tactics of the opposition troubled the proceedings of Congress during this session ; yet, as preceding a new election and the installation of a new President, not much more business was transacted than was absolutely requisite to carry on the government. Bills encouraging the shipping interest, by allowing certain drawbacks on exported goods, passed both Houses, and became law. A tonnage bill, proposing to repeal that duty on all American vessels, and, on those of other nations placed by treaty on the same footing, was rejected in the Senate. Liberal appropriations were made for the promotion of internal improvements of various kinds ; and the principle was once more largely debated, and at length affirmed by considerable majorities, both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. The continuation of the Cumberland Road, and the conditional cession of it to the states through whose boundaries it passed, occupied much of the time devoted to this section of public business. These are the principal matters which occupied Congress now; other bills, and amongst them some originating with the retrenchment committee, expired with the session, on March 3rd, 1829, not having been able to get through all the stages necessary to make them laws. One proceeding, however, we must speak of which shows that the victory of Jackson's party had by no means assuaged their animosity against the adminis- tration, and which painfully illustrates that greediness of patronage already so prominent in this strife of parties. The Senate refused to sanction the nomina- tion of a judge in the Supreme Court, although the place had been vacant since the preceding August, and the business of the courts was inevitably hindered, and the ends of the administration of justice defeated, by the delay. There A.D. 1825 29.] SUMMARY OP ADAMS' CHARACTER. 167 could be no doubt respecting the unworthiness of the motives which prompted this unusual course. And no remembrance of Jefferson's outcry against his predecessor's " midnight judges" could afford any countenance to it, as the nomination was made at the very commencement of the session. We must not fail, also, to remark the genuine democratic contempt of " law " disclosed by this transaction, and which is one of the most effectual impediments to the progress of the United States, in those particulars which alone can render a country truly great. Few administrations have been exposed to so searching a fire of criticism as this of John Quincy Adams. None was so obstructed by factious opposition. The faults of its policy were not many ; perhaps they might all be comprised under this one charge, that the President did really believe in the possibility of carrying on the government on the noble and national principles consecrated by the approbation of Washington and his own revered father. It is not to be imputed to him as a crime, that he was not a greater statesman than the greatest of his country in his time ; and who shall blame him if he were more virtuous simply ? There can be little question that the traditional feeling of the demo- cratic party, identifying him with his father, operated most powerfully in bringing about his rejection, at the end of a single term of office. And perhaps we should not much misstate the facts, if we were to say that the election of the son of a President, which has happened in this sole instance, was regarded as equivalent to the re-appointment of the successor of Washington. In this respect, both father and son enjoyed a peculiar distinction ; and neither could feel that he had suffered any real disparagement. In another point of view, John Quincy Adams stands alone amongst the Presidents of the United States, and upon this, which is his most distinguished honour, the abiding renown of his name will rest, his public services ceased not when he left the presidential chair. Up to that time he had been employed by the government, and was regarded as the leader of a party ; but then, as if all that had preceded had been but the preparation and training for his public life, he entered the service of the nation; and to the day of his death, with the same simplicity, assiduity, and conscientiousness which had marked his earlier career, but with wider and loftier scope, he devoted himself to the promotion of those objects which his large experience had taught him were, above all, essential to the welfare and the advancement of his country. We see him return to the ranks of the citizens without regret, and we know that it did not cost him a single sigh. In the Capitol we may confidently hope to meet him again, and if not there, wherever can be assembled the wisest and truest patriots the best of men. 168 RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN POWERS. . [CHAP. Ill, CHAPTER III. FOREIGN AFFAIRS. NATIONAL DEFENCES. FILIBUSTERING AND PRIVATEERING. ANNEXATION 0* THE FLORIDAS. SEMINOLE WAR. DIFFERENCES WITH SPAIN. AMERICAN CONGRESS AT PANAMA. COMMERCIAL TREATIES. CONVENTION WITH GREAT BRITAIN. TREATIES WITH FRANCE, AUSTRIA, SWEDEN, DENMARK, ETC. FOREIGN affairs, during the twelve years of the administration of Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, do not wear a very clearly-marked, nor yet a very elevated aspect. With regard to Great Britain, the American government assumed, but fitfully, almost the same attitude that it took under Jefferson's direction ; but without any desire or purpose to push matters to the length of war. The belief seems to have prevailed that Great Britain had been worsted in the late war, and ought, therefore, to accept without ado the commercial arrangements which the United States found convenient; and some wonder appears to have been entertained that she did not. With France the chief negociations related to injuries inflicted upon American commerce before 1800. As to Spain, neglecting the wise neutrality which was counselled and observed by Washington, the government of the United States committed itself, notwith- standing the protests of its ambassadors and the enactments of Congress, to an interference with that European power, not unfairly characterised by the filibustering expeditions in which it really commenced, and the piratical voyages of privateers, sailing under the flags of the revolted colonies of the one mighty mistress of the Indies. In the same spirit, also, the expression of sympathy was tendered to Greece, when it rose against its Turkish oppressors; and a precedent was established, which has gradually led to an involution of American affairs with those of the states of Europe, registered in this year [1854], for the study of those who watch the progress of events, by a convention of diplomatists to discuss the fitness of engaging the United States actively in the contests that have now commenced ; and which seems likely to lead to consequences as little anticipated by the most ardent movers in these transactions, as the possibility of such questions arising was by the founders of the Federative Union. At the same time, by joining in the Congress of Panama, the leaders preserved the semblance of being guided by the traditions of the elder statesmen of their country. And, remarkably enough, as associated with these incoherent pro- ceedings, there were treaties concluded with European nations for the regulation of commerce; and tariffs, and similar measures for the prevention of trade, under the pretext of protecting domestic manufactures. Such were the pro- minent features of the policy and the action of the government of the United States, in relation to foreign powers, during the period treated of in this Book. Monroe announced, in his inaugural address, the line of conduct which he should pursue, and prefaced it with the following representation of this aspect of the affairs of the state, which will sufficiently explain the reason for matters assuming such a shape as we have shown. " Dangers from abroad are not less deserving of attention. Experiencing the fortune of other nations, the United States may be again involved in war, AD. 1317-29.] NATIONAL DEFENCKP. 169 and it may, in that event, be the object of the adverse party to overset our government, to break our Union, and to demolish us as a nation. [It may be oorne in mind with advantage, that all Europe was now at peace ; that except with Great Britain, it is scarcely conceivable that any occasion of war should arise ; and that in the lately terminated war with that nation no such aims as these had been entertained by " the adverse party."] Our distance from Europe, and the just, moderate, and pacific policy of our government, [Very correct now ; not so true when Jefferson and Madison were at the head of it.] may form some security against these dangers ; but they ought to be anticipated and guarded against. " Many of our citizens are engaged in commerce and navigation, and all of them are, in a certain degree, dependent on their prosperous state. [This the democratic party had practically, in toto, denied.] Many are engaged in the fisheries. These interests are exposed to invasion in the wars between other powers, and we should disregard the faithful admonition of experience, if we did not expect it. We must support our rights, or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties. A people who fail to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among independent nations. National honour is national property of the highest value. The sentiment in the mind of every citizen is national strength. It ought, therefore, to be cherished." Remembering, as we cannot fail to do, that the speaker on this occasion, was he who, when ambassador to France, assured Merlin Suspect, that the United States felt it no dishonour to have their ships spoiled by French cruisers, and that the insults then received from that volatile ally had never been repaired, we wonder a little that such things could escape him. But this is universally the drawback from the worth of these state papers ; they are not historical docu- ments, but partisan and even electioneering manifestoes. Much is omitted, and a peculiar hue and meaning given to all that is noticed ; and, as we have seen, when quoted they must be accompanied by a running commentary, which (after all) cannot accomplish half its design. It arises in part from this circumstance, we cannot doubt, that the historical faculty of the American people is so inope- rative that much of the popular conception of recent and almost contemporary events borders so closely on the legendary. The address proceeded to counsel the fortifications of the coasts and inland frontiers, the regulation and ordering of the army and navy, and the placing of the militia " on the best practicable footing." And it urged immediate atten- tion to these subjects, now that it was peace, not because the best safeguard of peace was a state of preparedness for war, but as if " foreign invasion " was actually imminent. This seeming assumption that the only relations of the United States with other countries must be hostile, runs through the whole of the passage; and if it do not (as we are assured) indicate that America felt itself an Ishmael in the family of civilised nations, it does show how little of the real grasp and vision of the statesman Monroe possessed. His notions of the matter were plainly the offspring of his experience alone ; and he could not adapt the lessons he had so acquired to the present, which was totally different from the past, whence they had come to him nor to the future, in such a manner as to mould and fashion it into some nearer likeness to the ideal of his 170 NATIONAL DEFENCES. [CHAP. III. country without which it were vain for him to affect to guide the course of public affairs. Under such direction, however, we cannot wonder at the self- coutradictoriness of the foreign policy of the Union at this time. Protection to home-manufactures is the only other branch of this wide and concerning subject referred to; and that also is recommended by the considera- tion, that whilst dependent on " supplies from other countries," " the sudden event of a war, unsought and unexpected [and therein wholly unlike any of the wars which the United States had known, if not, indeed, unlike any which it could know], cannot fail to plunge us into the most serious difficulties." On this point Monroe subsequently changed his mind, as he did on the constitu- tionality of internal improvements being undertaken by Congress ; whence also we may infer the real origin of this want of distinct and settled purpose in the management of these foreign affairs. Throughout the administrations of Monroe and John Quincy Adams we find in the Messages from the President, and the appropriations voted by the legislature, proofs of attention to the importance of such national defences as Monroe's inaugural address spoke of. In the latter part of the time, however, less was said respecting the militia, and more about the army and navy, a change which marks the prevalence of principles resembling the Federalism of Washington and John Adams. The militia was the favourite arm of the leading democrats, who knew that valuable votes were won by flattering the military penchant of their fellow-citizens; and did not know how much training and discipline enter into the composition of veteran soldiers ; and the greatest dread of the least increase or enhancement of the strength of either army or navy was avowed, lest the executive should be tempted by the possession of such instru- ments to aim at establishing a tyranny. When we reach the next Book, we shall see the nearest approach to such an overthrow of the constitution which has ever been made ; and in that instance, assuredly, the military, who would have been turned to for aid in taking the last and most difficult steps of all (and which we scarcely need say were not taken), were the militia and volunteers, not the regular army. For a commercial nation, the jealous parsimony of the United States with regard to a navy is one of the most singular phenomena in their history ; and can only be explained by the violent hostility which prevailed between the two great interests of the country, and the number and force of the anti-commercial party. To the former of these influences must be ascribed the difficulty which attended the obtaining of the necessary appropriations for forti- fying the harbours of the middle and eastern states ; there being few forts in the South, and those not easily accessible to an invading enemy. Before the end of the year 1817, Congress made inquiries respecting a filibustering expedition against Amelia Island and Galveston. It appears that one Gregor M'Gregor, who gave out that he had received a commission as a general from " the united provinces of New Granada and Venezuela," in con- junction with Louis Aury (of whom we shall hear again), had taken possession of Amelia Island, with the avowed intention of renewing the attack upon East Florida from that point. McGregor's forces called themselves the " Patriots," but one who was not disposed to look upon the attempt with a very unfavourable eye, declares that they included outlaws from the United States, runaway slaves, A.D. 1817-29.] FILIBUSTERING AND PRIVATEERING. 17] smugglers, vagrants picked up by chance in the ports of the southern states, in fact, the very elite of rascaldom ; in proof of which he alleges that Captain Woodbine (whom we have heard of in these parts before, opposing attempts on thp part of citizens of the United States against Florida) was amongst them. English emissaries are also said to have been there ; but this we can only regard as an indirect and not very manful scheme for lessening the blame attaching to the whole affair. McGregor proclaimed his ulterior object, after accomplishing the liberation of the province, to be its annexation to the United States. " On the 30th of July, 1813," says Monette, whose story will in part suffice for our purpose, " the Spanish governor entered into a capitulation for the sur- render of the province to the patriot forces ; thus again excluding the authority of Spain. But with this incongruous mass of reckless adventurers no permanent government could be sustained. Dissensions arose ; and General M'Gregor, having been supplanted by the artful intrigues of Hubbard, and having been induced to believe that his personal security was endangered by his enemies, retired from the command, and accompanied the notorious Woodbine to Eng- land. It was not long before Aury [who claimed to be an ' admiral,' under a commission like McGregor's] lost his influence, and retired also, leaving Hubbard in chief command. " The government, under the usurped authority, had but short duration. To prevent the lawless assemblage which concentrated near the frontier of the United States, and interrupted the due operation of the revenue laws, the Federal government determined to take forcible possession of the country, until Spain should be able to maintain her authority over it. Accordingly, on the 1st of January, 1818, in obedience to instructions, Major J. Bankhead and Commo- dore J. D. Henly, with a division of the land and naval forces of the United States, expelled the patriots, and took possession of the country." This Hubbard had once been sheriff of New York ; and a more probable story of the termination of the connection of M'Gregor with the desperadoes of Amelia Island i&, that finding the place unsuited to his own private designs, he returned to the Spanish Main, no Captain Woodbine appearing on the field at all. The real intention of the leaders in this attempt was, it appears upon unquestionable evidence, the prosecution of an illicit trade in African slaves with the southern states; and they did not hesitate to combine with this object every kind of smuggling and piracy. Several English adventurers, whose occupation was gone now that peace had been concluded, came to the pirates' haunt after M'Gregor had left it, under the impression that it really was a basis for hostile operations against the Spaniards in Florida. Perhaps these were the " emis- saries" which we heard of above. The " admiral " in this affair, Louis Aury, had been associated with another establishment of the same kind. On the coast of Texas, about one hundred and thirty miles west of the mouth of the Mississippi, was a low and narrow sandy island, called Snake Island. It was' held to be within the western limit of the Louisiana purchase, as claimed by Jefferson; but, whatever it was dejure, de facto it was a possession of Spain. On this island, together with an adventurer named Herrera, who, when at New Orleans, described himself as sc an agent from a Mexican congress," which he no doubt was, Aury collected some three 172 FILIBUSTERING AND PRIVATEERING. [CHAP. III. hundred brigands, mulattoes, Baratarians (including their leaders, the Lafittes), and scoundrels of every hue (who afterwards were joined by a " Colonel Young, late of the 29th regiment" of the United States, " Captain Brush," in the same service, whom we last saw at. the river Raisin, ' ' and several other officers and two hundred and fifty men," a " General Mino, and a Mr. Stewart, late from England"), under the favourite designation in those parts of patriots, to organise a republic and contend for " the liberties of man." Galveston was the name of this new Rome, and it boasted its civil and military governor, its secretary of state, court of admiralty, administrator of revenue, collector of customs, and all other officers requisite to impart to it a semblance of political order. Hither were brought the prizes made by Aiiry's vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, principally Spanish slave-ships; but any other traders, of any other nation, the United States included, were not passed over. The slaves thus captured were sold to speculators from the southern states, who smuggled them into Louisiana, and with them the goods taken by the pirates in other ships. " The men were well supplied with everything, and paid monthly." But this remarkable experimental republic attracted the notice of some whose observation the leaders strenuously desired to avoid ; and soon after the accession of Monroe to the presidency, Aury removed to Matagorda, nearly a hundred miles farther west. This spot was too remote from the markets he had discovered for his commodities ; and after a short time he once more shifted his quarters to Amelia Island, as we have related. The Lafittes, with some half hundred new adventurers, of the same class as the others, attempted to re -organise " the republic of Galveston," in the hope of carrying on their peculiar trade as before; but the scheme failed once more, and about the time that Amelia Island was surrendered to the forces of the United States, this establishment at Galveston disappeared. The encouragement given to these infamous undertakings by the agents of the internal slave-trade, the presence of officers of the United States' army and their men in such a haunt as Galveston, the amount of capital embarked (for there were said to be as many as fifteen vessels belonging to this scoundrel state), all show how little distinction was made between the honourable and dishonour- able profession of arms and seamanship, at least in the southern states. And unhappily we shall soon see what encouragement was given to such filibusters by the neglect of the ordinary forms of intercourse between civilised nations on the part of the Federal government. Still more unhappily, we shall see, as we proceed, that an equal laxity, or disregard of principle in international dealings, has marked the events of much later years. How anxious, for many years, the American government had been to obtain possession of the Floridas, has been intimated on proper occasions, ever since we recorded the purchase of Louisiana by Jefferson. At first arising from the not unnatural nor improper desire to be fully assured of the security of outlets for the export of the produce of the interior regions of the South and West which Spain, with most fatuous shortsightedness, had impaired ; it grew into a covetous longing for the possession of a region which offered to the often hardly-treated thralls of the slave states a ready asylum, and which might help in time to 4 D. 1817-29.] ANNEXATION OF THE FLORIDAS. 173 counterpoise the growing influence of the North, whilst it would be easy to carry on a contraband traffic in slaves brought direct from Africa, amongst the creeks and lagunes of that vast natural mole, which converted the Gulf of Mexico into a safe harbour for the nation who could obtain the ascendancy in its waters. Jefferson's dreams of means for enlarging the territory and power of the United States dawned upon him when he unexpectedly acquired from Napoleon Bonaparte all that remained of the once magnificent empire of France in North America. In 1791, when secretary of state, he wrote to William Short, and in good faith, it appears, " If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest." But in 1823, when Florida had been achieved, he wrote from his philosophic retirement to his old friend Monroe, then holding the helm of affairs " I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most inte- resting addition which could ever be made to our system of states. The control which, with Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being." It is due to the " Lone Star" filibusters, and to their supporters and imitators, to point out this opinion of the Sage of Monticello ; and to our readers, to show that these later attempts upon Cuba have a deeper origin than the piratical habits of a few unprincipled and moneyless rogues. The committee of the House of Representatives on foreign relations, to whom the consideration of the pretended attempts against Florida was referred, found themselves in the difficult position of having to condemn in Aury and his crew what they had authorised in Claiborne, and his division of the United States' army. But with naivete, which cannot be too much admired, they placidly remark that, " the greater part of West Florida being in the actual possession of the United States, this project [of Aury's or McGregor's to conquer the Floridas] involved in it designs of direct hostility against them [the United States!], and as the express object" of the Act of Congress, authorising the occupation of that part of Florida, was " to prevent the province of East Florida from passing into the hands of any foreign power," not, be it observed, to retain it for their good ally of Spain, " it became the obvious [and pleasing] duty of the President to exercise the authority vested in him by that law." And thence the suppression of the establishment at Amelia Island. One paragraph further we must quote from this report. It will not require a solitary word of explanation. " It does not appear that among these itinerant establishers of republics, and distributors of Florida lands, there is a single individual inhabitant of the country where the republic was to be constituted, and whose lands were to be thus bestowed. The project was, therefore, an attempt to occupy that territory by a foreign power. Where the profession is in such direct opposition to the fact ; where the venerable forms by which a free people constitute a frame of govern- ment for themselves are prostituted by a horde of foreign freebooters, for pur- poses of plunder ; if, under the colour of authority from any of the provinces contending for their independence, the Floridas, or either of them, had been permitted ta pass into the hands of such a power, the committee are persuaded 174 ANNEXATION OF THE FLOKIDAS. [CHAP. Ill it is quite unnecessary to point out to the discernment of the House the per- nicious influence which such a destiny of the territories in question must have had upon the security, tranquillity, and commerce of this Union." Our readers will readily call to mind the fact of the occupation of West Florida, which is alluded to in this report. They will also remember the inci- dents which marked the conclusion of the second Creek war. For these things indicated the determination of the American politicians respecting Florida as plainly as the attempts made to purchase the country of Spain. How Florida was now at length acquired, we will immediately proceed to show. It was whilst the filibusters of Galveston and Amelia Island were founding their pretended republics, that a war was begun on the frontier of the United States and Florida. So great had been the decline in the power of Spain, since the rise of the commercial greatness of England, that though she regained possession of Florida in 1783, she can never be said to have re-occupied the country. That rich alluvial flat was left almost entirely to fugitives from justice in the United States, a tribe of Seminole Indians which had been expelled from the Creek confederacy, the discomfited remnants of the " Red Stick " party, among the Creeks, in the last war, runaway slaves from the southern states, smugglers, buccaneers, and marauders of every description, uncontrolled, except here and there by a small military post. There can be no question that the proximity of such neighbours to Georgia was sufficiently unpleasant ; more particularly as the settlements of Seminole Indians lay partly within the boundary of that state. Under such circum- stances, however, the establishment of forts and stations, though apparently imperatively needed, was sure to lead to consequences amongst which the acquisition of Florida was one of the most probable. Loud complaints from the backwoodsmen of Georgia speedily began to pour in upon the authorities ; and General Gaines, who commanded in that quarter, having demanded of the Indians on the Flint River surrender of some persons whom he charged with murder, was met by a decided refusal, on the ground that they were not the aggressors, just as we have seen it happening in so many cases in the north-west. Added to this ground of complaint on both sides, there was immediately afterwards the violence employed, in dispossessing the Indians of the territory ceded to the United States by the last Creek treaties violence for which the Indians took ample revenge, by attacking a boat, laden with supplies, on the Appalachicola, and killing above forty persons who were on board, some of them being women and children. Whether it resulted from the weakness of the Spanish force on the borders of Florida, or whether from that kind of disregard of the constitutionalities of international intercourse which we have had repeated occasion to note in the dealings of the United States with foreign powers, or from both combined, we will not pretend to determine; but as soon as the attack on the boat was known, the government authorised General Gaines to advance into Florida (that is to say, to invade the territories of Spain), " if necessary ;" but specially instructed him not to attack a fort, if the Indians should take shelter under the guns of any, " but to report the fact." Jackson, who was the principal officer in the south, at the same time received orders to put himself at the head of the A.D. 1817-29.] DIFFERENCES WITH SPAIN. 175 movement ; and he was empowered to call out a militia force from his own state, in addition to that which had been raised in Georgia. Matters stood in this position when Congress met in the beginning of December ; but the Message took notice only of the " experimental republics " of Aury, and of McGregor's pretence of revolutionising Florida. Not a word was said of the hostile appearance of affairs on the Appalachicola, the boat attack had happened only three days before, and could not be known at Washington then, arising from the resolution to " evict " the Indians by the summary process of burning their towns at night, when, by the extension of their settlements into the adjoining Spanish province, it was certainly to be expected that such a proceeding would lead to war, if Spain had either the power or the will to retain that fragment of her former dominion in the New World. The blessedness of being the means of spreading civilisation amongst the aboriginal red men of America, and of elevating them above " the hunter's state," and the security against their inroads, to be attained by opposing to them fortifications mounting cannon they knowing the use of small arms alone these things were also touched upon. One other point, of no small account in this condition of the relations between the United States and Spain, was mentioned too the revolted American colonies of that nation ; and respecting them the Message counselled " neutrality/' and the prohibition of succour to either party in the strife, " in men, money, ships, or munitions of war." The United States, said the President, meaning the administration alone, " have regarded the contest, not in the light of an ordinary insurrection or rebellion, but as a civil war between parties nearly equal, having, as to neutral powers, equal rights." This was, perhaps, approaching as nearly as could be expected to such deference with regard to Spain as might facilitate the transfer of Florida without war, and win for Monroe the glory of leaving achieved the two first and greatest additions to the territories of the Union by diplomacy alone. But it could not be very agreeable to the Spanish minister, and it must have been still less so to his government, to see the rebels spoken of as having "equal rights" with the monarch of the Indies. But he found matter of complaint in the expeditions against the two piratical settlements also, and he had before complained that the pirates were allowed to beat up for recruits in the southern parts. During the session of Congress, the question of the more positive recognition of the newly revolted colonies of Spain, as sister republics, was brought before the legislature, which an agent of the rebel governments had urged at the same time that the Spanish ambassador was protesting on the other side. The President laid all the papers which could throw light upon the matter before the Houses, and every point in this complicated business was largely discussed new republics, patriot invasions of Florida, privateering under the flags of the rebel states, the boundaries of Louisiana and Florida, and the old question of spoliations of the commerce of the United States by the Spanish cruisers. On one of these subjects the boundary question, Great Britain had been indicated by Spain as an arbitrator whose decision she was willing to submit to ; in fact, perhaps, because Florida had, for part of the preceding century, belonged to her. 13 ut the United States had one, if not two, boundary questions to settle with 176 SPEECH OF HENRY CLAY. [CHAP. IIJ. Great Britain herself, and the administration, not so unwisely, thought that there was a likelihood that she would not be completely impartial. No one can douht that, quite apart from the probability of gaining Florida, and even more than that, in the course of the struggle, the sympathies of the United States went with the revolters in the Spanish provinces. Had they not been able to show so clear a case in vindication of their rebellion, it must have been so. Yet, not now itself in a revolutionary attitude, but connected with the family of recognised governments by treaties and other diplomatic relations, the administration of the United States found it somewhat difficult to determine what part to take in respect of the new states which were rising amid the ruins of the once magnificent empire of Spain. The difficulty might well have been enhanced by the discovery of the close affinity which patriots of the scoundrel order affected for those who were in arms for political liberty. Under these circumstances, Monroe adopted a course as unobjectionable in itself and as satis- factory in its result as any which could have been devised ; he sent three com- missioners to South America, to obtain information at first hand, that he might be enabled to judge what specific action it would become him to recommend to Congress. From his emphatic enunciation of the existence of a neutral policy, we conclude that neither he nor his secretary, John Quincy Adams, saw any reason then to expect the easier acquisition of Florida, in consequence of the outbreak in the south of the hemisphere. When the appropriation to defray the charge of this commission was before the House of Representatives, Henry Clay took the step which American patriotism of every shade desired he proposed a new appropriation for a minister to the united provinces of Rio de la Plata ; leaving it, however, to the executive to determine when it should be expedient to send one. The ground upon which he urged this was the absolute necessity of forcing Spain to give to America the reasonable satisfaction she had demanded for the long catalogue of insults and depredations which had been the chief incidents in the relations of the two countries. And he advised the adoption of this course mainly, as his speech showed, because he had learned by experience how unwise it was to follow up to actual hostilities every cause of war ; and because he especially deprecated the endeavour to bring about either an adjustment of the difficulties he had spoken of, or a war, by the seizure of Florida, Few speeches upon the subject are so singularly instructive as this of Clay. It is a complete condemnation of the policy which caused the war of 1812, and of himself for precipitating the declaration of hostilities then. It is, too, a com- plete vindication of Great Britain from the most vehemently urged accusations of the leaders in the revolutionary war, and of the Democrats ever since. And it blends the most chivalric considerations, based upon the examples of France in relation to the United States, and of the American government itself in its earlier and purer days, with considerations of mere pelf, in a way that charac- terises with wonderful accuracy the assembly to which it was addressed. It did not, however, succeed in effecting the object of the speaker ; iior was it till two years later, that under his guidance the United States had the honour of being the first constituted government to recognise the right of the people of South America to look after their own political affairs ; when it had been painfully A.D. 1817 29.] GENERAL JACKSON IN FLORIDA. 177 demonstrated that Spain neither would nor could perform her duties, as mother country, to them. For the present the majority preferred the easier and cheaper course of prohibiting privateering and filibustering by Act of Congress ; by which means " a base of operations" was secured for the action of General Jackson, who was now prosecuting with his accustomed vigour the Seminole war. It was early in January, 1818, that this energetic captain, at the head of his redoubtable Tennessee Volunteers, set out for the seat of war. Before the end of the month, he concluded a treaty with that part of the Creek nation which was friendly to the United States, and secured their assistance against the Seminoles. On the 1st of March he reached Fort Scott, on the Appalachicola; having now under his command above four thousand men, a force greatly exceeding in number the whole of the nation he was about to attack, including both women and children. Provisions running short, he hastened southward without delay, employing his Indians to scour the whole country round the line of march, by which means he secured a great number of prisoners from the enemy. On the site of the stronghold which the negroes had held, and been dispossessed of in the manner related in a former book, Jackson built a fort and named it Fort Gadsden ; and this he made use of as a depot for supplies. On the 1st of April, the Creek towns on Mickasukie Lake, and the Ocilla river, were stormed and destroyed, and cattle and corn in abundance was taken. Here too was found what it suited Jackson's purpose to make a wonder of, although it was only the usual ornament of an Indian town a red-painted war- pole, from which were suspended a great cluster of scalps ; fifty of them, it was said, and as might have been expected, including those of every sex and age. They found some three hundred of these horrid trophies in all ; and it was the number of them, so much exceeding that which any company of Hunting-Shirt men from the western states could show, as well as their being mostly Ame- rican, that shocked the general. All this, it must be remembered, took place on the Spanish territory, and under the authority of the American government ; no leave was asked, nor any explanation offered ; supplies and men were carried through it, as if it had already been an integral portion of the United States. No time, however, was lost in proceeding to yet greater lengths. Acting upon the usual device in such cases the charge of assistance given to the enemy (although in this instance, if the Spanish forces posted there had marched against Jackson, they would only have acted with strict propriety), the general, victorious over the wretched handful of lurking Indians and fugitive slaves, hastened with his army to St. Mark's, a small Spanish post with a fort, at the head of Appalachicola Bay. An annalist of these times, whom we have often quoted, says, that " the incidents of the Seminole Indian hunt, which has been dignified with the name of war, in a military point of view are of little consequence, and unworthy of a minute detail, in a general history of the times." Nevertheless this wretched " hunt" aided in procuring for General Jackson the eclat which raised him to the presidency. Jackson, victorious in East Florida, where he had slain about sixty of the enemy, and burnt seven hundred huts, shot one Indian trader, hung another, and also two Indians captured by stratagem, and lost twenty of his allied Creekw, VOL. IT. A A 178 GENERAL JACKSON IN FLORIDA. [CHAP. III. now marched against Pensacola, where, as usual, the Indians had been sheltered by the Spanish authorities, perhaps, because they were attacked by the Ame- ricans on Spanish ground. The governor of the place protested against the invasion of the province, and vowed he would resist. But as this did not stay the advance of the Tennessee warrior, he retired to the fort at the Barancas, and left Pensacola undefended, for Jackson to take possession of without a blow. Three days later, the army marched to the Barancas, raised a breastwork in the night, exchanged a few shots with the fortress, which capitulated, and the garrison was allowed to go to Havana. The whole of Florida was thus occupied by Jackson's troops ; and that, not only without orders, but, in exact opposition to the orders he had received from his government. Clay and his party, with the lovers of peace and order generally, both in Congress and the country, were both dismayed and indignant at the course adopted by Jackson. It was forbidden by the constitution to the states indi- vidually to make war ; but here was an individual person, on the ground of a mere generalship, waging war upon an ally of the Union, capturing his fortified posts, expelling his soldiers, and executing, with the forms of a military trial, neutral traders found in his dominions ! It boded ill, not for the constitution, but for the country, that such things could be. Still more ominous was the circumstance that the most numerous and zealous section of the democratic party proclaimed its attachment to the general more loudly than ever, the state legislatures idolised him, a majority in the legislature of the nation commended him for setting himself up above the law, and the executive and his cabinet (overborne, it is said, by John Quincy Adams !) thanked him for usurping their constitutional functions ! The Mississippi State Gazette, relating at the very time the story of the war, in the midst of a paragraph applauding him, and ascribing to this " most extraordinary person that has ever appeared in our history," the possession and the exercise of almost every virtue under heaven-, attributed the " extraordinary cast of vigour," which was said (most truly) to characterise him, to his " being always among a people who regard the application of force, not as the ultima ratio regum, but as the first resort of individuals who look upon courage as the greatest of human attributes." This opinion deserves the gravest consideration. There is a candour and straightforwardness in the expression of it which removes it quite from the category of ordinary newspaper articles. It explains much that else is most anomalous in the history of the United States. But what a prophecy does it involve ! Happily, not even in the darkest and most ferocious ages could there be more than here and there a man and he, indeed, I'ennemi du genre humain who was able so to "regard force" as this unscrupulous admirer of General Jackson declares the great-minded " Tennesseeans " always do. This would not be earth, but another scene of existence altogether, could power be thus reverenced universally here. What protests the Spanish ambassador presented at Washington, and how the good John Quincy Adams was obliged to wink hard, whilst he justified the deeds of the too faithful officer in the south, all men can conceive. The only practical acknowledgment of being wrong, however, was the offer to restore the fortresses which Jackson had taken as soon as Spain would garrison them AJ>. 1817-29.] FLORIDA ANNEXATION TREATY RATIFIED J 79 strongly enough to keep the Indians round them in becoming subordination. And meanwhile, both parties pushed on the negociations, which were even now proceeding, for the transfer of Florida to the United States, and the discharge of all the indemnities claimed by the latter government thereby. Spain very reasonably required an apology for Jackson's unauthorised acts of hostility ; but it was the Texas boundary that occasioned the greatest difficulty. We must hasten to the conclusion of this affair, which has too long detained us. The treaty by which Florida was definitively added to the United States, was signed by the Spanish ambassador, and by John Quincy Adams, on the 22nd of February, 1819; but it was not ratified by Spain until the 24th of October, 1820; and the contest regarding it, in the United States, did not even then terminate. The claims of American merchants for compensation from Spain, were reckoned at 5,000,000 dollars; and this sum the United States government agreed to pay to them, receiving Florida, East and West, in return for it. But the North was strongly opposed to such an enhancement of the strength and authority of the slave states ; and Monro felt constrained, in order to carry the ratification of the treaty, to renounce, for a time, the claims which he had inherited from Jefferson, to the whole, or greater part of Texas. Having thus " dismembered Louisiana," as was said afterwards, when Texas and its annexation to the Union became a question for the decision of Congress, the Senate agreed to the ratification of the Florida treaty, which was finally made law on the 22nd of February, 1821. Perhaps the admission that the western limits of the United States was the Pacific Ocean, was at that time of as much importance as the acquisition of Florida. Nothing remains but to intimate that, though not very prominently, this relinquishment of the claim on Texas occasioned great agitation in the political circles in the United States. Senator Benton asserts that "the inside view" is, " that all this was the work of southern men, candidates for the presidency, some in abeyance, some in preesenti, and all yielding to that repugnance to territorial aggrandisement and slavery extension in the south-west, which Mr. Monroe mentioned, in his letter to General Jackson, as the ' internal diffi- culty ' which occasioned the cession of Texas by Spain." The feeling of the country and the expectations of the politicians varied continually during the tedious course of this negociation. The foreign com- mittee of the House once went so far as to recommend the seizure of Florida; and it does not appear to have been rebuked for its filibustering spirit. All this while Clay persevered with his scheme of recognising and entering into diplomatic relations with the Spanish- American republics; and he had the satisfaction of seeing, first the President himself, and then the legislature by his side, convinced, as it seems, far more by the want of good faith in the conduct of Spain than by his arguments. Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, was the last to be convinced. " He had," says his biographer, Seward, " many and serious doubts whether the people of the South American provinces were capable of originating and maintaining an enlightened self-government. There was a lack of general intelligence among the people, a want of an enlarged and enlightened understanding of the principles of rational freedom, which led him to apprehend that their attempts at self-government would, for a long season 180 AMERICAN CONGRESS AT PANAMA. [CHAP. III. at least, result in the reign of faction and anarchy, rather than true republican principles." In order to afford an illustration of the manner in which a small matter can be magnified and adorned, so as to be a very great one, to those who support the leader concerned in it, we will leave the narrative of Clay's final triumph on this question to Calvin Colton, the admiring expounder of the " Life and Times" of that statesman. " On the 8th of March, 1822," says he, " the President, by a special Message to Congress, recommended the recognition of South American independence, and on the 28th of the same month the measure was carried in the House of Representatives with but one dissentient voice ! a moral victory, after a struggle of years, achieved by a single arm a victory, the equal of which is rarely to be found in the annals of political society a victory of vast and inconceivable social results in its checks on despotism and for the furtherance of liberty." Such was the first effort made by the United States as propagandists of political freedom, or in the way of fraternising with communities struggling to obtain it. In the year 1823, Bolivar, at that time President of Columbia,- invited the governments of the provinces which had thrown off the Spanish yoke, to join in a general congress at Panama, and some steps were taken to effect it, but without success. At the end of the next year the invitation was renewed, and all the governments accepted it, excepting Buenos Ayres. Next spring, the government of the United States was invited to send representatives to Panama, and John Quincy Adams replied, that although the United States would take no part in the war with Spain, or in deliberating on the manner or means of carrying it on, he believed that such a congress might be serviceable, by giving authority to some important principles of public law, arranging matters of great interest to the whole of the New World, and promoting a friendly intercourse between the various republican governments which had been formed here. The most pressing object of the contemplated congress was the consideration of matters of interest to the belligerents exclusively. And in subordination to this, all questions of international law were to be discussed ; and it was proposed by the Spanish American republics, to prevent further colonisation in America by any of the European powers. Mr. Seward says that this congress " has been believed by some to have been called for the purpose of opposing a supposed project, entertained by the allied powers of Europe, of combining for the pur- pose of reducing the American republics to their former condition of European vassalage. Be this as it may, the Panama Congress, among its objects, aimed at the cementing of the friendly relations of all the independent states of America, and the forming of a kind of mutual council to act as an umpire to settle the differences which might arise between them." In his first Message to Congress, the President thus reported his reception of Bolivar's proposal. " The invitation has been accepted, and ministers on the part of the United States will be commissioned to attend at those deliberations, and to take part in them, so far as may be compatible with that neutrality, from which it is neither our intention, nor the desire of the other American states, that we should depart." This announcement was followed by the nomination A D. 1817-25.] AMEKICAN CONGRESS AT PANAMA. 181 of Richard C. Anderson and John Sergeant as commissioners to the congress, and William B. Rochester as secretary. The Senate, after a long discussion of the expediency of taking part in this congress, in the course of which the members of the opposition attacked the administration in the most rancorous manner, it was out of this debate that the duel between Clay and Randolph sprang, approved the nomination of the commissioners; In the House of Repre- sentatives, also, the subject was fully discussed; but greater decorum was mani- fested by the opposition. In the end, however, the necessary appropriation was voted, the arguments and oratory of Daniel Webster proving unanswerable. The great heat which was evinced upon this affair, arose entirely from the party-spirit with which it was taken up ; the proposal itself involving not one of the matters which the opposition professedly contended against, as contained or implied in it. Benton's praise of the " firmness of the minority" in behalf of " the old United States' policy," and against the " Monroe doctrine," is there- fore baseless. But, most remarkably, it happened that no representative from the United States ever appeared at that congress. For the debates in the House of Representatives were so protracted that it was impossible for Sergeant to reach Panama in time for the meeting ; although it had been postponed from October, 1825, to Midsummer in the year following. Anderson, who was minister at Columbia, as soon as he received his instructions, set out for Panama; but on reaching Carthagena, he was attacked by a malignant fever and died. Poinsett, the ambassador at Mexico, was then appointed in his place, and he with Sergeant immediately prepared to be present when the Congress should re- assemble in February, 1827, at Tacubaya. It did not, however, meet at the appointed time, and Sergeant, therefore, returned to the United States. This project was never afterwards revived ; the internal troubles of the South American republics, and the strong suspicions which were entertained respecting the designs of some of their leaders, occupying the attention of those who were most interested in such a scheme. On the last day of John Quincy Adams's tenure of power, in compliance with a vote of Congress, copies of the instructions given to the commissioners to Panama were supplied to both the Houses ; and after a time, but without legis- lative sanction, were published. It does not appear, in the least, to justify either the hopes of those who were in favour of this congress, or the fears of those who were opposed to it. Few more futile expectations, surely, could ever have been entertained than such as we find expressed in these "instructions." From an assembly of such delegates as the South American republics could furnish, the enunciation that " free ships should make free goods," either in that, or in the "more liberal and extensive" form, that "war against private pro- perty and non-combatants upon the ocean" should be abolished, or " a defini- tion of blockade," which Adams desired, would scarcely be accepted by the powers whom the United States might most wish to receive them ; nay, they would not be accepted even by the citizens of the United States themselves, if the experience of the last war, and of the unauthorised expeditions undertaken since the war, might be regarded as indications. And if their decisions should not be accepted voluntarily, it might reasonably be asked, of what use they could possibly be, for how could they be enforced ? 182 COMMERCIAL TREATIES [CHAP. Ill It is worthy of remark, that in this document the future disposal of " Cuba and Porto Rico, the former especially," is discussed. " For ourselves," it says, "we desire no change in the possession or political condition of that island; and we could not with indifference see it transferred from Spain to any other European power. We are unwilling to see its transfer or annexation to either of the new American states." In which we see, as plainly as in Jefferson's letter to Adams' predecessor, a craving for the annexation of Cuba to the United States, worthy of " the Order of the Lone Star" itself. With these new sister states, the relations of the United States were not always pacific. The old controversy respecting blockades (formerly carried on with Great Britain) was revived by a proceeding of the Emperor of Brazil, who, in the course of his war against Buenos Ayres, had blockaded the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. The United States trading vessels were, of course, excluded ; but as the Brazilian navy was not of first-rate efficiency, the harbour was often closed in name alone, and the traders from the north, allured by the prospect of enhanced profits, would run the risk of capture by breaking the blockade. Captures were consequently made, and vessels were detained on the high seas because they were destined to the blockaded port, and an angry discussion ensued between the American ambassador at the Brazilian coast and the minister of foreign affairs there. At first the government of the new empire gave way, for the ambassador was supported by the presence of a naval force, but afterwards, some new captures having been made, in spite of all the .engage- ments entered into to the contrary, the envoy abruptly left his station. This unauthorised step threatened to embarrass the pending negociation very seriously ; for the executive was unable to follow it up without the sanction of Congress, had it been justifiable; and it seemed not to be justified by the emergency of the case, for the Brazilian government preserved a mild and conciliatory tone, and the only real ground of complaint was the delay in adju- dicating respecting the captures. Happily for the United States, the emperor hastened by a special messenger to assure the government of indemnity for all illegal captures, and redress for all injuries sustained by citizens of the states from his measures. Whereupon, diplomatic intercourse was renewed. How General Jackson invested himself with power, both legislative and executive, and made war against Spain upon his own authority alone, and was almost universally applauded for the deed, we have before shown. Now we have seen an ambassador assuming similar functions, and barely escaping the implica- tion of his government in hostile relations with the country to which he had been sent with pacific intent. But we must turn from these subjects, to notice the relations of the United States with Great Britain. Yet, first, it is necessary to glance at a convention concluded with Russia, one article of which provided that thereafter, the date was April the 5th, 1824, no establishments should be formed by citizens of the United States, or under the authority of the government of the Union, upon the northern, or rather north-western coast of America, beyond 54 40' north lati- tude; nor any formed by Russian subjects, nor under the authority of Russia, to the south of that parallel. It would seem that the contracting powers both forgot the claims of Great Britain to that part of the American continent. A.D. 1817-29.] CONVENTION WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 183 we shall see that this forgetfulncss was not without its consequences in the rela- tions between Britain and the United States, in after years. Adams' last act, as ambassador .at London, from which post he was recalled to be Secretary of State, was the signature of a convention by which the ques- tion of the armed force to be maintained by each power upon the lakes was settled ; but all the other matters in dispute were left as undetermined as ever. The promise of friendliness given hereby was, however, speedily and rudely broken ; and near the close of the first subsequent session of Congress, an Act was passed prohibiting the entrance, into the ports of the United States, of any British vessel coming direct from the ports of any colony of Great Britain, from which American vessels were excluded. This was called a " retaliatory Act," and was extended at a subsequent session so as to include all places in British America and the West Indies. It was intended to compel Great Britain to accept the terms of a commercial treaty, dictated by the United States : but it necessarily failed to produce the desired effect. For, not only was it merely a voluntary diminution of the trade of the United States, and therefore could not much concern Britain, but it was a contest in which the weaker was endeavouring to coerce the stronger ; and, as we have shown before, America not only demanded the privileges of British colonies, after she had thrown off her dependence upon Britain, but also required valuable commercial advantages from her antagonist, for which she had not the least pretence of an equivalent (as both esteemed it) to offer. But it was an unwise and unworthy contest, as to the spirit and the objects aimed at, on both sides. Meantime, the commissioners appointed under the treaty of Ghent were prosecuting their negociations ; and soon a few more points were held to be settled, and another convention recorded them as law. The commercial con- vention was prolonged for ten years from October, 1818 ; the northern boundary of the States, or rather of their Louisiana purchase, was fixed at the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, between the Lake of the Woods and the Rocky Mountains; to the west of that chain, the Oregon territory was to be jointly occupied for the next ten years ; nothing could yet be determined respecting the north-east boundary, but it was agreed that the possession of the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay should be as it was before the war; and the boundary line along the lakes and the St. Lawrence was nearly completed. The stringent regulations respecting the fisheries in the British waters in North America were somewhat relaxed ; but vessels of the United States were not allowed to fish within three miles of the shore. As to the " deported slaves/' the commissioners could come to no conclusion, and an arbitration being agreed to, the Czar of Russia was chosen as arbitrator ; who, being a larger slave-holder than all the slave states, decided in favour of the American claim, which was in 1827 fully discharged. The subject of impressment was not noticed in this convention ; showing either that America had not been so victorious in the second war as tvas alleged, or else that her negociators were not greatly in earnest on that head. Neither was any change made in respect of the trade with the West Indies ; as yet, " retaliation " and negociation alike failed to accomplish that. In the United States themselves, there was a strong party opposed to the "retaliatory" policy, the southern or agricultural democrats who had produce to export, but 184 TRADE WITH BRITAIN PROHIBITED. [CHAP. IIL no shipping. In the first session of the seventeenth Congress, " the President was authorised by statute to declare the ports of *he United States open to British vessels from the colonies, on satisfactory evidence being given that the ports in the British West Indies have been opened to the vessels of the United States." That invitation was so far responded to by the British parliament, that in the next session certain sections of the prohibitory Act were suspended, " and the ports of the United States were declared open to British vessels from the ports in the British colonies and West India islands named in the Act." But the removal of the restrictions by Parliament and Congress too was so insufficient, and the manner of doing it evinced so little good faith, that it could not be conclusive, nor lead to a safe and honourable conclusion. Accordingly, we find the negociations continued without bringing the parties even to an approximation to accord. The demands of the United States were still the same that had been vainly urged through so many years ; the designs of Great Britain had undergone no change. Had America contended for a principle in regard to trade, not only might the immediate result have been vastly different, but Great Britain might all the sooner have attained the convictions on free trade, which in late years have been embodied in her legislation. But then and (we must regretfully add) now, the free trade demanded by the United States was freedom to participate in the British colonial trade, without being able to offer any compensating advantage to Great Britain. Happily, we are not required to trace the course of economical and legislative blunders committed by Great Britain at this time, for the sake, as she thought, of retaining undivided possession of the trade with her colonies ; neither need we unfold the injury inflicted upon those colonies by means of these mistakes. The " Annual Register " thus sketches the series of movements up to this time. " American vessels had been excluded from the colonial trade. This produced, on our part, the discriminating tonnage duty, and finally our own ports were shut against British vessels coming from the colonies. The northern colonies were then thrown open, in order to secure the greater share of the transportation by the indirect route. This caused a prohibition of any British colonial produce, except directly imported from the place of its growth. The colonial ports were then opened to American vessels, but they were confined to the direct trade. Our ports were opened to British vessels from the colonies, and they also were confined to the direct trade. The duty in favour of produce from the northern colonies was met by a continuance of the discriminating tonnage duty/' In July, 1826, appeared an order in council, once more closing the colonial ports against vessels of the United States, unless the conditions of one of the navigation Acts of the preceding year were complied with. And a warm and fruitless correspondence ensued between Gallatin, who now represented the United States at London, and Mr. Canning. Congress also fruitlessly discussed the whole question at the following session. John Adams, therefore, by virtue of the powers vested in the President by an Act passed in the time of his prede- cessor's administration, on the 17th of March, 1827, proclaimed the closing of the United States' ports against vessels from the British colonies. Neither government, during the remainder of the period now under review, would take any step, either by negociation or legislation, to terminate this state A.D. 1817-29.] TREATIES WITH FRANCE, AUSTRIA, ETC. 185 of things. The American tariff laws, and particularly that of 1828, directed as it manifestly was at the trade with Britain, and the way in which the enhanced duty on woollens was met there, added to the irritation in both countries ; and discussions about the right to navigate the St. Lawrence, and respecting the fortification of the frontier line of the Canadas, which was ordered by the British government, greatly aggravated that unfriendly feeling. A treaty of navigation and commerce with France was concluded in 1822, and ratified in the following year. But Adams illustrated his administration by the formation of these serviceable and unentangling alliances. "More treaties were negociated " in the four years of his presidency, " than during the six-and- thirty years through which the preceding administrations had extended." Austria, Sweden, Denmark, the Hanseatic League, Prussia, Columbia, and Central America, entered into new connections of amity, navigation, and com- merce with the Union ; and difficulties of long standing were satisfactorily disposed of with the Netherlands and other European governments, and with Brazil. Great Britain was the glaring exception to this course of prosperous commercial diplomacy ; yet there, as we have seen, the gloom was not entirely without some gleams of hope to enlighten it. There remains but one other subject to be mentioned, and this we place here chiefly because it is so closely connected with the successful prosecution of com- merce ; but also because it furnishes another illustration of the real quality of that patronage of trade which had been affected by the dominant party from the time when Jefferson began to complain of British spoliations, and to excite the nation to war. In his first annual Message, Adams recommended the establish- ment of an observatory, insisting upon the disgraceful fact that^Vhereas there were upwards of a hundred and thirty in Europe alone, there was not one in the entire continent of America. The navigators of the United States depended upon the astronomical observations of Europe ; .their own country afforded them no assistance of this kind, although it was of such vital importance to a com- mercial nation. Unfortunately the President couched his recommendation in phrases more than usually euphuistic, and designated these observatories ' ' light- houses in the skies." This afforded the opposition a cheap means of rejecting the proposition, and it was laughed out of Congress by the party whose notions of maritime affairs seem to have been derived exclusively from the buccaneers of the Spanish main. In due time (for the suggestion was premature) not only was a national observatory set up, but scientific observers of the United States "returned light for light" to Europe, by communicating to her the invaluable notes of Lieutenant Murray upon oceanic currents, and by taking the lead in a combination for the purpose of verifying and extending the information he had obtained respecting those natural agencies which are such powerful helps or hindrances to navigation. VOL. U. B B 186 STATES OF ILLINOIS AND MAINE. . [ CHAP - Tv CHAPTER IV. STATES OP ILLINOIS AND MAINE. CONVENTIONS AT BOSTON, CONNECTICUT, AND ALBANY. TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN. THE PRESIDENT'S TOUR. GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY. IN the first session of Congress under Monroe, an Act was passed authorising the territory of Illinois to hold a convention for the purpose of framing a con- stitution, with a view to its immediate admission into the Union as an indepen- dent state; and in the summer of 1818 action was taken upon that authorisation, and preparations were made for casting off the condition of political pupilage. The constitution adopted was formed, as we should expect, upon the model of that of the sister state of Indiana, the principal difference being, that the term of office for executive and senators alike was fixed at four years, and half the senate going out every, two years ; for which period the representatives were elected. Though not a slave state, the privileges of citizenship were restricted to white males above twenty years of age, residents in the state for six months before an election. The General Assembly was to be convened every other year, regularly ; the governor having power to assemble it at other times, if occasion should arise. At the next session of Congress, on the 3rd of December, 1818, this consti- tution was approved by the Federal legislature, and a new star for Illinois was added to the banner of the United States. Missouri also, as we have related in an earlier chapter, was admitted to the Union during the period we are now treating of; but, as we have seen, contrary to the " compromise," which had fixed the northern boundary of the slave states at the parallel junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi, the slave-holders contrived by another ' ' compromise " (in its turn destined to fall before their audacious aggression) to sever this state from the Northern section of the con- federacy, and secure it as an advanced position, a detached fort, in the midst of their antagonists' lines. Of Missouri, therefore, we speak further in the next chapter. One other state, to the north of " Mason and Dixon," was, however, admitted into the Federal unity now Maine; and its introduction was, as our readers will remember, by the southern statesmen, made conditional on the conversion of Missouri into a slave state. For a hundred and fifty years this, the north-eastern extremity of the United States' territory, had been under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, as a sub- j province first, and afterwards as an out-lying district of its sovereignty. The inhabitants, whose commercial activity imparted to them as intense a love of in- dependence as could be found in the whole nation, again and again endeavoured to procure from Congress authority to make a constitution for themselves, and erect their tract into a separate state. We have noted, as we have proceeded, some of these efforts, and the failure of them. Since the war the subject had been mooted afresh, the aspect of the times appearing very strongly to favour the aspirations of the good men of Maine after A.D. 1817-29.] ADMISSION OP MAINE INTO THE UNION. 187 self-government. Bordering upon the British provinces, and being brought into collision with the authorities of the old country by means of an unsettled boundary dispute, and their unadmitted claims to share the profits of the British fisheries, we are not surprised to learn that democracy reigned there ; for mis- Anglicism, we know, was one most prolific source of strength to the Jeffersonian party. Massachusetts itself, farther removed from the border, less recently settled, and so in habits more closely resembling the fatherland, connected with it, moreover, by the ties of a lucrative trade, was essentially and intensely Federalist. How constant a source of grief to the patriots of Maine this subjec- tion to the " Anglomen " of Boston and " the Essex Junto " must be, the most indifferent of our readers can with sympathy conceive. Up to the time when war was declared by Madison, to secure his re-election to the presidency, the Federalists had always strength enough to prevent or suppress the rising spirit of Maine. But during the war, Federalism fell rapidly to decay; the " Hartford Convention " was its last struggle for life, and under the soporific influence of Monroe's administration, with Clay for leader in the House of Representatives, it quietly died out. This was the opportunity Maine had been waiting for, and with happier omen it now renewed its demand for independence. But not only had Federalism ceased to be a living and operative political principle ; Republicanism (or Jefferson's democracy) had shared the same fate. Like the two leaders of the once opposing factions, Jefferson and John Adams, the spirit of both was growing old, and bade fair to expire at the same time. A.nd in the interval, it was no longer by considerations such as had swayed the Federalists and their rivals, but by merely incidental and temporary ones, that political matters were ruled. Thus it happened that when Maine put forward its undoubtedly just claims to be a distinct unit in the confederation, the question which was in the ascendant was slavery ; and Congress was in the thick of the fight over the Missouri business. It ought to have occasioned the politicians of Maine some astonishment, and at the same time imparted to them, and to others also, great instruction, that they found the northern states (which had been so Federalist) generally in favour of this claim, and the southern states (which had been democratic, generally, like themselves) opposed to it. The legislature of Massachusetts, for to this state the suzerainty of Maine belonged, authorised the holding of a constituent convention, having first ascer- tained that the majority of the people of the district desired separation. And in the fall of 1819/ a constitution, in its chief features closely resembling that of the mother state, was formed and adopted. By it the right of voting was allowed to all men of one-and-twenty, excepting paupers, persons under guardianship, and Indians not taxed ; resident in the state for three months. Money qualifications for holding offices were not admitted ; and the main- tenance of religion was thrown wholly upon the voluntary principle. The governor, senate, and representatives were all to be chosen annually, and by the people directly. Limits were set up for the numbers of the two houses, which were to be constituted as " the Legislature of Maine." A truly demo- cratic provision controlled the executive, by a council chosen, not by himself, but by the legislature. Little debate occurred in the House of Representatives respecting the admis- 188 CONVENTION AT BOSTON. . [CHAP. IT sion of Maine into the Union ; but in the Senate, as has already been told, there was appended to the bill a provision for the admission of Missouri. We will not repeat in this place the story of this contest, but merely remind our readers that, by dint of great exertions, the northern men compromising their professed abhorrence of slavery out of regard (they said) to the Union and earning thereby the epithet " dough faces " from John Randolph it was arranged that Missouri should be a slave state, and Maine admitted into the con- federation. This Act respecting Maine became law on the 3rd of March, 1820, the day before the time granted by Massachusetts expired. At the end of this same year a convention met at Boston, for the purpose of effecting such alterations in the constitution of Massaclrasetts as the separa- tion of Maine might have rendered necessary, or at least have afforded a safe opportunity for. It commenced on the 27th of November, and rose on the 9th of January following. John Adams was there, delegated by paternal Quincy, it was his last public effort ; the convention would fain have made him its president, but he declined the honour, and Chief-justice Parke was chosen. And Daniel Webster, although he had been but a few years a citizen of the Bay State, was one of the most distinguished and efficient members of the convention. Webster strongly recommended the abolition of the quasi- religious test for office, which seemed to be provided by the established oaths and declarations ; but the ecclesiastical feeling was too powerful for his influence, even when it had the whole spirit of American freedom to support it. He also contended for the admission of property as one " basis of the senate ; " a "principle which was incorporated into the original constitution;" but although he deduced from it " the practical consequence," " that constitutional and legal provision ought to be made to produce the utmost possible diffusion and equality of property," he contended in vain ; the genuine feeling of democracy was too powerful. In another address, on the " Independence of the Judiciary," which appears to have been delivered almost unexpectedly, the true principles of the party he was afterwards so intimately associated with, as distinguished from the party which sprang out of Jackson's opposition to John Quincy Adams, and was the real successor to the old republicans, are developed. And he adroitly appealed to the early history of the state in demonstration of the baneful effect on liberty, which was produced by making the judges dependent on the sovereign will. The tendency of the legislature, both in the states and in the confedera- tion, to arrogate to itself authority over the other co-ordinate members of the government, lias been noticed, and might be looked for without any such inti- mations as the general disposition of individuals, of the republican and demo- cratic parties, to set themselves, personally, above all the constituted law and authority of the nation. It was against this that Webster set himself, pleading with the representatives of the people in behalf of the only barrier which uniformly, in the long run, has sufficed to keep out homesprung tyranny : with what success the sequel will show. Connecticut, at the time when the other provinces, as they cast off their dependence upon Great Britain, organised themselves as states, with constitu- tions specially constructed, did not summon any constituent convention, but continued to carry on its government on the basis of the charter granted to it A.D. 1817-29.] TUB CONNECTICUT CONSTITUTION MODIFIED. 189 by Charles II. of Great Britain. Amongst its politicians, there could not fail to be some who regarded this as a serious deficiency. They might even have regarded it as ominous of evil, with respect to the permanence of their liberty, that it was not shielded and supported as the independent sovereignty of the other states was. At length, in 1818, circumstances (which we need not specify) occurred, by which the advocates of a written constitution were enabled to pro- cure a convention for the express purpose of assimilating Connecticut, in this particular, to the rest of the members of the Union. In August this body met, and in the following October the result of their labours was solemnly ratified by the people. But it must not be supposed that this change partook, in any measure, of the nature of a revolution. The constitution really was little more than the old charter slightly modified, cast into a new form, and invested with new sanctions. The right of voting at elections, which here, as in other states, seems to be considered the typical act of citizenship, was restricted to white men (though it was a New England state) of twenty-one years old, who had gained settle- ments, and possessed freehold estates worth seven dollars per annum, in the state, and who had resided for six months before an election in the towns wherein they sought admission as electors, or had served in the militia, after being enrolled, for the year before an election, or being liable so to serve, had been legally excused; or had paid any state tax in the year before an election, and were good moral characters ; upon taking an oath prescribed by law. A scheme of citizenship, this, which is far from realising the idea of democracy, and shows, most remarkably, the influence of the early history of the state. A governor, annually chosen, was to be the executive officer. And a lieutenant-governor, to take his place if removed, but otherwise to preside in the Senate, was likewise chosen year by year, at the same time. " The General Assembly " was to consist of a Senate of eighteen members, and not exceeding twenty-four ; and of a House of Representatives from the towns, or townships, of which the older ones sent two, the rest one each. The members of the legislature were also to be chosen yearly, and at the same time Avith the governor. One session of the Assembly was to be held every year. The judiciary received its appointment from the General Assembly, and consisted of a Supreme Court of Errors, a Superior Court, and whatever other inferior courts the legislature might determine. Under the age of seventy, the judge's office was during good behaviour. " No person is compelled to join, or to support, or to be classed with, or associated to, any congregation, church, or religious association. But every person may be compelled to pay his proportion of the expenses of the society to which he may belong : he may, however, separate himself from the society, by leaving a written notice of his wish with the clerk of such society." We cannot forget the virulent animosity displayed by the author of the suppressed " History of John Adams' Administration/' and by the historian of the " Second War against the religion of Connecticut;" and we profoundly regret that so much ground for that animosity should have been afforded by this convention, when it was possible to remove every cause of suspicion concerning the truth 190 MEETING AT ALBANY . [CHAP. IV and earnestness of the people of the state in this momentous matter, although it was undoubtedly a great step in advance, which even this remarkable pro- vision indicates. We may note here that a similar step was taken by another New England state, New Hampshire, in 1819, by an Act of the legislature. Our readers will readily call to mind the character of the political contests in the state of New York, which one writer we quoted summed up in the word " atrocious/' In various quarters the opinion was expressed that a revision of the constitution was extremely desirable, as it might remove many of the occasions of that fierce hostility between the political parties, if it could not eradicate its causes. Three points especially required alteration, the limitation of the right of suffrage, the mode of making appointments to offices, and the power of revising the acts of the legislature vested in a council. "When the governor, Dewitt Clinton, opened the session of 1 821, he recommended the holding of a convention for the purpose of effecting the changes which appeared to be so desirable. To this advice the legislature responded by passing an Act directing the election of delegates for such a convention ; but, as it appeared to Clinton, assumed that the sovereignty vested in it, and not in " the people convened in their primary assemblies," wherefore it was returned, by the Council of Revision, by his casting vote, and a new law was framed, submitting the whole question of the convention to the direct vote of ihe people. The governor was repre- sented as hostile to the proposed amendment in consequence of this measure, and a more prominent place in the public favour was assigned to others, who only shared with him the task of giving utterance to the universal wish. The result of the appeal to the people was the resolution to hold a conven- tion; and delegates were chosen without delay. On the 28th of August, 1821, they met at Albany, and the whole state awaited with hushed expectation the fruit of their deliberations. No limits were assigned either to the nature or the extent of the amendments they might resolve upon ; but they were to become part of the constitution only by the subsequent assent of the people themselves. Amongst the changes effected by the convention were the following. The council of appointment was abolished, and the power it had held was transferred to the governor, to be exercised with the concurrence of the senate. The council of revision was also abolished, and the veto given to the governor j but a vote of two-thirds of the members of both houses might reverse it. The right of suffrage was granted to " white male citizens " (so that it was under- stood there could be citizens without votes), twenty-one years of age, inhabitants of the state for twelve months, and resident in a county six, preceding an elec- tion. Payment of taxes, performance of military duty, and working on the highways, were also proposed as qualifications ; and to the last two, Van Buren, democrat though he was, afraid of "cheapening this invaluable right/' and refusing to ' ' undervalue this precious privilege so far as to confer it, with an indiscriminating hand, upon every one, black or white, who would be kind enough to condescend to accept it," desired to attach the condition of being a householder. By way, we presume, of demonstrating the amount of their faith in the dictum, 11 all men are born free and equal," which was, of course, frequently cited in the debates, it was determined that no man of colour should be entitled to vote unless possessed of freehold estate of the yearly value of two hundred and fifty A.D. 1817-29.] THE PRESIDENT'S TOUR. 191 dollars, without encumbrance. Van Buren approved this restriction of the freedom of blacks, on the ground that " they would not exercise the right of suffrage in its purity." As a compensation for this curtailment of their privileges, they were exempted from taxation to the same extent. The nomination of the chancellor and the judges was given to the governor, the consent of the senate being required for their appointment. The attainment of sixty years of age was the furthest limit of the office of the chancellor, and the justices of the supreme and the circuit courts, and during good behaviour within that term ; but five years was the period of office for judges of county courts, and courts of common pleas. Michigan territory, we observe, in 1819, authorised to advance to the second grade of territorial government ; when its interests were watched and expounded in Congress by a delegate, and some of the responsibility and honour of self- government were laid upon its citizens. Attempts were made in several other states of the North, to revise and amend their constitutions, but without success. It is not necessary to detail all the incidents of President Monroe's northern tour. It may suffice to state generally, in the words of a contemporary annalist, that " his approach to a particular town being announced, the best lodgings were provided, to which he was escorted by the civil and military authorities, and citizens of the place. A committee of arrangements was appointed, who selected one of the ablest and most accomplished of their number, to deliver a congratu- latory address. These were more or less polished, flattering, or bombastic, according to the talents and feelings of their respective authors. The objects of all were the same. They bade the President a cordial welcome to their town or village ; expressed their high sense of the honour he had done them ; com- plimented him on his past services and exertions for the public good ; congratu- lated him and themselves on the national prosperity and its future prospects ; expressed their confident expectation of a wise and impartial administration under his auspices ; and wished him a safe and prosperous journey, and a long and happy life. These were answered with as much variety as the ingenuity of the President could suggest, but always with a reciprocation of good feelings ; by a notice of any important event to the honour of the place, if any was within his recollection ; by many thanks to the citizens for their civili ties, and to the committee for the polite manner in which they had been communicated ; and by a profusion of good wishes for the prosperity of the town. " A sumptuous entertainment was then provided of the best the city afforded, at which the President occupied the chief seat, and the citizens arranged them- selves on each hand, nearer or more remote, in proportion to their respective dignities. The entertainment was concluded with appropriate sentiments. Mr. Monroe received upwards of fifty of these civilities in the course of his journey, And though to an old man upwards of sixty, more accustomed to the dull routine of business than the hilarities of a feast, they became irksome, yet he went through them with a good degree of eclat. His looks, words, and actions were favourably interpreted, and afforded a fertile subject of conversation for a considerable time after his departure." At New York the local society of Cincinnati addressed him, to his " heart- 192 THE PRESIDENT'S TOUR. . [CHAP. iv. felt satisfaction," he said; for he considered it " impossible to meet any of those patriotic citizens, whose valuable services were so intimately connected with the Revolution, without recollections which it was equally just and honourable to cherish." How he was received at Boston, which had been the ground of much specu- lation beforehand, because Massachusetts had opposed his policy when he was at the head of the War Department under Madison, had voted unanimously against him at the presidential election, and had, indeed, always been in antagonism to him, we must show from the account of the writer already quoted : " Governor Brooks," he says, " directed his first aid, Colonel Sumner, to meet the President at his entrance, attach himself to his suite, and attend him through the state. Major-General Crane was directed to procure a suitable military escort. The inhabitants of the town of Boston chose a large committee of both political parties, to make the necessary arrangements for his reception. The discharge of a park of artillery, and the ringing of bells at twelve o'clock on the 2nd of July, announced his arrival at the entrance of the town, where he was met by the committee of arrangements, and escorted through the principal streets by a procession of citizens of more than a mile in length, to a suite of rooms provided for him at the Exchange Coffee House. He remained at Boston until the 8th of July (thus spending Independence-day at the birthplace of the Revolution), viewing the various objects worthy of notice in the metropolis of New England and its vicinity, and receiving and reciprocating the compliments of his fellow-citizens, each striving to obliterate party distinctions in the general festivity of the occasion. The scene had a happy effect in harmonising the citizens ; to the President it was a high gratification to be recognised and treated as the chief magistrate of the whole nation, in the midst of his political opponents; and to Europe [could she have spared time to see the sight] it [would have] presented the imposing aspect of a united and powerful com- monwealth." The reception of La Fayette at New York occurred at this time. The Franco- American patriarch had what the Americans call an ' ' ovation " in this great city, from whence he proceeded to Boston to lay the foundation-stone for a monument at Bunker Hill, to commemorate the famous battle there and the death of General Warren. Daniel Webster on this occasion displayed a potent oratory, that was never listened to by a multitude more vast. To add to the impressiveness of the occasion, it was the fiftieth anniversary of the fight, June 17th, 1825 ; and thus has the scene been described : " This celebration was unequalled in magnificence by anything of the kind that had been seen in New England. The morning proved propitious. The air was cool, the sky was clear, and timely showers the previous day had brightened the vesture of nature into its loveliest hue. Delighted thousands flocked into Boston to bear a part in the proceedings, or to witness the spectacle. About ten o'clock, a procession moved from the State House to Bunker Hill. The military, in their fine uniforms, formed the van. About two hundred veterans of the Revolution, of whom forty were survivors of the battle, rode in barouches next to the escort. These venerable men, the relics of a past generation, with emaciated frames, tottering limbs, and trembling voices, constituted a touching A.D. 1817-29.] TIIE BUNKER HILL MEMORIAL. 193 spectacle. Some wore, as honourable decorations, their old fighting equipments, and some bore the scars of still more honourable wounds. Glistening eyes con- stituted their answer to the enthusiastic cheers of the grateful multitudes who lined their pathway and cheered their progress. To this patriot band succeed the Bunker Hill Association. Then the Masonic fraternity, in their splendid regalia, thousands in number. Then La Fayette, continually welcomed by tokens of love and gratitude, and the invited guests. Then a long array of societies, with their various badges and banners. It was a splendid procession, and of such length, that the front nearly reached Charlestown bridge ere the rear had left Boston common. It proceeded to Breed's Hill, where the Grand Master of the Freemasons, the President of the Monument Association, and General La Fayette performed the ceremony of laying the corner-stone, in the presence of a vast concourse of people. The assembled multitude then proceeded to a large area, occupying nearly the whole north-eastern side of the hill, where seats had been placed in the form of an amphitheatre, capable of accommodating an immense number of persons. In the centre of the declivity, upon a stage erected for the purpose, the orator pronounced sub dio an address, which equalled the high expectations awakened by the occasion, and which already bears an established character in the classical literature of our country The oration and other customary exercises of the day being concluded ; invited guests and others, who provided themselves with tickets, dined under an awning, at tables set on one side of the battle hill, for between four and five thousand per- sons, and completely full." " Let the sacred obligations," said Webster, on this memorable occasion, " which have devolved on this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts. Those who established our liberty and our government are daily dropping from among us. The great trust now descends to new hands. Let us apply ourselves to that which is presented to us, as our appropriate object. We can win no laurels in a war for independence. Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to us a great duty of defence and preservation ; and there is opened to us also a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the times strongly invites us. Our proper business is improvement. Let our age be the age of improvement. In a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of peace. Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. In pursuing the great objects which our condition points out to us, let us act under a settled conviction and an habitual feeling that these twenty-four states are one country. Let our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties. Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to act. Let our object be, OUR COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of peace, and of libertv : upon which the world may gaze with admiration for ever ! " VOL. ii. c c 194 THE HAHRISBURG CONVENTION. [dlAP. IV Another scene, illustrated by the same splendid oratory, was the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, as it was observed in 1820. Few of Webster's efforts were marked with greater felicity and spirit, or enforced so powerfully the moral of his theme. We must also pass by the funeral of John Adams, and the visit to the eastern states of John Quincy Adams, then President, which followed it. Neither can we stay to record the opening of the great Erie canal, although of it we read, " Our country has never witnessed any ceremony accompanied by such pomp, nor one which diffused in every breast such unmingled feelings of gratification. All feelings of party spirit were suspended, and even the bitterness of present animosity was for a moment neutralised." It will not be needful here to show how the state parties were affected by the movements of the national parties ; in an earlier book, we have spoken of the virtual absorption of the former into the latter the local interests, which had been the grounds of party divisions in the colonies, becoming of comparatively small importance after the independence of the country was accomplished. One or two instances of the action of the states individually, on questions of national moment, will suffice for the illustration of this part of our subject. Henry Clay's scheme of protection to American manufactures, in spite of his connection with the southern section of the states, was decidedly northern in its character; as we might indeed anticipate, Kentucky being, in fact, a border state. And thence arose the hot sectional contest respecting the tariff bills introduced into Congress during these two presidencies for protection, not for revenue. As soon as the woollen's bill was rejected by the Senate, in the second session of the nineteenth Congress, steps were taken to bring the subject again before the general legislature ; and the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Manufactures and the Mechanic Arts, ' f an institution of considerable standing and great respectability," called on the farmers, manufacturers, and friends of the " American system," to hold meetings in their several states, and appoint delegates to a general convention at Harrisburg, on the 30th of July, 1827, to deliberate on the means to be taken for the encouragement of domestic industry. This proposition was very generally acceded to in the North, and local conventions were holden at the capitals of the several states, at which men of the highest standing, worth, and influence were appointed as delegates to the Harrisburg convention. At the time appointed, a hundred delegates, from thirteen states, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, met there. Delegates were appointed by the state of Maine also, but being unable to attend, they addressed a letter to the convention, expressing their approbation of its objects. Owing to the shortness of the time between the! proposal of the convention and the day fixed for holding it, the more distant ? states were not represented ; yet, excepting from Indiana, Illinois, and Mis- souri, delegates from more than parties in states could scarcely have been expected; and, in fact, a counter-convention was held at Columbia, in South Carolina. The manufacturing interests of the North, and those of the growers of wool, were very fairly represented at Harrisburg, but no honest partisan even could pretend that the agricultural interest could either speak or be heard there. A.D. 1817-29.] NEW YORK FREEMASONRY. 195 There was collected, no doubt, as large a number of well-informed business men as could easily be got together, but the statesmanship of their leaders is questionable. Joseph Ritner, of Pennsylvania, was made president of the convention, and Jesse Buel, of New York, with Frisby Tilghman, of Maryland, vice-presidents. Committees were then appointed to inquire into the state of the wool-growing and wool-manufacturing business ; into the state of the manufactures of iron, hemp, flax, glass, copper, and cotton; the propriety of affording further pro- tection to home-distilled spirits ; and the effect of domestic manufactures upon the commerce and navigation of the country ; but we have no word about its agriculture. For five days did the convention sit, and then agreed on a memorial to Congress, praying for further protection to the national industry by an increase of the duties on woollen manufactures and on wool, and for an increase of the duties on manufactures of hemp, flax, and cotton, and on iron, steel, and distilled spirits. A committee was also appointed to prepare and publish an address to the people of the United States, on the subject debated in the convention. It is most probable that little influence was exerted upon the decision of Congress respecting the Tariff Act, which was passed at the following session by this convention ; but we cannot subscribe to the opinion of Senator Benton, that it and the periodical recurring protection tariffs were only electioneering stratagems, intended to tell at .the next ensuing presidential election. It seems rather to have been a movement of self-preservation ; for in the North the con- viction was strong being modified only in the places where mercantile interests prevailed that without protection, American manufactures could never grow up into a permanent source of national wealth. Political contests are distinguished by one striking peculiarity their heat and fury instead of being checked and diminished by the occurrence of events of a startling or absorbing nature, do but increase, like the fabled Greek fire, which burnt all the more violently on the application of water. And of this the political history of New York at this time furnishes a remarkable proof. There was living, in no very flourishing circumstances, at Batavia, New York, in 1 826, a bricklayer and stonemason, named William Morgan, a Virginian by birth, with a wife and two children. He was a freemason, and during the autumn of that year it was understood that he, having taken offence at the lodge to which he belonged, was preparing a book about the secret signs and cere- monies of freemasonry. Considerable excitement prevailed amongst the mem- bers of the order residing in that part of the country in consequence of this, and many efforts were made, but vainly, to induce him to relinquish his design. On the 8th of September a great number of persons assembled at Stafford, some six miles from Batavia, and in the course of the night they proceeded to Batavia for the purpose (as they said) of taking possession of Morgan's manuscript ; but they found that the printer had made preparations to resist them, and they dispersed without committing any acts of violence. Two days afterwards, on a Sunday morning, a summons was procured by a man named Chesebro, from a magistrate at Canandaigua, which is forty-eight miles distant from Batavia, against Morgan, on a charge of petty theft from one Kingsley ; next day he was arrested and brought to Canandaigua, and in the 196 GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY. . [CHAP. IV evening, being examined by the justice who had issued the warrant, was dis- charged, but immediately afterwards arrested again and committed to the jail in Canandaigua, by another warrant procured by Chesebro, on a new charge of a debt to a third person (but assigned to Chesebro), the whole amount, including costs, being under three dollars. Next evening, the 12th of September, between the hours of eight and nine at night, a man named Lawson came to the jail, and desired to pay the debt and release the prisoner; but as the jailer was absent, his wife would not allow him to do this until he brought with him a Colonel Sawyer, who promised that the jailer should not be injured by her giving Morgan up ; she then took the money and gave Morgan up to Lawson. As soon as Lawson had led him out of the prison, they were joined by some other men, and Morgan was seen struggling with them, and heard to cry " Murder," till a handkerchief was put over his mouth ; a carriage, which was in readiness, then came up on a signal being given, and Morgan being put into it, was driven away with Lawson and the others. He was conveyed, as it was proved, late in the evening of the 13th, over the ferry at Youngstown into Canada; but the arrangements for his reception not being completed, or, as others said, the freemasons there not wishing to be implicated in the matter, he was taken back and put in the magazine in Fort Niagara (at which place a cell had been prepared in the jail for his reception by order of a gentleman from Batavia a week before), and there he was seen, when it was past midnight, on this 13th of September. Nothing more could be ascertained respecting him, and the universal belief was that he was very soon afterwards murdered. This abduction and murder caused the greatest agitation and indignation in the state, and indeed in the Union generally. Public meetings were held in the region where the outrage had been perpetrated ; committees of investiga- tion were formed, and numerous petitions were presented to the government, which, though Clinton was a mason, exerted itself right zealously to discover the authors of the crime. The statute-book, unhappily, had omitted the definition of this offence, and consequently it could only be proceeded against as a high crime and misdemeanour." Several persons were tried in the course of the following years for conspiracy and abduction, and some were convicted and sen- tenced to fines and imprisonment. In the New England states, the great subject of public interest from 1817 to 1828-9, was the promotion of internal improvement, by facilitating the means of inter-communication. Foremost among these stands the Erie Canal of New York, projected by Gouverneur Morris, but constructed by Dewitt Clinton, after the second war was over, in spite of " a powerfully combined opposition of party, of prejudice, and of ignorance." " On the 4th of July, 1817, the first excava- tion was made, and in October, 1825, the whole work was finished." It cost above 9,000,000 dollars. Pennsylvania probably because a " board of canal commissioners" was appointed exceeded all the states in this part of the TJnion in the number of projects which were entertained and undertaken now. Ohio (its circumstances being considered) fell behind none of them in the magnitude and importance of its canals. During the period to which our attention is now restricted, in New York alone was much revenue derived from this source. A.D. 1817-29.] GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY. 197 Railroads were commenced in 1828 ; before that date tramroads were con- structed for the transport of heavy goods and materials. But the real worth of this change was not yet known, the steam-engine not having been tried as a locomotive ; and at the end of 1828 only the Quincy railroad, three miles in length, was completed, and it was employed solely to convey granite from the ledges to the tide-water. Passing over several extensive classes of public works, which were now undertaken with great energy and success in this portion of the country, we will glance at the shipping in which we should expect to find it pre-eminent. The whole tonnage of the United States in 1817 amounted to something more than a million and a quarter ; at the end of 1827 the whole tonnage of the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, fell but a little short of the same amount. The tonnage of Boston district, at the end of 1827, was nearly a hundred and sixty- two thousand tons ; that of New York exceeded three hundred and sixty-four thousand ; and that of Philadelphia, ninety-five thousand tons. There is no southern district which can compare with these accounts, except Baltimore, and it shows no more than ninety-nine thousand tons, New Orleans and Charlestown not having even half so much. In the number of vessels, Massachusetts not only far exceeded every other state in the Union, but also the whole of the southern states taken together. Steam-navigation was quite in its infancy, and the most noticeable fact respecting it was the case of Gibbons and Ogden, in connection with which Daniel Webster made one of his greatest forensic speeches. The state of New York had secured, by several acts of its legislature, the exclusive right of navi- gating all the waters within its jurisdiction, with boats moved by fire or steam, to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton, for a term of years, which had not expired in 1824; and this right, so far as the navigation between New York and certain places in New Jersey were concerned, had been assigned by them to John R. Livingston, and by him to Aaron Ogden. But Thomas Gibbons had employed two steam-boats to run between New York and Elizabethtown, in New Jersey, in violation of that privilege ; and had been, by the Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors of the State of New York, as well as by sundry inferior courts, forbidden to do so ; wherefore he appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Fulton's monopoly had been very prejudicial to the public good, by pre- venting the introduction of steam- vessels of the most improved construction ; but this was a point of minor interest in the case, which turned upon the consti- tutionality of the grant originally made to Fulton. Congress had received, by the constitution, a power "to regulate commerce," which such a monopoly as this plainly infringed. ' ' What is it," said the orator, ' ' that is to be regulated ? Not the commerce of the several states, respectively, but the commerce of the United States. Henceforth, the commerce of the states was to be a unit ; and the system by which it was to exist and be governed must necessarily be com- plete, entire, and uniform. Its character was to be described in the flag which waved over it, E PLURIBUS UNUM. Now, how could individual states assert a right of commercial legislation, in a case of this sortj without manifest encroach- 198 GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY. . [CIIAP. IV. raent and confusion?'" Many years afterwards, at Savannah, Judge Wayne thus complimented Webster on the success of his argument : " The court felt the application and force of your reasoning, and it made a decision releasing every creek, and river, lake, bay, and harbour in our country from the inter- ference of monopolies; which had already provoked unfriendly legislation between some of the states, and which would have been as little favourable to the interest of Fulton as they were unworthy of his genius." On the Lakes, in 1819, one solitary steam-boat, called " Walk-in-the- Water," after a famous Indian chief of that region, made a voyage to Mackinaw, to carry the American Fur Company's goods ; and she repeated the trip in 18.20 and 1821 ; but being wrecked near Buffalo in November of the last-named year, her place was supplied iu 1822 by the " Superior." In 1826 and 1827 a steam- boat made a pleasure excursion to Green Bay, in Lake Michigan. And these were the commencement of this species of navigation here. The whale-fisheries, as already remarked, were a considerable source of wealth to New England, and the sea-ports of the Atlantic states. In 1819 it appears that the great extension was made, which proved the foundation of the present lucrative condition of this branch of trade. In 1817 some thirty-two thousand and six hundred barrels of spermaceti were brought into the United States ; in 1828 the number had increased to seventy -three thousand. The value of the sperm oil and candles exported in 1817 was 112,000 dollars; in 1828, it was 446,000. Much of this oil was procured in the Pacific Ocean. The average amount of fish procured from the coast of Labrador, the St. Lawrence, or the banks of Newfoundland, dried or smoked, and exported from the United States, was about two hundred and fifty thousand quintals, during the time we now speak of, and the value averaged about 1 ,000,000 dollars. The value of the exports of Massachusetts, inclusive of Maine, in 1817, was nearly 12,000,000 dollars ; in 1828 the exports of Massachusetts alone were 9,000,000; and those of Maine, 1,000,000 in value. New York State exported in the former year to the amount of 18,500,000 dollars; and in the latter year, of 22,750,000. Pennsylvania, in 1817, exported the worth of about 8,750,000 dollars ; and in 1828, of only 6,000,000. The imports exhibited a similar fluctuation. And this is precisely what we should expect from the direction of the commercial legislation of Congress at this time. Of the agriculture of this section we need say little, as it constituted quite a subordinate means of wealth, except in the ultramontane region ; and there it was only partially developed. The mineral wealth of these parts, too, was but just beginning to be appreciated; the coal of Pennsylvania and Ohio was not worked with the energy that a demand for that fuel, for common household use, and for wider employment in manufactures, would have inspired. The salt works form one of the most considerable sources of revenue in this way ; they were generally in the hands of the state governments. In 1817 there were twenty-six banks in the state of Massachusetts, with aggregate of capital amounting to 9,250,000 dollars ; of these six were in Bostc with nearly 7,000,000 of capital, and the other twenty, with remainder of the sum, in other parts of the state. The deposits of the six Boston banks, in that year, were little less than 3,000,000 dollars ; the specie exceeded 1,000,000 dollars, A.D 1817-29.] GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY. 199 and their circulation was very nearly 1,250,000. The specie of the other banks amounted to less than 550,000 dollars; the sum of their deposits was a little smaller than that of the specie, but the circulation was nearly 1,300,000. In 1 828, there were sixty-one banks ; sixteen in Boston, with an aggregate capital of above 12,250,000 dollars ; and the rest in other parts of the state, with an aggregate capital of less than 7,000,000. The deposits in the Boston banks nearly reached the sum of 1,200,000 dollars, the specie was more than 650,000 ; but the circulation was almost 4,500,000. The other banks had deposits to the amount of 880,000 dollars, specie to the amount of 490,000, and their circu- lation exceeded 3,000,000. Similar results are obtained by a comparison of the condition of the banks of other states. Thus, Rhode Island, in 1825, had fifty-three banks, with a capital of above 5,250,000 dollars, deposits amounting to nearly 770,000 dollars, above 4GO dollars in specie, only 101,000 dollars in bills in circulation, but above 6,000,000 of debts due to them from directors, stockholders, and others. There were forty-seven banks in 1828, with above 6,000,000 dollars of capital, deposits exceeding 1,000,000, specie exceeding 350,000 dollars, and with nearly 900,000 dollars' worth of bills in circulation, and above 7,000,000 of debts as before. Connecticut had, in 1825, thirteen banks, with capital amounting to more than 4,600,000 dollars, above 1,500,000 in specie, deposits, and cash in hand, and above 2,250,000 of notes in circulation. In 1829 the same number of banks had 200,000 dollars less capital, about the same sum in specie, deposits, &c., and 500,000 dollars less in notes in circulation. To these particulars our readers will refer, when we reach a subsequent period of our story. Boston, in 1817, was estimated to contain above 8,000,000 dollars' worth in real and personal estate; in 1828 it had increased to more than 61,500,000. The aggregate value of assessed property in New York, in the former year, was nearly 79,000,000 dollars; and in the latter year it fell not far short of 111,250,000. The value of the fifteen millions and more of acres of land in Ohio, in 1825, was calculated at 37,250,000 dollars; and, in 1828, at above 41,250,000 : the horses and cattle, in 1825, were reckoned worth more than 7,500,000 ; in 1828, more than 8,500,000 ; but the merchants' capital in the state amounted to nearly 5,250,000 in the former year, while in the latter it was less than 3,500,000. We must not leave the eastern states entirely without mentioning the fol- lowing items, which appear in the statement of the expenditure of two of them. New Hampshire, in 1828, it appears, paid 250 dollars under the title of " wolf, bear, and wild cat bounty;" and in the next year, Vermont paid for "wolf certificates " 260 dollars ; whence we must conclude that the quantity of unim- proved land in those states at that time was not inconsiderable. Nothing new can be added to the descriptions given in former chapters of the rapid and incessant migration from the eastern parts of the Union to the states and territories of the far west. "We may, however, mark the extent of the occupation of the tract which comes now under consideration, by the help of a report concerning the public lands. Hence it appears that there were now (1828) in Ohio little more than four hundred thousand acres out of nearly twenty-five millions, the Indian titles to which had not been extinguished ; and 200 PARTY DISSENSIONS. . [CHAP. V. that less than five millions of acres, which had become the legal property of the United States' government, remained unsold or unappropriated. In Indiana, above seventeen million acres had been acquired from the aborigines, who still held above five millions and a quarter acres; and there remained more than twelve millions and a quarter acres unappropriated by grant or sale as private property. More than twenty-nine millions and a half acres had been acquired in Illinois, the Indians retaining nearly six millions and a half; but here, above twenty-three millions and a half remained in the hands of the government. The red men still held in Michigan more than seven millions and a quarter acres, and their title had been extinguished to more than seventeen millions and a half; but scarcely a million and a quarter of these had been appropriated by grant or sale. And there was, besides, the whole of the great tract extending from the Great Lakes to the Pacific, where only the scattered tribes of Indians, a few hunters and trappers, and fewer travellers, could be found. CHAPTER V. PARTY DISSENSIONS. STATES OF MISSISSIPPI AND ALABAMA. TERRITORIES OF ARKANSAS, FLORIDA AND MISSOURI. PRESIDENTIAL TOURS. PROTECTIVE TARIFF LAWS PROPOSED. CONTROVERSY WITH GEORGIA. REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS. TRADE OF TUB SOUTH. SLAVE-TRADE IN DEFIANCE OF TREATIES. REVIEWING thus particularly the affairs of the two great sections of the Union, we discover a most remarkable fact respecting the "Washington-Monroe policy" of these two administrations, it was, when fairly set before them, neither by the North nor by the South, recognised as the expression or as the ideal of their political systems. Monroe's prestige, as the friend of Jefferson and Madison, together with the exhaustion consequent on the war with Great Britain, and the decay of one of the most powerful motives of the earlier party contests admiration for France or England, and dislike of the other, all these causes kept matters quiet during the period from 1817 to 1825. But as soon as John Quincy Adams was seen at the head of affairs his name, awakening the suspicions of all true democrats, the method of his election being of ques- tionable constitutionality in the opinions of many (though Jefferson himself had by the same means climbed to the seat of Washington), his frank exposition of his predecessor's principles forcing all men to see how far democracy had drifted in the course of a single generation, and his success in opposition to^ General Jackson being, in a statesman, all offences in one, as the majority thought, then, too, was seen the hollowness of the political peace, which Monroe's panegyrists had so loudly proclaimed as the proof of his consummate ability. In Congress the vexatious obstruction of every government measure showed the dissatisfaction of the real sovereign of the United States, the majority. A.D. 1817-29.] STATES OF MISSISSIPPI AND ALABAMA. 201 In the North, let this one fact declare what John Quincy Adams himself felt : for the purpose of influencing the votes of the colleges in the election of 1828, he republished the story of his alleged discovery of British intrigues with the leaders of New England, with the design of severing those states from the national confederation, that story, which covered Jefferson in his retreat from a position more hostile to Great Britain than he intended to take up in person ; and which was the most unpardonable attack upon the politics and politicians of the North that could have been made or devised. For the South, the present chapter will show how little congeniality there actually was between it and the hybrid policy of these two Presidents. Our readers will not require from us an elaboration of this view of our subject; to those whom such studies please it will be sufficiently clear. Authority was given by the last Congress under Madison for the assembling of a constituent convention in the territory of Mississippi, that it might be erected into a sovereign state. And in the town of Washington, on the first Monday in July, 1817, forty-four representatives from the several counties included in it, met for that purpose. They sat for above five weeks, and on August the 15th, the frame of government they had constructed was accepted by the people. By this constitution the suffrage was conceded to free white males, twenty- one years of age, residents in the state for a year before any election, and for half a year in the district where the vote was to be given ; and enrolled in the militia, or legally exempt; or having paid a state or county tax. The executive power was vested in a governor, chosen biennially ; a lieutenant-governor being also elected with him, to take his place if removed by any means, and to preside in the senate. The General Assembly was made to consist of a senate, of which one-third was chosen annually ; and a house of representatives, chosen year by year, not to exceed a hundred in number, and the senators not to exceed a third of the number of representatives. This legislature was to meet annually. A supreme court was appointed at once, and it was left to the legislature to establish all other courts. The General Assembly had the appoint- ment of the judges, who were to hold office during good behaviour, till the age of sixty-five. Most to be noted, however, of all the provisions of this constitu- tion, was the property qualification required for the governor and the members of the legislature ; and the gradation making that for the governor double the qualification of a senator, and the senator's twice that of a representative ; by which the whole character of the democratic institutions of Mississippi was altered from that of democracy pure and genuine. But this in a slave state could not have been expected. Thus constituted, this new sovereignty was admitted into the Union on pecember the 10th, 1817. The same Act of Congress which authorised this proceeding severed from the territory of the Mississippi a portion which it erected into a new territory, called Alabama. The population here grew so rapidly, that on the 2nd of March, 1819, an Act was passed authorising the formation of a constitution with a view to admission into the Union. In July a convention met at Huntsville, and on the 2nd of August the constitution was accepted. It agrees so exactly with that of the sister state, Mississippi, that we need not offer any abstract of it. VOT. TI. D D 202 TERRITORIES OF ARKANSAS, FLORIDA, AND MISSOURI. [CHAP. V. On the 14th of the following December Alabama was formally admitted into the Union. On the day after, Congress gave permission to Alabama to constitute itself a state, the southern portion of the Missouri territory was erected into a new territory, and called Arkansas. It was organised soon afterwards on the second grade of territorial government. An attempt was made in the course of the debate on the Missouri question, to introduce into the Act relating to Arkansas provisos forbidding the importation of slaves, and arranging for the gradual ex- tinction of slavery here ; but it was not made bond fide, and it failed as was proper. Arkansas was, however, so far involved in the Missouri affair, that its northern boundary line was taken as the extreme frontier, to the north, of the slave section of the Union ; Missouri, which lay to the north of it, being ex- cepted at the same time, and other exceptions left for the slow but sure operation of time. In another chapter we have related at length the story of the so-called Seminole war, and the efforts made by diplomatists and filibusters (under authority, and in opposition to it) to obtain possession of Florida. The ratifica- tion of the treaty whereby Spain ceded this province to the United States, which occurred early in 1821, has also been mentioned. On the 17th of June, General Jackson, who had been appointed first governor and military commandant, with the powers of the old Spanish governors (and something more), took possession of the territory in the name of the United States, by the exchange of flags and the customary formalities. It was an office exactly in accordance with Jackson's taste and habits, for he was executive, legislative, and judiciary all at once ; in fact (as he afterwards used to call himself), the government; but it was not a good school for the presidency. The general retained his command till 1822, when the American population having increased so greatly as to include five thousand males, Florida was organised as a territory, in the first grade of territorial government. Three years later, in 1825, it was entitled to enter on the second grade. The white settlements were for the most part clustered round Pensacola, St. Mark's, Talla- hassee (which had been selected as the seat of government), and St. Augustine ; but the greater part of the country was still occupied by the native tribes of Indians. On the 6th of March, 1820, by Act of Congress, the people of the Missouri territory were authorised to hold a convention, and frame for themselves a state constitution, preparatory to admission into the Union ; on the 12th of June such a convention did meet at St. Louis ; on the 19th of the following month the constitution which had been framed was adopted; in the next year, 1821, on March the 2nd, the Act providing for the admission of Missouri as an indepen- dent and sovereign state was passed ; and finally, the President's proclamation on August the 10th, next following, announced that Missouri had complied with all the prescribed conditions, and was actually admitted as a member of the Federal Union. The constitution of Missouri was closely copied from that of Kentucky. It granted the suffrage to free white males, of full age, who had resided for a year in the state, and three months in the district where the vote was offered. The AD. 18ir-29.] PRESIDENTIAL TOURS, 203 General Assembly consisted of a senate, varying in number from fourteen to thirty-three, elected quadriennially, half going out every two years ; and a house of representatives, never to exceed a hundred in number, and elected biennially. The executive power was vested in a governor, elected for four years, and ineligible for the four years next following his term of office. A lieutenant- governor was ex officio president of the senate. The judiciary received their appointments from the governor, with the advice and consent of the senate, and held office during good behaviour till they attained the age of sixty-five. A supreme court, a chancellor, and circuit courts were created by the constitution ; other tribunals were left to the will of the legislature. One clause of this instrument was interpreted by the Northern party as authorising the legislature to prohibit the immigration of free persons of colour ; and the last stand against the admission of Missouri into the Union was made upon this clause. Had the Northern party been sincere in their advocacy of the cause of the negro, and in their maintenance of the constitutional privileges of free citizens of the United States, whether white or coloured, there would have been an immediate change made in the laws of several of the northern states, by which the liberty of the free man of colour was most vexatiously curtailed, and the laws would have been set in action to secure for him at once, and at least, all the privileges which were theoretically ascribed to him. No such steps were taken, and though several of the northern states did release themselves from the odium of being formally and by law slave states, not one was logical or virtuous enough to carry out in its domestic institutions the principles maintained by its representatives in Congress. Monroe made two tours in the southern states. In the summer of 1818 he visited the coast of Chesapeake Bay (apparently) with no other object than those professed namely, of examining into the condition of the coast defences and selecting the site of a naval depot. He was much gratified by the respectful attentions every where paid to him by his fellow-citizens, but as he was at home, his journey not extending beyond the borders of Virginia, this was only what he had a right to expect. It could not be compared with the triumph of his northern progress. Next summer he accomplished a wider circuit ; proceeding to Charleston first, and thence to Savannah and Augusta, and returning through the Cherokee country to Nashville, and so by Louisville and Lexington, in Kentucky, to Washington again. We are not greatly concerned in the objects he had in view regarding these tours as affairs in themselves very praiseworthy, but ren- dered perfectly needless by the brevity of the term of the President's office, to which, mainly, we ascribe the rarity of them subsequently. Internal improvements and the tariff were the principal questions of national interest on which the southern states expressed a decided opinion, in opposition to Congress or the administration ; for these were the two most prominent " tests " of party policy under John Quincy Adams. And the resistance offered to the "American system" in the South led to one of the critical junctures for the constitution and the very existence of the United States. South Carolina was the focus of this irregular opposition to the government, but the entire South joined in it. We have not in this chapter to speak of the most violent manifes- 204 PROTECTIVE TARIFF LAWS PROPOSED. [CHAP. V tations, which occurred at a later period than we have reached, but we must carefully describe the first displays, for the oppugnation which was at the outset so tempered and mild, grew at last to that height of contumacy which, as nulli- fication, was a new phenomenon for political philosophers to classify and explain. Early in 1826 the legislature of South Carolina adopted a series of resolu- tions, by which they declared that Congress ought not to exercise the powers granted it to effect objects not specified in the constitution, nor to lay taxes for purposes not distinctly enumerated there that it has no power to adopt a national system of internal improvements, nor to tax one state for roads and canals constructed in another, and that it was " an unconstitutional exercise of power to lay duties to protect domestic manufactures." Virginia took up the same line of conduct the following year. William B. Giles there carried a series of resolutions, by which a cojnmittee was appointed for the purpose of inquiring into and reporting upon the limits of the jurisdiction of the state, and of the general government over the territory, persons, and things of the state, and the power of Congress to ' ' violate the right of private property," and to "take it from the owner and give it to another person, neither rendering public service " particularly with regard to the laws for effecting internal improvements and imposing a tariff. This committee was further charged to ascertain the extent of the violation " of the two great principles upon which the constitution of the United States is founded, to wit, generality and equality ;" and "to report such measures, for the adoption of the General Assembly, as they shall think will most effectually tend to arrest these usurpations [_' of power on the part of the general government/ that is to say], to stay the hand of avarice and despotism, to reinstate the good people of this commonwealth in all their essential rights and liberties ; and the government thereof in all the rights granted and secured to it by the fundamental laws." In 1827 the excitement continued, but chiefly as part of the general agitation of the Jacksonian, or "advanced" democratic party, against the administration. South Carolina and Georgia were the most forward, by legislative resolutions, to protest against the protective tariff laws and schemes for internal improvement, and also against the " American Colonisation Society," of which we shall speak again. Copies of these protests were sent to the governors of all the other states, and to both Houses of Congress. About the same time that the convention of friends of the protective tariff was held at Harrisburg, there was assembled at Columbia, in South Carolina, a rival convention, in which the principles of the opponents of Clay's system found free and clear utterance. It was maintained there " that the protecting system was a relic of monarchical and monopolising policy, inconsistent with the principles of a free government that free trade, in its most extended sense, is the true American policy that the consumer should always be at liberty supply himself where he can do so cheapest, and that the objects to which industry and capital are to be applied should be left to the free choice and sagacity of individuals, which will always conduct it into the most beneficial channels that if a business is profitable, it needs no protection ; if unprofitable, it deserves none that taxing the consumer for the benefit of the producer is unequal, unjust, and oppressive, and that it is a grievance not to be patiently A.D. 1817-29.] AGITATION CONCERNING THE TARIFF BILL. 205 submitted to, and but too well calculated to bring on the dangerous inquiry, in what manner are the southern states benefited by the Union ?" Fired by the eloquence of Dr. Cooper, of Columbia College, the convention, in its memorial to the state legislature, declared " the national compact to be broken," and entreated them ' ' to deliberate on the momentous question, and devise some means of freeing them from a yoke too heavy to be borne '," and in its memorial to Congress complained that " the tax laws to be enacted were in future to be, as for many years past they had been, not national, but sectional ; so that the benefit of the Union to that state was becoming daily more dubious and disputable." But in spite of this agitation, and these resolutions and .protests, as we have seen, the offensive Tariff Bill passed ; whereupon " the discussions, which had been sufficiently animated in Congress, became more so when freed from the restraints of legislative decorum. The ultra opponents of the tariff now endea- voured to show that the passage of this law was a violation of the Federal compact ; and that it was the duty of the southern states to act upon the subject, in their capacity of sovereign and independent states. If they remained quiet, their inevitable ruin was predicted. Great Britain, the principal consumer of their produce, would adopt retaliatory measures, and the closing of their chief market was portrayed as the inevitable consequence of perseverance in this policy." Thus, the South now became phil-Anglican, and repeated all that the North had said before the late war. But, most remarkably, although these representations, when made by the North, were held up as irrefragable proofs of treachery to the Union and collusion with the enemy, they betrayed no such parricidal spirit in the South. This, however, is a very softened picture of the feeling which prevailed. " No events, since the commencement of the revolution, so much resembled the tumultuous and disorderly proceedings of that period, as the excitement in the South occasioned by the tariff." The unconstitutionality of the law, and its injurious tendency with regard to southern commerce, as well as its partial and unequal operation relatively to the two great sections of the country, were most warmly insisted upon. Newspaper editors adopted the most inflammatory style of writing ; and declaimers, who were looked upon as orators, addressed to great meetings in different places furious denunciations of the protective law. It was " a tax upon the planter, for the benefit of northern and western capital." " The constitution, the palladium of our liberties, was violated." " The Federal judiciary was not to be depended on." " The entire loss of the cotton market was immediately to follow the adoption of the restrictive system ; and this sacrifice of southern capital was to be made solely for the benefit of the northern manufacturer." " It was time to calculate the value of the Union." " The southern states already contributed a disproportionate share for the benefit of common protection." " Was it to be endured that a section of the Union, which for a fourth part of a century had furnished nearly all the exports, and paid the revenue of the government, the transportation of whose pro- ductions to market had been already burdened by a tax for the encouragement of the navigation of New England,- was it to be endured that it should bo further taxed for the exclusive benefit of the other sections of the country?" 206 AGITATION CONCERNING THE TARIFF BILL. [ci[AP. V " With a numerical majority, which each succeeding census would increase, the manufacturing states were determined to sacrifice the real interests of the South to their own imaginary interests ; and in spite of arguments the most irrefragable, they prostrated, by mere dint of members, the representation of the planting states in the national legislature." " Nothing remained but to devise some means of preserving the peculiar interests of the South from being sacrificed by the greater power of the northern and western states, guided as it was by cupidity and avarice " " All distinctions between the Federal and state govern- ments would be abolished, and swallowed up in its constructive powers ; the rights and local interests of the states depended upon the mercy of Congress, and the delicate relation between master and slave placed at the discretion of a majority, having no interest in its existence, no knowledge of its details, and only stimulated to abolish it by humanity without discretion, or by a fanaticism which regarded no consequences." It becomes us to observe, in these condensed reports of the views now put forth in the South, how the manufacturing and exporting interests were brought into collision instead of the commercial and agricultural interests manufactures being the domestic aspect of commerce, and exports the commercial aspect of agriculture, so that the names, and not the parties, were new in the political arena. Nevertheless, the great change in parties since Jefferson founded the Republicans or anti-Federalists was evinced by this repudiation of his Chinese policy, and avowal of the maxims of free-trade by these leaders of the new democratic opposition. How intimately slavery was concerned in this free-trade movement we did not require this open confession of it to prove, but we use the declaration to confirm the statements we have elsewhere made upon this head. North Carolina protested against the tariff, on the ground of its oppressive- ness as a tax ; and without denying to Congress the right to protect manufactures in that way, they accused it of ' ' violating the spirit of the constitution." The legislature of Alabama " went somewhat further ; and, first denying the consti- tutional power of Congress to lay duties expressly to protect manufactures, resolved that it was a palpable usurpation, and little less than legalised pillage of her citizens, to which she would not submit until the constitutional means of resistance were exhausted." Virginia, not committing itself by such high language, nevertheless declared, that as there was "no common arbiter" for construing the constitution, " each state had the right to construe the compact for itself;" but qualified this declaration by resolving further, " that in giving such construction, each state should be guided, as Virginia had ever been, by a sense of forbearance and respect for the opinion of the other states, and by com- munity of attachment to the Union, so far as the same might be consistent with self-preservation, and a determined purpose to preserve the purity of our repub- lican institutions ; " and avowed its conviction that the protective tariff laws were unconstitutional, partial, impolitic, oppressive, and " ought to be repealed." " It was, however, reserved for the legislatures of South Carolina and Georgia to array themselves in opposition to the national government on other subjects besides the tariff, while on that their hostility was carried to an excess which has not often been witnessed in the United States. In the former, the committee reported resolutions declaring the tariff laws to be a violation of the spirit of the A.D. 1817-29.] CONTROVERSY WITH GEORGIA. 207 constitution ; that Congress had no power to construct roads and canals for the purposes of internal improvement ; aftd no power to patronise, or make appro- priations for the benefit of, the American Colonisation Society. The legislature of Georgia confined its remonstrance to the tariff and internal improvement, but after declaring the constitution should be so construed as to deny the exercise of these powers, declared, ' that as an equal party to that instrument, it would insist upon that construction, and would submit to no other/ ' South Carolina seriously discussed the question whether its senators and representatives should not abandon their seats in Congress. In some places the law, and effigies of its principal supporters, were publicly burnt. Georgia was so happy as to have less violent politicians at its head, and though they could not and would not prevent the law in question from being declared unconstitutional and injurious, they got it upon record that " as the Union was dear to them, it should not be jeopardied by any measures of an angry and violent character." They also recommended the people of Georgia " to produce within themselves, as much as possible, the principal articles affected by the tariff." And it was thus that the doctrine of " nullification " originated ; and from this time, partly as the consequence of the Missouri debates, partly as the result of this free-trade agitation, a serious division dates between the North and the South. How the state of Georgia became involved in a controversy with the Federal government upon a private matter ; how there were mixed up in the dispute the old Yazoo-lands' question, the older jealousy of the aborigines, and the ineradicable southern suspicion of the government because at the head of it stood a man from Massachusetts; and how the upshot proved the vast dis- crepancy between the august theory of the United States' constitution and the reality, we now will relate, proceeding thus at once to the head of dealings with the Indians, in order to facilitate our readers' comprehension of our general view of this portion of the country. It will be borne in mind, that by virtue of its independent sovereignty, Georgia, which was one of the weakest states of the confederacy at the end of the revolutionary war (mainly because of the ludicrous contrast between the paucity of its citizens and the narrowness of its settlements, with the imperial width of its "claims"), gave trouble enough to the central government, by resisting its demands for the cession of some parts of its vast and unoccupied domains; and that it stood out, though all the other states similarly circumstanced had ceded their " claims," and even raised new hindrances to the operation of the government by fraudulent land sales, until the year 1802, when a compromise was effected, the western boundary of the state was fixed, and the United States not only undertook to satisfy the claimants to the Yazoo-lands, but also to extinguish the Indian title to all the territory yet in their possession within the limits of Georgia, "as soon as it could be done peaceably and on reasonable terms." This agreement was, undoubtedly, advantageous to the general govern- ment, both by putting an end to a difficulty otherwise insoluble, and by removing the worst obstacles to its measures for acquiring all the inland region of the natives, and erecting new states there. But it was still more ad van- 208 CONTROVERSY WITH GEORGIA. , [CHAP. V. tageous, in proportion, to Georgia,, as it settled its existing disputes with the general government and its neighbouring states, 'and with the Yazoo claimants, without any compromise of its dignity; and it secured to the state about twenty-five millions of unappropriated acres, then in the hands of the Creeks and Cherokees, without having to pay for them, or to be at any trouble respecting them. Such a compact, if made with a northern state, we can well believe would have aroused the patriotic ardour of the South, much as the tariff acts did at a later period; and it would have been denounced as oppressive, partial, unjust, and unconstitutional and " nullified " accordingly. Fifteen million acres of these lands had been purchased fro'm the Indians, and conveyed to the state of Georgia before the year 1824; above nine millions and a half remaining in the possession of the Indians, the larger moiety belonging to the Cherokees, and the remainder to the Creeks. And just before the termination of Monroe's presidencies, at the solicitation of the governor, a commission had been appointed to conclude a treaty with the Creeks, for the purchase of their share, and the removal of the tribe beyond the Mississippi. These facts must be noted, for Senator Benton, evidently speaking in the name of his party, says " No time was limited for the fulfilment of this obligation, and near a quarter of a century had passed away without seeing its full execution. At length Georgia, seeing no end to this delay, became impatient ; and justly so, the long delay being equivalent to a breach of the agreement; for although no time was limited for its execution, yet a reasonable time was naturally understood, and that incessant and faithful endeavours should be made by the United States to comply with this undertaking." But in conformity with a treaty concluded with the Creeks before the compact with Georgia was entered into, the United States had endeavoured to civilise the Indians, and to persuade them to give up their wandering and savage habits, and settle on their lands as cultivators of the soil. And in this part of the country (whether the efforts were more earnestly made, or the agents employed were more able than those engaged elsewhere; or whether the aptitude of these tribes of the south for civilised life was greater, or that bugbear of the north-west British influence was in reality a counteracting force to American philanthropy) assuredly, so much effect had been pro- duced, that the red men were fully alive to the superior comfort and security of civilisation, and were unwilling to encounter the hardships and privations of a return to the hunter's mode of living in the rude country beyond " the Father of Waters." Or, was it not that they felt as aborigines always do, and others beside them, that repugnance to the sale of their old lands, where their fathers had lived and were buried, which always grows in strength in proportion as it is perceived to be vain ? Our remembrance of the Creek and Seminole wars, and the part taken in them by these half-reclaimed savages, and a circum- stance soon to be recorded, appear to us to point to such a reason, rather than to their sense of the advantages of civilisation, as the cause of their unwilling- ness to give up their possessions in Georgia. Whatever the cause, the efforts of the commissioners were to no purpose. A law was made at the general council of the nation, forbidding the sale of any more of their territory, on pain of death. They told the negociators that they A.D. 1817-29.] CONTROVERSY WITH GEORGIA*. 209 had no more lands than they wanted for themselves ; and no present nor soli- citations could induce them to return a different answer. But after the close of the council, when the great majority of the chiefs had gone away, some of those who remained, fifty in all, were persuaded by a famous chief, a half-breed, named General William M'Intosh, to join him in ceding to the United States, by treaty, on their own responsibility, all the lauds held by the Creek tribes in Georgia and Alabama. It was by this means that the treaty of the Indian Springs was concluded on the 12th of February, 1825 ; and having been sent to Washington, it received the sanction of the Senate on the last day of the session and the administration, March the 3rd. When the Indians at home learned these facts, they were filled with indig- nation ; a secret council was called, and it was resolved there not to accept the treaty, and to put M'Intosh to death, as an offender against the law respecting the further cession of land. On the 30th of April, a party of Indians, despatched by the council for the purpose, surrounded the delinquent's house, and shot him, with another chief, who also had signed the treaty. Whilst Governor Troup, on his side, contending that, after the ratification of the treaty, the fee-simple of the lands vested in Georgia, and could be disposed of by the government of that state, called the legislature together, sent surveyors into the territory to divide it into lots, and arranged for the distribution of them amongst the white inhabitants of the country, by lottery; at the same time ordering out a body of militia to enforce the survey, should the Creeks offer any violent resistance. The Creeks, finding the governor of Georgia determined to carry out the provisions of the treaty, prepared to defend their lands by arms ; but at the same time sent a messenger to Washington, to inform the President of all the cir- cumstances of the case, and to claim the protection of the general government. Adams, who had just entered upon his office, hearing these statements, and the complaints of Governor Troup against the Indian agent, appointed a special commissioner to investigate the affair ; and at the same time ordered General Gaines to repair to the Creek country, with a competent force, to prevent the outbreak of hostilities. The result of the inquiry might have been anticipated ; it established the charges of bad faith and corruption against the authors of the treaty, and proved that the nation generally (" forty-nine fiftieths" of it, says the report, with extreme precision) was opposed to it. The President therefore decided that the Creeks should not be interfered with, until the next meeting of Congress. " All Georgia was in a flame," says Benton ; and the governor even threat- ened to take the execution of the treaty into his own hands, being encouraged by the sympathy expressed by the neighbouring states. But the President's tone was so firm and decided, that he thought it better to leave the affair to be settled by the constitutional authorities. Anxious, however, to avoid a collision with Georgia, which insisted upon the fulfilment of the fraudulently obtained treaty as " justice" to itself, Adams '(whose sympathies, except on the score of humanity, could not be with the red men) renewed negociations with the Creeks. And in this he was helped by the appearance of a deputation from their grand council at Washington, sent to oppose the attempts of a party of M'Intosh's followers to enlist the American government on their side. " This VOL. II. E E 210 CONTROVERSY WITH GEORGIA. {CHAP. V deputation was instructed not to admit, in any shape, the validity of the late treaty, nor the illegality of M'Intosh's execution ; but to fix upon some course by which the tribes might not be entirely removed from their country, and at the same time to enable the United States to perform its contract with Georgia." When Congress met at the end of the year, the negociations were incom- plete, but on the 24th of January, 1826, a new treaty was signed, by which the former treaty was declared void, and the Creeks ceded to the United States the greater part of their lands in Georgia (but retained all their pos- sessions in Alabama), for a consideration far more liberal, and more equitably arranged, than that promised by the treaty of the Indian Springs. On the 5th of February, an account of these transactions was rendered to Congress in a Message, in which the President declared his determination to fulfil the duty of protecting the Creeks, as the government was bound by the treaty of 1790, by all the force at his command. That this, however, he concluded, "will be resorted to only in the event of the failure of all other expedients provided by the laws, a pledge has been given by the forbearance to employ it at this time." The senators from Georgia, and others who ranged themselves in the opposition, were unwilling that the new treaty should be ratified; and the committee on Indian affairs, to which it was referred, reported against the ratification, through their chairman, Thomas H. Benton, on the grounds (as he himself tells us) " that it annulled the M'Intosh treaty ; thereby implying its illegality, and apparently justifying the fate of its authors, because it did not cede the whole of the Creek lands in Georgia, and because it ceded none in Alabama." Further negociations were recommended, and on the last day of March, by a supplemental article, nearly the whole of the lands of the Creeks within the limits of Georgia were ceded to the United States, a tract of land beyond the Mississippi was provided for those who might choose to migrate thither, and the expense of the removal, and the means of subsistence for the first year, were guaranteed by the government. The ratification of the treaty, thus supplemented, was carried by a vote of thirty to seven, the minority consisting of southern men (three of them members of the committee which had reported against ratifying, originally), who disapproved the implied censure on the authors of the former treaty. The senators from Georgia also offered a protest against both treaty and ratification, which was entered on the journal of the House. The representatives who also were in favour of obtaining a cession of all the Indian lands in Georgia, nevertheless declared that ' ' the law of the land, as set forth in the treaty at Washington, ought to be maintained by all necessary, constitutional, and legal means;" and were nearly unanimous in voting the appropriations required to carry the treaty into effect. Although the Cherokee controversy did not end in the period we are speaking of, it will be more convenient to relate so much of it as falls within the limits of the administration of John Quincy Adams, here, than to leave it to a future chapter. This nation of Indians had long been distinguished for the progress it had made in the arts and habits of civilised life. "Advantageously situated in the north-west of Georgia, and extending themselves into Alabama and Ten- A.D. 1817-29.] THE CHEROKEE DIFFICULTY. 211 nessee, they occcupy," says the Annual Register of this date, " a well- watered and healthy country, conveniently divided into hill and dale. The northern part is even mountainous, but the southern and western parts are composed of extensive and fertile plains, covered with the finest timber, and furnishing excellent pasturage." The Indians owned large herds of cattle, horses and swine, and numerous flocks of goats and sheep. They cultivated Indian corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, tobacco, arid cotton; were successful gardeners, and had many apple and- peach orchards. Their \rade with the adjoining states was considerable, and they could take their cotton to market even in New Orleans. Handicrafts of various kinds were pursued, and blankets and cotton cloth were manufactured amongst them. Numerous flourishing villages might be seen in every part of their country, and there were many public roads, and houses of entertainment kept by natives, there. Further even than this, a chief of theirs, Guess by name, had devised an alphabet, consisting of eighty-six characters which answered its purpose so well, that a printing-press had been established, and a newspaper. Nay, they so far copied the ways of the white men, that in 1827 they organised themselves as an independent state, with a regular representative government, divided into executive, legislative, and judicial departments; and a written constitution. Trial by jury, religious freedom, schools, .temperance in the use of ardent spirits, and respect for the female sex, also testified to the reality and extent of their civilisation. Christianity was professed by them; and saddest sign of all, for they had no captives taken in war, towards whom to display the first dawnings of humanity they were slaveholders. The framing of a constitution, without so much as asking the sanction of the Federal government, whilst they occupied part of the territory under its suzerainty, was a step of very questionable propriety. But no southern state and Georgia least of all, at the time could, without self-conviction, act as public accusers of the Cherokee nation, for this act of ultra- democracy. The Indians might most reasonably have doubted whether they should ever, under the immediate sway of the whites, be admitted to such political privileges as they had learned to understand, and felt themselves entitled to. And yet the consequences of this virtual " declaration of independence," which, if allowed, would have diminished the territory of three states at least, and involved them in they knew not what collisions, might well have appeared to those states to warrant the most prompt and decisive measures. These results of the incon- sistency between the political principles which the United States had proclaimed as the basis of their own organisation, and those which they with strong hand enforced upon the weaker races, whom they could subject to their control and of the necessarily false relations in which the citizens, the state authorities, and the general government of the United States, alike, stood to those races deserved at the time very serious consideration from the statesmen of the Union; and the removal of the Indians to the western teriitory, though it staved off the " difficulty " occasioned by flie residence of their tribes in the states, by no means exonerated them from the duty of pondering this subject well. Upon these and similar considerations was based the scheme for removing the Indians to the west of the Mississippi. Georgia, with Alabama, claimed the 212 TRADE OF THE SOUTH. [CHAP. V. uncontrolled and supreme jurisdiction over all the lands within their boundaries ; arguing that two independent governments could not exist within the same limits. But the jurisdiction of the United States in Georgia and Alabama must have been excepted in this argument; or the putting forward of such a claim was, in fact, a dissolution of the Union. The next step was more practical : measures were taken to extend the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the state government over the whole of the Indian country included in the two states spoken of; and Congress was called upon to prohibit the Cherokees from exer- cising the rights of self-government under the constitution they had framed. We now turn to the trade of the South, and first of its great staple cotton. Owing in part to the greater extent of land planted with this valuable article, and in part to improved methods of culture, the quantity grown in the United States increased continually. In 1817 the whole growth was estimated a hundred and ninety-five millions of pounds, of which some two-thirds, valued at 22,000,000 dollars, was exported. In 1828 the whole growth had risen to three hundred and twenty -five millions of pounds, of which the same proportion was exported. But though the actual exports at the latter date were double those of the former, the value was precisely the same ! A fact, "this, of most momentous significance for those who consider the bearings of this trade upon the unhappy thralls, on whom the heaviest pressure in every fluctuation invariably falls. About the middle of the period included between those dates, the growth of the United States was a third of the whole quantity produced in all the world. Sea island cotton, being the produce of a limited tract of country, never rose above fifteen million pounds in quantity, and usually averaged about nine millions ; the actual amount depending entirely upon the season. The total quantity imported into Great Britain in 1817 was a hundred and twenty-six millions and a quarter of pounds, and in 1828 two hundred and twenty-two millions and three-quarters; whence the importance of a good understanding with Great Britain, for the southern states, can be easily deduced. The success of Kinsey Burden, of Colleton, South Carolina, as a grower of cotton, has been commemorated ; but during the period we now speak of, it surpassed all he had before attained, " His crop of 1826, in sixty bags, brought in market 110 cents per lb., and his crop of the following year, 125 cents." The average prices of ordinary cotton being for those years 11 cents and 9^ cents, and sea island cotton, on an average, being worth two hundred and fifty per cent, more than the other sorts ; these samples must have been four times more valuable than the average of sea island cotton in those years. " Mr. Burden's wonderful success excited quite a sensation, but his secret was kept closely for many years. William Elliott suggested that it might be in the character of the seed used; and upon the hint several set to work. Hugh Wilson, amongst the most successful of these, realised in the ensuing year [1828] 125 cents per lb. for his product/' The average of ordinary cotton in that year was 10 cents. " Two bags of extra fine cotton, raised in 1828, brought 2 dollars per lb. ; the highest price, says Mr. Seabrook, obtained in this or any other country from which cotton wool is exported." Rice, which is another product of the South, is a very fluctuating crop, in respect of exports. During the twelve years we treat of, the quantity exported A.O. 1817-29.] THE SLAVE QUESTION. 213 varied from seventy-two thousand tierces to a hundred and seventy-five thou- sand ; and the value, from 3,250,000 dollars to under 1,500,000 the higher value commonly, but not always, accompanying the lesser exports. In 1826, there was introduced a superior method of " dressing " rice for sowing, called " claying/' which consisted in steeping the seed in clayed water. The advantage being that particles of the clay adhere to the rough husk of the seed in sufficient quantity to make it stick to the earth when the field is flooded, and in conse- quence it is not washed away. The average value of the export trade in tobacco to the United States was 6,000,000 dollars at this time, and the quantity exported, manufactured and not, ranged between sixty-two hogsheads and a hundred. Sugar was imported, in quantities varying from fifty-one million pounds to ninety-four, though it was produced in the South. In November, 1827, the legislature of Georgia made an effort to stimulate the flagging industry of the state. The Pine Barrens were pointed out as places where silk and wine might be produced ; the cultivation of tobacco, indigo, madder, the white poppy, and various kinds of grass was proposed ; and it was recommended to turn certain large tracts of country, then useless, into sheep- walks. Various premiums for success in these respects were proposed. The cultivation of the plant yielding castor oil was commenced in the same state about this time. "We read of four companies for the manufacture of cotton being incorporated in Virginia, in the year 1828. And in 1826, the Maryland Institute exhibited " the products of domestic industry " of that state, and amongst them " chemical preparations, cloths, cassimeres, and satinets, various sorts of cotton goods and carpeting, saddles and harness, leather of different kinds, currying knives, fire brick, paper and paper hangings, articles of iron ware and castings, sideboards, tables, pianos, &c., stone and earthen ware, gloves, lace, silk, worsted, straw bonnets and plaitings, oil cloths and carpets, shovels and spades, and many other things, most of which were of superior workmanship, quality, or beauty." As regards the great and all-important question of slavery, our readers need but to note the guarded and ambiguous language of the constitution where it refers to slavery. When slavery should cease, as the framers of the instrument of government hoped it speedily would, not a word would have required alter- ation, not a single clause would have become obsolete. But neither the South nor the North was in earnest on the question, and negro slavery became a pretext to fight other and more sordid battles. Let us now refer to what we have said on the Missouri question, in several places, for certain remarks and facts related to this subject, and to the first two chapters of the book, for notices of what Congress did respecting it. In some of the northern states, the feeling was decidedly more humane, and might have been led to much more effectual measures towards effecting the relief of the nation from this gangrene, had there been courage and consistency in the local leaders. New York and New Jersey forbade the export of slaves ; and called upon Congress to assist them in enforcing their statutes. Pennsylvania strenuously resisted the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law; and a new bill, which seemed to be on the verge of becoming law, and which would have bound the northern legislatures to see to the detection and capture of the fugitives from the South, failed through a sudden '214 THE SLAVE QUESTION. . [CHAP. V. awakening of the northern members of the House of Representatives to its real character. The total number of slaves in each of the northern states, at the census next after the period now under consideration, will, perhaps better than any other statement, demonstrate the real position of this question there. In 1830 there were in Maine two slaves, in New Hampshire three, none in Vermont, but one in Massachusetts, and he over a hundred years old ; in Rhode Island seventeen, in Connecticut twenty-five, in New York seventy-five, in New Jersey two thou- sand two hundred and fifty-four, and in Pennsylvania four hundred and three ; in Ohio six, in Indiana three, in Illinois, seven hundred and forty-seven, and in Michigan territory thirty-two. The total for that section of the Union being three thousand five hundred and sixty-eight; whilst the number in the southern section was little short of two millions. The presence of a single slave in any state really involved the allowance of slavery as fully as the presence of a million ; but the scanty numbers in the North undoubtedly showed the approaching extinction of slavery as a social condition as clearly as the rapid increase of the number of slaves in the South indicated the growing resolution to retain their characteristic " institution " to the last. Before we pass on, and speak of other parts of this momentous subject, let us say, briefly, that Great Britain agreed, by a convention negociated by Gallatin and signed in November, 1826, to pay into the treasury of the United States 1,204,960 dollars, as a compensation of the slaves who had been carried- away at the end of the last war, " for the use of those citizens of the United States who had been sufferers by the infraction of the first article of the treaty of peace, in full satisfaction of their claims." Great Britain thus deserves honourable acknowledgment of her consistency, in thus consenting to suffer loss rather than send back into thraldom any one who by her help had been so happy as to escape. When the state of Mississippi was organised, similar restrictions to those which in Kentucky were placed on the legislature were inserted, but slaves might be emancipated without an act of the legislature to give validity to the deed ; and on the other hand, in trials of slaves, it was only in capital cases that even a petty jury was allowed. This, however, is but a small and venial instance of the inconsistencies entailed by the " institution." " In the year 1822 a conspiracy was set on foot at Charleston among the blacks, to destroy the city and massacre the inhabitants. It was managed with much secrecy and adroitness, and discovered but a short time before it was to have been carried into execution. It resulted in the conviction of eighty of the conspirators, thirty of whom suffered capital punishment. Though this con- spiracy was among the slave population, the free coloured people were suspected of being its principal instigators." So says one writer, a northern man ; another, a southern, says that the insurrectionary movement " excited in Charleston a suspicion, amounting in many minds to conviction, that there was a party in the North tampering with southern institutions." And so the " South Carolina Association" was formed, " to watch the movements of this party in the North, and to prevent, if possible, the access to the slave population of emissaries or pedlers of pamphlets." A.D. 1817-29.] TJIE SLAVE QUESTION. Leaving this story of an intended insurrection as we find it, we may observe, that if this had been all that the "association" did, not much blame, if but little praise, would have been accorded to it. But it contrived to procure a law, which, as it is hard to characterise in temperate phraseology, we will record without any attempt at comment. By this statute not only was the entrance of free coloured persons into the state prohibited, but it was also decreed that if any vessel, either from another state or from a foreign country, having on board, in any capacity, any free persons of colour, should enter any port or harbour of South Carolina, such persons should be seized and confined in jail until the departure of the vessel, its captain being bound to take them away and pay the expenses of their detention, neglect to do which exposed him to two months' imprisonment and a fine of 1,000 dollars, and them to be sold as slaves. And here we close our story of the administration of "the Washington Monroe policy." BOOK III. CHAPTER I. PROGRESS OF THE UNION TINDER JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY. REMOVALS FROM OFFICE. THE UNITED STATES' LAND SYSTEM. PROTECTION. "NULLIFICATION." JACKSON'S VETOES. CHANGES IN THE CABINET. THE GREAT BANK QUESTION. JACKSON RE-ELECTED. "NULLIFICATION" EXTINGUISHED. THE "COMPROMISE" OF 1833. THE BANK AND CURRENCY CONTROVERSY. PUBLIC DISTRESS. CLAY'S RESOLUTIONS. THE GOLD COINAGE. ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE JACKSON. COMMERCIAL SPECULATIONS. ELECTION OF VAN BUREN. RETRENCHMENT and Reform were the watchwords of Jackson's party, during the severe election contest which had issued in the overthrow of all his opponents, and the attainment of the presidential chair by a military chief. The blandness of Monroe, aided by the tranquillity of the period during which he held office, obliterated the Federalist party, and sapped the strength of the old Democratic party too, which had been weakened by the importation of Federal doctrines into its "platform" by Clay and the "war party." The election and administration of Jackson completed the destruction of Jeffersonian democracy, and the change of the government, in 1829, as much deserves the name of a "revolution" as did Jefferson's accession to power, in 1801. " Reform and Retrenchment," this was ""the most condensed summary of Jackson's domestic policy, as he wished it to be understood, whilst he was busied in his canvass. Happily for him, they were so vague, that almost any- thing might be made afterwards to look like the fulfilment of the promises implied in them. We shall soon, however, see how the new President interpreted and fulfilled the vows which, as a candidate, he had made. On March the 4th, 1829 (John Quincy Adams having departed from Washington), with ceremonies closely resembling those observed at the inaugura- tion of the preceding Presidents, General Jackson was solemnly inducted into office, and made his inaugural address. In which, with brief prelude, he thus expounded his principles and intentions: "In administering the laws of Congress, I shall keep steadily in view the \ limitations as well as the extent of the executive power; trusting thereby to I discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority. With ; foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace, and to cultivate friendship ; on fair and honourable terms; and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise, to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation, rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people. "In such measures as I may be called on to pursue, in regard to the rights of the separate states, I hope to be animated by a proper respect for those sovereign AD. 1829-37.] POLICY OF PRESIDENT JACKSON. 217 members of our Union ; taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves, with those they have granted to the confederacy. " The management of the public revenue, that searching operation in all governments, is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours ; and it will of course demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Under t'very aspect in Avhich it can be considered, it would appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously, both because it will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real independence, and because it will counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy, which a profuse expenditure of money by the government is but too apt to engender. "With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of imposts with a view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and compromise, in which the constitution was formed, requires that the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, should be equally favoured ; and that, perhaps, the only exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar en- couragement of any products of either of them, that may be found essential to our national independence. " Internal improvement, and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal government, are of high importance. " Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments, in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment The gradual increase of our navy, .... the preservation of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, .... are plainly prescribed by prudence But the bulwark of our defence is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population, must render us invincible. " The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list of executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task of reform, which will require, particularly, the correction of those abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal government into conflict with the freedom of election; and the counteraction of those causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment, and have placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands. " In the performance of a task thus generally delineated, I shall endeavour to select men whose diligence and talents will ensure, in their respective stations, able and faithful co-operation, depending for the advancement of the public service more on the integrity and zeal of the public officers, than on their numbers." First amongst the practical expositions of the policy of the new administra- tion, must needs come the selection of the members of the cabinet ; and no long time was left for conjecture and rumour ; but when the list was announced, although no objection could be made in the Senate, considerable disappointment was felt throughout the country. Martin Van Buren, who was at the time governor of New York, and who had been a warm supporter of Crawford, was made Secretary of State. Samuel D. Ingham, a Pennsylvanian adherent of the VOL. n. F F 218 REMOVALS FROM OFFICE. [CHAP. I, President was (by the influence of Calhoun) appointed Secretary of the Treasury. John H. Eaton, one of Jackson's most confidential personal friends, received the post of Secretary of War. John Branch was named Secretary of the Navy ; and John M'Pherson Berrien, Attorney-general. The office of Postmaster-general had, even by Jefferson, been coveted, by reason of the vast amount of petty patronage pertaining to it, and Jackson was resolved to make it a cabinet office. But M'Lean, who had been appointed by Monroe, refused to turn his department, which was especially one of public utility, into an engine to serve mere party purposes ; wherefore, he was removed to a bench in the Supreme Court, and William T. Barry, an old friend and follower of the President, was put into his place. This completed the circle of responsible advisers to the chief magistrate of the Union. And, as Van Bur en was unable to enter upon the duties of his office at once, for he had to disencumber himself of his governorship, his place was temporarily filled by James A. Hamilton, the son of that object of Jefferson's anti-monarchical aversion and fictions, General Alexander Hamilton, who was killed by Burr in a duel. No time was lost in putting the new system of " reform " into operation. It was a very simple one ; but there was no essential novelty in it, and yet it took the country by surprise, both becuse it so little corresponded with Jackson's avowed principles, and because it was hard to say why it should have been promised under so imposing a name. Our readers will not fail to remember that the new President had not been prominent as a politician in that character he was almost unknown; and from the few votes he had given in Congress, and other public indications, he would certainly have been regarded as one of the " Washington-Monroe " school. His party was formed upon the basis of personal attachment and admiration, for it was by his personal qualities alone his energy, his courage, his inflexible resolution, his imperious and unscrupulous conduct when in command, and, as the upshot of all these, his success that he had collected such a vast constituency. Whatever of politics had marked his party during the preceding administration, had come from the fact that Adams' political opponents had merged in it; and the force of numbers had rendered their action simply negative and obstructive. This " reform " proved to be nothing but an extensive removal of the subaltern and inferior office-holders under government, upon the self-same ground which, long ago, Jefferson defined and vindicated. Jefferson himself was not the inventor of it, his originality consisted in the application of a power, which was (constructively) bestowed by the constitution upon the President. Jackson's improvement consisted in the prodigious enlargement of the field in which he exercised this power, and the vast increase of the numbers he brought it to bear upon. The highest number of removals effected by any preceding President was thirty-nine ; this was the extent to which Jefferson, in the course of eight years, for all reasons, had displaced Federal officials. His immediate predecessor, in the four years of his term, had removed ten, one of whom was a defaulter. Washington and Monroe removed nine each, during their administrations ; one who was displaced by the former was a defaulter ; and of those superseded by the latter, one had engaged in the African slave trade, and so was a pirate, one Lad gone mad, one got into a quarrel with a foreign government, one had been A.D. 1829-37.] REMOVALS FROM OFFICE. 219 guilty of " misconduct, " and two were discharged for " failures." Madison had superseded only five, and three of them were defaulters. Whilst John Quincy Adams, whom the promise of "reform" implicitly condemned so unsparingly, had removed only two officials, and both for satisfactory reasons. Immediately after the adjournment of the Senate, when their brief extra and pro formd session was over, the process of ' ' reform " was begun ; and before Congress met at the close of the year, the following results had been achieved. Four new ministers plenipotentiary had been appointed, two new charges d'affaires, and four new secretaries of legation ; the marshals and district attorneys had been changed in sixteen states, forty-eight collectors, surveyors, naval officers, and appraisers had been removed, to make way for other men, and twenty-six receivers and registers in Western Land Offices; twenty-one new consuls had been appointed ; and in the department at Wash- ington alone, forty-six changes had been made. Altogether, in the course of the nine months of the recess, a hundred and sixty-seven removals and re-appoint- ments, in which the Senate could not not by any possibility have a voice, had taken place. If this were the promised " reform," no doubt could be entertained respecting the earnestness of the President in accomplishing it. The new President, within the first year of his administration, conferred a greater number of offices upon members of Congress than any of his prede- cessors had done during their whole term of service. As the members appointed had been actively engaged in promoting his election, he was not only accused of inconsistency, but of carrying into practice that system of corruption which he depicted as the probable consequence of that mode of bestowing offices. The numerous appointments bestowed upon editors of violent political journals, were also severely criticised. The introduction of the Postmaster-general into the cabinet was the means of effecting yet more spreading " reforms," through the enormous patronage vested in that functionary. Within a year and day of the beginning of this good work, four hundred and ninety-one postmasters had been displaced, and others appointed in their room. And, as if for the purpose of precluding the possibility of dispute respecting the ground of this proceeding, the number removed in eleven states or territories which had given their votes wholly or in part at the presidential election to Adams, or were (like Michigan) Northern in all their sympathies, was three hundred and nineteen; whilst in seventeen states or territories which had voted wholly for Jackson, or (like Arkansas) were Southern in their interests, only half that number, a hundred and sixty-one, had been removed. The number of " removals," in the first year of Jackson's administration, was thus very nearly seven hundred. And even this falls short of the total of party appointments in the same time, which included as well all offices falling vacant through the death or expiration of the term for which the former appointments had been made. There was thus effected " a reform, which could scarcely have been more complete, had a revolution taken place in the government itself, instead of a change in the persons administering it." For the purpose of avoiding any appearance of injustice, we must extract a few sentences from Ben ton's " Thirty Years' View; " for as he numbers amongst 220 THE " REMOVAL " POLICY. [CHAP. I. his authorities, " tlie private papers of General Jackson/' he may not unfairly be regarded as his advocate in respect of questions such as this. This writer, after availing himself very skilfully of a mistake of De Tocqueville, concerning the course adopted by John Quincy Adams with the government officials, pro- ceeds thus to defend his successor's policy : " He came into office under circumstances well calculated to excite him to make removals. In the first place, none of his political friends, though con- stituting a great majority of the people of the United States, had been appointed to office during the preceding administration ; and such an exclusion could not be justified on any consideration/' " His election," continues the ex-senator, " was in some degree a revolution of parties, or rather a re-establishment of parties on the old line of Federal and Democratic. It was a change of administration, in which a change of govern- ment functionaries, to some extent, became a right and a duty. But still the removals actually made, when political, were not merely for opinions, but for conduct under these opinions ; and unhappily there was conduct enough in too many officials to justify their removal." And then it is stated, at some length, that they exerted themselves against Jackson in the late election ; so that to show how wrong this was they were displaced, and others appointed who had exerted themselves for him. This is only insinuated ; the plain fact being admitted thus " They were non-combatants. By engaging in the election they became combatant, and subjected themselves to the law of victory and defeat, reward and promotion in one case, loss of place in the other." Benton next turns to Jefferson for support, and then he " feels bound " to make a " declaration ' : to this effect, " that the doctrine of the Jefferson school [conceining removals] has been too much departed from of late, and by both parties, and to the great detriment of the right and proper working of the government." " The practice of removals for opinion's sake is becoming too common, and is reducing our presidential elections to what Mr. Jefferson depre- cated, 'a contest of office instead of principle;' and converting the victories of each party, so far as office is concerned, into the political extermination of the other." " I consider ' sweeping ' removals, as now practised by both parties, a great political evil in our country, injurious to individuals, to the public service, to the purity of elections, and to the harmony and union of the people. We need not follow our author any further ; it is enough for our purpose that he admits the unmitigated evil of the custom which Jackson introduced, the first step towards-which was taken by Jefferson, whose authority he very properly cites in vindication of these proscriptions ; though he fails to establish his claims to be more than a timid time-server, even in the gratification of his political hatred. " How often I think of" Nathaniel Macon (who never would accept an office, though often implored to do so), says Benton, " when I see at Washington robustious men going through a scene of supplication, tribulation, and degradation, to obtain office, which the salvation of the soul does not impose upon the vilest sinner ! " He should have thought too of Jefferson and of Jackson, and given to them the credit which is justly due to them, and to the latter especially, of being the authors of this national infamy. There was no other business of importance transacted during the A.D. 1829-37.] THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 221 and the twenty-first Congress assembled for its first session upon the 7th of December, 1829. There was a goodly gathering of the members of both Houses, and the strength of the administration amongst the representatives was shown by the re-election of Andrew Stevenson as Speaker, by a hundred and fifty-two votes, against twenty-one given to William D. Martin, and eighteen scattering. The next day the Message from the President was received. It was of much greater length than had been customary, and the foreign relations of the government held the foremost place in it. Deferring our notice of this portion, we extract the first recommendations concerning domestic affairs which it offered to Congress. This part of the Message was looked to with far greater anxiety than usual, because so little was known of the political principles of the new President; his opposition to his predecessor having afforded scarcely even a negative glimpse of them. " I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties, to bring to your atten- tion the propriety of amending that part of our constitution, which relates to the election of President and Vice-President. Our system of government was, by its framers, deemed an experiment, and they, therefore, consistently provided a mode of remedying its defects. " To the people belongs the right of electing their chief magistrate ; it was never designed that their choice should in any cases be defeated, either by the intervention of electoral colleges, or by the agency confided, under certain contingencies, to the House of Representatives. Experience proves, that in proportion as agents to execute the will of the people are multiplied, there is danger of their wishes being frustrated. Some may be unfaithful ; all are liable to err. So far, therefore, as the people can with convenience speak, it is safer for them to express their own will. "The number of aspirants to the presidency, and the diversity of the interests which may influence their claims, leave little reason to expect a choice in the first instance ; and, in that event, the election must devolve on the House of Representatives, where, it is obvious, the will of the people may not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained, may not be regarded. From the mode of voting by states, the choice is to be made by twenty-four votes; and it may often occur, that one of these will be controlled by an individual representative. Honours and offices are at the disposal of the successful candidate. Repeated ballotings may make it apparent, that a single individual holds the cast in his hand. May he not be tempted to name his reward? But even without corruption supposing the probity of the representative to be proof against the powerful motives by which it may be assailed the will of the people is still constantly liable to be misrepresented. One may err from ignorance of the wishes of his constituents ; another, from a conviction that it is his duty to be governed by his own judgment of the fitness of the candidates; finally, although all were inflexibly honest all accurately informed of the wishes of their con- stituents yet, under the present mode of election, a minority may often elect the President; and when this happens, it may reasonably be expected that efforts will be made on the part of the majority to rectify this injurious operation of their institutions. But although no evil of this character should result from such a perversion of the first principle of our system that the 222 THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. [CHAP. I. majority is to govern it must be very certain that a President elected by a minority cannot enjoy the confidence necessary to the successful discharge of his duties. " In this, as in all other matters of public concern, policy requires that as few impediments as possible should exist to the free operation of the public will. Let us, then, endeavour so to amend bur system, that the office of chief magistrate may not be conferred upon any citizen, but in pursuance of a fair expression of the will of the majority. " I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the constitution as may remove all immediate agency in the election of the President and Vice- President. The mode may be so regulated as to preserve to each state its present relative weight in the election, and a failure in the first attempt may be provided for, by confining the second to a choice between the two highest candidates. In connection with such an amendment, it would seem advisable to limit the service of the chief magistrate to a single term, of either four or six years. If, however, it should not be adopted, it is worthy of consideration, whether a provision disqualifying for office the representatives in Congress, on whom such an election may have devolved, would not be proper. "While members of Congress can be constitutionally appointed to offices of trust and profit, it will be the practice, even under the most conscientious adherence to duty, to select them for such stations, as they are believed to be better qualified to fill than other citizens ; but the purity of our government would doubtless be promoted, by their exclusion from all appointments in the gift of the President, in whose election they may have been officially concerned. The nature of the judicial office, and the necessity of securing in the Cabinet, and in diplomatic stations of the highest rank, the best talents, and political experience, should perhaps except these from the exclusion. " There are perhaps few men who can for any great length of time enjoy office and power, without being more or less under the influence of feelings unfavourable to the faithful discharge of their public duties. Their integrity may be proof against improper considerations, immediately addressed to them- selves, but they are apt to acquire a habit of looking with indifference upon the public interests, and of tolerating conduct from which an unpractised man would revolt. Office is considered as a species of property ; and government, rather as a means of promoting individual interests, than as an instrument created solely for the service of the people. Corruption in some, and in others a perversion of correct feelings and principles, divert government from its legitimate ends, and make it an engine for the support of the few at the expense of the many. The duties of all public officers are, or, at least, admit of being made, so plain and simple, that men of intelligence may readily qualify them- selves for their performance ; and I cannot but believe, that more is lost by the long continuance of men in office, than is generally to be gained by their experience. I submit therefore to your consideration, whether the efficiency of the government would not be promoted, and official industry and integrity better secured, by a general extension of the law which limits appointments to four years. " In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people, AD. 1829-37.] THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 223 uo one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another. Offices were not established to give support to particular men, at the public expense. No individual wrong is therefore done by removal, since neither appointment, nor continuance in office, is matter of right. The incumbent became an officer with a view to public benefits ; and when these require his removal, they are not to be sacrificed to private interests. It is the people, and they alone, who have a right to complain, when a bad officer is substituted for a good one. He who is removed has the same means of obtaining a living, that are enjoyed by the millions who never held office. The proposed limitation would destroy the idea of property, now so generally connected with official station ; and although individual distress may be sometimes produced, it would, by promoting that rotation which constitutes a leading principle in the repub- lican creed, give healthful action to the system." Much that is open to criticism in these passages, must be left unnoticed ; but we may point out the statement that the constitution " was, by its framers, deemed an experiment," as singularly contradicted by the impediments thrown in the way of alterations, which were so considerable, that Jackson's recom- mendations in this first Message have never been carried into effect. It appears too, from one paragraph, that the general, though he had now attained the object of his ambition, the President's chair, could neither forget nor forgive his disappointment at the previous election. Few will be disposed to agree with Jackson in his slight appreciation of the benefits of experience to officers of state, since how plain and incomplex soever the system of government and the functions of its officers might in theory be, practically (such is the perversity of human nature, even in the most favoured countries) they presented a very tangled and perplexed problem to the func- tionary who was intent upon the discharge of his duty ; as we shall find proved subsequently by the President's own experience. We need not protest against that part of the representation, which evidently originated in the necessity the writer felt himself to be under, of justifying his wholesale removals. The tariff next came under consideration. Its operation, the President said, had "not proved so injurious" to agriculture and commerce, "nor so beneficial" to manufactures, "as was anticipated:" a not uncommon result of protective legislation. Nevertheless, he " invited attention " to it, believing that " some of its provisions required modification." The commercial world, it appears, had been harassed by " low prices, tempo- rary embarrassment, and partial loss ;" nevertheless, the financial statement wore a very satisfactory aspect. Adams had left in the treasury nearly 6,000,000 dollars. The receipts of the year were estimated at above 24,500,000 dollars, while the expenditure amounted to more than 26,000,000 ; so that the balance in the treasury at the end of the current year would be less than 4,500,000. During the year, nearly 12,500,000 dollars had been paid on account of the public debt, which amounted now to no more than 48,500,000. " The sudden withdrawal," " from the banks in which it had been deposited, at a time of unusual pressure in the money markets," says the Message, " of so large a sum" as nearly 9,000,000 dollars, which was paid off on the 1st of July, it was feared " might cause much injury to the interests dependent on 224 THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. [CHAP. i. bank accommodations. But this evil was wholly averted by an early anticipation of it at the treasury, aided by the judicious arrangements of the officers of the Bank of the United States/' In anticipation of the time when, by the payment of the debt, the demand upon the Federal Treasury should be greatly diminished, while by the progress of commerce the revenue should be largely increased, it was suggested that the surplus should be apportioned among the several states, " according to their ratio of representation." " Upon this country," the document proceeds, " more than any other, has, in the providence of God, been cast the special guardianship of the great principle of adherence to written constitutions. If it fail here, all hope in regard to it will be extinguished It is our duty to preserve for [the government] the character intended by its framers. ..... Let us not undermine the whole system by a resort to overstrained constructions. " The scheme has worked well. It has exceeded the hopes of those who devised it, and become an object of admiration to the world. We "are respon- sible to our country, and to the glorious cause of self-government, for the preservation of so great a good. The great mass of legislation relating to our internal affairs was intended to be left where the Federal Convention found it in the state governments I cannot therefore too strongly or earnestly, for my own sense of its importance, warn you against all encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of state sovereignty. Sustained by its healthful and invi- gorating influence, the Federal system can never fall." Many suggestions relating to the treasury department were next offered. They bore upon the method of collecting the revenue, the large amount of public money outstanding, the release of debts to the government " where the conduct of the debtor is wholly exempt from the imputation of fraud," and the numerous frauds committed on the treasury, which had necessitated several prosecutions. "And," continued the President, "in connection with this subject, I invite the attention of Congress to general and minute inquiry into the condition of the government, with a view to ascertain what offices can be dispensed with, what expenses retrenched, and what improvements may be made in the organisation of its various parts, to secure the proper responsibility of public agents, and promote efficiency and justice in all its operations." Pensions for the army, and for all the surviving soldiers of the revolu- tion, the removal of the 'Indian tribes, the navy, the Federal judiciary, and the reorganisation of the Department of State, were next touched upon, and a foreshadowing of the subject, which has made this administration specially remarkable, was afforded by these paragraphs, occurring near the close of the Message : " The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its stockholders will most probably apply for a renewal of their privileges. In order to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy in a measure involving such important principles, and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I cannot, in justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the deliberate consideration of the legislature and the people. Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are well questioned by a large portion of our A.D. 1829-37.] THE PUBLIC LANDS. 225 fellow citizens ; and it must be admitted by all that it has failed in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound currency. " Under these circumstances, if such an institution is deemed essential to the fiscal operations of the government, I submit to the wisdom of the legislature whether a national one, founded upon, the credit of the government and its revenue, might not be devised, which would avoid all constitutional difficulties, and, at the same time, secure all the advantages to the government and country that were expected to result from the present bank." No subsequent Message of Jackson will require such minute notice as this, in which he unfolded generally his scheme of policy ; of which we can say only, that in all its essential principles it was a reproduction of Jefferson's. The appointments to office made during the recess were not immediately submitted to the Senate for its approbation. A month expired before the commencement of the long list was presented, and more than two months had elapsed before the last name was sent in. " This delay, which was attributed to the disagreement between the friends of the Vice-President and of the Secretary of State, although it tended to consolidate the strength of the administration, did not produce a general confirmation of the appointments." However widely opinions differed with regard to the necessity of that kind of " reform " which Jackson had attempted, by removing so many of the nominees of his predecessors, there was no difference as to the impropriety of his using the opportunities thus created for rewarding the electioneering services of his partisans. And in conse- quence, many of the nominations were rejected, " and in some instances the vote rejecting them was so large as to convey a strong censure upon the selection of the President." From time to time we have noticed the question of the public lands, both as it appeared before Congress, and as it bore upon the welfare and progress of the states and territories in which they lay, and upon the interests of the aborigines, whose " title " to them had in every case to be voided, before any sales could be effected. In the last Book two new aspects of it were presented ; one in Senator Benton's story of " Granny White," and the other in the Cherokee controversy with Georgia ; both of which promised a very troublesome increase of the com- plications already existing. We need not relate in full the events by which matters were brought to the position in which we now find them. Our readers will remember that the possession of the region between the Appalachian mountain range and the Missis- sippi was obtained by the general government by the treaty of 1783, subject only to the claims of the several states, under their charters as colonies, which were ultimately, on various grounds and considerations, renounced. The wider but less immediately valuable region beyond the Mississippi was acquired by the purchase of Louisiana, negociated by Jefferson. And out of the whole of this extra state territory, which belonged to the United States, and could be held by the general government alone, it was proposed to construct new states, as rapidly as the settlement of it should justify the proceeding settlers in general (for there were plenty of free grants for various services, and as bounties for enlist- ment, in the second war) being required to purchase their lands, the titles of which the government undertook to clear. VOL. ii. B 226 THE PUBLIC LANDS. [CHAP. I. Owing to the failure of many speculative purchases, and the inability of other buyers to pay when the full sum was due, so much public money on the land account was outstanding after some years, that a measure for the relief of insolvent purchasers was passed by Congress, and the upset price per acre was reduced from two dollars to one and a quarter, on condition that the payment should be immediate. The practice of selling at the minirrmm price the lands not sold by public auction failed, however, as is not surprising, to bring pur- chasers for the less valuable tracts, and the states' governments looked upon the general government and its land system as hostile to the progress of their sovereignties in population and prosperity. This was the feeling of the western states especially, and in 1826 Senator Benton, who was virtually the representative of that section of the country, proposed a system of prices graduated according to the actual value of the unsold lands, so as to secure a more evenly dispersed population; he also recommended the donation of small tracts to settlers, for the purpose of attracting such as were unable to migrate westward in consequence of poverty. How warmly the western states supported these propositions can be seen by the fact that the principle of state sovereignty was appealed to by the sober North, and Indiana could pass such a resolution as the following, on the 9th of January, 1829 : " Resolved, by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, that this state, being a sovereign, free, and independent state, has the exclusive right to the soil and eminent domain of all the unappropriated lands within her acknowledged boundaries ; which right was reserved to her by the State of Virginia, in the deed of cession of the north-west territory to the United States ; being confirmed and established by the Articles of Confederation, and the constitution of the United States." Nothing could more convincingly prove the necessity of some movement on the part of the general government than this resolution ; and, accordingly, during this first session of Congress, under Jackson's administration, a few days before the end of the year, Senator Foot, of Connecticut, presented to the branch of the legislature in which he sat this resolution : " Resolved, that the Com- mittee on Public Lands be instructed to inquire into the expediency of limiting, for a certain period, the sales-of the public lands to such ia> '"s only as have heretofore been offered for sale, and are subject to entry at the minimum price, and also whether the office of Surveyor-general may not be abolished without detriment to the public interest." To which was soon appended by an amend- ment the following alternative " or whether it be expedient to adopt measures to hasten the sales, and extend more rapidly the surveys of the public lands." Foot's design in proposing this resolution was simple and manifest enough. The average annual sales of public lands amounted to a million of acres, and there were nearly a hundred millions of acres of the national domain already surveyed unsold ; which he thought would supply the market were the annual sales to experience a far more remarkable rise than was at all probable, for more than the lifetime of one generation ; so that if his suggestions were adopted, a considerable retrenchment of the public expenditure might be effected, without any diminution of the revenue from that source> or any hindrance to the settle- ment of the west. 5: . A.D. 1829-37.] THE PUBLIC LANDS. 227 The usual course when a resolution proposing an inquiry was presented, was to postpone the discussion till the committee should report something which required the action of Congress. On the present occasion, however, this course was not pursued, for Senator Benton at once resisted the resolution; its effect, he tells us, if sanctioned upon inquiry, and carried into legislative effect, " would have been to check emigration to the new states in the west to check the growth and settlement of these states and territories, and to deliver up large portions of them to the dominion of wild beasts." So he and other western members, he adds, " treated it as an injurious proposition insulting as well as injurious, and not fit to be considered by a committee, much less to be reported upon and adopted." And he gives an "extract" from his great speech, in which these views are urged with energy enough, if also with some irrelevancy of argument. " The debate spread," he continues, " and took an acrimonious turn [whereat we are not in the least surprised, after reading his own account of the way in which he ' opened ' it] , and sectional, imputing to the quarter of the Union from which it came [Benton is too modest to say that he himself was the author of this imputation against the patriotism of New England ; which we can but regret] an old and early policy to check the growth of the west at the outset by proposing to limit the sale of the western lands to a ' clean riddance ' as they went selling no tract in advance until all in the rear was sold out." " The real and only material objection," according to another authority, "to a discontinuance of the surveys was, that it might abridge the emigrant in his choice of lands, and in this manner impede the progress of settlement." But it must be considered somewhat hypercritical to urge such an objection, when there were almost a hundred millions of acres for the emigrant to choose from ; and the unsurveyed lands lay so far from the inhabited regions, as to offer little inducement to the formation of any isolated settlement. Here, in truth, and in Benton' s statement of the ever-expanding vortex of this debate, we may discover the real purport of this congressional combat which from the moment of his rising became a I'outrance. Webster's biographer regards it as an unfortunate accident that, in this case, as in so many others, "a resolution of inquiry on a business question of no urgent importance, intended to have no political bearing, and brought forward without concert with others, by an individual," became " the theme of impassioned debates for weeks and months, to the serious obstruction of the real business of Congress." The annalist ascribes it to Calhoun's melancholy discovery that he had no power under the constitution, as President of the Senate, to maintain order in the debates. But, in a country where local interests are the basis of all political parties, they necessarily produce what the logician denominates " cross divisions," and by an inevitable "association of thoughts," in impassioned discussion, on a matter of itself innoxious, but casually suggestive of harm, in an assembly without any preventive from wandering from the question, the current of dis- course must wander far and wide. In an instrument cunningly strung, like the Senate, if any chord be roughly sounded, every other will vibrate responsively according to its harmonical relations with that one ; and discord enough, though not absolutely irresolvable, ensue. And thus it happened in this debate, commenced by Benton, on the ground 228 " NULLIFICATION." [cilAP. I. of the hostility between the interests of the old states on the Atlantic and the new ones in the valley of the Mississippi, it at once deviated to the alleged uii- Americanism of New England ; and as it was on the slavery question that New England most resolutely stood opposed to the South (Missouri, though a western state, being still more emphatically a southern one in consequence of the cir- cumstances of its admission to the Union), the struggle became one between slave-soil and free. There was also another channel by which these waters of strife flowed in this direction the introduction into, and subsequent elimination from, the famous ordinance of 1787, on which the state-organisation of the west was based, of the anti-slavery clause ; and this was deepened by the attempt to deprive Jefferson of the credit of originating, and the reproach of abandoning, this condition, made by Webster, and much too successfully rebutted by Benton, who did not see that the orator of Massachusetts was only making the incon- sistency of his " northern section" the more flagrant. From this new point of departure, the subject of " removals" was arrived at next, by an easy and direct course; but only on the way (en passant, as it were), to the most recent and most menacing matter of difference between the North and the South the Protective Tariff; whence at a single step the grand con- troversy regarding the fundamental nature of the constitution, and the practical question of " Nullification," were reached ! Space and time alike would fail us, should we attempt to give a particular account of all the speakers and speeches of this celebrated debate. Yet some very brief mention of the most conspicuous is necessary. Benton, who com- menced it, and struck the key-note for the party, and Hayne, of South Carolina, who concurred with Benton in the conviction " that it could never be right to inquire into the expediency of doing a great and acknowledged wrong" (as if the very question were not what was right in this matter), these were the leaders against Foot's resolution. On the other side stands Daniel Webster, who on this occasion transcended all his former efforts, in two speeches delivered almost without premeditation, certainly without previous study, which triumphantly "vindicated the government, under its successive administrations, from the general charge of having managed the public lands in a spirit of hostility to the western states," and " New England against the accusation of hostility to the west." The second of these great orations, spoken in rejoinder to Hayne's reply, was a forcible appeal to the verdict of history in a question of moment to the very existence of the Union. The author of " Reminiscences of Congress" has depicted the scene presented by the Senate on that Tuesday, January the 26th, 1830, " a day to be thereafter for ever memorable in senatorial annals." (f There never was before in the city," says he, ' ' an occasion of so much excitement. To witness this great intellectual contest multitudes of strangers had for two or three days previous been rushing into the city, and the hotels overflowed. As early as nine o'clock of this morning crowds poured into the Capitol in hot haste; at twelve o'clock, the hour of meeting, the Senate Chamber (its galleries, floor, and even lobbies) was filled to its utmost capacity. The very stair- ways were dark with men, who clung to one another, like bees in a swarm. The House of Representatives was early deserted. An adjourn- A.D. 1829-37.] " NULLIFICATION." 229 merit would have hardly have made it emptier. The Speaker, it is true, retained his chair ; but no business of moment was, or could be, attended to." When at length the great master of eloquence commenced, "Every head was inclined closer towards him, every ear turned in the direction of his voice, and that deep, sudden, mysterious silence followed, which always attends fulness of emotion. From the sea of upturned faces before him, the orator beheld his thoughts reflected as from a mirror. The varying countenance, the suffused eye, the earnest smile, the ever-attentive look, assured him of his audience's entire sympathy. If among his hearers there were those who affected at first an indifference to his glowing thoughts and fervent periods, the difficult mask was soon laid aside, and profound, undisguised, devoted attention followed. In the earlier part of his speech, one of his principal opponents seemed deeply engrossed in the careful perusal of a newspaper he held before his face ; but this, on nearer approach, proved to be upside down' 3 " There was scarcely a dry eye in the Senate, all hearts were overcome; grave judges, and men grown old in dignified life, turned aside their heads to conceal the evidences of their emotion." " Many who had entered the hall with light, gay thoughts, antici- pating at most a pleasurable excitement, soon became deeply interested in the speaker and his subject, and surrendered him their entire heart; and when the speech was over, and they left the hall, it was with sadder, perhaps, but surely with far more elevated and ennobling emotions." One or two paragraphs of the speech itself, although the wondrous effect produced at the moment was owing to the tones, gestures, and burning glances of the speaker, we must give, to show the quality of the oration. " Mr. President," said Webster, when he reached that part of his opponent's remarks which had reflected severely upon the Old Bay State ; " Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill ; and there they will remain for ever. The bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for Independence, now lie mingled with the soil of every state, from New England to Georgia ; and there they will lie for ever. And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it, and party-strife and blind ambition shall bark at and tear it, if folly and madness, if uneasiness under salutary and necessary restraint shall succeed in separating it from that Union by which alone its existence is made sure, it will stand in the end by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked ; it will stretch forth its arm, with whatever of vigour it may still retain, over the friends who gather round it ; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on the very spot of its origin." " The people," said he, as he drew near the close, " have preserved this, their own chosen constitution, for forty years, and have seen their happiness, prosperity, and renown, grow with its growth, and strengthen with its strength. They are now, generally, strongly attached to it. Overthrown by direct assault 230 " NULLIFICATION." [CHAP. I. it cannot be ; evaded, undermined, NULLIFIED, it will not be ; if we, and those who shall succeed us here, as agents and representatives of the people, shall conscientiously and righteously discharge the two great branches of our public trust faithfully to preserve, and wisely to administer, it. "Mr. President, I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent to the doctrines which have been advanced and maintained. I am conscious of having detained you and the Senate much too long. I was drawn into the debate with no previous deliberation, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a subject. But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have not been willing to suppress the utterance of its spontaneous senti- ments. I cannot even now persuade myself to relinquish it, without expressing once more my deep conviction, that, since it respects nothing less than the union of the states, it is of most vital and essential importance to the public happiness. I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honour of the whole country, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our con- sideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the same school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness. " I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might be hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of discussion to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below ; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union may be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it should be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise ! God grant, that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind ! "When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonoured fragments of a once glorious Union ; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched (it may be) in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honoured throughout the earth, still full high advanced ; its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre ; not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured ; bearing for its motto no A.D. 1829-37.] TEE TARIFF LAW. 231 such miserable interrogatory as, ( What is all this worth ?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, ' Liberty first, and Union afterwards ;' but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea, and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment dear to every true American heart Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and inseparable ! " Senator Benton tells us, that for the purpose of " helping " the overwhelmed South Carolinian " where he could," he " ridiculed, as well as he could," this " fine peroration," notwithstanding its "noble sentiments;" "deeming it a fit subject for gentle castigation," because he " really thought it out of place." The issue of this hotly agitated question was the passage of the bill brought forward by Benton in the Senate, early in the session; but it was taken to the House of Representatives too near the day of adjournment to allow any discussion, and it was ordered, with others in the same circumstances, " to lie upon the table." Next in importance to this debate, and the effect of Webster's speech upon the internal affairs and relations of the Union, may be reckoned the revision of the Tariff Law ; although, like so much of the commercial legislation of America, it was purely of a temporary nature. The principal discussion arose regarding a bill reported by the chairman of the committee on manufactures, to regulate the entry of woollen importations : but it was renewed and extended by the introduction of other bills, and of amendments, the relevancy whereof to their original motions is not obvious ; and the entire effect was certainly not in favour of the larger policy advocated (in this instance) by the Southern party. Nor could the passage of several bills, reducing the duty on salt and molasses, tea and coffee, &c., be regarded as anything more than a strong expression of dis- content with the tariff of 1828 ; which, as we showed, was in fact a compromise law of a singular nature no section being able to insert any provision it desired for itself, but each contriving to introduce one or more which it knew would be injurious to all the others. The tonnage duties, and the whole question of a reciprocal policy, which (according to Benton, who exhibits the democratic signification of " free-trade " thereby) is the true commercial policy of the Union, were also largely ventilated on this occasion. But the most instructive, and at the same time the most painful part of the business, was the disclosure of frauds on the revenue amounting (it was said) to some three millions a year. How the President fulfilled his promise of " reform " has been related, and although it was most flagrantly illusory, the nation hoped that the other promise of "retrenchment" would not prove so; especially as the treasury was so well replenished, and it depended not merely on the word of the executive, but was in the hands of his supporters in Congress. And in both Houses great show of activity was made. No fewer than ten bills,, with some resolutions to boot, were brought forward amongst the representatives ; but most of them got no further than the first stages, one reached the Senate, and there expired, and one became law which was a measure for curtailing the expenses of government by the odd expedient of abolishing the practice of examining the books of the land officers yearly, and ascertaining the balance in the hands of the receivers. The office of draughtsman to the House was abolished by resolution, " after long and frequent debates;" and nothing else at all was accomplished. 232 THE BANK QUESTION. [CHAP I, Bills for reforming the mode of publishing the laws, the appointment of postmasters, the displacement of defaulters, &c., introduced by Benton in the Senate, met with the like untimely and unexpected end. And so too did a resolution upon Jackson's recommendation to amend the constitutional mode of electing the President and Vice-President. So that the taunt of the opposition was abundantly justified " These subjects of excitement had subserved the purposes for which they were intended, and the object of the agitation being answered in the triumph of their party, the instruments by which they had accomplished their ends were laid aside as no longer necessary." The Bank question was not taken up in a manner which gave any indication of the form it was destined speedily to assume. It could be handled, at this time, only as a matter of speculation ; for the Bank of the United States had not applied for a renewal of its charter. The Finance Committees of the Houses investigated the President's suggestion in this spirit ; the report presented to the representatives treated the constitutional difficulty as de facto non-existent ; seeing that the first bank had been chartered by a government composed in good part of the framers of the constitution ; and that all the Presidents, and the Federal judiciary, had given their distinct sanction to the institution. The refusal to renew the charter, also, which had been effected by the majority of one vote in the House, and by the casting vote of the President of the Senate the Bank having been regarded as a Federalist establishment had led to such disorders in the currency, and in the public finances and credit, that the second Bank had been incorporated by large majorities in Congress as the only effectual remedy. As to the expediency of renewing the charter when the Bank should apply, the report showed that the ends for which the charter had been granted had been answered, and that, therefore, a regard to the public interest would dictate its renewal. Jackson's proposed government national bank the report declared unlikely to furnish a currency without branches ; whilst " with branches it would be still more objectionable, as it invested the Federal government with patronage of most extensive influence, and embracing the control of all the bank accom- modations to the standing amount of 50,000,000 dollars. Such a control would introduce more corruption in the government than all the patronage now belonging to it. It was a desperate financial experiment, without parallel in the history of the world." And to the same effect the committees of the Senate reported a circumstance ominous enough for any executive of less resolution than Jackson, because his supporters were a clear majority in Congress, and they knew that this Bank question was one he had set his heart upon, because he was uneasy so long as any persons beside the government possessed such an amount of patron- age and influence in the nation, as the extent and nature of the business of a national bank necessarily gave to its managers. Amongst the minor Acts we note the re-appropriation of 30,000 dollars for the suppression of the slave trade, which had been appropriated two years before, on the basis of an Act of Congress passed in 1819, but was not expended; which showed the kind of zeal for the suppression of that shameful traffic possessed by Congress ; the grant of half the sum claimed by Massachusetts for expenses and militia services from 1812 to 1814, which "had been refused before, though A.D. 1829-37.] PRESIDENT JACKSON'S VETOES. 233 why no more than half should be allowed now does not clearly appear; and the appointment of a new officer, the Solicitor of the Treasury, and of eight addi- tional appraisers to examine imported goods (no new regulation to prevent frauds having been made), by which the first instalment of legislative retrench- ment and reform was completed. The session terminated on the 31st of May, 1830. It was a busy session, notwithstanding the interminable debates ; a larger number of Acts passed than ever before had passed in one session, though some had been considerably longer ; and no fewer than four vetoes were given ; two having been the highest number given before in one session, and that by Madison, who gave only four during his eight years ; Washington having given only two during his double term, Monroe one, and Jefferson and the two Adamses none at all. One of Jackson's vetoes was placed in bar to an Internal Improvement Bill, known as the Maysville Road Bill ; and in his Message accompanying it, he at once disappointed the hopes of his warmest supporters from the middle and western states, and placed his presidential proceedings in direct opposition to those of his earlier congressional career. Yet more remarkably, instead of adhering to the directions of the constitution, and simply returning the bill witli his objection, he offered to approve it on certain condi- tions ; which being, in effect, as said at the time, " a declaration that he would apply an ^^-constitutional appropriation upon a constitutional object," deserved to be stigmatised as the superaddition of "a breach of his own duty as the chief executive magistrate of the Union," "to a legislative violation of the constitution." Benton, with the warmth of a personal friend, as well as the zeal of a chief spokesman of the democratic party, insists that this veto and its sustaining Message, together with Madison's regarding a bill for authorising Internal Improvements generally, and Monroe's upon the Cumberland Road Bill, and " the action of Congress upon them," " may be considered as em- bracing all the constitutional reasoning upon the question, and enough to be studied by any one who wishes to make himself master of the subject." It could not be expected that Benton should allow, by even the faintest implication, that there could be any " constitutional " reasoning on the other side ; though some American statesmen, and those not the least eminent, have held that opinion. Congress seems to have been very imperfectly convinced by the " constitu- tional reasoning" of the President's Maysville Road Bill Message, for it proceeded to discuss and also to pass several other bills, to which that reasoning, if it developed any general legislative principles, ought to have applied with all the force of an argumentative veto ; and that, too, by majorities which showed how much ground the administration had lost by acting (as it appeared) without a rule or maxim, which could be enunciated so that the legislature might know what the President's policy really was. Some of these bills received his approval, others he retained to the full extent of the time allowed by the constitution, so that they could not be considered till the next session ', a course which excited all the more dissatisfaction because the letter of the constitution was so observed, that the violation of its spirit was the more manifest. Whilst matters were thus proceeding in the Capitol, a deadly feud between two of the divisions of the democrats, by means of a feud between their leaders, VOL. II. n H 234 SCHISM IN THE GOVERNMENT. [CHAP. 1. was ripening in the very bosom of the government. The ultimate causes of this dispute and rupture, as with every other one, were many ; and whilst some were patent enough, others were so entirely personal and private as never to find public expression. Jackson and the Vice-President, John C. Calhoun, were perhaps the most distinguished men of their party, and both were characterised by strong and imperious wills, impatient of control. This was an element of mischief; and as Jackson was the least scrupulous, looked most directly to the object to be attained, and least to the means and way of attaining it, he had an advantage ovef his antagonist which could not fail to make itself felt. Americans of the present day do not need to be reminded, that as soon as a presidential election is over, if not before, hopes, speculations, and plans, begin to be formed regarding the " succession," as John Adams called it. In the case of John Adams and Jefferson, the vice-presidency had been the first stage towards the presidency ; but Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams had been advanced to the seat of the executive from the desk of the Secretaryship of State. Jackson was the first, after Washington (we need not stay to discuss the points of unlikeness, as well as those of similarity, in the two instances), who owed his elevation to his military renown, whose primary electors were the patriot forces he had led to victory. No successor on such a ground as this could be found, and thus the only " heirs presumptive" were the Vice-President Calhoun, and Van Buren the Secretary of State, and their claims were inevitably irrcconcileable. In addition to these considerations, there was " Nullification," which, if Jackson had been in any position except 'the presidency, he might have been expected to take up, and make his own -battle-ground against the government; but, as he was at the head of affairs, was, without controversy, lese-majestf. How the quarrel broke out we will now briefly tell. There existed a dis- agreement between Calhoun and the Secretary of War, Major Eaton (who had been introduced into the cabinet, " solely on account of the confidential relations and intimate friendship subsisting between him and the President"), respecting Mrs. Eaton (daughter of a person who had kept an oyster- shop and " bar/' at Washington, and with whom the ladies of Washington refused to associate), in which Jackson took the part of his friend. Van Buren soon discovered that "the most direct road to Jackson's confidence was by sustaining his view of this delicate subject," and in consequence " made signal efforts to facilitate" the admission of Mrs. Eaton into society. The President, charmed with this faith- fulness, was not long in transferring to his Secretary of State all the confidence he had bestowed upon the Vice-President, the Secretaries of the Treasury and Navy, and the Attorney-general, who were thus rendered a novel species ofj " opposition " to Jackson and the other members of his cabinet ; and the schism was not without its influence upon many questions of great public importance. ; No open rupture, however, occurred till near the close of the session of Congress we have just spoken of, when " by the agency of a particular friend of the Secretary of State," a letter written by Crawford to Forsyth, accusing Calhoun of having, when in Monroe's cabinet, proposed a censure upon Jackson, for his manner of conducting the campaign against the Seminoles, was placed in the hands of the President. Calhoun had but a fe\v days before demonstrated A.D. 1S29-37.] THE FIFTH CENSUS. 235 his adherence to Jackson, by securing with his casting vote the confirmation of Amos Kendall's appointment (which had caused great scandal) ; nevertheless an explanation of the charge was at once demanded by the President, in a tone which plainly showed a determination to receive none as satisfactory. Calhoun, in reply, showed that Jackson must have known his opinion upon the conduct of the Seminole war, and then turned aside to discuss the reasons for the revival of this affair, showing that it clearly was intended to cause a breach between him and the President, and so to damage him in the opinion of the friends of the administration. The further stages of the quarrel will soon require notice, and the consequences of the whole upon the actors and the party will then appear. During the year 1830, the fifth census of the States was taken, and the results were these : Of free whites there were, under twenty years of age, males, 2,996,405; females, 2,907,347; between twenty and forty, males, 1,548,G97; females, 1,473,648; between forty and sixty, males, 597,009; females, 579,456 ; above sixty, males, 210,967; females, 209,803. The number of free coloured persons amounted to 319,576; and there were 2,009,050 (but other statements reduce the two last figures to 43, and even to 31) slaves. The grand total appears variously as 12,858,670; 12,866,020; and 12,866,920. Vermont alone appears without a slave ; but only 2,795 are enumerated in all the northern states ; yet the thralls amounted to nearly one-fifth of the entire free population ; and constituted a full third of all the inhabitants of the slave states. The increase of the population, when compared with the numbers ascer- tained in 1820, was just thirty-three and a quarter per cent. ; but, compared with those in 1790, the increase was above three hundred and twenty-seven per cent. The decennial increase in the Atlantic states, in 1830, was above twenty-nine and three quarters per cent., and in the western states, above sixty-three and a half; whilst in the free states it was above thirty-five and three quarters, and in the slave-holding states under thirty per cent. When the adjustment of the number of representatives to the number of inhabitants now ascertained was made in 1833, the free states gained eighteen additional representatives, whilst the slave-holding states gained but nine. The second session of the twenty- first Congress opened on the 6th of December, the Message being sent to both Houses on the following day. After the customary references to the external relations of the Union, the document proceeded to speak of the bills for effecting internal improvements, that had been retained by the President at the conclusion of the last session, and were now returned to Congress without approval. " It was not possible," said the President, " within the time allowed me, before the close of the session, to give these bills the consideration which was due to their character and importance ; and I was compelled to retain them for that purpose." And then he stated at great length his reasons for negativing them ; the only one wearing the semblance of a principle being, that the passage of such laws would produce contests in the legislature amongst the states, for the expenditure of the surplus 236 JACKSON'S SECOND MESSAGE. [CHAP. i. revenue for their benefit ; to obviate the danger of which, a rateable distribu- tion of the surplus amongst them was recommended, instead of devoting it to " internal improvements." The necessity of amending the constitution, in respect of the mode of electing the President and Vice-President, was once more pressed upon Congress, the possibility of the choice devolving upon the House of Representatives being always the great evil which was to be guarded against. The financial report was in every respect most favourable. The receipts for the year were expected to exceed 24,160,000 dollars being about 300,000 more than had been reckoned upon when the last annual report was presented. The expenditure amounted to almost 13,750,000 dollars, beside payments on account of the public debt, falling little short of 11,500,000. And the balance in the treasury at the end of the year was expected to be above 4,800,000 dollars. The Message further recommended the placing of the Attorney-general, as to compensation, ' ' on the same footing with the heads of the several executive departments," and the extension of his functions so as to make " the office one of daily duty." The authorisation of the election of a delegate for the district of Columbia was suggested. And, finally, after the reiteration of the doubt formerly expressed concerning the constitutionality of the United States' Bank, the President recommended that a branch of the treasury department should be authorised to sell bills of exchange, based on the credit and revenues of the government, and to receive money on deposit; but not empowered to purchase property or make loans. First in importance of the legislative business of the session prescribed by the Message, were the measures for the promotion of internal improvement, which, in complete neglect of the President's scruples, were passed by Congress. Nor was this practical resistance offered to Jackson's views without considera- tion a committee sat upon the objections by which he had justified his vetoes, arid the report presented by it, through one of the supporters of the adminis- tration, strongly and pointedly condemned his opinions, and concluded by a resolution affirming the expediency of continuing the prosecution of internal improvements by appropriations of money, and by subscriptions for stock in companies incorporated in the states wherein the improvements might be effected, on the part of the general government. So decisive were the majorities in both branches of the legislature, by which the bills with this object in view were passed, that " the President and his cabinet found themselves compelled to yield to public opinion," and approve them, in spite of the decided disapprobation which they had expressed for measures of precisely the same character and intention. And it was considered that this course of policy was now established as that of the nation, nothing being required to carry it most beneficially into effect, but prudence and harmony on the part of the different sections of the government. The other measures of the session deserving mention were, an Act to amend the laws of copyright, extending the term to twenty-eight years; and for fourteen years, if the author, &c., should be living, or have left widow or child living, at the conclusion of that term ; one for the relief of certain in- solvent debtors of the United States; another for finally adjusting and settling A.D. 1829-37.] SCHISM IN THE GOVERNMENT. 237 the claims of James Monroe, the late President, against the United States; and various appropriations for internal improvement, as that for carrying on the Cumberland Road, and that for improving the navigation of the Ohio. Others will come under notice in other chapters. Congress expired on the 3rd of March, 1830. No sooner had the labours and debates of the legislature ceased to engross the attention of the nation, than the schism in the government demanded it. It had grown ever wider during the session, and now at length showed itself as an open rupture; for Calhoun printed the correspondence we have already spoken of, thereby declaring himself an injured man, and appealing to the country against those who had done the wrong. Warmly supported as he was in the South, and not without partisans in the middle states, this step of Calhoun's could not fail to damage the administration, which had already, by its uncertain policy, lost much of its influence in Congress. There was another circumstance which not a little affected its credit with the people. From the first, the President discontinued the practice of holding cabinet councils. It was, consequently, first, a wonder how the affairs of the government were conducted, and next, it was asserted that Jackson was not so inaccessible to advice from others as this seemed to indicate, there being in fact an unofficial and unconstitutional squad of advisers at the White House, by whom reports respecting public persons and movements were collected and communicated to the private ear of the executive, and his proceedings, Messages, appointments, &c., were concocted and directed. The opposition called this supposed privy council, "the kitchen cabinet." Whether this were so or not, no doubt could be entertained respecting the ascendancy which the Secretary of State had acquired over the President; and in Congress his name was mentioned in a way that must have been far from gratifying, either to him or to his patron. How the newspapers throve upon this scandalum magnatum, needs not be told ; nor how some, as The Telegraph, changed sides and became organs of the democratic opposition ; whilst others, like The Globe (which came into existence at the time of Jackson's accession, for the purpose of being the representative of his party), remained true to the conqueror at New Orleans. We owe to Benton's zeal for the memory of his friend, the publication of Jackson's reply to Calhoun's pamphlet ; but we are compelled with great regret to say, that except as a literary curiosity, and as affording to the enemies of America a justification of their worst accusations of mala fides in her dealings with Spain (a service for which, in old times, a man would have been held guilty of parricide), except on these grounds, the "exposition of Mr. Calhoun's course towards General Jackson," serves no purpose whatever ; and on every other consideration, as especially on the second of the grounds just named, it would have been infinitely better to let the thing remain in MS. for ever. Besides, this " exposition " assumes that the only matter of controversy between the President and the Vice-President was the censure alleged to have been passed by the latter, in Monroe's cabinet, upon the conduct of the former, in the Seminole war ; and as Benton states, " that Mr. Calhoun himself was the sole cause of breaking their friendship, and consequently, the sole cause of all the 238 RESIGNATIONS IN THE CABINET. [dlAP. I consequeuces which resulted from that breach." Whereas it was well known at the time, that there were at least two other " causes/' which, although, or even by reason of, their being of a most secret and personal nature, operated the more powerfully. They were, that quarrel of Calhoun's with Major Eaton, Secretary of War, respecting Mrs. Eaton, and the assiduous court paid to the President by M. Van Buren, Secretary of State. One more complication in this ravelled skein (which reminds iis of the staple of the History of England in the days of Queen Anne, though it is little less than miraculous to find a parallel between the weakest queen of Great Britain and the most imperiously resolute of the presidents of the United States) remains to be spoken of, before we can relate the denouement. It was Jackson's remarkable destiny to act when in power in contradiction to almost every political dogma which he had distinctly avowed before he reached the height of his ambition. How, by his most original scheme of " reform," he contradicted and discredited the patriotism of the counsel he had offered to Monroe upon appointments, we have seen. We now find him, like his predecessor Jefferson, after having implored Congress to amend the constitution by making the executive eligible for no more than a single term of office, accepting the nomination for a second term. Yet it must be admitted that there was much to justify the change of opinion. This feud in the cabinet had so split and rent the party, that the consequences of a presidential election, in which all the candidates for the principal office should be new men, might have been most fatal, not to the cause of the democrats alone, but to the cause of democracy itself. Added to which we can see, in the earnestness with which Mr. Van Buren is said to have pressed his patron to allow himself to be put in nomination for a second term, the operation of the hope (which did not deceive him) of being himself carried by the eddy, as it were, first to the vice-presidency, and then to the White House. But what- ever the motives and causes for this practical contradiction to his own advice to Congress, it is certain that first of all his adherents in the legislature of Penn- sylvania expressed their desire to see him continue in office for another term, and then at a caucus of his friends in the New York legislature, on the 13th of February (that is to say, before the close of the first session of Congress, during his administration), it was resolved that he ought to be nominated again : and this year, 1831, he consented to stand. Calhoun's friends, we learn without astonishment, saw now that their cause was lost ; how much this may have had to do with the outburst of nullification, and its summary suppression, our readers will be able to judge, when we shall have related the facts of this episode in American history. Matters were in this state when, on the 20th of April, the whole country was startled by the intelligence that the ministry had resigned. What could have occasioned this unexampled step ? Were the intrigues and manceuvres of European courts and constitutions to be introduced into America ? Mr. Calhoun's pamphlet could not have possessed divulsive force sufficient to account for this movement for he was only Vice-President ; only an aspirant, not a candidate, for the actual enjoyment of the power of the executive ; and he was identified with "nullification," which found favour with no more than a moiety A.D. 1829 37.] RESIGNATIONS IN THE CABINET. 239 of the South, was dreaded and detested everywhere else, and had so little pith and substance that the words of the senator from Massachusetts seemed to have rendered its realisation for ever impossible. All was mystery, curiosity, and conjecture. Even the publication of the letters of resignation from the members of the cabinet failed to throw any light upon the subject; indeed it rather added to the universal perplexity by disclosing the existence of fresh mysteries : except the fact that the President, having accepted the demission of the Secretaries of War and State, requested those of the Treasury and the Navy to follow their example, the public learned nothing from these documents. Nay, the intimation contained in the President's own statement, of his reason for preferring so unex- pected and unusual a request, that he had come to the conclusion that he must completely reconstruct his cabinet, because " it had come together in great harmony, and as a unit," this only stimulated further inquiry and hypothesis. Month after month this excitement lasted ; new Secretaries of State and the Navy had been appointed, Edward Livingston (whom we have known in various connexions, earlier in our story) to the former office, Levi Woodbury to the latter ; when in the middle of June, the Attorney-general, who had been absent from the seat of government during the former part of the recess, returned to Washington and sent in his resignation. The mystery was explained and the universal inquisitiveness gratified now, for this ex-functionary informed the astonished nation that the harmony of the cabinet had been disturbed and destroyed by the determination of the President to compel the families of the members he had ' ' dismissed " to associate with the wife of Major Eaton. " By his statement it appeared that these ladies had, in accordance with the general understanding of the female part of society at Washington, declined to visit the family of the Secretary of War, and that this neglect being resented by that gentleman, had produced a coolness between him and the heads of those families. As the President warmly espoused the feelings of the Secretary of War, as of an old and confidential friend, it was rumoured early in the year that their removal would be a consequence of this resentment." In fact, it was avouched by this witness that the President had warned him and those who shared his opinions that " unless they would consent to at least a formal inter- course between their families and that of the Secretary of War" they would be removed from their offices ; that they all refused compliance with this "request ;" and "other friends" interfering, Jackson was induced to abstain from fulfilling his threat. The only reply which the friends of the chief magistrate could make to this last charge was the allegation of Richard M. Johnson, who had been the medium of the " warning," that " he was in no shape authorised by the President," but was " actuated solely by a desire to prevent a dissolution of the cabinet." Which statement was supported by " an authorised publication on the part of the President." As might be expected, however, from the common experience of men in such matters, no one believed these disavowals ; and whilst all were persuaded that a mere domestic broil had caused the disruption of the cabinet, the most were quite satisfied that it should be broken up by any means capable of producing that effect. In addition to the two appointments before mentioned, Louis M'Lane was now made Secretary of the Treasury; Louis Cass, Secretary of 240 MEETING OF CONGRESS. [CHAP. I. War; and Roger B. Taney, Attorney-general. The Postmaster-general was not dismissed, on the ground that he had to answer some charges of corruption brought against him in the Senate, and it would seem to be an evasion of the ends of justice had he been displaced before those charges were either withdrawn, or investigated, or explained. These, however, were not all the political movements of this critical period. The victory of Jackson's party had, indeed, been so signal, and the steps taken by their chief to consolidate the advantages he had acquired had been so effectual, that a party in opposition, during the first two years of his administra- tion, cannot be said to have existed. But the elements of a powerful party were there ; and as it gradually became evident to those who had been leaders, but now found themselves superseded by lesser men, that the " platform " of the President's democracy was a patchwork of dogmas from all political creeds, and that no article of it, except perhaps Jackson's faith in himself, was permanent, they began to take heart again. The disruption of the cabinet largely promoted their designs ; and there soon was seen a declared opposition, not without the commencements of organisation, assuming an attitude of hostility, not only in general to the measures of the government (for it would scarcely be said to have a policy), but especially also to the re-election of Jackson. At the head of this party, which had sprung into existence in a manner strongly resembling the genesis of Jackson's own party, stood Henry Clay ; and the name taken by it in the states where it was strongest was " National Republican/' a name by far too long to endure. No time was lost by the active members of this new opposition; but having secured the nomination of their chief as candidate for the presidency by some of the state legislatures, they advised the holding of a national convention, at Baltimore, in the coming December. On December the 5th, 1831, the twenty-second Congress assembled for its first session. Andrew Stevenson was once more elected Speaker, the only other candidate who received many votes being Joel B. Sutherland, of Pennsylvania. And next day the Message was read in the Houses. The greater part of this document referred exclusively to foreign affairs, and the relations of the administration to the Indian tribes was fully discussed. " It is confidently believed," said the President, " that perseverance for a few years in the present policy of the government, will extinguish the Indian title to all lands lying within the states composing our Federal Union, and remove beyond their limits every Indian who is not willing to submit to their laws." The advancement of this hapless race in " the habits and enjoyment of civilised life " as if any race, without mixing to a large extent with one or more other races, ever had or ever could advance from primeval barbarism, one step on the road to civilisation was also foretold. The amount of the revenue was anticipated at 27,750,000 dollars ; whilst the total expenditure was no more than 14,750,000. More than 16,500,000 dollars had been applied to the reduction of the public debt, and the payment of interest upon it. So that in the three years that Jackson had been at the hee of affairs above 40,000,000 dollars would have been applied to this object most just cause for gratulation. A.D. 1829-37.] ADJUSTMENT OF THE REPRESENTATION. 241 Few recommendations were offered .to Congress, but amongst them we find renewed those for " a modification of the tariff," " justice to the interests of the merchant " being observed, as well as to those of ' ' the manufacturer ; " " a more liberal policy towards unfortunate debtors to the government;" the amendment of the constitution in the article regulating the mode of electing the President and Vice-President ; and the extinction of the Bank of the United States. New ones were presented respecting the complications of the system of keeping the public accounts, the re-organisation of the district of Columbia, and cor- rection of anomalies in the distribution of the Circuit Courts. When we stated the results of the census, we also showed the effect of the adjustment of the representations to them. This was accomplished during the session now commenced, and the debate by which the ratio of apportionment was determined, was both long and curious. There were two objects to be kept in view : the selection of a number which should leave the smallest amount of unrepresented fractions, and at the same time time should not give to any one state, or group of states, undue advantages in the number of representatives. Forty-eight thousand was the ratio suggested by the committee, through James K. Polk, its reporter ; and the numbers determined after the former censuses had been thirty thousand for that of 1790, thirty-three thousand for that of 1800, thirty-five thousand for 1810, and forty thousand for 1820. After a host of conflicting propositions by way of amendment, the numbers suggested varying from sixty thousand to forty-four, and several motions having had the hard fate of being carried one day and rescinded the next, forty-seven thousand seven hundred was finally settled ; and the Senate commenced its discussion of the subject. There, Webster taking the lead, the scheme for determining the question was exactly reversed. Instead of fixing the minimum number of inhabitants to return each representative, and leaving the total of the House to follow, the Senate began by fixing the total of the House (which they set at two hundred and fifty-one), and left the ratio of apportionment to follow from that. The House refused to accept the amended bill, and took its stand upon the terms of the constitution, which undoubtedly did most plainly point to their plan, although the amendment of the Senate would not have been opposed to them either in letter or spirit. Such primary legislation by one branch of the legislature, respecting an essential condition of the other branch, was, however, too great a stretch of forms and provisions, and however wise and good the measure in itself might be, as a precedent it was fraught with danger. So the representatives maintained their ground, and, the Senate giving way, the original proposition became law. In the Senate, the unhappy results of the discussions in the democratic party showed themselves by the resolute and successful opposition to the ap- pointment of Van Buren as ambassador to London. How entirely unlocked for this hostility was, appears from the fact that the ex- Secretary of State had proceeded to England, and had commenced negociations upon the matters under discussion with the court of St. James's ; and that he had to return precipitately, not without chagrin, when the result of the vote in the Senate was declared. When the other nominations made during the recess received the confirmation VOL. II. II 242 MOVEMENTS OF THE OPPOSITION. [CHAP. L of this branch of the legislature, the casting vote of the Vice-President ordered Van Buren' s nomination to be laid upon the table ; and when, near the end of January, 1832, the appointment was brought formally before the Senate, the confirmation was opposed by the adherents of Calhoun, on the ground that Van Buren had been the means of breaking up the former cabinet, and that the part he had taken in domestic politics was objectionable; and by the other senators who belonged to the opposition, because in his dealings with Great Britain, he had showed much greater eagerness to serve his party than to maintain the honour of the country, and that, as if the United States were a dependent or subordinate of Great Britain, he had endeavoured to persuade the British government, that it was for its advantage that his party should be supreme in America. The strength of the opposition was greater than could have been imagined, for the vote at the end of the debate was even, the question being decided against the administration by the casting vote of Calhoun. Calhoun's victory was purchased at the cost of a most mortifying and twofold defeat. For Jackson avowed himself the author of the -instructions on which the charge of truckling to British interests, and putting party in the place of country, had been founded ; and the discomfited envoy was brought forward as the candidate, in the interest of the administration party, for the vice-presidency in opposition to Calhoun. And as the Senate had confirmed the nomination of the politician, to whom when ambassador in England Van Buren had addressed the instructions complained of for he was no other than M'Lane, the new Secretary of the Treasury and by whom they had actually been executed, it was manifest to the nation that these reasons were but pretexts, which could not hide the personal motives that had determined the recall of the former Secretary of State. Yet this plain want of principle in the policy of the opposition did not, in the end, so greatly contribute to its failure, as their want of harmony, by which their numerical preponderancy was rendered futile. Reform having been attempted by the administration in the very remark- able way we have seen, the inquiry arose, and soon took a practical shape, whether this method of reform did riot itself need reforming, and whether it did not involve evils of a more serious nature than those which it proposed to rid the country of. But Jackson had the strength of the House on his side ; and the only question entertained was a complaint against a collector of duties on imports, who dismissed a deputy inspector from office, because he objected to being mulcted a quarter of his fees, for the purpose, as was understood, of defraying the electioneering expenses of the administration party. The oppo- sition found opportunities, during this debate, to level all their heavy ordnance at the President and his followers, and to accuse the reform party of every species of chicanery and corruption in the creation, bestowal, and employment of the public offices ; but the offender, whose name was before the House, was referred to the Secretary of the Treasury, who would (no doubt) administer due correction to one who did his work " not wisely, but too well." The chief interest of this debate, however, arises from a double breach of the peace occasioned by an illustration employed by one of the speakers. Stanberry of Ohio, who felt keenly on the general subject of the political .VD. 1829-37.] THE BANK CONTROVERSY'. 243 partisanship of the administration, opposed the remission of the delinquent collector to the head of the department, on the ground that the government would not punish such criminals. " Was the late Secretary of War removed in consequence of his attempt fraudulently to give to Governor Houston [Samuel Houston, now ex-governor of Tennessee, whom we shall meet with again, in more desirable company] the contract for Indian rations ? " There being no answer which a patriot could have desired forthcoming, Houston, being at Washington, thought right to call Stanberry to account for this intro- duction of his name; and, when the Speaker disputed his right to do so, to beat him so severely with a bludgeon, that the worthy representative could not resume his seat in the House for several days. In spite of the resistance of some members, the Teunessean was brought before the House in the custody of the serjeant-at-arms. He admitted the assault, but pleaded excitement of feeling, and it was with some difficulty that a motion for a public reprimand by the Speaker passed ; Henry Clay himself looking to the President's chair instead of the respect due to the legislature, and the infinite moment of main- taining freedom of speech there, suffered his ambition so far to override his reverence for laAv, that he moved that Houston should be dismissed without so much as a word in rebuke. Another member, Arnold of Tennessee, on the like pretence, was attacked with a bludgeon and pistol by a ruffian named Heard, who called himself a friend of Houston, but having a nervous arm he felled his assailant, and would have chastised him most summarily, had he not been hindered. There was also a challenge sent to another member. The civil courts, having the matter brought before them, fined Houston five thousand dollars, but Heard was declared insane. Having been attacked in the President's three Messages opening Congress, the Bank now thought it would be both prudent and right to memorialise Congress for the renewal of its charter ; and the great Bank Controversy began. In spite of the objections of the friends of the President, who regarded the movement of the Bank as "too early," though it was not made until the President had, at the commencement of these sessions, moved Congress to attend to the subject; the memorial was presented in the Senate by Dallas, and in the House by M'Duffie. In the former body, a select committee, to whom the matter was referred, reported the adviseableness of renewing the charter for fifteen years, on condition of a few modifications in the fundamental laws, by which every objection to the Bank, which had even a show of reason, would have been obviated. And a bill was brought in, conformable with the report, but in order to secure the harmonious action of the legislature, it was not pushed through, because the committee of inquiry appointed by the House had not yet reported. Amongst the representatives, the first skirmish was on the question whether the memorial should be referred to a select committee, or to the standing com- mittee of ways and means; and the friends of the Bank carried the latter pro- position. This committee reported in favour of the renewal of the charter, but the minority presented a counter-report, and the battle was soon joined along the whole line. The first movement was on the part of the opponents 241 THE BANK CONTROVERSY [CHAP. I of the Bank, who, under the conduct of Clayton of Georgia, demanded a com- mittee of inquiry into its affairs, alleging that there were abuses in the manage- ment that would demonstrate the necessity of not renewing the charter ; and he enumerated (from a slip of paper in Benton's hanclAvriting) seven, beside fifteen others "not amounting to forfeiture/' yet deserving exposure, and showing the inexpediency of acceding to the memorial. To this formidable list of charges M'Duffie replied; and after some days' discussion, and several conflicting amendments, the committee was appointed, but was directed, by a motion of John Quincy Adams, merely to inquire and report whether the pro- visions of the existing Bank charter had or had not been violated. Notwithstanding this restriction, however, the majority of the committee being hostile to the Bank, the whole affairs of the establishment were examined, and a report was presented recommending the postponement of the considera- tion of the renewal of the charter, till the public debt was paid, and the revenue adjusted to the expenditure of the government. The minority also reported (John Quincy Adams sending in a report in his own name alone) in vindi- cation of the management of the Bank, and recommending the renewal of the charter. The conflict was now removed to the Senate, where, in committee of the whole, various amendments to the bill before them were proposed by the friends and by the opponents of the Bank. But after a hot debate of three weeks, the bill, without many alterations, passed, by a majority of twenty-eight against twenty. But we must allow Senator Benton, who did not succeed in getting a single one of his four proposed amendments accepted, we must allow him, as one of the most uncompromising adversaries of the Bank, to speak. He tells us that as soon as Jackson delivered his first Message, and pro- nounced against the Bank, -there began "a ceaseless and pervading activity in behalf of the Bank in all parts- of the Union, and in all forms/-' " all conducted in a way to operate most strongly upon the public mind, and to conclude the question in the forum of the people, before it could be brought forward in the national legislature." This seems to astonish the Missourian senator, or rather to grieve him, because " at the same time but little was done, or could be done, on either side." He does not understand the propriety of a trading corporation attempting to prevent itself from being overthrown, when the attack comes from his party, and is based upon grounds wholly removed from those of public and commercial convenience. Neither does he rejoice, as he ought "on the demos krateo principle," to see the managers and supporters of the Bank refer the question raised by his party to the real sovereign the nation. " The forum of the people," on that same favourite " demos krateo principle " of his, ought to be regarded as the ultimate judicial tribunal of the country. If Benton's story of the " ceaseless and pervading activity " of the Bank be correct, instead of blaming the Bank he ought to have blamed the faulty general- ship of the President, who disclosed his designs to the enemy, and put him on the alert, when " but little could be done " to follow up the declaration of war with active hostilities. Perhaps he saw this, but refrained from criticising the strategy of his chief; for he tells us how he attempted to repair the error which had put the administration into such a position in front of such a foe. " In the A.D. 1829-37.] THE BANK CONTROVERSY. 245 session of 1830-31, I succeeded in creating the first opportunity of delivering a speech against it; it was done a little irregularly, &c. My mind was fixed upon the character of the speech which 1 should make, One which should avoid the beaten tracks of objection, avoid all settled points, avoid the problem of uncon- stitutionality, and take up the institution in a practical sense, as having too -much power over the people and the government over business and politics, and too much disposed to exercise that power to the prejudice of the freedom and equality which should prevail in a republic, to be allowed to exist in our country. But I knew it was not sufficient to pull down; we must build up also." So, to give weight and support to his views, he insisted that " gold and silver was the best currency for a republic;" and proposed " a hard money party, against a paper party." Strangest phenomenon of all " I quoted copiously from British speakers," says Benton ; which may account for his failing to provoke any debate in the Senate, although he was gratified by a small and barren vote in favour of his statements. Benton makes much account of this Bank question; he says it was the key of Jackson's position, " the salient point" of Jackson's first Message, which was "going back to the constitution," and "re-established the landmarks of party, as parties were when founded on principle." But notwithstanding all that he says on the interminable subject of a metallic versus a paper currency, and "the latitudinarian construction " of the constitution which " authorised " the Bank charter, the real objection to it on his part and that of his party ever and anon peeps out : " Experience had shown such an institution to be & political machine, adverse to free government, mingling in the elections and legislation of the country, corrupting the press, and exerting its influence in the only way known to moneyed power by corruption." If the facts of Jackson's " reform" have not been misrepresented by his own party, the only real objection which he could have to this, was its being done by the Bank. But, in truth, this morbid horror of a commercial corporation, which could not be made a tool for personal and party purposes, having force, aims, and means of its own, lowers our estimate of the statesmanship of the Jackson party ; in spite of all that, in their political creed, differences them favourably from the schools of Clay and Calhoun. Here we may observe that for many of the objections urged against the Bank there was a basis of fact ; although the superstructure of objection was not true. Thus, it is unquestionable that the Bank did act politically against the President ; menaced as its managers felt themselves and their interests to be by the commercial principles proposed by Jackson during his canvass, they could not do other than by all means at hand, not actually illegal (and had they used such, the " objection," we imagine, would have been urged in another court, and in another fashion), resist his accession to power; and it would have been far irom creditable to American liberty, had it been unable to defend itself by legitimate means, when its opponents were not very scrupulous respecting the means they employed to strengthen their position. So, too, the complaint of the large amount of stock held by foreigners was ridiculously inconsistent with the profession of free trade. The charge of violating the charter, founded on the issue of a species of bills of exchange, drawn on the head office, which were taken and circulated in the remote states, almost in the manner of promissory 246 THE BANK CONTROVERSY. [CHAP. I. notes payable on the spot, proceeded upon a total, aiid seemingly designed, oblivion of the facts, that where no actual fraud is committed, the right and wrong of banking and all commercial business are determined by judgments in the courts in explanation of statute law ; and that this issue was not forbidden in the charter, was not contrary to any legal decision, and was not fraudulent, for the bills bore upon the face of them, and in their mode of circulation, palpable marks of distinction from notes. The vicious political economy of the objections does not need at the present day to be pointed out specifically, but that feature in them may be noticed in passing. Aird yet Nicholas Biddle, president of the United States' Bank, highly honourable and respectable, was only a man ; and, as Ingersoll says, " He too was ambitious, not avaricious ; not insensible to flattery, but not infatuated ; fond of mysterious ways, but not a mere intriguer." " Not a few flattered Mr. Biddle's ambition by assurances that the Bank was his way to political honours, to the presidency of the United States, which was continually held up to his contemplation. And who is proof against adulation? which misled Biddle and Jackson, as it did Napoleon and Alexander, by republican flattery, more captivating than regal, as it is addressed without impediment or interposition directly and personally to its object." At the commencement of the session " nothing like personal enmity had occurred between Mr. Biddle and General Jackson," and the Bank president had been nominated again as one of the government directors by the executive. He was voted president of the Bank by every one of the other government directors, and so he united in his person all the authority and influence of the Bank, and the basis of it was the support of the administration itself. " The Bank's flourishing rental of 3,500,000 dollars a year was put at his irresponsible disposal. Twenty-five directors were melted into one gigantic corporation sole in his person, with the revenue of a prin- cipality, and more than the power of a monarch, to distribute as he pleased." And it does seem more than probable that the means of the Bank were employed, at least at this crisis, in " making to itself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness," and that too in Congress; though what just ground the President and his party had for complaint on this account, after all we have heard and seen, we cannot conceive. What is disclosed hereby concerning the character of the legislators speaks for itself, and that pretty loudly, when heard in connection with those charges of " corruption," so commonly interchanged amongst the members of Congress, and of the administration likewise, upon all high occasions. " The most conspicuous, and a majority, of the senators attended his drawing-room [at Gadsby's Hotel, in Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, for Biddle had come to the seat of war in person], partook of his entertainments, as some of them had of his bounties, counselled with him, caucused in his apartments, and did his bidding." " In the profit and loss account, what were 100,000 dollars a year spent from 3,500,000 ? A scarcely perceptible sum to lend, or give by discounts, fees, or other largesses, to those who make and interpret laws in legislatures and courts, create and annul public sentiment in print." The remarkable increase of debts to the Bank during the first three years of Jackson's administration, and a fact mentioned by Ingersoll (in contrast with a statement put forth in a report by the Senate committee on A.D. 1829-37.] THE BANK CONTROVERSY. 247 finance, two years later, " that there were never more than fifty-nine nor less than forty-four debtor members of Congress to the Bank, whose loans, bills, and discounts never exceeded 238,000 dollars"), that "not long before the Bank made an insolvent assignment of its effects, the debts of one senator to it, for drafts, discounts, and other advances, amounting to 111,000 dollars, were compromised for a conveyance of wild lands in the west, of no realisable value ; leaving unsettled and outstanding another debt of 28,000 dollars/ ' this fact imparts an ugly significance to his hints. When the bill was sent to the house, M'Duffie proposed an amendment, to the effect that the provision limiting the number of branches in the several states should not interfere with existing branches. Other gentlemen proposed other amendments, and a short but sharp contest ensued, ending in the adoption of M'Duffie's amendment, with which the Senate also concurred, and the rejection of all the others, and the bill finally passed by a majority of a hundred and seven against eighty-five. " All the Pennsylvania members present in both Houses," says Ingersoll, pithily, and with an evident faith in the old pagan Nemesis, " voted for the Bank, except one, who hanged himself afterwards." This was on July the 3rd, for the session had been unusually protracted, but Congress arranged its adjournment so as to leave ten clear days after the bill was put into the hands of the President, lest it should be retained till the next session, as other bills had been. Jackson, however, needed not the constitutional time for considering the matter. As soon as a Message could be drawn up, the bill was returned : Veto ! Substantially the reasons assigned for this refusal to approve the bill were ten ; and, arranging them according to their importance, they were the unconstitutionality of the Bank, the bill being framed without consulting the President, the large proportion of its stock held by foreigners, their stock not being taxed, the greater power of the native stockholders in consequence of the number of foreigners, the exemption of the private business of the Bank from taxation, the increase of the rich and of the artificial distinctions in society, the provision enabling state banks to pay their balances in branch notes, the small bonus to be paid for the monopoly 3,000,000 dollars only, and that payable in fifteen annual instalments and the strong suspicions of gross abuse in the management of its affairs. And thus it wound up : " I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained by my fellow- citizens, I shall be grateful and happy ; if not, I shall find in the motives which impel me ample grounds for contentment and peace. In the difficulties which surround us, and the dangers which threaten our institutions, there is cause for neither dismay nor alarm. For relief and deliverance let us firmly rely on that kind Providence which, I am sure, watches with peculiar care over the destinies of our republic, and on the intelligence and wisdom of our countrymen. Through His abundant goodness, and their patriotic devotion, our liberty and union will be preserved." The national republican opposition in the Senate received this Message as a manifesto, and hastened to respond, by proclaiming the necessity for " a change in the national councils." Webster was the chief speaker on this side. Clay also spoke, declaiming against the power of the veto; and Benton, replying to 248 CHOLERA MORBFS. [CHAP. I. him, contrived, according to his own report of the debate, to raise one of those shameful personal altercations in which murderous threats play so prominent a part, and did not succeed in rebutting the charge of having once stated that if Jackson should be chosen President the legislators would need to meet witli pistols and dirks in their belts. Only twenty-two voted in favour of the nega- tived bill, and there were nineteen against it ; wherefore, not being supported by two-thirds of the Senate, it was lost. And thus ends the first act of this long and exciting tragi-comedy. Amongst the other important matters discussed during this session, we find the public lands brought forward by the administration members of the Senate ; and the committee on manufactures (which, as Benton observes, " properly could have nothing to do with the sale and disposition of the lands"), of which Clay was chairman, was directed to ascertain if the price could not be reduced with benefit to the revenue, and if these lands could advantageously be trans- ferred to the states in which they lay. To both suggestions the report gave a distinct, negative, and affirmed the wisdom of the course heretofore pursued; yet, seeing that the ordinary revenue was sufficient for all the purposes of the government, it proposed to reserve ten per cent, from the proceeds of the sales (in addition to the five per cent, already appropriated to this object), for effecting improvements within the limits of the states in which the sales occurred. And it proposed to distribute the remainder of the proceeds amongst all the states, according to the ratio of representation, to be applied by the state governments to colonisation, education, internal improvement, or the payment of debt incurred by such means. A bill embodying these propositions accompanied the report ; and by it their operation was limited to five years, and in the event of a war they were to cease ; and, after being referred to the committee on public lands (which presented a counter -report), and much debated, it was accepted by the Senate, but could not be got through the House because of the adjournment. Internal improvements were once more warmly agitated, and several large appropriations with this object were sanctioned by the President. The tariff also came under attention, being distinctly recommended by the President, and the progress of the anti-tariff feeling in the South requiring it. The subject was taken up by the two committees of the House on ways and means, and on manufactures ; and reports and bills were presented by both. That from the first committee, of which JVTDuffie was chairman (although it originated with the Secretary of the Treasury, and so was a government measure), was soon negatived; that of the other, of which John Quincy Adams was chairman and reporter, after some discussion, and a few amendments, was carried by an overwhelming majority some of the opponents of protection even voting for it. The principle of protection was maintained by this bill, but the duties on many protected articles of domestic manufacture were considerably reduced, and it was received as a concession to the free-trade party, and with the hope (a most delusive one) that it would allay the excitement in South Carolina. Towards the end of June, 1832, the cholera morbus, or Asiatic cholera, broke out in Albany and the city of New York. From the 20th to the 25th of July, the deaths by cholera exceeded a hundred a day in the latter place; and from that maximum they gradually declined, until the beginning of November, A.D. 1829-37.] JACKSON RE-ELECTED. when it was no longer specified amongst the causes of death in the weekly report; the whole number of deaths attributed to it there, being three thousand four hundred and ninety-seven. But it was in New Orleans that this terrible scourge was felt most severely, sixteen hundred and sixty-eight deaths occurred in that city between the 28th of October and the llth of November, and on the 1st of November alone one hundred and seventy persons died. This excessive mortality arose from the circumstance of the yellow fever showing itself at the same time, but happily the ravages of these two diseases were speedily checked by the occurrence of cooler weather at an unusually early period. The most deplorable aspect of this pestilential visitation was, that neither the general nor the state governments took any precautionary measures, or offered either counsels or cautions to the people. The unsettled problem of the limits of the two jurisdictions, or an undue reliance upon the ocean-barrier between the two hemispheres, prevented anything from being done till the disease was at the door, and then the citizens themselves did all that was done. The candidates for the two executive offices were numerous. General Jackson was universally accepted as the presidential candidate of the new democratic party, Van Buren being nominated with him for Vice-President. The national republican convention at Baltimore in the preceding December, after a vain attempt to effect a coalition with the anti-masonic party, had nominated Henry Clay and John Sergeant for President and Vice-President. The anti-masonic party, in their convention three months earlier, selected William Wirt and Amos Ellmaker, as their candidates. There were other candidates also nominated by less considerable numbers. The result will show almost all the secret manoeuvring that attended the contest; and it may be given here, although not officially declared till after the commencement of the next session of Congress. For Andrew Jackson all the votes of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, with three from Maryland, in all, two hundred and nineteen votes were given ; and he was thus elected President. Henry Clay received all the votes of Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, and Kentucky, with five from Maryland, in all forty-nine votes. The legislative electors of South Carolina bestowed their eleven votes on John Floyd, and Vermont its seven upon William Wirt. The popular votes for Jackson amounted to seven hundred and seven thousand two hundred and seventeen ; those for Clay, to three hundred and twenty-eight thousand five hundred and sixty-one ; and those for Wirt, to two hundred and fifty-four thousand seven hundred and twenty. And by comparing this list with that immediately preceding, a clear case of necessity for some amendment of the constitution in the mode of electing the executive will be perceived. Martin Van Buren was elected Vice-President by all the votes which Jackson received, except those of Pennsylvania, in all one hundred and eighty- nine votes ; or six hundred and three thousand five hundred and twelve popular votes. John Sergeant received the same votes as Henry Clay, in all forty-nine. The thirty votes of Pennsylvania were bestowed upon William Wilkins; the VOL. II. K K 250 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. [CHAP. i. eleven of South Carolina on Henry Lee ; and the seven of Vermont on Amos Ellmaker. Congress reassembled on the 4th of December, 1832. It was the second and final session of the twenty-second Congress, and the time of its meeting was one of the most critical the United States had ever known; but the attendance on the day of opening was not so large as might have been anticipated, for only thirty senators appeared out of forty-eight; and out of two hundred and sixteen members of the other House, only one hundred and sixty-five. In the Senate there was a skirmish (for the occasion forbade its assuming the dignity of a combat) on the choice of a President pro tempore, and Hugh L. White of Tennessee was elected on the fifth ballot. On the next day, as usual, the President's Message was received and read. Postponing the consideration of the part devoted to foreign affairs, we find a most encouraging statement of the condition of the national finances. Although the receipts from the sale of public lands had "proved less productive than was anticipated/' the revenue from the customs had more than made up the deficiency, for it was estimated at 28,000,000 dollars. Eighteen millions had been applied to the payment of the interest and the discharge of the principal of the public debt, whereof with justifiable pride the Message stated that "the payment of all which was then redeemable was provided for;" arid about 16,000,000 had defrayed the other expenses of government. " A considerable falling off in the revenue from customs " was spoken of as likely in the next year, "in consequence of the reduced rates of duty which would then take effect;" yet hopes were held out of the entire extinction of the debt in the year 1833, by the purchase of it, before it was "of right redeemable," at the market price, by the commissioners of the sinking fund. More important still, the President, with redoubled energy, pressed upon Congress the necessity for revising the tariff; both for the purpose of adapting the revenue to the expenditure, and to limit the protection afforded by the imposts to the counteraction of the protective laws of other nations (meaning Great Britain, first and chiefly), and the securing of " a supply of those articles of manufacture essential to the national independence and safety in time of war." He insisted that perpetual protection, secured by a tariff of high duties imposed for that object specially, had entered into the minds of but few American statesmen. "The most they have anticipated is a temporary and generally incidental protection, which they maintain has the effect to reduce the price, by domestic competition, below that of the foreign article. Experi- ence, however, our best guide on this as on other subjects, makes it doubtful whether the advantages of this system are not counterbalanced by many evils, and whether it does not tend to beget, in the minds of a large portion of our countrymen, a spirit of discontent and jealousy dangerous to the stability of the Union." While speaking of the tariff, "nullification" came under the President's notice; and he quietly but resolutely intimated his belief "that the laws them- selves [meaning himself as the executive thereof] were fully adequate to the suppression of such attempts as might immediately be made" to realise Tefferson's furthest stretch of the state-right theory, improved as it was by A.D. 1829-37.] THE COMPROMISE TARIFF. 251 Callioun. " Should the exigency arise/' he continued, " rendering the exe- cution of the existing laws impracticable from any cause whatever, prompt notice of it will be given to Congress, with the suggestion of such views and measures as may be deemed necessary to meet it." Against " nullification " Jackson showed himself the same man he had been in "the Seminole war/' at New Orleans, against John Quincy Adams and Clay; and against the. Bank he was equally uncompromising. He now recommended that " provision should be made to dispose of all stocks then held [by the general government] in corporations, whether created by the general or state governments, and to place the proceeds in the treasury." He also brought against the Bank the definitive charge of effecting " an arrangement with a portion of the holders of the three per cent, stock;" by which, said he and we must quote his ipsissima verba " a surrender of the certificates of this stock may [this word must be observed] be postponed until October, 1833 ; and thus the liability of the government, after its ability to discharge the debts, may [this word again] be continued by the failure of the Bank to perform its duties." And then, by one of those remarkable logic-leaps, which men who are not wise take as well as men of rarest wisdom, though not precisely in the same direction, it was recommended that Congress should seriously investigate this question ' e whether the public deposits in that institution may be regarded as entirely safe." " He also recommends," says the " Annual Register," summing up the con- cluding paragraphs, "a reduction of the price of the public lands, so as to prevent their becoming a source of revenue, and an amendment of the con- stitution, so as to limit and define the power of the general government over internal improvement. The policy of the government in relation to the Indians was applauded ; and an extension of the judiciary system to the new western states was again recommended." We commence our record of the proceedings of Congress in relation to ' ' the Compromise Tariff." But we shall, in pursuance of the plan we have adopted, by which the affairs of the states severally are exhibited in greater detail than would otherwise be possible, omit the local history of " nullification," except so far as may be requisite to make the tariff bill and debates intelligible. The House first applied itself to this subject, referring to the committee of ways and means the consideration of the President's suggestion concerning it. In the Senate a resolution was carried, calling upon the Secretary of the Trea- sury, who had in his annual report urged the reduction of duties to the revenue standard, for a draught of a bill embodying his views, or rather those of the administration. On the 27th of December, the committee of ways and means reported, by G. C. Verplanck, of New York, and a bill proposing a diminution of the duties on all protected articles, but leaving from fifteen to twenty per cent, for protective purposes, and to take 'effect immediately, with a further reduction to follow, was laid before the House ; and this seems to have been, in effect, the reply to the resolution of the Senate. At the commencement of the new year, 1833, the discussion of this scheme was entered upon, but it had gone on only a week, when the President, on January the 10th, by a Message, communicated information respecting the 252 THE ENFORCING AND TARIFF BILLS. [CHAP. I ordinance and nullifying laws of South Carolina, and his own proclamation thereupon, accompanied by his views of what Congress should do ; and on the 21st of the month, a bill to enforce the collection of the revenue according to the law was reported by the judiciary committee of the Senate; when John C. Calhoun, who had resigned the vice-presidency of the United States on the 28th of December, reappeared as senator for his state, "to ride the whirlwind and direct the storm " he had succeeded in raising. Thus there were two bills of primary importance on the same subject, but looking in precisely opposite directions, under discussion in the two Houses of Congress at the same time, ; this Enforcing or Force Bill in the Senate, to compel South Carolina to submit to the tariff of 1828, and the new Tariff Bill in the House of Representatives, to abolish that very tariff which the Enforcing Bill was to uphold. It was a position in which we can with very little difficulty imagine a Federalist administration placed, in consequence of its exceedingly philosophical theories of democratic government, and such an administration would then inevitably be overturned. Jackson, not weak like a political doctrinaire, and having on both questions a strong personal feeling against Calhoun on " nullification/' and against Clay on protection, like Radetsky at Novara, had thrown himself in between the two divisions of the enemy, and the manoeuvre was in itself a victory. The Enforcing Bill, which had, with great judgment, been drawn in a general form, so as not to wear an invidiously hostile aspect towards the nullifying state, made slow progress in the Senate. But the Tariff Bill in the House seemed like to perish in a perfect flood of amendments and debates. The excitement in the country was indescribable, for the state legislatures were almost all in session, and each felt bound to deliver itself upon the question of the day. As we shall see, New England called to mind the Hartford Convention, and what was said then ; whilst the South was anxious to see the tariff lowered to the revenue scale, anxious to see the supremacy of state-sovereignty demonstrated, yet anxious for the maintenance of the Union; for that section of the confederation has always felt the essential importance of its connection with the other group of states, and has really never meant the dissolution of the Union, when it has most vehemently threatened to destroy it ; it has only desired to secure its own predominance therein, and it has generally succeeded. Calhoun* for the purpose (as he observed) of testing the principles of the 11 Force" bill, proposed a series of resolutions to the Senate, which were no more than expansions of the old democratic view of the state-sovereignty principle, and yet they involved the whole principle of " nullification/' Starting from the definition of the constitution, as a "compact" uniting "the people of the several states/' and of the Union, as " a union between the states " which ratified "the constitutional compact," he proceeded to the assertions, that whilst " certain definite powers " were delegated to the general government, " to be executed jointly," each state reserved to itself "the residuary mass of powers to be exercised by its own separate government ; " and that in the assumption by the general government of powers not delegated to it, its acts are " unauthorised, void, and of no effect," each state having (and here lay the principle of nullifi- cation, and the opponents of the nullifiers held it as firmly as they themselves A.D. 1829-37.] THE ENFORCING AND TARIFF BILLS. 253 did) " an equal right to judge for itself, as well of the infraction as of the mode and measure of redress/' all being '''sovereign parties, without any common judge." Lastly, he distinctly denied the opposite allegations, that the Union was based on a social compact of the people, " taken collectively as individuals," and "that they have not the right of judging, in the last resort, as to the extent of powers reserved, and, of consequence, of those delegated ; " because the tendency of those opinions was to " subvert the sovereignty of the states, to destroy the Federal character of the Union, and to rear on its ruins a consolidated government, without constitutional check or limitation, and which must neces- sarily terminate in the loss of liberty itself/' On the part of the administration, as it was understood, Senator Grundy offered a series of counter- resolutions, merely asserting that the laying of duties on imports was " expressly granted by the constitution to the general govern- ment, and prohibited to the states;" and that " the attempt to annul an Act of Congress " laying such duties, or to obstruct its execution, was " not warranted by the constitution, and dangerous to the political institutions of the country." And these, as Senator Clayton rightly showed, " tacitly yielded the whole doctrine of nullification ; " wherefore he submitted an additional resolution, setting forth the real reply to Calhoun's statements. It was to this effect, "That the people of these United States are, for the purposes enumerated in their constitution, one people and a single nation ; " " that while the constitution does provide for the interest and safety of all the states, it does not secure all the rights of independent sovereignty to any ; " " that the Supreme Court of the United States is the proper and only tribunal in the last resort for the decision of all cases in law and equity, arising under the constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made under their authority ; " and it declared that the Senate " would not fail in the faithful discharge of its most solemn duty to support the executive in the just administration of the government, and clothe it with all constitutional power necessary to the faithful execution of the laws and the preservation of the Union." With the discussion of these conflicting resolutions in the Senate, and of amendments on the Tariff Bill yet more contradictory, the short session was rapidly wearing away, and matters seemed likely to end in a dead-lock. For if the tariff' were not modified South Carolina was lost ; and if it were, the pro- tectionists of the North were alienated ; and yet the administration party in the House could not carry any measure better than "the bill of abominations " of 1828. South Carolina also, notwithstanding the ordinance and the armament, the new oath of allegiance, and every other overt act pointing to disruption, hesitated to do as it had so hotly and hastily said ; and hinted by its attitude that some pacific solution of the difficulty might be found. Jackson, or his advisers, too, hesitated to carry out the menaces of the proclamation, and looked round for a persuasive that should be equally efficacious, though less violent, than force of arms, with the refractory state. Clay trembled for his " American system," and for his chances at the next battle for the presidency. Calhoun was not willing to consider himself finally shut out from that contest. The Enforcing Bill must pass, but what of the new tariff ? On February the llth, Henry Clay rose and gave notice that he should ask 254 THE COMPROMISE TARIFF BILL. [CIIAP. i. leave of the Senate to introduce a bill to modify the acts imposing duties on imports. Next day he did ask leave, and after a brisk discussion obtained it. This was the " Compromise Tariff" bill ; it provided that at the end of the year then current, all ad valorem duties of more than twenty per cent, should be reduced one-tenth, and at the end of each alternate year afterwards, till 1839, an equal reduction; and that at the end of 1841, and half a year after that term, the residue of the excess should be taken off in two equal portions, leaving a maximum of twenty per cent. It also provided for the abolition of credit for duties, and the assessment of the value of imports at the ports of entry, or home valuation, after the 30th of June, 1842. Thus he thought that the protective tariff would be preserved for a sufficient length of time, whilst the country would be tranquillised and good feeling restored. After a full discussion, in the course of which Calhoun expressed his appro- bation of the measure, it reached a third reading; and then the introducer stated that a bill of precisely the same character had passed the House, and would most probably be presented at once, for the approval of the- Senate. In effect, the administration measure was shelved, Robert P. Letcher of Kentucky moving its re-committal, with instructions to the committee to report Clay's bill in its place ; which was done, and the changeling accepted by a majority of a hundred and nineteen against eighty-five. This was on the 26th of February ; on the next day it was sent to the Senate, passed that body on the 1st of March, twenty-nine voting for it, and sixteen against ; and on the following day (which this year was the last in the session) became law by the approval of the President. The Enforcing Bill passed the Senate on the 20th of February ; thirty-two voting for it, and only one, John Tyler, afterwards President, in opposition to it. On the 28th it passed the House, by a majority of a hundred and fifty against thirty-five, and received the President's approval at the same time as the Tariff Bill. Generally, nothing more was known or suspected concerning this affair, than that, finding his pet system in danger, and perceiving that it was possible to obtain a nine years' reprieve for it by the aid of Jackson's party and Calhoun's, combined with his own, and at the same time to rid both those leaders from their perplexities, and the country from the imminence of a civill war, Henry Clay, who seems to have assumed the especial function of developing the " compromise " element in the constitution, came to an understanding with Calhoun, on the basis perhaps of their common enmity to the President, and wheedled the Senate into accepting his bill, whilst he carried the House by a coup d'etat. Daniel Webster, with whom Clay had begun to act, was too sturdy a supporter of the tariff to be consulted, and he expressed his feelings by some tart utterances at the time, and by presenting a string of resolutions to the Senate, on the day after Clay had explained his bill. " These resolutions," Senator Benton assures us, " brought the sentiments of Mr. Webster, on the tariff and federal revenue, very nearly to the standard recommended by General Jackson in his annual Message ; . . . . and this ap- proximation of policy with that which had already taken place on the doctrine of nullification and its measures, and his present support of the f force bill/ A.D. I829-37.J THE LAND BILL. 255 may have occasioned the exclusion of Mr. Webster from all knowledge of this * compromise.' '' Webster's authorised biography (we thus designate it, because the volume containing it is dedicated by himself to his two nieces) informs us that " the President of the United States felt the importance of Mr. Webster's aid in the great constitutional struggle of the Union. There were men of great ability enlisted in support of his administration, Messrs. Forsyth, Grundy, Dallas, Rives, and others, but no one competent to assume the post of antagonist to the great Southern leader. The general political position of Mr. Webster made it in no degree his duty to sustain the administration in any party measure ; but the reverse. But his whole course as a public man, and all his principles, forbade him to act from party motives in a great crisis of the country's fortunes His aid was personally solicited in the great debate on the ' force bill/ by a member of the cabinet ; but it was not granted till the bill had undergone important amendments suggested by him, when it was given cordially, without stint and without condition." ' ' It is not wholly unworthy of remark in this place/' says a note appended to this passage, " as illustrating the dependence on Mr. Webster's aid which was felt at the White House ; that, on the day of his reply to Mr. Calhoun, the President's carriage was sent to Mr. Webster's lodgings, as was supposed, with a message borne by the President's private secretary. Happening to be still at the door when Mr. Webster was about to go to the Capitol, it conveyed him to the Senate chamber." Posterity will acknowledge its obligation to the biographer of the great orator of Faneuil Hall, for this apparently trivial anecdote. Closely connected with the compromise tariff, or, according to Calvin Colton, " a bond fide part " of it, and " indispensable to make the law fully effective," was Clay's Land Bill, which was re-introduced by him early in December. Dis- cussed at intervals during the three months of the session, but with no accession of light respecting any of its obscure points, it passed the Senate near the end of January by a majority of four. The House took it up only on the 1st of March, but passed it then by ninety-six against forty, with some trifling amend- ment, which the Senate agreed to by a vote of twenty-three against five, and it was sent to the President. Constitutionally, this practice of sending important measures to the executive on the very last day of a session, particularly when its opinion is known or suspected to be adverse, is wholly indefensible; and they who thought thus to coerce Jackson to approve a measure which he was opposed to, ought to be blamed, instead of him, who simply did what the constitution fully justified, if it did not actually prescribe. So large a majority in the two Houses in favour of this bill showed, that if returned at once with a veto it would have become law in spite of the President's disapproval; but Jackson did not return it till the following session, so it was defeated, as we shall shortly learn. Having extinguished the hopes entertained by the friends of the Bank for the renewal of their charter, Jackson followed up the blow, by the suggestion contained in his Message respecting the safety of the deposits of public money, which were in the keeping of that institution ; and the recommendation to sell the Bank stock in the hands of the government. The committee of ways and 256 BANK CONTROVERSY. [CIIAP. I. means reported through James K. Polk (afterwards President) the desirable- ness of the latter step ; but the measure was immediately rejected, though by a small majority a hundred and two against ninety-one. The same committee soon afterwards, by G. C. Verplanck, presented a resolution to the House, to the effect that the public deposits were quite safe whilst in the Bank, and it was adopted by the large majority of a hundred and nine over forty-six. Resolved upon making a case against the Bank, Jackson had caused an agent of the Treasury to inquire into the actual condition of its affairs ; and perhaps it was in consequence of his report, that the recommendation of the Message was so peremptorily refused. He showed that the assets of the esta- blishment much exceeded 79,500,000 dollars, whilst its liabilities scarcely exceeded 37,250,000 ; so that beside its capital of 35,000,000, it had a surplus of above 7,500,000 dollars. Of the solvency of the concern there could, therefore, be no longer any question, by the showing of the administration itself. How Jackson had laboured at the payment of the public debt has been told, and all due praise has been bestowed upon him for his zeal in that business. But he now suffered his zeal to run into excess, and, as if ambitious only of having the renown of extinguishing the debts, he determined to pay off the three per cents., although they were redeemable at pleasure, and were just then much below par. The country would therefore have been the loser to. the full amount of the difference between the value of that stock in the money-market and its nominal worth, or at par. Nevertheless, notice was given in March, 1832, of this design; and it was only postponed for a quarter of a year, on the representation of the Bank, that as 9,000,000 dollars in duties would fall due before the day Jackson had fixed for the redemption of the stock, it would be better to lend the money to American merchants than pay it to European stock- holders, and on condition that the Bank should pay the interest accruing during the quarter. Before the adjourned day arrived, the cholera visited the states, and great commercial distress resulted from the suspension of business occasioned by it. The agent of the Bank in Europe, therefore made an arrangement with the foreign stock-holders to pay them interest for another year, if they would not present their stock for payment for that time. Innocent and patriotic as this arrangement was, it was nevertheless cancelled ; the displeasure of the President being so great, and the newspapers supporting the administration indulging in no measured invective ; and both asserting that the reason for proposing it was inability to pay over the deposits. " The stock was actually redeemed in the ordinary course of business at the Treasury." Hence, no doubt, the inquiry above-mentioned, which did not disclose what the administration had so roundly alleged. " Another cause of crimination " we must relate in the words of the writer of the " Annual Register," who, though a supporter of the Bank, is one who cares for the honour of his country. It " grew out of the bill drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury for the first instalment under the French treaty." Instead of sending to the American minister at Paris an authority to receive the money, or even remitting the bill for collection through the Bank, the government took A.D. 1827-39.] JACKSON'S SECOND INAUGURATION 257 the unusual step of selling a bill to the Bank at the current rate of exchange, and appropriated the proceeds to the current uses of the Treasury. " The bill was not paid, and to save the credit of the Bank its agents took it up. A claim for damages, pursuant to the ordinary custom of merchants, was made for the dishonour of the bill ; and the President of the United States was indignant that the Bank should call for damages, when he contended that the public moneys in the Bank were more than sufficient to pay the amount of the bill." That these incidents should have inflamed Jackson's determination to ruin the Bank at all hazards, we can well believe, but by them he utterly ruined his credit as a financier ; and his success in respect of the payment of the debt, shows rather as the result of the growing prosperity of the country, than as the fruit of any skill or grasp of mind in him. Such laxity as he showed in this momentous business transaction is inconceivable in the petty affairs of a respectable branch-bank in the backwoods. Before we proceed to the sequel of this abortive campaign of General Jackson's United States' Bank-war, in Congress, we must notice two other matters. First, the continuation of the system of appropriations for internal improvements, some being allotted to improvements which had been obstinately contested in the legislature, and even be-vetoed by the executive ; although the Lighthouse Bill, which had been " pocketed " by the President at the end of the preceding session, was returned at the beginning of this, disapproved. And second, the passage of ( ' an Act making provision for the publication of the documentary History of the American Revolution." Congress expired at midnight of the 2nd of March, the 3rd being Sunday, after a short session, in which affairs of great moment had occurred. Two vetoes were given to bills at the outset, both of them detained from the first session ; one to the Lighthouse Bill mentioned above, the other to the bill allowing interest on the claims of the states, in the reasons for which we are sorry that we cannot discover much force or pertinence. On the Monday after the close of Congress, General Jackson was a second time inaugurated President of the United States with the customary formalities. His address, which elicited the usual applause, contained nothing which we need to refer to, being little more than a recommendation ot union amongst the states, enforced by a display of the dangers that would arise from discord arid separation. The President had nothing new to tell respecting his policy, for that had been exhibited as plainly in the four years just ended as deeds could show it ; and his experience had suggested to him no political prin- ciples, nor (as it seemed) the need of them, for the conduct of public affairs. Jackson was not a man to grow wiser with advancing years. The old saying, that the eye sees nothing which it has not in itself, was remarkably verified in him. Statesmen, whatever Senator Benton may believe to the contrary, will learn little from the history of his administration, as far as he gave it character and colour, except what neither in America nor any other state, constitutional or not, can be done with safety and advantage to the commonwealth. Matters being now tranquil in every quarter of the Union, the general, by way of demonstrating the mode in which he accepted the dogmas of Jefferson, VOL. ii. L L 258 THE BANK QUESTION. [CHAP. I. determined on a "progress" or tour, such as Washington and Monroe had indulged in, the former to Jefferson's loudly expressed disgust. Well known in the West and the South, and strong in the confidence of the citizens below Mason and Dixon's line, the general desired to establish and confirm his influence in the North, and therefore availed himself of the long interval between his second inauguration and the opening of the next session of Congress for visiting the middle and eastern states. Whatever details may be desired of this tour, will find an appropriate place in a subsequent chapter ; here we only observe, that though thus apparently throwing off the weight of official care, the President was by no means forgetful of the Bank that object of his implacable hostility. Perhaps he was all the more disposed to pursue it, from seeing in every city the evidences of its strength and influence, feeling that it was indeed too formidable a rival to be suffered to live. At the end of May, Louis M'Lane, having refused to sanction a new scheme which Jackson had devised for effecting the removal of the deposit from the United States' Bank, was himself removed to the department of state vacated by Livingston ; and in his room William J. Duane was appointed. His parentage gave promise, so we suppose the President thought, of a more democratic view of the constitutional powers of the executive ; but though Jackson plied him with such arguments as he believed most convincing during the northern tour, the son of " Aurora " Duane would not agree to the removal of the deposits by the decree of the President, and only assented, " at length/' to the commissioning of Amos Kendall to inquire into the terms upon which the state banks would take the public money, " upon the basis of mutual guarantee." We owe to Senator Benton an " inside view " (as we may call it) of this step in the affair, which, truly, reflects with no little severity upon Jackson's prudence and statesmanship, for it represents him as commencing the Bank contest without any notion of doing more than destroy the Bank ; and upon his honesty, for it disguises his real interest in depositing the public money in the state banks, to secure them in the interest of the " government." After stating that up to a particular step in the business, he had never mentioned to the President either his gold currency scheme, or that of " an independent sub-treasury," or " a government treasury unconnected with any bank/' he continues, " When these ideas were mentioned to him, he took them at once ; but it was not until the Bank of the United States could be disposed of that anything could be done on these two subjects; and on the latter a process had to be gone through in the use of local banks, as depositaries of the public moneys, which required several years to show its issue and inculcate its lesson. Though strong in the confidence of the people, the President was not deemed strong enough to encounter all the banks of all the states at once. Temporising was indispensable, and even the conciliation of a part of them. Hence the deposit system, or some years' use of local banks as fiscal agents of the government, which gave the institutions so selected the invidious appella- tion of ' pet banks/ meaning that they were government favourites." Kendall had not an easy task, especially in respect of the condition he was charged to insist on. The mutual guarantees could not be obtained ; and it was no wonder, for, as Macgregor sums up the evidence upon the part of the A.D. 1829-37.] T11E BANK QUESTION. 259 Bank question related to this, "From 1811 to 1830 no less than a hundred and sixty-five state banks, possessing an aggregate capital of about 30,000,000 dollars, either failed or discontinued their business; these failures occurring in nearly every state and territory of the Union. The Treasury had about l,400,000dollars deposited within their vaults, the greater part of which it lost ; while the loss to individuals was that of many millions, the bulk of which fell upon widows and orphans, whose property had been entrusted to their banks. These failures arose in some cases from the multiplication of banks in places where they were not required; from injudicious discounts and over-issues; from ignorance of the principles of banking, and the nature and operation of banking institutions ; and in some cases, from a desire of gain, at the expense of individuals and the public." We can hardly imagine these facts to be unknown to the President ; and if unknown, what can we think of the measure he contemplated ? Duane, finding Jackson's determination irresistible, consented to move the deposits, if Congress directed him to do so. But this being far less than the President purposed, he convened the cabinet, and on September the 18th, laid before it a statement of his views on the question he had raised. Little or no impression appears to have been made by this document, and Benton admits that " the major part of them dissented from his design." Whilst the Secretary of the Treasury was deliberating on the course he should take, Jackson had his statement printed in the Globe, followed immediately by an announcement that the deposits were to be removed, and receiving from Duane (whose correspondence we must notice subsequently), on the 21st, a refusal to carry out his plans (for what the President had resolved upon, only the Secretary of the Treasury could do), unaccompanied by any offer to resign the post, he removed him, and on the 23rd appointed Roger B. Taney, then Attorney-general, in his room. This remarkable state-paper claimed for the head of the Treasury department absolute power over the deposits, and it may be admitted that in this it was correct. It insisted that the expiration of the Bank charter being near, the Secretary of the Treasury was bound to devise some scheme for the management of the revenue at once, in order to avoid the shock which postponing it until the last moment would occasion. It recited various offences of misdoings on the part of the Bank, such as that affair of the three per cents., in which really the Bank had only interfered with a private whim of the President, and had endeavoured to alleviate the trouble occasioned by the cholera visitation ; the affair of the bill on the French government, wherein truly the government itself was to blame; and its meddling with politics, a charge which, when closely examined, amounts to this that after the President had pronounced against it, again and again, in a manner that showed him resolved upon its overthrow, the Bank had undertaken such steps as seemed, to the acute business-men who managed it, the best calculated to prevent its dissolution. And thus it concluded : " The President again repeats that he begs his cabinet to consider the proposed measure as his own, in support of which he shall require no one of them to make a sacrifice of opinion or principle. Its responsibility has been assumed, after the most mature deliberation and reflec- tion, as necessary to preserve the morals of the people, the freedom of the press. 260 THE BANK QUESTION. [CHAP. I. and the purity of the elective franchise; without which all will unite in saying, that the blood and treasure expended by our forefathers, in the establishment of our happy system of government, will have been vain and fruitless. Under these convictions, he feels that a measure so important to the American people cannot be commenced too soon ; and he therefore names the first day of October next, as a period proper for the change of the deposits, or sooner, provided the necessary arrangements with the state banks can be made/' It would not be worth while to mention Bentori's " emotion of the moral sublime," which he felt " at beholding such an instance of civic heroism," did it not show the extent to which partisanship had incapacitated Jackson's followers for the perception of the simplest facts, which stood in any relation to their party doings, as they actually were. ( ' I repaired to Washington," adds our moral sublime senator, " at the approach of the session, with a full deter- mination to stand by the President, which I believed to be standing by the country; and to do my part in justifying his conduct, and in exposing and resisting the powerful combination, which it was certain would be formed against him." Beside the report of Amos Kendall, the President had made great use of information imparted to him by four of the five directors nominated by the government. The fifth, it will be remembered, was Nicholas Biddle, the Bank president. These men, as soon as ever the directors generally perceived the part they were playing, were excluded from the exercise of some functions (as, for example, seats in certain committees) in which they might have impeded the operations and damaged the credit of the Bank. And such arrangements were made as appeared best, under the circumstances, to enable the institution to weather the storm. But now that the President had so unmistakably declared his intention, and had, by printing his statement to the cabinet in the newspapers, appealed to his party against his own ministers, and made the removal of the deposits his own act, there could be no doubt as to what it became the Bank to do. Especially as the sudden presentation of a large amount of notes, by the agents of the government, at one of the remote branches, where it was highly improbable that they could be cashed, showed that no scruples would deter the President and his party from attempting anything that might harass it, and make it stop payment. One step was, perhaps, not so wise. A meeting of the direction was called, and a committee appointed to consider and report upon the President's mani- festo, and in the report (which was addressed as "a Memorial to Congress") they spoke of the " paper," and described it as " signed by ' Andrew Jackson,' " calling him also "the individual who signed it;" which displayed a species of feminine irritation unworthy of a board of business-men. For the rest, nothing could be so prudent, nothing was more indispensable, than the immediate con- traction of loans and issues, throughout the whole of the numerous and widely- spread branches of the establishment. Of which we shall speak presently. We must, however, quote Benton's correction of the common notion of what Jackson had actually done. " The act which had been done," he says, " was not a e removal' in the [proper] sense of that word, for not a dollar was A.D. 1829-37.] THE BANK QUESTION. 261 taken from the Bank of the United States to be deposited elsewhere ; and the order given was not for a ' removal/ but for a cessation of deposits in that institution, leaving the public moneys which were in it to be drawn out in the regular course of expenditure." Now, we do not dispute the right of the administration to order and effect this change (for we cannot attribute much value to the argument which was directed to prove the Secretary of the Treasury an agent, not of the executive, but of the legislative branch of the government) ; it was absolutely needful for the security of the public money, that the executive should have the power to do this, in case of need. We object to the purpose with which it was done, and to the manner. It was plain that the deposits were safe enough in the Bank (for not only had the President's agent reported so, a commission from Congress had done the same), and it was equally plain that they could not be regarded as safe in the state banks ; whilst there was sufficient time before the charter expired to provide a new depository, which should be at least as secure as the old one, even if that should not have been provided first of all. It was equally plain that this "removal" would cripple the credit of the Bank, and destroy the confidence of the people in it, by which alone it had been sustained ; and taking all the other movements of the President into the account, there can be no doubt that this, and this only, was the object he had in view. Considering the length of time that Jackson had occupied in attacking it, and the unscrupulous manner in which he had done so, we cannot but think that the Bank must have been well managed, and strong in the confidence of the commercial classes throughout the country, to stand so long. So that the charges brought against it are generally refuted by observing dates, and by the fact that the Bank did not fall till the President had resorted to his last weapon against it. As for the way the very design of the entourage of advisers which had been provided for the executive, was to prevent the operation of wilfulness like this, which can never be other than injurious to a state ; and the dismissal of two Secretaries of the Treasury, with the assumption of the responsibility of the measure to himself, being requisite to accomplish this removal of the deposits, might have made the genuine character of the transaction palpable to one less shrewd than Jackson; precisely as the fact, that the charter was refused to the Bank only by his opposing his veto to the decision of Congress, ought to have shown him, and his immediate adherents also, that he was acting in flat contradiction to the spirit of the constitution therein, which never could mean that a mere numerical majority (such as had placed him a second time in the presidency) should determine a question mainly affecting particular classes of the community, and requiring special opportunities to be correctly understood. But it had now, in fact, become painfully apparent, even to those who supported him, and who were with him on this very Bank question as we can see in the chapter of IngersolPs " History of the Second War " which treats of it, and from which we have already made quotations, that Congress had fallen into as much suspicion with the President as the judiciary itself. Indeed, " the cabinet improper," as Webster designated those unrecognised counsellors 262 COMMERCIAL PANIC. [CHAP. I. (otherwise known as " the kitchen cabinet ") this body alone seemed to possess any effective control over him, or to be any check to his arbitrary tendencies. The universal dismay felt by those who were the very pith of the manhood of the United States the unambitious, high-minded few, whose voices are heard in no caucus or mass-meeting, who are elected neither to the state nor the general governments, the true " salt of society " in America their terror and anguish at seeing such evident signs of a determination to override all forms, constitutional and customary alike, which impeded the accomplishment of his will, usurp the functions of the legislature, and to substitute for its "be it enacted," the sic volo, sic jubeo, of the dictator, to put the country at large under martial law, and to offer as explanation and justification, the bald avowal that he "assumed the responsibility;" this requires no other words to describe it, than such an expression as Sullivan's in his "Familiar Letters," written only a month or two after the date we have now reached "the reign of Andrew Jackson began on the 4th of March, 1829, and still continues." And it was this which imparted to this " decree " removing the deposits of public money from the United States' Bank its gravest aspect gravest, even though the distress which followed that removal be considered. The consequences of these proceedings of the President might all have been foretold. Commercial credit is proverbially most sensitive. The extraordinary measures adopted by the Bank, of which mention has been made above (questionable though the propriety of them was), had no doubt staved off the effects of the reiterated recommendations in the annual Messages to refuse the renewal of its charter. And the decided majority in Congress who were in favour of it, counteracted the effect of the President's veto. Moreover, there was ample time to rescind that veto, and the change of view which Jackson had taken respecting internal improvements, encouraged the hope that, carried by a still more imposing majority, the charter might yet be obtained. This removal of the deposits at so short a notice, in so peremptory a manner, at once cut off all such hopes, and nothing remained to the directors but immediate retrenchment, which their lavish expenditure during the earlier part of the contest rendered so much the more requisite. Had they not done so, a crash must have happened at once ; for the dealings of the Bank had been so extensive as to bring it into relation with all the great financiers and capitalists of Europe, and transactions in the money markets of Paris, Vienna, or London, might have overthrown it without warning. Great commercial distress immediately ensued. At the moment of taking this step, the business of the country was unusually active. The capitalist, and the merchants and mechanics, had unlimited confidence in each other, and all the moneyed institutions of the country had extended their loans to the utmost bounds of their ability. At such a juncture, great and rigid retrenchment, attended with want of confidence, was necessarily productive of ominous con- sequences, private credit was deeply affected, the business of the country was interrupted, and in short a complete and terrible panic ensued, which seemed to be at its height when Congress met, but which was destined to last, with many fluctuations in its symptoms and violence, for ten years. From this time the Bank controversy changed its character considerably; A.D. 1820-37.] THE PANIC SESSION. 263 and instead of being a trial of strength between the president of the company and the President of the United States, assumed always more and more of a politico-economical aspect, until at last it became wholly a question of the currency ; and it filled men with astonishment to see the people of America, usually so intolerant of over-legislation, submitting to such an excess of it on this matter as only could be paralleled in the autocratic states of Europe, and yet deriving no benefit at all from all these enactments. This, however, will appear as we proceed with our story. The new Congress assembled on the 2nd of December for its first session, commonly called " the Panic session." Andrew Stevenson was re-elected Speaker in the House of Representatives, by a majority of a hundred and forty- two against sixty-six (the total number of votes given to all opposing candidates), and nine blanks, which showed the great increase of the adherents of the President in that branch of the legislature. In the Senate, owing to the " compromise," Jackson's party was in a minority. On the second day, as was usual, the Message was sent, and read in both Houses. In it, next after the review of the foreign relations of the government, amongst which we find the story of the dishonoured bill upon the French govern- ment, comes the financial statement, to the effect that the revenue for the year was expected to exceed 32,000,000 dollars, the customs alone amounting to 28,000,000, and that the entire expenditure would fall short of 25,000,000 dollars ; so that a large balance would be found in the Treasury, " after satisfying all the appropriations chargeable on the revenue for the year." The approaching extinc- tion of the public debt was spoken of with great gratification. The Representatives were warned against indulging " in a lavish expenditure of the public treasure " for this reason, amongst others, that " upon the best estimates which could be made, the receipts of the next year, with the aid of the unappropriated amount then in the Treasury, would not be more than sufficient to meet the expenses of the year, and pay the small remnant of the national debt which remained unsatisfied," because of the falling off in the revenue, consequent upon the reduction of the duties by "the Compromise Act." Yet, unless that tariff should be " found to produce more than the necessities of the government called for," the President saw no reason to justify a change. Next followed the Bank, and the removal of the deposits, which in the last Message the President had suggested, on the ground that they were not safe in its keeping. Now that he had himself directed their removal, though Congress had reported the step unnecessary, because they were in no danger there, he justified his act by alleging the interference of the Bank in the elections, accusing it of using its " money and power," " to influence the judgment and control the decisions" of the people of the United States. " It must now be determined," says he, as if this commercial establishment, simply by virtue of its extent and the nature of its operations, was an organised opposition to his administration, instead of being one struggling for life against his fierce and reckless assaults, " it must now be determined, whether the Bank is to have its candidates for all offices in the country, from the highest to the lowest [it had not been so much as charged with having " candidates " for any offices ; but it of course took care to keep supplied the offices its own business 264 THE MESSAGE. [CHAP I. created; and this was what Jackson would have preferred to do himself], or whether candidates on both sides of political questions shall be brought forward as heretofore, and supported by the usual means." It was impossible to avoid mention of the panic, equally impossible to attri- bute it to its real source, the insecurity occasioned by the last attack upon the credit of the Bank. The strategy of the directors supplied the means of turning the general distress into an auxiliary against that institution, and to employ the universally known proof of its solvency (which had been so emphatically ques- tioned in the previous Message) as an aggravation of the new accusation of misconduct. " By a curtailment of its accommodations, more rapid than any emergency requires [how triumphantly would the democratic party have pointed out such government dictation in the affairs of a commercial company in the old country, had such been possible, as a clear proof of political bondage and over- legislation ! Surely, the Bank might have been left to regulate its own affairs ; especially since, by the removals of the deposits, it had ceased to be the servant of the government] , and even while it retains specie to an almost unprecedented amount in its vaults [and therefore could not be suspected of insolvency], it is attempting to produce great embarrassment in one portion of the community ; while through presses, known to have been sustained by its money, it attempts by unfounded alarms to create a panic in all." "These are the means by which it seems to expect that it can force a restoration of the deposits, and as a necessary consequence, extort from Congress a renewal of its charter. I am happy to know that, through the good sense of our people, the effort to get up a panic has hitherto failed [but, unfortunately, the President was too intent on the destruction of the object of his antipathy to desist from a course which would have produced a panic, had the United States' Bank possessed fabulous resources, financial and monetary, for relieving the pressure on the mercantile classes] ; and that, through the increased accom- modations which the state banks have been able to afford, no public distress has followed the exertions of the Bank [is not this a complete exoneration of the Bank from the charges we shall subsequently find urged against it with more than sufficient vehemence ?] ; and it cannot be doubted that the exercise of its power, and the expenditure of its effects to spread groundless alarm, will be met and rebuked as they deserve. In my own sphere of duty, I should feel myself called on, by the facts disclosed, to order a scire facias against the Bank, with a view to put an end to chartered rights it has so palpably violated) were it not that the charter itself will expire as soon as a decision would probably be obtained from the court of last resort." Which, supposing it could have been brought to a decision earlier, would unquestionably have been the most original remedy for the proceedings complained of that the commercial world ever heard of. The Bank begins to wind up its affairs perceiving its last hour come; thence arise alarm and distress, to appease and alleviate which, says the general, I would, " an if I could," bring the whole affair to an end at once. And then, with a species of apology for not attending to the response of Congress to his first recommendation about the deposits, on the ground that he had removed them from another cause now, the President passed on to the War Department and the Indians, and to the Post Office, whereabout some " illusory A.D. 1829 -37.] REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 265 statements," he said, had been made respecting its cost from its very commence- ment, so he had withdrawn " some of the improvements he had made," with a view "to bring the expenses of the department within its own resources." Though why this had not been detected at the commencement of the first presidency we do not perceive, nor are we informed. The prevention of steam- boat accidents, and the amendment of the constitution in its provisions for the election of the executive officers, were finally commended to the legislature, and the document concluded. The principal business of the session was, necessarily, the removal of the deposits; and the opposition derived no little strength from the energy with which they pressed their attacks upon the administration on account of it. The power of the administration as a party, however, grew all the greater by means of these very attacks, the deed done remaining irreversible, and the proceedings of the Bank, and the universal distress, afforded to the partisans of the President a full and satisfactory justification of it. And hence it has arisen, that not only has the organised opposition, after some slight advantages to be noticed hereafter, almost ceased to be a party ; but the democratic party, as constituted under Jackson's leadership, has gradually subjugated almost the entire Union ; and this Bank controversy, which was but one thing out of many for which their great chieftain contended, has come to be the one thing which distinguished, not Jackson's term of power alone, but the entire history of the United States since the second war. No time was lost in the Senate in calling for the promised report of the new Secretary of the Treasury, which, when presented, communicated but little that was new. It was only incidentally, of course, that the President's assumption of the responsibility respecting the removal of the deposits could be introduced, the Secretary being compelled to observe the technicalities of a report from the head of a Department, and to vindicate the right to order such a change in the manage- ment of the public money as he had made under the orders of the President. The defence of his principle he grounded on his re-election after his hostility to the Bank had been pronounced beyond the possibility of mistake, and the Bank had opposed it (as was alleged) to the full extent of its power. Against the Bank it was urged that it had forced a circulation of the notes of its remote branches ; that it had enlarged its discount after Jackson's re-election as President ; that it had managed some parts of its business by a committee, to which it had not allowed any one of the government directors to belong, and in other ways also had violated its charter, that state banks of " high character and undoubted strength" had been selected, each of which would "give security whenever the amount of the deposit should exceed the half of the amount of the capital actually paid in," or before, if the department should think it advisable ; and all of them "honour each other's notes and drafts," thus providing a " general currency," which the Secretary regarded as " at least as sound as that of the Bank of the United States ;" or rather, since "there had not been yet sufficient time to perfect these arrangements," enough had been done to show that, even on the score of expediency, a Bank of the United States was not necessary, either for the fiscal operations of the government, or the public convenience [the panic then possessing the whole mercantile community, VOL IT. M M 266 OPPOSITION TO JACKSON IN THE SENATE.. [CHAP. I notwithstanding !] ; and that every object which the charter to the then existing Bank was designed to attain, might be as effectually accomplished by the state banks." In conclusion, the Secretary hinted at " the great power of the Bank of the United States," and asked various questions all tending to show that "the snake was scotched, not killed," and that if mischief did come, it could not be attributed to the government, but to this commercial institution which, for all its ' ' vast power," the will of Jackson alone was strong enough to overturn. Benton's comment on this document states that, " Upon the local banks the Federal government was thrown [having destroyed the national Bank, and forgotten to provide an adequate substitute] first, for the safe keeping of its public moneys ; secondly, to supply the place of the nineteen millions of bank- notes which the national had in circulation ; thirdly, to relieve the community from the pressure which the Bank of the United States had already commenced upon it, and which, it was known, was to be pushed to the ultimate point of oppression. But a difficulty was experienced in obtaining these local banks, which would be incredible without understanding the cause. Instead of a competition among them to obtain the deposits, there was holding off, and an absolute refusal on the part of many. Local banks were shy of receiving them, shy of receiving the greatest possible apparent benefit to themselves, shy of receiving "the aliment on which they lived and grew ! And why this so great apparent contradiction? It was the fear of the Bank of the United States ! and of that capacity to destroy them to which Mr. Biddle had testified," &c. &c. This serious repetition of Major Downing's irony is immeasurably more ludicrous than the Major's own satire. But if the fact were so, then the arguments of the opponents of the government's proceedings were established ; and we can only account for Jackson's " civic heroism," which raised such " an emotion of the moral sublime" in Benton's breast, by the old principle " Cantabit vacuus," &c. If heroes are to be measured by the kind of giants and dragons which, in the course of their " labours " and " adventures," they quell and slay, the quality and quantity alike of the heroism of the government in this affair become excessively difficult of estimation. This report was not regarded by the Senate as sufficient to enable it to discuss the subject properly, and on the llth of December, it respectfully called on the President to 3 communicate the paper read to the cabinet on the 18th of September, and published in the newspapers immediately afterwards. But Jackson declined compliance with the request ; leaving the Senate to interpret his refusal as it pleased, and Clay's friends to denounce the whole proceeding as a " usurpation " consciously made on the functions and prerogatives of Congress. The opposi- tion could not therefore deal with that " assumption of the responsibility " by the President, as it had intended. Henry Clay naturally took the lead in the assault upon the administration, and after suggesting a course which Benton objected to, as involving an invasion of the duties of the House of Representatives, on the 26th of December he submitted two resolutions to the Senate. The first of these asserted that in dismissing M'Lane and Duane because they would not remove the deposits, and appointing Taney for the sole purpose of removing them, ' ' the President A.I>. 1829-37.] CLAYb RESOLUTIONS. 267 had assumed the exercise of a power over the Treasury of the United States not granted to him by the constitution and laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people;" and the second, that the reasons alleged for the removal were " unsatisfactory and insufficient." Clay's speech in moving his resolutions may, in part, account for the completeness of Jackson's triumph in this Bank controversy; and will tell those who could not otherwise comprehend it, why the democratic party has always rated its victory over the Bank so highly. It occupied the greater part of three sittings in its delivery ; and bears marks of careful preparation in every part. Bursting at once into the midst of his subject, he commenced, " We are ill the midst of a revolution, hitherto bloodless, but rapidly tending towards a total change of the pure republican character of the government, and to the concen- tration of all power in the hands of one man." And the whole was in harmony with this abrupt exordium. Directly and indirectly, it accused Andrew Jackson of aiming to transform the government into " an elective monarchy the worst of all forms of government." And, as Benton most justly said, it ought to have been spoken in support of an impeachment, not of resolutions stale and foisonless, like those we have described above; and if it had served to introduce an impeachment, then the House of Representatives, and not the Senate, was the place for it, and the orator was invading the functions of the other branch of the legislature, as palpably as the President had invaded the functions of both. We, however, have a weightier charge to bring against this great speech; it is altogether hollow and insincere. No man earnestly alarmed concerning his country, convinced that the constitution was really in peril, could have uttered mere big-sounding words, and abstained from the remotest approach to action corresponding therewith. It smacks of the hustings and the elections. The only parts which deserve special notice here, are some plain remarks, near the close, upon the actual nature of the proceeding of the President in removing the deposits, aside from the political, constitutional, and overdrawn aspects of it he had offered to the Senate. " If we examine the operations of this modern Turgot, in their financial bearing merely, we shall find still less for approbation. " 1. He withdraws the public moneys, where, by his own deliberate admission, they were perfectly safe, with a bank of thirty -five millions of capital, and ten millions of specie ; and places them at great hazard with banks of comparatively small capital, and but little specie, of which the Metropolis Bank is an example. " 2. He withdraws them from a bank created by, and over which the Federal government had ample control; and puts them in other banks, created by different governments, and over which it has no control. " 3. He withdraws them from a bank in which the American people, as a stockholder, were drawing their fair proportion of interest accruing on loans, of which these deposits formed the basis ; and puts them where the people of the United States draw no interest. " 4. From a bank which has paid a bonus of a million and a half, which the people of the United States may be now liable to refund ; and puts them in banks which have paid to the American people no bonus. 1 5. Depi-eciates the value of stock in a bank where the general government .268 CLAY'S RESOLUTIONS. [CHAP, i holds seven millions ; and advances that of banks in whose stock it does not hold a dollar, and whose aggregate capital does not, probably, much exceed that very seven millions. " And finally, he dismisses a bank whose paper circulates, in the greatest credit, throughout the Union and in foreign countries ; and engages in the public service banks whose paper has but a limited and local circulation in their 1 immediate vicinities/ " These are immediate and inevitable results. How much that large and long-standing item of unavailable funds, annually reported to Congress, will be swelled and extended, remains to be developed by time." All this is tangible, and has the ring of true metal, whatever our judgment of the correctness of his opinions be ; but when the speaker winds up with stilted periods about " approaching tyranny," " spies and informers," " detraction and denunciation," "cautious whispers of trembling slaves," "premonitory symptoms of despotism," and such like, we feel that it is pretence, and that he himself does not believe it. The American people showed their sense of it, by not believing it nor him who uttered it. One document referred to by Clay in evidence of some parts of his charges would perhaps have received greater attention had it not been so employed ; and it assuredly demands notice here. It is the address to the people of the United States, published by the ejected Secretary of the Treasury, W. J. Duane, the day before Congress met; accompanied by copies of the correspondence which had passed between him and the President. "I was thrust from office," he said, "not because I had neglected any duty, not because I had differed with the President on any other point of public policy, not because I had differed with him about the Bank of the United States, but because I refused, without further inquiry or action by Congress, to remove the deposits." The letters are one in which the Secretary, first fortifying his position with five official documents and quotations from the President's own communications to him, gives fifteen valid reasons for ' ' respectfully refusing " to remove the deposits as Jackson directed him ; one in which Jackson returns this, " as a communication which he could not receive ;" three letters from the ex-Secretary to the President, endeavouring to turn the iron resolution he dared not obey ; and one, finally, from the President, removing the too conscientious and " limited patriot " from his office. And the sum of the whole, as to the spirit and meaning of the disappointed and dismissed writer, is contained in some excerpts from a private letter of his, which found its way into the public papers about a month after he had been dispensed with by his political chief. We quote them in part, as evidences of the effect of Jackson's proceedings on one section of his adherents. " It is but too obvious, either that we misunderstood the qualities of General Jackson's head, or else he has been wonderfully altered. On all the cardinal questions agitated, he has failed to be consistent. He promised purity in selections for office; yet few have been purely made. He professed to be a friend to domestic industry; yet he has done more than anybody else to prostrate it. He advocated a national government bank ; and yet affects to dread a moneyed aristocracy. He complained of the corruptions of one bank ; and takes forty or fifty irresponsible paper-circulating banks under the national AD. 1829-37.] PETITIONS AND TESTIMONIALS. 269 wing. He has been for, and against, internal improvement. He denounced nullification ; yet has of late heen unsaying all that he said in his proclamation. In short, I do not believe he ever had fixed principles, or ever arrived at any result by the exercise of the mind. Impulses and passions have ruled I had not been twenty-four hours in office, when I felt my vessel on the breakers ; I found that the President was in the hands of men whom I would not trust, personally or politically I undertook to tell the President the truth, in the language of a freeman, rather than a courtier, the end of all which was my removal from office, under aggravating circumstances At Washington my unwillingness to pull as a well-trained mule would, was a matter of surprise. Moral courage at Washington is as scarce as liberality at Warsaw." Whilst the oratorical contest was proceeding, the people in all the great cities and towns throughout the Union, and in many of less note, held meetings, and despatched petitions to Congress, and committees to wait in person on the President, for the purpose of representing their distress and begging him to recommend some measure of relief. As the session advanced, this popular action on the executive and the legislature grew in intensity, both as to the numbers and urgency of the applications. The state legislatures, and the local banks, and other bodies in favour of the President personally, or of this particular measure, on the other hand addressed memorials and despatched deputations to him, to express their approval of the course he had pursued, and encourage him not to relax the rigour or determination of his hostility to the Bank. The President received these testimonials to the advantages of his policy with great favour; but the petitioners for relief were told that the government could provide neither remedy nor relief; it was all in the hands of the Bank, or the banks, and themselves, for " they who traded on borrowed capital ought to break :" an aphorism so true as to be a truism, and quite false when laid down thus without discrimination or limitation. We may be assured that few would venture on such an errand to the White House, except those who were not " Jackson-men;" and so the roughness of their reception is fully accounted for. The Senate willingly received the petitions which complained of distress, and implored relief; but in the House of Representatives, where the majority supported the President, they met with little countenance. Nevertheless, all the session long, these proofs of commercial embarrassment and popular excite- ment continued to pour into Washington ; nor was it possible for any quite to shut out the conviction- that the country had to pay dearly for the accomplish- ment of the President's designs. All this while, another movement in the Bank contest was in progress in the Senate the discussion of the question whether or not to confirm the nomination of the government directors to the Bank. James A. Bayard, one of the five, was accepted by the Senate, but the other four were rejected, about the end of February. In the House also, a line of operations, wholly distinct, and indeed opposed to what we have seen proceeding in the Senate, was being carried on. There, the Message, the Secretary's Report, the Bank -Memorial, and the other documents relating to the matter, were all referred to the committee of ways and means; and Polk, the chairman, on the 4th of March reported four rcsolu- 270 ACTION IN THE HOUSE. L CHAP. T. tions, which were carried on the 4th of April, to this effect that the Bank ought not to be re-chartered ; that the deposit ought not to be replaced ; that state banks ought to be used as places of deposit, but that Congress (and here they implicitly blamed the President, and that with some severity) ought to prescribe the mode of selecting them, the securities, the terms, and the manner of employing them ; and also that a complete investigation of the affairs of the Bank of the United States should be made, for the purpose of ascertaining "the cause of the commercial embarrassment and distress complained of by numerous citizens of the United States." Benton records with great satisfaction the fact that the resolution against the re-charter of the Bank was carried by a majority of a hundred and thirty- four (others say five) against eighty-two ; as it shows " an immense difference, to the prejudice of the Bank, since the veto session of 1832." "We, considering that there had been a presidential and a congressional election since that time, and observing that in the Senate no such change had taken place, can only believe that the administration had made the best use of its numerous opportu- nities, and its vast powers, and had demonstrated that the Bank was not that horrible and all but omnipotent thing which the President's Messages, and the speeches and writings of his adherents, had so passionately and continually declared. Others of the resolutions were carried by a smaller majority ; but the last by a majority of a hundred and thirty-three ! These resolutions were yet under discussion in the House, when, at the beginning of February, a number of incidents which marked the onward movements of the struggle occurred. On the 4th, Jackson sent a Message, to both Houses of Congress, in which he censured the Bank, for refusing to deliver to him the books, papers, and funds, connected with the pension to the surviving soldiers of the Revolution : a censure which the judiciary committee of the Senate, on the 17th of the month, reported as undeserved; which decision was affirmed by the Senate, after much debate, near the end of May. Next day, the fifth of February (the resolution declaring the unsatisfactori- ness of the Secretary's story having been referred to the committee of finance later in the preceding afternoon), Webster produced the report of the committee, " a very elaborate, argumentative paper/' says Benton, "the reading of which con- sumed an hour and a quarter of time," as we can well believe. It recommended the adoption of Clay's resolution. Such remarkable despatch of business dis- pleased the administration party even more than the support of Clay's motion ; and Benton, overlooking the fact that it had been under discussion for above a month, tells us with some exultation that this report had been drawn by the Bank solicitor, and was ready in Webster's pocket, before the matter was referred; as if the adoption by the committee were not the only thing of inportance, or were wanting in the case. On the 22nd of February, W'ebster made his speech against Forsyth's declaration that the executive was trying "an experiment" with the public deposits. "Mr. President," he said, "this experiment will not amuse the people of this country. They ure quite too serious to be amused. Their suffering is too intense to be sported with They are not so unthinking as to forego the rich blessings now in their actual enjoyment, and trust the A.D. I829-37.J CLAY'S RESOLUTIONS. 271 future to the contingencies and the chances which may betide an unnecessary and a wild experiment. They will not expose themselves at once to injury and to ridicule. They will not buy reproach and scorn at so dear a rate The objects avowed in this most extraordinary measure are altogether undesirable. The end, if it could be obtained, is an end fit to be strenuously avoided; and the process adopted to carry on the experiment,, and to reach that end (which it can never attain, and which in that respect wholly fails), does not fail, meantime, to spread far and wide a deep and general distress, and to agitate the country beyond anything which has heretofore happened to us in a time of peace." " Depend upon it, sir, depend upon it, this experiment cannot succeed. It will fail, it has failed, it is a complete failure already." The numerous speeches made by Clay, Webster, and others, when presenting memorials and petitions respecting the distress, we can only refer to generally ; with a less resolute President, or one capable of