ADMINISTRATION OF MONROE.

On the fourth of March, 1817, the president elect, James Monroe, accompanied by the vice-president elect, Daniel D. Tompkins, left the residence of the former, attended by a large concourse of citizens on horseback, and marshalled by the gentlemen appointed to that duty, and proceeded to Congress Hall, in Washington city, where the usual cerèmonies of inauguration were performed. The ex-president, Mr. Madison, and the judges of the supreme court, were present on the occasion. All entered the chamber of the senate, which body was then in session, and the vice-president took the chair, the oath of office being administered to him, when he delivered a short address.

This ceremony being ended, the senate adjourned, and the president and vice-president, the judges of the supreme court, and the senators present, attended the president to the elevated portico temporarily erected for the occasion, where, in the presence of an immense concourse of citizens and strangers, including the government officers and foreign ministers, he delivered his inaugural address.

Having concluded his address, the oath of office was administered to the president by Chief-Justice, Marshall.

The liberal tone of the president's address, and the course of policy indicated by it, gave general satisfaction to citizens of all political opinions, and the commencement of the new administration was hailed as the dawn of an era of good feelings.

The individuals selected by the president to form his cabinet, were all of the republican, or democratic school of politics, and distinguished for their ability as statesmen, in various public stations which they had previously held. John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, was appointed secretary of state, William H. Crawford, of Georgia, secretary of the treasury, John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, secretary of war, and William Wirt, of Virginia, attorney-general. The two latter gentlemen were appointed in December, 1817, Mr. Calhoun having been named in place of Governor Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky, who declined the offer of head of the war department, which was first offered to him. Benjamin W. Crowninshield, of Massachusetts, was continued as secretary of the navy (which appoint

ment he had received from Mr. Madison) until November 30, 1818, when Smith Thompson, of New York, was appointed in his place. Return Jonathan Meigs, of Ohio, was also continued as postmaster-general (not then a cabinet officer), and held that office from March, 1814, until December, 1823, when John M'Lean, of Ohio, succeeded him. The foregoing were the only changes made by Mr. Monroe in the cabinet or heads of departments, in the eight years of his administration, showing greater permanency and harmony in the affairs of the national government, during that period, than at any other time since the adoption of the federal constitution.

During the late war with Great Britain, a practical opportunity was afforded to the government of the United States to discover the relative importance of the defences erected along the frontier, and the strength and utility of the various fortified places on the Atlantic coast. The frequent and sometimes successful incursions of the late enemy, enforced the necessity of selecting new points for the erection of strong and efficient batteries to protect the country against future invasion; of demolishing such works as were thence found to have been constructed in improper situations; and of concentrating the regular forces at such positions as should render their co-operation speedy and effective.

Impressed with the magnitude of this subject, Mr. Monroe had no sooner passed through the forms of inauguration, than he directed his attention to the means by which to accomplish so desirable an object. A mere theoretical knowledge would be insufficient for the consummation of his views; and, indeed, could not be entirely depended upon. Availing himself, therefore, of the experience acquired before the close of the late contest, he determined to engage in a personal examination of the situation, strength, and condition of all the citadels and military posts in the northern and eastern departments of the Union. To the early execution of this intention he was urged, as he himself intimated, by a desire to look into the economical expenditures of the public moneys, which had been liberally appropriated by Congress; to facilitate the completion of these measures; and to ascertain the propriety of adopting plans suggested by the agents employed in the service of fortification.

Taking advantage of a season of comparative leisure, the president left Washington city on the 31st of May, 1817, entered upon his laudable undertaking, and prosecuted his route through all the principal towns and cities which he had marked out for his first tour of observation. Departing from the capital, he passed through Baltimore to the state of Delaware, to the cities of Philadelphia and New York, and the chief towns in Connecticut and Rhode Island, to Boston and other parts of Massachusetts; to the capital and other towns in New Hampshire; and through the province of Maine to Portland. Thence he extended his journey westward through Vermont; inspected the works at Plattsburgh; and passing through the forest to the St. Lawrence, he embarked for Lake Ontario; visited Sack*Dec. 9, 1823, Samuel L. Southard, of N. J., succeeded Mr. Thompson, appointed judge.

ett's Harbor and Fort Niagara; and advancing along the strait to Buffalo, sailed through Lake Erie, and landed at Detroit, the extremity of his tour. He took a direction thence through the woods of the Michigan territory, and through the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, toward the District of Columbia, where he arrived after an absence of more than three months.

The persevering manner in which this long, laborious, and fatiguing journey was performed, are strong and certain indications of its beneficial results.

With an alacrity paralleled only by the prompt aid of the citizens to accelerate his movements, the president inspected garrisons; examined fortifications; reviewed infantry regiments at cantonments; and obtained a knowledge of the condition of the military arsenals and naval depôts along the Atlantic and inland frontiers. To these numerous duties he added the desire to promote the prosperity of the people; to correct abuses in the public offices; to avert the calamities incident to any future period of hostilities; to meliorate the condition of the poorer classes of society; and to unite and harmonize the sentiments and affections of the citizens of one section with those of another. A considerable part of his journey in returning from the northwestern frontier, was through a succession of forests and Indian settlements. He sustained, however, all the inconveniences of comfortless lodgings, and unpleasant and fatiguing travelling, without any abatement of that cheerfulness and sense of public duty manifested in the commencement of his tour, the advantageous results of which will long be remembered and acknowledged by the nation.*

The visit of the president to the principal cities and towns of the middle and eastern states, possessed the charm of novelty, neither Mr. Jefferson nor Mr. Madison having followed the example set by General Washington, during their presidential terms. They, consequently, were personally unknown to the great body of the people. Mr. Monroe was everywhere received with enthusiasm by the people, and honored with civic and military escorts and processions, in the cities, towns, and villages, through which he passed. His ordinary costume on these occasions was the undress uniform formerly worn by officers of the American revolution, namely, a military blue coat of domestic manufacture, light underclothes, and a cocked hat; a becoming taste for a president who had been a soldier of the revolution, and which tended to awaken in the minds of the people the remembrance of the days of Washington. In his reply to an address from the New York society of the Cincinnati, the president said: "The opportunity which my visit to this city has presented of meeting the New York society of the Cincinnati, with many of whom I was well acquainted in our revolution, affords me heartfelt satisfaction. It is impossible to meet any of those patriotic citizens, whose valuable services were

• Narrative of President's Tour.

so intimately connected with that great event, without recollections which it is equally just and honorable to cherish."

To an address of the president of the American Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures, at New York, the president replied, that he duly appreciated the objects of the institution, which were particularly dear to him from their being intimately connected with the real independence of our country; and closed with an assurance that he would use his efforts, as far as the general interest of the country would permit, to promote the patriotic and laudable objects of the society.

The citizens of Kennebunk and its vicinity, in Maine, having in their address alluded to the prospects of a political union among the people, in support of the administration, the president said, in reply: "You are pleased to express a confident hope that a spirit of mutual conciliation may be one of the blessings which may result from my administration. This indeed would be an eminent blessing, and I pray it may be realized. Nothing but union is wanting to make us a great people. The present time affords the happiest presage that this union is fast consummating. It can not be otherwise; I daily see greater proofs of it. The further I advance in my progress in the country, the more I perceive that we are all Americans that we compose but one family-that our republican institutions will be supported and perpetuated by the united zeal and patri otism of all. Nothing could give me greater satisfaction than to behold a perfect union among ourselves-a union which is necessary to restore to social intercourse its former charms, and to render our happiness, as a nation, unmixed and complete. To promote this desirable result requires. no compromise of principle, and I promise to give it my continued attention, and my best endeavors.".

No part of his subsequent official conduct contradicted the magnanimous spirit which Mr. Monroe discovered at the commencement of his administration, excepting that he seems to have considered that his duty to the party to which he owed his election, and to which he had been attached through life, required him, in his selections for public office, to confine himself to men professing democracy, and the continued exclusion of federalists from the favor of the national government. The federal party, however, was almost entirely prostrated soon after the peace of 1815, and continued their organization in but few of the states, after a feeble struggle of three or four years. Those who had acted with the party were satisfied with the principles and views generally adopted by the administration of Mr. Monroe; and those who might have sought office, if in the majority, had been so long accustomed to the ban of proscription, that they did not probably complain at being still placed without the pale of governmental favor.

Had the president followed the advice of General Jackson, who, in a correspondence with him preceding and immediately after his election,

advised him to select his cabinet without any regard to party, it is not probable that the measures of the administration would have been different from those which were adopted by the recommendations of the cabinet composed of Messrs. Adams, Crawford, Calhoun, Crowninshield, and Wirt. Those gentlemen were all understood, while in the cabinet, to have been in favor of the policy adopted, which was similar to that advocated by the federal party, commencing with the measures of Washington and Hamilton in the organization and early movements of the national government. General Jackson's advice to Mr. Monroe is contained in a letter to the latter, dated November 12, 1816, when Mr. Monroe was considered the president elect. The following is an extract: "Your happiness and the nation's welfare materially depend upon the selections which are to be made to fill the heads of departments. Everything depends on the selection of your ministry. In every selection, party and party feelings should be avoided. Now is the time to exterminate that monster called party spirit. By selecting characters most conspicuous for their probity, virtue, capacity, and firmness, without any regard to party, you will go far to, if not entirely, eradicate those feelings which, on former occasions, threw so many obstacles in the way of government; and perhaps have the pleasure and honor of uniting a people heretofore politically divided. The chief magistrate of a great and powerful nation should never indulge in party feelings. His conduct should be liberal and disinterested, always bearing in mind that he acts for the whole and not a part of the community."

The president, in his reply, discusses the subject of parties and appointments at great length, and in the course of his remarks says: "The election of a successor to Mr. Madison has taken place, and a new administration is to commence its service. The election has been made by the republican party, and of a person known to be devoted to that cause. How shall he act? How organize the administration? How fill the vacancies existing at the time?

"The distinction between republicans and federalists, even in the southern, and middle, and western states, has not been fully done away. To give effect to free government, and secure it from future danger, ought not its decided friends, who stood firm in the day of trial, to be principally relied on? Would not the association of any of their opponents in the administration, itself wound their feelings, or, at least, of very many of them, to the injury of the republican cause? Might it not be considered, by the other party, as an offer of compromise with them, which would lessen the ignominy due to the counsels which produced the Hartford convention, and thereby have a tendency to revive that party on its former principles ? My impression is, that the administration should rest strongly on the republican party, indulging toward the other a spirit of moderation, and evincing a desire to discriminate between its members, and to bring the whole into the republican fold, as quietly as possible. Many men, very