ber following. Congress, at an early period of the session of 1827-'28, took up the matter, and a Tariff Bill became a law in May following. The American System was very popular with the manufacturers of the North, but the cotton-growing States, which found a ready market for the raw material in England, opposed it. The tariff law, passed on the 15th of May, 1828, was very obnoxious to the Southern people.' They denounced it as oppressive and unconstitutional, and it led to menaces of serious evils in 1831 and 1832."

The Presidential election took place in the autumn of 1828, when the public mind was highly excited. For a long time the opposing parties had been marshaling their forces for the contest. The candidates were John Quincy Adams and General Andrew Jackson. The result was the defeat of Mr. Adams, and the election of General Jackson. John C. Calhoun,' of South Carolina, was elected Vice-President, and both had very large majorities. During the contest, the people appeared to be on the verge of civil war, so violent was the party strife, and so malignant were the denunciations of the candidates. When it was over, perfect tranquillity prevailed, the people cheerfully acquiesced in the result, and our sytem of government was nobly vindicated before the world.

President Adams retired from office on the 4th of March, 1829. He left to his successor a legacy of unexampled national prosperity, peaceful relations with all the world, a greatly diminished national debt, and a surplus of more than five millions of dollars in the public treasury. He also bequeathed to the Republic the tearful gratitude of the surviving soldiers of the Revolution, among whom had been distributed in pensions, during his administration, more than five millions of dollars.

CHAPTER IX.

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. [1829-1837]

THERE were incidents of peculiar interest connected with the inauguration of Andrew Jackson,' the seventh President of the United States. President

The chief articles on which heavy protective duties were laid, were woolen and cotton fabrics. At that time, the value of annual imports of cotton goods from Great Britain was about $8,000,000; that of woolen goods about the same. The exports to Great Britain, of cotton, rice, and tobacco, alone (the chief products of the Southern States), was about $24,000,000 annually. These producers feared a great diminution of their exports, by a tariff that should almost wholly prohibit the importation of three millions of dollars' worth of British cotton and woolen fabrics, annually. 2 Page 463.

John C. Calhoun was born in South Carolina in 1782. He first appeared in Congress in 1811, and was always distinguished for his consistency, especially in his support of the institution of slavery, and the doctrine of State rights. He was a sound and incorruptible statesman, and commanded the thorough respect of the whole country. He died at Washington city, while a member of the United States Senate, in March, 1850. 4 Page 453.

Andrew Jackson was born in Mecklenberg county, North Carolina, in March, 1767. His parents were from the north of Ireland, and belonged to that Protestant community known as Scotch-Irish. In earliest infancy, he was left to the care of an excellent mother, by the death of his father. He first saw the horrors of war, and felt the wrongs of oppression, when Colonel

Adams had convened the Senate on the morning of the 4th of March, 1829, and at twelve o'clock that body adjourned for an hour. During that time, the President elect entered the Senate chamber, having been escorted from Gadsby's Hotel, by a few surviving officers and soldiers of the old War for Independence. These had addressed him at the hotel, and now, in presence of the chief officers of government, foreign ministers, and a large number of ladies, he thus replied to them:

Andrew. Iccekson

"RESPECTED FRIENDS-Your affectionate address awakens sentiments and recollections which I feel with sincerity and cherish with pride. To have around my person, at the moment of undertaking the most solemn of all duties to my country, the companions of the immortal Washington, will afford me satisfaction and grateful encouragement. That by my best exertions, I shall be able to exhibit more than an imitation of his labors, a sense of my own imper

Buford's troops were massacred [page 313, and note 1, page 314] in his neighborhood, in 1780. He entered the army, and suffered in the cause of freedom, by imprisonment, and the death of his mother while she was on an errand of mercy. He studied law, and became one of the most eminent men in the Western District of Tennessee, as an advocate and a judge. He was ever a controlling spirit in that region. He assisted in framing a State constitution for Tennessee, and was the first representative of that State in the Federal Congress. He became United States senator in 1797, and was soon afterward appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of his State. He settled near Nashville, and for a long time was chief military commander in that region. When the War of 1812 broke out, he took the field, and in the capacity of Major-General, he did good service in the southern country, till its close. He was appointed the first Governor of Florida, in 1821, and in 1823, was again in the United States Senate. He retired to private life at the close of his presi dential term, and died at his beautiful residence, The Hermitage, near Nashville, in June, 1845, at the age of seventy-eight years.

fections, and the reverence I entertain for his virtues, forbid me to hope. To you, respected friends, the survivors of that heroic band who followed him, so long and so valiantly, in the path of glory, I offer my sincere thanks, and to Heaven my prayers, that your remaining years may be as happy as your toils and your lives have been illustrious." The whole company then proceeded to the eastern portico of the capitol, where, in the presence of a vast assembly of citizens, the President elect delivered his inaugural address, and took the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice Marshall.' That jurist again administered the same oath to President Jackson on the 4th of March, 1835, and a few months afterward went down into the grave.

President Jackson was possessed of strong passions, an uncorrupt heart, and an iron will. Honest and inflexible, he seized the helm of the ship of state with a patriot's hand, resolved to steer it according to his own conceptions of the meaning of his guiding chart, The Constitution, unmindful of the interference of friends or foes. His instructions to the first minister sent to England, on his nomination-"Ask nothing but what is right; submit to nothing wrong"-indicate the character of those moral and political maxims by which he was governed. His audacity amazed his friends and alarmed his opponents; and no middle men existed. He was either thoroughly loved or thoroughly hated; and for eight years he braved the fierce tempests of party strife," domestic perplexities,' and foreign arrogance, with a skill and courage which demands the admiration of his countrymen, however much they may differ with him in matters of national policy. The gulf between him and his political opponents was so wide, that it was difficult for the broadest charity to bridge it. To those who had been his true friends during the election struggle, he extended the grateful hand of recognition, and after having his inquiries satisfied, “Is he capable? is he honest?" he conferred official station upon the man who pleased him, with a stoical indifference to the clamor of the opposition. The whole of President Adams's cabinet officers having resigned, Jackson immediately nominated his political friends for his counselors, and the Senate confirmed his choice."

Among the first subjects of general and commanding interest which occupied the attention of President Jackson, at the commencement of his administration, were the claims of Georgia to lands held by the powerful Cherokee tribe of Indians, and lying within the limits of that State. Jackson favored the views of the Georgia authorities, and the white people proceeded to take possession of the Indians' land. Trouble ensued, and the southern portion of the Republic was

1 Page 351.

Following the precedent of Jefferson [page 389], he filled a large number of the public offices with his political friends, after removing the incumbents. These removals were for all causes; and during his administration, they amounted to six hundred and ninety out of several thousands, who were removable. The entire number of removals made by all the preceding Presidents, from 1790 to 1829, was seventy-four. Page 468.

3 Page 464.

Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State; Samuel D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury; John H. Eaton, Secretary of War; John Branch, Secretary of the Navy; and John McPherson Berrian, Attorney-General. It having been determined to make the Postmaster-General a cabinet officer, William T. Barry was appointed to that station.

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again menaced with civil war. The matter was adjudicated by the Supreme Court of the United States, and on the 30th of March, 1832, that tribunal decided against the claims of Georgia. But that State, favored by the President, resisted the decision. The difficulty was finally adjusted; and in 1838. General Winfield Scott' was sent thither, with several thousand troops, to remove the Cherokees, peaceably if possible, but forcibly if necessary, beyond the Mississippi. Through the kindness and conciliation of Scott, they were induced to migrate. They had become involved in the difficulties of their Creek neighbors, but were defended against the encroachments of the Georgians during Adams's administration. But in December, 1829, they were crushed, as a nation, by an act of Congress, and another of the ancient communities of the New World was wiped from the living record of empire. The Cherokees' were more advanced in the arts of civilized life than the Creeks. They had churches, schools, and a printing-press, and were becoming successful agriculturists. It appeared cruel in the extreme to remove them from their fertile lands and the graves of their fathers, to the wilderness; yet it was, doubtless, a proper measure for insuring the prosperity of both races. But now [1856], again, the tide of civilization is beating against their borders. Will they not be borne upon its powerful wave, further into the wilderness?

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Another cause for public agitation appeared in 1832. In his first annual message [December, 1829] Jackson took strong ground against the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank,' on the ground that it had failed in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound currency, and that such an institution was not authorized by the Federal Constitution. He again attacked the bank in his annual message in 1830, and his objections were renewed in that of 1831. At the close of 1831, the proper officers of the bank, for the first time, petitioned for a renewal of its charter. That petition was presented in the Senate on the 9th of January, 1832, and on the 13th of March, a select committee to whom it was referred, reported in favor of renewing the charter for fifteen years. Long debates ensued; and, finally, a bill for re-chartering the bank passed both Houses of Congress: the Senate on the 11th of June, by twenty-eight against twenty votes; and by the House of Representatives on the 3d of July, by one hundred and seven against eighty-five. Jackson vetoed' it on the 10th of July, and as it failed to receive the support of two thirds of the members of both Houses, the bank charter expired, by limitation, in 1836. The commercial community, regarding a national bank as essential to their prosperity, were alarmed; and prophecies of panics and business revulsions, everywhere uttered, helped to accomplish their own speedy fulfillment.

An Indian war broke out upon the north-western frontier, in the spring of 1832. Portions of some of the western tribes,' residing within the domain

* Page 427.

9 Page 27.

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Page 30.

Page 446.

1 Page 485. • That is, refused to sign it, and returned it to Congress, with his reasons, for reconsideration by that body. The Constitution gives the President this power, and when exercised, a bill can not become law without his signature, unless it shall, on reconsideration, receive the votes of two thirds of the members of both Houses of Congress. See Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution, in the Supplement. Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes. See page 18.

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of the present State of Wisconsin,' led by Black Hawk,' a fiery Sac chief, commenced warfare upon the frontier settlers of Illinois, in April of that year. After several skirmishes with United States troops and Illinois militia, under General Atkinson, the Indians were driven beyond the Mississippi. Black Hawk was captured in August, 1832, and taken to Washington City; and then, to impress his mind with the strength of the nation he had foolishly made war with, he was conducted through several of the eastern cities. This brief strife, which appeared quite alarming at one time, is known in history as the "Black Hawk War."4

This cloud in the West had scarcely disappeared, when one loomed up in the South far more formidable in appearance, and charged with menacing thun

Hol. 4. May ne

der that, for a while, shook the entire fabric of the Confederation. The discontents of the cotton-growing States, produced by the tariff act of 1828," assumed the form of rebellion in South Carolina, toward the close of 1832. An act of Congress, imposing additional duties upon foreign goods, passed in

1 That domain was not erected into a Territory until four years after that event; now it is a rich, populous, and flourishing State. 2 Page 18.

3 Henry Atkinson was a native of North Carolina, and entered the army as captain, in 1808. He was retained in the army after the second War for Independence, was made Adjutant-General, and was finally appointed to the command of the Western Army. He died at Jefferson Barracks, in June, 1842.

Black Hawk returned to his people, but was, with difficulty, restored to his former dignity of chief. He died in October, 1840, and was buried on the banks of the Mississippi. Page 459.