ADMINISTRATIONS OF JAMES MONROE AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 1817-1829.
James Monroe—The "Era of Good Feeling"—The Seminole War—Vigorous Measures of General Jackson—Admission of Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri—The Missouri Compromise—The Monroe Doctrine—Visit of Lafayette—Introduction of the Use of Gas—Completion of the Erie Canal—The First "Hard Times"—Extinction of the West Indian Pirates—Presidential Election of 1824—John Quincy Adams—Prosperity of the Country—Introduction of the Railway Locomotive—Trouble with the Cherokees in Georgia—Death of Adams and Jefferson—Congressional Action on the Tariff—Presidential Election of 1828.
JAMES MONROE.
James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States, was born at Monroe's Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia, April 28, 1758, and died July 4, 1831. It will be noticed that four out of the first five Presidents were natives of Virginia, and in course of time three others followed. It will be admitted, therefore, that the State has well earned the title of the "Mother of Presidents."
JAMES MONROE. (1758-1831.)
Two terms, 1817-1825.
Monroe received his education at William and Mary College, and was a soldier under Washington. He was not nineteen years old when, as lieutenant at the battle of Trenton, he led a squad of men who captured a Hessian battery as it was about to open fire. He studied law under Jefferson, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and, when twenty-five years old, was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was minister plenipotentiary to France in 1794, but his course displeased the administration and he was recalled. From 1799 to 1802 he was governor of Virginia, and, in the latter year, was sent to France by President Jefferson to negotiate the purchase of Louisiana. In 1811 he was again governor of Virginia, and shortly afterward appointed secretary of State by Madison. He also served as secretary of war at the same time, and, as the treasury was empty, pledged his private means for the defense of New Orleans. Monroe was of plain, simple manners, of excellent judgment and of the highest integrity. While his career did not stamp him as a man of genius, yet it proved him to be that which in his situation is better—an absolutely "safe" man to trust with the highest office in the gift of the American people. Under Monroe the United States made greater advancement than during any previous decade.
Everything united to make his administration successful. The Federal party having disappeared, its members either stopped voting or joined the Republicans. Since, therefore, everybody seemed to be agreed in his political views, the period is often referred to as "the era of good feeling," a condition altogether too ideal to continue long.
TARIFF LEGISLATION.
Shortly after Monroe's inauguration he made a tour through the country, visiting the principal cities, and contributing by his pleasing manner greatly to his popularity. The manufactures of the country were in a low state because of the cheapness of labor in Great Britain, which enabled the manufacturers there to send and sell goods for less prices than the cost of their manufacture in this country. Congress met the difficulty by imposing a tax upon manufactured goods brought hither, and thereby gave our people a chance to make and sell the same at a profit. The controversy between the advocates of free trade and protection has been one of the leading questions almost from the first, and there has never been and probably never will be full accord upon it.
THE SEMINOLE WAR.
Perhaps the most important event in the early part of Monroe's administration was the Seminole war. Those Indians occupied Florida, and could hide themselves in the swampy everglades and defy pursuit. Many runaway slaves found safe refuge there, intermarried with the Seminoles, and made their homes among them. They were not always fairly treated by the whites, and committed many outrages on the settlers in Georgia and Alabama. When the Creeks, who insisted they had been cheated out of their lands, joined them, General Gaines was sent to subdue the savages. He failed, and was caught in such a dangerous situation that General Jackson hastily raised a force and marched to his assistance.
Since Florida belonged to Spain, Jackson was instructed by our government not to enter the country except in pursuit of the enemy. "Old Hickory" was not the man to allow himself to be hampered by such orders, and, entering Florida in March, 1818, he took possession the following month of the Spanish post of St. Mark's, at the head of Appalachee Bay. Several Seminoles were captured, and, proof being obtained that they were the leaders in a massacre of some settlers a short time before, Jackson hanged every one of them.
AN INDIAN'S DECLARATION OF WAR.
Advancing into the interior, he captured two British subjects, Robert C. Ambrister, an Englishman, and Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotchman. There seemed to be no doubt that the latter had been guilty of inciting the Indians to commit their outrages, and both were tried by court-martial, which sentenced Arbuthnot to be hanged and Ambrister to receive fifty lashes and undergo a year's imprisonment. Jackson set aside the verdict, and shot the Englishman and hanged the Scotchman. He then marched against Pensacola, the capital of the province, drove out the Spanish authorities, captured Barrancas, whose troops and officials were sent to Havana.
Jackson carried things with such a high hand that Spain protested, and Congress had to order an investigation. The report censured Jackson; but Congress passed a resolution acquitting him of all blame, and he became more popular than ever.
Spain was not strong enough to expel the Americans, and she agreed to a treaty, in October, 1820, by which East and West Florida were ceded to the United States, the latter paying Spain $5,000,000. The Sabine River, instead of the Rio Grande, was made the dividing line between the territories of the respective governments west of the Mississippi. Jackson was the first governor of Florida, and, as may be supposed, he had a stormy time, but he straightened out matters with the same iron resolution that marked everything he did.
STATES ADMITTED—THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
A number of States were admitted to the Union while Monroe was President. The first was Mississippi, in 1817. The territory was claimed by Georgia, which gave it to the United States in 1802. Illinois was admitted in 1818, being the third of the five States formed from the old Northwest Territory. Alabama became a State in 1819, and had been a part of the territory claimed by Georgia. Maine was admitted in 1820, and, as has been shown, was for a long time a part of Massachusetts, and Missouri became a State in 1821.
The strife over the admission of the last-named State was so angry that more than one person saw the shadow of the tremendous civil war that was to darken the country and deluge it in blood forty years later. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 had made cotton the leading industry of the South and given an enormous importance to slavery. The soil and the climate and economic conditions caused it to flourish in the South, and the lack of such conditions made it languish and die out in the North.
Missouri applied for admission in March, 1818, but it was so late in the session that Congress took no action. At the following session a bill was introduced containing a provision that forbade slavery in the proposed new State. The debate was bitter and prolonged, accompanied by threats of disunion, but a compromise was reached on the 28th of February, 1821, when the agreement was made that slavery was to be permitted in Missouri, but forever prohibited in all other parts of the Union, north and west of the northern limits of Arkansas, 36° 30', which is the southern boundary of Missouri. The State was admitted August 21st, increasing the number to twenty-four. The census showed that in 1820 the population of the United States was 9,633,822. The State of New York contained the most people (1,372,111); Virginia next (1,065,116); and Pennsylvania almost as many (1,047,507).
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1820.
It was in the autumn of 1820, during the excitement over the admission of Missouri, that the presidential election occurred. The result is not likely ever to be repeated in the history of our country. There was no candidate against Monroe, who would have received every electoral vote, but for the action of one member, who declared that no man had the right to share that honor with Washington. He therefore cast his single vote for Adams of Massachusetts. For Vice-President, Daniel D. Tompkins, Republican, received 218; Richard Stockton, of New Jersey, 8; Daniel Rodney, of Delaware, 4; Robert G. Harper, of Maryland, and Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, 1 vote each. Monroe and Tompkins were therefore re-elected.
THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
South America has long been the land of revolutions. In 1821, there was a general revolt against Spain in favor of independence. Great sympathy was felt for them in this country, and, in March, 1822, Congress passed a bill recognizing the embryo republics as sovereign nations. In the following year President Monroe sent a message to Congress in which he declared that for the future the American continent was not to be considered as territory for colonization by any foreign power. This consecration of the whole Western Hemisphere to free institutions constitutes the Monroe Doctrine, one of the most precious and jealously guarded rights of the American nation. The memorable document which bears the President's name was written by John Quincy Adams, his secretary of State.
America could never forget Lafayette, who had given his services without pay in our struggle for independence, who shed his blood for us, and who was the intimate and trusted friend of Washington. He was now an old man, and, anxious to visit the country he loved so well, he crossed the ocean and landed in New York, in August, 1824. He had no thought that his coming would cause any stir, and was overwhelmed by the honors shown him everywhere. Fort Lafayette saluted him as he sailed up New York Bay, and processions, parades, addresses, feastings, and every possible attention were given to him throughout his year's visit, during which he was emphatically the "nation's guest." Nor did the country confine itself to mere honors. He had been treated badly in France and was poor. Congress made him a present of $200,000 in money, and sent him home in the frigate Brandywine, named in his honor, for it was at the battle of the Brandywine that Lafayette was severely wounded.
An important invention introduced into this country from England in 1822 was lighting by gas, which soon became universal, to be succeeded in later years by electricity. Steamboat navigation was common and travel by that means easy. On land we were still confined to horseback and stages, but there was great improvement in the roads, through the aid of Congress and the different States.
COMPLETION OF THE ERIE CANAL.
The Erie Canal, connecting Buffalo and Albany, was begun on the 4th of July, 1817, its most persistent advocate being Governor De Witt Clinton. It was costly, and the majority believed it would never pay expenses. They dubbed it "De Witt Clinton's Ditch," and ridiculed the possibility that it would prove of public benefit. In October, 1825, it was opened for public traffic. It is 363 miles long, having the greatest extent of any canal in the world. It passes through a wonderfully fertile region, which at that time was little more than a wilderness. Immediately towns and villages sprang into existence along its banks. Merchandise could now be carried cheaply from the teeming West, through the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal, and the Hudson River, to New York City and the Atlantic. Its original cost was $7,600,000, and its earnings were so enormous that in many single years they amounted to half that sum. It is now operated by the State without charge to those using it.
No combination of statesmen are wise enough to prevent the occasional recurrence of "hard times." Nearly everyone has a cure for the blight, and the intervals between them are irregular, but they still descend upon us, when most unexpected and when it seems we are least prepared to bear them. No one needs a long memory to recall one or two afflictions of that nature.
THE FIRST "HARD TIMES."
The first financial stringency visited the country in 1819. The establishment in 1817 of the Bank of the United States had so improved credit and increased the facilities for trade that a great deal of wild speculation followed. The officers of the branch bank in Baltimore were dishonest and loaned more than $2,000,000 beyond its securities. The President stopped the extravagant loans, exposed the rogues, and greatly aided in bringing back the country to a sound financial basis, although the Bank of the United States narrowly escaped bankruptcy—a calamity that would have caused distress beyond estimate.
Amid the stirring political times our commerce suffered from the pirates who infested the West Indies. Their depredations became so annoying that in 1819 Commodore Perry, of Lake Erie fame, was sent out with a small squadron to rid the seas of the pests. Before he could accomplish anything, he was stricken with yellow fever and died. Other squadrons were dispatched to southern waters, and in 1822 more than twenty piratical vessels were destroyed in the neighborhood of Cuba. Commodore Porter followed up the work so effectively that the intolerable nuisance was permanently abated.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824.
There were plenty of presidential candidates in 1824. Everybody now was a Republican, and the choice, therefore, lay between the men of that political faith. The vote was as follows: Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, 99; John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, 84; Henry Clay, of Kentucky, 37; William H. Crawford, of Georgia, 41. For Vice-President: John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, 182; Nathan Sandford, of New York, 30; Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, 24; Andrew Jackson, 13; Martin Van Buren, of New York, 9; Henry Clay, 2.
This vote showed that no candidate was elected, and the election, therefore, was thrown into the House of Representatives. Although Jackson was far in the lead on the popular and electoral vote, the friends of Clay united with the supporters of Adams, who became President, with Calhoun Vice-President. The peculiar character of this election led to its being called the "scrub race for the presidency."
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
John Quincy Adams, the sixth President, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, July 11, 1767, and was the son of the second President. He was given every educational advantage in his youth, and when eleven years old accompanied his father to France and was placed in a school in Paris. Two years later he entered the University of Leyden, afterward made a tour through the principal countries of Europe, and, returning home, entered the junior class at Harvard, from which he graduated in 1788. Washington appreciated his ability, and made him minister to The Hague and afterward to Portugal. When his father became President he transferred him to Berlin. The Federalists elected him to the United States Senate in 1803, and in 1809 he was appointed minister to Russia. He negotiated important commercial treaties with Prussia, Sweden, and Great Britain, and, it will be remembered, he was leading commissioner in the treaty of Ghent, which brought the War of 1812 to a close. He was a man of remarkable attainments, but he possessed little magnetism or attractiveness of manner, and by his indifference failed to draw warm friends and supporters around him. Adams was re-elected to Congress repeatedly after serving out his term as President. He was seized with apoplexy while on the point of rising from his desk in the House of Representatives, and died February 23, 1848.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. (1767-1848.)
One term, 1825-1829.
The country was highly prosperous during the presidency of the younger Adams. The public debt, to which the War of 1812 added $80,000,000, began to show a marked decrease, money was more plentiful, and most important of all was the introduction of the steam locomotive from England. Experiments had been made in that country for a score of years, but it was not until 1829 that George Stephenson, the famous engineer, exhibited his "Rocket," which ran at the rate of nearly twenty miles an hour.
INTRODUCTION OF THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE.
The first clumsy attempts on this side were made in 1827, when two short lines of rails were laid at Quincy, near Boston, but the cars were drawn by horses, and, when shortly after, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered, the intention was to use the same motor. In 1829, a steam locomotive was used on the Delaware and Hudson Canal Railroad, followed by a similar introduction on the Baltimore and Ohio Road. The first railroad chartered expressly for steam was granted in South Carolina for a line to run from Charleston to Hamburg. The first locomotive made by Stephenson was brought across the ocean in 1831. The Americans set to work to make their own engines, and were successful in 1833. It will be noted that these events occurred after the administration of Adams.
THE CHEROKEES IN GEORGIA.
Most of the country east of the Mississippi was being rapidly settled. Immense areas of land were sold by the Indian tribes to the government and they removed west of the river. The Cherokees, however, refused to sell their lands in Georgia and Alabama. They were fully civilized, had schools, churches, and newspapers, and insisted on staying upon the lands that were clearly their own. Georgia was equally determined to force them out of the State, and her government was so high-handed that President Adams interfered for their protection. The governor declared that the Indians must leave, and he defied the national government to prevent him from driving them out. The situation of the Cherokees finally became so uncomfortable that, in 1835, they sold their lands and joined the other tribes in the Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi.
AN IMPRESSIVE OCCURRENCE.
One of the most impressive incidents in our history occurred on the 4th of July, when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. It was just half a century after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, of which Jefferson was the author and whose adoption Adams secured.
Adams attained the greatest age of any of our Presidents, being nearly ninety-one years old when he died. He retained the brightness of his mind, his death being due to the feebleness of old age. When he was asked if he knew the meaning of the joyous bells that were ringing outside, his wan face lighted up, and he replied: "It is the 4th of July; God bless it!" His last words, uttered a few minutes later: "Jefferson still survives."
"JOHNNY BULL," OR NO. 1.
(The first locomotive used.)
It was a natural error on the part of Adams, but Jefferson had passed away several hours before, in his eighty-fourth year. He died quietly, surrounded by friends, with his mind full of the inspiring associations connected with the day. His last words were: "I resign my soul to God, and my daughter to my country."
An important issue of the younger Adams' administration was the tariff. Naturally the South were opposed to a protective tariff, because they had no manufactures, and were, therefore, compelled to pay higher prices for goods than if admitted free of duty. A national convention was held at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1827, to discuss the question of the protection of native industry. Only four of the slave-holding States were represented, but the members memorialized Congress for an increase of duties on a number of articles made in this country. In the session of 1827-28, Congress, in deference to the general sentiment, passed a law which increased the duties on fabrics made of wool, cotton, linen, and on articles made from lead, iron, etc. The Legislatures of the Southern States protested against this action as unjust and unconstitutional, and in the presidential election of that year the entire electoral vote of the South was cast against Adams.
The "Era of good feeling" was gone and politics became rampant. The policy of a protective tariff became known as the American System, and Henry Clay was its foremost champion. Their followers began to call themselves National Republicans, while their opponents soon assumed the name of Democrats, which has clung to them ever since, though the National Republicans changed their title a few years later to Whigs.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1828.
The presidential election of 1828 resulted as follows: Andrew Jackson, Democrat, 178; John Quincy Adams, National Republican, 83. For Vice-President, John C. Calhoun, Democrat, 171; Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, National Republican, 49; William Smith, of South Carolina, Democrat, 7. Jackson and Calhoun therefore were elected.