Thomas Hart Benton

by Theodore Roosevelt

THE LOSING FIGHT.

Benton had now finished his fifth and last term in the United States Senate. He had been chosen senator from Missouri before she was admitted into the Union, and had remained such for thirty years. During all that time the state had been steadily Democratic, the large Whig minority never being able to get control; but on the question of the extension of slavery the dominant party itself began at this time to break into two factions. Hitherto Benton had been the undisputed leader of the Democracy, but now the pro-slavery and disunionist Democrats organized a very powerful opposition to him; while he still received the enthusiastic support of an almost equally numerous body of followers. Although the extension of slavery and the preservation of the Union were the two chief and vital points on which the factions differed, yet the names by which they designated each other were adopted in consequence of their differing also on a third and only less important one. Benton was such a firm believer in hard money, and a currency of gold and silver, as to have received the nickname of "Old Bullion," and his followers were called "hards;" his opponents were soft money men, in addition to being secessionists and pro-slavery fanatics, and took the name of "softs." The principles of the Bentonians were right, and those of their opponents wrong; but for all that the latter gradually gained upon the former. Finally, in the midst of Benton's fight against the extension of slavery into the territories, the "softs" carried the Missouri legislature, and passed a series of resolutions based upon those of Calhoun. These were most truculent and disloyal in tone, demanding that slavery be permitted to exist in all the new states to be admitted, and instructing their senators to vote accordingly. These resolutions were presented in the senate by Benton's colleague from Missouri, Atchison, who was rather hostile to him and to every other friend of the Union, and later on achieved disreputable notoriety as a leader of the "border ruffians" in the affrays on the soil of Kansas. Benton at once picked up the glove that had been flung down. He utterly refused to obey the resolutions, denounced them savagely as being treasonable and offensive in the highest degree, asserted that they did not express the true opinions of the voters of the state, and appealed from the Missouri legislature to the Missouri people.

The issue between the two sides was now sharply brought out, and, as this took place towards the end of Benton's fifth term, the struggle to command the legislature which should reëlect him or give him a successor was most exciting. Benton himself took an active part in the preliminary canvass. Neither faction was able to get a majority of the members, and the deadlock was finally broken by the "softs" coming to the support of the Whigs, and helping them to elect Benton's rival. Thus, after serving his state faithfully and ably for thirty years, he was finally turned out of the position which he so worthily filled, because he had committed the crime of standing loyally by the Union.

But the stout old Nationalist was not in the least cast down or even shaken by his defeat. He kept up the fight as bitterly as ever, though now an old man, and in 1852 went to Congress as a representative Union Democrat. For thirty years he had been the autocrat of Missouri politics, and had at one time wielded throughout his own state a power as great as Calhoun possessed in South Carolina; greater than Webster held in Massachusetts, or Clay in Kentucky. But the tide which had so long flowed in his favor now turned, and for the few remaining years of his life set as steadily against him; yet at no time of his long public career did he stand forth as honorably and prominently as during his last days, when he was showing so stern a front to his victorious foes. His love for work was so great that, when out of the Senate, he did not find even his incessant political occupations enough for him. During his contest for the senatorship his hands had been full, for he had spoken again and again throughout the entire state, his carefully prepared speeches showing remarkable power, and filled with scathing denunciation and invective and biting and caustic sarcasm. But so soon as his defeat was assured he turned his attention immediately to literature, setting to work on his great "Thirty Years' View," of which the first volume was printed during his congressional term, and was quoted on the floor of the House, both by his friends and foes, during the debates in which he was taking part.

In 1852, when he was elected to Congress as a member of the House, he had supported Pierce for the presidency against Scott, a good general, but otherwise a wholly absurd and flatulent personage, who was the Whig nominee. But it soon became evident that Pierce was completely under the control of the secession wing of the party, and Benton thereafterwards treated him with contemptuous hostility, despising him, and seeing him exactly as he was,—a small politician, of low capacity and mean surroundings, proud to act as the servile tool of men worse than himself but also stronger and abler. He was ever ready to do any work the slavery leaders set him, and to act as their attorney in arguing in its favor,—to quote Benton's phrase, with "undaunted mendacity, moral callosity [and] mental obliquity." His last message to Congress in the slavery interest Benton spoke of as characteristic, and exemplifying "all the modes of conveying untruths which long ages have invented,—direct assertion, fallacious inference, equivocal phrase, and false innuendo." As he entertained such views of the head of the Democratic party, and as this same head was in hearty accord with, and a good representative of the mass of the rank and file politicians of the organization, it is small wonder that Benton found himself, on every important question that came up while he was in Congress, opposed to the mass of his fellow-Democrats.

Although the great questions to which he devoted himself, while a representative in Congress, were those relating to the extension of slavery, yet he also found time to give to certain other subjects, working as usual with indomitable energy, and retaining his marvelous memory to the last. The idea of desponding or giving up, for any cause whatever, simply never entered his head. When his house, containing all the manuscript and papers of the nearly completed second volume of his "Thirty Years' View," was burned up, he did not delay a minute in recommencing his work, and the very next day spoke in Congress as usual.

His speeches were showing a steady improvement; they were not masterpieces, even at the last, but in every way, especially in style, they were infinitely superior to those that he had made on his first entrance into public life. Of course, a man with his intense pride in his country, and characterized by such a desire to see her become greater and more united in every way, would naturally support the proposal to build a Pacific Railroad, and accordingly he argued for it at great length and with force and justness, at the same time opposing the propositions to build northern and southern trans-continental roads as substitutes for the proposed central route. He showed the character of the land through which the road would run, and the easiness of the passes across the Rockies, and prophesied a rapid increase of states as one of the results attendant upon its building. At the end of his speech he made an elaborate comparison of the courses of trade and commerce at different periods of the world's history, and showed that, as we had reached the Pacific coast, we had finally taken a position where our trade with the Oriental kingdoms, backed up by our own enormous internal development, rendered us more than ever independent of Europe.

In another speech he discussed very intelligently, and with his usual complete command of the facts of the case, some of the contemporary Indian uprisings in the far West. He attacked our whole Indian policy, showing that the corruption of the Indian agents, coupled with astute aggressions, were the usual causes of our wars. Further, he criticised our regular troops as being unfit to cope with the savages, and advocated the formation of companies of frontier rangers, who should also be settlers, and should receive from the government a bounty in land as part reward for their service. Many of his remarks on our Indian policy apply quite as well now as they did then, and our regular soldiers are certainly not the proper opponents for the Indians; but Benton's military views were, as a rule, the reverse of sensible, and we cannot accept his denunciations of the army, and especially of West Point, as being worth serious consideration. His belief in the marvelous efficacy of a raw militia, especially as regards war with European powers, was childish, and much of his feeling against the regular army officer was dictated by jealousy. He was, by all the peculiarities of his habits and education, utterly unfitted for military command; and it would have been an evil day for his good fame if Polk had succeeded in having him made lieutenant-general of our forces in Mexico.

His remarks upon our Indian policy were not the only ones he made that would bear study even yet. Certain of his speeches upon the different land-bounty and pension bills, passed nominally in the interests of veterans, but really through demagogy and the machination of speculators, could be read with profit by not a few Congressmen at the present time. One of his utterances was: "I am a friend to old soldiers ... but not to old speculators;" and while favoring proper pension bills he showed the foolishness and criminality of certain others very clearly, together with the fact that, when passed long after the services have been rendered, they always fail to relieve the real sufferers, and work in the interests of unworthy outsiders.

But his great speech, and one of the best and greatest that he ever made, was the one in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which was being pushed through Congress by the fire-eaters and their Northern pro-slavery followers. His own position upon the measure was best expressed by the words he used in commenting on the remarks of a Georgian member: "He votes as a Southern man, and votes sectionally; I also am a Southern man, but vote nationally on national questions."

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had expressly abolished slavery in the territory out of which Kansas and Nebraska were carved. By the proposed bill this compromise was to be repealed, and the famous doctrine of non-intervention, or "squatter sovereignty," was to take its place, the people of each territory being allowed to choose for themselves whether they did or did not wish slavery. Benton attacked the proposal with all the strength of his frank, open nature as "a bungling attempt to smuggle slavery into the territory, and throughout all the country, up to the Canada line and out to the Rocky Mountains." He showed exhaustively the real nature of the original Missouri Compromise, which, as he said, was forced by the South upon the North, and which the South now proposed to repeal, that it might humiliate the North still further. The compromise of 1820 was, he justly contended, right; it was like the original compromises of the Constitution, by which the Slave States were admitted to the formation of the Union; no greater concession of principle was involved in the one case than in the other; and, had either compromise failed, the Union would not now be in existence. But the day when compromises had been necessary, or even harmless, had passed. The time had come when the extension of slavery was to be opposed in every constitutional way; and it was an outrage to propose to extend its domain by repealing all that part of a compromise measure which worked against it, when the South had already long taken advantage of such parts of the law as worked in its favor. Said Benton: "The South divided and took half, and now it will not do to claim the other half." Exactly as a proposition to destroy the slavery compromises of the Constitution would be an open attempt to destroy the Union, so, he said, the attempt to abrogate the compromise of 1820 would be a preparation for the same ending. "I have stood upon the Missouri Compromise for about thirty years, and mean to stand upon it to the end of my life ... [it is] a binding covenant upon both parties, and the more so upon the South, as she imposed it."

The squatter sovereignty theories of Douglas he treated with deserved ridicule, laughing at the idea that the territories were not the actual property of the nation, to be treated as the latter wished, and having none of the rights of sovereign states; and he condemned even more severely the theory advanced to the effect that Congress had no power to legislate on slavery in the territories. Thus, he pointed out that to admit any such theories was directly to reverse the principles upon which we had acted for seventy years in regard to the various territories that from time to time grew to such size as entitled them to come into the Union as states. After showing that there was no excuse for bringing in the bill on the plea of settling the slavery question, since there was not a foot of territory in the United States where the subject of slavery was not already settled by law, he closed with an earnest appeal against such an attempt to break up the Union and outrage the North by forcing slavery into a land where its existence was already forbidden by law. His speech exceeded the hour allotted to it, and he was allowed to go on only by the courtesy of a member from Illinois, who, when some of the Southerners protested against his being heard farther, gave up part of his own time to the grand old Missourian, and asked the House to hear him, if only "as the oldest living man in Congress, the only man in Congress who was present at the passage of the Missouri Compromise bill." Many a man at the North, ashamed and indignant at seeing the politicians of his own section cower at the crack of the Southern whip, felt a glow of sincere gratitude and admiration for the rugged Westerner, who so boldly bade defiance to the ruling slave party that held the reins not only in his own section, but also in his own state, and to oppose which was almost certain political death.

The Gadsden treaty was also strongly opposed and condemned by Benton, who considered it to be part of a great scheme or movement in the interests of the slavery disunionists, of which he also believed the Kansas-Nebraska bill to be the first development,—the "thin end of the wedge." He opposed the acquirement even of the small piece of territory we were actually able to purchase from Mexico; and showed good grounds for his belief that the administration, acting as usual only in the interest of the secessionists, had tried to get enough North-Mexican territory to form several new states, and had also attempted to purchase Cuba, both efforts being for the purpose of enabling the South either to become again dominant in the Union or else to set up a separate confederacy of her own. For it must be kept in mind that Benton always believed that the Southern disunion movements were largely due to conspiracies among ambitious politicians, who used the slavery question as a handle by which to influence the mass of the people. This view has certainly more truth in it than it is now the fashion to admit. His objection to the actual treaty was mainly based on its having been done by the executive without the consent of the legislature, and he also criticised it for the secrecy with which it had been put through. In bringing forward the first objection, however, he was confronted with Jefferson's conduct in acquiring Louisiana, which he endeavored, not very successfully, to show had nothing in common with the actions of Pierce, who, he said, simply demanded a check from the House with which to complete a purchase undertaken on his own responsibility.

Throughout his congressional term of service, Benton acted so as to deserve well of the Union as a whole, and most well of Missouri in particular. But he could not stem the tide of folly and madness in this state, and was defeated when he was a candidate for reëlection. The Whigs had now disappeared from the political arena, and the Know-nothings were running through their short and crooked lease of life; they foolishly nominated a third candidate in Benton's district, who drew off enough votes from him to enable his pro-slavery Democratic competitor to win.

No sooner had he lost his seat in Congress than Benton, indefatigable as ever, set to work to finish his "Thirty Years' View," and produced the second volume in 1856, the year when he made his last attempt to regain his hold in politics, and to win Missouri back to the old Union standard. Although his own son-in-law, Fremont, the daring western explorer, was running as the first presidential candidate ever nominated by the Republicans, the old partisan voted for the Democrat, Buchanan. He did not like Buchanan, considering him weak and unsuitable, but the Republican party he believed to be entirely too sectional in character for him to give it his support. For governor there was a triangular fight, the Know-nothings having nominated one candidate, the secessionist Democrats a second, while Benton himself ran as the choice of the Union Democracy. He was now seventy-four years old, but his mind was as vigorous as ever, and his iron will kept up a frame that had hardly even yet begun to give way. During the course of the campaign he traveled throughout the state, going in all twelve hundred miles, and making forty speeches, each one of two or three hours' length. This was a remarkable feat for so old a man; indeed, it has very rarely been paralleled, except by Gladstone's recent performances. The vote was quite evenly divided between the three candidates; but Benton came in third, and the extreme pro-slavery men carried the day. After this, during the few months of life he yet had left, he did not again mingle in the politics of Missouri.

But in the days of his defeat at home, the regard and respect in which he was held in the other states, especially at the North, increased steadily; and in the fall of 1856 he made by request a lecturing tour in New England, speaking on the danger of the political situation and the imperative necessity of preserving the Union, which he now clearly saw to be gravely threatened. He was well received, for the North was learning to respect him, and he had gotten over his early hostility to New England,—a hostility originally shared by the whole West. The New Englanders were not yet aware, however, of the importance of the secession movements, and paid little heed to the warnings that were to be so fully justified by the events of the next few years. But Benton, in spite of his great age, saw distinctly the changes that were taking place, and the dangers that were impending,—an unusual thing for a man whose active life has already been lived out under widely different conditions.

He again turned his attention to literature, and produced another great work, the "Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 1787 to 1856," in sixteen volumes, besides writing a valuable pamphlet on the Dred Scott decision, which he severely criticised. The amount of labor all this required was immense, and his health completely gave way; yet he continued working to the very end, dictating the closing portion of the "Abridgment" in a whisper as he lay on his death-bed. When he once began to fail his advanced years made him succumb rapidly; and on April 10, 1858, he died, in the city of Washington. As soon as the news reached Missouri, a great revulsion of feeling took place, and all classes of the people united to do honor to the memory of the dead statesman, realizing that they had lost a man who towered head and shoulders above both friends and foes. The body was taken to St. Louis, and after lying in state was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, more than forty thousand people witnessing the funeral. All the public buildings were draped in mourning; all places of business were closed, and the flags everywhere were at half-mast. Thus at the very end the great city of the West at last again paid fit homage to the West's mightiest son.

Benton's most important writings are those mentioned above. The "Thirty Years' View" ("a history of the working of the American government for thirty years, from 1820 to 1850") will always be indispensable to every student of American history. It deals with the deeds of both houses of Congress, and of some of the higher federal officials during his thirty years' term of service in the Senate, and is valuable alike for the original data it contains, and because it is so complete a record of our public life at that time. The book is also remarkable for its courteous and equable tone, even towards bitter personal and political enemies. It shows a vanity on the part of the author that is too frank and free from malice to be anything but amusing; the style is rather ponderous, and the English not always good, for Benton began life, and, in fact, largely passed it, in an age of ornate periods, when grandiloquence was considered more essential than grammar. In much of the Mississippi valley the people had their own canons of literary taste; indeed, in a recent book by one of Benton's admirers, there is a fond allusion to his statement, anent the expunging resolution, that "solitary and alone" he had set the ball in motion,—the pleonasm being evidently looked upon in the light of a rather fine oratorical outburst.

"The Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856" he was only able to bring down to 1850. Sixteen volumes were published. It was a compilation needing infinite labor, and is invaluable to the historian. While in the midst of the vast work he also found time to write his "Examination of the Dred Scott case," in so far as it decided the Missouri Compromise law to be unconstitutional, and asserted the self-extension of the Constitution into the territories, carrying slavery with it,—the decision in this case promulgated by Judge Taney, of unhappy fame, having been the last step taken in the interests of slavery and for the overthrow of freedom. The pamphlet contained nearly two hundred pages, and showed, as was invariably the case with anything Benton did, the effects of laborious research and wide historical and legal learning. His summing up was, "that the decision conflicts with the uniform action of all the departments of the federal government from its foundation to the present time, and cannot be accepted as a rule to govern Congress and the people, without severing that act and admitting the political supremacy of the court and accepting an altered constitution from its hands, and taking a new and portentous point of departure in the working of the government." He denounced the new party theories of the Democracy, which had abandoned the old belief of the founders of the Republic, that Congress had power to legislate upon slavery in territories, and which had gone on "from the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise, which saved the Union, to squatter sovereignty, which killed the compromise, and thence to the decisions of the supreme court, which kill both." In closing he touched briefly on the history of the pro-slavery agitation. "Up to Mr. Pierce's administration the plan had been defensive, that is to say, to make the secession of the South a measure of self-defense against the abolition encroachments and crusades of the North. In the time of Mr. Pierce the plan became offensive, that is to say, to commence the expansion of slavery, and the acquisition of territory to spread it over, so as to overpower the North with new Slave States, and drive them out of the Union.... The rising in the Free States, in consequence of the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise, checked these schemes, and limited the success of the disunionists to the revival of the agitation which enables them to wield the South against the North in all the federal elections and all federal legislation. Accidents and events have given the party a strange preëminence,—under Jackson's administration proclaimed for treason; since at the head of the government and of the Democratic party. The death of Harrison, and the accession of Tyler, was their first great lift; the election of Mr. Pierce was their culminating point." This was the last protest of the last of the old Jacksonian leaders against that new generation of Democrats, whose delight it had become to bow down to strange gods.

In his private life Benton's relations were of the pleasantest. He was a religious man, although, like his great political chief, he could on occasions swear roundly. He was rigidly moral, and he was too fond of work ever to make social life a business. But he liked small dinners, with just a few intimate friends or noted and brilliant public men, and always shone at such an entertainment. Although he had not traveled much, he gave the impression of having done so, by reason of his wide reading, and because he always made a point of knowing all explorers, especially those who had penetrated our great western wilds. His geographical knowledge was wonderful; and his good nature, as well as his delight in work for work's sake, made him of more use than any library of reference, if his friends needed information upon some abstruse matter,—Webster himself acknowledging his indebtedness to him on one occasion, and being the authority for the statement that Benton knew more political facts than any other man he had ever met, even than John Quincy Adams, and possessed a wonderful fund of general knowledge. Although very gentle in his dealings with those for whom he cared, Benton originally was rather quarrelsome and revengeful in character. His personal and political prejudices were bitter, and he denounced his enemies freely in public and from the stump; yet he always declined to take part in joint political debates, on account of the personal discourtesy with which they were usually conducted. He gave his whole time to public life, rarely or never attending to his law practice after he had fairly entered the political field.

Benton was one of those who were present and escaped death at the time of the terrible accident on board the Princeton, during Tyler's administration, when the bursting of her great gun killed so many prominent men. Benton was saved owing to the fact that, characteristically enough, he had stepped to one side the better to note the marksmanship of the gunner. Ex-Governor Gilmer, of Virginia, who had taken his place, was instantly killed. Tyler, who was also on board, was likewise saved in consequence of the exhibition of a characteristic trait; for, just as the gun was about to be fired, something occurred in another part of the ship which distracted the attention of the fussy, fidgety president, who accordingly ran off to see what it was, and thus escaped the fatal explosion. The tragic nature of the accident and his own narrow escape made a deep impression upon Benton; and it was noticed that ever afterwards he was far more forbearing and forgiving than of old. He became good friends with Webster and other political opponents, with whom he had formerly hardly been on speaking terms. Calhoun alone he would never forgive. It was not in his nature to do anything by halves; and accordingly, when he once forgave an opponent, he could not do enough to show him that the forgiveness was real. A Missourian named Wilson, who had been his bitter and malignant political foe for years, finally becoming broken in fortune and desirous of bettering himself by going to California, where Benton's influence, through his son-in-law, Fremont, was supreme, was persuaded by Webster to throw himself on the generosity of his old enemy. The latter not only met him half-way, but helped him with a lavish kindness that would hardly have been warranted by less than a life-long friendship. Webster has left on record the fact that, when once they had come to be on good terms with each other, there was no man in the whole Senate of whom he would more freely have asked any favor that could properly be granted.

He was a most loving father. At his death he left four surviving daughters,—Mrs. William Carey Jones, Mrs. Sarah Benton Jacobs, Madame Susan Benton Boilleau, and Mrs. Jessie Ann Benton Fremont, the wife of the great explorer, whose wonderful feats and adventures, ending with the conquest of California, where he became a sort of viceroy in point of power, made him an especial favorite with his father-in-law, who loved daring and hardihood. Benton took the keenest delight in Fremont's remarkable successes, and was never tired of talking of them, both within and without the Senate. He records with very natural pride the fact that it was only the courage and judgment displayed in a trying crisis by his own gifted daughter, Fremont's wife, which enabled the adventurous young explorer to prosecute one of the most important of his expeditions, when threatened with fatal interference from jealous governmental superiors.

He was an exceptionally devoted husband. His wife was Miss Elizabeth McDowell, of Virginia, whom he married after he had entered the Senate. Their life was most happy until 1844, when she was struck by paralysis. From that time till her death in 1854, he never went out to a public place of amusement, spending all his time not occupied with public duties in writing by her bedside. It is scant praise to say that, while mere acquiescence on his part would have enabled him to become rich through government influence, he nevertheless died a poor man. In public, as in private life, he was a man of sensitive purity of character; he would never permit any person connected with him by blood or marriage to accept office under the government, nor would he ever favor any applicant for a government contract on political grounds.

During his last years, when his sturdy independence and devotion to the Union had caused him the loss of his political influence in his own state and with his own party, he nevertheless stood higher with the country at large than ever before. He was a faithful friend and a bitter foe; he was vain, proud, utterly fearless, and quite unable to comprehend such emotions as are expressed by the terms despondency and yielding. Without being a great orator or writer, or even an original thinker, he yet possessed marked ability; and his abounding vitality and marvelous memory, his indomitable energy and industry, and his tenacious persistency and personal courage, all combined to give him a position and influence such as few American statesmen have ever held. His character grew steadily to the very last; he made better speeches and was better able to face new problems when past three score and ten than in his early youth or middle age. He possessed a rich fund of political, legal, and historical learning, and every subject that he ever handled showed the traces of careful and thorough study. He was very courteous, except when provoked; his courage was proof against all fear, and he shrank from no contest, personal or political. He was sometimes narrow-minded, and always wilful and passionate; but he was honest and truthful. At all times and in all places he held every good gift he had completely at the service of the American Federal Union.

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INDEX.

Adams, John Quincy:
In presidential election of 1824-5, [59]-61;
makes Clay secretary of state, [61];
and is assailed therefor, [62];
outlines Whig policy in his inaugural, [63];
on the Panama mission, [64];
in election of 1828, [69];
preserves purity of civil service, [81];
on recognition of Texas, [180];
"Albany Regency," the, adopts "spoils system," [81];
Arnold, Benedict:
compared with Burr and J. Davis, [163].
Atchison, protests against admission of California, [338].
Benton, town of, founded, [25].
Benton, Thomas Hart:—
local character of his statesmanship, [13];
birth, [23];
boyhood and education, [24] et seq.;
religious training, [26];
fights a duel, [27];
affray with Jackson, [28];
admitted to the bar, [29];
in legislature of Tennessee, [29];
on the Hartford Convention, [31];
a slave-holder, [31];
favors war of 1812, [32], in service, [32]; befriends Jackson, [32];
associations in Tennessee, [33] et seq.;
some traits of character, [34];
settles in Missouri, [35];
surroundings and influences there, [40];
speech on treaty with Spain concerning Florida, [41];
first position concerning slavery, [43];
enters U. S. Senate, [44];
honorable financial sacrifice, [45];
position on the Oregon question, [50]-53, [65], [263]-270, [273]-279, [281]-289;
bill to establish a trading road through Missouri, [53];
on the removal of the Indians, [55];
votes for Clay's protective tariff bill, [58];
opposes internal improvements and Cumberland Road bill, [58];
condemns election of John Q. Adams to Presidency, [60];
supports Clay, then Jackson, [61];
will not join outcry against Adams and Clay, [61];
a leader of the opposition to Adams in the Senate, [63];
represents ultra-Southern feeling concerning revolted
Spanish colonies, [65];
vote on the protective tariff of 1828, [66], [91], [102];
efforts concerning disposal of public land, [68], [77], [149], [154], [217];
hostility to the Northeastern States, [76];
in the Webster-Hayne debate, [78];
opposes Jackson's "spoils system," [79]-85;
leader of the Jacksonians in the Senate, [85], [86];
shows that protective tariff has not helped the West, [91];
urges repeal of the tax on salt, [92], [227];
vigorously sustains Jackson in the nullification troubles, [100]-105;
sustains the Force bill, [105];
opposes Clay's compromise measure, [107]-109;
remarks on his position at this period, [112];
campaign against the Bank of the United States, [114], [130], [136], [143];
speech on the currency, [122], [136]-138, [253];
conflict with Clay, [129];
on the removal of the deposits, [131];
opposes the resolution of censure against Jackson, [133];
and pushes through his own expunging resolution, [134]-136, [139]-142;
advocates establishment of mints at the South, [144];
opposes distribution of surplus, [145], [149];
wishes it used for fortifications, [146], [150]-153;
advocates insisting on our claims against France, [147];
but opposes paying claims of American citizens, [148];
opposes the so-called specie circulars, [154];
views concerning Southern slavery politicians, [162];
opposed to the Abolitionists, [165];
criticises Calhoun, [167], [168];
aids to defeat bill prohibiting circulation of abolition
documents through U. S. mails, [169];
carries bill extending boundaries of Missouri, [170];
urges admission of Michigan, [171];
carries through treaty with Cherokees, [171];
defends governmental treatment of Indians, [172];
condemns treaty establishing Southwestern boundary, [175];
position concerning annexation of Texas, [180]-183;
hostility to separatist doctrines, [188];
blames bankers and politicians for financial crisis of 1837, [190], [194];
his forebodings of this trouble, [191]-193;
demeanor in the crisis, [197];
supports issue of Treasury notes, [198];
opposes payment of further installment of surplus, [199];
supports scheme for independent Treasury, [200], [207];
action concerning resumption by bonds, [203];
a supporter of the administration in these times, [263];
his knowledge, [204];
hostile to paper currency, [206];
defends administration in matters of Seminole war, [212];
theory for conducting this war, [215];
advocates; homestead law, [217];
opposes assumption of State debts by national government, [220];
explains greater rapidity of progress at North than at South, [222];
on the tariff of 1833, [224]-230;
defends Jackson and Van Buren against charges of squandering public moneys, [230];
in the Harrison campaign, [233];
holds the Democrats for the Union, [234];
feeling concerning slavery about Van Buren's time, [235];
leads the Democrats in struggle between President Tyler and Clay,
[240]-244;
exalts the "Democratic idea," [241];
comments on Tyler's first message to Congress, [245];
opposes sub-Treasury bill, [246];
also the bank, distribution and bankruptcy bills, [246]-249;
opposes the hour limit for speeches in the Senate, [250]-252;
speech concerning the district banks and the currency, [253];
opposes effort to establish a national bank during Tyler's
administration, [255]-258;
opposes new form of Treasury notes, [258];
opposes subsidizing steamship lines, [258];
also the abuse of the pension system, [258];
always an advocate of extending the national boundaries, [263], [267];
opposes the Ashburton treaty, [269], [273]-279;
remarks concerning the Caroline imbroglio, [270];
opposes making an efficient navy, [272];
references to slavery in speeches on the Ashburton treaty, [274], [280];
on the Oregon question, [281]-289;
position concerning annexation of Texas in time of Polk, [299]-317;
opposes the South, [301];
opposes Calhoun's treaty, [306]-310;
hoodwinked by the annexationists, [313];
attacks Calhoun and opposes the Mexican war, [315];
offered the command of the army, [318];
awakes to importance of slavery question, [318];
his later position concerning it, [320], [333]-336;
contests with pro-slavery Senators, [322], [323];
opposes Calhoun as to power of Congress over slavery in territories,
[323]-327;
and as to admission of Oregon, [328];
criticises Polk's administration, [328];
visits New York in presidential campaign in 1848, [329];
defends Taylor's message, [331];
opposes Clay's compromise, [332], [333]-336;
more antagonism towards Calhoun, [333];
position on the Wilmot Proviso, [336];
advocates admission of California as a Free State, [337];
refuses to support Fugitive Slave Act, [339];
nickname of "Old Bullion," [342];
opposition to him in Missouri, [342];
defeated, [343];
goes to House of Representatives, [343];
begins work on the "Thirty Years' View," [344];
supports Pierce for Presidency, [344];
but later goes into opposition, [345];
supports scheme for Pacific Railroad, [346];
discusses the Indian policy, [347];
speeches on land-bounty and pension bills, [348];
opposes Kansas-Nebraska bill, [349]-352;
discusses historically the Missouri Compromise, [349];
ridicules squatter sovereignty, [350];
opposes the Gladstone treaty, [352];
view of Southern disunion scheme, [352];
again defeated in Missouri elections, [353];
returns to labor on "Thirty Years' View," [354];
votes for Buchanan, [354];
candidate for governorship, [354];
stumps the State, [354];
respected at the North, [355];
prepares his "Abridgment of the Debates of Congress," [356];
death, [356];
value of his works [357];
criticism of the Dred Scott case, [358];
and of the new Democratic theories, [358];
domestic relations, [360];
extensive knowledge, [360];
on board the Princeton at time of explosion of great gun, [361];
generous temper, [362].
Biddle, Nicholas:
president of Bank of United States, [116];
his errors, [124];
his bank goes to pieces, [208].
Birney, James G.:
abolitionist candidate for Presidency, [291], [292];
folly of nominating him, [293], [294], [310].
Blair, Francis C., displaced, [317].
Buchanan, James:
on annexation of Texas, [310];
Benton votes for him, [354].
Burr, Aaron:
introduces "spoils system" in New York, [81];
compared with Benedict Arnold, [163].
Calhoun, John C.:
rupture with Jackson, resignation from Vice-Presidency, [86];
position concerning tariff in 1816, [89];
position as a nullifier, [96];
introduces nullification resolutions, [103];
threatened with hanging, [104];
arranges compromise with Clay, [106];
subsequent quarrel with Clay concerning this, [110];
his purposes at this time, [111];
assails Jackson, [132];
opposes Webster's bill for rechartering bank, [133];
on the expunging resolution, [141];
proposes constitutional amendment for distribution of Treasury
surplus, [144];
opposes appropriating Treasury surplus for fortifications, [146];
attack on President Pierce, [166];
his honesty, [168];
on admission of Texas, [180];
in connection with trouble with Mexico, [260];
on the Oregon question, [285];
instrumental in election of Polk, [292];
letter to Lord Aberdeen, [300];
assailed by Benton as to annexation of Texas, [307], [309];
action as to legislation about Texas, [313];
relations as to Mexican war, [314];
and the Wilmot Proviso, [323];
resolution as to power of Congress over slavery in the territories,
[323]-326;
not a "Union man," [326];
on the admission of Oregon, [326], [327], [328];
dislikes Taylor's message to Congress, [331].
California, admission of, [337].
Caroline, affair of the, [270].
Cartwright, Peter, [33].
Cass, Lewis: nominated for Presidency, [329].
Cherokees, treaty for their removal, [171].
Clay, Henry:
introduces his first tariff bill, [58];
secretary of state under Adams, [61];
assailed therefor, and fights Randolph, [62];
devises the Panama mission, [63];
leader of National Republican or Whig party, [86];
defies "the South, the President, and the devil," [90];
erroneous statement as to effect of tariff in the West, [91];
angers the nullifiers, [99];
defeated in presidential election in 1832, [100];
alarmed at position of Calhoun, [106];
and prepares compromise, [106];
afterward quarrels about it with Calhoun, [110];
befriends Bank of the United States, [124], [127], [129];
effect on his political fortunes, [125];
introduces resolution for return of deposits, [131];
also for censuring President Jackson, [132];
opposes Webster's bill for rechartering Bank, [136];
on the expunging resolution, [141];
opposes establishment of mints at the South, [144];
also appropriating surplus for fortifications, [146];
in financial crisis of 1837, [200];
on the sub-Treasury bill, [201], [205];
on resumption, [202], [203];
opposes payment of state debts by national government, [221];
prepares financial measures upon Tyler's accession, [240], [244];
construction of a presidential election, [241];
programme for legislation under Tyler, [245];
attempts to introduce hour-limits for speeches in Senate, [250]-252;
lectures Tyler in the Bank debate, [256];
defeated by Polk, [290];
causes thereof, [310];
attacks Taylor's message to Congress, [331];
proposes compromise of slavery controversy, [331];
defeated by Benton, [336];
compared with Benton, [339].
Crawford, William H.:
adopts the "spoils system," [80];
Crockett, David, [27], [33];
berates Jackson, [113].
Cumberland Road, Benton votes against bill for, [58].
Davis, Jefferson:
compared with Benedict Arnold, [163];
a repudiator, [220];
and Calhoun's resolution as to slavery in the territories, [325];
protests against admission of California, [338].
Drayton, family, loyalty of the family in South Carolina, [96].
Florida, the treaty securing it to the United States, [41].
Foote, Senator from Mississippi, opposition to his public land scheme
by Benton and Webster, [77].
Fremont, John C.:
explores Rocky Mountains, [283];
Benton will not vote for, [354];
Benton's interest in his explorations, [363].
Giddings, Joshua R., sound policy of, [294].
Harrison, Wm. Henry:
election not affected by slavery question, [235];
death and character, [237].
Hartford Convention, criticised by Benton, [31], [78];
causes of, [49].
Houston, Samuel, [34]:
wins victory of San Jacinto, [180];
hates Van Buren, [188]; description of, [327];
votes to admit California, [338].
Indian tribes, Benton on the removal of, [55];
criticism on treatment of, [57], [172], [347];
removal of Cherokees in 1836, [171].
Jackson, Andrew:
affray with Benton, [28];
befriended by Benton at Washington, [32];
in presidential election of 1824, [29], [60];
incensed against Adams and Clay, [61];
success in election of 1828, [59];
character of his following, [71], [74], [75];
his opponents, [72];
his victory compared with Jefferson's, [73];
compared with Wellington, [73];
foster-father of the "spoils system," [79], [82];
inferior character of his cabinet, [86];
relations of his followers with those of Clay and Calhoun, [86];
struggles with the Bank and the nullifiers, [88];
expected to support nullification, [96];
but does not, [97];
repudiates Calhoun and adopts Van Buren, [97];
at the Jefferson birthday banquet, [98];
again defines his position, [99];
signs new tariff bill, [99];
reelected in 1832, [100];
issues proclamation against nullification, [101];
special message on nullification, [102];
opinion on tariff, [102];
threatens to hang Calhoun, [104];
signs "Force Bill," also Clay's compromise bill, [108];
behaves badly in case of Georgia, [112];
attack on U. S. Bank, [114] et seq.;
reasons of his political success, [116];
opposes re-charter of Bank in message of 1829, [117];
vetoes bill for re-charter, [127];
reelected, [130];
removes the deposits, [130];
protests against Clay's resolution of censure, [133];
continued assaults on the Bank, [139];
gives a dinner to the expungers, [141];
signs bill for distributing Treasury surplus, [153];
issues Treasury order concerning payments for public lands, [155];
Kitchen Cabinet and "machine politics," [184], [185];
liking for Van Buren, [186];
his nationalism, [234];
praised by Benton for hanging Arbuthnot and Ambrister, [272];
favors annexation of Texas, [298];
and Van Buren, [299].
Jefferson, Thomas:
character of his following, [70], [71];
his victory compared with Jackson's, [73];
his pseudo-classicism, [92];
quoted as authority for nullification, [95];
celebration of birthday of, [97].
Lee, Robert E.:
military standing of, [38].
Lincoln, Abraham:
services in anti-slavery cause, [159].
Livingston, Edward:
aids in preparing proclamation against nullification, [101].
Lucas, Benton's duel with, [28].

Madison, James, quoted, [163].
Marcy, Wm. L., adopts "spoils system," [81];
cringes to the South, [108].
McDuffie, passage at arms with Benton, [304], [305];
deceives Benton as to taxes, [313].
McLeod, Alexander, case of, [271].
Missouri, character of its population, [39];
admission to the Union, [43], [47];
land titles in, [45].
Missouri Compromise bill, [43];
not the beginning of the slavery and anti-slavery divisions in the
Union, [48];
Benton concerning repeal of, [349].
Monroe, James, remarks, [47], [58], [59];
signs bill for trading road, [53].
New Orleans, Benton's astonishing description of, [93].
Oregon, disputed between Great Britain and the United States, [50];
Benton's remarks concerning, [51];
comes into notice again in J. Q. Adams's term, [65];
final settlement of the matter, [260]-273;
neglected in Ashburton treaty, [278],
and by Calhoun, [278],
and others, [279];
Benton's feeling about, [281], [284];
bill for settlement of, [284];
Calhoun on the admission of, [326]-328.
Panama mission, disputes concerning, [63]-65.
Phillips, Wendell, estimate of, [160].
Pierce, Franklin, assailed by Calhoun, [166];
relations with Benton, [344], [345];
a valuation of, [345];
Benton upon pro-slavery tendencies of, [359].
Polk, James K., character of his following, [234];
and the Southwestern boundary, [287];
elected President, [290], [310];
estimate of, [292];
deceives Benton as to Texas, [313];
displaces Blair, [317];
relations with various portions of Democratic party, [317], [318].
Randolph, John:
duel with Clay, [62].
Rynders, Isaiah, a type, [291], [292].
Seminoles, war with, [209]-216.
Taney, Roger B., removes the deposits, [130];
afterward made chief justice, [131];
criticised by Benton for his opinion in Dred Scott case, [358].
Taylor, Zachary, elected President, [329];
character, [330], [337];
message to Congress, [331];
dies, [337].
Tyler, John, opposes "Force Bill," [105];
estimate of, on his accession, [237];
his political affiliations, [238]-240;
first message to Congress, [245];
conduct concerning bill for establishing a bank, [254]-257;
his cabinet resigns, [257];
identifies himself with the separatist Democrats, [298];
schemes for annexation of Texas, [300], [306];
assailed by Benton, [307], [309];
behavior at time of explosion of gun on board the Princeton, [361].
Van Buren, Martin, supports Crawford for Presidency in 1824, [61];
adopts "spoils system," [81];
adopted by Jackson as his heir, [97];
Vice-President, [100];
product of "machine politics," [184];
befriended by Jackson, [186];
sketch of, and causes of his elevation, [186]-188;
his inaugural, [188];
financial crisis and his doings therein, [189] et seq.,
[194], [196], [197];
financial measures, [200];
has to deal with the Seminoles, [209];
public dishonesty under, [219];
charged with squandering the public money, [230];
significance of his defeat, [234];
slavery question did not arise in his administration, [235];
champion of old-style Union Democrats, and opposed to annexation
of Texas, [298];
candidate for Presidency, [299], [310];
and the Free Soil party, [329].
War of 1812, a cause of the, [7];
political influence on Benton, [30].
Warsaw, social habits of the town, [36].
Webster, Daniel, position of, concerning Clay's first tariff bill, [58];
position on the tariff question in 1828, [67];
in the debate on Foote's resolution concerning sales of public land,
[77], [97];
leader of National Republican, or Whig, party, [86];
aids Jackson in nullification troubles, [103], [104];
advocates the "Force Bill," [105];
resolute in opposition to the South, [106], [107], [108];
remarks as to his services, [111];
befriends Bank of United States, [124], [126], [127], [129];
personal relations with the Jacksonians, [131];
introduces bill for re-charter of Bank, [136];
on the expunging resolution, [142];
supports establishment of mints at the South, [144];
opposes appropriating Treasury surplus for fortifications, [146];
in financial crisis of 1837, [200];
on sub-Treasury scheme, [201], [205];
opposes payment of state debt by national government, [221];
remains in Tyler's cabinet, [257];
negotiates treaty with England, settling boundaries between United
States and British possessions, [260], [262], [268];
criticised by Benton, [273]-277, [280];
neglects Oregon controversy, [278];
compared with Benton on the slavery question, [320], [339];
compliments Benton's knowledge, [360];
on friendly terms with Benton, [362].
Wellington, Duke of, compared with Washington and Jackson, [73].
Wilmot Proviso, Benton's remarks upon, [323], [336].
Wright, Silas, adopts "spoils system," [81];
expresses the "dough face" sentiment at time of nullification
troubles, [107].

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American Statesmen

Edited by John T. Morse, Jr.
Each, 16mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25; half morocco, $2.50.
The set, 31 volumes, half levant, $77.50.

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. By John T. Morse, Jr.
SAMUEL ADAMS. By James K. Hosmer.
PATRICK HENRY. By Moses Coit Tyler.
GEORGE WASHINGTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 2 vols.
JOHN ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. By Theodore Roosevelt.
JOHN JAY. By George Pellew.
JOHN MARSHALL. By Allan B. Magruder.
THOMAS JEFFERSON. By John T. Morse, Jr.
JAMES MADISON. By Sydney Howard Gay.
ALBERT GALLATIN. By John Austin Stevens.
JAMES MONROE. By President D. C. Gilman.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. By John T. Morse, Jr.
JOHN RANDOLPH. By Henry Adams.
ANDREW JACKSON. By Prof. William G. Sumner.
MARTIN VAN BUREN. By Edward M. Shepard.
HENRY CLAY. By Carl Schurz. 2 vols.
DANIEL WEBSTER. By Henry Cabot Lodge.
JOHN C. CALHOUN. By Dr. H. Von Holst.
THOMAS HART BENTON. By Theodore Roosevelt.
LEWIS CASS. By Prof. Andrew C. McLaughlin.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By John T. Morse, Jr. With Portrait and Map. 2 vols.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD. By Thornton K. Lothrop.
SALMON P. CHASE. By Prof. A. B. Hart.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. By C. F. Adams.
CHARLES SUMNER. By Moorfield Storey.
THADDEUS STEVENS. By Samuel W. McCall.

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CRITICAL NOTICES.

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FRANKLIN. He has managed to condense the whole mass of matter gleaned from all sources into his volume without losing in a single sentence the freedom or lightness of his style or giving his book in any part the crowded look of an epitome.—The Independent (New York).

SAMUEL ADAMS. Thoroughly appreciative and sympathetic, yet fair and critical.... This biography is a piece of good work—a clear and simple presentation of a noble man and pure patriot; it is written in a spirit of candor and humanity.—Worcester Spy.

HENRY. Professor Tyler has not only made one of the best and most readable of American biographies; he may fairly be said to have reconstructed the life of Patrick Henry, and to have vindicated the memory of that great man from the unappreciative and injurious estimate which has been placed upon it.—New York Evening Post.

WASHINGTON. Mr. Lodge has written an admirable biography, and one which cannot but confirm the American people in the prevailing estimate concerning the Father of his Country.—New York Tribune.

JOHN ADAMS. A good piece of literary work.... It covers the ground thoroughly, and gives just the sort of simple and succinct account that is wanted.—New York Evening Post.

HAMILTON. Mr. Lodge has done his work with conscientious care, and the biography of Hamilton is a book which cannot have too many readers. It is more than a biography; it is a study in the science of government.—St. Paul Pioneer Press.

MORRIS. Mr. Roosevelt has produced an animated and intensely interesting biographical volume.... Mr. Roosevelt never loses sight of the picturesque background of politics, war-governments, and diplomacy.—Magazine of American History (New York).

JAY. It is an important addition to the admirable series of "American Statesmen," and elevates yet higher the character of a man whom all American patriots most delight to honor.—New York Tribune.

MARSHALL. Well done, with simplicity, clearness, precision, and judgment, and in a spirit of moderation and equity. A valuable addition to the series.—New York Tribune.

JEFFERSON. A singularly just, well-proportioned, and interesting sketch of the personal and political career of the author of the Declaration of Independence.—Boston Journal.

MADISON. The execution of the work deserves the highest praise. It is very readable, in a bright and vigorous style, and is marked by unity and consecutiveness of plan.—The Nation (New York).

GALLATIN. It is one of the most carefully prepared of these very valuable volumes, ... abounding in information not so readily accessible as is that pertaining to men more often treated by the biographer.—Boston Correspondent Hartford Courant.

MONROE. President Gilman has made the most of his hero, without the least hero-worship, and has done full justice to Mr. Monroe's "relations to the public service during half a century." ... The appendix is peculiarly valuable for its synopsis of Monroe's Presidential Messages, and its extensive Bibliography of Monroe and the Monroe Doctrine.—N. Y. Christian Intelligencer.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. That Mr. Morse's conclusions will in the main be those of posterity we have very little doubt, and he has set an admirable example to his coadjutors in respect of interesting narrative, just proportion, and judicial candor.—New York Evening Post.

RANDOLPH. The book has been to me intensely interesting.... It is rich in new facts and side lights, and is worthy of its place in the already brilliant series of monographs on American Statesmen.—Prof. Moses Coit Tyler.

JACKSON. Professor Sumner has ... all in all, made the justest long estimate of Jackson that has had itself put between the covers of a book.—New York Times.

VAN BUREN. This absorbing book.... To give any adequate idea of the personal interest of the book, or its intimate bearing on nearly the whole course of our political history, would be equivalent to quoting the larger part of it.—Brooklyn Eagle.

CLAY. We have in this life of Henry Clay a biography of one of the most distinguished of American statesmen, and a political history of the United States for the first half of the nineteenth century. Indeed, it is not too much to say that, for the period covered, we have no other book which equals or begins to equal this life of Henry Clay as an introduction to the study of American politics.—Political Science Quarterly (New York).

WEBSTER. It will be read by students of history; it will be invaluable as a work of reference; it will be an authority as regards matters of fact and criticism; it hits the key-note of Webster's durable and ever-growing fame; it is adequate, calm, impartial; it is admirable.—Philadelphia Press.

CALHOUN. Nothing can exceed the skill with which the political career of the great South Carolinian is portrayed in these pages.... The whole discussion in relation to Calhoun's position is eminently philosophical and just.—The Dial (Chicago).

BENTON. An interesting addition to our political literature, and will be of great service if it spread an admiration for that austere public morality which was one of the marked characteristics of its chief figure.—The Epoch (New York).

CASS. Professor McLaughlin has given us one of the most satisfactory volumes in this able and important series.... The early life of Cass was devoted to the Northwest, and in the transformation which overtook it the work of Cass was the work of a national statesman.—New York Times.

LINCOLN. As a life of Lincoln it has no competitors; as a political history of the Union side during the Civil War, it is the most comprehensive, and, in proportion to its range, the most compact.—Harvard Graduates' Magazine.

SEWARD. The public will be grateful for his conscientious efforts to write a popular vindication of one of the ablest, most brilliant, fascinating, energetic, ambitious, and patriotic men in American history.—New York Evening Post.

CHASE. His great career as anti-slavery leader, United States Senator, Governor of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Justice of the United States, is described in an adequate and effective manner by Professor Hart.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. His wise statesmanship before the Civil War, and the masterly ability and consummate diplomatic skill displayed by him while Minister to Great Britain, are judiciously set forth by his eminent son.

SUMNER. The majestic devotion of Sumner to the highest political ideals before and during his long term of lofty service to freedom in the United States Senate is fittingly delineated by Mr. Storey.

STEVENS. Thaddeus Stevens was unquestionably one of the most conspicuous figures of his time.... The book shows him the eccentric, fiery, and masterful congressional leader that he was.—City and State (Philadelphia).

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
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