The most formidable revolt of the year was that of Mehemet Ali, the Viceroy of Egypt, against his suzerain, Sultan Mahmoud of Turkey. The disappointing results of Egypt's participation in Turkey's war in Greece left Mehemet Ali dissatisfied. He considered the acquisition of Crete by Egypt but a poor recompense for the loss of his fleet at Navarino.
Mehemet Ali's revolt A quarrel with the Pasha of Acre, Abdallah, gave Mehemet Ali a chance for Egyptian aggrandizement in that direction. Egyptian forces under the command of Mehemet Ali's adopted son Ibrahim marched into Palestine and laid siege to Acre. That stronghold resisted with the same stubbornness that Bonaparte had encountered years before. The protracted struggle there Siege of Acre gave the Sultan time to prepare an expedition wherewith to intervene between his warring vassals. He took the part of the Pasha of Acre. A proclamation was issued declaring Mehemet Ali and his son rebels. A Turkish army under Hussain Pasha entered Syria. The fall of Acre, while the relieving army was still near Antioch, enabled Ibrahim to throw his full force against the Turks. In the valley of the Orontes the two forces met. The Turkish vanguard was routed and the Turkish main column fell back on Aleppo, leaving Antioch and all the surrounding country to the Egyptians. The Pasha of Aleppo, won over by Mehemet Ali, closed the gates of his city against Hussain's disordered forces. The Turks retreated into the mountains between Syria and Cilicia. The Egyptians pursued. At the pass of Beilan a Turkish reverses stand was made by Hussain. The fierce mountain tribes turned against him, and with their help Ibrahim won a signal victory over the Turks, on July 29. The retreat continued through Cilicia far into Asia Minor. After several months a new Turkish army under Reshid Pasha, Ibrahim's colleague in the siege of Missolonghi, advanced from the north. A pitched battle was fought at Konieh on the 21st of December. The Turks were utterly routed. The army was dispersed and Reshid himself was made a prisoner. The road to Constantinople Russian intervention now lay open to Mehemet Ali. Sultan Mahmoud was so alarmed that he turned to his old adversary, Russia, for help. General Muravieff was summoned to Constantinople and was empowered to make terms for Turkey with Mehemet Ali.
In America, likewise, President Jackson had found it necessary to assert the rights of the United States by means of a punitive expedition. This grew out of the affair of Quallah Buteau on the Island of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies. The American ship "Friendship" had put in there during the previous year to load with pepper. The captain, whose men were on shore, permitted the crew of a Malay boat to come on board. There was not a Affair of Quallah Buteau sign of danger, when suddenly the Malays attacked the Americans, killing the first officer and two sailors and plundering the vessel. They then tried to beach the vessel, but two other American ships compelled the Malays to flee. The Rajah of Quallah Buteau appropriated the plunder and refused to return it. Commodore Downs, with the frigate "Potomac," was ordered to Sumatra. He reached there early in February. Finding that nothing could be accomplished by peaceful means he landed two hundred and fifty of his sailors under command of Lieutenant Shubrick. The Malays refused to give or receive quarter. Their palisades were torn down and turned into a bridge, and the fort was stormed. The Stars and Stripes were hoisted. Another fort with its magazines was blown up. The town was occupied. In all one hundred and fifty Malays were killed and wounded, among them the Rajah. The total loss of the Americans was two men. The offending town was razed.
Jackson's domestic policy during this year brought him into conflict with two powerful factors. One was the United States Bank at Philadelphia. Jackson disapproved of the Bank on the ground that it failed to establish a sound and new form of currency. A financial panic had been caused by worthless paper currency issued by so-called "wildcat" banking institutions. A petition for the renewal of the National Bank's charter, which was to expire in 1836, was laid before the Senate. Both Houses passed a bill to that effect. Jackson vetoed it, and a two-thirds vote wherewith Struggle over United States Bank to override his veto could not be obtained for the measure. Jackson then ordered the Bank's deposits removed. He read to the Cabinet a long paper, in which he accused the officers of the Bank of mismanagement and corruption, and stated that he would assume the entire responsibility for the removal of the deposits. The Bank made a stubborn fight and spent over $50,000 in defending itself. In the Senate, Benton was the chief opponent of the Bank, and Webster was its principal defender. In December, the President sent a message to Congress recommending the removal of the public funds from the National Bank to certain State banks. Congress refused to remove the funds.
American tariff legislation The passage of a new tariff law, on July 14, which was considered harmful to Southern interests, brought the Federal Government into armed conflict with the South. On November 19, a State Convention met at Columbus, South Carolina, in response to a call of the Legislature, and on the 24th a nullification ordinance was adopted. The tariff laws were declared South Carolina nullification unconstitutional, and therefore "null and void and no law, nor binding upon the State." On December 10, President Jackson issued a proclamation against nullifiers, threatening them with trial for treason. Governor Hamilton of South Carolina in reply warned citizens not to be diverted from their allegiance to their State by this Federal proclamation. Jackson summoned General Scott to Washington and sent a part of the army to Charleston with Jackson's vigorous measures a ship of war to collect the revenues. On December 28, J.C. Calhoun resigned the office of Vice-President on account of Jackson's proclamation. He was forthwith elected Senator from South Carolina.
It was during this year that renewed troubles with the Seminoles in Florida resulted in one of the most serious Indian wars of the century. By the treaty of Fort Muller, in 1823, the Indians were to be confined to a Treaty of Payne's Landing reservation on the eastern peninsula, but the Territorial Legislature petitioned Congress for their removal. Finally, in 1832, the treaty of Payne's Landing stipulated that seven Seminole chiefs should examine the country assigned to the Creeks west of the Mississippi, and that if they could live amiably with the Creeks, the Seminoles were to be removed within three years, surrendering their lands in Florida, and receiving an annuity of $15,000 and certain supplies. President Jackson sent a commission to the West to Troubles with Indians convince the seven chiefs that the country was eminently desirable, and a supplementary treaty from these seven was obtained without consulting the rest of the Seminoles. Many Seminoles were opposed to moving West through fear of the Creeks. The Sacs and Foxes and Winnebago Indians of Wisconsin by treaty, in 1830, had ceded their lands to the United States, but they still refused to leave their territory. Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, called out troops to compel them to go to the lands set apart for them, west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk returned, but was again Black Hawk War driven off. In 1832 he came back with a thousand warriors and Indian warfare broke out. Generals Scott and Atkinson were sent with troops to Rock Island. It was the first time that a steamboat was used as a military transport. The force was there divided. General Scott could effect nothing, but General Atkinson pushed on, and in August defeated the Indians and took Black Hawk and his two sons prisoners.
In many other ways public attention was engrossed in America. On June 21, Cholera reaches America the Asiatic cholera appeared in New York with appalling results. The epidemic spread to Philadelphia, Albany, Rochester, and westward. A number of new railroads were opened in New York and Pennsylvania. The first horse-drawn street cars began running in New York. On July 2, the Agricultural Society of New York was founded, and the first public trial was held of Obett Hussy's new reaping machine, which Cyrus MacCormick also claimed as his invention. The device was destined to give a tremendous impetus to agriculture in the development of the western prairies. About the same time the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, Death of Charles Carroll Charles Carroll of Maryland, died at the age of ninety-six. In American letters, this year is noted for the appearance of Smith's national anthem, "My Country, 'tis of Thee." Among the books that attracted attention were Whittier's "Moll Pitcher," Sparks's "Gouverneur Morris," and Irving's "Alhambra." James Gordon Bennett began the publication of the "New York Globe."
1833
AT THE very outset of this year in America the slavery question burst into flame. The abolition movement inaugurated by Garrison and Whittier in the North was in full sway. In the slave-holding States large rewards were American abolition movement offered for the apprehension of Garrison, Whittier and others connected with the publication of the Boston "Liberator," Philadelphia "Freeman" and New York "Emancipator." The legislatures of Northern States were called upon to suppress anti-slavery societies by penal enactments. Governor Edward Everett of Massachusetts and Governor Marcy of New York commended such legislation. Prominent Northern citizens travelling in the South were arrested, imprisoned and flogged for flimsy reasons. At New York, Montpelier, Utica, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Alton, meetings were broken up, houses sacked, newspapers destroyed and public halls burned. Berry's "Philanthropist" at Cincinnati and Lovejoy's "Observer" at Alton were destroyed and Pennsylvania Hall at Philadelphia, a costly building intended for anti-slavery discussion, was burned on the day after its dedication, at which a poem by Whittier had been read. The firemen refused to extinguish the flames. In Boston, Garrison was dragged through the streets with a rope around his neck. Whittier and Thompson tried to lecture against slavery in Boston, but their meeting could not be held in the face of the following placard posted in all parts of Boston: