The Greater Republic Part 24

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 Ma.s.sachusetts, 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, Ma.s.sachusetts, 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 princ.i.p.al countries of Europe, and, returning home, entered the junior cla.s.s at Harvard, from which he graduated in 1788. Was.h.i.+ngton 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 Ca.n.a.l 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; G.o.d bless it!" His last words, uttered a few minutes later: "Jefferson still survives."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "JOHNNY BULL," OR NO. 1.

(The first locomotive used.)]

It was a natural error on the part of Adams, but Jefferson had pa.s.sed away several hours before, in his eighty-fourth year. He died quietly, surrounded by friends, with his mind full of the inspiring a.s.sociations connected with the day. His last words were: "I resign my soul to G.o.d, 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, pa.s.sed 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 unconst.i.tutional, 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 a.s.sumed the name of Democrats, which has clung to them ever since, though the National Republicans changed their t.i.tle 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.

CHAPTER XI.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF JACKSON, VAN BUREN, W.H. HARRISON, AND TYLER, 1829-1845.

Andrew Jackson--"To the Victors Belong the Spoils"--The President's Fight with the United States Bank--Presidential Election of 1828--Distribution of the Surplus in the United States Treasury Among the Various States--The Black Hawk War--The Nullification Excitement--The Seminole War--Introduction of the Steam Locomotive--Anthracite Coal, McCormick's Reaper, and Friction Matches--Great Fire in New York--Population of the United States in 1830--Admission of Arkansas and Michigan--Abolitionism--France and Portugal Compelled to Pay their Debts to the United States--The Specie Circular, John Caldwell Calhoun, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster--Presidential Election of 1836--Martin Van Buren--The Panic of 1837--Rebellion in Canada--Population of the United States in 1840--Presidential Election of 1840--William Henry Harrison--His Death--John Tyler--His Unpopular Course--The Webster-Ashburton Treaty--Civil War in Rhode Island--The Anti-rent War in New York--A Shocking Accident--Admission of Florida--Revolt of Texas Against Mexican Rule--The Alamo--San Jacinto--The Question of the Annexation of Texas--The State Admitted--The Copper Mines of Michigan--Presidential Election of 1844--The Electro-magnetic Telegraph--Professor Morse--His Labors in Bringing the Invention to Perfection.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Andrew Jackson, seventh President, ranks among the greatest of those who have been honored with the highest gift their countrymen can confer upon them. He was born of Scotch-Irish parents, at Waxhaw Settlement, on the line between North and South Carolina, March 15, 1767. His parents were wretchedly poor and he received only a meagre education. His father died just before the birth of his son, who enlisted in the patriot army when but thirteen years old, and was captured at the battle of Hanging Rock.

When a British officer ordered the boy to clean his boots, he refused.

He was brutally beaten for his stubbornness; he told the officer that he might kill him, but he could never make a servant of him.

Shortly afterward he was seized with smallpox and was abandoned to die, but his mother secured his release and nursed him back to health. She died soon afterward, and, while still a boy, Andrew was left without a single near relative. At the close of the Revolution, he took up the study of law, pursuing it in a desultory way, until his removal to Nashville, at the age of twenty-one years. He threw his law books aside when the Indians began their outrages, and we have told of his striking services as a soldier and military leader, culminating with his great victory at New Orleans, the anniversary of which is still widely celebrated. Jackson became the idol of his countrymen, and he possessed many admirable qualities. Never, under any circ.u.mstances, did he betray personal fear. He was ready to attack one man, ten men, a hundred, or a thousand, if he deemed it his duty to do so. He was honest to the core, intensely patriotic, and he either loved or hated a man. He would stand by a friend to the death, unless he became convinced of his unworthiness, when he instantly became his unrelenting enemy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANDREW JACKSON.

(1767-1845.) Two terms, 1829-1837.]

He fought numerous duels, and stood up without a tremor in front of one of the most famous of duelists. When his opponent's bullet tore a dreadful wound in his breast, he resolutely repressed all evidence of pain until he had killed his antagonist, in order that the latter should not have the pleasure of knowing he had hurt Jackson.

While carrying one arm in a sling from this wound, he led a strong force into the Creek country. When the men were close upon starvation, they mutinied. Jackson rode in front of them, pistol in hand, and declared he would shoot the first one who refused to obey his orders. Not a man rebelled. At the same time he divided all the food he had among them, which consisted solely of acorns. Nevertheless, he pressed on and utterly destroyed the Indian confederation.

Added to these fine qualities was his chivalrous devotion to his wife, the unvarying respect he showed to the other s.e.x, and the purity of his own character. Such a man cannot fail to exercise a powerful influence upon those with whom he comes in contact. In Jackson's estimation, the only living person whose views were right upon every question was himself. He was intolerant of opposition, and merciless in his enmity of a personal opponent. He made mistakes, as was inevitable, and some of them wrought great injury; but even his opponents respected while they feared him, and the qualities which we have indicated gave him a warm place not only in the affection of his own generation but in the generations that came after him.

When his tempestuous career came to a close, Jackson retired to his home, known as the Hermitage, in Tennessee, where he pa.s.sed his declining years in quiet and peace. He became a devout Christian, and died of consumption, June 8, 1845.

"TO THE VICTORS BELONG THE SPOILS."

It need hardly be said that when Jackson became President he shared his authority with no one. He made up his cabinet of his personal friends, and, on the principle of "To the victors belong the spoils," that an administration to be successful must be composed of those of the same political faith with its head, he began a system of removals from office. The total number of such removals made by his predecessors was seventy-four, some of which were for cause. A year after his inauguration, Jackson had turned 2,000 office-holders out, and, since their successors were obliged in many instances to remove subordinates, in pursuance of the same policy, it will be seen that the President adopted no halfway measures.

He regarded the members of his cabinet as simply clerks, and, when he wished to consult with trusted friends, called together a certain number of boon a.s.sociates, who became known as his "Kitchen Cabinet."