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+Project Gutenberg's The Middle Period 1817-1858, by John William Burgess
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Middle Period 1817-1858
+
+Author: John William Burgess
+
+Release Date: March 12, 2011 [EBook #35558]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIDDLE PERIOD 1817-1858 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ron Swanson
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MIDDLE PERIOD
+
+
+
+
+_THE AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES_
+
+
+
+
+THE MIDDLE PERIOD
+
+1817-1858
+
+BY
+
+JOHN W. BURGESS, PH.D., LL.D.
+
+PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, AND DEAN OF THE
+FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF
+NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+_WITH MAPS_
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+1910
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+
+
+
+To the memory of my former teacher, colleague, and friend,
+
+JULIUS HAWLEY SEELYE,
+
+philosopher, theologian, statesman, and educator, this volume is
+reverently and affectionately inscribed.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+There is no more serious and delicate task in literature and morals
+than that of writing the history of the United States from 1816 to
+1860. The periods which precede this may be treated without fear of
+arousing passion, prejudice, and resentment, and with little danger of
+being misunderstood. Even the immaculateness of Washington may be
+attacked without exciting anything worse than a sort of uncomfortable
+admiration for the reckless courage of the assailant. But when we pass
+the year 1820, and especially when we approach the year 1860, we find
+ourselves in a different world. We find ourselves in the midst of the
+ideas, the motives, and the occurrences which, and of the men who,
+have, in large degree, produced the animosities, the friendships, and
+the relations between parties and sections which prevail to-day.
+
+Serious and delicate as the task is, however, the time has arrived
+when it should be undertaken in a thoroughly impartial spirit. The
+continued misunderstanding between the North and the South is an ever
+present menace to the welfare of both sections and of the entire
+nation. It makes it almost impossible to decide any question of our
+politics upon its merits. It offers an almost insuperable obstacle to
+the development of a national opinion upon the fundamental principles
+of our polity. If we would clear up this confusion in the common
+consciousness, we must do something to dispel this misunderstanding;
+and I know of no means of accomplishing this, save the rewriting of
+our history from 1816 to 1860, with an open mind and a willing spirit
+to see and to represent truth and error, and right and wrong, without
+regard to the men or the sections in whom or where they may appear.
+
+I am by no means certain that I am able to do this. I am old enough to
+have been a witness of the great struggle of 1861-65, and to have
+participated, in a small way, in it. My early years were embittered by
+the political hatreds which then prevailed. I learned before my
+majority to regard secession as an abomination, and its chief cause,
+slavery, as a great evil; and I cannot say that these feelings have
+been much modified, if any at all, by longer experiences and maturer
+thought. I have, therefore, undertaken this work with many misgivings.
+
+Keenly conscious of my own prejudices, I have exerted my imagination
+to the utmost to create a picture in my own mind of the environment of
+those who held the opposite opinion upon these fundamental subjects,
+and to appreciate the processes of their reasoning under the
+influences of their own particular situation. And I have with sedulous
+care avoided all the histories written immediately after the close of
+the great contest of arms, and all rehashes of them of later date. In
+fact I have made it an invariable rule to use no secondary material;
+that is, no material in which original matter is mingled with
+somebody's interpretation of its meaning. If, therefore, the facts in
+my narration are twisted by prejudices and preconceptions, I think I
+can assure my readers that they have suffered only one twist. I have
+also endeavored to approach my subject in a reverent spirit, and to
+deal with the characters who made our history, in this almost tragic
+period, as serious and sincere men having a most perplexing and
+momentous problem to solve, a problem not of their own making, but a
+fatal inheritance from their predecessors.
+
+I have been especially repelled by the flippant superficiality of the
+foreign critics of this period of our history, and their evident
+delight in representing the professions and teachings of the "Free
+Republic" as canting hypocrisy. It has seemed to me a great misfortune
+that the present generation and future generations should be taught to
+regard so lightly the earnest efforts of wise, true, and honorable men
+to rescue the country from the great catastrophe which, for so long,
+impended over it. The passionate onesidedness of our own writers is
+hardly more harmful, and is certainly less repulsive.
+
+I recently heard a distinguished professor of history and politics say
+that he thought the history of the United States, in this period,
+could be truthfully written only by a Scotch-Irishman. I suppose he
+meant that the Scotch element in this ideal historian would take the
+Northern point of view, and the Irish element the Southern; but I
+could not see how this would produce anything more than another pair
+of narratives from the old contradictory points of view; and he did
+not explain how it would.
+
+My opinion is, on the contrary, that this history must be written by
+an American and a Northerner, and from the Northern point of
+view--because an American best understands Americans, after all;
+because the victorious party can be and will be more liberal,
+generous, and sympathetic than the vanquished; and because the
+Northern view is, in the main, the correct view. It will not improve
+matters to concede that the South had right and the North might, or,
+even, that both were equally right and equally wrong. Such a doctrine
+can only work injury to both, and more injury to the South than to the
+North. Chewing the bitter cud of fancied wrong produces both spiritual
+misery and material adversity, and tempts to foolish and reckless
+action for righting the imagined injustice. Moreover, any such
+doctrine is false, and acquiescence in it, however kindly meant, is
+weak, and can have no other effect than the perpetuation of error and
+misunderstanding. The time has come when the men of the South should
+acknowledge that they were in error in their attempt to destroy the
+Union, and it is unmanly in them not to do so. When they appealed the
+great question from the decision at the ballot-box to the "trial by
+battle," their leaders declared, over and over again, in calling their
+followers to arms, that the "God of battles" would surely give the
+victory to the right. In the great movements of the world's history
+this is certainly a sound philosophy, and they should have held to it
+after their defeat. Their recourse to the crude notion that they had
+succumbed only to might was thus not only a bitter, false, and
+dangerous consolation, but it was a stultification of themselves when
+at their best as men and heroes.
+
+While, therefore, great care has been taken, in the following pages,
+to attribute to the Southern leaders and the Southern people sincerity
+of purpose in their views and their acts, while their ideas and their
+reasoning have been, I think, duly appreciated, and patiently
+explained, while the right has been willingly acknowledged to them and
+honor accorded them whenever and wherever they have had the right and
+have merited honor, and while unbounded sympathy for personal
+suffering and misfortune has been expressed, still not one scintilla
+of justification for secession and rebellion must be expected. The
+South must acknowledge its error as well as its defeat in regard to
+these things, and that, too, not with lip service, but from the brain
+and the heart and the manly will, before any real concord in thought
+and feeling, any real national brotherhood, can be established. This
+is not too much to demand, simply because it is right, and nothing can
+be settled, as Mr. Lincoln said, until it is settled right. Any
+interpretation of this period of American history which does not
+demonstrate to the South its error will be worthless, simply because
+it will not be true; and unless we are men enough to hear and accept
+and stand upon the truth, it is useless to endeavor to find a bond of
+real union between us. In a word, the conviction of the South of its
+error in secession and rebellion is absolutely indispensable to the
+establishment of national cordiality; and the history of this period
+which fails to do this will fail in accomplishing one of the highest
+works of history, the reconciliation of men to the plans of Providence
+for their perfection.
+
+I have not, in the following pages, undertaken to treat _all_ of the
+events of our experience from 1816 to 1860. The space allowed me would
+not admit of that. And even if it had, I still would have selected
+only those events which, in my opinion, are significant of our
+progress in civilization, and, as I am writing a political history,
+only those which are significant of our progress in political
+civilization. The truthful record, connection, and interpretation of
+such events is what I call history in the highest sense, as
+distinguished from chronology, narrative, and romance. Both necessity
+and philosophy have confined me to these.
+
+I cannot close these prefatory sentences without a word of grateful
+acknowledgment to my friend and colleague, Dr. Harry A. Cushing, for
+the important services which he has rendered me in the preparation of
+this work.
+
+JOHN W. BURGESS.
+
+323 WEST FIFTY-SEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
+
+JANUARY 22, 1897.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+CHAPTER I.
+  THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE OLD REPUBLICAN PARTY, . . . . . . .    1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+  THE ACQUISITION OF FLORIDA,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   19
+
+CHAPTER III.
+  SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES BEFORE 1820,  . . . . . . . . . .   39
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+  THE CREATION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MISSOURI,  . . . . . . . .   61
+
+CHAPTER V.
+  THE BEGINNING OF THE PARTICULARISTIC REACTION, . . . . . . . .  108
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+  THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824, . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  131
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+  THE DIVISION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY,  . . . . . . . . . . . .  145
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+  DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION TO INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AND PROTECTION,  166
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+  THE UNITED STATES BANK AND THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST OF 1832, .  190
+
+CHAPTER X.
+  NULLIFICATION, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  210
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+  ABOLITION, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  242
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+  THE BANK, THE SUB-TREASURY, AND PARTY DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN 1832
+  AND 1842,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  278
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+  TEXAS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  289
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+  OREGON,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  311
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+  THE "RE-ANNEXATION OF TEXAS AND THE RE-OCCUPATION OF OREGON,"   318
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+  THE WAR WITH MEXICO, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  327
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+  THE ORGANIZATION OF OREGON TERRITORY AND THE COMPROMISE OF
+  1850,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  340
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+  THE EXECUTION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, AND THE ELECTION OF
+  1852,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  365
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+  THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE, . . . . . . . . . . . .  380
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+  THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  407
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+  THE DRED SCOTT CASE, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  449
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+  THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS CONCLUDED, . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  460
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+  THE ELECTORAL VOTE IN DETAIL, 1820-1856, . . . . . . . . . . .  475
+
+APPENDIX II.
+  THE CABINETS OF MONROE, ADAMS, JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON,
+  TYLER, POLK, TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND
+  BUCHANAN--1816-1858, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  485
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  491
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  497
+
+INDEX, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  503
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF MAPS.
+                                                               FACING
+                                                                PAGE
+FLORIDA AT THE TIME OF ACQUISITION,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   32
+
+TEXAS AT THE TIME OF ANNEXATION, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  296
+
+OREGON AS DETERMINED BY THE TREATY OF 1846,  . . . . . . . . . .  312
+
+CALIFORNIA AND NEW MEXICO IN 1850, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  336
+
+NEBRASKA AND KANSAS, 1854-1861,  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  468
+
+
+
+
+THE MIDDLE PERIOD
+
+
+
+
+{1}
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE OLD REPUBLICAN PARTY
+
+General Character of the Acts of the Fourteenth Congress--Madison's
+Message of December 5th, 1815--Change in the Principles of the
+Republican Party--The United States Bank Act of 1816--Report of the
+Bank Bill by Mr. Calhoun--Mr. Calhoun's Argument in Favor of the
+Bill--Webster's Objections to the Bank Bill--Mr. Clay's Support of the
+Bank Bill--Passage of the Bank Bill by the House of
+Representatives--The Passage of the Bank Bill by the Senate--The
+United States Bank of 1816 a Southern Measure--The Tariff Bill Framed
+by the Committee on Ways and Means--The Tariff Bill Reported--The
+Character of the Tariff Bill--Mr. Calhoun's Speech upon the Tariff
+Bill--The Passage of the Tariff Bill--The Army and Navy Bills--The
+Bill for National Improvements--Mr. Calhoun's Advocacy of this
+Bill--The Opposition to the Internal Improvements Bill--Passage of the
+Bill by Congress--Veto of the Bill by the President--The Failure of
+Congress to Override the Veto.
+
+
+It is no part of my task to relate the events of the War of 1812-15.
+That has already been sufficiently done in the preceding volume of
+this series. I take up the threads of the narrative at the beginning
+of the year 1816, and my problem in this chapter will be to expound
+the acts and policies of the Fourteenth Congress in the light of the
+experiences of that War.
+
+{2} [Sidenote: General character of the acts of the Fourteenth
+Congress.]
+
+Those acts and policies were shaped and adopted under the influence of
+those experiences, and this influence was so predominant, at the
+moment, in the minds of the leading men in the Government and
+throughout the country as to exclude, or at least to overbalance, all
+other influences. This is especially manifest in the attitude of the
+statesmen of the slave-holding Commonwealths, and most especially in
+the attitude of their great leader, Mr. Calhoun, who was the chief
+champion of some of the most national measures voted by that Congress.
+A clear appreciation of his views and his acts at that period of his
+career will enable us far better than anything else to understand the
+terrible seriousness of the slavery question, which subsequently drove
+him into lines of thought and action so widely divergent from those
+upon which he set out in early life.
+
+[Sidenote: Madison's message of December 5th, 1815.]
+
+It was the President himself, however, one of the chief founders of
+the "States' rights" party, Mr. Madison, who set the direction toward
+centralization in the Congressional legislation of 1815-17. In his
+annual message of December 5th, 1815, he recommended the increase and
+better organization of the army and the navy, the enlargement of the
+existing Military Academy and the founding of such academies in the
+different sections of the country, the creation of a national
+currency, the protection of manufactures, the construction of roads
+and canals, and the establishment of a national university.
+
+This is a very different political creed from that promulgated by
+President Jefferson when the Republican party first gained possession
+of the Government at Washington. Then, decrease in all the elements of
+power in the hands of the central Government, and careful maintenance
+of all the rights and powers of the {3} "States," were recommended and
+urged upon the attention of the national lawgivers.
+
+[Sidenote: Change in the principles of the Republican party.]
+
+From a "States'-sovereignty" party in 1801, the Republican party had
+manifestly become a strong national party in 1816; that is, if we are
+to take the two Presidential messages, to which we have referred, as
+containing the political principles of that party at these two periods
+of its existence.
+
+As the Congress of 1801 showed itself, in its legislation, to be in
+substantial accord with President Jefferson's views and sentiments, so
+did the Congress of 1815 manifest, in its legislation, the same
+general harmony with the views and sentiments of President Madison. In
+order that the latter part of this statement may be set down as an
+established fact of history, we will review with some particularity
+the two cardinal acts of this Congress--the United States Bank Act and
+the Tariff Act.
+
+[Sidenote: The United States Bank Act of 1816.]
+
+So soon as the reading of President Madison's message before the House
+of Representatives was completed, that body resolved to refer that
+part of the message which related to the establishment of an uniform
+national currency to a select committee. The committee chosen was
+composed of Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Macon, Mr. Pleasants, Mr. Tucker, Mr.
+Robertson, Mr. Hopkinson, and Mr. Pickering. The first five of these
+gentlemen were from Commonwealths south of the Pennsylvania line, and
+only two, therefore, from what began now to be called the
+"non-slave-holding States." In other words, it was a Southern
+committee, and the great South Carolinian was its chairman. It is,
+therefore, just to regard the bill which this committee brought in,
+and the arguments with which they supported it, as containing the
+views and the sentiments of the leading Southern Republicans in the
+House.
+
+{4} [Sidenote: Report of the Bank Bill by Mr. Calhoun.]
+
+This committee came speedily to the conclusion that the
+nationalization of the monetary system was the most pressing need of
+the country, and within a month from the date of the appointment of
+its members the chairman of the committee reported a bill for the
+creation of an United States Bank, a mammoth national banking
+corporation, which should have a capital of thirty-five millions of
+dollars; in which the central Government should own one-fifth of the
+stock and be represented by one-fifth of the directors; the president
+of which should always be selected from among the Government's
+directors; the demand notes and bills of which should be received in
+all payments to the United States; and the chartered privileges of
+which should be made a monopoly for twenty years.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun's argument in favor of the Bill.]
+
+In his great argument in support of the bill, delivered on February
+26th, Mr. Calhoun dismissed at the outset any consideration of the
+constitutionality of the bill. That is, he simply assumed that
+Congress had the power to pass the bill, and declared that the public
+mind was entirely made up and settled upon that point.
+
+Only five years before this, even the national-minded Clay had
+pronounced the dictum that Congress had no power to grant a national
+bank charter, and the fact that Congress then declined to grant such a
+charter is good evidence that the majority of the people of the
+country held the same view. There can be little question that the
+Republican party, down to 1812, regarded the establishment of an
+United States bank by Congress as an usurpation of power not granted
+by the Constitution.
+
+Five years constitute a short period of time for the accomplishment of
+so important a change in the public {5} opinion. Five years of
+ordinary experience would not have produced it. It was, without doubt,
+the strain brought upon the finances of the country by the necessities
+of the War that had developed a powerful national opinion upon the
+subject of the financial system of the country.
+
+Mr. Calhoun also declined to discuss the question whether banks were
+favorable or unfavorable to "public liberty and prosperity." He
+assumed, here again, that public experience had settled that question,
+and said that such an inquiry was now purely metaphysical. This
+statement is certainly prime evidence that the practical experiences,
+made in conducting the Government under the pressure of war, had about
+knocked the metaphysics of the year 1800 out of the Republican party,
+and had led the party on to a much more positive stage of political
+opinion.
+
+Mr. Calhoun furthermore dismissed the question whether a "national
+bank would be favorable to the administration of the finances of the
+Government," since there was not enough doubt, he said, in the public
+mind upon that point to warrant a discussion of it.
+
+He declared, finally, that the only questions which demanded
+consideration were those relative to the existing disorders of the
+currency, and the efficiency of a national bank in working their cure.
+Upon these two points he was distinct, decided, and thoroughly
+national. He said that the Constitution had without doubt placed the
+monetary system of the country entirely within the control of
+Congress; that the "States" had usurped the power of making money by
+chartering banks of issue in the face of the constitutional provision
+forbidding the "States" to emit bills of credit; that the two hundred
+millions of dollars of irredeemable bank-notes, paper, and credits,
+issued by these banks, were the cause of the {6} financial disorders
+of the country; and that the remedy for this condition of things was,
+in his opinion, to be found in a great specie-paying national bank,
+sustained by the power of the general Government in the work of
+bringing such a pressure upon these "State" banks as would force them
+either to pay specie or go into liquidation. This was clear, generous,
+and patriotic. No one made a fairer statement of the case, and no one
+advocated a more national remedy in its treatment.
+
+[Sidenote: Webster's objections to the Bank Bill.]
+
+On the other hand, it was Webster who, at this time, appeared narrow
+and particularistic. He objected to the large amount of the capital,
+and to the stock feature of the proposed bank, and expressed alarm at
+the proposition to place it under such strong governmental control. He
+thought that the bills and paper of the "State" banks would be good
+enough, if the general Government would only force them to redeem
+their currency in specie by refusing to accept for Government dues the
+bills of banks which did not pay specie on demand.
+
+Whatever may be thought of Webster's attitude from the point of view
+of political economy, it was certainly, from the point of view of
+political science, the attitude of a "States'-rights" man rather than
+that of a nationalist. Webster did not, however, call the
+constitutionality of the bill in question. That was conceded upon all
+sides.
+
+The friends of the measure felt more anxiety in regard to Mr. Clay. He
+had, only five years before, as we have seen, pronounced a similar
+bill unconstitutional in his opinion, and he was now the Speaker of
+the House, with all the power over the procedure in the House which
+that position involved. It was generally felt that the fate of the
+measure would be largely determined by his attitude toward it.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Clay's support of the Bank Bill.]
+
+Mr. Clay did not leave the House long in doubt {7} concerning his
+views. He quickly revealed and avowed that noted change of opinion
+upon this subject, which has been commonly accounted one of his
+greatest inconsistencies, but which may be very properly considered as
+simply manifesting that growth in patriotism and national spirit
+experienced by almost all the leading men of the country, outside of
+New England, in consequence of the vicissitudes of the period of war
+under which the nation suffered between the dates of Mr. Clay's two
+utterances. He frankly confessed that he had changed his opinion, and
+explained the change by saying that the power of Congress in respect
+to the matter was contained in the clause of the Constitution which
+conferred upon Congress the authority to make all laws necessary and
+proper for carrying the powers of the Government into operation; that,
+in the interpretation of the words "necessary and proper," reference
+must always be had to existing circumstances; that, when conditions
+change, the interpretation must be so modified as to meet and satisfy
+such change; and that the conditions obtaining in the country in 1816
+were so changed from those obtaining in 1811 as to require the
+enlarged interpretation of the powers of Congress under this clause
+upon the subject of the monetary system of the country.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the Bank Bill by the House of Representatives.]
+
+The eloquence and the influence of Mr. Clay counted heavily in favor
+of the measure, and it was passed by a substantial majority of votes.
+In fact, the privileges of the proposed Bank had been increased by
+amendment during the progress of the bill through the House. The Bank
+and its branches were made the depositories of the funds of the
+Government. This great advantage was, at least, a substantial offset
+to the other modifications of the original bill, whereby the clauses
+requiring that the president of {8} the Bank should always be chosen
+from among the Government directors, and reserving to Congress the
+power to permit a temporary suspension of specie payment by the Bank,
+were stricken out.
+
+[Sidenote: The passage of the Bank Bill through the Senate.]
+
+During the passage of the bill through the Senate only a single
+Senator expressed any doubts of its constitutionality, Mr. Wells, of
+Delaware. Mr. Wells did not deny the power of Congress to charter a
+national bank, but simply contended that the particular Bank proposed
+in the bill exceeded what was "necessary and proper" for carrying into
+effect the powers of Congress, and was therefore unconstitutional. On
+the other hand, Senators Barbour, of Virginia, Taylor, of South
+Carolina, and Bibb, of Georgia, supported the measure, both in
+principle and in details, and carried it with a larger relative
+majority through the Senate than it had received in the House.
+
+[Sidenote: The United States Bank of 1816 a Southern measure.]
+
+The United States Bank of 1816 was thus a Southern measure, and
+Calhoun was its chief author. It was in principle a great national
+measure, and its creation by Congress is strong evidence of the great
+growth in national opinion and sentiment throughout the country, away
+from the national indifference of the Jeffersonian metapolitics of
+1800.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff of 1816.]
+
+A review of the Tariff Act of 1816 will bring us to the same
+conclusions concerning the great nationalizing influence of the War.
+
+The rate of duty upon the principal articles of imported goods was,
+before the War, twelve and one-half per centum ad valorem. From a rate
+of five per centum upon these articles, imposed by the first Customs
+Act, that of July, 1789, the duty had been increased by about a dozen
+acts, passed by both Federal and Republican Congresses, until, in
+1812, it had reached the {9} above-mentioned per centum. Twelve and
+one-half per centum was, as a fact, nothing more than a revenue duty,
+and was intended for nothing more by the party in power at that date.
+
+At the outbreak of the War double duties were imposed by the Act of
+July 1st, 1812, as a war measure, that is, as a measure for obtaining
+additional revenue for the prosecution of the War. It was not intended
+as a measure for the protection of manufacturers. This Act was to
+expire in one year, at the farthest, after the conclusion of peace
+with England.
+
+The ratifications of the Treaty of Ghent were exchanged on February
+17th, 1815. At the meeting of Congress, in December, 1815, the war
+duties were, therefore, still in force, but the Act establishing them
+would expire by its own limitation in less than three months. This
+Congress was obliged, therefore, to deal with the tariff anew.
+
+[Sidenote: The Bill framed by the Committee on Ways and Means.]
+
+The recommendations of the President in regard to the matter were
+referred to the committee of the House on Ways and Means, the regular
+revenue committee. At that moment this committee was composed of seven
+members, four from Commonwealths south of Maryland, and three from
+those north of Maryland. Mr. Lowndes, of South Carolina, was its
+chairman. It is fair, therefore, to call it a Southern committee, and
+to regard the bill which it produced as a Southern measure.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff Bill reported.]
+
+The committee first asked for a continuation of the existing duties
+until the thirtieth day of the following June, in order to give proper
+time to mature the bill, which request was voted by both houses of
+Congress; and on March 20th, Mr. Lowndes announced that he was
+prepared to report the draft of the new Act. The measure contained
+virtually the continuation of the war {10} tariff as the permanent
+rule and policy in time of peace. It was now manifestly a protective
+tariff, and it was intended to be such. Mr. Ingham of the committee
+said, at the beginning of the debate upon it, that "its great primary
+object was to make such a modification of duties upon the various
+articles of importation as would give the necessary and proper
+protection and support to the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce
+of the country." He went so far as to say that revenue considerations
+ought not to have any influence in the decision of the House upon the
+committee's propositions.
+
+[Sidenote: The character of the Tariff Bill.]
+
+It is entirely evident, however, that the committee did not regard the
+bill as proposing advantages for the manufacturers only, or as having
+for its principal aim the increase of the wages of the employees in
+the manufacturing establishments, but considered it a great national
+measure, a measure necessary to the industrial independence of the
+country. It is also evident that the bill was not thought by anybody
+to rest upon a perfect and permanent principle. Mr. Clay himself said
+of it, "that the object of protecting manufacturers was, that we might
+eventually get articles of necessity made as cheap at home as they
+could be imported, and thereby to produce an independence of foreign
+countries;" that "in three years we could judge of the ability of our
+establishments to furnish those articles as cheap as they were
+obtained from abroad, and could then legislate with the lights of
+experience;" and that "he believed that three years would be
+sufficient to place our manufacturers on this desirable footing."
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun's speech upon the Tariff Bill.]
+
+It was Calhoun again, however, who surpassed them all in broadness of
+view and in patriotic devotion to the interests of the nation. The
+immediate occasion of {11} his speech was a motion made by John
+Randolph, which seemed to Mr. Calhoun to attack the principle of the
+bill. He said, that so long as the debate had been confined to
+questions of detail he had refrained from joining in it; but now that
+the general policy of the measure had been attacked he felt obliged to
+come forward in support of that policy, which he could do with all the
+more grace and sincerity since his own private interests were
+primarily subserved by the advancement of agriculture, as were those
+of his section. He began his argument with the assertions that
+commerce and agriculture were the chief sources of the wealth of the
+country at the moment, almost the only sources, and that manufactures
+must be added to these in order to accomplish industrial independence.
+In proof of this latter proposition he referred to the well known
+effect of war between a maritime power and the United States upon the
+prosperity of the latter. He simply pointed to the historic facts that
+such a war destroyed the commerce of the country with foreign powers,
+and that the destruction of commerce caused the products of
+agriculture, usually exported to pay for manufactured goods imported
+from foreign countries, to perish in the hands of the producers.
+Domestic manufactures, he contended, would not only relieve us from
+dependence upon foreign countries for manufactured goods, but would
+create home markets for agricultural products. Encouragement to
+manufactures was, therefore, a sound national, a truly American,
+policy. As Mr. Calhoun proceeded in his speech, his strong patriotism
+became more manifest. He affirmed that the policy of protection to
+manufactures was calculated to bind more closely together the
+different parts of our widely extended country, since it would
+increase the mutual dependence of these different sections on each
+{12} other in proportion as it decreased their dependence on foreign
+markets. And he declared that he considered the production of this
+result to be the most fundamental of all our policies, for the reason
+that the absence of such mutual dependence would tend toward disunion,
+and disunion comprehended almost the sum and substance of our
+political dangers, against which, therefore, we ought to be
+perpetually guarded.
+
+[Sidenote: The passage of the Tariff Bill.]
+
+Calhoun was in his thirty-fifth year when he advanced these views. The
+sentiments which they revealed cannot, therefore, be ascribed to the
+enthusiasm of youth and inexperience. They rested upon the settled
+convictions of a mature man. They stand in need of no comment. They
+speak for themselves. We shall search the reports of the debate in
+vain for anything wiser, nobler, or more patriotic. In comparison with
+them the views pronounced by the New Englanders upon the subject
+appear narrow and selfish. They were willing to sacrifice the
+industrial independence of the nation to their own interests in the
+carrying trade upon the sea. Even the name of Webster is not to be
+found among those who voted for the final passage of the bill. The
+majority in its favor was, however, nearly two to one. In the Senate,
+the vote was nearly four to one for it. Though Southern in its
+immediate origin, it certainly had the support of the nation, and was
+regarded as a great measure of national independence. The opposition
+made to it by Randolph and Telfair, and by the remnant of the New
+England Federalists, was regarded as unnational and unpatriotic. It
+contributed to the complete disappearance of the Federal party from
+the arena of national politics.
+
+[Sidenote: The Army and Navy Bills.]
+
+This Congress gave, however, an even surer test of the growth of the
+national spirit among the people than either the Bank Act or the
+Tariff Act. It was the {13} series of acts for the increase of the
+Army and the Navy, and for their thorough reorganization. The
+Republican doctrine of 1800 was, that there was no need of a national
+army; that the militias of the Commonwealths were a sufficient
+military force; and that a standing army was dangerous to liberty. By
+the Act of March 16th, 1802, Congress fixed the peace establishment at
+two regiments of infantry, and one regiment of artillerists, not more
+than thirty-five hundred men. No increase of this force had been
+permitted between 1802 and 1812.
+
+During the War of 1812-15, the Commonwealths of Massachusetts, Rhode
+Island, and Connecticut taught the nation how much, or rather how
+little, reliance was to be placed upon the militias of the
+Commonwealths in the defence of the country against foreign attack. In
+spite of the plain provision of the Constitution, and the Act of
+Congress in accordance therewith, empowering the President to call the
+militias of the Commonwealths into the service of the United States,
+the Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut disputed the
+President's authority in this respect and refused compliance with his
+orders. Well might the President complain that, even upon this most
+essential point, the military organization, the United States was not
+a nation. With such an experience as this, Congress and the people
+were thoroughly converted from the particularistic doctrinism of 1800,
+and now manifested their strong national spirit in the willingness to
+place a large standing military force in the hands of the central
+Government in times of peace.
+
+By the Act of March 3rd, 1816, Congress fixed the peace footing of the
+Army at ten thousand men, excluding the corps of engineers; and by the
+Act of April 24th, of the same year, it reorganized, or rather {14}
+re-created, the general staff, upon the principle that the staff
+should be as complete in time of peace as in time of war.
+
+The Navy received similar attention and favor. By the Act of April
+29th, 1816, Congress appropriated eight millions of dollars for the
+construction of nine seventy-four-gun ships, twelve forty-four-gun
+ships, and three steam batteries.
+
+Evidently the fear that the President would, by virtue of his power as
+commander-in-chief of a large standing army and navy, declare himself
+emperor, and make the military and naval officers his dukes and
+counts, had vanished in the smoke of the burned Capitol, and, in place
+of this silly terror of crowns and diadems, a thoroughgoing confidence
+in the national Government had established itself in the brain and
+heart of the people and of their leaders.
+
+These great national measures occupied the attention of Congress to
+such a degree, during the session of 1815-16, as to delay the
+consideration of the question of a system of national internal
+improvements to the second session, that of 1816-17.
+
+[Sidenote: The Bill for National Improvements.]
+
+At the opening of this session, Mr. Calhoun, again, came forward with
+a motion for the appointment of a committee, which should consider the
+question of setting aside the bonus to be paid by the United States
+Bank to the Government for its charter, and the net annual proceeds
+received by the Government upon its shares in the Bank, as a permanent
+fund for internal improvements. The motion was quickly carried, and
+the committee, consisting of two members from the North and two from
+the South, with Mr. Calhoun for chairman, was appointed. This was
+December 16th, 1816. In a week from this date the committee presented
+a bill providing for the setting {15} apart of the funds above
+indicated for the construction of roads and canals.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun's advocacy of this Bill.]
+
+Mr. Calhoun opened the debate upon the bill, and his speech abounded
+with the same national ideas and patriotic sentiments which
+characterized his arguments in support of the Bank and Tariff
+measures. After asserting that the moment was most opportune for the
+consideration of the question, on account of the fact that all party
+and sectional feelings had given way to "a liberal and an enlightened
+regard for the general concerns of the nation," Mr. Calhoun again
+pronounced his warning concerning the greatest danger to which the
+country was exposed, namely, disunion, and declared it to be the
+highest duty of American statesmen so to form the policies of the
+Government as to counteract all tendencies toward sectionalism and
+disunion. He contended that from this point of view nothing could be
+more necessary or more advantageous than a large national system of
+internal improvements, establishing the great lines of commerce and
+intercourse for binding together all the parts of the country in
+interests, ideas, and sentiments.
+
+No part of his argument, however, is so instructive to the student of
+American constitutional history as the observations upon the question
+of the constitutionality of the bill. He said that he was no advocate
+of refined reasoning upon the Constitution; that "the instrument was
+not intended as a thesis for the logician to exercise his ingenuity
+on; that it ought to be construed with plain good sense; and that when
+so construed nothing could be more express than the Constitution upon
+this very point." The clause to which he referred was that which
+confers upon Congress the power "to levy and collect taxes, duties,
+imposts, and excises; to pay the {16} debts and provide for the common
+defence and general welfare of the United States." Mr. Calhoun claimed
+that these words were to be interpreted as vesting in Congress the
+power to appropriate money for the common defence and general welfare
+of the country at its own discretion, both as to object and amount. He
+insisted that a generous interpretation of the power to raise and
+appropriate money was absolutely required, in order to avoid the
+necessity of placing a forced construction upon other powers. It was
+all in his best strain, and showed Mr. Calhoun still as the chief
+advocate of national union and national development. No other person
+seemed to equal him in breadth of view and purity of patriotism.
+
+[Sidenote: The opposition to the Internal Improvements Bill.]
+
+The measure met, however, with more opposition than the Bank Bill or
+the Tariff Bill had experienced. Two years of peace had cooled the
+ardor of the national spirit somewhat, and the people were dropping
+back into the narrow spheres of ordinary life and business routine.
+
+Moreover, the great hue and cry raised by the demagogues and the press
+over the bill, passed at the previous session, changing the pay of the
+members of Congress from a per diem of six dollars during attendance
+to an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars, had made the members
+timid about the appropriation of money, and disinclined to obligate
+the Treasury to anything beyond absolutely necessary expenses.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the Bill by Congress.]
+
+Nevertheless, the great power and earnestness with which Mr. Calhoun
+addressed himself to the task of carrying the bill through its
+different stages were crowned with success. It finally passed both
+Houses, in a slightly modified form, during the last week of the
+Fourteenth Congress and of President Madison's second term.
+
+{17} [Sidenote: Veto of the Bill by the President.]
+
+To the great surprise of the friends of the measure, the President
+returned the bill to Congress on March 3rd, with his objections. These
+were, summed up in a single sentence, that there was no warrant in the
+Constitution for the exercise of the power by Congress to pass such a
+bill. The President held that Congress could appropriate money only to
+such objects as were placed by the Constitution under the jurisdiction
+of the general Government. He, therefore, repudiated Calhoun's
+latitudinarian view that Congress was referred to its own discretion
+merely in the appropriation of money for the advancement of the
+general welfare. He acknowledged the desirability of attaining the
+object contemplated by the bill, and indicated that an amendment to
+the Constitution, expressly conferring upon Congress the power in
+question, was the proper way to deal with the subject. He had, as we
+have seen, recommended the consideration of the question of internal
+improvements in both of his annual messages to the Fourteenth
+Congress, and it was chiefly for this reason that the veto was so
+unexpected. It is true that, in both of these messages, he had
+expressed some doubt in regard to the power of Congress over the
+subject, but it was supposed that this was only his cautious way of
+approaching a new thing, and that he would certainly defer to the
+views of the Congressional majority.
+
+It must be remembered, however, that Mr. Madison belonged to the first
+generation of the Republicans, and that the principle of the party, in
+the period of its origin, was strict construction of the Constitution
+in regard to the powers of the general Government. He had been driven
+by the younger men into the War, and into the national policies which
+it occasioned and produced, and it is at least intelligible that he
+returned to his earlier {18} creed as the country settled down again
+into the humdrum of ordinary life.
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of Congress to override the veto.]
+
+The national Republicans looked upon his act, however, as an apostasy,
+and the House of Representatives repassed the bill by an increased
+majority and with considerable feeling. The majority was still,
+however, not sufficient to overcome the veto, and thus the first
+earnest attempt to commit the nation to a general system of internal
+improvements failed, failed through the resurrection of a spirit in
+the retiring President, which was destined soon to take possession of
+many who denounced it then as mean and narrow, and to lead the whole
+country back into those cramping tenets of particularism from which
+war and bloodshed alone could deliver it.
+
+
+
+
+{19}
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ACQUISITION OF FLORIDA
+
+The Influence of Physical Geography upon Political Development--Defect
+in the Southern Boundary of the United States before 1819--The Treaty
+of Paris of 1763--The Boundary between Louisiana and
+Florida--Occupation of Florida by the United States Forces during the
+War of 1812--The Hold of the Spaniards on Florida Weakened by the War
+of 1812--The British Troops in Florida during and after the War of
+1812--Nicholls and his Buccaneer State in Florida--The British
+Government's Repulse of Nicholls' Advances--Destruction of the
+Nicholls Fort by the United States Forces--The Seminole War--The Fight
+at Fowltown--The Seminole War Defensive--McGregor on Amelia
+Island--General Gaines sent to Amelia Island--General Jackson placed
+in Command in Florida--His Orders--Jackson's Letter to President
+Monroe--Jackson's Operations in Florida--The First Treaty for the
+Cession of Florida to the United States--Jackson's Popularity in
+consequence of the Seminole War--The Attempt in Congress to Censure
+Jackson--The same Attempt in the Cabinet--The Failure of the Attempt
+to Censure Jackson in Congress--Assumption of the Responsibility for
+Jackson's Acts by the Administration--Jackson Triumphant--The Treaty
+of Cession Attacked in Congress, but Ratified by the Senate--Rejection
+of the Treaty by the Spanish Government--Resumption of
+Negotiations--The New Treaty Ratified by the Senate and by the Spanish
+Government--Political Results of the Seminole War.
+
+
+It was entirely natural that the quickening of the national spirit and
+the growth of the national consciousness throughout the United States,
+in the decade between 1810 and 1820, had, for one of their results,
+the {20} extension of the territory of the United States, at some
+point or other, to its natural limits.
+
+[Sidenote: The influence of physical geography upon political
+development.]
+
+The element of physical geography always plays a large part in
+national political development. The natural territorial basis of a
+national state is a geographical unity. That is, it is a territory
+separated by broad bodies of water, or high mountain ranges, or broad
+belts of uninhabitable country, or climatic extremes, from other
+territory, and possessing a fair degree of coherence within. If a
+national state develops itself on any part of such a territory, it
+will inevitably tend to spread to the natural limits of the same. It
+will not become a completely national state until it shall have
+attained such boundaries, for a completely national state is the
+sovereign organization of a people having an ethnic unity upon a
+territory which is a geographic unity.
+
+[Sidenote: Defect in the southern boundary of the United States before
+1819.]
+
+In the second decade of this century, and down to the latter part of
+it, the United States had not acquired the territory of the country as
+far as to the natural southern boundary east of Louisiana. This
+boundary was, of course, the Gulf of Mexico; but Spain held in quasi
+possession a broad strip, and then a long peninsula, of land along and
+within this boundary. In other words, the territory called Florida, or
+the Floridas, was, politically, a colony of Spain, but geographically
+a part of the United States. It was inhabited chiefly by Indian
+tribes. Spanish rule in this territory was, therefore, foreign rule,
+both from the geographical point of view and the ethnical. Indian rule
+was not to be thought of in the nineteenth century. There was but one
+natural solution of the question. It was that the United States should
+annex this territory and extend the jurisdiction of the general
+Government over it.
+
+[Sidenote: The Treaty of Paris of 1763.]
+
+The Treaty of Paris of 1763 was the first great {21} international
+agreement which gave a fair degree of definiteness to the claims of
+England, France, and Spain, upon the North American continent. In this
+Treaty, France surrendered Canada, Cape Breton, and all claims to
+territory east of the Mississippi River, from the source of the river
+to the point of confluence of the Iberville with it, to Great Britain.
+From this latter point, the boundary between the two powers was
+declared to be the middle line of the Iberville, and of the Lakes
+Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the Gulf of Mexico. It is also
+expressly stated in this Treaty that France cedes the river and port
+of Mobile to Great Britain.
+
+In this same instrument, Spain surrendered to Great Britain Florida
+and every claim to territory east and southeast of the Mississippi.
+
+[Sidenote: The boundary between Louisiana and Florida.]
+
+The boundary between Louisiana and Florida had, to that time, been the
+River Perdido. After the cessions above mentioned to Great Britain,
+the British Government united the part of Louisiana received from
+France with Florida, and then divided Florida into two districts by
+the line of the River Appalachicola. That part lying to the west of
+this river was named West Florida, and the part east of it was called
+East Florida.
+
+By a secret Treaty of the year 1762, which became known to the world
+some eighteen months later, but whose terms were not executed until
+1769, France ceded Louisiana to Spain. After this, therefore, the
+North American continent was divided between Great Britain and Spain,
+and the line of division was, so far as it was fixed, the Mississippi
+River to the confluence of the Iberville with it, then the Iberville
+and the middle line of the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the
+Gulf of Mexico.
+
+{22} The Treaty of 1762 between France and Spain, having been
+concluded before the Treaty of 1763 between France and Great Britain,
+gave Spain a certain show of title to the territory between the
+Mississippi and the Perdido; but the Treaty of 1763, in which France
+ceded this same territory to Great Britain, was, as we have just seen,
+known first, and was the Treaty which France executed in respect to
+this territory. The conflict of claims between Great Britain and
+Spain, which was thus engendered, continued to be waged for twenty
+years, and was settled in the year 1783, in so far as these two powers
+were concerned, by the recession of Florida to Spain.
+
+In this same year, Great Britain recognized the independence of the
+United States, with a southern boundary extending from the point where
+the Mississippi River is intersected by the thirty-first parallel of
+latitude, along this parallel to the River Appalachicola, thence down
+the Appalachicola to its confluence with Flint River, thence on the
+line of shortest distance to the source of the River St. Mary, and
+thence by the course of this stream to the Atlantic. Spain thus held,
+as the result of these several treaties, all of the territory south of
+this line, unless England reserved in her recession of Florida that
+portion of Louisiana lying between the Iberville and the Perdido,
+ceded by France to Great Britain in the Treaty of 1763, and united by
+Great Britain with Florida. There is no evidence in the text of the
+Treaty of 1783 that Great Britain made any such reservation, or in the
+subsequent actions of the British Government.
+
+By the Treaty of St. Ildefonso, of October 1st, 1800, also a secret
+treaty, Spain receded Louisiana to France. The description of the
+territory thus receded was very vague. It reads in the official
+translation of the treaty, {23} "His Catholic Majesty promises and
+engages, on his part, to cede to the French Republic, six months after
+the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations
+herein relative to his Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the Colony or
+Province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the
+hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it; and such as
+it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between
+Spain and other states."
+
+There was here certainly opportunity for a dispute between Spain and
+France as to the correct boundary between Louisiana and Florida.
+France could claim with some reason the Perdido as the eastern
+boundary of Louisiana, and Spain could meet this with a counterclaim
+that, after the cession in 1763 of all Louisiana east of the Iberville
+and the Lakes to Great Britain, and its union by Great Britain with
+Florida, the line of the Iberville and the Lakes Maurepas and
+Pontchartrain was the eastern boundary of Louisiana.
+
+Before, however, any actual contest arose over the question, France
+sold Louisiana to the United States, with the same vague description
+of boundary contained in the cession of the territory from Spain to
+France by the Treaty of St. Ildefonso. The question of boundary became
+now one which must be settled between Spain and the United States.
+
+The United States claimed at once that Louisiana reached to the
+Perdido. Spain disputed the claim, and held that Florida extended to
+the Iberville and the Lakes. Spain could make out the better abstract
+of title. Spain certainly did not intend to recede to France in 1800
+anything more as Louisiana than France had ceded to her in 1762. But
+the United States had a show of legal title. It could be held that the
+ancient boundary of Louisiana was the one intended both in the Treaty
+{24} of St. Ildefonso and in that of 1803, in which France passed the
+possession of Louisiana to the United States. The reasons of physical
+geography and of national development certainly favored the annexation
+of the whole of Florida to the United States; and with such forces to
+back the apparent legal claim to a large part of it, the result of the
+dispute could not well have been otherwise than it was.
+
+The United States enforced its claim by military occupation of the
+disputed district before the close of the War of 1812.
+
+[Sidenote: Occupation of Florida by the United States forces during
+the War of 1812.]
+
+During the course of the war, the British forces had occupied
+Pensacola. The Spanish governor either could not, or would not,
+prevent them from doing so. Florida became thus, in spite of its
+nominal neutral status, a base of operations for the enemy of the
+United States. No more convincing evidence of the necessity for its
+annexation to the United States could have been offered. It was thus
+seen that not only the geography and the national growth of the Union
+demanded it, but that the safety of the Union, in case of war with any
+power, required it. The sea is the natural boundary of the United
+States on the south, and it was the "manifest destiny" of the Union to
+reach it.
+
+The occupation of Florida would have been a sound and justifiable
+policy for the United States, had the Government commanded a
+sufficient military force for the purpose, when the British troops
+took possession of Pensacola. General Jackson did expel the British
+from Pensacola, but restored the place to the Spanish authorities, in
+order to avoid a conflict with Spain while engaged in war with Great
+Britain. We know now that the Congress of the United States had, by
+secret acts passed before the beginning of the War, authorized the
+{25} President to occupy Florida _east_ of the Perdido temporarily.
+The President did not deem it wise, under the circumstances which
+prevailed, to make use of this power; but the readiness of the
+Congress to intrust the President with the authority to take
+possession of the territory of a friendly power certainly shows that a
+strong feeling existed among the representatives of the people that
+Florida must be acquired by the United States upon the first fair
+opportunity.
+
+[Sidenote: The hold of the Spaniards on Florida weakened by the War of
+1812.]
+
+The occasion was destined soon to appear. The power of Spain upon the
+American continents was everywhere in rapid decline. At the close of
+the War of 1812, the Spanish occupation in Florida was confined
+substantially to three points--Pensacola, St. Mark's, and St.
+Augustine. The remainder of the province, by far the greater part of
+it, was a free zone, in which desperate adventurers of every race and
+land might congregate, from which they might make their raids for
+murder and pillage into the United States, and into which they might
+escape again with their prisoners and plunder.
+
+[Sidenote: The British troops in Florida during and after the War of
+1812.]
+
+We have noticed the occupation of Pensacola by the British troops
+during the War of 1812, and their expulsion by General Jackson from
+this position in November of 1814. After this, they concentrated upon
+the Appalachicola and established a fort some fifteen miles above the
+mouth of this stream for their head-quarters and base of operations.
+The British commander, one Colonel Nicholls, pursued from this point
+the policy which he had already inaugurated at Pensacola. This policy
+was the collection and organization of fugitive negroes, Indians, and
+adventurers of every character, and their employment in raids into the
+territory, and attacks upon the inhabitants, of the United States.
+
+{26} It appears that Colonel Nicholls did not regard the Treaty
+between the United States and Great Britain concluding the War as
+putting an end necessarily to his hostile movements. He remained in
+command at his fort on the Appalachicola for several months after the
+ratification of the Treaty, and then went to London, taking with him
+the Indian priest Francis, for the purpose of securing a treaty of
+alliance between the British Government and his band of outlaws in
+Florida.
+
+[Sidenote: Nicholls and his buccaneer state in Florida.]
+
+Before leaving the Appalachicola, he had incited the Indians and their
+negro auxiliaries to continue hostilities against the United States,
+by representing to them that the ninth article of the Treaty of Ghent
+contained a pledge on the part of the United States to reinstate the
+Indians in all lands held by them in the year 1811. He represented to
+them that this provision restored to the Creeks the lands in southern
+Georgia surrendered by them to the United States in the Treaty between
+the Creeks and the United States made at Fort Jackson in August of
+1814, although it was well understood by both of the high contracting
+parties to the Treaty of Ghent that only those lands were intended
+under this provision whose seizure by the United States had not been
+confirmed by an agreement with the Indians; and the pledge as to these
+only was conditioned upon the immediate cessation of hostilities on
+the part of the Indians when the Treaty of Ghent should be announced
+to them. This announcement had been made, and the actual continuation
+of hostilities, therefore, after the announcement, made this whole
+article nugatory.
+
+Nicholls left the fort, with all its munitions, in the hands of the
+negroes and Indians. The garrison {27} consisted of some three hundred
+negroes and about twenty Indians.
+
+[Sidenote: The British Government's repulse of Nicholls' advances.]
+
+The British Government would not listen to Nicholls' proposition for
+an alliance between Great Britain and the buccaneering state which he
+was endeavoring to establish upon territory belonging politically to
+Spain.
+
+[Sidenote: Destruction of the Nicholls Fort by the United States
+forces.]
+
+The United States Government waited a year and a half for the
+disbanding of this hostile force, or for its dispersion by the Spanish
+authorities, and then, when forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, did
+the work itself. The fort was destroyed by the explosion of its
+magazine, which was pierced by a red-hot shot from the batteries of
+the assailants, and almost the whole garrison perished. It was claimed
+that the attack was made by the United States forces with the consent
+of the Spanish authorities, whatever the significance of that may have
+been.
+
+Professor von Holst, in his great work, has designated the expedition
+against the Nicholls Fort as a hunt by the United States army for
+fugitive slaves. He does not seem to have recognized the danger to the
+peace and civilization of the United States of the growth of a
+community of pirates and buccaneers upon its borders. It does not
+appear to have occurred to him that the most humane attitude toward
+the slaves of Georgia may have been to prevent them from being drawn
+into any such connection. He does not seem to have comprehended that
+any public interest was subserved by disposing of the negroes captured
+in this expedition in such a way as to prevent any future attempts on
+their part at co-operation with the Indians in their barbarous warfare
+upon the frontiers of the United States. In a sentence, he seems to
+have regarded the entire incident as a prostitution of the military
+power of the United States to the private greed of {28} slave-hunters,
+and to have discovered in it a most convincing proof of the canting
+hypocrisy of the free Republic. In view of all the facts of the case,
+this certainly appears to be a very crude appreciation of the subject.
+
+[Sidenote: The Seminole War.]
+
+This same historian calls the attack upon the Nicholls Fort the
+beginning of the Seminole War. It appears, however, more like the
+termination of the War of 1812, so far as the negro outlaws of Florida
+were participant in that War, than like the beginning of a new war.
+Generals Gaines and Jackson and the War Department of the Government
+seem to have so comprehended the event.
+
+After the destruction of the Nicholls Fort, or the Negro Fort, as it
+was then called, there was comparative peace, for a few months, on the
+frontier. With the beginning of the year 1817, however, hostilities
+were renewed. It is not known which party gave the first offence.
+Ex-Governor Mitchell of Georgia, then holding the office of Indian
+agent for these parts, thought both parties equally at fault. The
+point is a matter of little moment. The conflict between civilization
+and barbarism is irrepressible, and arises as often from the
+encroachments of civilization as from the onslaughts of barbarism.
+
+[Sidenote: The fight at Fowltown.]
+
+In November of 1817, General Gaines endeavored to secure an interview
+with the chief of the hostile Indians, but the chief refused to visit
+the General, whereupon the General sent a detachment of soldiers to
+the chief's village, called Fowltown, to repeat his invitation, and to
+conduct the chief and his warriors to a parley-ground. The soldiers
+were fired upon by the Indians as they approached the village. They
+naturally returned the fire, and then seized and destroyed the
+village. A few Indians were killed in the conflict.
+
+{29} The Indian agent, Mitchell, called this event the beginning of
+the Seminole War. It was certainly something more like it than was the
+capture of the Negro Fort. Still it will be more correct to consider
+it as being only the continuation of the War of 1812, in so far as the
+participation in that War of Great Britain's Indian allies on the
+southern border of the United States was concerned. They had never
+really resumed the status of peace after acting during that War, at
+the instigation of the British officers in Florida, against the United
+States.
+
+[Sidenote: The Seminole War defensive.]
+
+Following the fight at Fowltown hostilities became much more active.
+Fowltown was situated north of the Florida line, upon territory ceded
+by the Creeks to the United States in the Treaty of Fort Jackson. If,
+therefore, the incident of November 20th was the beginning of the
+Seminole War, it stamps that War as defensive in its character. The
+troops of the United States were attacked upon the territory of the
+United States. If the further prosecution of the War should, in the
+judgment of the President, or of the officer whom he might vest with
+discretionary power in the execution of his will, require the crossing
+of the Florida line and the pursuit of the enemy upon Florida
+territory, the character of the War could not be changed thereby. This
+could not be regarded as making war on Spain. Spain could meet and
+satisfy the right of the United States to do this only by dispersing
+the Indians herself, and preventing Florida from becoming a base of
+hostile operations against the United States. Spain could claim the
+rights of neutrality for Florida only when she discharged these duties
+of neutrality. The general principles of international custom required
+that of her. When, now, we add to this the consideration that Spain
+had pledged {30} herself in a specific agreement with the United
+States to do these very things, and that Florida, nevertheless, was
+actually a free zone, over which no civilized state had any efficient
+control, then it certainly appears that the right of the United States
+to pursue its enemy into Florida was clearly in keeping with the
+recognized law of nations. The President, therefore, ordered the
+pursuit of the enemy into Florida, under the qualification that if
+they took refuge in a Spanish fortification the fortress should not be
+attacked, but the situation should be reported to the War Department
+and further orders awaited. This order was issued on December 16th,
+1817, to General Gaines, who was then in command of the forces on the
+Florida frontier.
+
+[Sidenote: McGregor on Amelia Island.]
+
+Meanwhile an adventurer by the name of McGregor had, with a band of
+freebooters, taken possession of Amelia Island, which lies off the
+coast of Florida, just below the mouth of the St. Mary's River, and
+had, in the name of the Governments of Buenos Ayres and Venezuela,
+proclaimed the independence of Florida against Spain. They made the
+island an entrepot for the smuggling of slaves into the United States,
+a storehouse for the results of their robberies, and head-quarters
+generally for piratical expeditions.
+
+[Sidenote: General Gaines sent to Amelia Island.]
+
+By a secret act of the year 1811, the Congress of the United States
+had declared its unwillingness to have Florida, or any part of it,
+pass from the hands of Spain into those of any other power, and had
+authorized the President to prevent it. Acting upon this authority,
+the President instructed General Gaines to go to Amelia Island and
+take possession of it.
+
+[Sidenote: General Jackson placed in command in Florida. His orders.]
+
+About ten days later, December 26th, 1817, the President assigned
+General Jackson to the command of the {31} troops acting against the
+Indians. The day before the issue of the order to General Jackson, the
+War Department had received the news of the Indian attack upon
+Lieutenant Scott's boat while ascending the Appalachicola with
+supplies for the United States troops at Fort Scott. The cold-blooded
+massacre of almost the entire crew of the boat apparently moved the
+War Department to more energetic measures. The order to General
+Jackson, besides investing him with the command, empowered him to call
+on the Governors of the adjacent Commonwealths for such military
+forces as he might deem necessary, with those already in the field, to
+overcome the Indians, and informed him that General Gaines had been
+instructed "to penetrate from Amelia Island, through Florida, to the
+Seminole towns, if his force would justify his engaging in offensive
+operations." "With this view," the order to Jackson continues, "you
+may be prepared to concentrate your forces, and to adopt the necessary
+measures to terminate a conflict which it has ever been the desire of
+the President to avoid, but which is now made necessary by their
+settled hostilities."
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's letter to President Monroe.]
+
+When Jackson received these orders he was in Tennessee. He wrote
+immediately to the President: "Let it be signified to me through any
+channel (say Mr. J. Rhea) that the possession of the Floridas would be
+desirable to the United States and in sixty days it will be
+accomplished." General Jackson naturally supposed that this letter was
+duly received and read by President Monroe, and that a subsequent
+order, giving him discretionary powers in the prosecution of the
+campaign, contained the answer to it. As we shall see, however, the
+President claimed later that he did not read Jackson's letter until a
+year after it was written and sent to him. It was certainly {32} the
+President's fault if he did not. General Jackson certainly could not
+be held accountable for the President's strange negligence in
+examining official correspondence, and he had good reason to think,
+from the tone of the order issued to him after his letter had had due
+time to be received and read, that the Administration desired him to
+occupy Florida.
+
+Upon taking command Jackson called his Tennessee veterans to him, and
+reached with them the Florida frontier in March of 1818.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's operations in Florida.]
+
+When he advanced into Florida he found that the Spanish officials in
+Florida were in collusion with the Indians, and that the instigators
+of the hostilities were an Englishman, named Ambrister, and a
+Scotchman, named Arbuthnot, together with two Indian chiefs named
+Hillis Hajo and Himallemico.
+
+An order from the War Department, of January 16th, 1818, instructed
+the commander of the United States forces in Florida that the honor of
+the nation required a speedy termination of the War with the
+Seminoles, "with exemplary punishment for hostilities so unprovoked."
+Jackson naturally considered himself empowered to do speedy and
+thorough work. He felt it necessary to seize St. Mark's and Pensacola,
+in order to destroy the base of operations and the places of refuge of
+the enemy, and he caused the four ringleaders of the enemy to be
+executed. By the end of May (1818) the campaign was ended, and Florida
+was in the military possession of the United States. The President
+assumed the responsibility for Jackson's deeds, but offered to restore
+St. Mark's and Pensacola, and therewith the nominal possession of
+Florida, to Spain, so soon as Spain would garrison these points with
+forces able to maintain peace with the United States and {33} disposed
+to do so. Spain accepted the offer, fulfilled in a way the conditions,
+and the places were restored to her jurisdiction.
+
+[Illustration: FLORIDA, at the Time of Acquisition.]
+
+[Sidenote: The first Treaty for the cession of Florida to the United
+States.]
+
+It was now manifest to Spain, however, that she could not control
+Florida, and that her possession of the province was, and could be,
+only nominal. She now, therefore, agreed to cede it to the United
+States. The treaty bears date of February 22nd, 1819. Its important
+provisions are contained in the second and third articles. By these
+articles Spain ceded the Floridas, with the adjacent islands dependent
+thereon, to the United States; and agreed with the United States that
+the boundary between the two powers in North America should be the
+west bank of the Sabine River from its mouth to the thirty-second
+parallel of north latitude, thence the line of longitude to the Red
+River, thence up the course of the Red River to the one-hundredth
+parallel of longitude from London, or the twenty-third from
+Washington, thence the line of longitude to the Arkansas River, thence
+the south bank of the Arkansas to its source, thence the line of
+longitude to the forty-second parallel of north latitude, and thence
+this line of latitude to the South Sea.
+
+This settlement of boundary included that of all other claims, of
+whatever character, of the Government, citizens, or subjects of either
+power against the Government, citizens, or subjects of the other. All
+such were mutually renounced.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's popularity in consequence of the Seminole War.]
+
+The results of the Seminole War raised General Jackson to a still
+higher plane of popularity than he possessed as the hero of the War of
+1812. It was evident that here was a character who would have to be
+reckoned with in future presidential contests. It is possible that
+Jackson's chief mentor, William B. Lewis, had {34} conceived, at this
+date, the idea of Jackson's candidacy for the highest place in the
+gift of the nation. And it is highly probable that the fears of all
+the existing aspirants for the presidency were excited by the
+appearance of this new and popular rival for public favor. It is
+difficult to explain upon any other theory the attempt made in
+Congress, during the session of 1818-19, to suppress Jackson by a vote
+of censure.
+
+[Sidenote: The attempt in Congress to censure Jackson.]
+
+This procedure certainly had no connection whatsoever with the
+question of slavery extension through the acquisition of Florida. When
+we find Tallmadge, of New York, the self-same person who introduced,
+at the same session, the proposition for restricting slavery in
+Missouri, defending Jackson's course in every particular, while Cobb,
+of Georgia, attacked it, and when we consider that John Quincy Adams,
+the life-long opponent of slavery, sustained Jackson in the cabinet,
+while Calhoun moved to bring him to account for disobedience to
+orders, we are bound to conclude that we have here nothing whatsoever
+to do with the question of slavery.
+
+[Sidenote: The same attempt in the Cabinet.]
+
+Crawford, of Georgia, the Secretary of the Treasury, was the prime
+aspirant for presidential honors, after Monroe should have completed
+his two terms, and Cobb was Crawford's right-hand man. Clay was also
+working up his plans. These two men felt it necessary to discredit
+Jackson in every possible way. Clay made a great bugbear out of
+Jackson's military heroship, and so threatening did he make it appear
+to the principle of civil government and republican institutions that
+he really seemed frightened at it himself. Crawford set up the same
+strain, through Cobb, in a feebler key. Calhoun seems to have been
+animated rather by wrath at what he {35} conceived to be the violation
+of his orders, or, at least, the exceeding of his orders, than by
+jealousy of a presidential rival. His presidential fever had not, at
+that moment, reached a high degree. But what shall we say of Adams,
+who undoubtedly then considered himself a candidate for the
+successorship to Monroe, and who stood against the whole Cabinet in
+Jackson's defence, and carried the day against both Crawford and
+Calhoun combined. Of course it may be said that Adams thought his own
+turn would come before that of Jackson, and that he would gain
+Jackson's support by his attitude. But against such a supposition must
+stand the fact that the Cabinet pledged itself to secrecy in regard to
+all that was proposed on the subject, and that for ten years Jackson
+supposed that Calhoun was the friend in the Cabinet who had
+successfully defended him against the other members under the lead of
+Crawford. The attitude of Adams in the question was noble and
+disinterested, as well as patriotic, and had Jackson known of it in
+1824, it is altogether probable that he would never have charged an
+unfair bargain with Clay upon Adams for his own defeat.
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of the attempt to censure Jackson in Congress.]
+
+Clay and Cobb represented that every movement made by Jackson, from
+the moment of his appointment to the command of the expedition to the
+end of hostilities, was illegal and in defiance of the orders of the
+War Department. They said he had no right to call upon his old
+soldiers instead of asking the Governor of Tennessee for the militia.
+They claimed that he waged an offensive war upon his own
+responsibility against Spain, when the War Department had expressly
+forbidden him to attack the Spanish forts, and they accused him of
+murdering two prisoners of war. The House of Representatives showed
+what it thought of these accusations by voting {36} down the
+resolutions which contained the censure by a majority of nearly two to
+one, while the resolutions of like effect introduced into the Senate
+were laid on the table and never taken up for consideration.
+
+[Sidenote: Assumption of the responsibility for Jackson's acts by the
+Administration.]
+
+The Administration had, under the influence of the Secretary of State,
+Mr. Adams, already assumed the responsibility for Jackson's acts, had
+upheld their legality, and was even then bringing its negotiations
+with Spain, in regard to the cession of Florida, to a successful
+close; while the British Government had refrained from any
+interference on account of the treatment of Ambrister and Arbuthnot.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson triumphant.]
+
+The attempt to suppress Jackson broke down thus upon all sides, and he
+emerged from the assaults of his rivals with a greater popularity than
+he had ever before enjoyed, and with improved prospects as a
+presidential candidate. With the worship accorded to a hero he now
+enjoyed the sympathy extended to a martyr.
+
+[Sidenote: The Treaty of Cession attacked in Congress, but ratified by
+the Senate.]
+
+The Treaty itself, ceding the Floridas, did not escape attack. Adams
+regarded it as a great diplomatic triumph for the United States, but
+Clay expressed great disappointment with it, because it sacrificed, as
+he viewed it, the claims of the United States to the territory between
+the Sabine and the Rio del Norte. And Crawford, who was seizing every
+opportunity to discredit the Administration, by encouraging it to
+false measures from his place in the Cabinet, and then professing
+publicly his disapprobation of them, also saw in the point emphasized
+by Clay a prime occasion for making political capital.
+
+The Senate showed what its members thought of such manoeuvres by a
+speedy and unanimous vote in ratification of the Treaty.
+
+{37} [Sidenote: Rejection of the Treaty by the Spanish Government.]
+
+The Spanish Government, on the other hand, rejected the Treaty. Mr.
+Adams felt, at the moment, that this was a blow to his reputation as a
+diplomatist, and perhaps to his chances for the presidency. But it did
+not prove to be such. Had the Treaty been then ratified three large
+land grants made by the Spanish King to certain Spanish nobles, at a
+date earlier than Mr. Adams had supposed, would not have been
+extinguished by it. The rejection of the Treaty by the Spanish
+Government, which at the same time sent another Ambassador, General
+Vives, to take the place of Don Onis, and to renew negotiations on the
+subject, gave Mr. Adams the opportunity to insist upon the cession of
+Florida with the extinguishment of the above mentioned grants.
+
+[Sidenote: Resumption of negotiations.]
+
+When the new Ambassador arrived, the country was in the midst of the
+excitement over the question of slavery extension in the Louisiana
+territory, the history of which will be related in a succeeding
+chapter. The effect of this agitation was to arouse some doubt in the
+minds of those opposed to the extension of slavery in regard to the
+expediency of any addition to the territory of the United States
+southward. Mr. Adams himself felt the influence of this doubt, and was
+prompted, in part at least, by it to assume an attitude of
+indifference toward the new propositions of the Spanish Ambassador. He
+gave the Ambassador to understand that Spain could make such a treaty
+with the United States in regard to the subject as would be
+satisfactory to the latter, or take the consequences of leaving things
+as they were. The unshakable determination of Mr. Adams won the day,
+and the old Treaty, with a new provision extinguishing the above
+mentioned land grants, was finally ratified by both Governments, two
+years after the date of {38} the original agreement between Mr. Adams
+and Don Onis.
+
+[Sidenote: The new Treaty ratified by the Senate and by the Spanish
+Government.]
+
+The vote of ratification by the Senate of the United States was again
+practically unanimous. Only four votes were recorded against it; and
+of these four one was cast by a brother-in-law of Mr. Clay, one by a
+subservient friend of the same gentleman, and one by a bitter personal
+enemy of General Jackson. The province was soon transferred to the
+United States and Jackson became its first territorial governor. With
+this the United States attained its natural boundary on the south,
+eastward from the mouth of the Mississippi, and a source of chronic
+irritation was removed.
+
+[Sidenote: Political results of the Seminole War.]
+
+It was to be expected that this territory would be erected into a
+Commonwealth in which the institution of slavery would be legalized;
+but this did not deter the statesmen of the North from securing the
+great advantages just indicated. Radical abolitionism had not yet
+blinded them to the general and paramount interests of the Union. In
+fact, the results of the Seminole War and of the diplomacy of the
+Administration in connection with it had the immediate effect of
+diminishing the ultra-Southern influence in the Government. They
+brought Adams and Jackson to the front, and set Crawford and Calhoun
+back in the course of their careers. They had, indeed, much to do, as
+we shall see later, with the development of the era of personal
+politics, which prevailed from 1824 to 1832, and which terminated
+finally in the separation of the all-comprehending Republican party
+into the Whig party and the Democratic party.
+
+
+
+
+{39}
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES BEFORE 1820
+
+First Appearance of Slavery in the British North American
+Colonies--Early Theory of the Benefits of Slavery--The Earliest Legal
+Recognition of Slavery in the Colonies--Northern Colonies not well
+Adapted to Negro Labor--The Southern Colonies well Adapted to Negro
+Labor--Negro Slavery a Temporary Necessity in the South--Was Negro
+Slavery an Error and an Evil from the first?--Slavery Legislation in
+the Southern Colonies--Partus Sequitur Ventrem--Definitions of the
+Slave Class--The Test of the Slave Status as Fixed by the Virginia
+Statute--The Legal Position of the Slave--Tendency Toward Serfage in
+the Code of 1705--Public Relations of the Slave System--The General
+Object of the Laws in respect to Slaves--Slavery and the Revolutionary
+Ideas of the Rights of Man--First Prohibition upon Slave
+Importation--Abolition of Slavery in the Northern Commonwealths after
+the Beginning of the Revolution--Slavery and the Constitution of
+1787--Reaction against the Humanitarian Principles of the
+Revolution--Abolition of the Foreign Slave-trade by Congress--Cotton
+Culture and the Cotton-gin--The Effect of the Return to the Arts of
+Peace upon the Ideas Concerning Slavery--Slavery During the War of
+1812 and the Years just before and just after this War--Slavery in the
+Louisiana Territory--Slavery in the territory West of North Carolina
+and Georgia--Slavery in Louisiana a Different Question from Slavery in
+the North Carolina and Georgia Cessions--Interest in Slavery in
+Maryland and Virginia Increased by the Acquisition of Louisiana--The
+Domestic Slave-trade--The Relation of Slavery to the Diplomacy of the
+United States.
+
+
+It is not easy to define the term slavery in the abstract without
+unfitting it for application to the great majority {40} of the systems
+of servitude which have ever existed. Especially will it be difficult
+to gain a correct conception of the relation between the white man and
+the negro in North America previous to 1860 by means of such a
+definition.
+
+The institution of negro slavery in the United States was an
+historical growth, which was in some respects unique. We shall,
+therefore, do better to follow the main stages of that development
+than to attempt at the outset any definition whatsoever. We may, in
+this manner, build up a true description of it, and escape the error
+frequently contained in the brevity of a definition and in the nature
+of an abstract proposition.
+
+[Sidenote: First appearance of slavery in the British North American
+colonies.]
+
+[Sidenote: Early theory of the benefits of slavery.]
+
+It began its existence, like most institutions and relations, as a
+social custom. Most of the historians record the appearance of a Dutch
+merchant ship at Jamestown, in the year 1619, having negroes on board,
+and inform us that twenty of them were sold to the colonists. What
+title the Dutch traders had to such property, exactly what they sold
+to the colonists, and what rights the colonists acquired in or over
+such property, were defined, guaranteed, and secured by no existing
+statutes. If any of the parties to the transaction reflected upon
+these subjects at all, they must have supposed that the right of
+possession and the freedom of contract covered the whole case. There
+is certainly no evidence that any of these parties, or anybody else,
+had the faintest conception that the law of any state, or any
+principle of natural justice, or of reason, was violated or impaired
+by the procedure or the results of the procedure. It was a firmly and
+universally established opinion of the time that the attachment of
+infidels to Christians in a relation of servant to master was vastly
+beneficial to the infidel, certainly so when {41} the infidel was also
+a barbarian, and was taken out of slavery to a barbarian master, as
+was the case in respect to almost all of the negroes brought to the
+English colonies in North America.
+
+We cannot dismiss this opinion as one of the errors of the dark ages.
+It lives to-day as a principle of modern political science and
+practical politics, under the form of statement that civilized people
+have the right and duty to impose civilization upon uncivilized
+populations by whatever means they may deem to be just and proper.
+
+There can be no reasonable doubt that the negroes transferred from
+slavery in Africa to slavery in the English-American colonies
+themselves felt the amelioration of their condition, and were, in
+general, entirely contented with their new lot.
+
+[Sidenote: The earliest legal recognition of slavery in the colonies.]
+
+The relation was established in the Northern colonies, as well as in
+the Southern, in the early years of their existence, and it was in
+Massachusetts rather than in Virginia that it first received legal
+recognition, and began to be changed from a purely domestic
+institution by suffering governmental regulation. In the Massachusetts
+"Fundamentals," or "Body of Liberties," passed by the General Court in
+1641, the slavery of negroes and Indians, and the slave-trade, were
+expressly legalized. In fact, so far as the colonists themselves were
+responsible for the introduction of negro slavery among them, the
+impartial historian must place the greater blame upon a Northern
+colony. Its citizens were first to develop commerce, and it was their
+ships which brought the slave cargoes from the coasts of Africa to all
+of the colonies.
+
+[Sidenote: Northern colonies not well adapted to negro labor.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Southern colonies well adapted to negro labor.]
+
+The negroes were not, however, fitted for labor in the Northern
+colonies. In the first place, it was too cold for them to thrive
+there. A warm, moist air is the natural climate for the negro. In the
+second place, the {42} work to be done in these sections was not
+suited to his capacity. The Northern colonies had not, indeed, at that
+early day, developed the finer forms of industry which have
+subsequently distinguished that part of the country. They were then,
+as to their internal pursuits, almost as completely agricultural as
+the colonies of the South. But their farming required a great deal
+more of intelligence, thrift, and industry in the laborer than the
+negro of that day possessed. The country was broken, the good soil was
+limited in amount, the weather was capricious, and the management of
+the crops demanded judgment and discretion. On the other hand, the
+vast level areas of good soil, the warm, uniform climate, and the
+simple crops of the Southern colonies furnished the conditions
+favorable to the employment of negro labor.
+
+[Sidenote: Negro slavery a temporary necessity in the South.]
+
+It is not easy to see how the rich swamp-lands of these colonies could
+ever have been reclaimed and made tributary to the civilization of the
+world in any way but by the employment of negro labor. And it is no
+easier to see how the pure negro could then have been brought to do
+this great work save through slavery to the white race, save by being
+forced to contribute the muscular effort, under the direction of the
+superior intelligence of the white race, to the realization of objects
+determined by that superior intelligence. The negro is proof against
+malaria, and thrives under the burning sun. The white man is destroyed
+by the former and greatly disabled by the latter. And the pure negro
+would not at that period of his development labor voluntarily. These
+were the elements of the problem which confronted those who undertook
+to subject the vast marshes of the Southern colonies to cultivation
+and to prepare them for the {43} production of their most valuable
+contributions to the comforts of civilized man. The solution of the
+problem was negro slavery.
+
+[Sidenote: Was negro slavery an error and an evil from the first?]
+
+We are most of us inclined, at this day, to hold that this was an
+erroneous solution, and that we could have discovered a better one;
+but it was the solution which was reached, and we shall be wiser if we
+seek to understand it clearly, instead of wasting our energies in its
+condemnation, remembering that many of the things of the past, which,
+from the point of view of the present, we are prone to regard as
+error, and even as sin, are only anachronisms. In fact, those who
+founded the colony of Georgia thought _then_ that they had a better
+solution of the problem. They prohibited slavery at the outset from
+that colony. In fourteen years they came to regard this act as a great
+mistake, and the noblest spirits among them acknowledged themselves in
+error, and joined in the movement for the introduction of negro
+slave-labor.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery legislation in the Southern colonies.]
+
+The conditions above mentioned were undoubtedly the chief causes of
+the more rapid and pronounced development of negro slavery in the
+Southern colonies. And that more rapid and pronounced development
+directs us rather to the legislation of the Southern colonies than to
+that of the Northern, in following the legalization of the relation.
+
+[Sidenote: Partus sequitur ventrem.]
+
+Virginia naturally took the lead, and furnished the precedents for the
+others. The first question, both as to time and importance, which
+required legislative treatment, was the question of the status of the
+children of slaves. Where legalized marriage does not exist, the only
+certainty in respect to parentage is attained by regarding the mother.
+Rights and status in such a condition of society are, therefore,
+transmitted through the female line. _Partus sequitur ventrem_ is the
+rule {44} not only of the civil law, but of every system of law
+regulating the accidents of descent among people where the mingling of
+the sexes is not controlled by civilized marriage. Insuperable
+obstacles present themselves in the attempt to apply any other rule.
+It was no unusual or arbitrary enactment of the Virginia legislature
+which, in 1662, prescribed the rule that the status of the slave
+mother should determine that of her offspring. This rule was followed
+in all the colonies, and many of them enacted it into statute law.
+
+[Sidenote: Definitions of the slave class.]
+
+So long as the slaves were few in number and were not Christians the
+necessity for legislation defining the slave class was not felt; but
+so soon as the slave-trade became more active, and slaves began to
+receive Christian baptism, the old customary test in regard to this
+matter, that of infidelity or heathenism, would no longer suffice. The
+colonists of that day were too conscientious to cut the knot of this
+difficulty by denying Christian baptism to any one seeking it. They
+considered it their prime duty to lead the heathen to the knowledge of
+Christ. It is evident that their consciences were greatly troubled
+over the question of the effect of Christian baptism upon the slave
+status. The colonial legislatures, the Home Government, and the Bishop
+of London were appealed to for counsel in the dilemma. The answers
+received from all of these were to the effect that the status of the
+slave was not changed by Christian baptism or conversion.
+
+[Sidenote: The test of the slave status as fixed by the Virginia
+statute.]
+
+The test of the slave status was then necessarily fixed by
+legislation. The Virginia statute declared all servants brought into
+the country by land or sea, who were not Christians in their native
+country at the time when they were purchased or procured, nor free in
+{45} England or some other Christian country, to be slaves. Exception
+was made of Turks and Moors in amity with the King. This statute,
+taken together with the rule _partus sequitur ventrem_, which rule was
+re-enacted, became the test of the slave class. At the same time heavy
+penalties were attached to the marriage or cohabitation of white women
+with slaves.
+
+[Sidenote: The legal position of the slave.]
+
+Of course it very soon became necessary that the legal position of the
+slave should be definitely fixed. The legislature of Virginia again
+set the precedents. Concisely stated, this legislation provided that a
+slave could have no standing in the ordinary courts, either as party
+or witness; that a slave could own no property; that a slave owed
+obedience to the master, who might force the slave to labor, and
+chastise the slave even to the extreme of so injuring the slave that
+the slave might die in consequence thereof, without incurring the
+penalties of felony; that the slave could be sold or inherited as
+personal property; and that the offspring of the female slave belonged
+to the master owning her at the time of its birth.
+
+[Sidenote: Tendency toward serfage in the Code of 1705.]
+
+The wilful killing of a slave by anyone, even the master, was
+accounted murder, and extraordinary tribunals, without a jury, were
+constituted for the protection of his person. The Code of 1705 even
+contained regulations which indicated that the trend of thought and of
+legislation, at that juncture, was toward attaching the slave to the
+soil, which would have been a step upward in a course, which, if
+consistently followed, would have made the slave a serf. But the still
+prevailing rules, which allowed the slave to be seized and sold for
+the debts of the master, and regulated the inheritance of slaves
+according to the {46} law governing the descent of personal property,
+seem to have completely neutralized that tendency before the middle of
+the century had been reached.
+
+[Sidenote: Public relations of the slave system.]
+
+Naturally the private law accidents of the relation were first
+developed and fixed, but very soon the rights and powers of the
+community in regard to the institution began to claim attention. The
+public peace and welfare must be safeguarded against the possible
+conduct of the slave, on the one hand, and of the master, on the
+other.
+
+The legislation of Virginia set the example in these respects also.
+That legislation provided that no slave should have, or carry arms, or
+go outside of the plantation of his master without a pass from his
+master, or lift his hand against a Christian; that a sheriff should
+arrest a runaway slave on the warrant of two justices, and might
+lawfully kill any slave who resisted arrest; and that no slave should
+be emancipated without the consent of the Governor and Council.
+
+On the other hand, it provided that the master should be responsible
+for all damage done by his slave at any place where there was no
+Christian overseer, and required that any master giving freedom to his
+slave should pay the cost of his transportation out of the colony.
+
+[Sidenote: The general object of the laws in respect to slaves.]
+
+Such was substantially the law of negro slavery in all of the colonies
+at the beginning of the decade before the Revolution. It was perhaps
+more severe than this in South Carolina, and it was certainly less so
+in Massachusetts.
+
+The objects which it had in view were to secure the master's property
+in the slave, to enable the master to hold the slave in obedience and
+force him, if necessary, to labor, and to protect the public peace and
+welfare against the abuse of the relation by the master, and against
+the vicious nature of the slave.
+
+{47} It does certainly appear that the century of law-making upon the
+subject had not ameliorated the condition of the slave. We must
+remember, however, that the first stages in the legalization of any
+relation sometimes make the situation appear worse than what obtained
+before the movement began, although it may not be worse in fact.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery and the Revolutionary ideas of the rights of man.]
+
+But the period of the Revolution brought with it a great change of
+view in regard to the morality of slavery, and this change of idea
+produced great modifications in the law of slavery, all of which
+tended not only toward an improvement of the condition of the slave,
+but also toward the ultimate extinction of slavery.
+
+When we regard the Revolution of the colonies against the motherland
+from the point of view of the present, we can easily see that its
+purpose was very different from that of the French Revolution. What it
+really sought and accomplished was national independence against
+foreign rule. Those, however, who formulated the creed of the
+Revolution sought its justification in the doctrine of human rights
+rather than in that of national rights. The philosophy of the
+eighteenth century was a humanitarian outburst. Politically and
+legally it is summed up in the very misleading propositions that all
+men are born equal and are endowed with freedom, and that the people
+have the right to change or abolish existing government at their
+pleasure. Whatever we may think of these doctrines now, our ancestors
+professed to believe in them, and there is no reason to doubt the
+sincerity of their profession, so far as their own consciousness went.
+They saw also the inconsistency of slavery with these doctrines, and
+quickly came to regard slavery as an evil which should be removed as
+soon as possible.
+
+{48} [Sidenote: First prohibition upon slave importation.]
+
+The Continental Congress took the first step in this direction. Two
+years before it declared independence it prohibited any further
+importation of slaves, and repeated the prohibition two years later.
+These acts are good evidence that, at the moment, the question of
+slavery was regarded as a matter of national concern.
+
+The Congress was, however, so occupied with the duties pertaining to
+the prosecution of the war, that it failed to go forward in this
+matter, as well as in many other matters of national concern; and when
+the Confederate Congress succeeded the Continental Congress, it did so
+upon the basis of a written constitution, or rather articles of union,
+which vested no powers whatsoever in it over the subject of slavery.
+
+[Sidenote: Abolition of slavery in the Northern Commonwealths after
+the beginning of the Revolution.]
+
+The separate colonies, now become "States" by the theory of the
+Articles of Confederation, took up the question. Massachusetts
+abolished slavery substantially by her constitution of 1780.
+Pennsylvania provided for gradual emancipation by a statute of the
+same year. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire followed the
+example of Pennsylvania. And New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland,
+and Virginia forbade any further importation of slaves.
+
+[Sidenote: The Ordinance of 1787.]
+
+Under such impulses and influences the Confederate Congress, in spite
+of the fact that no power in respect to slavery had been conferred
+upon it, assumed to pass the famous Ordinance of 1787, decreeing the
+free status exclusively in all of the territory then belonging to the
+United States north of the Ohio River. The power to enact the
+Ordinance could not even be derived by the most generous principles of
+implication from any provision in the Articles of Confederation. To
+justify the exercise of it by the Confederate {49} Congress it is
+necessary to go back to the general principle of political science
+that, as there was no government for this territory but the
+Confederate Congress, and as there were no limitations in the Articles
+of Confederation upon the powers of the Congress in this territory,
+the powers of that Congress must have extended in this territory to
+all subjects usually regulated by government.
+
+The claim sometimes made that this Ordinance was a treaty between the
+"States" forming the Confederation, or between them and the "States"
+to be formed out of that territory in the future, is altogether
+untenable. It was nothing more nor less than a legislative act of the
+Congress.
+
+It is an incontrovertible proof of the universality and intensity of
+the opposition to the farther spread of slavery that the common
+consciousness of the age acquiesced in this most latitudinarian
+construction of the powers of the Confederate Congress, and that the
+Congress itself voted the measure with but a single dissenting voice.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery and the Constitution of 1787.]
+
+At the same moment that this measure was being considered in the
+Congress, the Constitutional Convention, sitting at Philadelphia, was
+framing the national Constitution of 1787. The attitude which the
+nation would assume in this new instrument of its organic law toward
+the subject of slavery was one of the most, if not the most, important
+of the questions which the Convention was called upon to consider.
+
+There can be little doubt that the men of 1787 had come to regard the
+question of the rights of man a little more calmly than they did
+during the heat of the battle with the motherland. In Luther Martin's
+famous letter to the legislature of Maryland upon the work of the {50}
+Convention of 1787, a very significant passage concerning the existing
+views upon slavery occurs. He wrote: "At this time we do not generally
+hold this commerce" (the slave-trade) "in so great abhorrence as we
+have done. When our liberties were at stake we warmly felt for the
+common rights of men. The danger being thought to be past which
+threatened ourselves we are daily growing more insensible to those
+rights."
+
+The Constitution of 1787 contains evidence of the correctness of this
+statement. Among its provisions were to be found three most important
+compromises with the slavery interest, three most important
+recognitions of slavery. The first was political in its nature. It
+counted the negro for three-fifths of the white man in the
+distribution of the representation in the House of Representatives and
+in the Presidential Electoral Colleges. The second was commercial in
+its nature. It forbade the Congress to prohibit, before the year 1808,
+the migration or importation of such persons as the existing "States"
+might see fit to admit. The third was a direct guarantee of slave
+property. It required the surrender to his master of an escaped slave
+wherever found in the United States. These were most momentous
+provisions. They secured slave property, increased slave property, and
+made slavery a vast political power in the hands of the slave-masters.
+There is no doubt that the clock of the ages was turned back full half
+a century in regard to this great question by the Constitution of
+1787.
+
+[Sidenote: Reaction against the humanitarian principles of the
+Revolution.]
+
+From 1787 to 1808 the reactionary course was pursued almost without a
+single break. Kentucky was made a Commonwealth with the slave status.
+The Congress accepted from North Carolina and Georgia cessions of the
+territory which lay to the west of them, and which they claimed as
+belonging to them, with a condition {51} that slavery should not be
+forbidden therein by Congress. The slave Commonwealth of Tennessee was
+immediately formed out of a part of this territory. The vast territory
+of Louisiana, in which slavery existed wherever it was inhabited, was
+added to the domain of the Union. The District of Columbia, the seat
+of the general Government, was made a slave-holding community, through
+the adoption by Congress of the laws of Maryland as the code of the
+District. A fugitive slave-law was passed by Congress, which enabled
+any white man to seize, as his slave, any man of color, and bring him
+before any magistrate, and, upon proof satisfactory to the latter, to
+demand such papers and certificates as would legally warrant him in
+reclaiming the slave and transporting him to the place whence he was
+said to have escaped; and petitions to Congress complaining of the
+abuse of this arbitrary power were laid aside without consideration.
+Even the Territory of Indiana prayed Congress to suspend for it that
+part of the Ordinance of 1787 which forbade slavery within its limits.
+And South Carolina abolished her law against the importation of
+slaves, and opened the way wide for a vast increase of the slave
+population.
+
+[Sidenote: Abolition of the foreign slave-trade by Congress.]
+
+These last acts seem to have aroused the consciousness of the Congress
+to the rapidity with which the whole country was becoming again
+subject to the slave-holding interests. The Congress resisted the
+importunities of the Indiana leaders, and after giving South Carolina
+a reasonable time to re-enact her law abolishing the foreign
+slave-trade, without effect, proceeded itself to abolish the trade
+from the first moment that the Constitution permitted this to be done,
+from January 1st, 1808.
+
+[Sidenote: Cotton culture and the cotton-gin.]
+
+[Sidenote: The effect of the return to the arts of peace upon the
+ideas concerning slavery.]
+
+It has been customary to ascribe the great revulsion {52} of view in
+regard to slavery, which certainly manifested itself everywhere in the
+United States between 1790 and 1807, to cotton culture and the
+cotton-gin. The invention of the cotton-gin, in the first part of the
+last decade of the eighteenth century, and the increased demand for
+cotton fabrics throughout the world, had made the cultivation of
+cotton highly profitable. An increase in cotton culture was naturally
+encouraged by such enhanced profits, and this tendency produced an
+increased demand for negro labor and for new lands, since the cotton
+crop requires a warm climate and low lands, and exhausts the soil very
+rapidly. Those parts of the country adapted to cotton-raising felt,
+therefore, a renewed interest in the increase of negro labor and in
+territorial extension. And those parts not so adapted felt an indirect
+interest in the same, since the increased and still increasing profits
+of the cotton culture made a market for their slaves and a carrying
+trade for their shipowners. There is no doubt that such was the main
+cause of the great change of view in regard to the question of negro
+slavery which the country experienced between 1790 and 1810, but it
+was not the sole cause. It was inevitable that, when the men of that
+era passed out of the excited state of mind and feeling produced by
+the War with the motherland, and came to the task of re-establishing
+the relations of peace and every-day life and business, they should
+regain a calmness of judgment, a respect for vested rights, and a
+regard for customary relations, which placed the political philosophy
+of 1776 under many limitations and qualifications, some of which,
+certainly, were sound and valuable. It is only when we take all of
+these considerations together that we comprehend the reasoning of the
+men of the first decade of this {53} century upon the great question.
+They saw a great interest developing which was bringing wealth and
+comfort into an impoverished country. They knew that it could be then
+sustained only by negro labor. They did not believe that the negro
+would work unless forced to it by the white man. They thought it was
+better for the negro himself to have food, clothing, and shelter, in
+slavery, than to starve, or become a robber, in liberty. They felt, on
+the other hand, that the slavery of one human being to another was an
+exceptional relation in a political system which rested its own right
+to independent existence upon the doctrine of human freedom. It was
+not, then, unnatural that they arrived at the conclusion that to
+prohibit further importations of the barbarians from Africa was the
+only remedy for which the time was ripe. They sincerely believed that
+they would place themselves and their slaves in a far more
+advantageous position for the gradual elevation of the latter by
+having to deal only with negroes born and reared amid civilized
+surroundings, and that freedom would finally be attained by all, as
+the result of a gradual advancement in intelligence, morals, and
+industry, and would be thus attained without any shock to the
+civilization and welfare of the country.
+
+This appeared to the men of that day, both of the North and of the
+South, to be the only safe way to proceed in solving the question of
+the relation between the highly civilized Anglo-American race and the
+grossly barbaric negro race in the United States. We think now that
+they might have done better, and some of the more unsympathetic
+critics of our history affirm that they did nothing of any
+consequence, and that in what they did do they acted with a
+consciously deceptive purpose. There may have been a few to whom this
+criticism can be justly applied, but there is no {54} sufficient
+evidence that the mass of them were insincere either in act or
+thought. The contention that they were is more partisan than truly
+historical.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery during the War of 1812, and the years just before
+and just after this war.]
+
+The decade between 1807 and 1817 was filled with the questions of
+foreign relations, of foreign war, and of the results of foreign war.
+The suspension, and then the almost entire destruction, of foreign
+commerce by the British Orders in Council, the Napoleonic decrees, the
+Jeffersonian embargo, and the War of 1812, reduced the exportation in
+cotton from about fifty millions of pounds in 1807 to less than twenty
+millions of pounds in 1814. The pecuniary interest in the maintenance
+of slavery declined thus quite materially, and the majority of the
+leading men, both North and South, still regarded negro slavery as
+only a temporary status, which would be gradually modified in the
+direction of freedom.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery in the Louisiana territory.]
+
+Notwithstanding all this, however, the slavery interest was steadily
+waxing in influence and power throughout this period. First of all the
+existence and the extension of slavery in the vast territory purchased
+from France was secured. The custom of slave-holding had been
+introduced into this territory by the French and Spanish immigrants,
+while it was in the possession of France and Spain, before the year
+1800. In that year Spain, as we have seen, receded it to France. Nine
+years before this date, slavery had been abolished in France by the
+National Assembly. It is certainly a question, then, whether the
+re-establishment of French supremacy over Louisiana in 1800 did not
+produce the abolition of slavery there. It will be remembered that
+France was at that moment subject to the consular government of
+Bonaparte, and that the Consul was not an enthusiast for the
+revolutionary ideals. He did not disturb the custom of slave-holding
+{55} in Louisiana, and when he ceded this vast territory to the United
+States, in 1803, the custom existed in all its inhabited parts. The
+Treaty of cession contained a provision which pledged the Government
+of the United States to uphold the rights of property of the
+inhabitants of the province. It can be fairly said, therefore, that
+the United States Government obligated itself to France to maintain
+slavery within the territory ceded until it should be erected into a
+Commonwealth, or into Commonwealths, of the Union.
+
+The United States Government might have violated the Treaty, if it had
+chosen to do so, and the question then raised would have been one of a
+purely diplomatic or international character. There would have been no
+question of constitutional power involved. The act of the United
+States Government breaking the Treaty would have been the law of the
+land for the inhabitants of this territory.
+
+The United States Government, however, not only permitted the
+continuance of the custom of slave-holding in Louisiana, but when, in
+1804, Congress divided this vast region into two parts by the
+thirty-third parallel of latitude, and organized the southern portion
+as the Territory of Orleans, and placed the northern portion under the
+jurisdiction of the Governor and judges of the Territory of Indiana,
+it, at the same time, authorized citizens of the United States
+immigrating into the Territory of Orleans, for the purpose of actual
+settlement, to take their slaves with them, and provided that the
+French laws in force at the date of the division should continue in
+the northern part until repealed or modified by the Governor and
+judges of Indiana Territory. Any danger to slavery in this district of
+Louisiana, which might be contained in the power vested by Congress in
+the Governor and judges of the Territory of Indiana to {56} repeal or
+modify the French laws which Congress had allowed to continue in the
+district, was overcome, the following year, by the independent
+organization of this district as the Territory of Louisiana, and by a
+provision in the Act of Congress effecting this organization, which
+provided for the continuance in force of the laws of the district,
+until repealed or modified by the legislature of the Territory.
+
+When, therefore, in 1812, the Territory of Orleans was erected into
+the Commonwealth of Louisiana, and the name of the Territory of
+Louisiana was changed to Missouri, there was no question about the
+status of the new Commonwealth. It was, both in fact and in law, a
+slave-holding Commonwealth; and the custom of slave-holding was
+perpetuated in the newly named Territory by the provision in the Act
+of Congress that the laws and regulations of the Territory of
+Louisiana should remain in force in the Territory of Missouri until
+repealed or modified by the legislature of the Territory of Missouri.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery in the territory west of North Carolina and
+Georgia.]
+
+The Government of the United States had entered into obligations with
+North Carolina and Georgia, as we have seen, not to prohibit slavery
+in the territory ceded by them to the United States. Whatever we may
+think of the binding force of any such agreement from a legal point of
+view, certainly from an ethical point of view it could have been urged
+that the Government would have broken faith with some of the citizens
+of the United States had the Congress disregarded this understanding.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery in Louisiana a different question from slavery in
+the North Carolina and Georgia cessions.]
+
+It cannot, however, be contended that there was any obligation, legal
+or moral, resting upon the Government of the United States toward any
+of the citizens of the United States, or any of the Commonwealths, to
+maintain slavery in the province of Louisiana and in the {57}
+Territories carved out of it. There was, as we have seen, a provision
+in the Treaty of cession of 1803, by which the United States
+Government obligated itself to France to protect the property of the
+inhabitants of the province. But the Government of the United States
+was under no obligation to any citizen of the United States, or to any
+Commonwealth of the Union, to keep this Treaty inviolate. It may be
+affirmed, then, that the United States Government had, in the case of
+Louisiana, for the first time, permitted and maintained slavery in
+territory where it was perfectly free to act in regard to this subject
+as it would, in so far as its own citizens were concerned. This
+certainly manifested a great increase in the power of the
+slave-holders over the general Government.
+
+[Sidenote: Interest in slavery in Maryland and Virginia increased by
+the acquisition of Louisiana.]
+
+In consequence of this vast territorial extension of slavery the
+interest of the more Northern of the old slave-holding Commonwealths
+in slavery was, during this period, greatly re-enlivened. Maryland and
+Virginia were already, in 1807, overstocked with slaves. The opening
+up of the virgin lands of the Southwest to the immigration of masters
+and slaves from the older Commonwealths, and the abolition of the
+foreign slave-trade, now made the Southwest an excellent market for
+the surplus slave population of these older Commonwealths.
+
+[Sidenote: The domestic slave-trade.]
+
+The domestic slave-trade began now to be one of the chief sources of
+the wealth of Maryland and Virginia especially. Those who participated
+in this traffic justified it by the claim that it was better for the
+slaves themselves to be removed to new homes, where they could be
+better supported, than to be kept in their old homes and suffer for
+the want of the necessaries of life, and that the distribution of the
+slave {58} population over a larger area would make future
+emancipation easier, and less dangerous to the supremacy of the white
+race. There was a certain force in this reasoning. The mass of the
+slave-holders seem to have been fully convinced of its soundness,
+although it did not entirely quiet the consciences of the best men
+among them to the many painful incidents connected with the separation
+of the slaves, made subject to this traffic, from their old homes and
+associations.
+
+It is easy to see, however, that the raising of negro slaves, having
+become a most profitable industry in the older Commonwealths, acted as
+a vast bribe upon the ideas of men in regard to the questions of the
+perpetuation and extension of slavery, and beclouded their consciences
+in respect thereto.
+
+[Sidenote: The relation of slavery to the diplomacy of the United
+States.]
+
+Finally, the capture and abduction of negro slaves by the British
+forces during the War of 1812, and the demand of the slave-holders
+that the United States Government should secure the restitution of
+their slaves, or compensation for the loss of them, from the British
+Government, moved the United States Government to assume its attitude
+toward slavery in the administration of the international affairs of
+the country. The cardinal political principle of the slave-holding
+statesmen, at that period, was that slavery was a "State" matter with
+which the United States Government had no concern, and in regard to
+which it had no powers. This appeal to the Government to voice and
+enforce their demands against Great Britain in respect to their slave
+property has seemed, therefore, to some of the later and more radical
+critics of American history to have been a gross inconsistency, and
+they have represented it as a proof of the insincerity of the
+slave-holders wherever their pecuniary interests were involved.
+
+{59} This criticism is rather taking, but a sound view of the
+Constitution will hardly support it. In making the United States
+Government the _exclusive_ organ for dealing with foreign countries,
+the Constitution impliedly confers upon that Government a protectorate
+against foreign states over interests which are regulated, internally,
+only by the powers of the respective Commonwealths of the Union. It is
+true that this doctrine rests upon a national view of the federal
+system of government in the United States, a view which the
+slave-holding statesmen did not later share. From their later
+particularistic principle of the fundamental character of the Union,
+such a general protectorate over "State" interests by the United
+States Government against foreign countries could hardly be inferred
+from the Constitution. If this principle could be assumed by these
+critics as having been held at that time by the slave-holding
+statesmen, their charge of inconsistency, if not of insincerity, would
+be fairly made out. But such, as we have seen, was not the case. Many
+of the slave-holding statesmen of 1816 were stronger in the national
+view of the character of the Union than were the statesmen of New
+England itself.
+
+The United States Government recognized its duty to extend the
+protection demanded in the case, and it secured from the British
+Government compensation to the masters for the loss of slave property
+occasioned by the acts of the British officers during the War.
+
+Such was the status of the slavery question at the close of the War of
+1812-15, at the commencement, therefore, of the period when,
+withdrawing themselves from foreign complications, the people of the
+United States began to adjust the different parts of their political
+system, chiefly if not solely, to the demands of their internal
+interests, and to solve the problems of their {60} polity from the
+point of view of their domestic institutions. It is not strange, then,
+that from this point of time onward the powerful institution of negro
+slavery recognized more and more clearly its natural relations to all
+of these questions of internal policy and law, and sought more and
+more determinedly to bring the political system and the policies of
+the United States into accord with its own exclusive interests. For
+the first three or four years after the close of the War this tendency
+did not, as has been pointed out, appear upon the surface, but it was
+working in the depths. From 1820 to 1861, certainly, it furnishes the
+point of view for the correct elucidation of the majority of the great
+problems of the history of the United States.
+
+
+
+
+{61}
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE CREATION OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MISSOURI
+
+The Growth of Slavery not Seriously Checked by the Prohibition of the
+Foreign Slave-trade--The General Government Powerless Against Slavery
+in the Existing Commonwealths--The Powers of the General Government in
+Respect to Slavery in the Territories--The Powers of Congress in the
+Admission of new "States" into the Union--Slavery in the Missouri
+Territory--The First Petition from Missouri Territory for the
+Permission to form a Commonwealth--The Second Petition, and the First
+Bill in Congress, for the Admission of Missouri--The Tallmadge
+Amendment to the Bill--Passage of the Amendment by the House of
+Representatives--Passage of the Original Bill by the Senate--The
+Missouri Bill during the Session of 1819-20--Mr. Taylor's
+Proposition--The Bill for the Admission of Maine Reported and Passed
+by the House of Representatives--The Failure of Mr. Taylor's Plan--The
+Missouri Bill again before the House of Representatives--Mr. Taylor's
+Amendment to the Bill--The Independent Missouri Bill of the
+Senate--The Refusal of the Senate to Disconnect the two Measures--The
+Conference on the Subject, and the First Missouri
+Compromise--President Monroe's Approval of the Compromise--Review of
+the Points Involved in the Contest--The Revival of the Missouri
+Struggle--The Missouri Constitution in Congress--Mr. Lowndes' Bill for
+the Admission of Missouri with the Instrument Unchanged--Defeat of the
+Lowndes Bill in the House--Passage of the Senate Bill with a Proviso
+by the Senate--The Senate Bill Tabled by the House--Mr. Clay and the
+Second Missouri Compromise--Passage of the Second Missouri Compromise
+Act--The General Effects of the Decisions Reached in the Missouri
+Question.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The growth of slavery not seriously checked by the
+prohibition of the foreign slave-trade.]
+
+Already before the year 1819, as we have seen in the preceding
+chapter, had it become manifest that the {62} influences and measures
+relied upon by the forefathers for the ultimate extirpation of negro
+slavery were not effecting the desired result in the Commonwealths
+south of the line of Pennsylvania and of the Ohio. It was evident that
+the revolutionary enthusiasm for universal liberty and the rights of
+man was not so strongly felt by the generation which grew up after
+"'76" as by the generation of "'76," that the laws against the
+importation of slaves were being evaded, and that the slaves were
+increasing by birth many times more rapidly than they were decreasing
+by emancipation and removal to the colonies of the American Society
+for Emancipation. Moreover, four new Commonwealths had been
+established--Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi--in which
+slavery was legalized, and a fifth--Alabama--was even then in process
+of creation. It was manifest from all sides to the friends of
+universal freedom that other means than those hitherto relied upon
+must be found, if any progress was to be made in the advancement of
+liberty, yea if the evident retrogression in respect to this prime
+element of political civilization was to be checked.
+
+[Sidenote: The general Government powerless against slavery in the
+existing Commonwealths.]
+
+All had been done by the United States Government, however, against
+slavery within the existing Commonwealths that the Constitution
+allowed. Before anything more could be undertaken, the Constitution
+itself would have to be so amended as to authorize it. The
+extraordinary majorities required for the initiation and adoption of
+amendments made it practically impossible to effect anything by such
+means. Of the thirteen original Commonwealths, seven had abolished
+slavery and six had retained it. To these had now been added
+four--Vermont, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois--in {63} which slavery was
+forbidden, and five in which it was permitted--Kentucky, Tennessee,
+Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama--making thus the number upon each
+side the same. And although the population in the Commonwealths north
+of the line of Pennsylvania and the Ohio had outstripped, in increase,
+that in those south of this line by near half a million of souls in
+thirty years, and the representation in the national House of
+Representatives stood consequently in favor of the former section in
+the ratio of 104 to 79, still the method of representation in the
+Senate, and the equality in the number of the Commonwealths
+permitting, with those prohibiting, slavery, stood firmly in the way
+of any amendment of the Constitution, either favorable or unfavorable
+to the slavery interest.
+
+[Sidenote: The powers of the general Government in respect to slavery
+in the Territories.]
+
+The Constitution furnished, however, an indirect way of reaching the
+desired result. It gave the Congress general powers within the
+Territories and did not restrict these powers in behalf of slavery.
+Congress might thus prohibit slavery in the Territories, and the
+Territories would thus become settled by a free population, an
+anti-slavery population, which would form Commonwealths at the proper
+time, in which the free status would be perpetuated by Commonwealth
+law. And when a sufficient number of free Commonwealths had been thus
+created to give the necessary majorities to amend the Constitution in
+the direction of abolition, slavery might be extinguished in the
+Commonwealths which had already legalized it. But the first difficulty
+in the way of the effectiveness of this line of action was the fact
+that Congress had already forfeited, in part, the opportunity, by
+failing to keep the southern portion of Louisiana Territory under a
+Territorial organization until slavery could have been eradicated in
+it. And it was probably, in {64} 1819, already too late to attempt to
+keep the remaining parts of this vast region, so far as it had been
+settled at all, under Territorial organization until this result could
+have been effected. At least, the advocates of freedom in 1819
+evidently thought so, for they searched the Constitution to find some
+other power in the general Government by which to deal with the
+question.
+
+[Sidenote: The powers of Congress in the admission of new "States"
+into the Union.]
+
+There was another provision which had been already several times
+applied to this very subject and to other subjects. It was the
+provision which conferred upon Congress the power to create, or
+co-operate in creating, new Commonwealths out of the Territories of
+the United States. This power is expressed in general terms, and in
+its employment Congress had imposed a number of limitations upon the
+powers of the new Commonwealths which the Constitution did not impose
+upon those of the original Commonwealths. Here, then, was a possible
+way for those seeking the advancement of liberty to effect their
+purpose. If their interpretation of the Constitution, in regard to the
+extent of this power, was correct, and they could only command the
+President and a simple majority in both branches of Congress, they
+could abolish slavery in every new Commonwealth at the time of its
+creation, and make the continuance of the free status the perpetual
+condition of its continued existence as a Commonwealth. It would then
+be only a question of time when sufficient majorities would be secured
+for so amending the Constitution of the United States as to expel
+slavery from the old Commonwealths through the regular forms for
+constitutional development. It was an attractive scheme, and appeared
+to provide the means for ridding the country peaceably of its great
+evil at no very far distant day. It was the last possible means which
+the Constitution afforded. It was {65} tried in the creation of the
+Commonwealth of Missouri and it failed. It is this which constitutes
+the significance of the great movement. The result attained made the
+abolition of slavery by the United States Government, through legal
+and peaceable means, an utter impossibility. It contributed, at least,
+toward making the War of 1861 an historical necessity.
+
+As we have seen in the preceding chapter, slaveholding had become
+established by custom in the vast region known as the Louisiana
+province, wherever it was inhabited, during the periods when it
+belonged to Spain and France, and had been permitted to continue after
+its acquisition by the United States; and that in 1812 this province
+was divided into one slave-holding Commonwealth, Louisiana, and one
+slave-holding Territory, Missouri.
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery in the Missouri Territory.]
+
+From 1812 to 1818 Congress did nothing toward the extinction of
+slavery in the Missouri Territory, or preventing the free immigration
+of masters with their slaves into the Territory. Neither had the
+legislature of the Territory done anything touching these subjects. It
+may, therefore, be assumed that in the year 1818, the holding of
+negroes as slaves was legal by custom, if not by positive law, in the
+whole of the Missouri Territory, so far as it had been settled, and
+that unless something should thereafter be done, either by the United
+States Government or by the Territorial government, forbidding it,
+slavery would be likewise legal wherever the Territory might become
+settled.
+
+[Sidenote: The first petition from Missouri Territory for the
+permission to form a Commonwealth.]
+
+Before the beginning of the year 1818, the population in the Territory
+which looked to the town of St. Louis as its centre had begun to
+agitate the question of the establishment of Commonwealth government.
+During the Congressional session of 1817-18, petitions {66} appeared
+in the House of Representatives from this population, praying for the
+erection of that part of Missouri Territory, bounded roughly by the
+thirty-sixth parallel of latitude on the south, the line of longitude
+passing through the point of confluence of the Kansas River and the
+Missouri River on the west, the Falls of the Des Moines River and the
+course of that river on the north, and the Mississippi on the east,
+into a Commonwealth of the Union. The petitions were referred and
+reported on, and the bill presented reached the stage for debate in
+the committee of the Whole House, but was not taken up during the
+session.
+
+[Sidenote: The second petition, and the first bill in Congress, for
+the admission of Missouri.]
+
+Early in the following session, that of 1818-19, the Speaker of the
+House of Representatives presented a memorial from the Territorial
+legislature of Missouri which contained substantially the same prayer
+as the petitions presented at the preceding session. This memorial was
+immediately referred to a committee for report, but the bill which
+grew out of the petitions and the memorial was not brought forward for
+debate in the committee of the Whole House until February 13th, 1819.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tallmadge amendment to the bill.]
+
+It was upon this day, and during this first debate, that Mr. James
+Tallmadge, of New York, offered the famous amendment to the bill,
+which precipitated a discussion, that lasted for more than a year,
+upon the great subject of the distribution of powers between the
+United States Government and the Commonwealths, a discussion in which
+all the great legal lights of both Houses of Congress participated,
+and during the course of which the whole country hung with painful
+anxiety upon the outcome. It was the first great trial of the
+Constitution under the issue of a domestic question, a question which
+threatened to {67} divide the country upon geographic lines, a
+question which, therefore, threatened the dissolution of the Union.
+
+The exact words of this amendment are essential to a correct
+comprehension of the question involved. It reads: "And provided that
+the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be
+prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party
+shall have been duly convicted; and that all children born within the
+said State, after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free
+at the age of twenty-five years."
+
+[Sidenote: The debate upon the Tallmadge amendment.]
+
+The debate upon this motion is not fully reported in the annals of
+Congress, but it is sufficiently reported to give a correct idea of
+the constitutional questions involved. The discussion proceeded from
+the two points of view of constitutional powers and public policy. Of
+course the first point for the restrictionists, as those who favored
+the amendment were termed, to establish was the constitutionality of
+the power of Congress to impose this restriction in erecting a
+Territory into a Commonwealth. If Congress has, or had, no such power,
+the question of policy need not have been considered. They claimed the
+power, and based it upon that paragraph of Article IV. section three,
+which reads: "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this
+Union." It will be readily seen that this is a very loose statement
+concerning the powers of Congress in establishing this most
+fundamental relation. Taken apart from all connections, its most
+natural meaning is that foreign states may become politically joined
+with the United States by an Act of Congress, in so far as this
+country is concerned. On the other hand, taken with the context, it
+appears to mean that Congress may establish Commonwealth governments,
+or, in the language {68} of the Constitution, "States," upon the
+territory belonging to the United States, or to some "State" or
+"States" already within the Union. This is, without any reasonable
+doubt, its only meaning. For if it had any reference to the connection
+of foreign states with the United States, it would confer the most
+important diplomatic power of the United States Government upon the
+Congress, while the Constitution certainly confers the whole of this
+class of powers upon the President and the Senate.
+
+[Sidenote: The exact question at issue in the first debate on the
+Missouri question.]
+
+This was not, however, the point at issue in the Missouri question.
+That point was, whether, in the creation of new Commonwealths by
+Congress upon territory already within the Union, and subject to the
+exclusive jurisdiction of the general Government, Congress had the
+constitutional power to impose restrictions upon the new Commonwealths
+thus created, which the Constitution did not impose upon the original
+Commonwealths. The restrictionists, led by Mr. Tallmadge and Mr.
+Taylor, of New York, and Mr. Fuller, of Massachusetts, contended that
+Congress possessed this power. Their argument, reduced to a pair of
+propositions, was, that the Constitution did not _require_ Congress to
+"admit new States into this Union," but only _empowered_ Congress to
+do so at its discretion; that therefore Congress could _refuse_ to
+admit at its discretion, and that if Congress could admit or refuse to
+admit at its own discretion, it could admit upon conditions, upon such
+conditions as it might deem wise to impose, and could make the
+continued existence of the new Commonwealth, as a Commonwealth, depend
+upon the continued observance by it of these conditions.
+
+[Sidenote: The precedents cited in support of the Tallmadge
+amendment.]
+
+They pointed to the precedents of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, upon
+all of which Congress had imposed, as a {69} condition of their
+assumption of Commonwealth powers and government as "States of the
+Union," the requirement that their constitutions should not be
+repugnant to the "Ordinance of the Northwest Territory of 1787," the
+sixth article of which provided that there should be neither slavery
+nor involuntary servitude, except as a criminal penalty, in the
+Territory, from which these Commonwealths were carved out. They
+contended that Congress thus prohibited slavery in these new
+Commonwealths as the condition of its assent to their assumption of
+the status of Commonwealths of the Union and of their continued
+existence with that status.
+
+They further pointed to the precedent of Louisiana, upon whose
+"admission into the Union as a State," Congress imposed the conditions
+that the new Commonwealth should use the English language as its
+official language, should guarantee the writ of _habeas corpus_ and
+trial by jury in all criminal cases, and should incorporate in its
+organic law the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty.
+
+[Sidenote: Argument for the amendment from the duty of the United
+States to guarantee a republican form of government to every
+Commonwealth.]
+
+They went so far as to assert that the Constitution not only permitted
+Congress to lay the prohibition of slavery upon every new Commonwealth
+which it might "admit into the Union," but obligated Congress to do so
+by the constitutional provision which makes it the duty of the United
+States Government to guarantee a republican form of government to
+every Commonwealth of the Union. That is, they claimed that slavery
+was incompatible with the republican form of government, and that
+Congress was therefore bound by the Constitution to prohibit slavery
+whenever called upon to act in regard to it.
+
+[Sidenote: Argument from morals and policy.]
+
+Having thus, from their point of view, vindicated the {70}
+constitutional power and duty of Congress to enact the restriction,
+they claimed the personal liberty of every human being to be a
+self-evident principle of ethics, specifically recognized in the
+Declaration of Independence, and therefore a principle of the
+political system of the United States. And, finally, they demonstrated
+the ruinous policy of the system of slave labor in the economy of the
+country.
+
+There is no question that Mr. Tallmadge and his friends had taken
+strong ground, and that it would require extraordinary efforts to
+dislodge them.
+
+[Sidenote: Replies to the arguments of the restrictionists.]
+
+During the first debate upon the subject, the opponents of the
+restriction do not seem to have been so clear in their own minds in
+reference to the principles involved as they became later, and their
+arguments do not appear so convincing. Nevertheless, they touched the
+point which was the real gist of the contention, and dealt with it
+ably from the first. Mr. Scott, the delegate from Missouri Territory,
+and Mr. P. P. Barbour, of Virginia, made a vigorous attack upon the
+claim of a power in Congress to enact the restriction, as a condition
+of admitting Missouri, "as a State," into the Union. They demonstrated
+quite clearly that the interpretation which the restrictionists placed
+upon the constitutional provision empowering Congress "to admit new
+States into the Union" would enable Congress to establish inequalities
+_ad libitum_ between the original Commonwealths and the new ones;
+would, in principle, enable Congress to make mere provinces of the new
+Commonwealths. They showed conclusively that the real question of the
+controversy was not whether slavery should exist in Missouri or not,
+but was whether the Commonwealth of Missouri should be allowed to
+determine that matter for herself or should have it determined for her
+by the {71} Congress of the United States. They pointed to the facts
+that the original Commonwealths exercised, before the formation of the
+existing Constitution of the United States, exclusive power over this
+matter, each for itself; that the Constitution had not withdrawn this
+power from them, nor prohibited it to them; and that the Constitution
+declared all powers not delegated to the United States Government, nor
+prohibited to the "States," to be reserved to the "States"
+respectively or to the people. They, therefore, claimed that the
+determination of the question whether slavery should exist in any
+Commonwealth or not was a power reserved by the Constitution to each
+Commonwealth for itself, and that the attempt to introduce a
+distinction between the old Commonwealths and the new, in regard to
+the possession of this power, was an attack upon the first principle
+of federal liberty, the principle of equality in powers and duties
+between the members of the Union, an attack which could be justified
+legally only by an express warrant from the Constitution itself.
+
+They disputed outright the constitutionality of the restrictions in
+regard to slavery which Congress had imposed upon the Commonwealths of
+Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and held that these Commonwealths might,
+at any time, so amend their organic law as to introduce slavery; and
+they justified the restrictions imposed upon Louisiana as having
+express warrant from the Constitution.
+
+They did not deny the claims of the restrictionists that slavery was
+ethically wrong and economically destructive, but they contended that
+the evil and the impolicy of it would be mitigated by allowing the
+slaves to be spread over a larger extent of territory, reducing thus
+their numerical ratio to the white population in the older
+Commonwealths, and enabling their masters {72} to emigrate with them
+from poor and exhausted lands to rich virgin soil, instead of being
+obliged to keep them in want, or sell them to new and, therefore, less
+considerate masters. They argued, upon this point, that all
+importation of slaves from foreign countries having been strictly
+prohibited, not one slave could be added to the number already
+existing by allowing their movement into new territory, but that their
+condition would be vastly improved by the increased products of their
+labor.
+
+[Sidenote: The pledge to maintain slave property in Louisiana in the
+Treaty of cession.]
+
+They contended, finally, that the treaty with France by which
+Louisiana was ceded to the United States contained an express
+provision pledging the United States Government to protect all the
+existing property rights of the inhabitants of the province, and to
+admit these inhabitants, so soon as consistent with the principles of
+the Constitution of the United States, to the enjoyment of
+Commonwealth powers on an equality with those of the other
+Commonwealths of the Union.
+
+There is no question that hostility to slavery colored the views of
+the restrictionists in regard to the constitutional powers of
+Congress, and there is also no question that the anxiety of the
+slaveholders to maintain the security of their property led them to
+exaggerate all of the defences of the Constitution in its behalf. It
+must, however, be conceded that the opponents of the restriction had,
+from the outset, the better of the argument in the question of
+constitutional law, and maintained it throughout the debate. They did
+not express themselves as clearly and as exactly as the political
+scientist of this age would do, but they demonstrated quite
+convincingly that the questions of political ethics and public policy
+were, at the moment, entirely impertinent, unless it could be
+satisfactorily established that Congress possessed the constitutional
+power to act in the {73} premises. And they showed that no federal
+system of government could exist, as to the new Commonwealths, if
+Congress had the unlimited authority to distribute powers between the
+general Government and these Commonwealths, which the interpretation
+that the restrictionists placed upon the clause of the Constitution
+vesting Congress with the authority to "admit new States into this
+Union" involved.
+
+The ethical and economical influences and considerations weighed more
+heavily in the minds of the Northern members than the arguments from
+constitutional law, although they asserted that the Constitution also
+was upon their side.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the Tallmadge amendment by the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+They carried the first part of Mr. Tallmadge's amendment, the
+prohibition upon the further introduction of slavery into Missouri, by
+a majority of eleven votes, and the second part, the provision for the
+emancipation of all slaves born in Missouri, after its admission as a
+Commonwealth, when they should have reached the age of twenty-five
+years, by a majority of four votes.
+
+The leading men from the North who voted against the amendment were
+Parrot, of New Hampshire, Holmes, Mason, and Shaw, of Massachusetts,
+Storrs, of New York, Bloomfield, of New Jersey, Harrison, of Ohio, and
+McLean, of Illinois. They were strong and fearless men and no friends
+to slavery, but they were good constitutional lawyers, and they felt
+that it was better to stand by the Constitution with slavery than to
+expose it to the strain of exaggerated interpretations.
+
+[Sidenote: The Missouri bill in the Senate.]
+
+It was upon February 17th, 1819, that the Missouri bill was finally
+passed by the House and sent to the Senate. It was immediately read
+twice in the Senate and referred to the committee in charge of the
+bill for admitting Alabama.
+
+{74} On the 22nd, Mr. Tait, of Georgia, in behalf of the committee,
+reported the bill to the Senate, with the recommendation that the
+Tallmadge amendment be stricken out.
+
+The annals of Congress state that "a long and animated debate" took
+place upon this recommendation, but the speeches are not reported. It
+may be safely concluded, however, that the argument against the power
+of Congress to pass the amendment prevailed very decidedly in the
+minds of the members of this more calm and judicial body. They voted,
+twenty-two to sixteen, against the first part of the amendment, and
+thirty-one to seven against the second part. Such men as Otis, of
+Massachusetts, and Lacock, of Pennsylvania, voted against the entire
+amendment, and Daggett, of Connecticut, and even Rufus King, of New
+York, recorded their voices against the second part of it.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the original bill by the Senate.]
+
+The bill admitting Missouri, without the Tallmadge amendment, passed
+the Senate on March 2nd, and was returned to the House substantially
+in this form. The House immediately refused to agree to the striking
+out of the amendment, and the Senate resolved thereupon to adhere to
+its own act. The bill was thus lost for the session, and the Missouri
+question became the firebrand with which to light up fanatical and
+incendiary passions, both at the North and at the South, during the
+following recess of the Congress.
+
+[Sidenote: The Missouri bill during the session of 1819-20.]
+
+At the beginning of the session of 1819-20, Mr. Scott secured the
+reference of the memorials concerning the admission of Missouri,
+presented at the preceding session, to a select committee. On the
+following day, December 9th, Mr. Scott reported a bill from this
+committee, which authorized the inhabitants of that part of Missouri
+Territory already described to form a constitution and Commonwealth
+{75} government. This new bill was read twice and referred to the
+committee of the Whole House for discussion.
+
+[Sidenote: The policy of the restrictionists to delay the admission of
+any new Commonwealths.]
+
+Warned by the experiences of the preceding session, the
+restrictionists now took another tack. They developed the plan of
+delaying the formation of any more Commonwealths in the Missouri
+Territory until Congress could abolish slavery in the whole of it.
+
+During the debate of the preceding session upon the power of Congress
+to impose upon new Commonwealths, at the time of their creation,
+limitations not prescribed by the Constitution, it had been asserted
+by the restrictionists, and not denied by their opponents, that
+Congress could control the status of the Territories, and keep slavery
+out of them or abolish it in them, at its own discretion, during the
+period before the Territories should be permitted to assume
+Commonwealth government. This seems to have been considered by nearly
+all, if not quite all, as a fair interpretation of that provision of
+the Constitution which vests in Congress the power to make all needful
+rules and regulations respecting the Territories of the United States.
+The friends of slavery restriction now determined to take advantage of
+this possibility, even at this late day, and go back to the work of
+clearing all the Territories west of the Mississippi of slavery by a
+Congressional Act; after which the formation of new Commonwealths in
+these Territories might be delayed until they could be settled by a
+population, which would, by local law, maintain the free status. Mr.
+John W. Taylor, of New York, seems to have formulated the plan. On the
+14th of December he moved the appointment of a committee to consider
+the question of prohibiting the further introduction of slavery into
+the Territories of the United States west of the Mississippi. The
+proposition was voted, and Mr. Taylor himself was {76} appointed the
+chairman of the committee. Mr. Taylor then moved that the
+consideration of the Missouri bill be postponed to the first Monday of
+the following February. The friends of this bill objected most
+strenuously to this proposition, and Mr. Taylor's party compromised
+with them by agreeing to shorten the period of the proposed
+postponement to the second Monday of January.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Taylor's proposition.]
+
+Mr. Taylor's plan was moderate in its character. He did not propose to
+emancipate slaves already held within these Territories or their issue
+born therein, but simply to prevent any further increase by
+immigration or importation. It is difficult to see how the
+slaveholders themselves could have opposed this proposition with much
+vigor. They had, nearly all of them, professed to regard slavery as an
+evil, though they had suggested that the evil would be mitigated by
+the spreading of the slaves over more territory. It was at any rate to
+be expected that those Representatives and Senators from the North,
+who had voted against the Tallmadge amendment from legal scruples
+only, would join with the restrictionists in the support of Mr.
+Taylor's measure, since they all regarded slavery restriction as sound
+policy wherever the Constitution would permit it. There certainly
+seemed to be a fair chance for the passage of a law which would
+protect the Territories from, at least, any considerable increase of
+the slave population which might already be within them, and give
+white immigration a chance to occupy and fill them, and form free
+Commonwealths in them. But this passing hope was dashed by a
+conjunction of events, the elements of which had already presented
+themselves.
+
+[Sidenote: The petition from the convention in Maine for the admission
+of Maine.]
+
+[Sidenote: The bill for the admission of Maine reported and passed by
+the House of Representatives.]
+
+The people resident in that part of Massachusetts known as the
+district of Maine had, through delegates in convention assembled,
+framed a Commonwealth constitution and government. The assent of
+Massachusetts {77} had been regularly given to the division of the old
+Commonwealth. And on December 8th, 1819, Mr. Holmes, of Massachusetts,
+presented to the House of Representatives a petition from the
+constitutional convention in the district of Maine, praying for the
+admission of Maine, as a Commonwealth, into the Union, on an equality
+with the Commonwealths already existing. The people of this district
+had not asked the permission of Congress to form a constitution and
+government, for the reason afterwards alleged that they were already
+in the enjoyment of this status as a part of Massachusetts. The reason
+offered was not, however, entirely satisfactory, and the people of the
+district were hardly able to clear themselves from the charge of an
+undue assumption of powers. The petition was, however, immediately
+referred to a committee, with Mr. Holmes as chairman. On the 21st, Mr.
+Holmes reported a bill to the House providing for the admission of the
+district as a Commonwealth. On the 30th, the House, in committee of
+the Whole, took up the bill for consideration, and in the course of
+the debate upon it Mr. Clay suggested the connection of the Missouri
+bill with the Maine bill. Mr. Clay did not, however, put his
+suggestion into the form of a motion, and therefore the House came to
+no vote upon the point at this juncture. The bill for the admission of
+Maine was passed on January 3rd, 1820, without any connection with the
+Missouri bill, and without any restrictions or limitations upon the
+powers of the new Commonwealth beyond what the Constitution of the
+United States placed upon those of the original Commonwealths. Mr.
+Clay's suggestion was not, however, lost upon the Senate, as will be
+seen later.
+
+{78} [Sidenote: The failure of Mr. Taylor's plan for preventing
+slavery extension.]
+
+Meanwhile Mr. Taylor's committee had not been able to come to any
+agreement. On December 28th, 1819, before the final passage of the
+Maine bill, Mr. Taylor stated to the House that the committee had
+instructed him to ask for its discharge. The House agreed to his
+request, and he immediately moved that a new committee be appointed,
+and "instructed to report a bill" prohibiting the further admission of
+slaves into the Territories of the United States west of the
+Mississippi River. This motion evidently appeared to the House to be a
+prejudgment of the whole question, since it postponed the
+consideration of it indefinitely.
+
+[Sidenote: The Missouri bill again before the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+The Missouri bill was, however, also allowed to rest until January
+24th, 1820, and when, upon that day, the Speaker announced the bill as
+the first order, Mr. Taylor moved for another week's delay, and the
+motion was lost by only a single vote. On the next day the House, in
+committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill. On the 26th,
+Mr. Storrs, of New York, undertook to connect the prohibition of
+slavery in the region north of the thirty-eighth parallel of latitude
+and west of the Mississippi River and the proposed Missouri boundary
+with the grant of the permission to form a Commonwealth in Missouri.
+The opponents of slavery extension did not, however, regard this as
+sufficient compensation for their support of the bill, and Mr. Storrs'
+motion was lost.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Taylor's amendment to the bill.]
+
+Whereupon Mr. Taylor moved that the people of Missouri should be
+required to ordain and establish in their constitution the prohibition
+of slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
+crime, in the proposed Commonwealth. Conceding, as the result of the
+discussions, and {79} the action of the Congress during the preceding
+session, that Congress had no constitutional authority to impose
+restrictions upon new Commonwealths, as the condition of their
+admission into the Union, which the Constitution did not impose upon
+the original Commonwealths, the new question involved in Mr. Taylor's
+motion, from the point of view of constitutional law, now was, whether
+Congress could require of a new Commonwealth, as the condition of its
+admission to the Union, that it should impose any limitations upon
+itself which the Constitution of the United States did not impose upon
+the original Commonwealths. Could Congress effect indirectly what it
+could not do directly?
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Taylor's argument in support of his amendment.]
+
+Mr. Taylor's argument rested substantially upon the proposition,
+upheld by the restrictionists during the preceding session, that if
+Congress could admit, it could refuse to admit, and if it could admit
+or refuse to admit, it could admit upon conditions. He, however,
+advanced other propositions and suggestions. He held that the
+admission of a new Commonwealth into the Union was a procedure in the
+nature of a contract between the United States Government and the
+people of the new Commonwealth, and, therefore, admitted of any terms
+accepted by both parties. He further held that the provision of the
+Constitution, which impliedly vested in Congress the power to
+prohibit, after 1808, the importation or migration of slaves, covered
+the case, in that the word migration meant passage from one
+Commonwealth into another, in distinction from importation, which
+meant the bringing of slaves into the United States from foreign
+countries. And he suggested that territory acquired by the United
+States subsequent to the formation of the Constitution need not be
+treated with the same consideration, as to the rights of its
+inhabitants, as that which {80} belonged to the United States at the
+time of the formation of the Constitution.
+
+[Sidenote: Replies to Mr. Taylor's reasoning.]
+
+Of course the members from the South resisted Mr. Taylor's
+conclusions. But they were not alone in their position. Some of the
+strongest opponents of slavery from the North stood up with them in
+resisting what they considered to be an attack upon the principle of
+federal government. Mr. Holmes, of Massachusetts, was again chief
+among them, and it is to his argument that one must look for the most
+scientific and unprejudiced view of the subject.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Holmes' argument against the amendment.]
+
+After demonstrating most convincingly that the clauses of the
+Constitution which vested in Congress the power to prohibit the
+migration of persons into the United States after 1808 and to regulate
+commerce between the Commonwealths could not be interpreted as giving
+Congress the power to prevent the transportation of slaves from one
+Commonwealth into another, Mr. Holmes attacked the fundamental
+proposition upon which Mr. Taylor relied, the proposition that if
+Congress could admit, it could refuse to admit, and if it could admit
+or refuse to admit at pleasure, it could admit upon conditions. Mr.
+Holmes contended that the power to determine whether slavery should
+exist or not in any community was possessed by each Colony before the
+Revolution, and by each "State" after the Revolution, and that the
+Constitution of 1787 had not deprived the "States" of it, but had
+recognized it as belonging to each of them exclusively; that new
+"States" admitted by Congress into the Union must have all the rights,
+and be subject to all the duties, which the original "States"
+possessed, on the one side, and were obligated to discharge, on the
+other; that Congress could not increase the powers of the general {81}
+Government within the new Commonwealths by selling the Territories a
+license to the Commonwealth status, and taking the pay for it in
+powers to be exercised by the general Government in the new
+Commonwealths, which that Government could not, by the Constitution,
+exercise within the original Commonwealths; and that if Congress
+assumed to exercise such power, and the people of the Territory
+seeking the Commonwealth status should even accept the imposed
+condition, the new Commonwealth had the right and the power to free
+itself from the condition, and the Congress was powerless to prevent
+it.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. McLane's argument against the amendment.]
+
+Mr. McLane, of Delaware, a Commonwealth whose legislature had
+instructed the representatives from the Commonwealth in Congress to
+support all measures for preventing the spread of slavery in the
+Territories of the Union west of the Mississippi, presented the
+question with even greater clearness and conciseness. He simply
+analyzed the words of the Constitution which make up the clause
+conferring power on Congress "to admit new States into this Union." He
+said that the power to admit was not the power to create; that the
+very use of the word presupposed that the power to create the "State"
+resided elsewhere than in Congress; that Congress must admit a
+_"State,"_ not a Territory or a province or anything but a _"State;"_
+that a "State," in the system of federal government of the United
+States, was an organization whose powers and duties had been
+determined by the Constitution of the United States itself, and could
+not be altered by Congressional definitions and limitations; that
+Congress must admit the "State" into _this Union_, not into some other
+union; and that _this Union_ was a system of federal government, in
+which the relations between the general Government {82} and the
+"States" had been fixed by the Constitution of the United States, and
+could not be altered by a mere Congressional act. This was strong
+reasoning, and it had a powerful effect upon the minds of all who
+heard it and of all who read it.
+
+[Sidenote: The independent Missouri bill of the Senate.]
+
+Meanwhile events were occurring in the Senate which were to exercise a
+controlling influence over the fate of the bill in the House. On
+December 29th, 1819, a memorial from the Territorial legislature of
+Missouri, praying for the admission of that part of the Territory
+already described in the memorial to the House, had been presented in
+the Senate, and referred to the Judiciary committee. On January 3rd,
+1820, the House bill admitting Maine was sent into the Senate. Mr.
+James Barbour, of Virginia, immediately gave notice of his intention
+to move the connection of the two subjects in the same bill, and on
+the same terms. As we have seen, Mr. Clay had already made this
+suggestion in the House, but had not formally proposed it.
+
+[Sidenote: The connection of the House bill admitting Maine with the
+Senate's bill admitting Missouri.]
+
+The House bill admitting Maine was immediately referred to the
+Judiciary committee, which committee already had the Missouri bill in
+its charge, and on January 6th, Mr. Smith, of South Carolina, the
+chairman of this committee, reported from it to the Senate the House
+bill admitting Maine, with an amendment authorizing the people of
+Missouri, within the general geographical boundaries already
+described, to form a constitution and Commonwealth government. The
+amendment contained no restrictions or conditions with regard to
+slavery.
+
+On January 13th, the day fixed for considering the report of the
+committee, Mr. Roberts, of Pennsylvania, moved the recommitment of the
+Maine bill to the {83} Judiciary committee, with the instruction that
+the bill should be divested of the amendment in regard to Missouri.
+The vote upon this motion would, therefore, reveal the attitude of the
+Senate upon the question of tacking the two subjects together. Such
+men as Mr. Roberts, Mr. Mellen, Mr. Burrill, and Mr. Otis argued that
+they should be disconnected, on the ground of the discordance of the
+two provisions. The people of Maine, they said, had already formed
+their constitution and government, and were simply asking for
+admission, while the Missouri bill was a measure for enabling the
+people of a part of the Missouri Territory to form a constitution and
+government, under which they might be admitted later, provided that
+constitution should prove satisfactory to Congress.
+
+On the other hand, such men as Mr. Barbour, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Macon
+contended that the two subjects were entirely germane, and that any
+contrary appearance was caused by the unwarranted action of the people
+of Maine in proceeding so far as they had done without asking the
+consent of Congress, for which wrongful procedure presumptuous Maine
+should not be rewarded and respectful Missouri punished.
+
+[Sidenote: The refusal of the Senate to disconnect the two measures.]
+
+On the 14th, the vote was taken upon the motion to recommit, and it
+was lost by a majority of seven votes in forty-three. A number of the
+Senators from the Northern Commonwealths voted with the Southerners in
+refusing to separate the two subjects.
+
+The question then came upon the contents of the bill as reported by
+the Judiciary committee. Mr. Roberts immediately moved to amend the
+bill by a provision prohibiting the further introduction of slavery
+into Missouri. The arguments upon this motion were substantially a
+repetition of what had already been said {84} upon the subject in the
+House of Representatives. The amendment was voted down, on February
+1st, by a large majority.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Thomas' amendment to the joint measure.]
+
+On the 3rd, Mr. Thomas, of Illinois, offered an amendment, which was
+destined to play a very important part in the further development of
+the subject. It was the proposition to exclude slavery from the
+Louisiana territory above thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes,
+except within the limits of the proposed Commonwealth of Missouri. The
+Senate was not yet prepared, however, to consider this, the question
+before it, at the moment, being the question of procedure, the
+question whether the two subjects should be united in one bill. The
+Senate had only voted not to recommit the bill to the Judiciary
+committee with instructions, and it was thought necessary to take a
+formal vote upon the question of the connection of the two subjects as
+proposed by the committee before considering any further amendments to
+it. Mr. Thomas, therefore, withdrew his motion for the moment.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Pinkney's great argument against the power of Congress
+to lay restrictions on new Commonwealths not imposed by the
+Constitution on the original Commonwealths.]
+
+It was at this stage of the proceedings, when apparently there was
+nothing before the Senate but the question of the union of the two
+subjects, that Mr. Pinkney of Maryland made his brilliant and
+unanswerable argument upon the question of the powers of Congress in
+the premises. It differed logically very little from Mr. McLane's
+powerful analysis of the subject in the House, but it was elaborated
+and embellished as only Mr. Pinkney's beautiful diction could do it.
+The gist of the reasoning was, however, contained in a few sentences
+which ran as follows: "What, then, is the professed result? To admit a
+State into this Union. What is this Union? A confederation of States,
+equal {85} in sovereignty, capable of everything which the
+Constitution does not forbid, or authorize Congress to forbid. It is
+an equal union between parties equally sovereign. They were sovereign,
+independent of the Union. The object of the Union was common
+protection for the exercise of already existing sovereignty. The
+parties gave up a portion of that sovereignty to insure the remainder.
+As far as they gave it up by the common compact, they have ceased to
+be sovereign. The Union provides the means for securing the residue;
+and it is into _that_ Union that a new State is to come. By acceding
+to it, the new State is placed on the same footing with the original
+States. It accedes for the same purpose, that is, protection for its
+unsurrendered sovereignty. If it comes in shorn of its beams, crippled
+and disparaged beyond the original States, it is not into the original
+Union that it comes. For it is a different sort of Union. The first
+was a Union _inter pares_. This is a Union _inter disparates_, between
+giants and a dwarf, between power and feebleness, between full
+proportioned sovereignties and a miserable image of power--a thing
+which that very Union has shrunk and shrivelled from its just size
+instead of preserving it in its true dimensions. It is into _this_
+Union, that is the Union of the Federal Constitution, that you are to
+admit or refuse to admit. You can admit into no other. You cannot make
+the Union, as to the new States, what it is not as to the old; for
+then it is not _this_ Union that you open for the entrance of a new
+party. If you make it enter into a new and additional compact is it
+any longer the same Union?... But it is a State which you are to
+admit. What is a _State_ in the sense of the Constitution? It is not a
+State in general, but a State as you find it in the Constitution....
+Ask the Constitution. It shows you {86} what it means by a State by
+reference to the parties to it. It must be such a State as
+Massachusetts, Virginia, and the other members of the American
+Confederacy--a State with full sovereignty except as the Constitution
+restricts it. The whole amount of the argument on the other side is,
+that you may refuse to admit a new State, and that, therefore, if you
+admit, you may prescribe the terms. The answer to that argument is,
+that even if you can refuse, you can prescribe no terms which are
+inconsistent with the act you are to do. You can prescribe no
+conditions which, if carried into effect, would make the new State
+less a sovereign State than, under the Union as it stands, it would
+be. You can prescribe no terms which will make the compact of Union
+between it and the original States essentially different from that
+compact among the original States. You may admit or refuse to admit,
+but if you admit, you must admit a State in the sense of the
+Constitution--a State with all such sovereignty as belongs to the
+original parties; and it must be into _this_ Union that you are to
+admit it, not into a Union of your own dictating, formed out of the
+existing Union by qualifications and new compacts, altering its
+character and effect, and making it fall short of its protecting
+energy in reference to the new State, whilst it requires an energy of
+another sort--the energy of restraint and destruction."
+
+This is the old-fashioned political and rhetorical way of saying what
+the modern publicist would state in such language as this: In a
+federal system of government, all powers are distributed by the state,
+the nation, the ultimate sovereignty, through the Constitution,
+between the central Government and the Commonwealths. The assumption
+by the central Government of the authority to redistribute these
+powers in a different manner, in any {87} given case, is an assumption
+of sovereignty, the Constitution-making power, and the possession of
+any such power by the central Government makes a federal system of
+government impossible. It makes the Commonwealths only creatures and
+agencies of the central Government. It changes the whole system from
+federal government to centralized government. In the federal system of
+government as it existed, in 1820, in the United States, the
+determination of the question whether slavery should exist or not in
+any Commonwealth was reserved through the Constitution to each
+Commonwealth for itself, since this power was neither vested in the
+central Government nor denied to the Commonwealths. If Congress could
+assume this power, it could assume any and every other power and right
+which the Commonwealths possessed. Such authority in the central
+Government would destroy in principle the federal system, at once, and
+make the government a centralized form.
+
+[Sidenote: Pinkney's argument successful.]
+
+There was nobody in the Senate who did, or could, answer this
+argument. The amendments proposed after this to the bill as reported
+from the Judiciary committee contained no further restrictions upon
+the Commonwealth powers of Missouri, but had reference only to what
+remained of the Louisiana territory north and west of the boundaries
+of the proposed Commonwealth.
+
+[Sidenote: The adoption of Mr. Thomas' amendment by the Senate, and
+the passage of the Maine-Missouri bill thus amended.]
+
+The formal vote connecting the two subjects of Maine and Missouri was
+taken in the Senate on February 16th, and after this was resolved
+upon, Mr. Thomas immediately renewed his motion to amend the bill by
+the addition of a clause prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana
+territory above thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, outside of the
+boundaries of the proposed Commonwealth of Missouri. After an attempt,
+on the {88} one side, to carry this line up to the fortieth parallel,
+and a counter attempt on the other to make the prohibition extend to
+all the territory west of the Mississippi, except that already under
+Commonwealth government, or in process of being put under Commonwealth
+government by the existing bill--the result of which would have been
+the prohibition of slavery in the just organized Territory of
+Arkansas--Mr. Thomas' amendment was adopted as the fair compromise.
+The bill, as thus amended, passed the Senate on February 18th, 1820,
+and was sent immediately to the House of Representatives.
+
+[Sidenote: The House of Representatives' refusal to agree to the
+combination.]
+
+[Sidenote: The conference on the subject, and the first Missouri
+compromise.]
+
+The form of the bill was now the House bill in regard to Maine, with
+the Missouri bill and the Thomas proposition attached to it as
+amendments. The House voted to disagree to these amendments, and sent
+the bill, stripped of them, back to the Senate. The Senate voted
+immediately to insist upon its amendments, and the House answered with
+a vote insisting upon its position. Thereupon, the Senate requested a
+conference with the House upon the subject, and appointed Mr. Pinkney,
+Mr. Barbour, and Mr. Thomas as its representatives. The House acceded
+to the request and appointed Mr. Holmes, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Lowndes, Mr.
+Parker, and Mr. Kinsey as its representatives. These gentlemen met and
+agreed without much difficulty to the following points: That the
+Senate should withdraw its amendments to the House bill for the
+admission of Maine; that both the Senate and the House should pass the
+Missouri bill, without the condition in reference to the restriction
+of slavery in the proposed Commonwealth; and that both the Senate and
+the House should add a provision to the Missouri bill prohibiting
+slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana territory north of
+thirty-six degrees and thirty {89} minutes. That is, the House should
+gain its point of order in the separation of the two subjects; the
+Senate should gain its point of constitutional law in defending the
+new Commonwealth against restrictions not imposed by the Constitution
+upon the original Commonwealths; and the two should compromise upon a
+fair division of the remaining parts of the Louisiana territory
+between the interests of the North and those of the South. The Senate
+accepted the recommendations of the committee without much difficulty,
+and voted the measures contained in them. The House also accepted the
+recommendations and voted the necessary provisions upon its part.
+
+[Sidenote: President Monroe's approval of the Compromise.]
+
+When the measures were placed before President Monroe for his
+approval, he called a meeting of the Cabinet to consider the subject.
+There was no difficulty except upon a single point, the prohibition of
+slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana territory above thirty-six
+degrees and thirty minutes north latitude. Was this to be taken as
+prohibiting slavery in the Commonwealths which might be formed upon
+this territory in the future, or did the Congress only intend to lay
+this restriction upon this territory merely for the period during
+which it might continue subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the
+general Government, the period of Territorial organization? If the
+former, the Missouri question would have to be fought over again
+whenever a new Commonwealth should be formed in this territory. The
+Cabinet interpreted the prohibition as applying only during the period
+before the Commonwealth organization should be established, and upon
+the basis of this interpretation advised the President that the
+measure was constitutional. The President signed the Maine bill on the
+3rd of March and the Missouri bill on the 6th (1820).
+
+{90} [Sidenote: Review of the points involved in the contest.]
+
+So far as the questions of constitutional and parliamentary law were
+concerned, the settlement reached was in accordance with right
+principles. It was right that the two subjects, which the Senate
+united in one bill, should be separated. The only justification for
+this act of the Senate was the manifest determination on the part of
+the House to impose an unconstitutional restriction as the condition
+upon which the people of Missouri should be allowed to assume the
+status and the powers of a Commonwealth of the Union. It was the only
+weapon left to the more conservative Senate, by which to defend the
+Constitution against the rashness of the more radical House. It need
+astonish no impartial student of our history that the Senate used it.
+No such momentous question was involved in this point of parliamentary
+procedure as there was in the exaggerated interpretation of the powers
+of Congress by the House. The Senate showed its willingness to yield
+its position upon this point so soon as the House would return to
+sound constitutional principle in the Missouri question. It was
+fortunate for the development of the parliamentary practice of
+Congress that the House so changed its position in reference to the
+greater question of constitutional law as to enable the Senate to
+return to the true parliamentary principle of the separation of
+subjects which differ in essence or in circumstances in the slightest
+degree. While, therefore, the Senate should not be too strongly
+criticised for using its power over its own rules of procedure, as a
+means of retaliation, it is a matter of great satisfaction that
+expedients were at last found for maintaining right principle and
+sound parliamentary custom in the case. And it was surely right that
+the attempt to make Congress the distributor of powers between the
+general Government and the Commonwealths {91} was abandoned. The power
+which _made_ the Constitution can alone set up the metes and bounds
+between the realm of authority of the general Government and that of
+the Commonwealths. This is the indispensable condition of federal
+government. If the general Government possesses such power, the system
+is centralized in theory, and may become so in fact at the pleasure of
+the general Government. If, on the other hand, the Commonwealths
+possess such power, the system is the loosest form of confederation,
+an international league.
+
+It is true that the Constitution may authorize the general Government
+to limit the powers of the Commonwealths in regard to certain
+specified points and the federal system be still preserved, but a
+general authority in the general Government to do so, such as was
+claimed by the restrictionists from the vague provision vesting in
+Congress the power to "admit new States into this Union," amounts to
+nothing less than a claim of sovereignty by Congress over the new
+Commonwealths. Such was not the system which those who framed and
+ratified the Constitution intended to establish. Such is not the
+system which comports with the vast territorial extent and the
+climatic differences of the United States, and with the ethnical
+variety of the population of the country.
+
+It is also true that those who resisted the restriction upon Missouri
+used terms and propositions, in reference to the genesis of the Union
+and the relation of the general Government to the Commonwealths, which
+will hardly bear the test of correct history and exact political
+science, but they had the true principle in respect to the point at
+issue, when they held that "the State," in the sense of the
+Constitution, is defined in the Constitution; that its powers are the
+residue after what the Constitution vests exclusively in the general
+{92} Government and denies to the "States" shall have been subtracted
+from sovereignty; and that Congress cannot vary these relations under
+an interpretation of a general provision. They conceded that Congress
+might, as the general principle, admit or not admit, as it might judge
+proper, with all that this involved in reference to geographical
+boundaries and ripeness of the population for self-government, but
+they held that the thing admitted was created by the Constitution,
+through the people inhabiting the district to be formed into a
+Commonwealth, and not by Congress. And they repudiated the idea that
+the Declaration of Independence is any part of the constitutional law
+of the country, or that Congress can define the republican form of
+government which the United States is obligated by the Constitution to
+guarantee to every Commonwealth, in any other sense than that
+concretely expressed in the original Commonwealths.
+
+They held this ground under enormous strain and pressure brought from
+without. Cross-roads assemblies, town and city meetings, and
+Commonwealth legislatures poured petitions and memorials in upon them
+in behalf of slavery restriction. The excitement, throughout the
+Northeast especially, was intense. They had to fight their battle
+under an ignoble issue. But it will not be denied by any impartial
+constitutional lawyer that they were, for this time, the upholders of
+the Constitution against an unwarranted attempt to stretch
+Congressional power.
+
+Finally, the compromise provision, drawing the line of thirty-six
+degrees and thirty minutes through the Louisiana territory, and
+securing all north of it, which was by far the greater part, against
+the introduction of slavery during the period that it might remain
+under the exclusive jurisdiction of the general Government, was {93}
+tantamount to a surrender, forever, of this vast domain to immigration
+from the North almost exclusively, and to the creation therein of new
+Commonwealths into which slaveholders could not take their slave
+property. Many American historians treat the express exclusion of
+slavery north of this line as no concession to the North, but as a
+mask under which the real concession, the concession to the South, was
+hidden. This they claim to have been the implied concession to hold
+slaves south of that line. But slavery was legal by custom in the
+whole of the province of Louisiana, when the United States received it
+from France. That is, a master might have taken slaves into any part
+of it, into which he might have gone himself, and would not thereby
+have violated any law, and the United States Government had not, down
+to 1820, changed this state of things by any act of its own.
+
+The compromise upon the line of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes
+was, therefore, a very decided limitation upon the existing rights of
+slave-masters. And even if slavery had not already penetrated into
+this region, it can hardly be claimed that the balance of advantage
+created by the compromise provision lay with the South, except upon
+the principle that the South ought not to have had anything, and the
+North ought to have had everything. Ethically, perhaps, this is the
+correct principle from which to judge the question, but politically
+and legally it was not, at that moment.
+
+The Union consisted of Commonwealths, in all of which slavery existed
+at the time of and during the War for Independence, in almost all of
+which it existed when the Constitution of 1787 was framed and adopted,
+and in about half of which it existed, as the most important
+institution, at the period of the Missouri controversy. Further, it
+can hardly be denied that the Constitution contained recognition and
+guarantees of slave property. {94} The vague phrases of the
+Declaration of Independence, even if intended to touch the relation of
+master and slave within the country, were not law. It is true that
+slavery was regarded both in the North and in the South as an evil,
+but men differed in opinion as to whether confining the slaves to a
+particular section was a better means for its mitigation than
+spreading them over a larger area, and reducing thus their number
+relative to the white population in any particular section.
+
+Surrounded in thought with the ideas and conditions of 1820, it is
+difficult to see why the balance of advantage contained in the
+compromise provision of the Missouri bill did not lie with the North.
+Compromise or no compromise about the remainder of the Louisiana
+territory, Missouri was bound to be admitted without restriction as to
+slavery. The customary law of the region seeking to become a
+Commonwealth permitted slaveholding. The population was sufficient to
+warrant the assumption of Commonwealth powers. The Constitution did
+not authorize Congress to impose the slavery restriction, and the
+people of the region had protested against it. The admission of
+Missouri was, therefore, no legitimate element in the compromise.
+Neither was the agreement on the part of the Senate to separate Maine
+from Missouri any proper element in the compromise. The restriction
+placed by the House on Missouri rested on a false interpretation of
+constitutional law, and the connection of the two subjects in the same
+bill rested on a false interpretation of parliamentary law. In
+principle both had to be abandoned. The compromise was in reality only
+about the remainder of the Louisiana territory after the admission of
+Missouri, in no part of which had slavery, to that moment, been
+prohibited. How much of it should continue open to the further
+introduction of slavery by the immigration of {95} masters with their
+slaves, and how much should be given over to practically exclusive
+immigration from the North--these were the only proper terms of the
+compromise. What the South finally obtained out of it was one
+Commonwealth, while the vast region from which slavery was excluded
+has produced eight or nine Commonwealths. In the light of these
+considerations it certainly appears that the cause of free labor won a
+substantial triumph in the Missouri compromise, and that, in place of
+that shameful surrender of freedom to slavery, so emphasized by
+certain historians, a mighty step forward in the progress of liberty
+was taken.
+
+It was confidently hoped and believed that the compromise had solved
+the slavery problem, in so far as Congress could solve it. The whole
+country breathed more easily and the thoughts of men were turned to
+other subjects.
+
+[Sidenote: The revival of the Missouri struggle.]
+
+But the peace proved to be only an armistice. In less than twelve
+months the battle was raging again with more than its former fury.
+
+The Missouri convention, which drew up and voted, in the middle of the
+year 1820, the organic law for the new Commonwealth, inserted a
+paragraph therein which made it the duty of the legislature, proposed
+to be established by that law, to enact measures for preventing
+mulattoes and free negroes from immigrating into and settling within
+the Commonwealth.
+
+[Sidenote: The Missouri constitution in Congress.]
+
+On November 14th, 1820, this instrument was presented to the Senate of
+the United States, and on the 16th to the House of Representatives,
+for the purpose of moving these bodies to pass an act admitting
+Missouri into the Union as a Commonwealth. The instrument was
+immediately referred by each House to a committee; and on the 23rd,
+Mr. Lowndes, the chairman of the House Committee, {96} reported a bill
+for effecting this result, and, on the 29th, Mr. Smith reported a bill
+of like tenor to the Senate.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Lowndes' bill for the admission of Missouri with the
+instrument unchanged.]
+
+Mr. Lowndes' bill was prefaced by a statement of views, which
+presented the questions of constitutional interpretation to which the
+provision referred to in the Missouri instrument gave rise. He alluded
+to the possible repugnance of the provision to that clause in the
+Constitution of the United States which guarantees to the citizens of
+each Commonwealth all the privileges and immunities of citizens in
+every other Commonwealth; but said that the provision in the Missouri
+instrument could be interpreted to mean only such mulattoes and free
+negroes as were not citizens in any Commonwealth. And he held that,
+whether this be the true interpretation or not, the judiciary of the
+United States, and not the Congress, should determine the question of
+repugnance between the Missouri instrument and the Constitution of the
+United States. He finally took the ground that Missouri was now
+already a Commonwealth by virtue of the Act of Congress giving her
+people permission to form Commonwealth government, and by virtue of
+the act of her people in forming a Commonwealth constitution, and he
+declared that the refusal or failure of Congress, at this time, to
+pass a formal act of admission could not reduce her again to the
+Territorial status.
+
+[Sidenote: Serious opposition to the Lowndes bill.]
+
+Mr. Sergeant, the spokesman of the opposition to Mr. Lowndes' report,
+met these propositions with the counter-propositions, that a Territory
+becomes a Commonwealth of the Union only by a Congressional Act
+admitting it to that status; that no other kind of a Commonwealth than
+a Commonwealth in the Union is known to the political {97} system of
+the United States; that all the acts done by Congress and by the
+people resident within a Territory before the Congressional Act of
+admission are nothing more than preliminaries, and that a Territory
+remains a Territory until the passage of this latter act; that the
+provision in the Missouri instrument in regard to the exclusion of
+mulattoes and free negroes was repugnant to that clause in the
+Constitution of the United States which guarantees to the citizens of
+any Commonwealth the privileges and immunities of citizens in every
+other Commonwealth of the Union into which they may go; and that
+Congress, not the Judiciary, is the body which should determine
+whether such repugnance exists, and, if so, correct it.
+
+There is no doubt that, from the point of view of a correct political
+logic, the opponents of Mr. Lowndes' propositions in regard to the
+making of a Commonwealth of the Union stood upon the firmer ground,
+despite the fact that the precedents did not sustain fully their
+claims. As a fact, Congress had been guilty of such irregularities in
+the admission of some of the Commonwealths as to give much support to
+the notion that there could be a Commonwealth in the political system
+of the United States before its formal admission into the Union. But
+the argument is unanswerable, that a Commonwealth not in the Union is
+a foreign state; that in order that a Territory shall attain this
+latter position and status its constitutional right to secede from the
+United States must be recognized, which is absurd; and that,
+therefore, the Congressional Act of admission is what makes a
+Territory of the Union into a Commonwealth of the Union, the only kind
+of a Commonwealth known to the political system of the United States.
+
+They also stood upon the firmer ground in holding {98} that it is the
+duty of Congress to scrutinize closely the measures proposed for
+enactment by it from the point of view of their constitutionality, and
+to pass no act, of the constitutionality of which it is not reasonably
+convinced, under the pretext that the Judiciary is the proper body to
+correct the usurpation. The members of Congress take the same oath to
+uphold the Constitution as the judges do. The revisory powers of the
+Judiciary over the acts of Congress were not given in order to excuse
+the Congress from exercising its preliminary judgment upon the
+constitutionality of its own acts. They were given simply to correct
+errors in judgment.
+
+[Sidenote: The protection of the rights of citizens of one
+Commonwealth within the territory of another by the United States.]
+
+On the other hand, when a citizen of one Commonwealth immigrated into
+and settled in another, it was a question whether he did not lose the
+right to be treated as a citizen in the latter Commonwealth, in so far
+as the Constitution of the United States, as it was in 1820, was
+concerned, and become subject to the laws of the latter Commonwealth
+as to his status. If he were only passing through, or sojourning
+temporarily in, the latter Commonwealth, it was clear that the
+Constitution of the United States protected him as a citizen of
+another Commonwealth, but when he changed his residence and
+citizenship to the latter Commonwealth, the question became much more
+complicated. It was now whether the laws of one Commonwealth were, by
+virtue of the Constitution of the United States, valid in another
+Commonwealth for the protection of persons against the laws of the
+latter Commonwealth, who had become citizens and residents of the
+latter Commonwealth.
+
+It must be remembered, however, that the immediate question involved
+in the provision of the Missouri instrument was whether a Commonwealth
+could prohibit the citizens of other Commonwealths from immigrating
+{99} into, and gaining residence and citizenship within, itself. How
+it might treat such persons after these things had been accomplished
+was a subsequent matter. But even limiting the question to this point,
+it was certainly a startling thing to the Southerners to be told that,
+by virtue of the Constitution of the United States, a negro citizen of
+Massachusetts had the right to immigrate into, and become a citizen
+of, South Carolina, when the laws of South Carolina did not admit
+negroes to citizenship.
+
+[Sidenote: Defeat of the Lowndes bill in the House.]
+
+On December 13th (1820), after a long, earnest, and, at times,
+acrimonious debate, the Lowndes measure for the admission of Missouri
+was defeated by a vote of ninety-three to seventy-nine.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the Senate bill with a proviso by the Senate.]
+
+The bill presented by Mr. Smith in the Senate was taken up for
+consideration on December 4th. The arguments pro and con were about
+the same as those offered in the House, but the bitterness of feeling
+which seemed to animate the members of the opposition to the measure
+in the House was not manifested by those adverse to it in the Senate.
+Nevertheless, there was a majority in the Senate against passing a
+simple measure for admission without any limitations. They finally
+voted the bill, with the proviso attached: "That nothing herein
+contained shall be so construed as to give the assent of Congress to
+any provision in the constitution of Missouri, if any such there be,
+which contravenes that clause in the Constitution of the United States
+which declares that 'the citizens of each State shall be entitled to
+all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.'"
+
+[Sidenote: The Senate bill tabled by the House.]
+
+The House tabled this bill on the same day that it rejected the
+measure offered by its own committee. But what now was the status of
+Missouri? Her people had {100} elected a governor and members of the
+legislature under the organic law formed in July, and it was
+considered doubtful whether there still existed any Territorial
+officials exercising governmental powers. The House, however, would
+not even inquire into this fact. They said the question before them
+was one of law and not of fact at all.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Clay and the second Missouri Compromise.]
+
+After some futile attempts made by Mr. Eustis, of Massachusetts, for
+the admission of Missouri upon a future day, provided the obnoxious
+clause should be expunged from her organic law before that day, Mr.
+Clay came forward and assumed the management of the question.
+
+On January 29th, 1821, he asked the House to go into committee of the
+Whole to consider the Senate bill admitting Missouri. This proposition
+was naturally agreed to, and, after several unsuccessful attempts made
+by others at an immediate amendment of the Senate bill in the
+committee of the Whole House, Mr. Clay moved the reference of the bill
+to a select committee of thirteen persons. This motion was passed, and
+the committee was chosen, with Mr. Clay as its chairman.
+
+On February 10th, 1821, Mr. Clay reported the recommendations of the
+committee. They were expressed in the proposition: That Missouri
+should be "admitted into this Union on an equal footing with the
+original States, in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental
+condition that the said State shall never pass any law preventing any
+description of persons from coming to and settling in the said State,
+who may now be or hereafter become citizens of any of the States of
+this Union; _and provided also_, that the legislature of the said
+State, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said
+State to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the
+President of the United States, on or before the fourth {101} Monday
+of November next, an authentic copy of the said act: upon the
+reception whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce the
+fact: whereupon, and without any further proceedings on the part of
+Congress, the admission of the said State shall be considered as
+complete: _and provided_ further, that nothing herein contained shall
+be construed to take from the said State of Missouri, when admitted
+into this Union, the exercise of any right or power, which can now be
+constitutionally exercised by any of the original States."
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of Mr. Clay's first attempt.]
+
+Mr. Tomlinson, of the committee, took the floor against the report,
+and showed so conclusively that the legislature of a Commonwealth
+could not bind the makers of the organic law of the Commonwealth, and
+that, therefore, any obligation which the legislature of Missouri
+might assume toward Congress might prove nugatory, that the Senate
+bill, with the amendment offered by Mr. Clay's committee, was voted
+down.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Clay's second attempt to secure a compromise.]
+
+Mr. Clay waited ten days after this in order to let the feelings of
+the members become mollified, and on February 22nd, one of the most
+significant days in American history, made his final attempt to secure
+a compromise. He moved that members to a conference committee be
+appointed by the House. The motion was carried, and on the next day
+the members of the House contingent of the committee, consisting of
+twenty-three persons, under the lead of Mr. Clay, were appointed. The
+Senate met the advance promptly and appointed seven members to
+represent it.
+
+[Sidenote: The second Missouri Compromise.]
+
+On the 26th, Mr. Clay reported the results of the conference, in the
+form of a resolution of the following tenor: "Resolved, by the Senate
+and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress {102}
+assembled, that Missouri shall be admitted into this Union on an equal
+footing with the original States in all respects whatever, upon the
+fundamental condition, that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth
+section of the third article of the constitution submitted on the part
+of said State to Congress shall never be construed to authorize the
+passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity
+thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States of this Union
+shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and
+immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of
+the United States: Provided that the legislature of the said State, by
+a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said State to the
+said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the
+United States, on or before the fourth Monday in November next, an
+authentic copy of the said act; upon the receipt whereof the
+President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon, and
+without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the admission
+of the said State into this Union shall be considered as complete."
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the second Missouri Compromise Act.]
+
+It will be seen that this recommendation contained the same
+objectionable feature as did that of the committee of Thirteen of the
+House, that is, the proposition to rely upon the Missouri legislature
+to enter into an obligation to Congress, which should bind all future
+legislatures and also the constituent power of the Commonwealth. It
+was, therefore, attacked upon the same ground, but the supporters
+urged so strongly that Congress should put a reasonable faith in the
+honor of Missouri to keep the pledge made by her first legislature,
+that the resolution was finally adopted by the House, by a very small
+majority, on the same day that it was reported. It was immediately
+sent to the {103} Senate for concurrence, and, after a brief debate,
+was voted by that body on the 28th, by a large majority.
+
+The great struggle was at last over, and it was sincerely hoped that
+the "era of good feeling," so suddenly interrupted by it, had been
+restored. Apparently it was so, but while the decision finally reached
+saved the country from one great danger, it sowed the seeds of
+another. A brief review of the effects of that decision upon the
+constitutional law, political science, and social conditions of the
+Republic will make this apparent.
+
+[Sidenote: The general effects of the decisions reached in the
+Missouri question.]
+
+In the first place, the decision involved the constitutional and
+political principle that, in the federal system of government
+generally, and in the system of the United States in particular, the
+powers of government are, and must be, distributed by the sovereignty
+behind, and supreme over, both the general Government and the
+Commonwealths, and not by either of the two governments, unless
+expressly empowered to do so, in specific cases, by the sovereignty
+through the Constitution. This is undoubtedly a sound principle, both
+of political science and constitutional law, but it taught the
+Southerners that protection of their property in slaves would depend
+upon strict construction of the Constitution. It caused their leaders
+to desert the broad national ground in the interpretation of the
+Constitution which they had occupied since 1812, and to seek more and
+more to limit and restrict the powers of Congress, in which the
+majority of the members of one House, at least, must always come from
+the North, and in the other House of which no more than an exact
+balance could be maintained.
+
+It introduced, therefore, the principle which led necessarily to a
+division of the all-comprehending Republican party into two branches,
+the one branch holding {104} to the latitudinarian and national views
+of the party from 1812 to 1819, and the other to the earlier creed of
+1798 to 1812. The former finally coalesced with the remnants of the
+Federal party and formed the National Republican or Whig party, while
+the latter called itself the Democratic party.
+
+It is necessary to keep clearly in mind the cause of the division of
+the Republican party into its two branches in order to understand the
+principles which distinguished them, for their names are somewhat
+misleading. For example, it is quite difficult to understand, upon
+general principles, why the slaveholders of the South should be called
+Democrats, while many of the little farmers and the artisans of the
+North should be called Whigs. The element of democracy which was to be
+found in the political creed of the Southern masters was strict
+construction of governmental powers, the least possible interference
+of government in private affairs, and the largest possible individual
+autonomy--in a word, individual immunity against government. The
+master could take care of himself, if left free to rule his slaves.
+
+In the second place, the Missouri decision involved the principle of
+constitutional law that the Congress has general powers of legislation
+in the Territories, and may do anything therein not forbidden by the
+Constitution. This is also a sound and valuable principle. It was this
+which won the great Northwest for free labor, so far as government
+could affect the question, and gave the Union the strength to meet the
+crisis of 1861-65. The Southerners eventually saw what they had lost
+in conceding this interpretation of the powers of Congress, and, as
+will be seen further on, sought to repudiate it; but their long
+acquiescence in it had allowed it to gain the power of constitutional
+precedent, too strong to be successfully overcome.
+
+{105} In the third place, the Missouri decision involved the principle
+that there was, before the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, an United
+States citizenship which carried with it immunities and privileges
+which no Commonwealth could lawfully deny or abridge, and which the
+United States Government was bound to protect and defend against any
+Commonwealth seeking to impair them. It demonstrated the difficulties
+which could arise by allowing a Commonwealth to confer United States
+citizenship, and thereby bind the United States Government to sustain
+the acts of one Commonwealth within the jurisdiction of another
+Commonwealth, whose laws might be directly contradictory to those of
+the first Commonwealth upon the subject in point. It did not undertake
+to solve the difficulty. It only held firmly to the principle, while
+it made many of the best minds aware that this most national provision
+of the Constitution would, sooner or later, certainly require an
+advance all along the line in the further development of the
+governmental system of the country.
+
+In the fourth place, the Missouri decision taught the inhabitants of
+the older Commonwealths that the West could not be held in a
+provincial or quasi-provincial status; that it must be carved up and
+formed into Commonwealths having the same powers and privileges as the
+older Commonwealths; and that, therefore, the political centre of the
+United States was bound to move westward, and the East was ultimately
+to come, in large degree, under the influence of the West. It was this
+which has helped powerfully to carry the brain and the money of the
+East to the West, and is making in the West a new, and, in some
+respects, more enterprising, East.
+
+Finally, the Missouri decision taught the South that there was a
+provision in the Constitution of the United {106} States which
+probably made it possible for the Northern Commonwealths to force,
+through the power of the general Government, a class of persons upon
+the Southern Commonwealths, in the enjoyment of the full rights of
+citizenship, whom these Commonwealths did not and would not recognize
+as citizens in any respect; and that there was a growing disposition
+at the North to make an advance against slavery at every possible
+point. The effect of this conviction was most baleful both upon the
+spirit of the masters and the status of the slaves. It created that
+resentment in the minds of the Southerners against interference in
+their domestic affairs, which closed their ears to all arguments
+against slavery, and it moved them to the enactment of measures in
+their several Commonwealths for the purpose of keeping the slaves
+under stricter discipline and in denser ignorance. It increased
+vastly, if it did not introduce, that utter misunderstanding of each
+other's feelings and motives between the people of the two sections,
+which made it possible for the people of the North to believe,
+finally, that the story of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was the sober truth,
+and the general rule of conduct of master toward slave in the South,
+and for the people of the South to believe that jealousy of riches and
+comfort was the sole spirit which prompted the attacks of the North
+upon slavery--a misunderstanding, therefore, which proved
+irreconcilable so long as the subject of it remained.
+
+The Missouri decision made thus both for good and for evil--for good,
+surely, in that it produced clearer ideas upon the character of
+federal government, and preserved the East from an illiberal political
+policy toward the West; and in that it secured the great Northwest for
+free labor;--for evil, possibly, in that it estranged the two sections
+of the Union, and put a stop to any movement in the South for the
+gradual and {107} peaceable emancipation of the slaves, or for the
+substantial amelioration of their condition. It is not very likely,
+however, that any such movement would have proved successful, and it
+is, therefore, probable that what appears on the outside to have been
+an evil was in reality a good, in that it drove the disease in the
+body politic of the South onward toward the crisis, which must be
+passed in order that the permanent cure might be effected.
+
+
+
+
+{108}
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE PARTICULARISTIC REACTION
+
+Slavery and the Industrial Policies of the Union--President Monroe and
+Protection after 1820--The Committee on Manufactures--The Tariff Bill
+of 1823--The General Character of the Bill, and its Failure to
+Pass--President Monroe's Message of 1823, and Protection--The Tariff
+Bill of 1824--Mr. Clay's Argument in its Support--Mr. Clay's Argument
+Answered--The First Expression of the Doctrine that Protection and
+Slavery were Hostile Interests--The Bill Amended and Passed--The
+Tariff of 1824 not yet Considered Sectional Legislation--South
+Carolina and the Tariff of 1824--The Historical Development of the
+Doctrine of Internal Improvements--Madison's Ideas upon Internal
+Improvements--The Bill of 1822 for Internal Improvements--Passage of
+the Bill, and Analysis of the Vote upon it--The Bill in the Interests
+of the West--President Monroe's Veto, and Communication of May 4th,
+1822--President Monroe's Argument, and the Vote upon the
+Veto--Congressional Act of 1824 for Distinguishing National from Local
+Improvements--Foreign Relations During Monroe's Second Term--Russia
+and the Northwest Coast of America--The Holy Alliance--The Congress at
+Verona--Mr. Adams' Declaration to Baron Tuyl--Mr. Canning's Proposal
+to Mr. Rush--Mr. Canning's Declaration to Prince Polignac--The "Monroe
+Doctrine"--The Meaning of the Monroe Propositions in 1824--Failure to
+Commit Congress to these Propositions--The Particularistic Reaction
+Scarcely Discoverable before 1824.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Slavery and the industrial policies of the Union.]
+
+It was hoped and believed that the settlement of the Missouri question
+and the compromise in reference to the remainder of the Louisiana
+cession had put the problem of negro slavery out of the realm of
+national politics. In fact, however, the struggle over these questions
+had introduced it into that realm, and had {109} first opened the eyes
+of the slaveholders to the bearings of the slavery interest upon all
+the questions of constitutional law and public policy. From the point
+of view of that interest their attitude toward all these questions was
+more and more determined as they came to understand more and more
+clearly the relation of these questions to that interest. While,
+therefore, the settlement and the compromise served to withdraw the
+question of slavery from the direct and immediate issue, they, at the
+same time, left it the secret influence over views and actions in
+many, if not most, directions.
+
+At the next session, beginning in December of 1821, propositions were
+introduced into the Senate to limit and decrease the admiralty
+jurisdiction of the United States courts, to make the Senate itself a
+court of appeal from the regular Judiciary in cases where a "State"
+should be a party, and to limit to two hundred the number of members
+in the House of Representatives.
+
+The purpose of all these projects is apparent. Indeed, their proposers
+said openly and frankly that their purpose was to lessen and limit the
+powers of the general Government in the interests of "States'-rights."
+
+It was natural, however, that the new spirit of particularism should
+attack the policies of the Government rather than the structure of the
+political system, or, more correctly, should undertake to control
+these policies before it sought to transform that system.
+
+[Sidenote: President Monroe and protection after 1820.]
+
+We have seen with what unanimity and national enthusiasm the
+protection of home industries was regarded, in the half decade between
+1815 and 1820, as a measure indispensable to the attainment and
+maintenance of industrial independence. Not even Calhoun then
+understood the relation between this policy and the interests of
+slavery. The Presidents, Madison and {110} Monroe, were utterly
+oblivious to it. Even after the Missouri struggle, Mr. Monroe
+continued to recommend the protection of manufactures for the
+attainment of industrial independence as the true national policy. His
+annual messages of 1821 and of 1822 contain this recommendation. He
+either did not comprehend the relation of the slavery interests to the
+protective system or disregarded it. It could hardly have been the
+latter, for, although he was no radical supporter of slavery, he was a
+slaveholder and a very conservative man.
+
+[Sidenote: The committee on Manufactures.]
+
+The House of Representatives, the body which had upheld even radically
+national views of the character of the political system during the
+Missouri struggle, very naturally responded to Mr. Monroe's
+recommendation, and referred it to its committee on Manufactures for
+consideration and support. Heretofore this subject had been referred
+to the committee on Ways and Means, the regular revenue-raising
+committee. Its reference now to the committee on Manufactures is good
+evidence that the House of Representatives regarded a protective
+tariff as a subject which Congress might deal with independently, and
+without any necessary connection with the subject of the revenue. Such
+a view is radically national. It rests upon the doctrine that Congress
+may do anything in the regulation of foreign trade and commerce which,
+in its own opinion, is conducive to the general welfare, regardless of
+the pecuniary needs of the Government.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff Bill of 1823.]
+
+On January 9th, 1823, Mr. Tod, of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the
+committee on Manufactures, reported a tariff bill. It proposed to
+nearly double the existing duty upon iron, quadruple that upon coarse
+woollens, and to increase the custom-house valuation of dyed cotton
+goods by some forty per centum.
+
+{111} Moreover, the bill made no provision for the future reduction of
+these duties. It therefore indicated that protection was to be the
+permanent policy, protection so high as to amount to the prohibition
+of the importation of coarse cottons and woollens and bar iron. In
+fact, Mr. Tod conceded that the prohibition of the importation of
+coarse woollens was intended. He said that the tariff of 1816 on
+coarse cotton goods had given a monopoly of the domestic markets for
+such goods to the home manufacturers, while the price of the goods had
+been reduced through home competition by one-half, and that his
+committee desired to bring about the same result in regard to the
+manufacture of coarse woollens.
+
+[Sidenote: The general character of the bill, and its failure to
+pass.]
+
+Mr. Tod was not able to get a vote upon his bill at this session of
+the Congress. Three significant facts, however, were elicited in the
+course of the debate upon it, facts which indicated the trend of
+political history. These facts were that the bill was a Pennsylvania
+measure, that the South would oppose it, and that Massachusetts and
+New York City would unite with the South in this opposition. It was,
+in fact, a Massachusetts man, Mr. Gorham, who denounced the bill as
+sectional legislation, and advised the South to resist it to the
+utmost. Cotton and commerce, and that meant slavery and commerce, were
+beginning to discover their affinity.
+
+[Sidenote: President Monroe's Message of 1823, and protection.]
+
+President Monroe, however, does not seem to have shared this view of
+the subject. In his message of December 2nd, 1823, he again
+recommended additional protection to "those articles which we are
+prepared to manufacture, or which are more immediately connected with
+the defence and independence of the country."
+
+Thus encouraged by the President, the House of {112} Representatives
+again referred the question of increasing the tariff to Mr. Tod's
+committee.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff Bill of 1824.]
+
+On January 9th, 1824, Mr. Tod brought in his new bill. It was a more
+moderate proposition than that of the preceding session; still it
+provided for a substantial increase of the duties on woollens and
+iron.
+
+Mr. Tod assumed the constitutionality of the bill to be a settled
+question, and supported the policy of it by arguments from the
+necessity of attaining industrial independence in the manufacture of
+the necessaries of life, from the necessity of creating new and more
+remunerative employments for labor, and from the policy of developing
+better home markets for agricultural products. He predicted that an
+ultimate reduction of the prices of manufactured goods would be the
+result of the increased home competition produced by higher duties. He
+did not, however, make out any very satisfactory prospects for
+commerce. This branch of the national pursuits was to make the
+sacrifice.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Clay's argument in its support.]
+
+Mr. Clay made the great argument in defence of the measure. He
+elaborated the patriotic reason in every direction. He pointed out the
+utter dependence of the country upon foreign markets, both for the
+sale of its agricultural products and for the purchase of manufactured
+goods. He demonstrated that these relations had been created by the
+quarter of a century of war in Europe, forcing the European countries
+to buy the agricultural products of the United States to an unusual
+amount, and at high prices, and showed how the restoration of general
+peace in Europe had reduced the demand for, and the price of, these
+products, while it left the United States dependent upon Europe for
+manufactured articles. And he urged the accomplishment of industrial
+independence {113} as a necessary corollary of political independence.
+He contended that the aid granted to the manufacturing interests would
+impose no sacrifice upon the agricultural and commercial interests;
+that by the establishment of new manufacturing centres new home
+markets for the products of agriculture would be created, which would
+not only emancipate the country from the necessity of foreign markets
+for these products, but would give the country steady and certain
+markets, under its own control; and that the growth of manufactures
+would speedily result in the establishment of an export trade in
+manufactured goods to all parts of the world, and especially to South
+America, which would ultimately more than compensate the commercial
+interests for the temporary losses they might incur by reason of the
+increased duties. This was a strongly tinted picture upon both sides.
+It represented the distress of the country too darkly, and it painted
+the speculative benefits of the high tariff in too vivid colors.
+Moreover, Mr. Clay now omitted any reference to the temporary
+character of protection. It now appeared to be a permanent article of
+his creed.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Clay's argument answered.]
+
+[Sidenote: The first expression of the doctrine that protection and
+slavery were hostile interests.]
+
+Webster for Massachusetts, Cambreleng for the city of New York, and
+Barbour for the South, denied Mr. Clay's statement in regard to the
+intense and general financial distress throughout the country, and
+demonstrated the destructive effects of a high tariff upon agriculture
+and commerce, and upon the existing manufacturing interests
+themselves. They contended that such a tariff would so prohibit
+importation of foreign products as to make it impossible for Europe to
+buy the agricultural products of the United States, since Europe would
+not be able to pay for them; that the promised increase of domestic
+markets would not at all compensate for the loss of {114} foreign
+markets; that commerce would thus be destroyed both ways; and that
+even the manufacturing industries already established would suffer
+from the unnatural competition which would be created by the
+inducements which the high tariff would hold out to capital otherwise
+employed. Mr. Barbour frankly declared that the slave labor of the
+South could not be used in the development of manufactures, and that,
+therefore, the high tariff must inure to the benefit of the North, by
+making the South tributary to the North for all manufactured goods.
+
+The theory accepted by all parties, however, at the moment, was, that
+the duties were paid ultimately by the consumers of the imported
+goods. Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, pronounced this doctrine
+himself. Upon this view the North must pay the duties equally, at
+least, with the South. So long, then, as this idea was held, and so
+long as the commercial interests of Massachusetts, Maine, and the city
+of New York made common cause with the agricultural interests of the
+South against the bill, it could not be strictly regarded as sectional
+legislation, it could not develop into a political and constitutional
+question between the North and the South.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill amended and passed.]
+
+While this combination of interests was not able to prevent the House
+from finally passing the bill by a narrow majority, it did succeed in
+imposing several very substantial modifications upon it in the
+direction of more moderate protection.
+
+In the Senate the bill suffered still further modification in the same
+direction. The burden of the Senate's amendments fell, however, on the
+wool- and hemp-growing and liquor-distilling West. It was for this
+reason that the House of Representatives refused to concur in {115}
+them. Recourse was then had to a conference committee, which arranged
+a compromise that gave a little less protection than the House had
+voted, and a little more than the Senate had voted.
+
+The tariff of May, 1824, was still only a moderately protective
+tariff. It was certainly in only one particular anything like
+prohibitory; it preserved the high tariff of 1816 on coarse cotton
+goods. In other respects it was not much more than a continuation of
+the reasonable duties already imposed.
+
+[Sidenote: The tariff of 1824 not yet considered sectional
+legislation.]
+
+So long as the tariff remained moderately protective, and was approved
+in Kentucky and Missouri, and disapproved in Massachusetts, New
+Hampshire, Maine, and the city of New York, and so long as its burdens
+were generally believed to fall ultimately upon the consumers of the
+dutiable articles, it could not take on the form of a sectional issue,
+dominated by the question of slavery. Some of the Southerners had,
+indeed, discovered that slave labor could not be employed in the
+mills, and that, therefore, protection of manufactures would not
+secure the establishment of these industries in the South, and had
+begun to treat the tariff question in a manner to develop a party
+issue out of it. But this tendency had not advanced far enough in 1824
+to produce a division of the all-comprehending Republican party. It
+needed another four years of personal differences among the leaders,
+another revision of the tariff in the direction of higher duties, and
+a more complete consolidation of the North for protection, before this
+result could be attained.
+
+[Sidenote: South Carolina and the tariff of 1824.]
+
+During the passage of the bill public meetings had been held
+throughout South Carolina protesting against it, and the year
+subsequent to its enactment the South Carolina legislature denounced
+it as unconstitutional, but the people {116} of the Commonwealth
+acquiesced, though with very bad temper, in the execution of the law.
+
+The other question of internal policy, to which certain of the
+historians refer as suffering under the baleful influences of the
+slavery interest immediately after 1820, was the question of national
+internal improvements.
+
+[Sidenote: The historical development of the doctrine of internal
+improvements.]
+
+This question became a definite issue in Congress for the first time
+on December 19th, 1805, when a committee of the Senate, charged with
+the duty of reporting to the Senate an opinion as to how the money
+appropriated in the Enabling Act for Ohio ought to be applied,
+recommended the use of it for the building of a road across the
+Alleghanies from Cumberland, in Maryland, to a point upon the Ohio
+River, near Wheeling, in Virginia.
+
+If we may take the first Act passed by Congress, that of March 29th,
+1806, in regard to the matter as expressing the views of the
+Government and the people upon the subject, we must conclude that the
+first matured ideas were that the general Government had the power to
+lay out and construct roads within and through the Commonwealths, by
+and with the consent of the Commonwealths through which they might
+pass. The Cumberland road was originally built by the general
+Government, after the consent thereto of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and
+Virginia had been obtained. The appropriations for subsequent repairs
+upon the road were, however, not considered as requiring the consent
+of those Commonwealths before being made or expended.
+
+[Sidenote: Madison's ideas upon internal improvements.]
+
+The second stage in the evolution of opinion upon the subject was
+attained in the year 1817, when Mr. Madison vetoed Mr. Calhoun's bill
+for setting aside the bonus and the dividends to be paid to the
+Government by the United States Bank as a fund for constructing roads
+and canals, and {117} improving the navigation of water-courses in the
+several Commonwealths. This bill proposed to authorize the general
+Government to expend the money, thus appropriated, only with the
+consent of the Commonwealth, or Commonwealths, in which the proposed
+improvement might lay, antecedently given, and distributed the sum to
+be spent among the Commonwealths according to the ratio of their
+representation in the national House of Representatives. As has been
+pointed out, Madison vetoed this bill on the ground that the power to
+enact it was not to be found among the enumerated powers of Congress,
+and could not be regarded as a necessary and proper means for carrying
+out any of the enumerated powers.
+
+The President drew no distinction between the power to construct
+internal improvements and the power to appropriate money for their
+construction, nor between such powers and the power to administer
+them, or to exercise jurisdiction over them. He regarded all, or any
+of these things, as unwarranted by the Constitution. He furthermore
+declared that the consent of the several Commonwealths to the exercise
+of such powers by the general Government could not make the exercise
+of them constitutional, unless that consent should be given in the
+form of an amendment to the Constitution.
+
+The vote upon the vetoed bill in the House of Representatives
+manifested the fact that a substantial majority of that body remained
+unconvinced by the President's argument. It is reasonably certain that
+Mr. Madison's views were not the views of the country at that moment.
+A large majority of the people felt that he had abandoned his earlier
+faith in regard to this subject. An analysis of the vote upon the
+vetoed bill shows that New England was almost unanimous in opposing
+the measure; that Virginia and North {118} Carolina also opposed it,
+though less decidedly; that New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the
+Northwest, together with South Carolina and Georgia, favored it; and
+that Kentucky and Tennessee inclined to favor it. Certainly, down to
+1817, no influence of the slavery interest upon the question of
+internal improvements is discoverable. It was evident that the general
+opinion was, that the middle Atlantic section and the Northwest would
+receive the larger share of the benefits of a national system of
+internal improvements. It was also evident that New England viewed the
+matter purely in that light, and that Virginia was impelled wholly by
+her ancient principle of strict construction of the powers of the
+general Government. It was South Carolina and Georgia whose actions
+appeared at this juncture to spring from unselfish and patriotic
+motives.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill of 1822 for internal improvements.]
+
+The third stage in the development of constitutional interpretation in
+reference to this subject was attained in the year 1822. In May of
+that year Congress passed a bill appropriating money for the repair of
+the Cumberland road, and authorizing the President to cause the
+erection of toll-gates upon it, and to appoint toll-gatherers. The
+toll charges, and penalties for attempting to avoid paying them, and
+for not keeping to the left in passing, were fixed in the bill itself.
+That is, this bill assumed for the general Government not only the
+powers of appropriating and expending money for the construction of
+the road, but the power of operating the road and jurisdiction over
+it. The passage of such a bill is certainly very good evidence that
+President Madison's views, as expressed in his veto message of March
+3rd, 1817, were not the views of the country in 1822 upon the subject
+of internal improvements.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the bill, and analysis of the vote upon it.]
+
+It is interesting and instructive to analyze the vote upon this bill.
+In the House of Representatives the {119} members from the New England
+section were nearly evenly divided, pro and con. The majority of the
+New Yorkers voted against it. The Pennsylvanians were nearly balanced.
+The Marylanders voted for it. The Virginians were against it by a
+decided majority. The North Carolinians were indifferent. The South
+Carolinians and Georgians abandoned their high national ground of
+1817, and voted unanimously against it. The Representatives from the
+Northwest went unanimously for it; and those from Kentucky now wheeled
+into line with them. Lastly, while the Tennesseeans still maintained
+their attitude of indifference, the members from the Commonwealths
+south of Tennessee, and west of Georgia, all voted for the bill.
+
+In the Senate the majority in favor of the measure was very large.
+Only the Senators from the Carolinas and Alabama, and one Senator from
+Missouri, voted against it.
+
+There is somewhat more of an appearance of slavery influence in the
+vote upon this bill than upon the bill of 1817, in that South Carolina
+showed herself practically a unit against this bill. Still it is
+probable that this opposition rested upon other grounds. Certainly
+when we read in the "Annals of Congress," that so stanch a friend of
+free labor, so eminent a lawyer, and so honorable a man as John W.
+Taylor, of New York, said of this bill that it was so important in its
+character, and proposed such a violation of the Constitution, that he
+felt obliged to call for the yeas and nays upon it, we must concede
+that other motives may have influenced the statesmen of South Carolina
+than such as might have sprung from subserviency to the interests of
+slavery.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill in the interests of the West.]
+
+If we review the analysis of the vote in the House of Representatives
+we shall see that the entire {120} West--taking the Appalachian range
+as the dividing line, for that period, between the East and the
+West--was for the bill, while the whole East, with the exception of
+Maryland, which was specially interested in the road, was either
+against it or indifferent to it. The Eastern Commonwealths had made
+their roads with Commonwealth money, and did not wish to assist the
+Western Commonwealths to make theirs by giving them national money
+with which to do it. The West, on the other hand, was new and
+comparatively poor, and wanted the nation to help it out of the mud.
+This is unquestionably the plain statement of the situation from the
+point of view of interests. The interests of slavery played but little
+part, if any at all, in the distribution of the vote.
+
+[Sidenote: President Monroe's veto, and communication of May 4th,
+1822.]
+
+President Monroe promptly vetoed the bill, on the ground that it was
+in excess of the powers granted to Congress by the Constitution. He
+also sent a communication, of the same date as the veto, to the House
+of Representatives, explaining his views upon those principles of the
+Constitution generally, and upon those provisions specially, which
+could be regarded as vesting powers in the general Government
+concerning internal improvements. The paper is prolix, confused, and
+confusing, but, upon the specific question at issue, the propositions
+advanced are definite and intelligible. He held that the power of
+Congress in regard to internal improvements was to be found in the
+Constitution only by implication, by implication from the power to
+appropriate money, and that, therefore, its nature and limitations
+were to be drawn from the character of the power to appropriate money.
+He contended, on the one side, that the power of Congress to
+appropriate money was not limited to the objects enumerated in the
+{121} Constitution, but was, on the other side, limited by the spirit
+of the Constitution to national purposes. He concluded, therefore,
+that Congress was empowered to appropriate money to internal
+improvements of a national character. But he asserted that Congress
+could not, under the power to appropriate money, establish
+jurisdiction over such improvements, or authorize the executive
+department of the Government to administer them. The bill in question
+did just that, and it was for this reason that the President returned
+it with his objections.
+
+[Sidenote: President Monroe's argument, and the vote upon the veto.]
+
+The President's views were apparently convincing to many who had voted
+for the bill. Upon its passage, the vote in the House of
+Representatives was eighty-seven for, and sixty-eight against, the
+measure. After the veto, it stood sixty-eight yeas and seventy-two
+nays.
+
+It may be safely assumed that the view expressed by President Monroe
+in the paper accompanying the veto of this bill was the view which
+prevailed throughout the country in the year 1824. It may be also said
+that the power of Congress to authorize the President to expend the
+appropriation by causing the improvements to be planned and
+constructed was generally regarded, in 1824, as a necessary
+consequence of the power to appropriate money for the same. The acts
+of Congress appropriating money for the construction and repair of
+roads, canals, etc., after, as well as before, that date, seem to
+proceed upon this theory.
+
+[Sidenote: Congressional Act of 1824 for distinguishing national from
+local improvements.]
+
+The great difficulty which lay in the way of the realization of
+President Monroe's principle of the appropriation of national money
+for internal improvements of a national character was the proper
+determination of the question as to what improvements were really of
+that character. The danger was that the {122} appropriation bills
+would become log-rolling measures for the purpose of obtaining
+national money for matters of local concern. This difficulty was
+distinctly felt, and Congress undertook to meet it by the Act of April
+30th, 1824, which authorized the President to cause "surveys, plans,
+and estimates to be made of the routes of such roads and canals as he
+might deem of national importance," and required him to lay the same
+before Congress.
+
+From all this it is apparent that, down to the presidential election
+of 1824, the development of a pro-slavery, strict-constructionist,
+"States' rights" party is hardly to be discovered in the attitude of
+the different sections of the country toward the question of internal
+improvements. Despite the fact that the slaveholders had become
+conscious during the Missouri struggle that their interests demanded
+the establishment of a particularistic view of the Constitution and a
+particularistic practice in the working of the governmental system of
+the country, not much progress had been made, in the period between
+1820 and 1824, in the way of twisting the policies developed during
+the previous eight years into line with such a view. In fact the
+foreign relations of the United States were again, in 1822, of a
+somewhat threatening character, and the consideration of these
+relations was acting as a certain hindrance to the development of
+parties upon internal issues.
+
+[Sidenote: Foreign relations during Monroe's second term.]
+
+The menace, or perhaps it would be more correct to say the apparent
+menace, came from two quarters; but in neither case did it relate
+immediately to the territory or interests of the United States. In
+both cases it was consequential and more or less remote.
+
+{123} [Sidenote: Russia and the northwest coast of America.]
+
+In the first place, the movements of Russia in the North Pacific had
+created grave apprehensions. At the close of the first decade of the
+century the Russian American Company put forward a claim to the
+territory of the North American continent along the Pacific coast from
+Behring's Strait to the mouth of the Columbia River, and even to
+points south of the Columbia. Really this claim came into conflict
+only with the rights of Great Britain and Spain, but the United
+States, having the presentiment of its future, if not a legal claim to
+any part of this territory as a part of Louisiana, regarded the
+Russian movement with jealous discontent. And when, on September 16th,
+the Russian Czar issued an edict, asserting Russia's rights to the
+North Pacific territory from Behring's Strait to the fifty-first
+parallel of north latitude, it was natural that this discontent should
+become hostile in its nature. The Government of the United States
+declared its dissent from the Russian pretensions, and the matter
+rested momentarily with that.
+
+[Sidenote: The Holy Alliance.]
+
+At the same time the other danger was developing. The European
+reaction against the terrible excesses of the Revolution and the
+despotism of Bonaparte had assumed the form of an alliance between the
+Governments of the great continental states, Russia, Austria, Prussia,
+and France, for the purpose of maintaining each by the power of all
+against the reappearance of revolutionary movements anywhere. Great
+Britain had scented in this Holy Alliance a combination of continental
+powers which might prove, in some degree at least, as dangerous to her
+continental relations as the commercial system of Bonaparte had been.
+There is no doubt, too, that there was a large party in England which
+repudiated the fundamental {124} political doctrine of the Holy
+Alliance Powers, the doctrine of the _jure divino_ monarchy. England
+had, in fact, repudiated that doctrine at the close of the seventeenth
+century. For these reasons the British Government had declined to
+enter the Holy League, and regarded it with suspicion and
+ill-concealed hostility.
+
+[Sidenote: The Congress at Verona.]
+
+The United States Government paid little attention to its workings so
+long as they were confined to purely European relations, but when, in
+1822, at the congress of these powers at Verona, which had been
+assembled to consider the question of aiding the Spanish Government to
+suppress the insurrection against its authority in Spain, the subject
+of aiding that Government to re-establish its authority over Spain's
+revolting colonies in North and South America was discussed, serious
+apprehensions were roused in both Great Britain and the United States.
+It was stated, and generally believed, in the United States, that the
+plan was the re-establishment of the Spanish power over all of Spain's
+American possessions, except Mexico and California, and the cession of
+Mexico to France, and of California to Russia, in consideration of the
+military aid to be rendered to Spain by these two great powers in the
+work of restoration.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Adams' declaration to Baron Tuyl.]
+
+To the United States the supposed intentions of Russia in respect to
+the Pacific coast appeared the more immediate danger, and the United
+States Government addressed its diplomacy to this question first. On
+July 17th, 1823, the Secretary of State, Mr. John Quincy Adams,
+declared to the Russian Minister at Washington, Baron Tuyl, that "we
+should contest the right of Russia to any territorial establishment on
+this continent, and that we should assume distinctly the principle
+that the American {125} continents are no longer subjects for any new
+European colonial establishments."
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Canning's proposal to Mr. Rush.]
+
+The following month, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr.
+George Canning, proposed to the Minister of the United States at the
+Court of St. James, Mr. Richard Rush, a joint declaration by the
+British Government and the Government of the United States to Europe,
+that the two Governments would not remain indifferent to an
+intervention by the Holy Alliance Powers to restore the Spanish
+authority over Spain's revolting American colonies. Both commercial
+interests and political principles moved the British Government to
+make this proposition.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Canning's declaration to Prince Polignac.]
+
+Mr. Rush had not been instructed by his Government in anticipation of
+the British advances, but he offered to assume the responsibility of
+joining for the United States in the declaration, provided the British
+Government would acknowledge the independence of the revolting Spanish
+colonies in America, as the Government of the United States had
+already done. The British minister was not then prepared to go so far,
+and the plan of the joint declaration fell through. But Mr. Canning
+declared for his Government to the French ambassador at St. James,
+Prince Polignac, that Great Britain would resist any intervention on
+the part of the Holy Alliance Powers in the question between Spain and
+her revolting American colonies, and the President of the United
+States, in his annual message of December 2nd, 1823, stated the
+position which the United States Government and the people of the
+United States ought, in his opinion, to assume, and would, in his
+opinion, assume, in regard to the whole subject.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Monroe Doctrine."]
+
+Mr. Monroe dealt first with the question of Russian {126} colonization
+upon the Pacific coast. After informing Congress of the instructions
+which had been given to the Minister representing the United States at
+St. Petersburg for negotiating with the Czar's Government, he said:
+"In the discussions to which this interest has given rise, and in the
+arrangements by which they may terminate, the occasion has been judged
+proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests
+of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by
+the free and independent condition which they have assumed and
+maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future
+colonization by any European powers."
+
+Toward the close of the message Mr. Monroe addressed himself to the
+other question, the question of intervention by the Holy Alliance
+Powers in the contest between Spain and her revolting American
+colonies in the following language: "In the wars of European powers,
+in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor
+does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights
+are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make
+preparations for our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere we
+are, of necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes which
+must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The
+political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this
+respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which
+exists in their respective governments, and to the defence of our own,
+which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and
+matured by the wisdom of our most enlightened citizens, and under
+which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is
+devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations
+existing between the United {127} States and those powers, to declare
+that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their
+system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and
+safety. With the existing colonies of any European power we have not
+interfered and shall not interfere, but with the Governments who have
+declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence
+we have on great consideration and on just principles acknowledged, we
+could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them,
+or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European
+power, in any other light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly
+disposition toward the United States.... It is impossible that the
+allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of
+either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can
+anyone believe that our Southern brethren, if left to themselves,
+would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible,
+therefore, that we should behold such interposition, in any form, with
+indifference. If we look to the comparative strength and resources of
+Spain and these new Governments, and their distance from each other,
+it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the
+true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves,
+in the hope that other powers will pursue the same course."
+
+[Sidenote: The meaning of the Monroe propositions in 1824.]
+
+These statements by Mr. Monroe of his opinion as to what the diplomacy
+of the United States ought to be, and would be, upon the subjects of
+the establishment of new European colonies in America, the
+intervention of the Holy Alliance Powers in the question between Spain
+and her revolting American colonies, and the forcible imposition by
+these powers of the _jure divino_ monarchy {128} upon these peoples,
+who had established republican forms of government for themselves,
+have had the name fixed upon them by a later generation of "The Monroe
+Doctrine." There is no difficulty in understanding these statements as
+Mr. Monroe understood them.
+
+Neither he nor his Secretary of State ever called them a "Doctrine."
+With them they were simply the opinions of the Administration in
+regard to the course which the United States ought to pursue, and
+would probably pursue, in meeting certain exigencies, the possibility
+of the arising of which passed entirely away before the close of the
+first half of this century. These opinions were simply that the United
+States ought to resist, and would resist, the planting of any new
+colonial establishments in America, or the intervention of the Holy
+Alliance Powers in the question between Spain and her revolting
+American colonies, or the forcible imposition of the _jure divino_
+monarchy, the political system of these powers, upon the new
+republican governments of South and Middle America.
+
+[Sidenote: Failure to commit Congress to these propositions.]
+
+The month following the publication of this message, January, 1824,
+Mr. Clay attempted to move Congress to indorse that part of the
+President's opinions which referred to the intervention of the Allied
+Powers in the conflict between Spain and her revolting colonies, but
+the resolution which he offered to that effect was laid on the table,
+and never called up. Mr. Poinsett, of South Carolina, made a like
+attempt later, but with no more success. The Congress of that day had
+altogether too much intelligence to make diplomatic opinions, advanced
+by the Administration, either laws of the land, or joint or concurrent
+resolutions of the legislative department of the Government.
+
+{129} [Sidenote: The particularistic reaction scarcely discoverable
+before 1824.]
+
+Thus neither in the question of the tariff, nor in that of internal
+improvements, nor, naturally, in the diplomatic questions, is anything
+more than the faint beginnings of the particularistic reaction to be
+discovered in the period between 1820 and 1824. In fact, it may be
+said that the year 1820 marks roughly the date of the extinction of
+the old Federal party, and of the almost complete absorption of the
+whole voting population in the Republican party. In the presidential
+election of that year the candidate of the Republican party, Mr.
+Monroe, received two hundred and thirty-one of the two hundred and
+thirty-two electoral votes cast, and the one elector who did not vote
+for him was a Republican. The Federal party did not even undertake to
+present a ticket. From the point of view of the preservation of its
+own dominance, the Federal party had committed two grave errors, one
+of principle and one of policy. It had held to the principle that the
+mass of men are not fit to govern themselves, but should be governed
+by the few who are wise and good; and it had adopted the policy of too
+close alliance with the commercial interests of the country. The
+levelling, not to say debasing, influences of the French political
+philosophy, which rolled like a tidal wave over the country during the
+last decade of the eighteenth century, and was worked up into a
+political dogma by Jefferson and his disciples, together with the
+reflex influence of the practical equality which established itself
+among the first adventurers who settled the lands beyond the
+Alleghanies, destroyed the Federal party, upon the side of principle;
+while the great extension of the agricultural interests, produced by
+these same settlements, made it intolerable upon the side of policy.
+The earlier advantage which the Federal party, as the upholder of
+centralization, enjoyed {130} over the Republican party, as the
+champion of "States'-rights," had been lost by the nationalization of
+the Republican party through the War of 1812, and the
+denationalization of the Federal party through the same experiences.
+In 1820, therefore, there was only one party in fact and in principle.
+It is undoubtedly true that the struggle of the years 1819 and 1820
+over the Missouri question had sowed the seeds of dissension in this
+all-comprehending party; but four years did not constitute a period of
+time sufficient for their completed growth and fructification. The
+presidential contest of 1824 could not, therefore, he fought under the
+issues of party principles. It was little more, and, under the
+circumstances, it could be little more, than a personal contest
+between the leaders of the Republican party. The result of it,
+however, contributed very largely to the development of political
+differences, and to the organization of parties upon the basis of
+these differences. It must, therefore, be described with some
+particularity.
+
+
+
+
+{131}
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824
+
+General Character of the Presidential Contest of 1824--John Quincy
+Adams--DeWitt Clinton--William H. Crawford--John C. Calhoun--Daniel
+Webster--Henry Clay--Andrew Jackson--The Nomination of Presidential
+Candidates in 1824--Failure of the Electors to Elect the
+President--Territorial Distribution of the Electoral Vote--New York in
+the Election of 1824--South Carolina in the Election of
+1824--Pennsylvania in the Election of 1824--The Election in the House
+of Representatives--Clay Master of the Situation--Clay's Support of
+Adams, and Kremer's Charge of Bargain and Corruption--The Election of
+Adams by the House of Representatives--Clay and the Secretaryship of
+State--Threats of the Organization of an Anti-administration
+Party--The Bargain between Clay and Adams a mere Suspicion--Clay's
+Nomination to the Secretaryship of State in the Senate--The
+Composition of the new Anti-administration Party.
+
+
+[Sidenote: General character of the presidential contest of 1824.]
+
+As has been pointed out, from 1820 to 1824 the political arena was
+clear of the combats of principles, and furnished the tilting-ground
+for the jousts of personal ambition. The "Virginia dynasty" became
+extinct with the expiration of Monroe's second term, and the way was
+open for anyone to enter the lists who was willing to risk the shocks
+of the encounter.
+
+At no time in our history has the roll of our political nobility been
+more full of brilliant names and characters.
+
+{132} [Sidenote: John Quincy Adams.]
+
+First of all, there was John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State, the
+"knight without fear and without reproach," blunt, grim, almost rude,
+through an unconscious suspicion that politeness might encourage the
+approach of temptation; now fifty-seven years old, and trained in
+statecraft and diplomacy almost from childhood; the best equipped
+statesman and the most experienced statesman that America had up to
+that time produced; ready to serve his country in any honorable
+capacity to which that country might freely call him, and just as
+ready to withdraw from that service when his country indicated the
+desire to dispense with him; puritanic, austere, and to the last
+degree patriotic, his one qualification for the presidential office
+was the capacity to discharge its duties wisely, honestly, and
+loyally, a qualification which too rarely wins in popular elections.
+
+[Sidenote: DeWitt Clinton.]
+
+Then, there was DeWitt Clinton, noble in personal appearance,
+dignified in manners, eloquent in debate, sagacious and far-sighted in
+business, a lover of science and a scientist himself; the great
+promoter of the Erie Canal, which was now on the point of completion,
+and which was destined to revolutionize the commerce of the country;
+still only fifty-five years of age, although he had been considered
+more than twenty years before as the most promising man of the nation,
+and had within that period been United States Senator, mayor of New
+York City, candidate for the presidency against Mr. Madison, and twice
+Governor of New York.
+
+[Sidenote: William H. Crawford.]
+
+Then, there was William H. Crawford, a Virginian by birth and a
+Georgian by education; a man of large wealth and of imposing bearing;
+enjoying a very great reputation for statesmanship without any easily
+discoverable foundation therefor; now {133} fifty-two years of age,
+and having already been United States Senator, Minister to France,
+Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Treasury, which latter office
+he still held; with the exception, perhaps, of Martin Van Buren, the
+most astute politician among the great men of his time. He had the
+political friendship and support of Van Buren. The two seem to have
+been attracted to each other by the similarity of their methods. He
+was the author of the law of 1820, limiting the term of the officials
+of the Treasury to four years, the first step in the direction of
+making the United States civil service a political machine, such as
+Van Buren and his fellows in the "Regency" had made out of the civil
+service of the Commonwealth of New York. It is not astonishing that
+he, rather than any of the other aspirants for the presidency,
+procured the assembling of a caucus of the members of Congress, and
+secured a nomination from it, thus making himself the "regular"
+candidate. Not a third of the members, however, appeared at the
+caucus, and the nomination did him more harm than good.
+
+[Sidenote: John C. Calhoun.]
+
+Then, there was Calhoun, grave, pure, and patriotic as Adams himself,
+and almost as puritanic; South Carolinian by birth, Scotch-Irish by
+blood, Presbyterian in religion, and New Englander by education;
+great, both in dialectics and in the administration of affairs; rather
+more given to introspection than to objective research; speculative,
+therefore, rather than inductive in his mental processes; most
+fascinating in conversation, kind and generous in his feelings, and a
+gentleman everywhere and upon all occasions; a personality to be
+looked up to with reverence, admiration, and confidence. He was still
+only forty-two years of age, and yet he had already passed fourteen
+years in public service, first as member of the South Carolina
+Legislature, then as member of Congress, and {134} then as Monroe's
+Secretary of War for both terms, which office he still held.
+
+[Sidenote: Daniel Webster.]
+
+Then, there was Webster, of the same age with Calhoun, though as yet
+only five years in public service; the most majestic personality which
+America has ever produced, though born of the hardy yeomanry of New
+England; profound in thought, grandly eloquent in speech, and royally
+impressive in bearing; full of good cheer, in spite of the puritanism
+of his ancestry, enjoying his friends and adored by his friends; a
+splendid lawyer, a great statesman, and an incomparable orator--in a
+word, a demigod; by no means so austere in character as in appearance;
+liable, as genius too often is, to sometimes break over the restraints
+of customary morality, but doing it in so grand and natural a manner
+as to make the rule which he had broken seem narrow, insignificant,
+and mean.
+
+[Sidenote: Henry Clay.]
+
+And then, there was Clay, the most genuine American of them all;
+rather superficial in thought, entrancing in his oratory, with a voice
+as winning as the siren's song, elegant and gallant in his manners,
+perfectly irresistible in conversation, jovial and cheery and happy,
+the prince of good fellows, loved and worshipped by everybody who knew
+him; enthusiastic in his patriotism, seeking to make his country not
+only independent of the world in all its policies but the leader of
+the world in civilization, a zealous propagandist of American
+republicanism, the "lion-hearted knight" of American statesmen. He was
+now in the prime of his manhood, forty-seven years of age. He had been
+a member of the Senate of the United States at thirty, but it was upon
+the floor of the House of Representatives, and as Speaker of the
+House, which office he again held, that he had won his most brilliant
+laurels. He was at the moment the great champion of the {135} tariff,
+of national internal improvements, and of the cause of the South
+American States in their struggle for independence against Spain and
+Portugal--of what he called the American system of political and
+industrial independence. Of his competitors only Crawford differed
+with him in regard to these principles in anything more than a slight
+degree. Crawford was considered as rather more particularistic,
+especially in his views on the question of internal improvements. But
+Clay, with his genial self-confidence and irresistible self-assertion,
+had assumed in the popular mind, as well as in the Congress, the part
+of the leading representative of these policies. He had the advantage
+or the disadvantage of that, whichever it might prove to be.
+
+[Sidenote: Andrew Jackson.]
+
+And lastly, Jackson, the noblest Roman of them all; ignorant and
+irascible indeed, but virtuous, brave, and patriotic beyond any cavil
+or question; faithful and devoted in his domestic life, absolutely
+unapproachable by pecuniary inducements; the best of friends and the
+most implacable of enemies; quick, hasty in forming his judgments and
+tenacious beyond expression in holding to them; prone to elevate every
+whim and impulse to a behest of conscience; earnest, terrible in the
+inflexibility of his purposes; excited by opposition to an
+ever-increasing degree of determination; unflinching and recklessly
+daring in the performance of what he felt to be his duty; restless
+under the legal restraints which might appear to hinder him in the
+discharge of duty and the accomplishment of any great enterprise
+intrusted to him; hostile to all gradations of power and privilege,
+and inclined to break through any official net-work interposed between
+himself and the rank and file subject to his command; a great soldier,
+and yet a man of the people; the military hero of the country and a
+martyr to the persecutions of the {136} politicians--here were
+certainly qualities calculated to rouse the enthusiasm of the masses,
+if not of the classes. He was now fifty-seven years of age, and was
+not in strong health. He had shown no qualities of statesmanship,
+although he had been twice a member of the Senate of the United
+States, and was at the moment holding that most advantageous position
+for a display of civic talent; but he had the fortune to live at a
+time and in a country when and where the lower strata of society were
+just coming to a full participation in political power, and when and
+where high qualifications simply to discharge the duties of an office
+were beginning to be regarded by the majority of the people as
+disqualifications for holding the office.
+
+These were by no means all of the great characters from among whom the
+nation had its choice in 1824, but they were unquestionably the first
+on the list. Different as they were in personal qualities, they were
+not yet far apart in political opinions. Crawford leaned more toward
+"States' rights" than the others. Clay was more pronounced in the
+opposite direction. While Jackson was rather more uncommitted.
+
+[Sidenote: The nomination of presidential candidates in 1824.]
+
+Webster was not put forward by anybody, and did not offer himself as a
+candidate. Clay was nominated by the legislature of Kentucky. Jackson
+was nominated by the legislature of Tennessee, and by two Pennsylvania
+conventions. While Adams had the advantage of the precedent which, for
+nearly a quarter of a century, had pointed to the Secretary of State
+as the natural successor to the presidential office.
+
+[Sidenote: Failure of the electors to elect the President.]
+
+As was to be expected, the electors did not choose any one of the
+four, since the Constitution requires a majority of the whole number
+of the electors for a choice. Jackson led with ninety-nine votes;
+Adams was next with eighty-four; {137} Crawford followed with
+forty-one; and Clay came last with thirty-seven.
+
+[Sidenote: Territorial distribution of the electoral vote.]
+
+The electoral vote was distributed territorially as might have been
+naturally anticipated, except in two particulars. These were, the
+failure of Van Buren to secure the electoral vote of New York for
+Crawford, and the solid vote of Pennsylvania and South Carolina for
+Jackson. These facts had some significance in connection with
+subsequent developments, and require a little explanation.
+
+[Sidenote: New York in the Election of 1824.]
+
+New York was one of the Commonwealths which, down to 1824, permitted
+the legislature to choose the presidential electors. In 1823 the
+legislature was still under the control of Van Buren and his
+colleagues in the "Regency," the Albany machine, and had the election
+taken place in 1823 he could doubtless have delivered the electoral
+vote entire to Crawford. But one of Jackson's shrewdest supporters,
+probably Clinton, started the scheme for transferring the choice of
+the electors from the legislature to the voters. This, if successful,
+would destroy the control of the "Regency" over the electoral vote.
+The opposition of the "Regency" to the bill, when it appeared in the
+legislature, caused its rejection by that body; but the popular
+indignation was roused to such a pitch against the "Regency" and its
+adherents in the legislature, in consequence of this act, that, in the
+Commonwealth elections of 1824, the "Regency" party was driven from
+power, and the new legislature chose electors who cast the electoral
+vote of the Commonwealth chiefly for Adams, as the Northern candidate.
+
+[Sidenote: South Carolina in the Election of 1824.]
+
+The fact that South Carolina cast her electoral vote for Jackson
+instead of for Crawford is good evidence that there was still no
+question of "States' rights" versus the powers of the Union at issue,
+or that South {138} Carolina was still nationally disposed; and that,
+either there was no tariff question at issue, or South Carolina had
+not yet clearly discovered the hostility of the tariff to her
+interests, or she believed Jackson to be opposed to the tariff.
+
+Jackson, or rather his manager, William B. Lewis, a most astute
+politician, had written a letter to a Dr. Coleman, of Warrenton, Va.,
+upon the subject of the tariff. The letter was ostensibly a reply to
+one from Dr. Coleman, inquiring of Jackson his views upon this
+question. Very probably, however, Dr. Coleman's letter was also
+dictated by Mr. Lewis. Jackson's reply contained nothing definite in
+regard to the subject. It was a first-class political document, that
+is, it was a document which could be interpreted to mean anything
+which might be made necessary or desirable by time, place, and
+circumstances. In a word, Lewis had made for Jackson a sort of _tabula
+rasa_ record on the subject of the tariff. In such a state of things
+it is certainly reasonable to ascribe South Carolina's preference for
+Jackson to the facts that he claimed to be her son by birth, and that
+Calhoun, rightly discerning Jackson to be the coming man, withdrew
+from the race for the presidency, and was regarded as running for the
+vice-presidency on the Jackson ticket.
+
+[Sidenote: Pennsylvania in the Election of 1824.]
+
+It is somewhat more difficult to account for the attitude of
+Pennsylvania. We are now so accustomed to consider Pennsylvania the
+"tariff State" _par excellence_, that it is difficult to conceive of a
+time when she was not such. She was indeed, in 1824, for the tariff,
+but her interests had not then become so completely linked together
+with it as after 1840. In 1824 her vast beds of anthracite had not
+been applied to the preparation of her iron ores, in fact {139} had
+hardly been discovered. Pennsylvania west of the Alleghanies was then
+an agricultural country, and was filled with a population intensely
+democratic and almost lawless. So far as they had any political
+science it was based upon the most radical postulates of the French
+philosophy. The principal "plank" of the platform of the Harrisburg
+convention of March 4th, 1824, which nominated Jackson, read as
+follows: "This artificial system of cabinet succession to the
+presidency is little less dangerous and anti-republican than the
+hereditary monarchies of Europe. If a link in this chain of successive
+secretary dynasties be not broken now, then may we be fettered by it
+forever. Andrew Jackson comes pure, untrammelled, and unpledged from
+the people." Adams, Crawford, and Calhoun were then members of
+President Monroe's cabinet, and Clay was Speaker of the House of
+Representatives. Jackson alone of all the candidates seemed to possess
+the qualifications required by the Harrisburg doctrine. While this may
+explain the attachment of the Pennsylvania Republicans to Jackson, we
+must not forget that the remnant of the Pennsylvania Federalists were
+also for him. In 1816 Jackson had written some letters to President
+Monroe advising him not to ignore the Federalists in his appointments
+to office, but to unite the country by showing himself superior to the
+distinctions of party in his Administration. These letters were now
+drawn forth and published by Jackson's manager, and the inference
+which they conveyed was that Jackson would follow this policy, in case
+he should be chosen to the presidency. Even Webster was inclined to
+him, and Mrs. Webster was entirely won by his gallantry. Jackson in
+the role of a fascinating gentleman and a popular ladies' man is
+hardly the usual character under which the imagination of this
+generation pictures him. It is, {140} nevertheless, strictly true that
+the "Old Hero" knew how to make himself very acceptable to the ladies.
+Pennsylvania was, chiefly, by this conjunction of influences, carried
+for Jackson by an overwhelming majority.
+
+[Sidenote: The Election in the House of Representatives.]
+
+The failure of the electors to give a majority to any one of the
+candidates threw the election into the House of Representatives, which
+is empowered by the Constitution to choose, in such a case, one of the
+three who shall have received the highest number of electoral votes.
+
+[Sidenote: Clay master of the situation.]
+
+From the day when it became known that the new President must be
+chosen in this manner to the day of the election by the House, that
+is, from about the middle of December to the ninth day of February,
+the politicians in Washington were "laying pipe," "pulling wires," and
+"making deals." It soon became manifest that Clay, while he could not
+be chosen himself, since he could not be legally voted for, was the
+master of the situation. So great was his popularity with the House
+that, it is almost certain, he would have been chosen to the great
+office himself had he been among the three having the highest number
+of electoral votes. Everybody reasoned, therefore, that not only the
+Representatives from the Commonwealths which had given their electoral
+votes to Clay would follow his lead in voting in the House, but that
+many others from other Commonwealths would act under inspiration from
+him. After a good deal of talk among the members of the House and the
+politicians generally as to whether the members were bound to vote as
+the electors from their respective Commonwealths had voted, and as to
+whether the legislatures of the respective Commonwealths possessed any
+power to instruct the members of the House of Representatives from the
+several Commonwealths in regard to {141} the casting of their votes,
+the opinion finally prevailed that each Representative was entirely
+free to vote according to his own judgment and preference; and that
+meant that the popular and persuasive Speaker would be able to carry
+enough votes with him to elect the candidate upon whom his favor might
+fall.
+
+[Sidenote: Clay's support of Adams, and Kremer's charge of bargain and
+corruption.]
+
+Propositions were made to him from the friends of the different
+candidates, but he held them all at arm's length. It might have been
+easily foreseen that he would support Adams. Crawford was a man of
+exhausted powers, unfit physically and mentally to discharge the
+duties of the great office. Jackson was only a military chieftain,
+according to Clay's view a very dangerous character for the
+presidency. There remained only Adams, probably the best-fitted man in
+the country for the office. It was generally felt, for several days
+before the election, that these considerations would determine Clay's
+course of action. There were those, however, who were ready to ascribe
+Clay's supposed attitude to other, and more selfish, motives. An
+insignificant member from Pennsylvania, Kremer by name, gave it out in
+public print that there was a bargain between Adams and Clay,
+according to which Clay was to support Adams, and to receive in return
+the secretaryship of State. This happened on January 28th, 1825, just
+after the delegations from Ohio and Kentucky in the House had declared
+their intention of supporting Adams. The small mind of Kremer could
+not conceive of this attitude on the part of Clay save from the point
+of view of selfish interests. Clay immediately called for an
+investigation of the charge by the House, but Kremer sneaked out of
+it.
+
+[Sidenote: The election of Adams by the House of Representatives.]
+
+On February 9th, 1825, the two Houses of Congress met in joint
+assembly to count the electoral vote. It {142} was immediately found
+that no candidate had a majority, and that, therefore, the choice lay
+with the House. The House, on the same day, and on the first ballot,
+elected Adams. The delegations from thirteen of the twenty-four
+Commonwealths voted for him. The delegations from seven voted for
+Jackson; and those from four for Crawford. Adams received the votes of
+the delegations from all of the Commonwealths which had given their
+electoral votes, or the majority of their electoral votes, to himself
+and to Clay, and from three of the Commonwealths which had given the
+majority of their electoral vote to Jackson.
+
+[Sidenote: Clay and the Secretaryship of State.]
+
+The twelfth day of February, 1825, is the date in Mr. Adams' diary
+under which he recorded his offer of the secretaryship of State to Mr.
+Clay. We find in the diary, for the day before this, an account of a
+visit from a Mr. G. Sullivan, who told Mr. Adams "that the Calhounites
+said that if Mr. Clay should be appointed Secretary of State, a
+determined opposition to the administration would be organized from
+the outset; that the opposition would use the name of General Jackson
+as its head; and that the administration would be supported only by
+the New England States--New York being doubtful, the West much
+divided, and strongly favoring Jackson as a Western man, Virginia
+already in opposition, and all the South decidedly adverse."
+
+[Sidenote: Threats of the organization of an anti-administration
+party.]
+
+Exactly who the Calhounites were at that moment, as distinct from the
+followers of Adams and Clay, is difficult to determine, since all the
+electors who voted for Adams for President also voted for Calhoun for
+Vice-President, except eight electors from Connecticut and one from
+New Hampshire, and of the thirty-seven electors who voted {143} for
+Clay, at least seven of them voted also for Calhoun. It was Crawford's
+supporters who had opposed Calhoun for the second place, not one of
+them having voted for him. This declaration made by Mr. Sullivan
+meant, therefore, that Jackson's friends were going to organize an
+opposition party to the Adams-Clay Administration and that the
+Vice-President was going to cast his lot with them.
+
+This was certainly a threat of danger, but Adams was not the man to be
+frightened from the course which he had chosen as just and politic. He
+immediately offered the first position in the cabinet to Clay, and,
+after some six days of reflection and of consultation with friends,
+Clay accepted.
+
+[Sidenote: The bargain between Clay and Adams a mere suspicion.]
+
+No sufficient evidence has ever been produced to convince a judicial
+mind that Adams and Clay had come to any understanding in regard to
+this matter either before Clay announced publicly that he should
+support Adams, or afterward. But men generally do not have judicial
+minds. "Diffused distrust and indiscriminate suspicion" mark the
+attitude of the vulgar mind toward personages in high station.
+Politicians know only too well that this is one of the most potent
+forces which can be called into play, and they know only too well how
+to take advantage of it. Conscious as both Adams and Clay doubtless
+were of their own rectitude, they did not sufficiently appreciate the
+proneness of the masses to believe in the corruption of their
+superiors. Neither did they correctly appreciate the ungenerous and
+uncandid spirit of the leaders among their opponents in clinging to
+this charge, and reiterating it, after they had failed to substantiate
+it by any credible evidence. They certainly did not comprehend that
+they had given their opponents a shibboleth which would lead them to
+certain victory.
+
+{144} [Sidenote: Clay's nomination to the secretaryship of State in
+the Senate.]
+
+The opposition began at once their attack in the Senate under the
+issue of Clay's appointment. Fifteen of the forty-one Senators present
+voted against it. Among the fifteen was Jackson, who, upon his way, a
+few days later, from Washington to his home in Tennessee, repeated and
+re-enlivened the charge of "bargain and corruption." It is more than
+probable that Jackson believed in it himself. He was so convinced of
+his own honesty that he believed every one who differed with him to be
+dishonest. This is a trait of character frequently met with, and it is
+a most dangerous force with which to deal. The "Old Hero" possessed it
+in an extraordinary degree.
+
+[Sidenote: The composition of the new Anti-administration party.]
+
+Despite the fact that there were no material differences in political
+principles, and the further fact that Adams retained Monroe's cabinet
+so far as he could, appointing new members only to positions made
+vacant therein by his own and Calhoun's promotion to the presidency
+and the vice-presidency, and by Crawford's refusal to accept the
+Treasury for another term, it was now perfectly evident that Jackson,
+Calhoun, and Crawford, with their followers, were determined upon an
+organized opposition to the Adams-Clay Administration, no matter what
+principles and policies that Administration should follow; that
+Jackson would, on account of his popularity with the masses, be put
+forward as the head of the new party; and that the cry of "bargain and
+corruption" between the President and the chief officer of his
+Administration, for robbing the "Old Hero" of his rights and the
+people of their choice, was to be their watchword in the conflict.
+
+
+
+
+{145}
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE DIVISION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
+
+Personal Differences, and Party Division--Military Confederation of
+the Spanish-American States--Invitation to the United States to send
+Representatives to the Congress at Panama--The Acceptance of the
+Invitation--Opposition in the Senate to the sending of Representatives
+to Panama--Popular Sympathy in the United States for the
+South-American States--The President's Nominations Confirmed--The
+Haytian Question at the Congress--Cuba and Porto Rico--Real Nature of
+the Opposition to the Panama Mission--The Failure of the Panama
+Congress--Adams on Internal Improvements in his Message of December
+6th, 1825--Van Buren's Resolution against Internal Improvements--The
+Practices of the Adams Administration in respect to Internal
+Improvements--The Chief Practical Difficulty in the way of a National
+System of Internal Improvements--The Tariff of 1824 a Failure--The
+Tariff Bill of 1827--Development of the Industrial Antithesis between
+the North and the South--Hostility to the Measure in South
+Carolina--The Tariff of 1828--The Character of the Bill as Reflected
+in the Analysis of the Vote Upon It--The Tariff of 1828 not a Complete
+Party Measure--The Presidential Campaign of 1828 still Dominated by
+Personal Considerations--Election of Jackson--Advent of the
+Parvenus--Foreign Affairs under Jackson's Administration--The
+Democratic Party and its Divisions.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Personal differences, and party division.]
+
+In the absence of any well defined differences in political opinions,
+and in the state of determined {146} personal hostility between the
+leaders developed by the election of 1824, the fact that Adams and
+Clay took broad national views, placed a liberal construction upon the
+Constitution, and insisted upon the employment of all the powers
+vested by it in the general Government to the highest point of their
+usefulness in the promotion of the general welfare, had the natural
+effect of forcing the opposition upon the opposite grounds, and,
+therefore, tended to make a particularistic party, the so-called
+"States' rights" party, out of the Jackson-Calhoun-Crawford faction.
+
+One of the most patent indications of the correctness of the
+proposition that the opposition in principle between the National
+Republican party and the Democratic party, as the Administrationists
+and the Anti-administrationists were soon termed, took its rise
+largely in the personal hostility of the leaders, is to be found in
+the history of the chief question of the foreign relations with which
+the Adams Administration had to deal in the years 1825 and 1826.
+
+[Sidenote: Spanish-American interpretations of "the Monroe Doctrine."]
+
+The Spanish Americans had taken the cautious utterances of President
+Monroe, in his December message of 1823, for much more than he meant
+them. They thought, or professed to think, that the Government had
+pledged itself to meet any intervention of the Allied Powers of Europe
+in American affairs by any resistance necessary to defeat it. They
+were also acquainted with the fact that both Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay
+were more pronounced than President Monroe in favor of going to the
+support of the new republics of South and Middle America. Naturally
+then, when these two men came to the head of the Government, on March
+4th, 1825, the Spanish Americans felt encouraged to expect some {147}
+substantial aid from the United States in the further course of their
+struggle with Spain and her possible allies.
+
+[Sidenote: Military Confederation of the Spanish-American states.]
+
+Already in the summer of 1822 the Republic of Colombia had initiated
+the plan of a Confederation of the Spanish-American states. By a
+treaty with Peru, bearing date of July 12th, 1823, by another with
+Chili of the same date, by another with the United Provinces of
+Central America, of April 12th, 1825, and by another with Mexico, of
+September 20th, 1825, the Republic of Colombia had established a
+military confederation between these five states, and had pledged them
+to send plenipotentiaries to a "general assembly of American states
+... with the charge of cementing, in the most solid and stable manner,
+the intimate relations which ought to exist between all and every one
+of them." According to this agreement the assembly of
+plenipotentiaries was to serve as a council in conflicts, as a
+rallying-point in common dangers, as a faithful interpreter of
+treaties between their respective states, and as an umpire and
+conciliator in the disputes and differences which might arise between
+their respective states.
+
+[Sidenote: Invitation to the United States to send representatives to
+the congress at Panama.]
+
+During the spring of the year 1825 the Ministers of Colombia and
+Mexico sought Mr. Clay, and communicated to him the desires of their
+respective governments to have the United States send representatives
+to this proposed congress; but before giving the formal invitation
+they asked to know if it would be accepted. They stated to Mr. Clay
+that they did not expect the United States to abandon the attitude of
+neutrality, or to take part in those deliberations of the congress
+which might relate to the prosecution of the existing war.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's hesitation to accept the invitation.]
+
+Clay's genial spirit was much excited by the grand prospect of a
+league of the American states under the {148} hegemony of the United
+States. It satisfied the plan of his daring imagination. It filled the
+bounds of his far-reaching vision. He immediately communicated the
+propositions of the two ministers, Mr. Salazar and Mr. Obregon, to
+President Adams, and urged the President to allow him to give them the
+assurance that the invitation to send representatives to the congress,
+to be held the following October at Panama, would be accepted by the
+United States. The President, however, proceeded rather cautiously. He
+was, indeed, very friendly in his feelings toward the Spanish-American
+states, and was ready to aid their cause in any manner consistent with
+the duties of a neutral. But he had a calmer way of regarding things
+than his brilliant Secretary of State, and, moreover, upon him rested
+the ultimate responsibility. He required Mr. Clay to procure from
+Messrs. Salazar and Obregon some information in regard to the subjects
+which would be considered by the congress, the nature and form of the
+powers to be given to the diplomatic agents which were to compose it,
+and the mode of its organization and procedure. At the same time he
+allowed Mr. Clay to encourage them to believe that, if satisfactory
+answers should be returned to these inquiries, their invitation would
+be accepted. He also caused Mr. Clay to warn them that the United
+States could not become a party to the existing war with Spain, or
+give any counsel in regard to its further prosecution.
+
+[Sidenote: The acceptance of the invitation.]
+
+The answers to these inquiries were not received until the following
+November, and in Mr. Clay's letter acknowledging their receipt, they
+were said to be not entirely satisfactory to the President. The
+ministers were informed, however, that the President had resolved to
+send {149} commissioners to the congress at Panama, in case the
+Senate, which was to assemble in a few days, should assent to it; but
+that the commissioners would not be empowered to do or say anything
+which would compromise the neutrality of the United States.
+
+[Sidenote: The President too hasty after all.]
+
+As a matter of fact, the replies from the Governments of Colombia and
+Mexico to President Adams' questions would have been regarded as
+highly unsatisfactory by any judicious mind, entirely uncommitted;
+for, while they left the President's second and third questions
+entirely unanswered, they suggested a joint resistance of all the
+American states to European interference in American affairs, and to
+any further European colonization upon the American continents, as the
+principal subjects in the discussion and determination of which the
+United States would be expected to take part. They referred to the
+fact that President Monroe in his noted message had characterized
+these things as being matters of common interest to both North and
+South America.
+
+[Sidenote: Opposition in the Senate to the sending of representatives
+to Panama.]
+
+Here was certainly a fine opportunity for all sorts of entanglements;
+and it is not at all astonishing that, when the subject was brought
+before the Senate of the United States by the President's message of
+December 26th, 1825, asking the Senate to approve his nominations of
+Richard C. Anderson and John Sergeant as ministers from the United
+States to the "Assembly of American Nations at Panama," a very strong
+opposition to the project was developed in that body. The Senate
+referred the nominations to a committee, and called for the diplomatic
+correspondence and other papers relating to the subject, which, upon
+examination, revealed the facts briefly stated above.
+
+The committee, which was the regular committee on {150} Foreign
+Relations, reported against the nominations, or rather against the
+policy of having representatives at the congress at all, on the ground
+that it might compromise the neutrality of the United States, and
+involve the United States in entangling connections with foreign
+powers. This report was made to the Senate on January 16th, 1826. The
+Senate debated, in secret session, the questions involved in the
+report during the latter half of February and the first half of March.
+The view held by those who favored the report was that the Panama
+congress was to have the character of a military confederation, and
+that membership in it would be inconsistent with a status of
+neutrality toward Spain and her revolting American colonies. The view
+of those who opposed the report and desired to send representatives to
+the congress was, that the congress was only a meeting, in one place,
+of the plenipotentiaries of the different states for an interchange of
+opinions, and would not necessarily alter the attitude of any of the
+powers taking part in it upon any subject, or toward any other power.
+
+[Sidenote: Popular sympathy in the United States for the
+South-American states.]
+
+The strong sympathy of the people of the United States for the cause
+of independence in Middle and South America really violated the spirit
+of neutrality, and the influence of this sympathy upon the Senators
+and Representatives in Congress was very disturbing to a cool and
+judicial consideration of the attitude which the Government should
+preserve in the matter of the Panama mission.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's nominations confirmed.]
+
+[Sidenote: No influence of slavery perceptible in the vote upon the
+nominations.]
+
+The friends of the mission at last won the day by a vote of
+twenty-four to nineteen. Fifteen Northern Senators voted to send
+representatives to the congress, and seven voted against doing so.
+Nine Southern Senators voted to send representatives, and twelve voted
+against doing so. This {151} vote hardly sustains the claim of certain
+of the historians, that the slavery interest was the primal cause of
+the opposition to the Panama mission. One of the most eminent among
+these says that the historical significance of the contest over the
+question was that slavery threw aside its municipal character, its
+character as a Commonwealth institution, and demanded to prescribe
+both the internal and external policies of the nation. This sounds
+dramatic, but if it means, as it appears to mean, that when, in a
+federal system of government, any interest or institution regulated by
+Commonwealth law asks protection from the general Government against
+foreign influence and interference it thereby asserts command over the
+nation, it is a proposition which also sounds decidedly _outre_ to an
+American lawyer. The Constitution of the United States imposed the
+international protection of all such interests and institutions upon
+the general Government when it reserved such interests and
+institutions to the jurisdiction of the Commonwealths and gave the
+general Government alone international standing. When, then, such
+interests and institutions claim that protection, they are only asking
+for a right guaranteed to them by the Constitution, and are by no
+means asserting an authority over the Constitution and the country.
+
+[Sidenote: The Haytian question at the congress.]
+
+It is true that Mr. Salazar said in his communication something about
+the status of Hayti being a subject of deliberation for the congress.
+It was also true that Hayti had been for thirty years in a state of
+chronic insurrection and revolution, and that the former negro slave
+population had, by the assassination of their former masters and
+mistresses, freed themselves from bondage, taken possession of the
+country, and were reducing it to barbarism at a rapid {152} pace. It
+is furthermore true that the slaveholders in the United States did not
+wish their own homes to be made the scenes of any such ruin and
+savagery, or themselves or their families to be made subject to any
+such fate; and, it may be confidently hazarded, that no Northerner, at
+that day, viewed such possibilities with anything but aversion and
+horror. It required a quarter of a century of radical abolition
+recklessness, the blunder-crime of secession, and the desperation of
+long-continued, and at first unsuccessful, war, to make the men of the
+North regard without sympathy such dangers to their Southern brethren.
+The North and the South simply could not have divided, at that time,
+upon the question of the relation to Hayti. There was only one view
+upon that subject, and that was that the example and influence of
+Hayti must be held far away from these shores. This could have been
+accomplished, however, as well by attending the congress as by staying
+away, perhaps better. At least, the Haytian question was no chief
+ground of opposition to the mission, and certainly no chief ground in
+favor of the mission.
+
+[Sidenote: Cuba and Porto Rico.]
+
+It is more probable that one of the reasons which moved President
+Adams and Mr. Clay to urge attendance upon the congress was to be in a
+position to restrain the Spanish-American states from attempting to
+seize Cuba and Porto Rico. During the latter half of the year 1825, at
+the very moment when the Government was communicating with the
+Spanish-American states in regard to the congress, Mr. Clay was urging
+the Czar of Russia, on the one side, to exercise his influence upon
+the Spanish court for the cessation of hostilities on the part of
+Spain against the revolting American colonies, on the ground that
+Spain could never resubjugate them, and would by a continuance of
+hostilities exasperate them and excite them to attack {153} Cuba and
+Porto Rico with the purpose of expelling the Spanish power from these
+islands, and was urging the Spanish-American states, on the other
+side, to refrain from such an attack, on the ground that if they did
+attempt to seize these islands the Czar would not only cease his good
+offices with the Spanish King to end the war, but might bring the
+entire power of the Holy Alliance to the aid of the Spanish King for
+the resubjection of his former American colonies. The policy of
+President Adams' Administration was clearly opposed to the occupation
+of Cuba and Porto Rico, either by the Spanish Americans or by any
+European state other than Spain herself. In this matter, also, the
+Administration and the opposition held the same view.
+
+[Sidenote: Real nature of the opposition to the Panama mission.]
+
+The only natural explanations of the determined opposition to the
+Panama mission were, thus, either the dread of embarrassing
+entanglements with the Spanish-American states, and the consequent
+compromise of the status of neutrality toward them and their
+motherland, or the spirit of personal hostility to the Administration.
+From the merits of the question the former would seem the more likely.
+It was certainly, to any candid mind, a sufficient reason. On the
+other hand, an expression uttered by Mr. Van Buren as he left the
+Senate chamber, after having just made a most earnest appeal against
+the mission and cast his vote against it, would indicate that the
+opposition fought the Administration in this matter from factional
+motives purely. He is reported to have said: "They have beaten us by a
+few votes, after a hard battle; but if they had only taken the other
+side and refused the mission, we should have had them."
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of the Panama congress.]
+
+The debate continued so long, however, that the congress at Panama
+adjourned to Tacubaya before the {154} representatives from the United
+States appeared. Spain ceased to wage war against her former colonies.
+The Holy Alliance did not interfere. The Spanish-American states
+suspended their operations against Cuba and Porto Rico. Hayti remained
+in isolated barbarism. And the congress of the American nations never
+reassembled.
+
+It is possible that the jingo policy of the Administration may have
+helped to produce all these results. It is probable that the same
+results would have followed had the Senate refused the mission to
+Panama. It is certainly most fortunate that these results were
+attained without the attendance of the representatives of the United
+States upon the congress. All possible entanglements were thus
+avoided, while the purposes of the Administration, in so far at least
+as they subserved the true interests of the country, were
+substantially accomplished.
+
+It is true that the special commercial advantages which Clay had hoped
+for were not secured, nor his dream of an American Confederacy under
+the protectorate of the United States realized. Neither were the
+President's ideas in regard to methods for settling mooted questions
+of international relations, nor those in regard to the advancement of
+religious liberty, fulfilled. But these things were all premature, to
+say the least, and none of them would, probably, have been helped
+onward by any discussion in the congress of the American nations. With
+the exception of the United States, those nations were altogether too
+immature to deal with such problems; and the United States itself was
+not sufficiently consolidated and powerful to assume the duties of
+instructor and guardian over them. It is not probable that any
+opportunity for doing good or receiving good was lost by the
+non-attendance of representatives {155} from the United States upon
+the deliberations of the Panama congress. It is far more probable that
+both the doing and the suffering of injury were escaped.
+
+While the question of the relation of the United States to the other
+states upon the American continents is by no means transitory, the
+question of the Panama mission was so, at least so much so as not to
+serve well as an issue for the division of the Republican party into
+two permanently hostile forces.
+
+[Sidenote: Adams on internal improvements in his message of December
+6th, 1825.]
+
+[Sidenote: Van Buren's resolution against internal improvements.]
+
+The question of internal improvements was a better issue, from this
+point of view. In his first annual message President Adams took high
+national ground upon this subject. He seemed to attribute to the
+general Government unlimited power to construct roads and canals,
+establish universities and observatories, and to do any and every
+thing conducive to the improvement of the people. Clay himself, it is
+said, was a little staggered by the exceeding broadness of Mr. Adams'
+ideas. While Mr. Van Buren, the leader of the opposition in the
+Senate, offered a resolution in that body, a fortnight after the
+message, which declared that Congress did not possess the power to
+make roads and canals within the respective Commonwealths, and
+proposed the formation of an amendment to the Constitution, which
+should prescribe the powers that the general Government should have
+over the subject of internal improvements.
+
+[Sidenote: The practices of the Adams Administration in respect to
+internal improvements.]
+
+Mr. Adams seems to have yielded before the opposition in this matter,
+and to have thus avoided making it a further issue. In his subsequent
+messages he confined himself chiefly to observations upon the work
+done by the engineers appointed under the Congressional Act of April
+30th, 1824, for making surveys, plans, {156} and estimates for
+national routes. The Administration and Congress simply put into
+practice the Monroe ideas upon the subject. Money was appropriated by
+Congress for the construction and repair of roads, and was expended
+under the supervision of the President, and stock was taken by the
+Government in private corporations, organized under Commonwealth law,
+and subject to Commonwealth jurisdiction, for the construction of
+canals; but no jurisdiction and no administrative powers were
+exercised or asserted by the general Government over such
+improvements, except, perhaps, the power of eminent domain.
+
+The opposition, however, which had been excited at first by Mr. Adams'
+proposition to make a large advance upon Mr. Monroe's principles, was
+not satisfied with his return in practice to those principles. They
+professed to entertain the fear that the Administration had a settled
+policy of encroachment upon the reserved rights and powers of the
+Commonwealths, and they now began to watch and combat the movements of
+the Administration chiefly from this point of view. This attitude must
+not yet, however, be ascribed wholly or chiefly to the conscious
+influences of the slavery interest. Factional hostility to the
+Administration, and the general settling back into the "States'
+rights" view of the Constitution, which manifests itself all through
+the history of the United States as a reaction from the tension of war
+and the enthusiasm of strong national exertion, did more to determine
+it than the views of the slaveholders in regard to the interests of
+their peculiar institution.
+
+[Sidenote: The chief practical difficulty in the way of a national
+system of internal improvements.]
+
+The great practical difficulty in regard to the subject was in making
+such determinations as to the national or local character of the
+proposed improvements as would be satisfactory to the mass of the
+people. {157} Naturally every Congressman considered the roads of his
+district as matters of national concern; and, in spite of the law of
+1824 vesting in the President and his board of engineers the laying
+out of such routes as the President might decide to be required by the
+general welfare, the scramble for national money to be expended for
+local purposes increased from one session to another.
+
+It was the question of the tariff which showed more clearly than
+anything else the influence of the interests of slavery in the
+attitude which the slaveholders would finally take toward the
+industrial policies of the nation, and which would contribute more
+than anything else to the division of the Republican party from the
+point of view of principle.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff of 1824 a failure.]
+
+The great purpose of the Tariff of 1824 was to give the American
+manufacturers of coarse woollens a substantial control of the home
+markets. In two years of trial this result had not been realized. A
+vast amount of capital had been transferred from other enterprises to
+build new woollen mills, and the markets were so glutted with their
+fabrics that sale for them could only be found by virtually excluding
+foreign goods of the same material and grade. It was claimed that the
+foreign goods were sold upon foreign account, and not by _bona fide_
+American merchants, and that the goods were thus undervalued by the
+fictitious parties to the importation, and the duty thus so largely
+avoided as to make the importation practically free. It was,
+therefore, contended that the agent of the foreign manufacturer or
+merchant was ruining the American manufacturer, on the one hand, and
+the American merchant, on the other. President Adams himself, in his
+message of December 5th, 1826, referred to the frauds thus committed
+on the revenue. The {158} manufacturers of woollens in New England and
+Pennsylvania memorialized Congress, during the latter part of the year
+1826, representing themselves to be in dire distress and praying for
+aid. These memorials were referred to the Committee on Manufactures of
+the House of Representatives for report. On January 10th, 1827, the
+chairman of this committee, Mr. Mallary, of Vermont, introduced a bill
+to meet the difficulties above described.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff Bill of 1827.]
+
+This bill proposed to introduce a system of minimal valuations at the
+custom-house instead of taking the foreign invoice as the basis for
+the levy of the duty, as was the existing practice, and it placed the
+valuation of coarse woollens so high as practically to prohibit their
+importation. The bill proposed, however, to raise the tariff on wool
+to such a rate as would deprive the manufacturers very largely of the
+benefit to be secured by the system of minimal valuations. It was
+questionable whether the manufacturers would get any very material aid
+out of this bill, which contained so high a rate of duty upon the raw
+material, but it was necessary to incorporate the provision in order
+to secure the support of the West to the measure.
+
+[Sidenote: Development of the industrial antithesis between the North
+and the South.]
+
+The industrial antithesis between the North and the South became more
+exactly organized under the issue presented by this bill.
+Massachusetts joined the high protection ranks, and Kentucky went over
+to the side of the South. Missouri, however, still voted for the
+tariff, while New York City still preserved its attitude of
+opposition, and Maine's Representatives were evenly divided in the
+final vote on the bill. The protection phalanx from Pennsylvania was
+broken, too, by the defection of her two most important
+Representatives, Ingham and Buchanan. The attitude of {159} Buchanan
+was a matter of especial note. He held that the constitutionality of
+the tariff and the policy of a moderate protection had been completely
+settled by the founders of the Constitution and by the uniform
+practice of the Government, but that so high a tariff as the one now
+proposed on woollens was impolitic, from the point of view of the
+general welfare, and unjust, from that of an equal distribution of the
+burdens of taxation. Mr. Buchanan owed much of his subsequent success
+to the moderate views which he advanced and adhered to at this
+juncture.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill passed by the House of Representatives.]
+
+It will be seen, however, that the support of, and the opposition to,
+the tariff respectively had not yet become entirely sectional, though
+an advance had been made since 1824 toward that result. The bill
+passed the House on February 10th, 1827, but the Senate did not reach
+its consideration before the conclusion of the session.
+
+[Sidenote: Hostility to the measure in South Carolina.]
+
+It had the effect, however, of arousing most intense excitement and
+bitter opposition in South Carolina. In fact, it is from this date and
+issue that we must trace the history of nullification in South
+Carolina. In the summer following the Congressional session of 1826-27
+the chief personages of the Commonwealth assembled at Columbia. The
+Governor, Mr. Taylor, presided, and the principal orator of the
+occasion was the President of the College of the Commonwealth, Dr.
+Cooper, a man of rare powers and great learning, an Englishman by
+birth and education, a free-trader in his political economy, and a
+"States' rights" man in his political science. In his speech he
+suggested disunion as preferable to submission to the tariff
+legislation of Congress. The resolutions passed by the assembly were
+not so inflammatory as the Doctor's speech, but they declared that
+such legislation {160} was calculated to give rise to the inquiry
+whether the Union was of any benefit, under such conditions, to the
+Southern Commonwealths.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill neglected by the Senate.]
+
+Copies of these resolutions were sent to the legislative bodies of the
+several Southern Commonwealths, but they evoked no response
+whatsoever. The proposed tariff had, by the inaction of the Senate,
+been virtually abandoned, and it was therefore unnecessary to protest
+against its passage as law, or make threats against its execution.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff of 1828.]
+
+At the beginning of the next session of Congress, that of 1827-28, the
+committee on Manufactures brought in another bill. It advanced the
+duty on iron by from ten to fifteen per centum; it advanced the duty
+on wool by from about fifty to more than one hundred per centum,
+imposing both a specific and an _ad valorem_ duty upon it. It changed
+the duty upon woollen goods costing less than $2.50 a square yard from
+an _ad valorem_ to a specific duty, and increased the duty by about
+twenty per centum. It retained the _ad valorem_ duty on woollens
+costing more than $2.50 a square yard, and increased the same by about
+twenty per centum, and in addition thereto it imposed a minimum
+valuation of $4 a square yard upon all such goods costing between
+$2.50 and $4 a square yard, which would effect an additional increase
+of duty of about fifty per centum on the average. It finally increased
+the duty on hemp by about twenty-five per centum immediately, and by
+about eighty per centum in three years.
+
+This was a far more moderate protection upon woollen fabrics than that
+proposed at the previous session, on account of the fact that the duty
+on the raw material was so greatly increased. It was at least
+questionable whether the manufacturers would receive any substantial
+benefit out of the measure. Mr. Mallary, the {161} chairman of the
+committee, felt so dubious about this that he dissented from the
+committee's report in regard to woollen fabrics, and offered an
+amendment to the bill for the purpose of curing this defect. He could
+not, however, bring the House to accept his proposition, but his
+opposition to the committee's report opened the way for some
+modification of the bill to the advantage of the manufacturers. It was
+still, however, no great boon to the manufacturers. It was about as
+much a wool- and hemp-grower's bill as a manufacturer's bill. Nobody
+could tell whether it would be more beneficial to the manufacturers
+than to the wool- and hemp-growers.
+
+One thing alone was certain, and that was, that the cotton-planters
+and those engaged in foreign commerce would have no direct share in
+the benefits of the measure. And it was also very difficult to figure
+out any indirect benefits for them. It would not widen the domestic
+market for raw cotton. It would increase the price of woollen fabrics.
+It would increase the domestic demand for the products of Western
+agriculture, and thereby increase the price of these products to the
+Southern consumers of them. And it would discourage the importation of
+woollen goods. These were all the results easily discernible, and
+every one of them bore hard upon the planting and shipping interests.
+The representatives from the Southern Commonwealths pointed out these
+things, but they were told to establish manufactures themselves, and
+then they would be tributary to nobody.
+
+[Sidenote: The Southerners not yet agreed that slave labor could not
+be employed in manufacture.]
+
+Some of the Southerners, like Colonel Hayne, frankly replied that they
+could not establish manufactures with slave labor; while others, like
+Mr. McDuffie, threatened ruin to the Northern manufacturers if they
+succeeded in having the duties raised so high as to drive the South,
+with its cheap slave labor, into manufactures.
+
+{162} [Sidenote: The character of the bill as reflected in the
+analysis of the vote upon it.]
+
+The vote in the House of Representatives reflects quite perfectly the
+character of the bill. The members from the wool- and hemp-growing
+sections supported the bill; those from the manufacturing section were
+indifferent; those from the shipping and commercial sections opposed
+it; and those from the planting section opposed it unanimously.
+
+In the Senate, amendments were made to the bill which altered it in
+the direction of a slightly increased protection to the manufacturers.
+Still, Mr. Webster, who had become a champion of protection since his
+section had become a manufacturing section, claimed that the bill was
+of little worth to the manufacturers, while the increased duty on hemp
+would bear heavily on the shipping interests of New England. He voted
+for the bill, however, while his colleague, Mr. Silsbee, voted against
+it. The vote in the Senate differed only slightly, as regards
+sectional distribution, from that in the House. It was finally passed
+by both Houses as amended by the Senate, and was signed by the
+President on the nineteenth day of May, 1828; and opposition to it
+thereafter must take on the form of petition for its repeal, or that
+of resistance to its execution. Before it could come to the latter,
+however, three things must be accomplished. The first was the
+invention of the morale of such resistance. The second was the
+creation of the party of resistance. And the last was the capture of
+some existing governmental organization by that party.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff of 1828 not a complete party measure.]
+
+While thus it cannot be said that the "Jackson men" voted against this
+bill and the Administration men for it, still there was something
+which looked like an approach toward this relation. Certainly the
+Southern wing of the Jacksonians, or of the Democratic party, as the
+Jacksonians now called {163} themselves in distinction from the
+National Republicans, opposed the measure with something like
+unanimity. Many of Jackson's Northern supporters, however, voted for
+the bill, and it may be said that the Democratic party of the North
+was then in favor of moderate protection to all the interests of the
+country.
+
+The party divisions of 1828 were still largely dominated by
+considerations of personal partisanship, and the organization of the
+two parties, which had now emerged from the all-comprehending
+Republican party, upon the basis of different political creeds, still
+lacked much of completion.
+
+[Sidenote: The presidential campaign of 1828 still dominated by
+personal considerations.]
+
+The campaign of 1828 was not fought upon the issues of any well
+established differences in political and economic policies. Jackson
+and his followers simply appealed to the mass of the people,
+especially to the lower classes, "to turn the rascals out," on the
+ground that the "Old Hero," the friend of the people, had been
+cheated, by a corrupt bargain between the two chiefs of the
+Administration, out of his rights in 1824, and that the whole pack of
+officials serving under them had been corrupted by the venality of
+their superiors. The people must take possession of their Government
+and send the wicked aristocracy of office holders to the right about,
+was the chief demand of the Democracy of 1828, and it was with the
+empty phrases, with which they rang the changes upon this demand, that
+they won the battle.
+
+[Sidenote: Election of Jackson.]
+
+Jackson and Calhoun were elected by an electoral vote of more than two
+to one. Every Commonwealth west of the Alleghanies, and every one
+south of Mason and Dixon's line, except Delaware and Maryland, gave
+its electoral vote entire to Jackson and Calhoun; and in addition
+thereto Pennsylvania {164} gave them its entire vote, New York gave
+them twenty of its thirty-six votes, Maine one of its nine, and
+Maryland five of its eleven.
+
+[Sidenote: Advent of the parvenus.]
+
+It was a tremendous _bouleversement_. The mob of malcontents had
+gotten together, had pulled together, and had accomplished their
+purpose. The old ruling class in American society was driven from
+place and power, and a new, untried, and inexperienced set of men
+seized the reins of Government. It looked something like a combination
+of the South and West against the East. They had, however, secured the
+two most important Eastern Commonwealths through Van Buren's activity
+in New York and Jackson's own popularity in Pennsylvania. It was not
+yet, however, a socialistic uprising against the wealth of the East.
+It was a political uprising against the monopoly of office-holding by
+the old official aristocracy. It was the introduction of a new class
+of eligibles into the official positions. Whether the subsequent
+effects of this change would be a modification of the structure of the
+Union or the policies of the Government remained to be seen.
+
+[Sidenote: Foreign affairs under Jackson's Administration.]
+
+Jackson placed Van Buren at the head of the Department of State, and
+under the influence of this most astute politician started out upon
+his presidential career. The foreign diplomacy of the Administration
+was naturally successful. The disputes with Great Britain in regard to
+the northeast boundary of the United States, and in regard to trade
+between the United States and the British colonies, and the dispute
+with France in regard to indemnity for the spoliations committed by
+the French upon American commerce in the first years of the century,
+were successfully dealt with, by a judicious admixture of shrewdness,
+conciliatoriness, and firmness. These questions were not, however, of
+sufficient importance to {165} turn the attention from the internal
+questions of constitutional interpretation and governmental policies.
+
+[Sidenote: The Democratic party and its divisions.]
+
+The Jackson party, or the Democratic party, must make its creed, both
+political and economic, and it must adjust that creed both to the
+Constitution and to the working of the Government. The party was
+composed of three tolerably distinct divisions, which may be termed
+the Southern, the Western, and the Eastern divisions. Of these, the
+Western division alone was a real democracy. The Southern and Eastern
+divisions were rather aristocracies. The Southern division was
+emphatically so. And when it came to policies, the Western division
+favored internal improvements, and the Eastern and Southern divisions
+opposed them; the Western division favored a tariff on wool and hemp,
+the Eastern favored moderate protection of manufactures, and the
+Southern division wanted as nearly free trade as the revenues of the
+Government would allow. It was a great task for the Administration to
+maintain the combination, and keep a reliable majority in Congress.
+
+
+
+
+{166}
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION TO INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS AND PROTECTION
+
+Jackson's Ideas Concerning Internal Improvements--The Maysville Road
+Bill--The Slavery Question not Involved in the Vote on the Bill or in
+the Veto--Railway Building Begun--The Commencement of the Struggle for
+the Repeal of the Tariff of 1828--Jackson on the Tariff of 1828, in
+his First Annual Message--George McDuffie as South Carolina's
+Political Economist--Dr. Thomas Cooper--Mr. McDuffie's Tariff
+Bill--The Tariff Bill of 1830--McDuffie's Amendment--McDuffie's
+Doctrine that the Producers of Exports Pay Finally the Duties on the
+Imports--The Acceptance of Mr. McDuffie's Doctrine at the
+South--Growing Belief in the Incapacity of Slave Labor for
+Manufacture--The Tariff Pronounced Unconstitutional--Growth of the
+Protection Idea--Jackson on the Tariff and the Surplus Revenue Derived
+therefrom, in the Message of December, 1830--Southern
+Disappointment--"The South Carolina Exposition"--Calhoun's Doctrine of
+"States' rights"--Nullification in Theory--The Nullification and
+Anti-nullification Parties in South Carolina--First Attempt to try the
+Validity of the Tariff in the United States Courts--Nullification and
+Rebellion--Jackson's Message of December, 1831, on the Tariff
+Issue--The Bill from the Committee on Ways and Means--The Tariff Bill
+of 1832 from the Committee on Manufactures--Passage of the Tariff of
+1832 by the House of Representatives--The "American System."
+
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's ideas concerning internal improvements.]
+
+In his first annual message President Jackson referred to the general
+dissatisfaction with the manner of {167} dealing with the question of
+internal improvements which had prevailed to that time, and proposed
+that the general Government should abandon the subject entirely and
+should distribute the surplus of the revenue, above the wants of the
+Government, among the Commonwealths, and leave to them the expenditure
+of the money upon internal improvements.
+
+[Sidenote: The Maysville Road Bill.]
+
+The Congress, however, paid no regard to the President's
+recommendation. In May, 1830, it sent up to the President for his
+approval a bill authorizing and requiring the Government to take stock
+in a Kentucky turnpike, running from Maysville on the Ohio River to
+Lexington, some sixty miles inward.
+
+[Sidenote: The veto of the Bill.]
+
+The President vetoed the bill, May 27th. His special reason was that
+the road was not a national, but a local, matter. He did not attack
+the Monroe principle upon the general subject of internal
+improvements, but he referred to the recommendation contained in his
+annual message as still expressing his view of the manner in which the
+Government should rid itself of the embarrassments into which it was
+being farther and farther drawn by the practice of voting national
+money for internal improvements. He argued that the subject must be
+considered upon its own merits, and not brought into connection with
+the tariff policy. He thus saw the prospect of the expenditure of
+millions of national money upon internal improvements in order to
+relieve the protectionists of the embarrassment of a great surplus,
+and denounced it. He contended that the Government should adopt its
+policy upon each of these subjects as if the other did not exist. He
+urged, finally, that, if the people wanted the general Government to
+undertake internal improvements, they should {168} so amend the
+Constitution as to give the Government sufficient jurisdiction over
+the roads and canals, which it might build, to protect them against
+wanton injury, and to collect the tolls necessary to keep them in
+repair. This he declared to be necessary to any satisfactory exercise
+of powers upon the general subject by the Government.
+
+The veto certainly exerted some influence upon the minds of the
+Representatives. A majority still voted for the bill, but it was a
+much reduced majority. The vote upon the vetoed bill stood ninety-six
+to ninety. The bill was therefore lost.
+
+[Sidenote: The slavery question not involved in the vote on the bill
+or in the veto.]
+
+The exact question at issue was not, as we have seen, the general
+policy of internal improvements, but it was whether the Maysville road
+was a national improvement. An analysis of the vote upon the subject
+may not, therefore, have any significance, from the point of view of
+the general question. Roughly, we may say that a majority of the
+Representatives from the South voted against the bill, a large
+majority of those from the Northwest voted for it, a majority of those
+from Pennsylvania and New Jersey voted for it, while a majority of
+those from New York voted against it, and, lastly, the Representatives
+from New England were divided. It thus appears rather far fetched to
+ascribe the attitude of the opponents of the bill, in any section, to
+the influence of the slavery interest. Those who voted against the
+bill said they did so because the object for which the appropriation
+was sought was a local affair, managed by a private corporation, for
+private gain. That uncompromising enemy of slavery, Mr. John W.
+Taylor, of New York, was prominent among those who took this position
+and voted against the bill. He even pronounced it unconstitutional,
+and was inclined to the {169} view, as we have seen, that internal
+improvements generally were left by the Constitution for the
+Commonwealths to construct and control.
+
+[Sidenote: Too much influence in determining the national policy
+toward internal improvements usually ascribed to the veto.]
+
+It is usual to attribute to the veto of this bill the overthrow of the
+policy of internal improvements by the general Government. This
+proposition will hardly bear close examination. Congress continued to
+make appropriations for internal improvements, which the President
+usually vetoed, if they were in separate bills, and usually approved,
+if they were included in the general appropriation bills. It is
+calculated that while Adams signed appropriations for internal
+improvements to the amount of less than two millions and a half of
+dollars, Jackson approved disbursements for these purposes to the
+amount of more than ten millions of dollars.
+
+[Sidenote: Railway building begun.]
+
+The fact is that the building of railways was the chief force which
+put an end to road- and canal-making by the general Government. The
+construction of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, the parent of the New
+York Central system, was begun in 1825. In 1827 the survey of the
+Boston and Albany line was begun. The same year the Pennsylvania
+system had its origin. One year later the Baltimore and Ohio system
+was founded. The year of the veto of the Maysville road bill forty-one
+miles of railroad were being operated in the United States, and at the
+close of the decade more than two thousand miles. As the railway
+system spread over the country, through private enterprise, the
+appropriations of national money for internal improvements became more
+and more confined to the specific improvements of rivers and harbors.
+The roads and canals of a national character were being made
+unnecessary by the extension of {170} the railways. It is undoubtedly,
+then, far more plausible and natural to attribute the overthrow of the
+policy of internal improvements by the general Government to the
+growth of the railways, constructed and operated by private
+corporations under Commonwealth charters, on the one side, and, on the
+other, to the settled conviction that the general Government did not
+have the constitutional powers adequate to the successful
+establishment and protection of a system of works based upon that
+policy, and to the unsatisfactory experience which the country had had
+in attempting to distinguish local from national enterprises and to
+confine appropriations to those of the latter character.
+
+It is difficult to see any special connection of the interests of
+slavery with the decline of the policy. It is true that the
+slaveholders were becoming strict constructionists generally. They had
+learned from the Missouri struggle that Congress must not be allowed
+to magnify its powers when forming the Territories into Commonwealths,
+and they had learned from the tariff struggles that Congress must not
+be allowed to magnify its powers in regard to the regulation of
+foreign commerce and the raising of revenue, but, as to internal
+improvements, no reliable evidence of a consciousness, on the part of
+the slaveholders, of any particular connection between their peculiar
+interest and a policy upon this subject by the general Government is
+discoverable.
+
+On the contrary, in the struggle for the repeal of the Tariff of 1828
+the influence of the slavery interest is easily remarked, and is
+clearly seen to have been controlling.
+
+[Sidenote: The commencement of the struggle for the repeal of the
+Tariff of 1828.]
+
+On February 10th, 1829, Mr. William Smith, the senior Senator from
+South Carolina, presented to the Senate the protest of the legislature
+of South {171} Carolina against Congressional protection to domestic
+manufactures. This memorial pronounced all such acts to be
+unconstitutional, except as incidental to raising the revenue or
+regulating commerce, and impolitic even then, when their operation
+would be unequal upon the different sections of the country, and felt
+by any section to be oppressive. The language of the paper was
+respectful, moderate, dignified, and forcible, and it contained no
+threats of disunion, or of violent or unlawful resistance. The
+legislature asked that the protest should be entered on the journal of
+the Senate. The Senate, however, only ordered it to be printed.
+
+The South Carolinians promised themselves, nevertheless, some measure
+of relief from what they supposed would be the policy of the newly
+elected President. Being a Southern man, it was naturally supposed
+that he would recognize Southern interests in the policy upon this
+subject which he would recommend. But, while Jackson had not committed
+himself to protection for the sake of the manufacturers or of the
+producers of raw material, he was a strong Union man and an American,
+and the argument for the tariff from the point of view of national
+industrial independence exercised a prevailing influence in
+determining his attitude toward the subject.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson on the Tariff of 1828, in his first annual
+message.]
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's views on the Tariff as a general policy.]
+
+In his message of December 8th, 1829, he wrote that the Tariff of 1828
+had not proved itself so beneficial to the manufacturers or so
+injurious to commerce and agriculture as had been anticipated; that he
+regretted that all nations would not abolish restrictions, and refer
+the management of trade to individual enterprise; that since, however,
+they would not do so, a tariff was the necessary policy of the United
+States; but that in the {172} face of the fact that the national debt
+would soon be paid, and the sinking fund would not be much longer
+required, a modification of the existing tariff in the direction of a
+reduction of duties would soon be the true and necessary policy; and
+that the principle to be followed in making such a modification ought
+to be to reduce the duties upon such articles as might come into
+competition with home products no further than would leave to the
+latter a fair chance in such competition; and that from the general
+principle of a reduction to this point must be excepted the duties on
+the implements and prime necessities of war, all of which should enjoy
+a higher protection than that accorded to other articles. Evidently,
+according to this doctrine, the chief reductions should fall upon
+articles not coming into competition with home products, such articles
+as tea, coffee, etc., at that time termed the unprotected articles.
+Jackson had thus anticipated Clay's American system of the tariff by
+nearly three years, as we shall see.
+
+The South Carolinians were greatly disappointed by this expression of
+the President's views, although they claimed that the message
+recommended substantial tariff reduction. This part of the message was
+referred to the committee on Manufactures, according to the rule of
+procedure which had prevailed in the House of Representatives for
+nearly a decade, and which showed that the matter of the tariff was
+not regarded as something purely incidental to the raising of revenue.
+
+[Sidenote: George McDuffie as South Carolina's political economist.]
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Thomas Cooper.]
+
+The claim was now put forward, however, that the subject properly
+belonged to the domain of the committee on Ways and Means. Mr. George
+McDuffie, of South Carolina, was at this moment the chairman of this
+committee. He was a man of keen intelligence, strong {173} courage,
+and great persistence. He was the political economist of the
+slave-labor system, as Calhoun was its political scientist and
+constitutional lawyer. It is to be surmised, at least, that he learned
+much of his political economy from the notorious, if not famous, Dr.
+Thomas Cooper, the British President of South Carolina College. It is
+true that Mr. McDuffie's college days had passed before Dr. Cooper
+taught in the institution, but the Doctor wrote and published much
+upon economic and political subjects between 1820 and 1830. In fact,
+he set the direction of thought upon such subjects in South Carolina
+and throughout a large portion of the South during that period. As has
+been already mentioned, he was an Englishman by birth. He had spent a
+part of his earlier life in France, and had imbibed the doctrines of
+French republicanism. For this reason he was disliked and shunned by
+conservative men in England to such a degree as to make longer
+residence in his native country uncomfortable to him. He came to the
+United States in the last decade of the eighteenth century. His
+radical views and his violent expressions of them soon drew attention
+to him here. He was one of the men prosecuted under the Alien and
+Sedition laws of 1798. He made his way to South Carolina about the
+beginning of the third decade of this century, and found there a well
+prepared soil for his Girondist views of federal Government and his
+free-trade views in political economy. A true estimate of
+responsibilities for the events of 1832 in South Carolina would
+probably hold him more culpable than Calhoun himself. It was from such
+a thinker, and he was a keen and vigorous thinker, that Mr. McDuffie
+received impulse, if not actual instruction, in his reasoning.
+
+Mr. McDuffie argued that the power to impose a tariff {174} was not
+expressly vested by the Constitution in the Government; that,
+therefore, if it existed at all, as a power of the Government, it must
+be incidental to some express provision; and that it could be
+incidental only to the power for raising the revenue. He, therefore,
+contended further that all tariff bills must originate in the House of
+Representatives, and in the regular revenue committee of that House,
+the committee of Ways and Means.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. McDuffie's Tariff Bill.]
+
+Congress had disregarded the protest of the South Carolina Legislature
+of the previous February. It was well known that the committee on
+Manufactures in the House was favorable to the maintenance of the
+existing duties. It seemed, therefore, to Mr. McDuffie, and those who
+thought with him, both natural and necessary that the committee of
+Ways and Means should claim their constitutional prerogative, and make
+an effort to get the ear of Congress to their representations.
+Consequently, on February 5th, 1830, Mr. McDuffie reported a tariff
+bill from his committee, without having had the subject specifically
+referred to them by the House. The bill provided for a moderate
+reduction of the tariff all around, but still left a duty of
+thirty-three and one-third per centum _ad valorem_ upon woollen
+fabrics.
+
+The interest attaching to this proposition lies in the fact that it
+contains substantially the terms upon which the South Carolinians were
+willing to compromise the tariff question. It shows them to have been
+still moderate tariff men, rather than out and out free-traders. To
+the unprejudiced mind of the present day it certainly appears to have
+been an offer which merited some consideration, but, after a single
+reading, it was ordered to lie on the table, from which it was never
+taken up.
+
+{175} [Sidenote: The Tariff Bill of 1830.]
+
+Meanwhile the committee on Manufactures were very deliberately
+maturing a measure. It was reported to the House early in April, and
+taken up for consideration on the 15th. It was nothing more than an
+administrative measure for the purpose of securing a stricter
+execution of the existing tariff.
+
+[Sidenote: McDuffie's Amendment.]
+
+Mr. McDuffie made another effort to move the House to consider a
+reduction of duties, in the form of an amendment to this bill. He
+offered such an amendment, which provided for a return to the duties
+imposed before 1824 upon woollens, cottons, iron, hemp, etc.
+
+[Sidenote: McDuffie's doctrine that the producers of exports pay
+finally the duties on the imports.]
+
+It was in support of this amendment that he made his famous argument
+of April 29th, 1830, in which he developed, for the first time, the
+doctrine in regard to the final payment of the duties which furnished
+the economic basis of nullification. That doctrine was that the
+producers of the exports, which are exchanged in the foreign markets
+for the imports, pay, finally, the duty upon the imports. His course
+of reasoning in the establishment of this doctrine was as follows: He
+reduced all trade ultimately to barter between producers, and then
+declared it to be self-evident that when a producer of exports should
+be obliged to pay a duty of twenty-five per centum upon the imports,
+which he had received in pay for his exports, before he could bring
+them into the country of his residence, he had received finally
+twenty-five per centum less for his exports than he would have
+received had he not been compelled to pay any duty upon his imports.
+
+Mr. McDuffie then drew from the statistics of the foreign trade of the
+United States the fact that the sections cultivating cotton and rice,
+constituting less than {176} one-fifth of the Union, both in territory
+and population, produced thirty of the fifty-eight millions' worth of
+annual exports; and finally drew the conclusion from these premises
+that one-fifth of the people, the population of the planting sections,
+paid more than one-half of the duties on the imports of the country.
+
+[Sidenote: The danger in Mr. McDuffie's conclusions.]
+
+If this were true it was indeed a grievous burden. And if the people
+of the South, or that part of the South devoted to the production of
+these staples, believed it to be true, then would the reason for one
+great scruple against resistance to the execution of the tariff laws
+be removed, namely, the general belief theretofore prevailing, from
+the doctrine that the consumers of the imports ultimately pay the
+duties, that the burden of the duties fell nearly equally upon the
+different sections. So long as this belief was general the sense of
+oppression in any particular part or section of the country could not
+become very keen. Substitute for this old idea, however, the new
+doctrine advanced by Mr. McDuffie, and, under the existing
+distribution of the articles of export, there could not fail to be
+developed a most bitter sense of wrong and oppression on the part of
+the producers of the Southern staples.
+
+[Sidenote: The acceptance of Mr. McDuffie's doctrine at the South.]
+
+The Southerners, especially the South Carolinians, did embrace the new
+doctrine, apparently, at least, with all sincerity. It was utterly
+futile that Mr. Gorham and Mr. Everett pointed out to them the fact
+that they consumed only a comparatively small portion of the imports
+received in exchange for their exports, and sold the rest to the
+people of the other sections with the duties added on, thus shifting
+the duties upon the other sections. They clung to the new doctrine as
+if it were something for which they had long been seeking, and to
+which their {177} hearts were already too much attached to be drawn
+away by argument.
+
+[Sidenote: Growing belief in the incapacity of slave labor for
+manufacture.]
+
+It was in this speech, furthermore, that Mr. McDuffie abandoned his
+former view of the capacity of slave labor for manufacturing industry,
+and embraced and enounced the doctrine held before this by Colonel
+Hayne upon that subject, which was that slave labor could only be
+employed successfully in agriculture. This was, of course, another
+necessary element in the consolidation of the interests of the South
+against the tariff.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff pronounced unconstitutional.]
+
+It was in this speech, also, that Mr. McDuffie, for the first time,
+pronounced the tariff unconstitutional. He did not yet declare any and
+every tariff unconstitutional, but only such a tariff as sacrificed
+one interest to another, or the interests of one section to those of
+another. This he claimed the existing tariff did do. The belief in the
+unconstitutionality of the tariff was, of course, another necessary
+element in the preparation for resistance to its execution.
+
+[Sidenote: McDuffie's threat of resistance to the execution of the
+Tariff laws.]
+
+Finally, Mr. McDuffie uttered, in this speech, the threat of
+resistance to the execution of the tariff laws, the threat of
+nullification. It was ill timed, as threats generally are, and it had
+the effect of producing the large majority by which Mr. McDuffie's
+amendment was voted down.
+
+The bill suffered some modification in the course of its passage, but
+its principle remained the same. It reduced the duty on no article
+whatever, but only provided for a stricter enforcement of the existing
+laws.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of the protection idea.]
+
+By another bill, which received the President's approval on May 20th
+(1830), eight days before this administrative bill was signed, the
+duties on tea, coffee, and cocoa had been reduced. This meant that the
+protectionists were very {178} willing to free those articles from
+duty which did not come into competition with home productions, in
+order to preserve and increase the duties on those that did. This was
+the direction in which the tariff system was growing. It became, two
+years later, the pronounced principle of the "American system," as we
+shall see.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson on the Tariff and the surplus revenue derived
+therefrom, in the message of December, 1830.]
+
+In the message of December 7th, 1830, President Jackson defended the
+constitutionality of the protective system, said that the existing
+tariff needed some corrections in details, and expressed the opinion
+that no law reducing duties could be made which would be satisfactory
+to the American people that would not leave a considerable surplus in
+the Treasury. He suggested the employment of such surplus upon
+internal improvements under the direction of the legislatures of the
+several Commonwealths.
+
+[Sidenote: Southern disappointment.]
+
+This was a stunning blow to the hopes of the Southerners. The
+extinction of the debt and the existence of an unemployed surplus were
+the conditions to which they had looked forward as necessitating in
+all conservative minds the reduction of the duties. But here was a
+plan, suggested by a Southern President, for relieving the Treasury of
+any amount of surplus for an indefinite period, without the reduction
+of a single penny of duty upon a single article. Thus encouraged the
+protectionists in both Houses of Congress refused, during the session
+of 1830-31, to consider any propositions looking toward a reduction of
+duties.
+
+It is hardly a cause of wonder that the South Carolinians began to
+despair of obtaining through Congress any relief from what they
+regarded as dire oppression, and that some of them were reviewing the
+Constitution, and the political principles upon which it was founded,
+with {179} the purpose of finding other means with which to meet the
+great emergency. It was in this part of the work that Mr. Calhoun took
+the lead.
+
+[Sidenote: "The South Carolina Exposition."]
+
+[Sidenote: Calhoun's doctrine of "States' rights."]
+
+As far back as 1828, just after the enactment of the tariff measure
+which was giving so much offence, Mr. Calhoun had started out in this
+direction in the paper which he furnished the South Carolina
+legislature, which served as the basis of the first pronunciamento
+from that body upon the subject, the so-called South Carolina
+Exposition. This document by Mr. Calhoun was comparatively temperate
+in its language and not very clear in its political doctrines and its
+constitutional interpretation. The great debate between Hayne and
+Webster on the floor of the Senate, over which body Mr. Calhoun, as
+Vice-President, presided, in regard to the fundamental principles of
+the Union, taught Mr. Calhoun several very important points in the
+evolution of his doctrine of "States' rights." Especially was he
+warned against the great error, made by Mr. Hayne, of representing the
+United States Government as one of the parties to the "constitutional
+pact" and the "States" as the other. Mr. Webster so completely
+demolished this theory that Mr. Calhoun was preserved from introducing
+this fallacy or any of its corollaries into his reasoning, if he had
+ever been inclined to do so. In his "Address on the Relations of the
+States and Federal Government," and in his "Address to the People of
+South Carolina," both published in the summer of 1831, he shows that
+he had maturely reflected upon all that had been said and written upon
+the fundamental question of the relation of the "States" to the Union
+and to the general Government. He had given up his hope both in the
+Congress and in the President. With him the question of the tariff had
+now, {180} therefore, been removed from the domain of governmental
+policy into that of constitutional powers and political principle.
+This was the point of view which he took in the documents just
+mentioned.
+
+He began, as innovators generally do, with the assertion that his
+interpretation of the Constitution was no new invention of his own,
+but was the ancient principle of the Constitution. That principle was,
+he contended, that the Constitution was made by the "States," as
+sovereign bodies, and that through it the "States" created only a
+governmental agent for their general affairs. The term or phrase
+United States was only the name of the general governmental agent of
+the "States." Sovereignty was in the "States" only. Consequently, when
+the United States assumed powers not conferred by the "States" in the
+Constitution, the "States," by virtue of the sovereign attribute,
+might and should interpose, interpose individually, not collectively
+as they, of course, might do constitutionally through the regular form
+of procedure for amending the Constitution.
+
+[Sidenote: Nullification in theory.]
+
+Calhoun, like every other real statesman of his day, held that there
+is a domain of liberty secured not only to the minority, but to the
+individual, by the Constitution, upon which the majority shall not
+encroach. The practical question was how to prevent the majority, in
+possession of the powers and machinery of the Government, from doing
+so. The answer to this question developed by precedent, and formulated
+clearly by Webster at that very moment, was that it could be done only
+by invoking the aid of the judicial power of the United States. But
+Calhoun said in reply to this, that the United States courts were a
+part of the Government, substantially under the control of Congress
+and the President, through the power of Congress to constitute
+judgeships at pleasure, and of the President and the {181} Senate to
+fill them, and that they were interested, therefore, in the
+usurpations of power by the Government. He further held that these
+courts could not decide political questions, although these questions
+might incidentally involve the most sacred rights of individuals, and
+that, anyhow, they were as much subject to the "States," acting in
+their sovereign capacities, as any other part of the Government. He
+could see no way for preserving the rights of the minority and of
+individuals, in last resort, against governmental usurpation, save
+through the power of "_each of the parties_ to the compact" to prevent
+the execution within the territory subject to its jurisdiction of such
+governmental measures as it might deem usurpations.
+
+[Sidenote: The nullification and anti-nullification parties in South
+Carolina.]
+
+Down to the time of these utterances of Calhoun the party in South
+Carolina opposed to any resistance, by force, to the execution of the
+tariff laws, had been able to prevent the outbreak of nullification.
+The leaders of this party were among the most distinguished and
+influential men of the Commonwealth. They were Mr. Drayton, the member
+of Congress from the Charleston district, Judge Johnson of the United
+States Supreme Court, Mr. Petigru, Mr. Grimke, the Lowndes, and others
+of scarcely less note. In the first half of the year 1831 they still
+held control of the municipal government of Charleston, and of the
+legislature of the Commonwealth, although the "States' rights" men had
+obtained the governorship. Nearly all of the opponents of
+nullification denounced the tariff laws as unjust and oppressive to
+the South, but they also denounced the doctrine that the execution of
+any law of the United States could be constitutionally resisted,
+except by means of the judicial processes provided for the case by the
+Constitution itself. Resistance in any other {182} manner, they
+declared, would be rebellion at the outset, revolution if successful.
+They said that they were not willing to assume any such
+responsibilities in opposing the tariff laws, and that they regarded
+the blessings of the Union as too great and manifold to hazard
+disunion, even if it could be successfully and peaceably accomplished.
+
+Their views were so candid and reasonable that, in spite of the
+intense excitement which prevailed during the legislative session
+following the failure of the attempt to modify the tariff, they
+prevented the nullifiers from securing a sufficient majority in the
+legislature to order the call of a convention. The nullifiers had
+committed themselves to the doctrine that the nullifying power was a
+power of sovereignty, not of government, and that it resided,
+therefore, in the convention, not in the legislature. So long, then,
+as the assembly of the convention could be prevented, nullification
+could be certainly thwarted.
+
+[Sidenote: Capture of the municipal government of Charleston by the
+nullifiers.]
+
+But the publication of Calhoun's new doctrine in the summer of 1831
+gave great strength to the nullifiers, and in the municipal election
+of the latter part of the year they captured the mayorship of
+Charleston.
+
+[Sidenote: First attempt to try the validity of the Tariff in the
+United States courts.]
+
+One of the strongest moral forces in the hands of the opponents of
+nullification against which the nullifiers had to contend was the
+generally received doctrine that the constitutional means for meeting
+Congressional usurpation in any given case was a process in the United
+States courts. Unless they could say that they had tried this means in
+vain, they would still have to suffer the imputation of too hasty
+action, if nothing more. In order to escape this, two Charleston
+lawyers imported a package of dutiable goods, gave bonds for the
+payment of the duty, {183} refused payment, and were sued upon their
+bonds in the United States District Court. The plan was to have the
+question of the constitutionality of the tariff submitted to the jury,
+but the court refused to allow the jury to decide any question except
+that which pertained to the due execution of the bond.
+
+[Sidenote: Nullification and rebellion.]
+
+The nullifiers could now declare that every means suggested by their
+opponents as regular and lawful had been tried and had failed, and
+that there now remained only submission to oppression, or
+nullification, or rebellion. They said that no true South Carolinian
+could accept the first, and that, therefore, the choice lay between
+nullification and rebellion. Calhoun taught that there was a vast
+difference between the two; that the former was a constitutional, as
+well as a sovereign, method of resistance. He asserted that it was the
+great conservative principle of the Constitution, and defined it to be
+that reserved right whereby a "State," in convention assembled, might
+suspend the operation of a Congressional act upon its citizens which
+it considered unconstitutional, until conventions in three-fourths of
+the "States" should pronounce the Congressional act to be
+constitutional. He did not claim that this right was reserved
+specifically, but by implication from the general language of the
+Tenth Amendment. He was doubtless sincere, or at least thought he was.
+Many of his followers certainly were, and the masses, who could not
+understand the doctrine, but took it on faith, were so certain of its
+truth that they were ready to risk anything for its vindication.
+
+The Unionists, however, branded the doctrine as a deception. An
+editorial in one of their principal newspapers contained this
+sentence: "But this everlasting cant of devotion to the Union,
+accompanied by a recommendation to do those acts that must necessarily
+destroy {184} it, is beyond patient endurance from a people not
+absolutely confined in their own mad-houses." It was clear to them, at
+the outset, that nullification was piecemeal secession and rebellion.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's message of December, 1831, on the Tariff issue.]
+
+This was the state of things in South Carolina when Congress assembled
+on the first Monday of December, 1831. On the 6th the President's
+annual message was laid before the two Houses. It contained a much
+more distinct and decided recommendation for the reduction of duties
+than he had ever before expressed. He called attention to the prospect
+of the early extinguishment of the public debt, when the annual
+instalment to the sinking fund would be no longer needed, and
+recommended that Congress should at once deal with the question of the
+reduction of the duties to a point where they would produce no more
+revenue than would be necessary for an economical administration of
+the Government. He farther recommended the readjustment of the duties
+with a view to equal justice to all national interests, and said that
+the interests of both merchant and manufacturer required that the
+change should be prospective.
+
+There was no suggestion in the message of increasing the expenditures
+of the Government for internal improvements, or for any other purpose.
+The plain inference from the message was that by March 4th, 1833, the
+debt would all be paid, and the revenue could then be reduced by ten
+or twelve millions a year, and should be.
+
+[Sidenote: The question of the proper committee to frame Tariff
+Bills.]
+
+This was all that the South Carolinians had asked, and it would have
+been the height of folly for them to have pursued extraordinary means
+to relieve themselves when regular methods promised at last a prospect
+of success. This part of the message was referred to the committee on
+Manufactures, of which ex-President John Quincy Adams was then
+chairman. Mr. Adams {185} had far more moderate views in regard to the
+tariff than the majority of his protectionist brethren, and it could
+be reasonably hoped that he would report a bill from his committee
+which would be conciliatory in character. The Southerners were not
+quite willing, however, to rest entirely on his own good will, and
+raised the contention that the subject of the tariff ought to be
+referred either to the committee on Ways and Means, or to the
+committee on Commerce, since the power to impose duties was incident
+either to the raising of revenue or to the regulation of commerce. The
+result of the contention was that a resolution was introduced, and
+taken up, requesting the committee on Commerce to make a report on the
+working of the tariff, and the committee on Ways and Means was allowed
+to report a tariff bill, which was read twice and referred to the
+committee of the Whole House.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill from the Committee on Ways and Means.]
+
+The bill from the committee on Ways and Means provided for the
+reduction of the duty to twelve and one-half per centum _ad valorem_
+on all articles; on some, immediately and totally, but on the more
+important articles gradually, and in a period of a little more than
+three years.
+
+This was undoubtedly an ill digested measure. It was not only a
+radical reduction of duties, but it was an indiscriminate reduction.
+Mr. McDuffie's own committee were not unanimous in recommending it.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff Bill of 1832 from the Committee on
+Manufactures.]
+
+On May 23rd Mr. Adams reported the bill from the committee on
+Manufactures. Mr. Adams based his bill on the report of the Secretary
+of the Treasury, of December 7th, 1831, and proposed the repeal of the
+existing system of minimal valuations and the duty on coarse wool
+altogether, and a slight reduction of the duties on fine wool and
+woollen fabrics.
+
+{186} It was calculated that Mr. Adams' bill would reduce the receipts
+from the customs by about five or six millions of dollars, leaving
+thus still an annual surplus of some five or six millions after the
+extinguishment of the debt.
+
+Mr. McDuffie's bill was taken up first in the committee of the Whole
+House. Mr. McDuffie defended it with his argument, already stated,
+that the producers of the exports pay finally the duties on the
+imports for which the exports are exchanged in the foreign markets,
+and cited recent utterances of Professor Senior, the noted political
+economist of Oxford University, in support of his position. He could
+not, however, convince the House, and his bill was finally disposed of
+in less than a week. Mr. Adams' bill was then taken up. It was
+understood as proposing a slight reduction all around. It was intended
+to do so. But Mr. McDuffie made an argument against it, in which he
+undertook to prove, and declared that he did prove, that it
+discriminated still further against the South, and imposed a heavier
+burden upon that section than it was even then bearing, grievous as
+that was. He declared, finally, that he would not submit to it.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the Tariff of 1832 by the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+The House, however, was neither convinced by his argument nor
+intimidated by his threat. It passed the bill on June 28th, by a large
+majority, a majority of more than two to one.
+
+Meanwhile the Senate had been occupying itself with an exhaustive
+discussion of the principle of the tariff. On January 9th, 1832, Mr.
+Clay introduced the famous resolution for making the tariff upon
+articles coming into competition with home manufactures a system of
+permanent high duties, and for abolishing, or greatly reducing, the
+duties upon all other articles.
+
+{187} Senator Hayne immediately grasped the import of this
+proposition. He declared that it marked a new era in the tariff
+system. He demonstrated that down to that time the protection of
+manufactures had been regarded by all persons and parties as a
+temporary policy and had been justified as such, while this
+proposition looked to its establishment as a permanent principle of
+the policy of the country, which neither revenue surplus nor
+manufacturing experience should affect.
+
+[Sidenote: The "American System."]
+
+Mr. Clay, who had himself spoken of protection before this as only a
+temporary policy, acknowledged the truth of Colonel Hayne's criticism,
+and proceeded, in his famous three days' speech, to develop the
+arguments for the permanent protective system, the "American System,"
+as he termed it, which made up the text-book for the later supporters
+of that system. His idea was simply to collect the duties from those
+foreign products which come into competition in the home markets with
+domestic products, and prevent the accumulation of a Treasury surplus
+by fixing the duties so high in rate as to make them largely
+prohibitory. As we have seen, this idea had been already foreshadowed
+in one of President Jackson's earlier messages. It now received its
+complete formulation and its economic justification.
+
+But it was a sad prospect for the South. The South had looked forward
+to the extinguishment of the debt as necessarily bringing in its train
+the decrease of duties to the gross amount of at least ten millions of
+dollars per annum, and now it was called upon to consider the plan for
+a decrease of revenue by an increase of duties. It is hardly
+astonishing that the disappointment should have been bitter, and that
+passionate men should have thought of resistance to what appeared to
+them so grievously unjust.
+
+{188} The Senate referred Mr. Clay's resolution, together with an
+amendment to it, proposed by Colonel Hayne, for a general reduction of
+duties, to its committee on Manufactures. The committee reported a
+bill based on Mr. Clay's principle. The Constitution does not,
+however, allow the Senate to originate a bill for raising revenue, and
+the majority of the Senators voted to lay the bill on the table, and
+await the movements in the House.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill in the Senate.]
+
+On June 29th the House bill appeared in the Senate, and was referred
+by that body to its committee on Manufactures. On July 2nd Mr.
+Dickerson reported from this committee the House bill, with a series
+of amendments to it, proposed by the committee. These amendments were
+all in the direction of Mr. Clay's idea, and were adopted by the
+Senate. The bill as thus amended passed the Senate on July 9th, the
+Senators from every Northern Commonwealth voting for it, and those
+from every Southern Commonwealth, except Kentucky, Missouri, and
+Louisiana, voting against it. Missouri was hardly to be then classed
+as a Southern Commonwealth. Louisiana was won by an increase of the
+duty on sugar. And only one of the Senators from Kentucky voted
+against the measure.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill as finally passed.]
+
+The House of Representatives refused to concur in some of the
+amendments, and the measure was sent to a Conference committee. This
+committee patched up a compromise, and the bill became a law on July
+14th.
+
+On the whole, it was doubtful if the bill, with the changes imposed
+upon it by the Senate, would prove to be any relief to the South. Many
+of the Southerners claimed that it would increase the burden upon that
+section, while none of them appeared to think it would lighten it.
+
+{189} What now were the planters to do? They had waited for the
+extinguishment of the debt, and for the period when the Treasury would
+no longer require the sixteen millions of dollars per annum applied to
+its cancellation, hoping for a general reduction of duties by
+something like this sum as the necessary result; but instead of this
+they were now offered, as a final solution of the tariff question, a
+slight reduction of duties on articles coming into competition with
+home products, a practical abolition of the duties on those which did
+not come into competition with home products, and an increase in the
+expenses of the Government to the amount of the receipts whatever they
+might be. This was to be the permanent policy of the country, the
+"American System."
+
+They were indeed wofully disappointed, not to say deceived. There
+seemed now no further hope of aid to them, from either Congress, the
+President, or the courts. They must yield unconditionally and
+hopelessly, or resist the execution of the law. The former course was
+too much to expect from the proud barons of South Carolina. The only
+question was whether some legal basis for the resistance could be
+found, or whether it must take on the form of rebellion. We have
+already considered Calhoun's doctrine of nullification, and his claim
+that it was a constitutional remedy; it now remains for us to trace
+briefly the history of the attempt to apply it. Before, however, we
+can do this intelligently, we must consider the other political
+developments of the year 1832, occasioned chiefly by the presidential
+election of that year, but affecting directly or indirectly the
+attitude of the Administration toward events in South Carolina, and
+the attitude of Congress toward the President in dealing with
+nullification.
+
+
+
+
+{190}
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE UNITED STATES BANK AND THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST OF 1832
+
+Jackson and the Bank in his First Annual Message--Jackson's Relations
+to the Portsmouth Branch of the Bank--Jackson's Opposition in
+Principle to the Bank--The Political Science of the Constitution of
+1787--Western Democracy--The West and the "Money Power" of the
+East--"States' rights" and the Bank--The Case of Brown and
+Maryland--Democracy and Socialism--Benton's Attack on the Bank--Benton
+Repulsed--Jackson and Benton--The Bank and the People--The Existence
+of the Bank made a Political Issue--Jackson's Second Attack on the
+Bank--Jackson's Plan for a Bank--Benton's Resolution against the
+Re-charter of the Bank--Jackson's Challenge to make the Continued
+Existence of the Bank the Issue in the Campaign of 1832--The Challenge
+Accepted--The Bank's Petition for Re-charter--Benton's Charge of
+Illegal Practices--Passage of the Bill for Re-charter--The Veto of the
+Bank Bill--The Bank and Foreign Powers--The Bank and the West--The
+Bank and the Rich--Structure and Powers of the Bank--Jackson on
+Executive Independence--Von Holst's Criticism of the Veto Message--The
+President's Real Meaning.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson and the Bank in his first annual message.]
+
+In his first annual message, that of December 8th, 1829, President
+Jackson began his war upon the United States Bank. He declared in it
+that the constitutionality and expediency of the law creating the Bank
+were well questioned by a large portion of the people, and that its
+failure to establish a sound and uniform currency, the great end of
+its existence, must be admitted by all.
+
+{191} [Sidenote: Jackson's relations to the Portsmouth branch of the
+Bank.]
+
+Basing themselves chiefly upon an individual report made by Mr. John
+Quincy Adams on May 14th, 1832, in regard to the condition of the
+Bank, and upon documents referred to in that report, recent historians
+attribute President Jackson's first attack upon the United States Bank
+to a personal feud between his friends in New Hampshire and Mr.
+Webster's friends there.
+
+Senator Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, the leader of the Jackson
+party in New Hampshire, endeavored, in the summer of 1829, to have
+Jeremiah Mason, Mr. Webster's great friend, removed from the
+presidency of the branch of the United States Bank at Portsmouth, N.
+H., and Isaac Hill, another New Hampshire friend of the President,
+attempted at the same time to have the United States pension agency,
+connected with the Portsmouth branch of the United States Bank,
+removed to Concord, and connected with a little bank there of which
+Hill had been president, and in which he was still interested.
+Jackson's Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Ingham, asked Mr. Biddle, the
+president of the United States Bank, to have Mason removed, and his
+Secretary of War, Mr. Eaton, ordered Mason to transfer the pension
+agency to Hill's bank in Concord. Mr. Biddle looked into the matter,
+and being convinced that the whole thing was a political scheme,
+refused to have Mason removed from office, and prevented the execution
+of Eaton's order in regard to the transfer of the pension agency.
+
+These are, very briefly stated, the facts upon which some of the
+American historians found the theory that Jackson, entertaining no
+opposition in principle to the Bank at the beginning of his
+Administration, became so enraged at its managers, because of their
+success in these petty bouts with his Cabinet officers, that he {192}
+resolved upon its destruction. The treatment which Adams and Clay had
+received at the hands of Jackson and his friends from 1824 onward had
+led them to feel that Jackson's whole nature was full of personal
+rancor, and that he could see nothing except from a personal point of
+view. There is little doubt that this feeling largely determined
+Adams' ideas of Jackson's attitude in the Bank question, and that the
+historians have written the account of the Bank controversy under the
+influence of Adams' representations.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's opposition in principle to the Bank.]
+
+There is undoubtedly some truth in this view of the matter, but it is
+far from being the whole truth. It is not even that part of the truth
+which is most valuable to the student of American history. There was
+an opposition in principle to the United States Bank, as well as a
+personal conflict between leaders in regard to it. That opposition in
+principle was the opposition of "States' rights" democracy to
+centralized privilege.
+
+In all political systems there is a political science as well as a
+public, or constitutional, law. The political science of a state is
+based chiefly upon the actual social conditions and relations of its
+population, and its public or constitutional law ought to be based
+upon its political science. In fact, however, we seldom see social
+conditions, political theory, and public law in a state of perfect
+harmony. It is the prime problem of political and legal progress to
+work out this great result.
+
+[Sidenote: The political science of the Constitution of 1787.]
+
+[Sidenote: Western Democracy.]
+
+[Sidenote: The West and the "money power" of the East.]
+
+The political science or theory upon which the Constitution of 1787
+was founded was thoroughly English. It recognized social distinctions,
+and its most fundamental principle was compromise between conflicting
+interests. It was substantially in harmony with social conditions, on
+the one side, {193} and was fairly expressed through the Constitution
+of 1787, on the other. Without the interposition of other forces it
+would have made out of the United States a new England. But French
+political science had already gained a foothold in the country. It was
+contained in the Declaration of Independence, and its prime postulate
+was "the equality of all men." It did not then comport with the social
+condition of the country, and the Constitution did not make its
+principle into positive law. It was, therefore, at the beginning,
+abstract, and theoretical. The man who taught it, however, became
+President, and the party which embraced it became the governing party.
+But their practice was not made consistent with their theory, and
+could not be, so long as the social conditions of the country
+contradicted their theory. It was the settlement of the country west
+of the Alleghanies which first created social conditions in harmony
+with their theory. The distinction between master and slave was not
+permitted to enter the larger portion of it; the distinction between
+the rich and the poor could not at first exist, or be, for many years,
+developed; and the distinction between the cultivated and the ignorant
+was likewise obliged to remain long in abeyance; while the dangers and
+the hardships of frontier life developed, speedily, a strong sense of
+self-reliance and self-esteem. General equality and practical
+self-help were the first social results of the levelling experiences
+of the camp, the wilderness, and the prairie. With such influences
+operating upon such characters as undertook the making of the West,
+the most adventurous part of the population of the East, that bold and
+boastful Democracy was produced, which began after 1820 to make itself
+powerfully felt in modifying the original conservative principles of
+the institutions of the country. Connect with these new social
+conditions, and the {194} political principles evolved out of them,
+the fact that the West, like all new countries, had little money or
+capital, and was a constant borrower from the East, in order to
+furnish itself with roads, implements, means of transportation, and
+manufactured articles, and we have the forces and the interests which
+were bound, under the first general financial pressure, to make an
+onslaught upon the "money power and privilege" of the East, as
+embodied in the United States Bank.
+
+[Sidenote: "States' rights" and the Bank.]
+
+The "States' rights" opposition to the Bank had been aroused more than
+a decade before Jackson's message of 1829. The Bank and its branches
+were the sole depositories of the funds of the Government. By refusing
+to accept on deposit the bills of Commonwealth banks which did not
+redeem their bills in specie on demand, the Bank could prevent the
+officers of the Government from accepting such bills for dues to the
+Government. The Bank used this power to force the Commonwealth banks
+to specie payment. It was one of the purposes for which Congress
+created the Bank. It made the Bank, however, very unpopular with the
+officers and stockholders of the banks chartered by the Commonwealths.
+These persons were, as a rule, men of influence in their respective
+communities, and they succeeded in persuading many of the people that
+the United States Bank was a centralized monopoly, and was using its
+powers and privileges to oppress the institutions of the
+Commonwealths.
+
+In 1818 the legislatures of Ohio and Maryland imposed a heavy tax on
+the branches of the Bank located within their respective
+jurisdictions. The purpose was to drive them out. The Bank resisted
+payment, and was sustained by the United States courts.
+
+{195} [Sidenote: The case of Brown and Maryland.]
+
+In the February term of 1819 the Supreme Court of the United States
+decided the famous case of McCulloch and Maryland, declaring the act
+of Congress creating the Bank constitutional, and the act of the
+Maryland legislature undertaking to tax it unconstitutional. Maryland
+submitted at once, but the officers of the government of Ohio forced
+their way into the branch of the Bank in that State, at Chillicothe,
+and took one hundred thousand dollars out of the vault, and that too
+in the face of an injunction issued by the United States Circuit
+Court. The directors sued the officers of the Commonwealth for
+trespass, and the Commonwealth refused the use of its jails to confine
+the persons arrested. At the same time the Commonwealth reduced the
+tax to ten thousand dollars, and refunded ninety thousand, and finally
+receded entirely from its unlawful demand.
+
+This defeat of the "States' rights" attack, and the excellent
+management of the Bank by Langdon Cheves, and then by Nicholas Biddle,
+seem to have silenced the complaints against the Bank from 1823 to
+1828.
+
+[Sidenote: Democracy and Socialism.]
+
+It was during this period, however, that the "State socialistic"
+characteristic of radical democracy received a strong development in
+the Commonwealth of Kentucky, through the relief measures for debtors;
+which measures threatened to destroy the constitutional guarantees of
+private property. The "relief party" secured the legislature and the
+executive of the Commonwealth. The judiciary, however, stood out
+against them, and they did not have the necessary two-thirds majority
+in the legislature to remove the judges. The legislature, however,
+passed a new judiciary act, and created another supreme court of the
+Commonwealth. This scandal of judicial anarchy existed for nearly two
+years, when, at last, in 1826, the {196} "anti-relief" party elected a
+majority of the legislative members, and the new legislature repealed
+the act establishing the new court.
+
+Jackson's friends in Kentucky belonged almost exclusively to the
+"relief party," and it is hardly fanciful to attribute to this
+movement in Kentucky some influence in the formation of Jackson's
+ideas in regard to the United States Bank, and in regard to his plan
+for a Government bank, responsible to the people and managed for the
+benefit of the people.
+
+[Sidenote: Benton's attack on the Bank.]
+
+On March 3rd, 1828, Senator Benton began his warfare upon the Bank. He
+attacked its privilege of being the depository of Government money. He
+claimed that there were two or three millions of dollars of Government
+money used in loans by the Bank, which earned about one hundred and
+fifty thousand dollars a year of interest, all of which went to the
+stockholders of the Bank and none of it to the Government, while the
+Government was all the time paying interest on the public debt and
+taxing the people for the purpose. He wanted to take the surplus
+deposits out of the Bank and pay a part of the public debt with them.
+This was the first charge of the Western Democracy upon privilege, as
+being opposed to the principle of universal equality.
+
+[Sidenote: Benton repulsed.]
+
+There were, however, enough practical men in the Senate who considered
+this privilege as only a fair compensation for the service rendered by
+the Bank to the Government in transporting the Government funds
+without any specific return therefor, and who knew that it is not good
+banking to pay interest on deposits, to reject Mr. Benton's
+resolution. Benton repeated his motion on January 1st, 1829, but with
+no greater success.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson and Benton.]
+
+After March 4th, 1829, the leadership of the party was {197} in the
+hands of the President, and Benton became Jackson's lieutenant in the
+Senate. There had been personal feuds between the two men, but they
+now harmonized politically, and in no point did that harmony become
+more complete than in the war against the Bank.
+
+It is probable that at the moment of his accession to power Jackson
+had not thought out the relation of the democratic principle to the
+Bank, but he undoubtedly felt it, and the feeling guided him to the
+position which he assumed, first toward the questions of detail in the
+Bank's policy and management, and then toward the general question of
+its existence. The controversy between his Secretaries and the Bank's
+officers, upon which Mr. Adams laid so much stress, probably
+precipitated matters, but the crisis would have developed under other
+circumstances had not these existed. The social and political forces
+at play were bound to bring it about under one issue or another. It
+may have astonished the politicians and statesmen of the East then,
+and it may astonish the casual reader of American history now, that
+Jackson attacked the question of the future existence of the Bank in
+his first annual message, but there is nothing surprising in it to the
+careful student of American history, who comprehends the development
+of the democratic spirit of the West during the third decade of the
+century.
+
+[Sidenote: The Bank and the people.]
+
+It is doubtful whether the President was correct in saying, as he did
+in his message of 1829, that a large portion of the people questioned
+the constitutionality and expediency of the law creating the Bank, and
+it is certain that the Bank was not considered by all to have failed
+in the establishment of a sound and uniform currency. It is far more
+probable that the people generally acquiesced in {198} the decision of
+the Court pronouncing the Bank law constitutional, and that the
+majority of the people, at that moment, regarded it as good policy,
+and believed that the Bank had fairly fulfilled the purpose of its
+creation. The President was simply assuming that the people thought as
+he did, as democratic leaders usually do. Taken in that sense there
+was nothing extraordinary in what he said. He had a right to disagree
+in opinion with the Court, and to say so, and to make any
+recommendation to Congress which seemed wise to him, in regard to the
+re-charter of the Bank. That an expiring law is constitutional is not
+always a convincing argument for its re-enactment.
+
+[Sidenote: The existence of the Bank made a political issue.]
+
+The President's criticism occasioned an investigation into the
+principle and status of the Bank, and brought the Bank question into
+the politics of the day.
+
+The committee on Finance of the Senate, and the committee on Ways and
+Means of the House, made reports, in March and April of 1830,
+vigorously defending the constitutionality, the expediency, and the
+management of the Bank, and demonstrating the great political and
+financial dangers of such a Government bank as the President
+suggested. The chairman of the committee on Ways and Means was, it
+will be remembered, Mr. McDuffie, the political economist of the
+slavery interest. To his mind the Bank question had evidently little
+connection with the slavery question.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's second attack on the Bank.]
+
+The President, however, returned to the attack in his message of
+December 10th, 1830. He also presented, in this message, an
+elaboration of his idea of a Government bank. His proposition was for
+a bank as a branch of the Treasury Department, based on the deposits
+of the funds of the Government and also on those made by individuals,
+but {199} having no power to issue notes or make loans or purchase
+property. Its chief purpose would be to do the business of the
+Government, and its expenses might be met by selling exchange to
+private persons at a small rate.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's plan for a bank.]
+
+The President thought that this scheme avoided all the objections to
+the existing Bank, and yet preserved all of the latter's advantages.
+It would require no charter of incorporation, would have neither
+stockholders, nor debtors, nor property, would require few officers,
+and would leave to the Commonwealths the creation of their own local
+paper currency through their own banks, while the new Government bank
+would be able to check the issues of the Commonwealth banks through
+its power to refuse to take their bills on deposit or for exchange,
+unless they redeemed them with specie. In a sentence, his doctrine now
+was that banking must be left as far as possible to Commonwealth law,
+and that such powers as the general Government had received from the
+Constitution over the subject should be exercised by the Government,
+if at all, through its own officials, for the benefit of the people,
+and not be conferred as privileges upon a corporation of private
+persons, to be exercised for their private gain. This will be at once
+recognized as a democratic, "States' rights," socialistic scheme in
+the essential elements of its composition.
+
+[Sidenote: Benton's resolution against the re-charter of the Bank.]
+
+Before the report of the Finance committee of the Senate upon this
+part of the message was presented Senator Benton offered a resolution,
+on February 2nd, 1831, which provided that the charter of the Bank
+ought not to be renewed. In his speech supporting the resolution the
+senator developed the whole "States' rights," socialistic, democratic
+argument against the Bank with great elaboration, both in principle
+and in detail.
+
+{200} It is true that Benton did not go so far as Jackson in the
+socialistic direction. He said that he was willing to vote for the
+President's Government bank scheme, since it would substitute for the
+existing Bank an institution which would be divested of the essential
+features of a bank, the power to make loans and discounts, but that he
+would prefer to see the charter of the Bank expire without any
+substitute being created for it.
+
+The Senate was not, however, convinced by Mr. Benton's argument, and
+refused to allow him to introduce his resolution.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's challenge to make the continued existence of the
+Bank the issue in the campaign of 1832.]
+
+In his message of December 6th, 1831, President Jackson referred to
+what he had said in former messages concerning the Bank, and closed
+his allusion with the following significant words: "Having thus
+conscientiously discharged a constitutional duty, I deem it proper, on
+this occasion, without a more particular reference to the views of the
+subject then expressed, to leave it for the present to the
+investigation of an enlightened people and their representatives."
+
+[Sidenote: The challenge accepted.]
+
+This language certainly seemed to imply that the President would, so
+far as he was able, make the question of the re-charter of the Bank
+one of the issues of the election campaign of 1832. His opponents so
+interpreted him, and they gladly accepted the challenge, for they
+believed the Bank to be popular with the voters. They thought that the
+Senators and Representatives in Congress, a majority of whom favored
+the Bank, truly represented the views of their constituencies, and
+they calculated to be able to split the Democratic party itself on the
+issue.
+
+The president and directors of the Bank, however, were most reluctant
+to have the existence of the Bank made a party question. The leaders
+of the National {201} Republicans, on the other hand, insisted upon
+it. Clay, who, six days after the appearance of the President's
+message, had been nominated by a national convention at Baltimore as
+the candidate of the National Republicans for the presidency, was
+certain that under the issue of the renewal of the Bank's charter
+Jackson would be signally defeated. The Bank's officers yielded to his
+advice, enforced by that of Mr. Webster, and on January 9th, 1832,
+sent in the memorial for a re-charter.
+
+[Sidenote: The Bank's petition for re-charter.]
+
+Senator Dallas presented the memorial, but said that he personally had
+discouraged its presentation at that juncture out of apprehension that
+the question of the re-charter of the Bank might, at the moment, be
+drawn into real or imagined conflict with "some higher, some more
+favorite, some more immediate wish or purpose of the American people."
+Senator Dallas was a Bank Democrat. The more favorite wish to which he
+referred was the re-election of Jackson, and the inference to be drawn
+from his words was that the Bank Democrats did not want to be obliged
+to choose between the Bank and Jackson at the next election.
+
+The Senate referred the petition for re-charter to a committee
+composed of Mr. Dallas, Mr. Webster, Mr. Ewing, Mr. Hayne, and Mr.
+Johnston.
+
+[Sidenote: Benton's charge of illegal practices.]
+
+Before the committee made its report Mr. Benton made another attack
+upon the Bank. This time he charged it with illegal practices in
+issuing drafts which passed as currency. The Senate, however, repelled
+the attack and refused to allow Mr. Benton to introduce his resolution
+declaring such drafts illegal.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the bill for re-charter.]
+
+On March 13th Mr. Dallas brought in the bill from his committee for
+the re-charter of the Bank for fifteen years from the expiration of
+its existing charter in 1836.
+
+{202} While the bill was passing through the Senate a demonstration
+against the Bank was in progress in the House. Mr. Clayton, of
+Georgia, an enemy of the Bank, secured the appointment of a committee
+by the Speaker of the House, Mr. Stevenson, another enemy of the Bank,
+to inquire into the affairs of the Bank, and make report thereof to
+the House. A majority report was offered by Mr. Clayton severely
+criticising the Bank, and a minority report by Mr. McDuffie defending
+the Bank most ably and vigorously, and, if we may judge from the vote
+of the House upon the Senate bill for re-charter, which had passed the
+Senate, and appeared at this moment in the House for concurrence, most
+successfully. The House passed the Senate bill, with a few immaterial
+changes, by a vote of one hundred and seven to eighty-five.
+
+The National Republicans felt sure that they had driven Jackson into a
+blind alley. But the "Old Hero" stood his ground and hurled a veto at
+the bill, which both killed it and conquered the National Republican
+party in the election of 1832 with its own chosen weapon.
+
+[Sidenote: The veto of the Bank Bill.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Bank and foreign powers.]
+
+The veto message was a curious _pot-pourri_ of strength and weakness,
+of sound statesmanship and cheap demagogism, of shrewd politics and
+silly commonplaces. We may arrange its score of points under five
+principal heads, or rather ends in view. The first was the attempt to
+rouse the national spirit against the Bank, on account of the fact
+that some eight millions of dollars' worth of the stock was in the
+hands of foreigners. The President made out that this was a great
+danger to the United States, both in war and peace. In war, he said,
+the Bank would be an internal enemy, more terrible than the army and
+navy of the external foe. Just how the possession of the certificates
+of stock by foreigners, whose money, which had been paid for {203}
+them, was in the United States, and therefore under the control of the
+United States Government, could endanger the United States in case of
+a war between the United States and the country or countries to which
+these foreign stockholders belonged, the President failed to explain.
+It would seem to the ordinary mind that this would be an advantage to
+the United States, in that the Government of the United States would
+have within its grasp a part of the money power of the enemy.
+Moreover, the Bank law prevented the foreign stockholders from voting
+in the election of the directors of the Bank. How these stockholders
+could possibly exercise any hostile influence then, except by selling
+their stock to citizens of the United States, and taking the money
+which they might receive for it out of the country, was not only not
+explained but is inexplicable.
+
+[Sidenote: The Bank and the West.]
+
+The second object was apparently the excitement of the West against
+the East. The President declared that the West was being made
+financially tributary to the East by the Bank. He presented the
+statistics of stockholding and interest-paying throughout the
+different sections of the country in proof of this statement. He
+affirmed that thirteen millions five hundred and twenty-two thousand
+dollars' worth of the stock was owned in the Northeastern and Middle
+Commonwealths, that five millions six hundred and twenty-three
+thousand dollars' worth of it was held in Virginia, the Carolinas, and
+Georgia, and that only one hundred and forty thousand and two hundred
+dollars' worth of it was held in the nine Western Commonwealths; while
+one million six hundred and forty thousand and forty-eight dollars of
+the profits of the Bank came from these Western Commonwealths, one
+million four hundred and sixty-three thousand and forty-one dollars of
+them {204} from the Northeastern and Middle Commonwealths, and three
+hundred and fifty-two thousand and five hundred and seven dollars of
+them from the Southern Commonwealths. This seems to ordinary
+intelligence to prove that the Bank was accommodating Western
+borrowers with Eastern money; and as the Bank was limited by its
+charter to a maximum of six per centum interest on its loans, it seems
+that the accommodation was being rendered upon quite moderate
+consideration. But the President said it proved that the "Eastern
+money power" was oppressing the West, and the West was quite willing
+to believe anything against the persons or institutions to whom or to
+which it owed money.
+
+[Sidenote: The Bank and the rich.]
+
+The third object to which the President addressed himself in the
+message was to call the attention of the poor to the proposition that
+the Government was favoring the rich through the Bank. The President
+called the Bank a monopoly, which means privilege conferred by
+Government on a few at the expense of the many. He calculated that the
+privilege to be granted to the existing stockholders by the re-charter
+of the Bank was worth seventeen millions of dollars, while the bonus
+which they would be required to pay was but three millions. Fourteen
+millions of dollars would thus be presented by the Government to the
+Bank, which sum the Government must take by taxation from the people.
+He arrived at these statistics and results by assuming that the Bank
+stock, after the re-charter and in consequence of it, would be worth
+about one hundred and fifty dollars for one hundred par, that some
+other body of stockholders could be found who would pay seventeen
+millions for the charter, and that the money thus acquired from the
+supposed stockholders by the Government would effect the remission of
+just so much taxation upon the people. The President saw also, {205}
+with Senator Benton, that the use of the Government deposits by the
+Bank was a source of income to the stockholders at the popular
+expense. And he denounced the feature in the new bill, which allowed
+the Commonwealth banks to pay their indebtedness to any branch of the
+United States Bank with the notes of any other branch, but did not
+accord the same privilege to individuals, as favoring the rich and
+powerful against the poor and weak.
+
+The entire argumentation in this part of the message seems extravagant
+and exaggerated, to say the least, but it sounded convincing and
+sympathetic to the masses. It was something which brought the question
+home to each one of them, and made it appear related to each one's
+personal interest. The statement was a powerful vote-catcher. It took
+wonderfully.
+
+[Sidenote: Structure and powers of the Bank.]
+
+The fourth proposition, as we have arranged them, was the criticism on
+the structure and powers of the Bank provided in the new bill. The
+President objected to the unnecessarily large amount of the capital
+stock, to the right to be given the Bank to locate its own branches,
+to the power of the Government, as a stockholder, to own real estate
+for general purposes, and to the power of the Bank to coin money, as
+he called the power to issue its notes.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson on executive independence.]
+
+The final division of the message, according to our arrangement,
+contains the disquisition upon the relation of the departments of the
+Government to each other in operating the Constitution, and the
+relation of the general Government to the Commonwealths in regard to
+jurisdiction over the business of banking. The President held, upon
+the first of these points, that "if the opinion of the Supreme Court,"
+in the case of McCulloch and Maryland, "covered the whole ground of
+this act, it ought not to control the {206} co-ordinate authorities of
+the Government." "The Congress, the Executive, and the Court," he
+said, "must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the
+Constitution. Each public officer who takes an oath to support the
+Constitution swears that he will support it as he understands it, and
+not as it is understood by others. It is as much the duty of the House
+of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the President, to decide
+upon the constitutionality of any bill or resolution which may be
+presented to them for passage or approval, as it is of the Supreme
+Judges when it may be brought before them for decision. The opinion of
+the Judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of
+Congress has over the Judges; and, on that point, the President is
+independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court must not,
+therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive when
+acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such
+influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve."
+
+The President also said that he could have furnished a plan for a
+bank, had it been requested of him, which would have been equal to all
+the duties required by the Government, a plan which might have been
+enacted by Congress without straining or overstepping its powers, and
+without infringing the powers of the Commonwealths; and he complained
+that the Bank, as an agent of the Executive Department, should be
+thrust upon the Department without the Department being consulted as
+to whether it needed or wanted any such agent.
+
+[Sidenote: Von Holst's criticism of the veto message.]
+
+[Sidenote: The President's real meaning.]
+
+One of the most celebrated historians of American politics has
+indulged in a very severe criticism upon this part of the message,
+claiming that President Jackson virtually asserted therein the power
+to initiate legislation, full co-ordination with the Houses of
+Congress in legislation, and an {207} independence of Congress, and
+especially of the Judiciary, which, in practice, would render
+constitutional law an impossibility. An impartial examination of the
+text of the message in all its parts will hardly warrant any such
+conclusions. It is quite clear, from such examination, that the
+President meant that in the formation of administrative measures by
+the Congressional committees in charge of the same, the views of the
+Administration ought to be obtained; that the President is not limited
+by the Constitution to any class of subjects in the use of his veto
+power upon proposed legislation; and that when the Congress and the
+President are legislating they are not obliged to re-enact a law
+simply because the Judiciary have declared it constitutional, nor even
+prevented from repealing a law, simply because the Judiciary have
+declared it constitutional, and certainly not prohibited from
+differing in opinion with the Judiciary in regard to the
+constitutionality of any law already on the statute book, or any
+proposed measure. Conservative American lawyers, jurists, and
+publicists approve all of this as not only the letter but also the
+spirit of the Constitution.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's vindication of executive independence.]
+
+Instead of destroying the Constitution in theory by the doctrine of
+this veto, it looks more as if the President did something to rescue
+the "check and balance" system of government, provided in the
+Constitution, from the threatened domination of a single department
+over the others in it. The fact is, Congress had succeeded, during the
+regime of the old Republican party in American politics, in winning a
+power over the President which the Constitution did not authorize. The
+members of Congress had selected all of the Presidents, from Jefferson
+to Jackson, either by nomination or by actual election. {208} The
+machinery constructed by the Constitution for the election of the
+President was wanting in its most necessary part. It contained no
+means of connection between the electoral colleges in the several
+Commonwealths in voting for the President and Vice-President, at the
+same time that it required a majority of all the electoral votes to
+elect. The members of Congress being the only national assembly of
+persons in the country, and being the chosen political leaders from
+the different Commonwealths, naturally glided into the habit of
+constituting themselves, in caucus, the connecting link between the
+electoral colleges in the several Commonwealths, and thus the
+Congressional caucus, or caucuses, as the case might be, became the
+nominating body or bodies to the electoral colleges. If the caucus
+nominated anybody, it left to the electors the alternative of
+ratifying the nomination, or of so scattering their votes as to give
+no person a majority, in which latter case the election of the
+President passed into the hands of the members of the House of
+Representatives. If, on the other hand, the caucus did not nominate
+anybody, the electors were nearly sure to fail to unite a majority of
+their votes upon the same person, in which case again the House of
+Representatives obtained possession of the election. With such an
+increasing control over the tenure of the President, it is not
+astonishing that the Congress, and even the individual members of
+Congress, exercised an ever increasing control over his acts and his
+policy. The encroaching legislature was fast developing the principle
+of parliamentary government as the principle of the American system,
+while the Constitution provides the principle of executive
+independence and presidential administration.
+
+Again, the judicial department had appeared to assume the position
+that it possessed the supreme {209} interpreting power of the
+Constitution upon every point. It had not then, as it has now, clearly
+confined itself to questions immediately involving questions of
+private rights. It appeared to be claiming jurisdiction in regard to
+questions primarily of political science, public law, and even public
+policy.
+
+The President's Bank veto called a halt in these tendencies, and
+exerted an influence for the restoration of executive independence,
+and of the "check and balance" system, provided in the Constitution;
+and it called the people into a closer and more immediate relation to
+the President than they had before occupied, in that the President now
+appealed to them to decide the question between him and the Congress,
+in the election which was then about to take place.
+
+These were the political principles contained in the Bank veto, and
+whether they, or the more democratic principle of anti-monopoly, or
+the more socialistic principle of government banking, moved the
+masses, certainly they were profoundly moved. Had the popular vote
+been taken, the day before the appearance of the veto, upon the
+question of the Bank's re-charter, it is altogether probable that an
+overwhelming majority would have been found in its favor. Against the
+veto, however, no sufficient majority could be united in Congress, and
+when the results of the presidential election became known, it was
+found that Jackson had carried the country with him in the unequal
+contest, and that the people had made the principles of the Jacksonian
+democracy the ruling spirit of the Constitution.
+
+
+
+
+{210}
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+NULLIFICATION
+
+The Indian Question in Georgia--The Indian Springs Convention--The
+Repudiation of the Agreement--The Controversy between the
+Administration and Georgia--The Creek Convention of 1826--The Governor
+of Georgia Repudiates the Convention of 1826--The President Submits
+the Matter to Congress--Georgia and the Cherokees--Jackson and the
+Indian Question--Indian Policy before Jackson--The Case of the
+Cherokee Nation--The Case of Worcester against Georgia--The Failure of
+the President to Execute the Decision in the Worcester Case--Jackson
+and Calhoun--The Call of the Convention of 1832 in South Carolina--The
+Nullification Ordinance--The Addresses Issued by the Convention--The
+Acts of the Legislature of South Carolina for the Execution of the
+Ordinance--The Meaning of Nullification as Understood by the
+Nullifiers--Jackson's View of Nullification--The President's
+Proclamation of December 10th--The President's Military
+Preparations--The President's Instructions to the Customs Officers in
+South Carolina--The Popular Approval of the President's Course--The
+Verplanck Tariff Bill--Governor Hayne's Counter-Proclamation--The
+President's Message of January 16th, 1833--Calhoun's Explanations in
+the Senate--The "Force Bill"--The Postponement of the Execution of
+Nullification--The Compromise Tariff--Mr. Calhoun's Support of Mr.
+Clay's Bill--The Opposition to the Bill--Passage of the "Force Bill"
+by the Senate--Passage of the Compromise Tariff Bill and the "Force
+Bill" by Congress--The Nullification Ordinance Withdrawn.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The Indian question in Georgia.]
+
+Before nullification was resolved upon in South Carolina, something
+like it had been applied in Georgia. {211} In the year 1802 Georgia
+formally ceded the lands claimed by the Commonwealth west of the
+Chattahoochee River to the United States for the sum of one million
+two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and upon the condition that
+the United States Government would, at its own expense, extinguish the
+Indian claims to any lands in Georgia so soon as this could be done
+peacefully and upon reasonable terms.
+
+Between 1802 and 1820 the Government made some advance in the
+discharge of this obligation. By this latter date, however, designing
+white men had joined with the Indian tribes located within the
+Commonwealth, and were seeking to organize an Indian State for the
+purposes of their own political ambition, and many well disposed white
+persons were aiding them from humanitarian motives. The Georgians even
+accused the Government of doing things that would contribute to the
+same result. The Georgians were forced to face a very serious
+question, the question of an Indian State, controlled chiefly by white
+adventurers and sentimentalists, within the legal limits of the
+Commonwealth.
+
+Under this pressure the Georgians reviewed the whole question of
+Indian organization, and rights to territory. They advanced the
+propositions, that the Indian tribal organizations were not States and
+could not, therefore, exercise dominion, and give title to real
+property; that the Indians living within the legal limits of the
+Commonwealth were subject to its jurisdiction in the same manner as
+other persons, and to the same extent; that the original title to all
+land within the limits of Georgia was in the Commonwealth, and every
+valid title must be derived from the Commonwealth; that the claim of
+the Indians to the lands on which the tribes lived was simply an
+incumbrance upon Georgia's {212} title, an incumbrance which the
+general Government was obligated to remove; and that, after the
+Government should discharge this duty, Georgia's title would be
+perfect, without any formal transfer of these lands to Georgia by the
+Government.
+
+[Sidenote: The demand of Georgia for the extinguishment of the Indian
+claims.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Indian Springs Convention.]
+
+In 1819 the legislature of Georgia memorialized President Monroe to
+hasten the work of the Government in extinguishing the Indian claims.
+In the year 1824 the Creek chiefs in council resolved that not a foot
+of the lands claimed by the Creeks should be relinquished.
+Nevertheless, President Monroe's administration succeeded, in February
+of 1825, in negotiating an agreement with certain of the Creek
+chieftains according to which they relinquished to the United States
+the Creek claims to all lands lying within the limits of Georgia, and
+also to lands lying to the northwest and to the west of the
+Commonwealth. This agreement was ratified by the Senate of the United
+States in March of the same year.
+
+[Sidenote: The repudiation of the agreement.]
+
+The Governor of Georgia, Mr. Troup, immediately despatched the public
+surveyors to lay out the relinquished territory. They were resisted by
+the Indians, who declared their repudiation of the agreement of
+February 12th with the general Government.
+
+At the same moment a number of the chiefs were representing to the new
+President, Mr. Adams, that that agreement was a fraud upon the
+Indians, and that the chiefs who signed were not properly authorized
+to do so. The agent of the Government to the Creeks supported their
+protest, despite the fact that he was present at the execution of the
+agreement. Under these circumstances the Secretary of War, Mr. James
+Barbour, wrote to Governor Troup that the President {213} expected him
+to abandon the survey until it could be made in accordance with the
+provisions of the agreement which allowed the Indians until September
+1st, 1826, for their removal, and guaranteed them against all
+encroachments before that date.
+
+[Sidenote: The Controversy between the Administration and Georgia.]
+
+The communication from Secretary Barbour gave rise to a spirited
+controversy between the Governor of Georgia and himself, in which the
+Governor assumed an extreme "States' rights" attitude in defence of
+his position. He claimed that Georgia's jurisdiction over, and title
+to, the lands formally relinquished by the Creeks to the United States
+were not originated by this act, but were only relieved by it of an
+incumbrance, and that, therefore, no additional act was necessary on
+the part of the Government to authorize Georgia to take possession and
+exercise jurisdiction. He declared that he would not postpone the
+survey, and advised the legislature of the Commonwealth to defend
+Georgia's rights by armed resistance, which recommendation the
+legislature seemed about to approve.
+
+The President sent General Gaines to the scene of action, and
+authorized him to place the militia of the Commonwealths adjoining
+Georgia in readiness for service. The Governor was highly excited by
+the approach of the military power of the United States, and wrote to
+Secretary Barbour virtually accusing the Government of inciting the
+Indians to violence against Georgia and her people, and demanding to
+be informed of the purposes of the Administration. Mr. Barbour replied
+that the President had decided that the survey should not proceed, and
+had sent General Gaines with orders to prevent it, with military power
+if necessary. The Governor now turned to the President himself, with
+both protest and threat, but the President remained {214} firm, and
+the Governor was obliged to yield for the moment.
+
+[Sidenote: The Creek Convention of 1826.]
+
+The Administration was apparently convinced that the agreement of 1825
+was not fairly obtained, and, in January of 1826, entered into another
+agreement with the Creeks, which, while recognizing the nullity of the
+agreement of 1825, secured the extinguishment of their claims to all
+lands in Georgia lying east of the Chattahoochee, and to a
+considerable tract north and west of this river. The Administration
+asserted that all the Creek lands lying within the limits of Georgia
+were secured. Senator Berrien of Georgia, who represented the
+interests of his Commonwealth when the agreement came before the
+Senate for ratification, said, on the contrary, that it failed by a
+million of acres of having done so.
+
+[Sidenote: The Governor of Georgia repudiates the Convention of 1826.]
+
+Governor Troup declared that the general Government could not by an
+agreement with the Creeks rob Georgia of vested rights, which had
+been, once for all, perfected by the agreement of 1825. He ordered the
+public surveyors to include in their surveys the lands claimed by
+Georgia west of the line designated in the agreement of 1826. The
+Indians resisted them, and appealed to the President to protect their
+rights as recognized by the latter agreement. The President ordered
+the United States District Attorney and Marshal for Georgia to arrest
+any one caught in the act of surveying the lands west of the line
+fixed by the agreement of 1826. The Governor was informed of this
+order, and was given to understand that the President would uphold the
+agreement of 1826 by any and all power necessary. The Governor,
+however, defied the Administration, ordered the law officers of the
+Commonwealth to effect, by any means necessary, the release of the
+arrested surveyors, and to {215} secure the arrest and trial of those
+persons who had taken or held them in custody, ordered the commanders
+of the militia of the Commonwealth to hold their forces in readiness
+to resist the threatened invasion by the military power of the United
+States, and sent a message to the legislature informing that body of
+what he had done in the premises. In this message he took the ground
+that questions of jurisdiction--he called them questions of
+sovereignty--between the general Government and the Commonwealths
+could not be determined by the judicial power of that Government, but
+must be settled by agreement between the two parties.
+
+[Sidenote: The President submits the matter to Congress.]
+
+President Adams was deeply impressed with the seriousness of the
+situation. He felt that he must uphold the dignity and authority of
+the Government at all hazards and by all the means intrusted to him by
+the Constitution and the laws; and yet he was unwilling to provoke
+civil war, if it could be avoided, or to enter upon the work of
+coercion without the practically unanimous support of the country. He
+resolved, therefore, to lay the matter before Congress, and await its
+action. Congress did practically nothing, and the President was
+convinced that the nation was not prepared to have the Indian problem
+fought out under the issue of "States' rights" versus the Union.
+
+[Sidenote: Georgia and the Cherokees.]
+
+Encouraged by this success the Georgians now resolved to subject the
+Cherokees living within the limits of the Commonwealth to the laws
+thereof or force them to emigrate. In December of 1827, the
+legislature passed a law extending the criminal jurisdiction of the
+Commonwealth over a part of the lands occupied by the Cherokees. The
+Indians appealed to the President. The appeal came before the
+President during the last month of his official term, and he {216}
+discreetly and courteously resolved not to embarrass the new
+Administration by committing the Government to any position in the
+question.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson and the Indian question.]
+
+President Jackson was even less inclined than his predecessor to allow
+the Indian question to resolve itself into the question of the
+constitutional spheres of authority between the Union and the
+Commonwealths. Moreover, he believed that Georgia was in the right in
+the Indian question. He replied to the Cherokee memorial that he knew
+of no alternative to submission to the jurisdiction of Georgia except
+emigration beyond the limits of the Commonwealth. His view was that
+the general Government could not hinder a Commonwealth from exercising
+jurisdiction over every person within its limits, except in such cases
+as were reserved from that jurisdiction by the Constitution of the
+United States, and could not lend its countenance to the creation of a
+new political organization within these limits against the will of the
+Commonwealth. This was the latter part of April, 1829. The Cherokees,
+influenced largely by the whites among them, resented the President's
+advice, and the council of chiefs resolved that no lands claimed by
+the Cherokees should be relinquished, except by consent of the tribe
+or tribes, under penalty of death for violation of their resolve, and
+rejected the overtures of the Government for the relinquishment of
+their claims.
+
+In his message of December 8th, 1829, President Jackson devoted much
+space to the Indian problem in general, and to it, as it affected
+Georgia and Alabama, in particular. He repeated to Congress the views
+which he had expressed to the Cherokees themselves, which were, as we
+have seen, that the general Government could not lend its countenance
+to the creation of an {217} Indian State within the confines of any
+Commonwealth of the Union against the will of that Commonwealth, and
+that the only alternative to subjection to the laws of the
+Commonwealth on the part of the Indians was emigration beyond the
+limits of the same. He also suggested the setting apart of a district
+in the far West for the permanent home of such Indian tribes as should
+prefer to continue in tribal organization, independent of the
+jurisdiction of any Commonwealth of the Union, where they might work
+out their own customs unmolested.
+
+This was the democratic, "States' rights" view of the subject. It
+denied all exemptions from the supremacy of the laws, and it also
+denied to the general Government any power to restrain a Commonwealth
+from the assertion of its jurisdiction over all persons within its
+legal limits, except in cases specially reserved by the Constitution.
+
+[Sidenote: Indian policy before Jackson.]
+
+The Administration of Mr. Adams, and the Administrations of all of his
+predecessors, had apparently inclined to the view that the Indian
+tribes were already states, having dominion over, and property in, the
+territory of the continent when the Europeans arrived upon it; that
+the titles of the European states to it were only valid as against
+each other, and meant, in relation to the aborigines, only a right of
+pre-emption; and that after the Constitution was established no
+government except the general Government of the United States could
+have anything to do with them.
+
+This was a crude and an impracticable view of the relation. It
+contained more of sentiment and humanitarianism than of common sense
+and inductive wisdom. The theory broke down completely in the Georgia
+case, and could not be re-enlivened for practical purposes {218} even
+by judicial decisions. The necessities of civilization have forced the
+country to follow the course outlined by President Jackson, and that
+is certainly good evidence of its correctness.
+
+The Georgians must have been encouraged by his message, for the
+legislature of Georgia immediately passed an act connecting the
+Cherokee lands with the counties which they adjoined, and imposing the
+full jurisdiction of the Commonwealth upon all persons living or being
+within the same.
+
+[Sidenote: The case of the Cherokee Nation.]
+
+The Indians then caused an original bill to be filed in the Supreme
+Court of the United States against Georgia, together with a
+supplemental bill praying for a temporary injunction to restrain the
+Commonwealth from enforcing its jurisdiction, and for the issuing of a
+subpoena to Georgia to appear before the Court. The Court issued its
+summons, but the Commonwealth made no answer, and the Court decided,
+in its January term of 1831, that the Cherokee nation was not a
+"State" in the sense of that provision of the Constitution which
+designates the parties qualified to sue in the United States Courts.
+This decision was pronounced immediately after the execution of the
+Cherokee Tassells by the Georgia authorities, in defiance of a writ of
+error addressed to the Commonwealth by a United States court,
+requiring the Commonwealth to show cause why he should not be
+discharged from custody. It is probable that the Supreme Court was
+impressed by this demonstration of the impotence of the judiciary to
+interfere successfully with the political policy of a Commonwealth,
+even in behalf of personal liberty.
+
+[Sidenote: The case of Worcester against Georgia.]
+
+A year later the Court took a more national view and stand. A
+Presbyterian missionary to the Cherokees, the Rev. Samuel A.
+Worcester, of Vermont, had {219} violated the Georgia statute, which
+made it a criminal offence to reside among the Cherokees after March
+1st, 1831, without a license from the Governor, and without having
+taken an oath to support and defend the laws of the Commonwealth. He
+was indicted and tried by a Georgia court, found guilty, and condemned
+to imprisonment in the penitentiary of the Commonwealth. A writ of
+error was issued by one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the
+United States, requiring the Commonwealth of Georgia to show cause why
+the prisoner should not be discharged. The writ was served on the
+Governor and the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth. The only answer
+which the Commonwealth gave to the summons was the sending up of the
+record of the case, signed by the clerk of the court which pronounced
+the judgment, and authenticated by the seal of the court. The judge of
+the Georgia court did not sign the record. Nevertheless the Supreme
+Court of the United States decided that the record of the Georgia
+court was properly before it, and the Chief Justice proceeded to make,
+in the Court's opinion of the case, an exhaustive review of the Indian
+relations of the United States, in accord with the principles of the
+Adams Administration, and to pronounce the statute of Georgia,
+asserting the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth over the Cherokee lands
+and over all persons residing or being on them, unconstitutional,
+null, and void, and the arrest, trial, and sentence of Mr. Worcester
+under the same to have been, therefore, without warrant of law.
+
+But the Georgia authorities paid no attention to the decision. They
+did not liberate the prisoner or accord him a new trial. Later on, the
+Governor of the Commonwealth pardoned him as his own act of grace.
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of the President to execute the decision in the
+Worcester case.]
+
+It was certainly the duty of the President of the {220} United States
+to have executed this decision of the Court with all the power
+necessary for the purpose which the Constitution conferred upon him.
+He did not do it. It is said on very good authority that he intimated,
+at least, that he would not do it. The Commonwealth simply defied the
+Court successfully, and the President and Congress acquiesced in the
+result. The President agreed in opinion with the Georgians upon the
+subject, and the doctrine which here triumphed was one more plank in
+the platform of the Jacksonian democracy, a real "States' rights"
+principle.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson and Calhoun.]
+
+There is no doubt that the South Carolinians were encouraged by the
+course of events in Georgia to believe that they would have something
+like the same experiences and results in their contest with the
+Government. In this they do not seem to have fully realized the fact
+that President Jackson did not agree with them in their view of the
+unconstitutionality of the tariff, as he agreed with the Georgians in
+their view of the Indian question. Moreover, there was a personal
+element in the controversy which they do not seem to have appreciated
+at all. Jackson had, down to 1830, supposed that Mr. Crawford was the
+member of the Cabinet of Mr. Monroe, in 1819, who wanted to have him
+arrested and tried by a court-martial for disobeying orders, or acting
+in excess of orders, during the Seminole War, and that Mr. Calhoun was
+his defender. Jackson's hatred of Crawford had been intense during
+these years for this reason. In 1830 Governor Forsyth, of Georgia,
+revealed to Jackson the truth in regard to this matter, which was that
+Calhoun was for arraigning him and Adams was his defender. Jackson
+immediately demanded an explanation of Calhoun, but the reply did not
+at all satisfy him, and the hostility which he had {221} felt for
+Crawford was now turned with redoubled force against Calhoun. Calhoun
+was now regarded by Jackson as a traitor to Jackson, and that meant,
+in Jackson's mind, that he was a traitor to his country. Any movement
+against the Government or the laws of the United States headed by
+Calhoun would be considered by Jackson as rebellion, most surely so
+while Jackson was President.
+
+[Sidenote: The call of the Convention of 1832 in South Carolina.]
+
+Following the principles developed in Mr. Calhoun's letter of August
+28th, 1832, Governor Hamilton issued a call for a special session of
+the legislature of South Carolina, in the autumn of 1832, for the
+purpose of effecting through it the assembly of the convention of the
+Commonwealth. The party in favor of nullification had at last secured
+both branches of the legislature, and on October 24th, 1832, the
+assembled legislature voted to issue the call for the convention, and
+appointed November 19th as the day upon which it should meet.
+
+[Sidenote: The work of the Nullification Convention.]
+
+The convention assembled at the time designated, elected Governor
+Hamilton as its chairman, and appointed a committee of twenty-one
+members to consider the situation and report a proposition to meet it.
+In due time this committee made its report to the convention, in which
+was contained, first, a review of the development of the tariff from a
+revenue measure to a measure for the protection of manufactures, of
+the ten years of fruitless struggle in Congress by the South against
+the oppression inflicted by the protective system upon that section,
+and of the theories advanced by the fathers of the Republic for
+meeting, in last instance, such a condition of affairs; and, second,
+the famous Ordinance of Nullification as the remedy of last resort.
+The convention voted to receive the report and to adopt its
+recommendations. {222} On November 24th the convention passed, in
+solemn form, the Ordinance of Nullification of the existing tariff
+laws of the United States.
+
+[Sidenote: The Nullification Ordinance.]
+
+The convention declared and ordained in this instrument, that "the
+several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States,
+purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the
+importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation
+and effect within the United States, and, more especially," the Act of
+May 19th, 1828, and that of July 14th, 1832, "are unauthorized by the
+Constitution of the United States and violate the true meaning and
+intent thereof, and are null and void and no law, nor binding upon
+this State, its officers or citizens; and all promises, contracts, and
+obligations made or entered into, or to be made or entered into, with
+purpose to secure the duties imposed by the said acts, and all
+judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in affirmance
+thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and void."
+
+It further ordained that no appeal should be allowed from the
+decisions of the courts of the Commonwealth to the Supreme Court of
+the United States in questions involving the validity of the aforesaid
+Acts of Congress, or of the Ordinance of the convention annulling
+them, or of the acts of the legislature giving effect to the
+Ordinance, and that no copy of the proceedings in the courts of the
+Commonwealth should be allowed for any such purpose, but that the
+courts of the Commonwealth should proceed to execute their decisions
+upon such issues without regard to any attempts to appeal therefrom,
+and should deal with any person making such attempt as being guilty of
+contempt of court. It then commanded that all the officers of the
+Commonwealth, civil and military, and the jurors empanelled in the
+courts should take the {223} oath to obey, execute, and enforce the
+Ordinance, under penalty of dismissal and disqualification; and
+finally, it declared that South Carolina would regard her connection
+with the Union as absolved, in case Congress should pass any act
+authorizing the employment of military force to reduce her to
+obedience to the nullified acts, or any act abolishing or closing the
+ports, or obstructing the free ingress and egress of vessels, or in
+case the United States should undertake to coerce the Commonwealth, or
+enforce the nullified acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals
+of the country.
+
+For the execution of the provisions of the Ordinance the convention
+commanded the legislature to pass such measures as would prevent the
+enforcement of the nullified acts, and give full effect to the
+nullifying Ordinance, from and after February 1st, 1833, and commanded
+the obedience of all persons within the limits of the Commonwealth to
+the Ordinance and the legislative acts passed for its execution.
+
+[Sidenote: The Addresses issued by the Convention.]
+
+With the Ordinance the convention issued two addresses, one to the
+people of South Carolina, and the other to the peoples of the other
+Commonwealths, naming each separately. The one to the people of South
+Carolina contained the theory of nullification, as elaborated by
+Calhoun, and the justification of its employment in the existing
+situation. It closed with an appeal to their love of liberty and a
+demand of obedience. The address to the peoples of the several
+Commonwealths contained an announcement of the passage of the
+nullifying Ordinance, the theory upon which it was based, an assertion
+of the unconstitutionality of the protective tariff, and its
+oppression upon the people of South Carolina, and a declaration of the
+spirit and feeling of the convention, and of the people it
+represented, toward the Union, the {224} Constitution and the people
+of the manufacturing Commonwealths. The latter part of this address
+contained the only new point to be noticed. It was the offer of a plan
+for a compromise tariff which would satisfy the South Carolinians. The
+plan was the imposition of the same rate of duty upon all articles,
+those not coming into competition with the products of the country and
+those coming into such competition, and the raising of no more revenue
+than should be necessary to meet the demands of the Government for
+constitutional purposes.
+
+[Sidenote: The Ordinance communicated to the Legislature of South
+Carolina.]
+
+In a message of November 27th, Governor Hamilton communicated to the
+legislature of the Commonwealth the Ordinance of Nullification and
+recommended the enactment of measures by that body for the execution
+of the Ordinance.
+
+On December 13th, the new Governor, Colonel Hayne, who had resigned
+his seat in the Senate in order that Mr. Calhoun, who had himself
+resigned the vice-presidency, might be made South Carolina's
+representative in the Senate, or, as the South Carolinians now
+considered it, South Carolina's ambassador to the Government of the
+United States, pronounced his inaugural address before the
+legislature, dedicating himself to the service of the Commonwealth in
+the execution of her Ordinance of Nullification.
+
+[Sidenote: The Acts of the Legislature for the execution of the
+Ordinance.]
+
+The legislature immediately passed the acts required by the convention
+and recommended by the Governor.
+
+The first act, termed the Replevin Act, authorized any consignee of
+merchandise, or any person lawfully entitled to the possession of
+merchandise, held or detained for the payment of the duties imposed
+upon the same by the nullified Acts of Congress, to recover possession
+of the same, with {225} damages for its detention, by a writ of
+replevin, that is, by a summary procedure executed by an officer of
+the Commonwealth; and the Act authorized this officer, on initiation
+of the plaintiff in replevin, to seize the private property of the
+person detaining the merchandise to double the value of the latter, in
+case this person should refuse to deliver the detained merchandise to
+the sheriff, or should put it out of the sheriff's way, and to hold
+the property so seized until the merchandise in question should be
+produced and delivered to the sheriff.
+
+This Act also authorized any person paying the nullified duties to
+recover the money paid, with interest on the same, by an action, in a
+court of the Commonwealth, for money had and received; and it
+authorized any person suffering arrest or imprisonment by order of any
+United States court, in execution of the nullified Acts, to demand the
+privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and to maintain an action for
+unlawful arrest and imprisonment.
+
+It declared the sale of any property seized by a United States court,
+in execution of the nullified Acts, to be illegal, and ordained that
+such sale should convey no title to the purchaser. It forbade any
+officer of a court of the Commonwealth to furnish the record, or a
+copy of the record, or allow a copy of the record to be taken, of any
+case in which the validity of the nullified Acts or the nullifying
+Acts should be drawn in question, under penalty of both fine and
+imprisonment, and it forbade any person to attempt to recapture the
+goods delivered by the sheriff to the plaintiff in replevin, under
+threat of the same punishment.
+
+It further forbade the keepers of the jails to receive and detain any
+person arrested or committed by virtue of any proceeding for enforcing
+the nullified Acts, under penalty of both fine and imprisonment; and
+it imposed {226} a similar penalty upon the offence of hiring,
+letting, or procuring any place to be used as a place of confinement
+for such person.
+
+Finally, it forbade any person to disobey, obstruct, prevent, or
+resist any process allowed by this Act, under penalty of both fine and
+imprisonment; and it threatened every plaintiff, who should bring suit
+against any officer or person executing or aiding in the execution of
+the provisions of this Act, with adverse judgment and double costs.
+
+The second Act of the legislature was a measure to provide for the
+event of the employment of military power by the general Government to
+enforce the nullified Acts in South Carolina. It authorized the
+Governor of the Commonwealth to resist the same; and for this purpose
+to order into service the whole military power of the Commonwealth at
+his discretion, to purchase arms, accoutrements, and ammunitions, and
+to appoint his military staff; and it authorized and obligated the
+Governor to use military power in suppressing opposition to the laws
+of the Commonwealth by combinations too powerful to be controlled by
+the civil officers.
+
+The third Act was the test oath, the oath to obey, execute, and
+enforce the Ordinance of Nullification, and all the acts of the
+legislature for its enforcement, which every officer of the
+Commonwealth must take before dealing with any question touching the
+nullified Acts or the nullifying Acts, and which the Governor might
+require of any officer whatever.
+
+These were the details and the forms of the issue which South Carolina
+now offered to the United States. Was it rebellion, or was it
+constitutional and legal opposition?
+
+[Sidenote: The meaning of Nullification as understood by the
+Nullifiers.]
+
+As we have seen, Calhoun and the members of the {227} nullifying
+convention held it to be the latter. They argued that the reserved
+powers of the Commonwealths are recognized by the Constitution; that
+every conceivable power is reserved to the Commonwealths, except such
+as are vested by the Constitution in the general Government
+exclusively, or are denied by the Constitution to the Commonwealths;
+that the power to pronounce an act of the general Government null and
+void had been neither so vested nor so denied; that this was,
+therefore, a reserved power of the Commonwealths, and was, like all
+other reserved powers, a constitutional power; that South Carolina
+proposed to use this power through judicial means only, which means
+were legally and constitutionally at her disposal through the
+principle of the governmental system of the United States that general
+criminal jurisdiction belongs exclusively to the Commonwealths; and
+that the employment of military power by the Commonwealth, indicated
+in the Ordinance and the legislative acts for its enforcement, was to
+be resorted to only in self-defence, only to repel the possible attack
+of the military power of the general Government upon South Carolina.
+
+It is entirely evident that the South Carolina statesmen and lawyers
+thought they had so fashioned the laws of the Commonwealth as to force
+the general Government to the first violation of legal order in
+attempting to execute the nullified Acts of Congress--that is, they
+thought they had made it impossible for the general Government to
+execute these Acts by regular legal methods; and that they had done so
+without themselves violating any rule or principle of American
+jurisprudence. They repeated the assertion, again and again, that they
+did not rest their case on moral, or on revolutionary, principles, but
+on strict constitutional {228} right; and it is impossible to prove
+that they were insincere.
+
+The great question now was, what attitude the general Government would
+take toward the attempt of a Commonwealth to defeat the supremacy of
+its laws. Naturally the Executive Department must act first, since
+nullification was directed against the execution of existing laws.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's view of Nullification.]
+
+In his message of December 4th (1832), President Jackson referred
+briefly to the events of the preceding month in South Carolina, but
+did not seem to have fully appreciated their purport. He said he hoped
+the United States courts would be able to cope successfully with the
+difficulties in South Carolina, and that, if they were not, he thought
+that the existing laws gave the President sufficient power to suppress
+any attempts which might be immediately made against the supremacy of
+the Government.
+
+[Sidenote: The Tariff in the Annual Message of 1832.]
+
+He devoted a much larger portion of the message to a consideration of
+the tariff, and declared that the time had arrived for the United
+States to enter upon the realization of the policy of a tariff for
+revenue only, and of the ultimate limitation of protection to those
+articles of domestic manufacture indispensable to the country in time
+of war.
+
+It is possible that the President did, after all, understand the
+serious nature of the situation from the outset, and hoped, by his
+pronounced recommendations in regard to the tariff, and his very mild
+utterances concerning nullification, to influence the South
+Carolinians to a reconsideration of their hasty acts, and give them a
+loophole of escape from their very dubious and embarrassing position.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's Proclamation of December 10th.]
+
+He waited for six days, and then issued the noted proclamation of
+December 10th, which presented the {229} President's idea of the
+relation of the United States, as a nation, and of the general
+Government, to the Commonwealths, asserted the supremacy of United
+States law over Commonwealth law, demonstrated the true character of
+nullification as rebellion, and declared the President's intention to
+execute the laws of the United States against any and all opposition.
+
+The President assumed as his cardinal principle that the Union
+preceded independence, and that by a joint act the people of the
+united colonies declared themselves a nation; that, as a nation, the
+people of the United States established the Constitution of 1787, and
+placed in that instrument the provision that the Constitution, and the
+laws and treaties made in accordance therewith, are "the supreme law"
+of the land, and that "the judges in every State shall be bound
+thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the
+contrary notwithstanding." From these principles the President derived
+the conclusions that no legal processes, which South Carolina could
+contrive, could prevent the execution of the laws of the United States
+in South Carolina; that to accomplish this South Carolina would be
+obliged to have recourse to violence; and that this necessity stamped
+nullification as rebellion.
+
+The President stopped the loophole of escape from this reasoning, made
+by the claim of the nullifiers that the nullified Acts were not laws
+made in accordance with the Constitution, by the declaration that the
+Judicial Department of the general Government was the body designated
+by the Constitution to determine that question, and not a Commonwealth
+convention.
+
+After warning the nullifiers to desist from their unlawful enterprise,
+the President closed his message with an eloquent appeal to the people
+of South Carolina to {230} withdraw from their unjustifiable and
+dangerous position, and an equally eloquent appeal to the people of
+the United States for aid and support in preserving the Union and
+maintaining the supremacy of the Government and the laws.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's military preparations.]
+
+Already before the passage of the Ordinance of Nullification, the
+President had caused the United States military officers stationed in
+and about Charleston to be informed of their danger, had ordered two
+artillery companies from Fort Monroe to Fort Moultrie, had commanded
+General Scott to go to Charleston and do what might be necessary for a
+successful defence of the forts and places held by the Army of the
+United States, and had directed all the officers in command to defend
+their possession of these forts and places to the last extremity.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's instructions to the customs officers in
+South Carolina.]
+
+The President had also caused the collectors of the customs at
+Charleston, Georgetown, and Beaufort to be reminded of their powers
+under the laws of the United States, and had authorized them to make
+use of all the revenue cutters in the harbors, and of such other
+vessels as they could secure, and to call to their assistance the
+officers of the cutters, and to appoint a number of inspectors
+sufficient to execute successfully the laws of the United States for
+the collection of the duties. The collector at Charleston was
+specially authorized to remove the custom-house to Castle Pinckney, at
+his discretion; and the United States District Attorney at Charleston
+was ordered to aid the collector with counsel and advice.
+
+After the passage of the Ordinance, the President ordered five more
+companies of artillery from Fort Monroe to Fort Moultrie, commanded
+the removal of the custom-house from Charleston to Castle Pinckney,
+and sent General Scott to Charleston Harbor to take command, {231} on
+the spot, of all the forts and garrisons there, instructing him to
+avoid collision with the forces of the Commonwealth so long as
+possible, but, in case the exigency should arise requiring the
+exercise of military power, to act with firmness and decision, and to
+hold possession of the forts by all means and at every hazard.
+
+[Sidenote: The popular approval of the President's course.]
+
+The brave, loyal, and patriotic, yet wise and considerate, stand taken
+by the President was supported with great unanimity and enthusiasm
+throughout the North; and though the people of the Southern
+Commonwealths felt more sympathy with their South Carolina brethren,
+yet the dissent from the President's views and attitude in that
+section was rare and feeble. The nation was with the President, and
+the President had done his duty nobly and fearlessly.
+
+[Sidenote: The Verplanck Tariff Bill.]
+
+The turn now came upon Congress. Would Congress sustain the President,
+and give him all the means necessary to conquer nullification and
+secession in fact, and destroy them in principle? Unfortunately, so
+far as finite reason can judge, the first movements made in Congress
+were in the opposite direction. That part of the President's message
+which dealt with the question of the tariff was referred by the House
+of Representatives to its committee on Ways and Means, and on December
+27th, 1832, the chairman of that committee, Mr. Verplanck, of New
+York, reported a bill from the committee which proposed to reduce and
+equalize duties largely, and in the direction of the South Carolina
+principle. If this bill should pass, the nullifiers could well assume
+that their Ordinance had accomplished its purpose without being
+applied, and could with triumphant dignity desist from the application
+of it; and they could defer with almost equal dignity the application
+of the Ordinance, {232} so long as there was any probability of the
+passage of this bill.
+
+[Sidenote: Governor Hayne's Counter-proclamation.]
+
+Seven days before the introduction of this bill, Governor Hayne had
+issued a counter-proclamation to the President's proclamation of
+December 10th, in which he went over again the ground of nullification
+and secession, warned the citizens of South Carolina against the
+President's "pernicious" doctrines, and accused the President of
+indulging in unwarrantable imputations upon South Carolina. He gave
+notice, on the same day, that he would accept the service of
+volunteers. The legislature supported the Governor in defiant
+resolutions, which it sent to Congress, and caused to be read in that
+body.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's Message of January 16th, 1833.]
+
+The President was much ruffled by the arrogant language of the
+Governor and legislature, and when the Verplanck bill appeared, it
+must have looked to him too much like surrendering the entire field,
+which he was not now in any mood to do. He felt that something more
+must be done to vindicate the authority and the dignity of the
+Government. On January 16th, 1833, he sent another message to
+Congress, demonstrating and denouncing again the pernicious character
+of the nullification doctrine, informing Congress that he had removed
+the custom-house from Charleston to Castle Pinckney, and asking
+Congress for the power to change the customs districts and ports of
+entry, to exact the payment of duties in cash, and to use the land and
+naval forces when necessary for the execution of the revenue laws.
+
+[Sidenote: Calhoun's explanations in the Senate.]
+
+The message was referred by the Houses of Congress to their respective
+committees on the Judiciary; but immediately upon the reading of the
+message, and before the Senate had passed the motion to refer, Mr.
+Calhoun said, in that body, that there was no foundation whatever for
+the {233} statement in the message that the movements made by South
+Carolina were intended as hostile to the Union, or were so. He called
+the attention of the Senate to the fact that before the Ordinance of
+Nullification was passed, before the convention had assembled, United
+States troops had been sent to Charleston Harbor; and he declared
+that, previous to this circumstance, South Carolina had looked to
+nothing beyond a civil process, and had intended to give effect to her
+opposition merely in the form of a suit at law, and that it was only
+when a military force had been displayed on her borders, and in her
+limits, and when a menace was thrown out against the lives of her
+citizens, that they found themselves driven to an attitude of
+resistance.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Force Bill."]
+
+On the 21st of the month (January), Mr. Wilkins, the chairman of the
+Judiciary committee of the Senate, reported from his committee the
+bill for the collection of the revenue. This bill provided for
+extending the jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts of the United States
+over all cases in law or equity arising under the revenue laws of the
+United States; for making all property taken or detained by any
+officer or person under authority of any law of the United States
+irrepleviable by any order or process of the tribunals of a
+Commonwealth; for effecting the removal of suits commenced in a
+Commonwealth court against any officer or person for any act done
+under the laws of the United States, or on account of any right,
+authority, or title claimed under those laws, to the Circuit Courts of
+the United States, by means of proof laid before the Circuit Court
+that the defendant had petitioned the Commonwealth court for the
+removal of the cause. The bill provided, further, for substituting for
+a copy of the record of the proceedings in the {234} Commonwealth
+court, in case of the failure of that court to furnish a copy, an
+affidavit, or other evidence, as the circumstances of the case might
+require; for giving to the United States judges the power to grant
+writs of habeas corpus in all cases where persons were in confinement
+for acts done in pursuance of a law of the United States, or of an
+order, process, or decree of any United States court or judge; for
+empowering the United States marshals, under direction of the United
+States judges, to provide places of confinement for persons arrested
+or committed under the laws of the United States, where any
+Commonwealth should refuse the use of its jails for the confinement of
+such persons; for allowing the President to change the custom-house
+from one place in a collection district to another, and to require the
+duties to be paid in cash; and for empowering the President to use the
+land and naval forces for suppressing any resistance to the execution
+of the revenue laws too powerful to be overcome by the civil officers
+of the general Government.
+
+It was a good, stiff measure, but it was constitutional at every
+point, and it was demanded by the exigencies of the situation. It was
+a complete answer to the Replevin Act of South Carolina, and it would
+inevitably throw the responsibility for committing the first act of
+violence upon the Commonwealth in any resistance to the collection of
+the duties. It pricked the bubble completely of South Carolina's
+proposed legal resistance to the execution of the laws of the United
+States.
+
+Of course the bill was denounced at once by the South Carolinians as a
+"Force Bill." Calhoun attacked it as a measure for coercing a
+sovereign "State," and offered a series of "States' rights"
+propositions, which he declared to be indisputable, and which must,
+therefore, prevent the passage of the bill. The discussion upon {235}
+these resolutions, and upon the bill which they were meant to destroy,
+dragged on from day to day in the Senate, while that upon the
+Verplanck bill in the House proceeded even more slowly.
+
+[Sidenote: The postponement of the execution of nullification.]
+
+The chiefs of the nullifiers, professing to feel that the Government
+was yielding, reassembled in convention in the last days of January,
+and postponed the execution of their Ordinance until the end of the
+existing Congressional session.
+
+On February 8th, Mr. Bell, the chairman of the Judiciary committee of
+the House of Representatives, reported to that body that his committee
+did not recommend vesting the President with any further powers for
+the execution of the revenue laws than those already possessed by him,
+and that they could not approve of the employment of military force
+for the purpose.
+
+[Sidenote: The Compromise Tariff.]
+
+Such was the situation when, on February 12th, Mr. Clay astonished the
+Senate with the noted proposition for compromise. This was his bill
+for the gradual reduction of the duties to a revenue basis. The
+revenue basis was fixed in the bill at twenty per centum _ad valorem_
+on all articles then paying a higher duty, and the excess was to be
+remitted in biennial instalments, and entirely abolished from and
+after June 30th, 1842. The free list was slightly extended, and cash
+payments, from and after June 30th, 1842, were provided.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Clay on the situation.]
+
+Mr. Clay said, in introducing this bill, that he had two purposes in
+view: one to save what could be saved of the protective tariff, and
+the other to allow South Carolina to withdraw with dignity from the
+position which she had rashly assumed. He claimed that his feeling
+toward the action of South Carolina had changed since her
+Representatives and Senators in Congress had disavowed rebellion and
+had {236} asserted that they were only trying to invent legal methods
+for protecting themselves against the oppression of the tariff Acts.
+He demonstrated very clearly the error of supposing that they could do
+any such thing, and then urged his brother Senators to join him in the
+proposed measure of conciliation.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun's support of Mr. Clay's bill.]
+
+Mr. Calhoun immediately indicated that the bill would have his
+support, and would solve the difficulties between South Carolina and
+the general Government. He professed to see in it the concession of
+about all that South Carolina had asked.
+
+[Sidenote: The opposition to the bill.]
+
+The opposition to the bill came from three quarters--from the
+protectionists, who clung to the existing law, from the strong
+nationalists, who were against any show of compromise with
+nullification, and from the strict parliamentarians, who held that any
+bill touching the tariff must originate in the House of
+Representatives.
+
+The protectionists were answered, and many of them won over, by the
+argument that the Verplanck bill would pass if they did not accept Mr.
+Clay's bill. The strong nationalists were told that if Congress should
+pass the Wilkins bill before the Clay bill a sufficient vindication of
+their position would be attained. They were inclined to accept that
+view, but the South Carolinians set themselves against this order of
+procedure with all their strength. Mr. Calhoun came forward again with
+his "States' sovereignty" exposition of the Constitution, and
+denounced the Wilkins bill in the most vehement language as "utterly
+unconstitutional, as an attempt to enforce robbery by murder, an
+attempt to decree the massacre of the citizens of South Carolina," and
+declared that the citizens of South Carolina would, should it become
+law, resist its execution "at every hazard, even that of death
+itself."
+
+{237} [Sidenote: Passage of the "Force Bill" by the Senate.]
+
+On the following day Mr. Webster answered Mr. Calhoun's argument, and
+demonstrated so clearly the nationality of the Constitution, the
+supremacy of the laws of the United States, and the rebellious
+character of nullification, that the Senate was convinced of the
+necessity of passing the Wilkins bill before voting upon Mr. Clay's
+bill. On the 20th of the month (February), the Senate passed the
+Wilkins bill by a vote of thirty-two to one. The objections of the
+strong nationalists to Mr. Clay's bill were now substantially
+satisfied; but the high protectionists still held out in considerable
+number for some modification of the bill in their favor, and on the
+day after the passage of the Wilkins bill by the Senate, Mr. Clay
+moved to amend his own bill by the proposition to base the duties on
+home valuation instead of on the foreign invoice. The protectionists
+were satisfied by this, but Mr. Calhoun immediately declared that
+South Carolina would not accept the bill with this change. The
+protectionists, in sufficient number to defeat the bill, declared that
+they would not accept it without the change. Mr. Calhoun had at last
+come to see the peril which lay in South Carolina's course, and to
+understand the feeling of the nation toward her. He wisely concluded
+to abandon his opposition to the amendment, and to vote for the bill.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the Compromise Tariff bill and the "Force Bill"
+by Congress.]
+
+The opposition of the strict parliamentarians, on the ground that the
+Senate could not originate a revenue bill, was overcome by the action
+of the House of Representatives in substituting the Clay bill for the
+Verplanck bill, and passing it on the 26th, and sending it to the
+Senate for concurrence. The Senate now passed the House bill on March
+1st, and the House immediately passed the Wilkins bill, against the
+protest of {238} the South Carolinians that it could now have no
+purpose since every member of Congress from South Carolina had voted
+for the new Tariff Act.
+
+[Sidenote: The nullification ordinance withdrawn.]
+
+The President signed both bills at the same time, March 2nd, and South
+Carolina rescinded the Nullification Ordinance.
+
+[Sidenote: Motives and general results.]
+
+It is not easy to see what principles or what party finally triumphed
+in this contest, or to comprehend all the motives of the chief actors
+in it. It has been said, or hinted, that Mr. Calhoun, chagrined and
+disappointed at not gaining the presidency in 1832, was induced to
+take the course which he followed in reference to nullification by the
+hope of breaking up the Union and winning, thus, the presidency of a
+Southern confederacy; that President Jackson was largely influenced,
+in the decided attitude which he assumed, by the desire to take
+revenge on Mr. Calhoun and South Carolina for Mr. Calhoun's attempt to
+court-martial him more than a dozen years before, and for South
+Carolina's slight upon him in the election of 1832; and that Mr. Clay
+was moved far more by his jealousy of President Jackson, and his fear
+of trusting him with extraordinary powers, than by any dread of the
+destruction of the Union.
+
+There is probably some truth in certain, if not in all, of these
+speculations, but such things are not the matters of chief value in
+the search for the line of development of the constitutional history
+of this country. They do indeed help us to appreciate the motives for
+the particular form of adjustment put upon that development at any
+stage of its course; but our chief concern must be with the advance or
+retrogression in principle of that development, our question must be
+whether the Union and the Constitution were strengthened or weakened
+by {239} the events of 1832 and 1833, whether the political
+nationality of the country was cemented or suffered disintegration,
+and whether strength was gathered, or the seeds of weakness were sown,
+in the results attained.
+
+From the point of view of the present, a point so much more national
+than any reached before 1860, the settlement of 1833 is usually
+regarded as a great misfortune, as a fateful error, which led the
+country finally into civil war. It is now usually said that the
+national cause lost everything in principle, and that nullification
+was virtually acknowledged by the Act of Congress in repealing the
+nullified laws, at the same moment that it enacted the measure for
+upholding the supremacy of the laws of the United States.
+
+From a purely historical view of the development of the constitutional
+law of the country, this proposition does not seem to be true, at
+least not without great modification. From such a point of view it
+seems more correct to say, that the doctrine formulated by Mr. Calhoun
+and his colleagues in South Carolina was only the exact logical
+statement of the principles advanced by Mr. Jefferson in 1798,
+principles through the advocacy of which Mr. Jefferson and the
+Republicans turned the Federalists out of power and captured the
+Government; that under the pressure of foreign war and through its
+results, the Republican practice in administering the Government had
+been driven into lines almost, if not quite, contradictory to the
+Republican doctrine; that in the gradual relapse, after 1815, into the
+humdrum of peace and business, the conditions were being revived for
+the reassertion of the principles of 1800; and that, under such
+conditions and in such a period, the doctrines advanced by President
+Jackson, doctrines of a far more completely national system of
+sovereignty, government, and liberty than were ever expressed {240} by
+any preceding President, certainly mark a great advance in the
+development of the national theory of the Constitution.
+
+The South Carolinians said that John Quincy Adams invented these
+doctrines, and that Jackson first essayed their application. Even Clay
+declared that they were an advance upon his own views. And some of
+Jackson's friends undertook, it was said with authority from Jackson
+himself, to explain them away, so startled were they by their strong
+nationalism.
+
+But the spoken word cannot be recalled. It had gone forth, and the
+nation had approved it. The politicians might split hairs in its
+interpretation, but the people had heard from the highest authority
+which they recognized that the United States was a sovereign nation,
+and that the attempt of any combination of persons, whether calling
+themselves a "State" or not, to resist by violence the execution of
+the laws of the United States, or to withdraw themselves from their
+operation, was rebellion, which the President was empowered and
+required by the Constitution to suppress with the whole physical power
+of the nation.
+
+And besides the Proclamation there was the "Force Bill," which rested
+upon the same theory of the political system of the country as the
+Proclamation. The Congress as well as the President was now
+inculcating the national doctrine. Calhoun and his friends knew what
+an influence this would exert. He said that he and they would never
+rest content until this measure was expunged from among the Acts of
+Congress.
+
+It is true that the passage of the new Tariff Act appeared to take the
+virtue out of the Proclamation and the "Force Bill;" but it is not at
+all probable that the nullifiers would have retreated from their
+ground so promptly, to say the least, except for the determined {241}
+words of the President and the Congress, and the popular approval with
+which they were received; and it is almost certain that, when it came
+to the great crisis, twenty-eight years later, the people would not
+have understood and supported the great principle that the general
+Government has the right of self-preservation, in the exercise of all
+its powers, throughout the whole territory of the Union, against
+everything and everybody but the sovereign nation itself, except for
+the great education in national principles which they received from
+the Proclamation, and through the enactment of the law which gave the
+sanction of Congress to the enforcement of its principles.
+
+
+
+
+{242}
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+ABOLITION
+
+The Philosophy of Abolition--William Lloyd Garrison--The Civil Status
+under the Constitution of 1787--Points at which Slavery Could be
+Legally Attacked--Garrison's Methods--The Southampton Massacre--The
+Attempt to Suppress the Abolition Movement at the North--Growth of the
+Abolition Movement--The Methods of the Moderate Abolitionists--The
+Abolition Petitions--The Earlier Method of Dealing with the
+Petitions--Beginning of the Conflict over the Abolition Petitions--The
+New Method for Dealing with Petitions in the House of
+Representatives--True View of the Right of Petition--Mr. Polk's Fatal
+Error in Regard to the Right of Petition--The Pinckney
+Resolutions--The New Rule of the House of Representatives in Regard to
+the Abolition Petitions--The Increase of Petitions, and the
+Denunciation of the Pinckney Rule--The Final Denial of the Right of
+Petition on the Subject of Slavery by the House of
+Representatives--The Abolition Petitions in the Senate--Mr. Rives and
+Mr. Calhoun in Regard to the Morality of Slavery--Mr. Calhoun's
+Resolutions in Regard to the Political Relations of Slavery--The
+Anti-Slavery Petition from the Vermont Legislature--The Abolition
+Documents and the United States Mails--The Postmaster-General's Ruling
+in Regard to the Abolition Documents in the Mails--Jackson on the Use
+of the Mails by the Abolitionists--Mr. Calhoun's Report and Bill on
+the Subject--Clay's Criticism of Calhoun's Proposition--The Act of
+Congress Protecting the Abolition Documents in the Mails--General
+Results of the Struggle over the Right of Petition and the Freedom of
+the Mails.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The ends of the state.]
+
+When a state has fairly accomplished the primal end of establishing
+its governmental system, its {243} public policy will be found to be
+pursuing, in ultimate generalization, two great all-comprehending
+purposes, namely, national development and universal human progress.
+Rarely, if ever, will any state be found to have succeeded in so
+balancing these two principal objects of its public policy as to make
+the resultant of its two main lines of progress follow an unchanging
+angle. At one period, the principle of national development will
+prevail, even to the point of national exclusiveness; at another, an
+enthusiastic humanism will almost threaten the existence of national
+distinctions. But in all the convulsions of political history,
+described as advance and reaction, the scientific student of history
+is able to discover that the zigzags of progress are ever bearing in
+the general direction which the combined impulses toward nationalism
+and humanism compel.
+
+[Sidenote: The purposes of the state, as seen in the history of the
+United States.]
+
+After the humanitarian outburst of the revolutionary period in the
+latter part of the eighteenth century had expended its force, the
+states of the world veered in their policies toward the line of
+national development. The United States, which had been excessively
+humanitarian during that period, both in its doctrine of rights and in
+its policy, became, in the succeeding period, the first three decades
+of the nineteenth century, more and more national in disposition and
+in practice, until industrial exclusiveness and race domination
+appeared, at the close of the period, to be the sole principles of the
+policy of the country.
+
+Had the two elements of this policy been equally, or almost equally,
+sustained throughout the whole country, there is little question that
+the human purpose, the world-purpose, as Hegel calls it, of state
+existence, would have been ignored to a higher degree, and for a {244}
+longer period, than it was. But curiously and fortunately, the race
+domination in the South produced economic conditions which demanded
+trade and commerce with the world, and which finally forced upon the
+North the conviction that the cause of those conditions--race
+domination, slavery--must be removed, in order to secure the
+industrial interests of the North against the competition of the
+world's markets. The destruction of that domination must proceed,
+however, upon a humanitarian principle, namely, the right of man to
+personal liberty. Thus it clearly appears that the two elements of the
+national exclusiveness of the United States in 1830 were, in the
+peculiar relation which finally obtained between them, preparing the
+nation for a new advance in the direction of world intercourse and
+human rights.
+
+[Sidenote: The Revolution of 1830.]
+
+In the summer of 1830 the wave of revolution rolled again over Europe.
+The rights of man, the brotherhood of man, and the sovereignty of the
+people, were the principles which pressed again to the front. While no
+actual connection can be established between the Revolution of 1830 in
+Europe and the rise of Abolition in the United States, yet they belong
+to the same period of time, and harmonize in principle. The impulses
+which move the human race, or those parts of the human race which
+stand upon the same plane of civilization, are not broken by mountain
+heights or broad seas. Their manifestations appear spontaneously and
+coetaneously in widely separated places.
+
+Before 1830, indeed, as we have so often seen, slavery in the United
+States had been regarded as a grievous evil by most of the great
+spirits of the age and country, and schemes for gradual emancipation
+had been invented, and, in some slight degree, had been put into {245}
+operation. It was, however, the humanitarian outburst of 1830, and the
+succeeding years, which represented slavery as a sin and a crime
+against the universal principle of human liberty and the rights of
+man, a sin which called for immediate expiation by instantaneous,
+unqualified, and uncompensated abolition.
+
+[Sidenote: The philosophy of Abolition.]
+
+There is nothing strange about the philosophy of Abolition. It is
+simply the idealistic view of the beginning and the progress of human
+history. It assumes liberty as the original state of man, condemns
+every species of modification of liberty suffered by any human being,
+or any class of human beings, as resulting from the unrighteous act of
+some other human being, or class or race of human beings, and demands
+the immediate discontinuance of the tyranny as the only approximately
+adequate satisfaction which can be made to those who have suffered
+that tyranny. It is the orthodox, paradisaical view of the origin,
+unity, and primal perfection of the human race. It is the literal
+interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. It is
+thorough-going, radical humanitarianism. Its political principle, in
+the language of its chief exponent, was: "The world our country, and
+all mankind our countrymen."
+
+Over against it stands the pessimistic view of man and of
+civilization, which divides the human race into the few intelligent
+and good, and the great mass of the ignorant and vicious, and
+considers the permanent subjection of the latter to the former as the
+divinely constituted, and therefore the permanent, order of the world.
+
+And between the two lies the true historical view, which regards
+liberty, equality, and brotherhood as the products of civilization, as
+the final, not the primal, status of the human race, and determines
+the character of every stage of development from barbarism to {246}
+civilization, not by its distance from the perfect condition, but by
+the fact of its advance upon, or its retrogression from, the stage
+immediately antecedent.
+
+The latter is, unquestionably, the true philosophy of history, but the
+former has its uses as well as its abuses. It contains those forces of
+mystical enthusiasm, self-sacrifice, and reckless disregard of
+consequences so necessary, at times, to drag the world out of the ruts
+of materialism and the love of peace. Such was its mission in the
+fourth decade of the nineteenth century in American history.
+
+[Sidenote: William Lloyd Garrison.]
+
+If we must give a name, a date, and a place to the first open
+appearance of a movement which was a product of the age, that name is
+Garrison; the date, the beginning of the year 1831; and the place,
+Boston. The character of William Lloyd Garrison, whether noble or
+vulgar; his purposes, whether generous or selfish; and the motives
+which impelled him, whether narrow and personal or grandly humane, are
+not subjects for treatment in a work upon constitutional history.
+Constitutional history has to do only with the doctrines of political
+ethics and public jurisprudence which he formulated, and with the
+means proposed by him, and those who thought and acted with him, for
+their realization; and the historian does neither him nor them any
+injustice in saying that, while those doctrines are to be justified
+from the point of view of an extreme idealism, the means for their
+realization, at first only indicated, but later boldly and rudely
+expressed, were revolutionary, almost anarchic.
+
+[Sidenote: The civil status under the Constitution of 1787.]
+
+There is now certainly little question that the determination of the
+civil status of all persons is, from an ethical point of view, a
+matter of national concern, and that that status must be fixed, in
+general principle, by a national act. There is just as little question
+that {247} the denial of personal liberty to any human being of adult
+years does not comport with the civilization of the nineteenth
+century. In espousing these principles the Abolitionists were only
+prophets ahead of their time, and must be accorded the honor which
+belongs to such. On the other hand, it is entirely unquestionable that
+the Constitution of the United States recognized to the Commonwealths,
+respectively, the exclusive control of the civil status of persons
+belonging within their several jurisdictions, and it is entirely
+improbable that the Constitution of 1787 could ever have been
+established without the guarantees, expressed and implied in it, of
+such power to the Commonwealths. There is no question at all that the
+slavery or freedom of the negro race within the several Commonwealths
+was, under the Constitution of 1787, not only left, as it had been
+before, a matter for each Commonwealth to determine for itself, but
+that the exclusive power of determination in regard to it was
+guaranteed by the Constitution to the several Commonwealths. The
+Commonwealths in which slaveholding generally and extensively
+prevailed regarded the guarantee as the principal consideration for
+their assent to the "compact." The attempt to violate, or weaken, or
+even to cast doubt upon, these guarantees appeared to them to be an
+attack upon the fundamental covenants of the Union. The Constitution
+might, indeed, be so amended as to withdraw these powers and
+guarantees from the Commonwealths, by the regular procedure provided
+in the Constitution itself; and the general Government was vested by
+the Constitution with the general powers of exclusive government in
+the Territories, the District of Columbia, and the places owned by the
+United States within Commonwealths and used by the general Government
+for {248} governmental purposes. But so long as the Constitution
+remained what it was, there was no constitutional power in the general
+Government to attack slavery in the Commonwealths; and the
+slaveholders could certainly claim that, in the exercise of its powers
+in the Territories, the District, and other places where those powers
+were exclusive, the general Government should act fairly toward all
+the members of the Union.
+
+[Sidenote: Points at which slavery could be legally attacked.]
+
+[Sidenote: Garrison's methods.]
+
+Nevertheless, here were legal points of attack for the Abolitionists.
+They might memorialize Congress for the abolition of slavery in the
+Territories and in the District, and for the initiation of an
+amendment which would abolish slavery in the Commonwealths or would
+give Congress the power to do so, and they might appeal to the
+legislatures of the Commonwealths to demand of Congress the calling of
+a constitutional convention of the United States to initiate such an
+amendment. But Garrison would have nothing to do with the
+Constitution, or with existing legal methods. He denounced the
+Constitution, "as a covenant with death and an agreement with hell,"
+and declared that he wanted "no union with slaveholders." His violent
+language, his repudiation of vested rights and constitutional
+agreements, and his fanatical disregard of other men's opinions and
+feelings, led the people both of the North and the South to believe
+that his methods were incendiary and his morals loose; that he and his
+co-workers were planning and plotting slave insurrection, and thereby
+the wholesale massacre of slaveholders; and that he and they were
+endeavoring to attain, through violence and anarchy, a leadership
+which they could not otherwise reach.
+
+[Sidenote: The Southampton massacre.]
+
+In August of 1831, a slave insurrection broke out in Southampton
+County, Va., under the leadership of a {249} negro named Nat Turner,
+and more than sixty white persons, most of them women and children,
+were massacred in cold blood. The Southerners said, no doubt believed,
+that the insurrection was incited by the Abolitionists in the North.
+Governor Floyd, of Virginia, declared, in his message to the
+legislature upon the subject, that there was ample proof of it in the
+documents accompanying the message. The great mass of the people at
+the North believed the same thing. The Abolitionist historians assert,
+on the contrary, that there was no connection between the work of the
+Abolitionists and this event. We shall probably never know whether
+there was or not. This much we can say, that the radical character of
+the Abolition doctrines and the violence of the language in which they
+were expressed--not so much before as after this event,
+indeed--produced the universal feeling, both in the North and in the
+South, that these doctrines and this event were in perfect harmony,
+and that the latter might very naturally be the outcome of the former.
+The moral sentiment of the North was not prepared for the destruction
+of slavery by any such means. It considered these methods as
+containing ten times more evil and barbarism than slavery itself. It
+is just to say that what appeared to be the methods of the
+Abolitionists were revolting to the moral feelings of all the decent
+people of the North, and to ninety-nine one-hundredths of all the
+people of the North, while the Southerners saw in them nothing but the
+destruction of all law and order, the plunder of their property, the
+burning of their firesides, and the massacre of their families. The
+pronounced and determined manner in which the people of the North went
+about the work of suppressing the agitation occasioned by the
+Abolitionists is ample evidence to any sane mind that the indignation
+of a {250} righteous conscience was fully aroused, and not the fury of
+a guilty conscience.
+
+[Sidenote: The attempt to suppress the Abolition movement at the
+North.]
+
+The details of the breaking up of the Abolition meetings and of the
+destruction of the Abolition printing-presses by the citizens of the
+Northern Commonwealths, as well as those of the Southampton massacre,
+may be passed over, in a work like this, with a single remark that
+only one person, the Rev. Mr. Lovejoy, was murdered in these
+collisions; that this happened under circumstances of some
+aggravation; and that, if the excitement at the South over the
+massacre of sixty-one innocent persons was out of proportion with the
+event, then not too much should be made out of the killing of a single
+person, who was not entirely guiltless on his part of giving
+provocation.
+
+The things of importance to the student of constitutional history in
+connection with these events are the increase of the Abolitionists in
+number, their organization into societies, the dissatisfaction of the
+Southerners with the unofficial, merely popular, way of dealing with
+the agitation at the North, and their demands upon the governments of
+the Northern Commonwealths to deal with the Abolitionists through the
+processes of their criminal law.
+
+So long as men only talk and write, it is the impulse of our
+Anglo-Saxon character to place no further restraint upon them than the
+law of slander and libel of private character imposes, no matter what
+may be, or may be thought to be, the ultimate consequences of acting
+according to what they may say or write. To deny this privilege to
+anybody appears like a deprivation of the liberty of speech and of the
+press, appears like persecution. There is no country in the world in
+which the making of martyrs is an easier procedure than in {251} the
+United States. Persecution is the soil in which new movements grow
+best, no matter what may be the character of the movement.
+
+[Sidenote: Growth of the Abolition movement.]
+
+In a single year from the date of the first number of Garrison's
+newspaper, _The Liberator_, that is, in January of 1832, the New
+England Anti-slavery Society was formed, and in December of 1833 the
+American Anti-slavery Society was organized, which soon established
+branches in many quarters. The exaggerated demands of the Southerners,
+that the Northern Commonwealths should forbid Abolition agitation by
+law, thus identifying the interests of slavery with the denial of the
+freedom of speaking and writing in the Northern Commonwealths, helped
+greatly to swell the ranks of the Abolitionists, and to mollify public
+opinion in the North against them.
+
+[Sidenote: The methods of the moderate Abolitionists.]
+
+The new Abolitionists were naturally of a more moderate type than
+Garrison, and most of them would listen only to regular legal methods
+for the accomplishment of their purposes. The quickening of the public
+opinion in the North, the conviction of the slaveholders themselves of
+the error, if not the sin, of slavery, and the appeal to the
+Government to do all within its constitutional powers against slavery,
+were the only means which many of them were willing to employ. Their
+petitions to Congress, and the transmission of their literature of
+Abolition to the Southerners through the United States mails, brought
+the whole question of their rights and purposes before the Government,
+and before the nation, for which that Government was bound to act with
+impartial justice to all its parts.
+
+[Sidenote: The Abolition petitions.]
+
+Petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia had
+been sent to Congress, generally from {252} Quaker sources, almost
+from the day that the capital of the country was established there,
+but they were not numerous and were not pushed by any anti-slavery
+organization. In the session of 1826-27, a petition from citizens of
+Baltimore, probably instigated by Benjamin Lundy, was presented, which
+contained the same prayer; and in the session of 1827-28, one of like
+tenor from citizens of the District itself was presented. Such
+petitions were usually read and referred to the committee on the
+District. They were irritating to the slaveholders from the first, but
+it was not until after the excitement of the Southampton massacre that
+they were angrily resented as an interference with the domestic
+institutions of the slaveholding Commonwealths.
+
+It was in the session of 1831-32, that the first mutterings of the
+petition storm were heard. On December 12th, 1831, Mr. John Quincy
+Adams presented, in the House of Representatives, fifteen petitions
+from sundry inhabitants of Pennsylvania, the chief prayer of all of
+which was for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.
+Mr. Adams said that he would give no countenance to that prayer, but
+that there was a prayer in the petitions for the abolition of the
+slave-trade in the District, which, he thought, might properly be
+considered, and he moved the reference of the petitions, for this
+purpose, to the regular committee of the House for the District.
+
+There was in this little to indicate the terrible earnestness which
+Mr. Adams later displayed in behalf of the Abolition petitions. He
+seemed at this time to be annoyed at being asked to present them, and
+to feel that there were superior moral reasons why a slavery agitation
+should not be excited within the halls of Congress. But all this was
+soon to change. Mr. Adams's advance {253} toward radical Abolitionism
+is as marked a feature of the struggle over the right of petition as
+Mr. Calhoun's declaration of the righteousness of slavery.
+
+[Sidenote: The earlier method of dealing with the petitions.]
+
+The committee on the District reported, on December 19th, that as the
+District was composed of cessions of territory from Maryland and
+Virginia, it would, in the opinion of the members of the committee, be
+unwise, if not unjust, for Congress to interfere in the question of
+the relation of slave to master in the District, until Virginia and
+Maryland should take steps to eradicate the evil from their respective
+territories. This report seemed to settle the question for the
+session, and no more petitions appeared in either House.
+
+In the middle of the next session, Mr. Hiester, of Pennsylvania,
+presented a petition to the House of Representatives from sundry
+citizens of Pennsylvania praying for the abolition of slavery in the
+District of Columbia. This was again a Quaker petition, as were the
+petitions presented by Mr. Adams. Mr. Hiester moved to refer the
+petition to the committee on the District, and Mr. Mason, of Virginia,
+rashly called for the yeas and nays, which opened the question to
+debate. Mr. Adams immediately pointed out this fact to Mr. Mason, and
+advised him to withdraw his motion, which advice Mr. Mason wisely
+adopted. The petition went to the Committee, and nothing further was
+heard of it.
+
+It was first in the session of 1833-34, that petitions for the
+abolition of slavery in the District from others than Quakers,
+presumably from the members of the new anti-slavery societies,
+appeared in both Houses of Congress. Those presented in the Senate
+were referred to the committee of the Senate for the District, and
+nothing more was heard of them. Those presented in the House of
+Representatives were dealt with in the same manner.
+
+{254} It was not until the session of 1834-35, that the first real
+note of the conflict was sounded. On January 26th, 1835, Mr. Dickson,
+of New York, presented several petitions praying for the abolition of
+the slave-trade and of slavery in the District. They were laid over
+until February 2nd, when Mr. Dickson called them up, made a rather
+irritating speech, in which he said that the committee on the District
+had smothered all such petitions referred to it, and moved the
+reference of those offered by him to a select committee.
+
+Mr. Chinn, of Virginia, the chairman of the regular committee on the
+District, resented Mr. Dickson's rude assault, and moved to lay the
+petitions and Mr. Dickson's motion on the table. The House voted Mr.
+Chinn's motion by a large majority.
+
+[Sidenote: Beginning of the conflict over the Abolition petitions.]
+
+At length, in the session of 1835-36, the storm broke in all its fury,
+in both the Senate and the House. It began in the House, December
+16th, 1835, upon the presentation of a petition, containing the usual
+prayer in regard to slavery in the District, by Mr. Fairfield, of
+Maine. Mr. Cramer, of New York, moved to lay the petition on the
+table, and the motion was voted. Mr. Fairfield immediately presented
+another petition of like purport, and himself moved that it be laid
+upon the table. Mr. Boon, of Indiana, asked that the petition be read,
+which was done. Thereupon Mr. Slade, of Vermont, moved that it be
+printed. This meant, of course, that Mr. Slade was determined to have
+the slavery question agitated in Congress, if he could. Upon him
+rather than upon Mr. Adams rests the honor, or the blame, whichever it
+may be, of provoking the excitement over the Abolition petitions, and
+of upholding the right of petition in the most extreme degree.
+
+The House first voted to lay the petition on the table. {255} The
+Speaker, Mr. James K. Polk, then put Mr. Slade's motion to print.
+Whereupon Mr. Slade attempted to debate the whole question of slavery
+in the District under the motion. The Speaker ruled that the contents
+of the petition could not be debated under the motion to print. Mr.
+Vanderpoel, of New York, then moved to lay Mr. Slade's motion on the
+table, and the House voted to do so by a large majority.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Hammond's motion involving the denial of the right of
+petition.]
+
+Two days later the play was on again. Mr. Jackson, of Massachusetts,
+presented a petition from sundry citizens of Massachusetts, containing
+the usual prayer, and moved its reference to a select committee.
+Whereupon Mr. Hammond, South Carolina, moved that the petition should
+not be received. This was the ultra-Southern position in regard to the
+anti-slavery petitions, and Mr. Hammond's enunciation of it in the
+House antedates Mr. Calhoun's in the Senate by more than a fortnight.
+
+The Constitution guarantees the right of the people to assemble
+peaceably and petition the Government for redress of grievances. The
+right to petition certainly includes the right to have the petitions
+heard by the body petitioned. If the body refuses to receive the
+petition, it prevents its being heard, and by preventing its being
+heard it makes the right itself a mockery. On the other hand, the
+Constitution vests in each House of Congress the power to make its own
+rules of procedure. This power must, of course, be so used as not to
+violate any other clause of the Constitution. Under this power,
+however, each House may and should protect itself against all
+obstacles thrown by outsiders in the way of the discharge of its
+duties in legislating for the country. If any number of people
+undertake, by an abuse of the right of petition, to obstruct the
+legitimate work of the Congress for the whole people, each House {256}
+certainly has the right to meet this attempt in any way which will not
+deny the right of petition, the right of any one or any number of the
+people to be heard in asking for a redress of grievances.
+
+[Sidenote: The new method for dealing with petitions in the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+Down to 1834, the custom of procedure in Congress had been to receive,
+hear, and refer all petitions. That was going one step farther than
+was required by the constitutional right of petition; still it was the
+regular course, and such men as Mr. Adams thought it unwise to depart
+from the custom in the case of the Abolition petitions. At any rate,
+Mr. Hammond's motion was a new proposition. The Speaker said that he
+was "not aware that such a motion had ever been sustained by the
+former practice of the House," and appeared to rule Mr. Hammond's
+motion out of order. A confused wrangle ensued over the attitude
+assumed by the Speaker, during which Mr. Hammond made a motion to
+reject the petition, and the Speaker, becoming confused by the two
+motions, the one not to receive, and the other to reject, and knowing
+that the House could of course reject the prayer of a petition,
+yielded to the representations of Mr. Hammond, and put Mr. Hammond's
+motion not to _receive_ the petition to the House. The House voted not
+to refuse to receive the petition, but the ruling of the Speaker in
+putting the motion implied that the House possessed the power to
+refuse to receive, that is, to refuse to hear, a petition. Another
+confused wrangle ensued over the question whether the House had voted
+merely not to refuse to receive the petition, or had voted to consider
+its contents at once. After a day of heated debate and three days of
+adjournment, during which excited feelings were somewhat calmed, the
+House reversed all former action, and voted to lay the petition and
+all the motions relating to it on the table.
+
+{257} [Sidenote: True view of the right of petition.]
+
+Another petition, which, during this wrangle had been inadvertently
+referred to the committee on the District, was now recalled by a
+motion to reconsider the vote of reference. It was upon this motion
+that Mr. Adams made his first great appeal for the right of petition.
+As we have seen, his view before this was that petitions must be
+received, heard, and referred. In this speech, however, he indicated
+that there should be a report from the committee, and a vote upon the
+report. Mr. Jones, of Virginia, met Mr. Adams' assertions quite
+successfully, and showed conclusively that, if the right of petition
+should be interpreted to reach any farther than the right to have the
+petition received and heard, it would so modify the constitutional
+right of the House to establish its own rules of procedure as to put
+it in the power of a few determined obstructionists outside the House,
+acting with a single member of the House, to prevent the House from
+doing anything but consider petitions upon a single subject,
+sacrificing thus the interests of the whole people to the obstinacy of
+a small number of the people.
+
+[Sidenote: The power of Congress over slavery in the District of
+Columbia.]
+
+Mr. Jones' argument was so sound and rational that it would probably
+have settled the minds of almost all of the members in regard to the
+complicated questions of the right of petition, and the powers of the
+House over its rules of procedure, had not Mr. Granger, of New York,
+and Mr. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, thrown another firebrand into the
+House during this debate, in the form of an intimation that Congress
+had the constitutional power to abolish slavery in the District of
+Columbia. The Southerners now advanced to the position of denying that
+power to Congress, and Mr. Wise, of Virginia, in a long and violent
+speech, demanded that Congress {258} should pass a resolution
+disclaiming the possession of any such power. Mr. Slade immediately
+accepted the challenge of Mr. Wise, and delivered an anti-slavery
+speech in reply, such as had never before been heard upon the floors
+of Congress. He not only vindicated the power of Congress over the
+question of slavery in the District, but he discussed the whole
+question of slavery upon its merits. His words were simply a
+declaration of relentless war upon slavery in the halls of Congress.
+They created indescribable consternation in all parts of the House,
+and roused the resentment and anger of the slaveholders to a veritable
+fury. In the midst of the confusion, Mr. Garland, of Virginia, gained
+the Speaker's recognition, and made a good argument against some of
+Mr. Slade's more radical statements. So soon as he had finished, Mr.
+Mann, of New York, moved to stop the debate with the previous
+question. This was voted, and the Speaker then put the motion for the
+reconsideration of the reference of the petition, under which motion
+this debate had proceeded. This was voted, and immediately the motion
+was made to lay the recalled petition, with the reconsidered motion to
+refer it, on the table. This was voted by a majority of more than two
+to one.
+
+Evidently the House thought that, in receiving and hearing the
+petitions and then laying them on the table, it had found the solution
+of the question, which neither violated the right of petition in the
+people, nor encroached upon the power of the House over its rules of
+procedure, nor opened the way for anti-slavery agitation in Congress.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Polk's fatal error in regard to the right of petition.]
+
+It would have been wise for the slaveholders to have left this
+solution of the question undisturbed, but they did not see it so. On
+January 4th, 1836, Mr. Adams presented a petition from sundry citizens
+of {259} Massachusetts containing the usual prayer, and said that "in
+conformity with the course heretofore adopted, he should move that the
+petition, without reading, be laid on the table." Mr. Patton
+interrupted Mr. Adams with an inquiry addressed to the Speaker as to
+whether the petition had been received by the House, and the Speaker
+replied that it had not. He said that, upon looking up the
+authorities, he "had formed the opinion that the first question to be
+decided, upon the motion of a member, was whether the petition be
+received or not." The Speaker, Mr. Polk, had now come out of his
+uncertainty about the right of petition including the reception of the
+petition by the House, as a constitutional obligation, and now
+definitely denied that the right of petition included the right to
+have the petition received by the House. This was a fatal move, a
+fatal mistake upon his part. The object professedly sought by all
+parties, except such Abolitionists as Mr. Slade, was the prevention of
+agitation upon the slavery question in the halls of Congress. Whether
+all were sincere in this profession is questionable. It had been
+insinuated that there were agitators upon this question from both
+sections of the country, who were disingenuously claiming to be
+classed with the maintainers of peace. It does really seem that the
+innuendo was justified as to certain of the Southerners by the
+position now assumed by Mr. Patton and Mr. Polk, and then by Mr.
+Glascock, who, immediately after the ruling of the Speaker, moved that
+this petition be not received. While Mr. Adams, who sincerely believed
+that reference as well as reception was a necessary consequence of the
+right of petition, had accommodated himself to the decision which the
+House had made a fortnight before, these Southern gentlemen were now
+proposing to drive the House from {260} the solid middle ground, then
+occupied, toward a position which the majority considered to be an
+encroachment upon the constitutional right of petition, a movement
+upon their part which was certain, and known by all to be certain, to
+provoke an excited debate upon the question of slavery. It may be that
+they thought the refusal to receive one of these anti-slavery
+petitions would prevent any more from being presented, and that it was
+better to have it out once for all than to be continually receiving,
+and listening to the reading of, these petitions. If so, they were
+wofully mistaken.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Adams' futile attempt to prevent slavery agitation in
+Congress.]
+
+Mr. Adams now made one more effort to preserve the Southerners against
+the consequences of their own folly. He undertook to arrest the debate
+by calling for the application of the forty-fifth rule of the House,
+which required that no petition should be debated or decided on the
+day of its presentation. But the Speaker now decided that this rule
+could not apply to a petition until it had been received. The gates of
+Janus were flung wide open, and the House went into an agitation upon
+the subject, to which all that had gone before was only a prelude. The
+struggle lasted for more than four months, during which period
+petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District, signed by over
+thirty thousand persons, were poured into the House. The slavery
+question was at last brought before the people of the United States in
+a way most highly satisfactory to the most radical Abolitionist, and
+no matter what the immediate compromise upon the subject might be, it
+was evident to all farseeing minds then that a death-blow had been
+struck at slavery.
+
+[Sidenote: The Pinckney resolutions.]
+
+There is not space in this work to recount the scenes enacted on the
+floor of the House during these four exciting months, or even to give
+a resume of the debate. {261} The conflict was ended for the moment by
+the adoption, on May 25th (1836), of a series of resolutions reported
+by a committee appointed for the purpose, of which Mr. Pinckney, of
+South Carolina, was the chairman. These resolutions provided: "That
+Congress possesses no constitutional authority to interfere in any way
+with the institution of slavery in any of the States of this
+Confederacy; that Congress ought not to interfere with slavery in the
+District of Columbia; and whereas it is extremely important and
+desirable that the agitation of this subject should be finally
+arrested, for the purpose of restoring tranquillity to the public
+mind, ... that all petitions, memorials, propositions, or papers,
+relating in any way, or to any extent whatsoever, to the subject of
+slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being printed or
+referred, be laid upon the table, and that no further action whatever
+shall be had thereon."
+
+[Sidenote: The new rule of the House of Representatives in regard to
+the Abolition petitions.]
+
+The solution thus reached by the House of the question of the power of
+the House to control its procedure, over against the right of a number
+of individuals to excite interminable discussions and paralyze the
+business of the House by flooding it with petitions upon one and the
+same subject, was the laying of all such petitions on the table _as a
+rule of the House_.
+
+Of course this rule must be readopted at the beginning of each
+session, and a debate upon the readoption might be thus precipitated,
+but, so long as a majority supported the rule, the previous question
+could be voted after giving a reasonable opportunity to discuss the
+question of readoption, and such discussion was then not likely to be
+renewed during the session. It was possible also for petitions to be
+{262} presented, at the beginning of the session, before the
+readoption of the rule, and these could be disposed of only by a
+special vote in each case to lay upon the table. There were thus still
+opportunities for the Abolitionists to cause the House to resolve
+itself into something more like a bear-garden than an assembly of
+Witan, as was evident from the scenes which were enacted on February
+6th, 1837, when Mr. Adams came into the House with a petition in
+regard to slavery signed by some twenty slaves, and asked the Speaker
+if it came under the rule for laying such petitions on the table.
+Everybody supposed that the petition contained the usual prayer for
+the abolition of slavery, and that the Abolitionists had incited the
+slaves to the act. Mr. Adams allowed the excitement produced by this
+supposition to rage for a time, and then coolly and derisively
+informed the House that the prayer of the petition was not for
+abolition but against it. The members now felt that Mr. Adams was
+playing with the peace, order, and dignity of the House in a
+scandalous way, and for several days the question of censuring him was
+considered, but the matter was finally disposed of by a resolution
+declaring: "That slaves do not possess the right of petition secured
+to the people of the United States by the Constitution."
+
+At the beginning of the next session, that of 1837-38, Mr. Slade
+seized the opportunity to present an abolition petition before the
+re-enactment of the Pinckney rule, and to provoke a debate on the
+subject of slavery. He was substantially foiled, however, by a vote to
+adjourn, and, upon reassembly, by a suspension of the rules and a
+re-enactment of the resolution to lay everything in reference to
+slavery on the table. This rule covered all matters relating to
+slavery in the Territories as well as in the Commonwealths and the
+District.
+
+{263} [Sidenote: The increase of petitions, and the denunciation of
+the Pinckney rule.]
+
+The more the House did to discourage the petitions the more they
+increased. In two years from the adoption of the Pinckney resolutions
+the number of petitioners was tenfold greater than it was before their
+enactment. At the same time the legislatures of the New England
+Commonwealths were passing resolutions declaring the rule of the House
+of Representatives in regard to the abolition petitions to be a
+violation of the people's constitutional right, and also declaring
+that Congress possessed the power to abolish slavery in the District
+of Columbia.
+
+[Sidenote: The final denial of the right of petition on the subject of
+Slavery by the House of Representatives.]
+
+To meet these demonstrations of increasing strength and increasing
+determination on the part of the Abolitionists, the House not only
+repeated its rule, but made it more stringent, until, at last,
+irritated beyond measure at the persistence of the petitioners, it
+took the fatal step, and, on January 8th, 1840, enacted as a standing
+rule of the House: "That no petition, memorial, resolution, or other
+paper, praying the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia,
+or any State or Territory, or the slave-trade between the States or
+Territories of the United States in which it now exists, _shall be
+received by this House, or entertained in any way whatever_."
+
+At last the House had encroached upon the most essential part of the
+right of petition, the right to have the petition heard. The moderate
+men of the South and twenty-eight members from the North had given way
+before the radical men of the South, and had fallen into the ranks
+under their lead. The Southern radicals thought that they had won a
+great victory, but it was not so. They had only identified the denial
+of the right of petition with the interests of slavery. They {264} had
+only demonstrated that slavery was a matter of national concern, since
+its interests required that limitations should be placed upon the well
+understood rights of the people in the non-slaveholding Commonwealths.
+They only made it manifest that, sooner or later, the nation must deal
+with the question. Their most violent enemies could not have wished
+them a more disastrous result.
+
+[Sidenote: The Abolition petitions in the Senate.]
+
+The proceedings in the Senate in regard to the Abolition petitions
+must be even more concisely stated. The course pursued and the result
+reached were similar to what has been described in the account of the
+experiences of the House. The Senate first received and heard the
+petitions, and voted immediately to deny their prayer. Then, when it
+became evident that this would not prevent anti-slavery agitation on
+the floor of the Senate, the body adopted the custom of hearing a
+motion not to receive a petition, and voting immediately to lay the
+motion not to receive, and along with it the petition itself, on the
+table. This practice was modified a little later, by a ruling of the
+presiding officer, to the effect that an objection to the petition by
+any member would raise the question of the reception of the petition
+without a formal motion. Mr. Calhoun had contended for this method of
+raising the question in regard to the reception of the petitions from
+the beginning of the struggle over the subject, in January of 1836. He
+seemed, however, to desire to dispose of them by simply voting not to
+receive them. In fact, he made a motion to this effect, at the very
+outset of the contest, but without success. While thus the Senate did
+not formally adopt the practice finally reached in the House of
+refusing to receive the petitions, it arrived at about the same result
+in practice. It is true that the presiding officer of the Senate
+allowed the petitions to be {265} read before putting the motion upon
+their reception, which seems to have been an illogical practice
+indeed, and that any member might move to call up the motion not to
+receive, and with it the petition or petitions to which that motion
+referred; but the reading before the motion not to receive, or before
+the objection to receiving, was perfunctory, and there was no member
+of the Senate who desired to call up the tabled petitions or persisted
+in so doing. As a matter of fact, the public opinion which the
+Abolitionists succeeded in creating in the North concerning the
+attitude of the Senate toward the Abolition petitions was that the
+Senate had done the same violence to the people's constitutional right
+of petition that the House had done. It was held and believed
+throughout the North, in 1840, that the Congress of the United States,
+in both of its branches, had set the interests of slavery above the
+liberties of the people of the North.
+
+There were two incidents which happened during the course of the
+proceedings in the Senate upon the subject to which brief reference
+should be made. One was the noted passage of words between Mr. Calhoun
+and Mr. Rives, of Virginia, in regard to the morality of slavery, and
+the other was the petition from the legislature of Vermont for the
+abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Rives and Mr. Calhoun in regard to the morality of
+slavery.]
+
+The Abolitionists had assumed to have the ethical principle entirely
+upon their side, and this had not, down to 1836, been clearly disputed
+by the slaveholders. The slaveholders had, themselves, as we have so
+often seen, acknowledged slavery to be an evil, and had, therefore,
+defended it chiefly from the point of view of positive law. Of course
+so profound a thinker as Mr. Calhoun knew that positive law cannot
+permanently withstand the {266} assaults of ethical principle. He knew
+that the moral arguments against slavery must be met upon moral
+grounds, as well as upon legal grounds. The discussion was carried
+over upon ethical premises by the remark of Mr. Rives that he, though
+a slaveholder, was not in favor of slavery in the abstract, and
+differed on that point with the gentleman from South Carolina. Mr.
+Calhoun immediately denied that he had expressed any opinion in regard
+to the question of slavery in the abstract, and said he had spoken of
+slavery only "as existing where two races of men, of different color,
+and striking dissimilarity in conformation, habits, and a thousand
+other particulars, were placed in immediate juxtaposition." Mr.
+Calhoun elaborated his argument in many directions, but the gist of it
+was that where a civilized race and a barbarous race, nearly equal
+numerically, must live together, the civilized race must, in the
+interests of the civilization of both races, control the barbarous
+race, through the relation of the slavery of the latter to the former,
+and that the only alternative to this would be the barbarizing of the
+whole society by the uncontrolled deeds and passions of the barbarous
+race, if the two races are left to themselves, or the establishment of
+a barbaric despotism over the civilized race, if the barbaric race be
+aided by successful interference from without. In contrast with either
+of these conditions, Mr. Calhoun contended that the slavery of the
+barbarous race to the civilized race was a moral good.
+
+From a metaphysical point of view the only question between Mr. Rives
+and Mr. Calhoun was whether every departure from the perfect good must
+be considered an evil, or whether a nearer approximation to the
+perfect good may be called a good in contrast with a lower
+approximation. Mr. Rives was looking at the subject {267} from an
+abstract, transcendental point of view, while Mr. Calhoun was
+regarding it from the historical point of view. Mr. Rives was with the
+Abolitionists upon the abstract principle, but against them as to the
+time and means of applying it. Mr. Calhoun was not against the
+Abolitionists upon the abstract principle, but the time of its
+possible application appeared to him so far distant, and the
+impropriety and unfairness of interference by outsiders in the matter
+and the disastrous consequences which must flow from such interference
+seemed to him so plain and so certain, that he almost lost sight of
+the abstract height upon which the Abolitionists stood behind the many
+intervening elevations, which must be first attained and traversed in
+order to reach their position.
+
+[Sidenote: The moral ground upon which Calhoun and the Abolitionists
+could have met.]
+
+There was a possible moral ground upon which Mr. Calhoun and the
+Abolitionists might have met. Could the Abolitionists have conceived
+that the existence of certain conditions would justify domestic
+slavery as a relation which could _temporarily_ produce a better state
+of morals in a particularly constituted society than any other
+relation, that is, could they have taken the historical view of
+ethics, the evolutionary view of morals, and could Mr. Calhoun have
+seen that the time had come for a modification of the existing form of
+negro slavery in the South, for a step toward a greater degree of
+personal liberty for the slave, an approach between him and them might
+have been, at least, begun; but their implacable dogmatism, and his
+stern resentment at their persistent interference in what he thought
+no concern of theirs, widened the gulf between him and them from day
+to day. They regarded him as a sinner and a criminal because he held
+persons to service and labor who had not freely agreed to the same,
+and he {268} considered them to be greater sinners and criminals
+because they would overturn the existing order of society in
+communities where they had no personal interests to be affected, and
+would introduce into these communities the reign of plunder, rapine,
+and murder.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun's resolutions in regard to the political
+relations of slavery.]
+
+When Mr. Calhoun saw that he could not bring the Senate to refuse
+formally to receive the Abolition petitions, he undertook to bring the
+Senate over to his views of the "States' sovereignty" character of the
+Union, of the obligation of the general Government to protect slavery
+in the slaveholding Commonwealths, of the ethical obligation of the
+people of the non-slaveholding Commonwealths not to attack the
+institution of slavery, and of the practical impotence of Congress to
+deal with slavery in the District of Columbia and in the Territories.
+He did not, however, succeed. The Senate did not repudiate his
+"States' sovereignty" view of the Union, but, while it was willing to
+say that neither the Northern Commonwealths nor the Northern people
+had any legal right to attack slavery under moral or religious
+pretexts, it would not say that they were under moral or religious
+obligations to abstain from the attack. Neither would the Senate say
+that the general Government must so exercise its powers as to give
+increased security to slavery, nor that the general Government had no
+power over the subject of slavery in the District and the Territories.
+It modified these demands of Mr. Calhoun so as to make them read, that
+the general Government should not so exercise its powers as to
+interfere with the security of the domestic institutions of the
+Commonwealths, and that the general Government ought not in good faith
+to undertake to abolish slavery in the District or in the Territories,
+except under certain conditions.
+
+{269} [Sidenote: The anti-slavery petition from the Vermont
+legislature.]
+
+The immediate occasion of the presentation of these resolutions of
+December 27th, 1837, by Mr. Calhoun, was probably the other incident
+to which reference has been made, the introduction, by Senator Swift,
+of Vermont, of a petition from the legislature of Vermont praying for
+the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. This shaft had
+struck Mr. Calhoun in his most vulnerable part. Here was, according to
+his own doctrine, a "sovereign State" instructing its governmental
+agent for general affairs. Could that agent refuse to receive the
+instructions of one of his principals? There certainly was no
+precedent for any such procedure as that in any system of
+jurisprudence known to the world. Mr. Calhoun recognized fully the
+embarrassment of his position. He begged that the communication from
+the Vermont legislature might lay upon the table until he could
+prepare his mind for action upon the subject, and pledged himself to
+call it up very shortly, if no one else should do so. Mr. Swift helped
+the Senate, and Mr. Calhoun especially, out of the dilemma by
+withdrawing the petition for the time being. This incident occurred on
+December 19th.
+
+Mr. Swift assumed that Mr. Calhoun's resolutions of the 27th contained
+the results of his preparation of mind to meet the Vermont memorial,
+and after the consideration of them by the Senate, Mr. Swift
+reintroduced the memorial on January 16th (1838). The Southerners had
+been thrown into such confusion by the _coup de surprise_ sprung upon
+them by the Vermonters that they had not been able to agree upon any
+plan for meeting the exigency. Some of them denounced the action of
+the Vermont legislature as incendiary, outrageous, and degrading. Mr.
+King gave his "States' sovereignty" creed entirely away in saying: "We
+{270} defend the legitimate rights of the States, but we do not defend
+a sovereign State when she asserts calumny and falsehood."
+
+Mr. Calhoun was measured in his language, but evidently greatly
+disturbed in mind. He said that as a "States' rights" man, in the
+strongest sense, he believed that the "State" of Vermont had a right
+to come there and be heard; that, on the best reflection he could give
+to the matter, he could not vote against receiving the petition; but
+that, on the other hand, he considered the language of the memorial so
+objectionable that he could not vote to receive it.
+
+It does seem as if this incident should have taught Mr. Calhoun the
+fallacy of his logic in insisting upon the power of the Senate to
+refuse to receive a petition. Here was a case in which his doctrine of
+parliamentary procedure had absolutely broken down, according to his
+own acknowledgment. Mr. Strange, of North Carolina, committed the
+folly of objecting to the reception of the petition, and moving that
+the question of reception, and with it the petition, be laid on the
+table. The motion was defeated by a vote of twenty-six to twelve. The
+memorial was received and the debate upon it was in order. The
+Southerners were helpless, and had not Mr. Swift himself come to their
+rescue, no man can say what would have happened. Mr. Swift moved that
+the papers from the Vermont legislature be laid upon the table,
+without being printed. They had accomplished their immediate purpose,
+and it was wise as well as patriotic to let them rest in dignity and
+honor.
+
+[Sidenote: The Abolition documents and the United States mails.]
+
+The Abolitionists were more successful in their attempt to use the
+United States mails for the distribution of their literature
+throughout the South. During the course of the year 1835, it became
+known that {271} their opinions and doctrines were being disseminated
+by this means. The Southerners considered these opinions to be
+incendiary and dangerous to the peace and safety of their communities
+and their firesides. They thought that they had the legal right to
+prevent the delivery of such mail matter in their respective
+communities. They did not wait, however, to deal with the subject
+through legal forms. On the night of July 29th, 1835, a mob of
+respectables broke into the post-office at Charleston, S. C., in
+search of Abolition documents. They found a sack full of them, took it
+away with them, and publicly burned its contents. On August 4th
+following, a meeting of the citizens took place, at which a committee
+of public safety was elected, which should, in understanding with the
+postmaster, determine what mail matter should not be delivered by him
+to the addressees. The postmaster apparently acquiesced in this
+arrangement, but he wrote, upon his own responsibility, a letter to
+the postmaster of New York City, whence the Abolition pamphlets had
+come, requesting him not to forward any more such documents. The
+postmaster at New York endeavored to induce the Abolitionists not to
+put any more of their literature into the mails until he could receive
+instructions from the Postmaster-General at Washington in regard to
+the question; and when the Abolitionists repelled his request, he
+refused to forward their documents, pending his conference with the
+Postmaster-General.
+
+[Sidenote: The Postmaster-General's ruling in regard to the Abolition
+documents in the mails.]
+
+The Postmaster-General, Mr. Amos Kendall, one of the shrewdest of
+politicians, though no great constitutional lawyer, answered the
+appeal from the postmaster at New York immediately. He instructed his
+subordinate that the executive power of the Government had no legal
+authority to exclude mail matter, as defined by {272} Congress, from
+the mails on account of the character of its contents, real or
+supposed. If Mr. Kendall had stopped with this he would have been
+entirely correct; but he went on to say that he would not direct the
+postmaster at New York to forward the Abolition documents or the
+postmaster at Charleston to deliver them, commended their assumption
+of the responsibility of withholding them from the addressees, and
+declared that the United States officials owed an obligation to the
+laws of the United States, but a higher one to the communities in
+which they lived. Mr. Kendall probably meant this part of his
+communication as the advice of one private citizen to another. Looked
+at in the most charitable light possible, however, it was
+unjustifiable and pernicious. It was nothing less than an
+encouragement to his subordinates to suspend the execution of the laws
+which they were appointed to execute and sworn to execute, when in
+their several opinions the welfare of the communities in which they
+might live should require it. This was nullification, not by a "State"
+convention, but by an individual United States officer. How the
+President, who had always so sternly denounced any attempt to prevent
+the execution of the laws, could approve this is difficult to
+understand. His indignation at the Abolitionists in persisting in what
+he considered an abuse of the freedom of the mails probably blinded
+him to the real significance of the matter.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson on the use of the mails by the Abolitionists.]
+
+In his message of the following December, the President denounced the
+methods of the Abolitionists in sending their incendiary literature
+into the South as calculated and intended to excite a servile war with
+all its horrors, and recommended Congress to pass a law prohibiting,
+"under severe penalties, the circulation in the Southern States, {273}
+through the mail, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the
+slaves to insurrection."
+
+Mr. Calhoun himself moved the reference of this part of the
+President's message to a select committee in the Senate. Mr. Calhoun
+was appointed the chairman of the committee, and on February 4th,
+1836, he brought in a report and a bill.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun's report and bill on the subject.]
+
+In the report Mr. Calhoun took the ground that the freedom of the
+mails was a necessary part of the freedom of the press, and argued
+that, as Congress was prohibited by the first amendment to the
+Constitution from passing any law abridging the freedom of the press,
+so Congress possessed no power to pass any law excluding mail matter
+from the mails on account of the character of its contents or
+authorizing such matter to be withheld from the addressees. Mr.
+Calhoun's conclusion was that only the "States" could make such laws
+as would effect these things. He proposed in his bill, therefore, that
+no deputy postmaster in any "State," Territory, or district of the
+Union should knowingly receive and put into the mail any printed or
+written paper or pictorial representation touching the subject of
+slavery, addressed to a person or a post-office within any "State,"
+Territory, or district in which the circulation of such papers and
+representations was forbidden by the local laws; that the officers and
+agents of the Post-Office Department should co-operate with the local
+officials in preventing the circulation of such papers and
+representations where their circulation was prohibited by the local
+laws; that the matter so detained from transmission by a post-office
+official should be burned, after one month's notice, if the person
+depositing the same should not claim it within that period; and that
+the post-office officials who should violate these duties should not
+be {274} protected by the laws of the United States against the
+jurisdiction of the local law and government.
+
+[Sidenote: Clay's criticism of Calhoun's proposition.]
+
+Mr. Clay immediately pointed out the fatal weaknesses of this
+proposition. He argued that it attributed to Congress either the power
+to adopt the laws of the "States" upon subjects in regard to which
+Congress itself had not the power to legislate, or the power to pass
+laws in execution of laws which it had no power to make. The argument
+was unanswerable, and the conclusion was unavoidable that if Congress
+could not itself pass a law excluding the Abolition papers and
+documents from the mail, or forbidding their delivery to the
+addressees, it could not enact Mr. Calhoun's proposition. After four
+months of deliberation the Senate rejected the proposed bill by a vote
+of twenty-five to nineteen. Mr. Calhoun thus lost the aid of the
+general Government in his contest with the Abolitionists over the use
+of the mails chiefly through his exaggerated "States' rights"
+doctrine.
+
+[Sidenote: The act of Congress protecting the Abolition documents in
+the mails.]
+
+Encouraged by this victory, the friends of free mails succeeded in
+having a provision incorporated into the Act of July 2nd, 1836, for
+changing the organization of the Post-Office Department, which ordains
+that any postmaster intentionally detaining any mail matter from the
+addressees shall be fined and imprisoned, and incapacitated to hold
+thereafter the office of a postmaster in the United States.
+
+[Sidenote: General results of the struggle over the right of petition
+and the freedom of the mails.]
+
+It would not be extravagant to say that the whole course of the
+internal history of the United States from 1836 to 1861 was more
+largely determined by the struggle in Congress over the Abolition
+petitions and the use of the mails for the distribution of the
+Abolition literature than by anything else.
+
+{275} In the first place, it did more than anything else to make a
+political party out of the Abolitionists, through the conviction which
+it produced throughout the North that the demands of the slavery
+system in the South would ultimately destroy civil and political
+liberty in the North, and it increased the strength of the
+Abolitionists an hundredfold in less than four years. The development
+and ultimate triumph of this party in the North became inevitable from
+the moment that it was clearly recognized that the preservation of
+slavery at the South required and demanded the denial of the freedom
+of speech and of the press, and of the right of petition, to the
+people of the North.
+
+In the second place, it taught the South that there was a growing
+party in the North which was determined to attack slavery at every
+possible legal point, and prosecute its warfare at every hazard, and
+that the only safety for the South, with its slavery system, in the
+Union, was to hold at least equal power in the Congress with the
+representation from the North. In self-defence the South must secure,
+therefore, the formation of new slaveholding Commonwealths. At the
+moment the representation in the Senate was evenly balanced, but in
+the House it stood against the South, one hundred and forty-one to
+ninety-nine. One more non-slaveholding Commonwealth, without an offset
+on the other side, would destroy the balance in the Senate and enable
+the North to undertake legislation hostile to slavery. The extension
+of slavery to new Commonwealths was thus manifestly a necessity to its
+permanent security, and even continuance, in the Commonwealths where
+it already existed. The policy of the slaveholders must be to allow no
+new non-slaveholding Commonwealth to be formed without another
+slaveholding Commonwealth to match it, and to secure the {276}
+extension of the territory of the United States toward the South.
+
+In the third place, it aroused the apprehension of slave insurrection,
+by Abolition incitement, throughout the South, and caused thereby two
+marked movements in the South, the one legal and the other social. The
+first was the legislation sharpening and increasing the police power
+of the public authorities over the slaves, for the purpose of
+preventing the access of the Abolition doctrines to their minds, and
+of preventing communication and intercourse between strangers and
+slaves, and between the slaves themselves. The control of the slave by
+the master was thus more and more interfered with by the public
+authorities, for the purpose indeed of aiding the master, which,
+however, did not alter the fact that from being primarily for the most
+part a household affair, slavery was becoming more and more an affair
+of the community. This meant no improvement to the condition of the
+slave; quite the contrary. The intervention of the whites in the South
+who owned no slaves in the control of the slaves marks an increase of
+rigor in the treatment of the slaves. In fact much of the cruelty
+inflicted upon the slaves during the twenty years between 1840 and
+1860 was executed by non-slaveholders, by virtue of the increased
+control assumed by the public authorities over the relation between
+master and slave, through the local legislation of that period. The
+other movement was toward the development of a military caste in the
+society. The slaveholders, and especially the sons of the
+slaveholders, now began to understand that they must unite in military
+organization and make themselves the exclusive military class. The
+spirit of chivalry and the practices of knighthood were largely
+developed during this period, with both their good and their bad
+consequences. On the one side they produced {277} a high-toned society
+of proud, noble women, and courtly, haughty men, among the
+slaveholders. On the other, they degraded all other classes, both
+white and black. In fact they degraded the poor whites more than they
+did the blacks. The blacks felt, and were proud of, the increased
+importance of their masters. And, naturally, this spirit and life
+among the slaveholding class made the generation which grew up under
+them eager for adventure and war, intensely tenacious of rights,
+sensitive to every only apparent discourtesy, and resentful of every
+semblance of interference from without. The War with Mexico, the
+filibustering expeditions, and the Civil War itself, were all national
+consequences of the social development in the South after 1836.
+
+
+
+
+{278}
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE BANK, THE SUB-TREASURY, AND PARTY DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN 1832 AND
+1842
+
+Jackson and the Bank after the Election of 1832--The Power of the
+Secretary of the Treasury over the Government Deposits--Removal of
+McLane and Duane--Taney's Report to Congress of December 3rd,
+1835--Abuses of Power by Jackson and Taney--The Senate's Censure of
+the President and Secretary of the Treasury--National Republicans Take
+the Name of Whigs--The Cardinal Doctrine of the Whigs--The Change of
+the Deposits, and the Specie Order of 1836--Van Buren's Election and
+the Panic of "'37"--The Sub-Treasury Idea--The Establishment of the
+Sub-Treasury System--The Election of 1840--Whig Legislative Projects
+in Regard to the Bank and the Tariff--The Party Treason of Tyler and
+the Whig War upon the President's Veto Power--The Whigs Unable to
+Encounter the Questions of Territorial Extension and Slavery
+Extension.
+
+
+When the violent agitation of the slavery question, in the middle of
+the fourth decade, came so suddenly upon the nation, it found the
+great political parties divided upon issues which partook more of the
+character of economic policies than that of rights, or of governmental
+forms and powers. It is true that the protective tariff, the Bank, and
+internal improvements had been denounced by some persons as
+unconstitutional, but neither party held this view of these subjects
+at the beginning of the fourth decade of the century. They were
+regarded by the two great parties from the point {279} of view of
+economic policy, and were supported or opposed by them on the ground
+of conduciveness or lack of conduciveness to the public welfare. More
+exactly, the Bank was the chief political issue between 1832 and 1840.
+It was in the conflict between Congress and the President in regard to
+the Bank that the national Republicans took the title of Whigs,
+anti-prerogative men.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson and the Bank after the election of 1832.]
+
+After the election of 1832 upon the Bank issue, President Jackson,
+naturally for him, regarded himself as the only representative of the
+present will of the people in the Government. The Congress, at the
+time of the election, was, as we know, favorable to the Bank. The
+newly elected members of the House of Representatives would not
+assemble for a year probably, and the Senate would probably sustain
+the Bank after that. The President, therefore, resolved to do by edict
+what Congress would not do by statute--destroy the Bank.
+
+[Sidenote: The power of the Secretary of the Treasury over the
+Government deposits.]
+
+The sixteenth section of the Bank Act provided that the funds of the
+United States should be deposited in the Bank or its branches, unless
+the Secretary of the Treasury should at any time otherwise order and
+direct. The Secretary of the Treasury was thus impliedly authorized by
+Congress to cease depositing these funds in the Bank or its branches
+at his own discretion, and was made directly responsible to Congress
+in the exercise of this authority, by the provision that he must
+report, so soon as possible, to Congress his reasons for making use of
+the power. The President thus had no direct authority in the matter.
+He could exercise only an indirect control through his power over the
+tenure of the Secretary. At this period in the history of the tenure
+of office in the United States, the power of removal was regarded as a
+prerogative of the President alone.
+
+{280} [Sidenote: Removal of McLane and Duane.]
+
+President Jackson was within the letter of his prerogative when, in
+the spring of 1833, he removed Mr. McLane, and later, Mr. Duane, from
+the secretaryship of the Treasury. That he did this because of their
+refusal to be controlled by him in regard to the deposit of the funds
+of the United States in the Bank and its branches was, legally, no
+concern of anybody else.
+
+[Sidenote: Taney's report to Congress of December 3rd, 1835.]
+
+The new Secretary, Mr. Taney, appointed to succeed Mr. Duane, was also
+acting within the letter of his authority when he ceased to make
+deposit of the Government funds in the Bank and its branches, and
+reported his action to Congress at the commencement of the session
+following the recess of Congress during which he made this change.
+
+[Sidenote: Abuses of power by Jackson and Taney.]
+
+On the other hand, it was very questionable whether the President was
+not abusing his power of dismissal from office, in spirit, by
+requiring the obedience of the Secretary of the Treasury to himself in
+regard to a subject concerning which Congress had vested discretionary
+power in the Secretary, and in the use of which power Congress had
+made the Secretary directly and exclusively responsible to itself. And
+it was likewise very questionable whether the Secretary was not
+abusing his authority, in spirit, in ceasing, during a recess of
+Congress, to deposit the funds of the United States in the Bank and
+its branches, when, less than a year before this, Congress had made a
+full investigation of the condition of the Bank and had disapproved,
+by large majorities in both Houses, of the President's recommendation
+that the deposits be made elsewhere than in the Bank and its branches.
+
+Secretary Taney, afterward Chief Justice, to whose legal opinions,
+therefore, great respect must be paid, {281} contended that Congress
+itself could not have caused the removal of the deposits without
+violating the contract with the Bank, as expressed in the Bank's
+charter, and that the Secretary of the Treasury alone was exempted
+from this obligation by the provisions of the contract. The Secretary
+alone, he said, could, therefore, act for the welfare of the people in
+the matter, and by the oath which he had sworn upon the Constitution
+he must so act. He declared it to be his conviction that the public
+welfare would suffer by his continuing to deposit the funds of the
+Government in the Bank and its branches, and that he felt, therefore,
+in duty bound to make the order discontinuing the same.
+
+[Sidenote: The Senate's censure of the President and Secretary of the
+Treasury.]
+
+The Senate, however, took a different view of the subject. It
+considered the act of the Secretary to have been done under the order
+of the President, and in condemnatory resolutions held the President
+responsible therefor. These resolutions of censure connected the
+Secretary with the President, however, by declaring the reasons
+offered by the Secretary for the change in regard to the deposits to
+be "unsatisfactory and insufficient." The President made a vigorous
+protest against the Senate's resolution charging him with usurpation,
+and flung the accusation back at the body. He certainly showed that
+the Senate had no constitutional power to make any such charge against
+the President; and Senator Benton immediately gave notice that he
+should move the expunging of the resolutions from the journal at every
+session of Congress until it should be accomplished.
+
+[Sidenote: National Republicans take the name of Whigs.]
+
+It was in the midst of this conflict, and in consequence of it, a
+conflict in principle between the legislative and executive
+departments of the Government, in regard to the extent of their
+respective powers, that Mr. James Watson {282} Webb, the editor of the
+_New York Courier and Enquirer_, began, about February, 1834, to
+denominate, in his newspaper articles, the opposition party to the
+President, led by Mr. Clay, Whigs. This title signified opposition to
+high executive prerogative, and approval of strong Congressional
+control over the President. The name was gradually substituted for
+that of National Republicans, as the different members and factions of
+the party came together upon the principle involved in the name.
+
+[Sidenote: The cardinal doctrine of the Whigs.]
+
+It seemed, for the moment, as if the parties had returned to the
+condition of bands of retainers under the lead of Clay and Jackson
+respectively, but this was more apparent than real. There was a real
+and comprehensive question at issue, one of the most fundamental
+questions of political science, the question of parliamentary
+government or presidential government in the United States. The
+triumph of President Jackson in this conflict--for the Bank was not
+rechartered, the deposits were not restored, and the President was not
+impeached, but the Senate's resolutions of censure were
+expunged--settled that question, and preserved the American system of
+government from further following the tendency which, from the
+accession of Jefferson to that of Jackson, had been slowly asserting
+itself, the tendency toward Congressional control over the
+Administration.
+
+The original character of the Whig party explains many important
+things in its composition and subsequent history. In the first place,
+it explains why the party was composed, as to its leading element, of
+high-toned, courteous gentlemen--the larger part of the aristocracy of
+the land--since it is the instinct of the aristocracy to control the
+executive through the legislature. It explains further why the Whig
+party was unable to {283} cope with the problem of slavery, since its
+fundamental principle was not a doctrine of rights, but of
+governmental form. It explains, lastly, why, in the development of the
+country's history, the defeat of the Whig party was necessary to the
+very existence of the country, when the great struggle should come,
+since its principle of Congressional control of the Administration
+would, if realized, have greatly weakened that executive independence,
+power, and unity, without which victory could hardly have been won.
+
+[Sidenote: The change of the deposits, and the specie order of 1836.]
+
+The failure of the Whigs in the campaign of 1836, and their momentary
+triumph in that of 1840, were experienced under the true issue of the
+Whig principle. The modification of the tariff by the Act of 1833, and
+the change of the place of deposit of the funds of the Government,
+after October 1st, 1833, from the United States Bank and its branches
+to certain Commonwealth banks, designated by the Secretary of the
+Treasury, had brought about much business embarrassment, since the one
+depressed the manufacturing interests, and the other forced the United
+States Bank and its branches to call in the loans made upon the
+strength of the Government's deposits. This embarrassment was greatly
+increased by the issue of the executive order of July 11th, 1836,
+directing that only specie should be taken at the land offices for
+public lands. At the moment there was a general speculation in Western
+lands, and only those banks which held Government deposits could
+furnish their customers with specie; the others, when called upon for
+gold and silver in exchange for their notes, were compelled to
+suspend.
+
+The Congress, disapproving the favoritism shown by the Secretary of
+the Treasury, and, probably foreseeing that a financial crisis of some
+sort was impending, had, {284} on June 23rd preceding, passed an Act
+ordering a more general distribution of the deposits than the
+Secretary of the Treasury had made. After the specie order, and a
+little experience with its effect, the demand was raised from every
+quarter for an immediate execution of the Act of Congress of June
+23rd. The Secretary hastened to carry out the provision, with the
+result of driving those banks into insolvency which had been able to
+stand, the existing deposit banks, since they had loaned the money of
+the Government deposited in them, and were compelled to call in these
+loans in the proportion that they were called upon to give up these
+deposits, and were left also without the gold and silver of the
+Government to redeem their own notes. The sudden calling in of the
+loans also forced a great number of the borrowers into insolvency.
+
+[Sidenote: Van Buren's election and the panic of "'37."]
+
+Had the full force of the financial distress come in 1836, instead of
+a year later, it might have turned the election against Jackson's
+heir, Mr. Van Buren; but as things were, the Van Buren Administration
+was established, and had had an opportunity to get a little foothold,
+when the financial panic spread over the land. Mr. Van Buren and his
+advisers decided very properly not to involve the Government, but to
+let the people work themselves through the disaster by the natural
+course of business. This, as is usual in such cases, turned hosts of
+supporters into opponents.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sub-Treasury idea.]
+
+The Administration, however, pursued the even tenor of its way, and
+endeavored to draw the lesson of the experiences with banks as places
+of deposit for the funds of the Government. In his message of
+September 4th, 1837, President Van Buren recommended that the
+Government should cut loose entirely from banks, and should keep its
+funds in the {285} United States Treasury, and in branches of the
+Treasury, under the control of the officers of the Treasury. The idea
+was not original with Mr. Van Buren. Mr. Gordon, of Virginia, had
+suggested it in the House of Representatives, during the session of
+1834-35, and had offered a plan for its realization, in the form of an
+amendment to the bill, then before the House, for regulating the
+deposits. Mr. Gordon's amendment was rejected on February 11th, 1835.
+The significant thing about it was that the plan was then supported by
+Whigs almost exclusively, only one Democrat voting in favor of it. It
+is true that only about one-half of the Whigs in the House supported
+it, and that it could hardly, therefore, be called a Whig party
+measure in 1835. On the other hand, it was certainly then opposed by
+the Democratic party.
+
+[Sidenote: The establishment of the Sub-Treasury system.]
+
+Under these circumstances, it was a courageous thing in Mr. Van Buren
+to take up the idea anew and recommend it to Congress. Not until the
+session of 1839-40, however, was Congress brought to approve the plan
+and pass the law of July 4th, 1840, establishing the Sub-Treasury
+system for the keeping of the funds of the Government. During the
+discussion of the bill in Congress, its principle developed into a
+strict party question, the Democrats supporting it and the Whigs
+opposing it. The Whigs represented the scheme as an attempt to break
+down all the banks in the country, to keep the people's money locked
+up in the vaults of the Treasury, instead of maintaining it in
+circulation for their benefit, and to make the President the arbiter
+of the business of the country, and thus develop still further his
+autocratic power. The Whig protest was a capital piece of demagogism,
+and it proved immediately and immensely attractive to the people.
+Before the summer of 1840 wore {286} away it was entirely clear that
+the people had made up their minds to try a Whig administration, and
+had arrived at this resolution under the issue of the financial
+questions.
+
+[Sidenote: The election of 1840.]
+
+The Whig National Convention had met in December, 1839, and had
+adopted no platform of principles. It had conciliated the factional
+differences in the Whig ranks by dropping Clay and nominating General
+Harrison, the military hero of the party, and the Whigs were now,
+therefore, free to strike any note in the campaign which would please
+the popular ear. The victory was a clean sweep, and the Whigs
+immediately set about the financial legislation, which was, as they
+thought, to redeem the country.
+
+[Sidenote: Whig legislative projects in regard to the Bank and the
+tariff.]
+
+They had attributed the distress in the country chiefly to the failure
+to re-charter the Bank and to the reduction of the tariff.
+Consequently, they immediately passed a bill for the incorporation of
+a bank, when, to their dismay and confusion, Mr. Tyler, elected
+Vice-President, and, upon the sudden death of Mr. Harrison, successor
+to the presidential office, vetoed the bill. The leaders of the party
+in Congress consulted with the President in regard to a bank bill
+which would be acceptable to him, and drafted one which followed his
+suggestions in all essential principles, and contained only a few
+divergent details, put in probably for the purpose of preserving a
+show of legislative independence, but the President considered these
+differences essential and vetoed the second bill. The bills for
+suspending the reductions of the duties met with the same fate, two of
+them being successively vetoed.
+
+After the Bank vetoes all the members of the Cabinet, except the
+Secretary of State, Mr. Webster, resigned, and after the tariff vetoes
+Mr. Webster retired, so soon {287} as the diplomatic negotiations with
+Great Britain, then in progress, permitted.
+
+[Sidenote: The party treason of Tyler and the Whig war upon the
+President's veto power.]
+
+The Whigs regarded Mr. Tyler as a traitor to the party and began a war
+upon the veto power of the President. They had come back again to
+their original principle of government--the supremacy of the
+legislature over the executive.
+
+From this account, it is clearly manifest that the Whig party did not
+stand upon any fundamental principle which would enable it to meet
+successfully those questions which, after the final settlement given
+to the bank and tariff issues by the vetoes of President Tyler, came
+to the front--the questions of territorial extension and of slavery
+extension.
+
+[Sidenote: The Whigs unable to encounter the questions of territorial
+extension and slavery extension.]
+
+It might be thought, at first view, that the Democratic party of that
+day was no better prepared than the Whig party to encounter these
+questions, since it, too, had reached its distinctive position through
+its attitude in economic issues. But the strength of the Democratic
+party lay in the South, and the South had a strong interest in
+territorial extension for the purpose of slavery extension, which, so
+long as the Southern wing of the Democratic party ruled the party,
+would furnish a clear and definite aim to the policy of the party, and
+would, thereby, give it great advantage over the Whigs, whose Northern
+and Southern contingents were much more evenly balanced, and,
+therefore, as to these questions, less able, or, rather, entirely
+unable, to gain a position upon which they might make a common stand.
+In a word, as to the Whig party, there was, after 1842, nothing to
+take the place of their overthrown economic policies, while, as to the
+Democratic party, there was territorial extension for the sake of
+slavery extension. When {288} these latter questions came to the
+front, therefore, they were destined, sooner or later, to disrupt the
+Whig party and destroy it altogether. The whole South would be for
+territorial extension, chiefly for the sake of slavery extension, and
+a large party at the North would be for territorial extension _per
+se_. The opposition to territorial extension must, therefore, become
+sectional, and as that opposition came chiefly from the Whig party it
+was the Whig party which would be degraded from its national character
+by this question, and then destroyed by it and its attendant question
+of slavery extension.
+
+
+
+
+{289}
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+TEXAS
+
+Arkansas and Michigan--Florida and Iowa--Texas--The Austin
+Grant--Local Government in Texas--The Attempts by the United States to
+Purchase Texas--The Texan Revolution--General Sam Houston--San Jacinto
+and Independence--The Recognition of the Independence of
+Texas--Calhoun's frank Declaration in Regard to the Annexation of
+Texas--The Mission of Mr. Morfit to Texas, His Report and
+Advice--Jackson's Recommendation to Delay the Recognition of Texan
+Independence--Jackson's Request of Congress for Authority to Issue an
+Ultimatum to Mexico in the Claims Question--Texan Independence
+Recognized by the United States--The Question of Annexation--Texan
+Proposition for Annexation--The Mexican Claims Commission and its
+Work--Tyler as an Advocate of Annexation--Mr. Webster in the Way of
+Annexation--The Adams Address on Annexation--The Retirement of
+Webster--The Promotion of Upshur, and His Negotiations with the
+Texans--The Threat of the Mexican Government to Consider the
+Annexation of Texas a Cause of War--The Administration Proposes
+Annexation to the Texan Agent--The Difficulty in the Way of Acceptance
+of the Proposition--The Demand of the Texans for Protection in the
+Interim--Mr. Calhoun in the State Department--The Treaty of Annexation
+Signed--The Treaty in the Senate and its Rejection--Mr. Archer's
+Opposition to the Treaty--The New Plan for Annexation.
+
+
+After the admission of Missouri there remained as territory, upon
+which, according to existing law, it was {290} probable that
+slaveholding Commonwealths would be established, only Arkansas and
+Florida.
+
+[Sidenote: Arkansas and Michigan.]
+
+[Sidenote: Florida and Iowa.]
+
+In 1836, Arkansas was admitted as a slaveholding Commonwealth, and
+Michigan as a non-slaveholding Commonwealth, thus keeping the exact
+balance in the Senate. By a compact of the year 1832, the Seminoles in
+Florida had agreed to emigrate within three years to the west bank of
+the Mississippi. At the end of this period, one of their chiefs,
+Osceola, repudiated the agreement, and with a large following began
+hostilities. By a long and expensive war the Indians were at last
+expelled; and the white inhabitants immediately chose delegates to a
+convention, who met, in December of 1838, formed a Commonwealth
+constitution, one of the provisions of which legalized slavery, and
+demanded of Congress admission into the Union. Congress kept Florida
+waiting, however, for six years, until Iowa was ready, and then
+admitted the two at the same time and by the same Act.
+
+[Sidenote: Texas.]
+
+Meanwhile the events in the Southwest had been so shaping themselves
+as to open up prospects for the long desired territorial extension in
+that quarter. The long dispute between Spain and France, and then
+after 1803, between Spain and the United States, in regard to the
+territory between the Rio Grande del Norte and the Sabine Rivers,
+called Texas, was first definitely settled in 1819, or rather in the
+Treaty of that year, between the United States and Spain, which Treaty
+was not executed, as we have seen, until a little later. In it this
+territory was recognized by the United States as belonging to Spain.
+It seems that a few persons from the United States had settled upon
+this territory, while it was disputed ground, and raised some
+complaint at having been left unprotected by the Government in the
+Treaty with Spain.
+
+{291} [Sidenote: The Austin grant.]
+
+The successful rebellion of Mexico against Spain made this territory a
+part of the new Mexican state, and before Mexico had had time to
+consolidate its powers or estimate the value of its northern
+possessions, a shrewd Yankee from Connecticut, who had removed to
+Missouri, and had become well skilled in the arts and practices of
+border life, Moses Austin, went to Mexico, and representing himself,
+it is said, as the leader of a company of Roman Catholics, who had
+suffered persecution in the United States, for their religion's sake,
+solicited a grant of land from the Catholic government of Mexico, and
+permission to make a settlement upon it. The Mexicans gave ready ear
+to his complaints and petition, and made him a large grant of land in
+the central part of Texas on the Colorado River. Mr. Austin died
+before effecting the settlement, and left the work to his son, S. F.
+Austin, who, in 1822, colonized the grant, and received a ratification
+of the same from the Mexican Government, the following year.
+
+[Sidenote: Local government in Texas.]
+
+At that moment, Texas and Coahuila formed a single Mexican province,
+and, after the establishment of the federal system of government in
+Mexico, the province became, in 1827, a Commonwealth. In the Coahuila
+part the population was Mexican, and as it was much larger than the
+Anglo-American population in the Texas part, the government of the
+Commonwealth was practically in the hands of Mexican officials. The
+rule of these officials was arbitrary and uncertain, and the race
+prejudice between Spaniard and Anglo-Saxon was immediately excited by
+it. It was pretty evident that the expulsion of the Americans from
+Texas was intended. In 1830, came at last the decree from the Mexican
+President, Bustamente, prohibiting further immigration into Texas from
+the United States.
+
+{292} The Texan colonists now numbered some twenty thousand, mostly
+bold and hardy men, and it was not to be expected that they would
+either give up their lands, or assist in preventing further
+immigration, or submit much longer to the foreign rule, as they felt
+it to be, of Mexico or Coahuila.
+
+[Sidenote: The attempts by the United States to purchase Texas.]
+
+Both in 1827 and in 1829, the United States Government attempted to
+purchase Texas, and in the latter year the proposition was actually
+made to the Mexican Government to sell to the United States the
+territory lying to the northwest of the watershed of the River Nueces.
+It was, however, promptly rejected by that Government.
+
+Naturally these attempts encouraged the colonists in Texas to feel
+that the United States sympathized with them in their desire for
+emancipation from Mexican rule, and to hope that this sympathy might,
+at some future time, lead to positive assistance.
+
+[Sidenote: Overthrow of the federal system in Mexico.]
+
+The Texans were, however, for the moment, left to their own devices.
+They first tried to have Texas separated from Coahuila and made a
+separate Commonwealth of the Mexican Union, but the Mexican central
+government refused to assent to this. This was in 1833. Two years
+later Santa Anna, the Mexican President, forcibly displaced the
+federal system of government established in Mexico by the constitution
+of 1824, and instituted the centralized system, virtually by a
+presidential edict.
+
+Some of the Commonwealths of the Mexican Union resisted this
+usurpation of the President, and among them, naturally, was
+Coahuila-Texas. Moreover, some of the Coahuila members of the
+legislature of the Commonwealth, partisans of Santa Anna, withdrew
+from that body, and the Texan members found themselves, for the first
+time, in a majority in it. Of course the feeling {293} of resistance
+to the overthrow of the right of local self-government became now a
+settled and resolute purpose with them, and Santa Anna, upon learning
+their attitude, resolved to reduce them to obedience by military
+power.
+
+[Sidenote: The Texan revolution.]
+
+In September of 1835, a Mexican war-ship appeared upon the Texan
+coast, and its commander declared the Texan ports in a state of
+blockade. About the same time, the Mexican General Cos appeared, with
+a force of some fifteen hundred soldiers, at the Texan village of
+Gonzales. The resistance of the inhabitants of the town to Cos' order
+to surrender their arms precipitated the struggle. The Texans
+immediately organized a temporary government, drove the Mexicans out
+of the country before the close of the year, and, on March 2nd, 1836,
+declared their independence of Mexico.
+
+While the Texan convention, which had declared independence and was
+framing the constitution for the state of Texas, was still in session,
+the Mexican soldiery, under the command of Santa Anna himself,
+returned to Texas and committed the atrocities of the Alamo and of
+Goliad. After these barbarous deeds there could no longer be any hope
+of an accommodation between the Mexicans and the Texans. It was
+independence or extermination.
+
+[Sidenote: General Sam Houston.]
+
+[Sidenote: San Jacinto and independence.]
+
+Happily for the Texans they had now found their proper leader, General
+Sam Houston. Many of the descriptions of this hero are caricatures. Of
+those which approach the truth, that given by Senator Benton is
+perhaps most nearly correct. Benton was the lieutenant-colonel of the
+regiment in which Houston served during the war with the Creeks; and
+said later of his old comrade, "I then marked in him the same
+soldierly and gentlemanly qualities which {294} have since
+distinguished his eventful career; frank, generous, and brave, ready
+to do, or to suffer, whatever the obligations of civil or military
+duty imposed; and always prompt to answer the call of honor,
+patriotism, and friendship." He was a Virginian by birth, but an early
+resident of Tennessee, and had been Governor of Tennessee before
+attaining his thirty-fifth year. He appeared in Texas in 1833, and in
+1835 was made commander of the Texan army. It was chiefly his skill
+and bravery, which effected the expulsion of Cos and his army in the
+winter of 1835-36. After the disasters at the Alamo and at Goliad, he,
+in command of the remnants of the Texan army, retreated slowly before
+Santa Anna's comparatively large force, until Santa Anna made the
+blunder of dividing his army by the swollen waters of the San Jacinto,
+when he turned suddenly upon the Mexicans, and inflicted upon them the
+crushing defeat known as the battle of San Jacinto, in which the
+Mexican loss was double the number of Houston's army, some sixteen
+hundred men, including Santa Anna himself among the captives. The part
+of the Mexican army which had not crossed the river retreated
+precipitately from Texan soil, and the new state had won its
+independence.
+
+[Sidenote: Texas as a constitutional Republic.]
+
+The battle of San Jacinto was fought on April 21st, 1836. The
+convention had finished the constitution more than a month before. In
+September following, General Houston was elected President of the new
+republic, and the constitution was almost immediately put into
+operation. This constitution legalized the existence of slavery in
+Texas, as a constitutional right of the masters, prohibited the
+residence of free negroes within the State without special official
+permission, and interdicted the importation of negro slaves, except
+from the United States.
+
+{295} [Sidenote: The recognition of the independence of Texas.]
+
+A little more than a month after the battle of San Jacinto, the
+legislature of Connecticut set the ball in motion for the recognition
+of the independence of Texas by the Government of the United States.
+On May 27th, 1836, the two Houses of that body passed a resolution
+instructing the Senators, and requesting the Representatives, in
+Congress from Connecticut "to use their best endeavors to procure the
+acknowledgment, on the part of the United States, of the independence
+of Texas." Evidently the Yankee Commonwealth considered itself, in an
+especial degree, the motherland of the new state. The founder of the
+colony, which had now become an independent state, was one of its
+children, and it hastened to anticipate Virginia, the birthplace of
+Houston, in owning its offspring. A careful perusal of the whole of
+this Connecticut document will certainly leave the impression upon the
+mind of the impartial reader, at this day, that the people of the
+North then considered the Texan revolution to have been provoked by
+Mexican misrule and barbarism, and to have been fully justified in
+political ethics as well as by practical success.
+
+On June 13th, Senator Niles, of Connecticut, presented the Connecticut
+memorial to the Senate, and it was immediately referred to the
+committee on Foreign Relations. On the 18th, Mr. Clay, the chairman of
+the committee, reported a resolution: "That the independence of Texas
+ought to be acknowledged by the United States whenever satisfactory
+information shall be received that it has, in successful operation, a
+civil government capable of performing the duties and fulfilling the
+obligations of an independent Power." The resolution was adopted by
+the Senate, on July 1st, without a dissenting voice.
+
+[Sidenote: Calhoun's frank declaration in regard to the annexation of
+Texas.]
+
+During the course of the debate upon it, Mr. Calhoun {296} frankly
+told the Senate that he regarded the great importance of the
+recognition of the independence of Texas to consist in the fact that
+it prepared the way for the speedy admission of Texas into the Union,
+which would be a necessity to the proper balance of power in the Union
+between the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding Commonwealths, upon
+which the preservation of the Union and the perpetuation of its
+institutions rested. After such a statement it is difficult to see how
+anybody could speak of the annexation of Texas being a slaveholders'
+secret intrigue. Mr. Calhoun, the great leader of the slaveholders,
+the director of their policy, here at the very outset openly
+proclaimed their purpose. The fact is that, at the time of the Texan
+declaration of independence, almost everybody would have favored the
+annexation of Texas to the United States, out of race sympathy with
+the Texans and desire for territorial extension, except for the
+international complications with Mexico, which must inevitably result.
+It was the struggle over the Abolition petitions in 1836, 1837, and
+1838 which turned the thoughts of men upon the internal questions
+involved in the movement, and caused the North generally to reconsider
+its attitude upon the question.
+
+On July 4th, 1836, the House of Representatives passed a resolution of
+the same tenor, and expressed in nearly the same words, as the Senate
+resolution of July 1st. It seems to have been called forth by
+memorials from citizens of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
+
+[Illustration: TEXAS, at the Time of Annexation.]
+
+[Sidenote: The mission of Mr. Morfit to Texas, his report and advice.]
+
+Assured thus of the feeling of Congress, the President sent an agent,
+Mr. Henry M. Morfit, to Texas during the summer of 1836, in order to
+procure exact information of the state of affairs there. Mr. Morfit
+wrote to the Secretary of State, Mr. Forsyth, that the {297}
+constitution of March 17th was soon to be put into operation; that
+General Houston had been elected President; that the constitution was
+fashioned after that of the United States; that the desire for
+annexation to the United States was universal; that the boundaries
+asserted by the new state were the Rio Grande del Norte on the south
+and southwest, the longitude from the source of the Rio Grande to the
+boundary of the United States on the west, the southern boundary of
+the United States on the north and northeast, and the Gulf of Mexico
+on the east; that the population amounted to about sixty-five thousand
+souls, of whom about fifty thousand were Anglo-Americans; that the
+standing army numbered about twenty-two hundred men, and could be
+increased to seven or eight thousand in an emergency; that the navy
+consisted of four vessels, carrying twenty-nine guns; that the funds
+of the State consisted of from fifty to one hundred millions of acres
+of public lands, worth, at least, ten millions of dollars, and that
+contributions were flowing in from private individuals in the United
+States; that the debt was about twelve hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars; that the supplies for the winter campaign were already
+provided; and that there was not a Mexican soldier north of the Rio
+Grande, although there were rumors that the Mexican government was
+making preparations for a new invasion in the winter, which were not,
+however, credited by the Texans.
+
+This was certainly a good showing for Texas. If with an army of seven
+hundred men, under a provisory government, the Texans drove the
+Mexicans out of Texas, they could, under well established government,
+and with an army ten times as large, most surely keep them out. It
+must also be remembered that Santa Anna was still a prisoner in their
+hands. Mr. Morfit, {298} however, expressed the belief that most of
+the men and money for the army came from the United States, and,
+therefore, advised delay in assuming a definite attitude toward the
+new state.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's recommendation to delay the recognition of Texan
+independence.]
+
+President Jackson transmitted this information to Congress, in his
+message of December 21st, 1836, and recommended delay in recognizing
+the independence of Texas. On January 11th, 1837, however, Senator
+Walker, of Mississippi, offered a resolution in the Senate to the
+effect that it would be expedient and proper to recognize the
+independence of Texas, and stated that he had information that the
+projected invasion of Texas by a new Mexican army, the rumors of which
+were reported by Mr. Morfit, had most probably been abandoned.
+
+[Sidenote: The question of Mexico's obligations to the United States.]
+
+Before the resolution offered by Mr. Walker was taken up for
+discussion, a message from the President was communicated to Congress
+recommending the passage of an act, authorizing the President to make
+reprisals upon Mexico, in case Mexico should refuse another demand
+made upon her for an amicable adjustment of the matters in controversy
+between her and the United States. The citizens and the Government of
+the United States had many claims against Mexico and the Mexicans for
+depredating the commerce, seizing the seamen, and insulting the flag
+of the United States, and the demands for the satisfaction of these
+claims had been almost uniformly disregarded. The relations between
+the two Governments were already greatly strained on this account, and
+when, in the autumn of 1836, President Jackson authorized General
+Gaines to advance his troops into northwestern Texas, if he should
+deem it necessary for the protection of the frontiers of the United
+States against the Indians in Texas, who, on account of the {299} War
+between Mexico and Texas, had been thrown into a great state of
+excitement and unrest, the Mexican Minister, Senor Gorastiza, demanded
+his passports, issued a sort of manifesto to the people of the United
+States, and left Washington.
+
+[Sidenote: Jackson's request of Congress for authority to issue an
+ultimatum to Mexico in the claims question.]
+
+It was hardly to be expected that President Jackson would quietly
+brook such defiance from a half civilized state and its agents. He
+immediately caused Mr. Ellis, the Charge d'Affaires of the Government
+at the Mexican capital, to make a final demand on the Mexican
+government. Mr. Ellis made his demand in writing, on September 26th.
+After much delay the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs replied,
+admitting the justice of some of the claims, and requiring more
+information about others, but offering no reparation at all for
+insults to the flag and to the consular officers of the United States.
+The President's patience was exhausted, and he sent the message of
+February 6th, 1837, to Congress, asking for authority to make a final
+demand from the decks of a war-ship.
+
+[Sidenote: Texan independence recognized by the United States.]
+
+Congress was not, however, willing to invest the President with the
+contingent power to make offensive war. The recommendation of the
+President in the case had, nevertheless, considerable influence in
+determining the minds of the Senators in regard to the question of
+recognizing the independence of Texas. On March 1st, 1837, the Senate
+adopted Mr. Walker's resolution. On the previous day the House of
+Representatives had voted to insert in the civil and diplomatic
+appropriation bill an item for the expenses of a diplomatic agent to
+Texas, whenever the President should receive satisfactory evidence
+that Texas was an independent Power and should consider it expedient
+to appoint such a minister. President Jackson had invited this
+expression of the {300} views of Congress in his message of the
+previous December, in which he expressed the view that Congress ought
+to determine the expediency of recognizing the independence of Texas,
+and, although the resolutions of the two Houses of February 28th and
+March 1st, 1837, did not formally assume to recognize that
+independence, the President evidently attributed to them some virtue,
+since he soon opened diplomatic intercourse with the Texan agent at
+Washington. The resolutions of the two Houses of Congress and this act
+of the President, taken together, were regarded by the people of the
+United States and by foreign Powers as a recognition of Texan
+independence.
+
+[Sidenote: The question of annexation.]
+
+It was clear to all thinking minds that the next step after
+independence would be annexation to the United States. There is little
+question that Texas was big enough and strong enough to stand alone
+against Mexico, certainly with the aid which she was sure to receive
+from without and with the growth which she was destined to enjoy; but
+there was no natural boundary between the United States and Texas, and
+the inhabitants of Texas were chiefly Anglo-Americans. The natural
+boundary of the United States on the southwest is the desert between
+the Nueces and the Rio Grande, and the territorial extension of the
+United States to that limit was simply the fulfilment of the moral
+order of the world, which tends to make the lines of states correspond
+with the lines of physical geography and of ethnical differences.
+Except for the connection of the question of slavery extension with
+that of territorial extension after 1836, the question of the
+annexation of Texas would have been generally viewed in this natural
+and national light. That connection, however, made the North generally
+assume the attitude {301} of opposition to annexation, while it
+greatly excited the desires of the South in favor of it.
+
+[Sidenote: Webster on annexation.]
+
+On his way homeward from the Congress which voted in favor of
+annexation, Mr. Webster made a great speech in New York, in which he
+declared himself opposed to annexation on the ground that it would
+extend slavery. Mr. Calhoun had, nearly a year before, as we have
+seen, declared himself in favor of it for the same reason. After these
+two declarations, from such leaders, the eyes of the people were open
+to every feature of the question, and it could not have been any
+longer a matter of intrigue.
+
+[Sidenote: Texan proposition for annexation.]
+
+In August, 1837, the Texan agent at Washington, General Hunt, proposed
+to President Van Buren the annexation of Texas to the United States.
+The President promptly and firmly declined, and the matter rested
+during the remainder of his Administration.
+
+The sudden and unexpected accession of Vice-President Tyler to the
+presidency, in 1841, was the event which opened the way for the
+commencement of negotiations for annexation. The new President was
+known to be favorable to the project.
+
+[Sidenote: The Mexican Claims Commission and its work.]
+
+Meanwhile the diplomatic relations between the United States and
+Mexico, so suddenly broken off in the latter part of President
+Jackson's Administration, had been renewed in the early part of
+President Van Buren's Administration, and, after considerable
+negotiation in regard to the claims against Mexico, a convention
+between the two Powers had been arranged, and, on April 8th, 1840,
+proclaimed by the President as definitely concluded. The convention
+provided that the claims of the citizens of the United States against
+Mexico should be submitted to, and decided by, a commission, which
+should be {302} composed of two members appointed by the President of
+the United States, and of two other members appointed by the President
+of Mexico; that the commissioners should meet in Washington within
+three months from the date of the exchange of ratifications of the
+convention; that the commission should terminate its duties within
+eighteen months from the time of its first meeting; and that when the
+commissioners could not come to any decision, the question upon which
+they might disagree should be referred to an arbiter appointed by the
+King of Prussia, etc. With this the question of the private claims
+against Mexico, already submitted, was, momentarily, put at rest. The
+claim of satisfaction for public injuries and affronts remained
+unsettled, and no provision was made for the consideration of private
+claims which had not been submitted before the ratification of the
+convention, or of those which might arise after the same date. Plenty
+of opportunities were thus left for the rise of difficulties in the
+claims question which might lead to hostile relations between the two
+Powers.
+
+[Sidenote: Tyler as an advocate of annexation.]
+
+As early as the winter of 1841-42, it was suspected that President
+Tyler's Administration was preparing to move in the matter of
+annexation. In fact, Mr. Wise, of Virginia, the President's bosom
+friend, and his organ in the House of Representatives, reiterated upon
+the floor of the House, on January 26th, 1842, Mr. Calhoun's doctrine
+about annexation, pronounced in 1836, that the annexation of Texas was
+essential to slavery extension, that slavery extension was necessary
+to preserve the balance of power between the North and the South in
+the Union, and that the preservation of this balance of power was the
+necessary condition of the perpetuity of the Union.
+
+{303} Mr. Wise expressed this opinion in the midst of an acrimonious
+debate, and whether he, in an unguarded moment, betrayed the policy of
+the President, or simply gave vent to his own excited feelings, is
+still one of the speculations of American history.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Webster in the way of annexation.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Adams address on annexation.]
+
+So long, however, as Mr. Webster remained at the head of the State
+Department it was impossible for the President to make any progress
+with a definite plan for annexation, even if he entertained one.
+Nevertheless, thirteen anti-slavery Whig members of Congress, led by
+Mr. John Quincy Adams, issued, on March 3rd, 1843, an address to the
+people of the non-slaveholding Commonwealths, declaring that there was
+a definite plan of annexation already settled upon, and about to be
+consummated, and denouncing the execution of it as being tantamount to
+a dissolution of the Union.
+
+[Sidenote: The retirement of Webster.]
+
+On May 8th, 1843, Mr. Webster resigned the secretaryship of State. It
+was said by some that the President drove him out, in order to appoint
+a Secretary who would carry out his plans for the annexation of Texas;
+but Mr. Webster himself indicated by his acts and words that he had
+determined to resign more than a year before, and had remained in
+office only for the purpose of concluding the negotiations with Great
+Britain which culminated in the Ashburton Treaty, an agreement in
+which Mr. Webster's section had an especial interest.
+
+There is little question, however, that President Tyler was glad to
+have him go, for the President placed the annexation of Texas before
+every other policy of his Administration.
+
+[Sidenote: The promotion of Upshur, and his negotiations with the
+Texans.]
+
+Soon after Mr. Webster's resignation the President transferred Mr.
+Upshur from the secretaryship of the {304} Navy to that of State. Mr.
+Upshur was the man whom suspicion had already marked as the confidant
+of the President in the annexation scheme. This suspicion was speedily
+confirmed by his entering, almost immediately, upon negotiations with
+the Texan agent at Washington, Mr. Van Zandt, for annexation.
+
+Soon after the recognition of the independence of Texas by the United
+States, Great Britain, France, and Belgium took the same step,
+presumably for the purpose of establishing commercial relations with
+the new state. But, in the summer of 1843, the British Government
+appeared in the character of the most favored mediator between Mexico
+and Texas for the recognition of the independence of Texas by Mexico;
+and a friend of President Tyler's Administration wrote, from London,
+that a representative of the anti-slavery men in Texas was in London,
+negotiating a loan of money from an English company, with which to pay
+for the liberation of all the slaves in Texas, and that the interest
+upon the loan was to be guaranteed by the British Government, on the
+condition that the Texan Government would abolish slavery.
+
+The Administration professed to credit this story, and Mr. Upshur
+wrote to General Murphy, the diplomatic agent of the United States in
+Texas, informing him of this communication from London, and arguing
+the double danger to the United States of British interference in
+Texas, and of the abolition of slavery there. This letter bears date
+of August 8th, 1843, and is considered as marking the beginning of the
+actual negotiations for annexation. It was certainly intended to
+prompt General Murphy to sound the Texan Government upon the question
+of annexation.
+
+[Sidenote: The threat of the Mexican Government to consider the
+annexation of Texas a cause of war.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Administration proposes annexation to the Texan agent.]
+
+The Mexican Government evidently discovered the {305} movement
+immediately, for, on August 23rd, the Mexican Secretary of State
+declared to Mr. Thompson, the Minister of the United States to Mexico,
+that the Mexican Government would consider any act of the United
+States to annex Texas as a declaration of war on Mexico. For seven
+years Mexico had made no war on Texas, though professing to regard the
+new state as only a rebellious province. In September of 1842, several
+marauding expeditions had crossed the Rio Grande, raided around for a
+few days, and then returned to Mexico. The Mexican Government called
+this a continuance of the war, and demanded that the states of the
+world should observe the attitude of neutrals toward a friendly Power
+engaged in suppressing a rebellion on the part of certain of its
+lawful subjects. This was absurd. From the point of view of
+international law Texas had won her independence, and might make what
+agreements she pleased with any other Power. The President paid no
+attention to the Mexican threat. On October 16th, 1843, Mr. Upshur
+formally proposed annexation to Mr. Van Zandt, and in his message to
+Congress, at the beginning of the session of 1843-44, the President
+indicated to Congress that the negotiations for annexation were in
+progress, and referred to the fact that Mexico threatened war in case
+the United States should resolve to annex Texas.
+
+[Sidenote: The difficulty in the way of acceptance of the
+proposition.]
+
+The great difficulty in the way of the negotiations was the fear on
+the part of the Texans that, upon the signature of the Treaty by the
+Presidents of the two countries, and before its ratification by the
+respective Senates, as required by the respective Constitutions, the
+Mexicans would collect all their forces and make one supreme effort to
+reconquer Texas. The Texans wanted the {306} protection of the United
+States in this interim, and the embarrassing question for Mr. Tyler's
+Administration was whether the President of the United States had the
+constitutional power to extend it. Would not war, undertaken in
+defence of one foreign Power against another, be offensive war, in the
+sense of the Constitution of the United States, such war as Congress
+alone can authorize? Or, could Texas be considered a part of the
+United States from the moment that the two Presidents signed the
+Treaty of annexation, and before its ratification by the respective
+Senates, thus making war in her defence defensive war, such war as the
+President of the United States may, of his own power, undertake?
+
+[Sidenote: The demand of the Texans for protection in the interim.]
+
+About the middle of January, 1844, Mr. Van Zandt demanded of Mr.
+Upshur whether, in case the President of Texas should agree to the
+proposition of the President of the United States for annexation, the
+President of the United States would protect Texas, from the moment of
+this agreement between the two Presidents, against all foreign attack.
+Mr. Upshur seems to have been greatly perplexed by the question, for
+he made no reply.
+
+About the middle of February, the President of Texas caused the same
+question to be put to the United States agent in Texas, General
+Murphy. Murphy was a blunt, brave man, full of chivalry, but quite
+empty of constitutional and international law. He immediately returned
+an affirmative answer, whereupon President Houston sent a special
+envoy to Washington, armed with plenary power to conclude a treaty of
+annexation.
+
+Whether Secretary Upshur, and, of course, the President, knew of the
+promise which Murphy had made for his Government to Texas, before the
+sudden death of Mr. Upshur, on February 28th, has never been
+determined.
+
+{307} During the second week of March, Mr. John Nelson, the Secretary
+of the Navy, was temporarily transferred to the State Department, and
+one of his first acts was to officially disavow Murphy's promise to
+President Houston. He very nearly informed Murphy, however, that
+President Tyler was personally pleased with what he had done. The
+Texan agents at Washington refused, however, to proceed with the
+negotiations until President Tyler would ratify Murphy's promise. Mr.
+Nelson would not risk his reputation as a constitutional lawyer by
+inventing an interpretation of the Constitution which would warrant
+this. At the end of the month Mr. Calhoun was put in his place, and he
+was remanded to the Department of the Navy.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun in the State Department.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Treaty of annexation signed.]
+
+About a fortnight after taking possession of his office, Mr. Calhoun
+officially informed the Texan agents at Washington that the President
+had ordered the concentration of a strong squadron of war-vessels in
+the Gulf of Mexico, and had commanded the movement of land forces to
+the southwestern boundary of the United States to meet all
+eventualities, and that the President would use "all the means placed
+within his power by the Constitution" to protect Texas against foreign
+invasion during the pendency of the Treaty of annexation. On the day
+following this communication, the Treaty of annexation was signed by
+the President of the United States and by the Texas plenipotentiary
+for the President of Texas.
+
+Ten days after this, the Treaty was sent to the Senate of the United
+States for ratification. In the message accompanying the Treaty the
+President informed the Senate of the disposition he had made of the
+troops and naval vessels, and justified the same by the claim that the
+President _makes_ the treaties, that the Senate only ratifies {308}
+them, that the validity of the treaties, therefore, dates from the
+President's agreement, and that, therefore, in this case, Texas was,
+from and after April 12th, 1844, a part of the territory of the United
+States, all of which the President was bound to defend against foreign
+attack. Whether this was President Tyler's constitutional law or Mr.
+Calhoun's we do not know. If this doctrine is to be ascribed to Mr.
+Calhoun it certainly marks a great departure from the general
+principles taught by him after 1830. One would think that his "States'
+sovereignty" theory of the Union would have led him to attribute as
+little power as possible to the general Government, and as much of
+that little as possible to the Senate, but here were both nationalism
+and Caesarism combined.
+
+[Sidenote: The Treaty in the Senate and its rejection.]
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Archer's opposition to the Treaty.]
+
+The Treaty was before the Senate, in secret session, from April 22nd
+until June 8th, when it was rejected by a vote of thirty-five to
+sixteen. It is not necessary to examine the reasons which moved the
+Northern Senators to vote against it, but it is important to
+understand some of the grounds upon which Senators from the
+slaveholding Commonwealths opposed it. Senator Benton declared that
+the Treaty annexed not only Texas but parts of four other Mexican
+provinces, which would be an international outrage upon Mexico. Most
+of the Southern Senators, however, were influenced by the fear of war
+with Mexico. But the most significant objection to it, from the point
+of view of subsequent events, was that urged by Mr. Archer, of
+Virginia, the chairman of the Senate committee for Foreign Affairs. He
+claimed that a foreign state could not be annexed to the United States
+by means of a treaty, and that, if a foreign state could become
+connected with the Union at all, it must be by means of an act of
+Congress. A large number of the Senators approved of this {309}
+doctrine. It was a pregnant idea to the President and Mr. Calhoun. It
+indicated that there was another way to accomplish annexation.
+
+While the Treaty was under consideration in the Senate, the national
+conventions for the nomination of presidential candidates had
+assembled. The Whigs had nominated Mr. Clay, who was regarded as
+opposed to annexation. The friends to annexation in the Democratic
+party had been able to put Mr. Van Buren aside, and had nominated
+James K. Polk, of Tennessee, an outspoken advocate of immediate
+annexation, and had made the "re-occupation of Oregon and the
+re-annexation of Texas" the chief plank in the party platform.
+
+[Sidenote: The new plan for annexation.]
+
+Here now were all the elements of a new plan for annexation, which
+promised more success. They were, the doctrine unwittingly advanced by
+Mr. Archer, and as unwittingly approved by many of the Senators, that
+Texas could be connected with the United States only by means of an
+act of Congress admitting her as a Commonwealth into the Union, the
+plank of the platform making annexation the chief issue of the
+campaign for the election of a new President and a new House of
+Representatives, and the connection of the Oregon question with that
+of annexation, in order to get votes in the North for both projects at
+once.
+
+On June 11th, President Tyler took the first step in the combination
+of these elements. He sent a copy of the rejected Treaty, and all the
+papers connected with it, to the House of Representatives, together
+with a message, in which he reviewed the subject and justified his
+position in regard to it, and declared, finally, that while he had
+regarded a treaty as the most suitable means for accomplishing
+annexation, he would {310} co-operate with Congress in the use of any
+other means compatible with the Constitution and likely to accomplish
+the result.
+
+Before, however, following the history of the annexation of Texas
+further, we must present briefly the main points in the development of
+the Oregon question.
+
+
+
+
+{311}
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+OREGON
+
+Extent of Oregon and Claims to it--The Nootka Convention--Louisiana
+and Oregon--Astoria--The Joint Occupation Agreement of 1818--Spain's
+Claims on Oregon Ceded to the United States--Renewal of the Convention
+of 1818--The British Policy in Reference to Oregon--The Ignorance of
+Oregon in the United States--Dr. Marcus Whitman--Dr. Whitman's Mission
+to the United States Government--Dr. Whitman's Colony--The Democratic
+Party on the Oregon Question.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Extent of Oregon and claims to it.]
+
+At the close of the eighteenth century, Oregon was universally
+recognized as the territory lying along the North Pacific Ocean from
+the forty-second parallel of latitude to that of fifty-four degrees
+and forty minutes, and reaching inward to the Rocky Mountains. At that
+time it was claimed by Spain both by discovery and first settlement.
+
+[Sidenote: The Nootka Convention.]
+
+In the year 1790, Great Britain advanced claims upon it. A diplomatic
+discussion arose between the two Powers, which ended temporarily in an
+agreement called the Nootka Convention, by which no territorial or
+sovereign rights or powers were recognized by Spain to Great Britain,
+but only certain easements, so to speak, in and upon this territory,
+such as the right to navigate the waters and to fish in them, to trade
+with the natives, and to make such temporary {312} settlements as
+might be necessary for the reasonable enjoyment of these rights.
+
+In the year 1796, war was waged between Spain and Great Britain, and,
+according to the British principles of that day, every agreement
+between the two Powers was abrogated in consequence thereof; so that
+Spain, while retaining her sovereignty over Oregon, was now relieved
+of the encumbrance of the British rights.
+
+[Sidenote: Louisiana and Oregon.]
+
+This was the status of Oregon when Spain ceded Louisiana to France in
+1800, and when France ceded the same territory to the United States in
+1803; and the matter of first concern to the United States was the
+question whether Louisiana contained Oregon or any part of it. It is
+probable that President Jefferson thought it did, since the Lewis and
+Clark expedition, sent out by him to examine the new purchase, crossed
+the Rockies, discovered the sources of the Columbia River, followed
+this stream to the Pacific, and made report thereof to the President.
+But if he did, he was certainly mistaken. It is true that Louisiana
+had no western boundary positively fixed by any agreement between the
+Powers, but the general principles of international law, to which
+recourse must always be had in the absence of specific agreements,
+made the water shed of the Mississippi the western boundary, and the
+Treaty of Utrecht, of 1713, to which France and Great Britain were
+parties, made the forty-ninth parallel of latitude the northern
+boundary, westward from the Lake of the Woods.
+
+[Illustration: OREGON, as Determined by the Treaty of 1846.]
+
+[Sidenote: Astoria.]
+
+The founding of Astoria, in 1811, on the south bank of the Columbia
+River, about nine miles from its mouth, is also evidence that the
+Government of the United States thought it had a claim upon Oregon as
+a part of Louisiana, since the undertaking {313} proceeded upon an
+understanding between Mr. John Jacob Astor and the Government.
+
+[Sidenote: The joint occupation agreement of 1818.]
+
+The British Government now did a thing which seemed to acknowledge a
+claim of some sort by the United States upon Oregon, so far as Great
+Britain could do so. Having taken forcible possession of Astoria in
+the War of 1812, it restored the place, at the close of the War, to
+the possession of the United States; and in a convention, concluded on
+October 18th, 1818, the two Powers agreed upon the forty-ninth
+parallel of north latitude as the boundary between their territories,
+from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, and upon joint
+occupation, as it was termed, in all territories and waters claimed by
+either party in North America west of the Rocky Mountains, without
+prejudice to any claims which either party might have to any part of
+the said territory, or to any claims which any other Power might have
+to it, or to any part of it. This agreement was to run for ten years.
+
+[Sidenote: Spain's claims on Oregon ceded to the United States.]
+
+An event happened the following year which made the Washington
+Government doubt the wisdom of basing its claims upon the Louisiana
+cession. It was the Treaty with Spain ceding the Floridas. As we have
+seen in one of the earlier chapters of this work, this Treaty
+contained a provision ceding to the United States all the rights and
+sovereignty of Spain in and over the territory lying west of the Rocky
+Mountains and north of the forty-second parallel of north latitude.
+Here was a much better claim, both as to quantity of territory and
+quality of right, than could be founded on the Louisiana cession. If
+the United States had possessed this claim in 1803, it is doubtful if
+we should ever have heard of the notion that Oregon was a part of
+Louisiana.
+
+{314} [Sidenote: Continuation of the convention of 1818.]
+
+In 1828, the agreement of 1818 was indefinitely continued, but might
+be terminated by a twelvemonth's notice by either party, at any time.
+The United States, was, however, in a better position than before, on
+account of having now the Spanish claims to all territory above the
+forty-second parallel on the Pacific.
+
+The element of greatest importance in the settlement of the question
+was, of course, colonization within the territory, and neither party
+had really undertaken that. The hunters and trappers and agents of the
+Hudson's Bay Company had temporary abodes within the territory,
+especially north of the Columbia, and there was one settlement on the
+south bank under the protection of the United States, and that was
+all.
+
+[Sidenote: The British policy in reference to Oregon.]
+
+For some fourteen years longer, now, this indefinite status continued.
+In the negotiations between Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton, in 1841
+and 1842, Mr. Webster sounded Lord Ashburton on the Oregon question,
+and found that the Queen's agent had received no power to deal with
+the matter, but drew the conclusion that the British policy in regard
+to Oregon was to prolong the existing _modus vivendi_, give the
+Hudson's Bay Company time to settle the country north of the Columbia,
+and then agree to a division on the line of that river.
+
+[Sidenote: The ignorance of Oregon in the United States.]
+
+It was well for the United States that the Oregon question did not
+enter into those negotiations, for down to that moment the Government
+at Washington knew almost nothing about the character of Oregon north
+of the Columbia. The officers of the Hudson's Bay Company had
+continually represented it as a worthless waste, fit only for hunting
+and trapping ground, and almost worn out even for those purposes. It
+is more than probable that the {315} Government at Washington credited
+these statements, and it is quite possible that, in 1842, it would
+have compromised with England on the line of the Columbia. The delay
+in the settlement of the question now gave the Government the
+opportunity to learn something more about Oregon from one who knew the
+region better than any other living man, and whose interests did not
+lie with those of the Hudson's Bay Company and Great Britain.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Marcus Whitman.]
+
+The actor who now came upon the scene was Dr. Marcus Whitman, a man of
+great intelligence, courage, energy, and high purpose. He had been
+sent out by the American Board of Missions, in the year 1835, as one
+of the exploring delegates among the Indians in Oregon. Dr. Whitman
+soon made up his mind in regard to his life work. He returned to the
+East in the summer of 1836, married, and went back to Oregon,
+accompanied by his bride and by the Rev. H. H. Spaulding and wife.
+This was the beginning of the settlement of Northern Oregon.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Whitman's mission to the United States Government.]
+
+In some way, we know not exactly how, Dr. Whitman learned that the
+United States Government might be induced to sacrifice Northern Oregon
+in ignorance of its true value; and, in the latter part of the year
+1842, he set out from the mission on the Walla Walla to go to
+Washington and inform the Government of the real character of the
+country which he had explored. He arrived in Washington in March of
+1843, and gave President Tyler such full and truthful information
+concerning the great value of Oregon north of the Columbia as settled
+the fate of that region.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Whitman's colony.]
+
+Dr. Whitman had come also for another purpose. He saw clearly that the
+way to get Oregon was to colonize it. President Tyler's Administration
+supported him {316} in this view and purpose. The Administration
+caused Dr. Whitman's descriptions of Oregon to be printed and
+distributed throughout the United States, and also his offer to lead a
+colony to take possession of the country. The place of rendezvous
+appointed by him was Westport, near the site of the present Kansas
+City, and the time was June of 1843. Nearly a thousand people, with
+two hundred wagons, met him there, and were successfully led by him
+back to the Walla Walla. He arrived there with this large colony in
+October of 1843; and news of his safe arrival reached Washington in
+January of 1844.
+
+The decisive movement for the possession of Oregon was thus made.
+Claims based upon discovery, or treaty, or privileges for hunting,
+trapping, or trading, must all give way before actual colonization.
+British diplomacy was confused by the success of the movement, while
+the people of the United States were filled with pride and enthusiasm
+at the achievement.
+
+The moment had come, at last, when the United States could deal with
+Great Britain from the basis of actual conditions, instead of from the
+point of view of international theory. The connection of the Oregon
+question with the question of the annexation of Texas in the
+Democratic platform of 1844, was, therefore, by no means far fetched
+or artificial. It was, indeed, a clever stroke of practical politics,
+but it was suggested by existing conditions.
+
+[Sidenote: The Democratic party on the Oregon question.]
+
+The Democrats had struck a high note in the international questions,
+one which was bound to catch the ear of the younger men throughout the
+country. Moreover, the policy in both cases rested upon sound national
+principles. Texas, at least to the Nueces, and Oregon, at least to the
+northern water shed of the Columbia, belonged {317} geographically to
+the United States, and they were settled, so far as they were settled
+at all, by Anglo-Americans. On the other hand, the slaveholders of the
+South were not particularly pleased with the connection of the two
+questions. Some of them had already come to doubt whether the
+annexation of Texas alone would subserve their interests, since the
+slave population might be thereby drawn away from the border
+slaveholding Commonwealths, and these Commonwealths might then abolish
+slavery by their own several acts; and now that it must be paid for by
+the addition of a region to the Northern side, large enough to hold a
+dozen such Commonwealths as New York, the price appeared to them too
+great. Mr. Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina, the Minister to the
+Mexican Government, was decidedly of this opinion; and from an
+original friend of annexation he became a determined opponent. To the
+far-seeing mind, it was certainly very questionable whether the
+annexation of Texas would prove any advantage to the slavery interest,
+and it was certain that the possession of Oregon would not.
+
+But they would subserve, they have subserved, the interests of a true
+national development. The Democrats of 1844 builded better than they
+knew, when they made the "re-annexation of Texas and the re-occupation
+of Oregon" the issues of the campaign of that year. In the platform
+the Oregon question was given the precedence. The country, however,
+understood the stratagem, and the question of annexation assumed the
+foremost place in the great contest.
+
+
+
+
+{318}
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE "RE-ANNEXATION OF TEXAS AND THE RE-OCCUPATION OF OREGON"
+
+The Popularity of the Democratic Position, and Mr. Clay's Letter of
+August 16th--The Abolitionists Declare against Mr. Clay--The Triumph
+of Polk--Tyler's Recommendation to Annex Texas by a Joint Resolution
+or an Act--The Resolution for Annexation in the House of
+Representatives--Passage of an Enabling Act for Texas by the House of
+Representatives--The Resolution in the Senate, and Mr. Archer's
+Inconsistencies--The Senate's Amendment to the Resolution of the
+House--The Concurrence of the House in the Senate's Amendment, and the
+Passage of the Act for Admission--The British Proposition in Regard to
+Oregon--The American Proposition--Polk's recommendation in Regard to
+the Matter--The Debate upon the President's Recommendation--The
+Conclusion Reached by Congress--The President's Retort upon
+Congress--The Oregon Treaty.
+
+
+The language of the Democratic platform signified that Texas had been
+once annexed to the United States, as a part of Louisiana, by the
+Treaty of 1803 with France, and had been sacrificed by the Treaty of
+1819 with Spain, and that Oregon had been once occupied by the United
+States, either under the Treaty of 1803, or under that of 1819, or by
+the right of the prior discovery of the Columbia River and the
+establishment of a settlement upon its banks. It is thus that mortal
+men always seek to purge any movement which they undertake of the
+taint of innovation, no matter how justifiable in reason that movement
+may be.
+
+{319} [Sidenote: The popularity of the Democratic position, and Mr.
+Clay's letter of August 16th.]
+
+In the beginning of June, the election of Mr. Clay seemed a certainty.
+As the campaign wore on it became manifest that annexation was rapidly
+growing in the popular favor, and that Mr. Clay would lose some of his
+Southern support, unless the opinion which prevailed in that section
+concerning his opposition to annexation should be modified. With this
+in view, and under the belief that the state of feeling upon the
+subject at the North had become less hostile, Mr. Clay caused to be
+published in an Alabama newspaper, on August 16th, a letter defining
+again his attitude toward annexation.
+
+No sane and impartial mind can, at this day, see any material
+difference between the opinion expressed by Mr. Clay in his letter of
+April 17th, and that in his letter of August 16th. In the former, he
+took the ground that the United States ought not to annex Texas
+without the consent of Mexico, or against the decided opposition of a
+considerable and respectable portion of the Union. In the latter, he
+said he should be glad to see Texas annexed, if it could be done
+"without dishonor, without war, with the common consent of the Union,
+and upon just and fair terms." He added that he did not think the
+slavery question ought to enter into the consideration at all, that
+slavery was destined to become extinct in the United States, and that
+its duration would neither be lengthened nor shortened by the
+acquisition of Texas.
+
+[Sidenote: The Abolitionists declare against Mr. Clay.]
+
+The Abolitionists, however, could see the question only from a single
+point of view. They wanted Mr. Clay to say that the annexation of
+Texas meant permanent slavery extension, and that he opposed it upon
+that ground. They were not satisfied by Mr. Clay's causing another
+letter to be published, in the _National Intelligencer_, declaring
+that {320} his two former letters were entirely consistent with each
+other, and that he held inflexibly to the principles of the first one.
+They even went so far in their extravagant fanaticism as to represent
+to the people that Mr. Clay's election would be more favorable to
+annexation than that of Mr. Polk.
+
+[Sidenote: The triumph of Polk.]
+
+It is usually said that Mr. Clay's Alabama letter turned a sufficient
+number of votes to the Abolitionist candidate, Mr. Birney, to cause
+Mr. Clay to lose the electoral votes of New York and Michigan, and
+thus insured the election of Mr. Polk, and consequently the annexation
+of Texas and the War with Mexico. It is probably true that it did
+cause the loss of New York and Michigan, but it is possible that it
+held North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee in line. The failure of
+Mr. Clay is, therefore, more probably to be ascribed to Abolitionist
+fanaticism than to his own blundering. At any rate, this was the view
+held by Mr. Greeley, a very competent observer. He said that "the
+triumph of annexation was secured by the indirect aid of the more
+intense partisans of abolition."
+
+[Sidenote: Tyler's recommendation to annex Texas by a joint resolution
+or an act.]
+
+The result of the election was regarded as the plebiscite upon the
+question of annexation, and also upon the Oregon question, but more
+especially upon the former. In his message to Congress at the opening
+of the session of 1844-45, President Tyler informed Congress that,
+since the rejection of the Treaty for annexation by the Senate, Mexico
+had threatened to renew war against Texas, and prosecute the same by
+barbarous means and methods, and that he had caused the Minister of
+the United States to Mexico to inform the Mexican Government that the
+question of annexation was still before the American people, and that,
+until their decision had been pronounced, any serious invasion of
+Texas could not be {321} regarded by them with indifference. He
+declared that, in the late general election, the people had pronounced
+for immediate annexation; and he recommended that Congress should
+incorporate the terms of the late agreement for annexation into the
+form of an act or a joint resolution, which should be binding upon
+both parties when adopted in like manner by the Texan Congress. He
+also informed Congress that negotiations had been opened with Great
+Britain relative to the respective rights of the two Powers in, and
+over, the Oregon territory.
+
+[Sidenote: The resolution for annexation in the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+That part of the message relating to the question of annexation was
+referred, in the House of Representatives, to the committee on Foreign
+Affairs, and, on December 12th, Mr. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania,
+reported from that committee the draft of a joint resolution for the
+annexation of Texas. It was simply the articles of the agreement of
+April 12th preceding put into that form. The principal points of it
+were, the cession of the territory of Texas to the United States, the
+transfer of the public lands of Texas to the Government of the United
+States, the pledge of the United States to assume the debt of Texas up
+to ten millions of dollars, the guarantee of liberty and property to
+the citizens of Texas, now to be citizens of the United States, and
+the accordance of Commonwealth local government to Texas as soon as
+consistent with the Constitution of the United States.
+
+As we have seen, the President and Mr. Calhoun had thought that the
+proper way to annex a foreign state to the United States was by means
+of a treaty, in which the foreign state should cede its territory to
+the United States; and that the matter of local government for the
+ceded territory and its population would then be a question of
+legislation. We have also seen that the {322} opponents of the
+proposed Treaty in the Senate took the ground, among other things,
+that Texas was already a state, seeking admission into the Union as a
+"State" (Commonwealth), and that this could be effected only by an act
+of Congress. But now the opposition in the House of Representatives to
+the joint resolution, expressed in the very words of the proposed
+Treaty, declared that the resolution provided for a cession of
+territory by a foreign state to the United States, which cession could
+be made and accepted only through the form of a treaty. The House had
+never, however, committed itself to the view of the Senate, and the
+friends of the resolution wasted no time in demonstrating the
+inconsistency, but sought to so amend the resolution as to make it an
+act for the formation of a new Commonwealth, or, as it is usually
+phrased, an act for the admission of a new "State" into this Union.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of an enabling act for Texas by the House of
+Representatives.]
+
+On January 25th, 1845, the House passed a substitute for the
+committee's resolution, which substitute was a resolution for enabling
+the people of Texas to form a Commonwealth constitution and
+government, preparatory to admission into this Union, and prescribing
+certain conditions for the assent of Congress to the same.
+
+[Sidenote: The resolution in the Senate, and Mr. Archer's
+inconsistencies.]
+
+When this resolution reached the Senate, it was referred to the
+committee of that body for Foreign Affairs, and on February 4th, Mr.
+Archer, the chairman of the committee, presented a report from his
+committee, and a recommendation that the proposition from the House be
+rejected. The ground for this recommendation, as contained in the
+report, was that the House had undertaken to do by an act of Congress
+what could be done only by means of a treaty. And this was from that
+same Mr. Archer, who, on June 8th preceding, had opposed the {323}
+ratification of the Treaty, on the ground that what was proposed to be
+effected by a treaty could be done only by means of an act of
+Congress.
+
+[Sidenote: The Senate's amendment to the resolution of the House.]
+
+It was not to be expected that the Senate or the country would put up
+with any such inconsistent trifling. The Senators were, however, much
+concerned in preserving the treaty-making power of the Senate, and
+hesitated long, attempting to find the way out of the embarrassment,
+which they had prepared for themselves, by their attitude, during the
+preceding session, toward the proposed Treaty. At last, on February
+27th, Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, offered an apparent method of
+escape. He moved to amend the resolution sent from the House by the
+provision that, if the President should deem it more advisable to
+negotiate with Texas for her admission into the Union than to submit
+the joint resolution as an overture to her, he might do so, and then
+might submit the agreements, which might thus be made, either to the
+Senate to be approved of as a treaty, or to both Houses to be approved
+of as an act. Everybody knew, of course, that this was a mere
+subterfuge to save appearances, and that the President would
+immediately communicate the joint resolution to the Texan authorities.
+
+[Sidenote: The concurrence of the House in the Senate's amendment, and
+the passage of the measure for Admission.]
+
+The House of Representatives concurred in the Senate's amendment, and
+the President signed the measure on March 1st, 1845. He immediately
+submitted the resolution to the Texan authorities, and on December
+29th, 1845, Texas was formally admitted as a "State" into this Union.
+
+There is little question that the President and Mr. Calhoun were
+correct as regards the manner in which a foreign state should be
+annexed to the United States, but they can hardly be justly blamed or
+criticised for {324} following the method insisted upon by Congress as
+the constitutional form and prescript.
+
+[Sidenote: The British proposition in regard to Oregon.]
+
+[Sidenote: The American proposition.]
+
+In his first annual message President Polk informed Congress that when
+he came into office he found that Great Britain had proposed to settle
+the Oregon question by making the divisional line between the
+possessions of the two Powers, west of the Rocky Mountains, the
+forty-ninth parallel of latitude to the northeasternmost branch of the
+Columbia River, and, from this point, the course of the river to the
+Pacific; that his predecessor had refused this; that he himself had,
+upon invitation from the British plenipotentiary to make a
+proposition, offered the forty-ninth parallel from the Rocky Mountains
+to the Pacific, although he believed the claim of the United States to
+the territory up to the parallel of fifty-four degrees and forty
+minutes to be good; and that this proposition had been rejected by the
+British minister.
+
+[Sidenote: Polk's recommendation in regard to the matter.]
+
+The President further declared that all attempts to compromise with
+Great Britain had failed, and he recommended that Congress should give
+the notice, required by the convention of joint occupancy, for the
+termination of that agreement, as the first step toward asserting the
+power of the Government over the whole of Oregon. He also recommended
+the establishment of a line of posts along the Oregon route for the
+protection of emigrants to Oregon, and the immediate extension of the
+jurisdiction of the United States Government over the citizens of the
+United States in Oregon.
+
+This was distinct enough and belligerent enough. The Abolitionists and
+anti-slavery Whigs, who had been twitting the Administration with
+indifference about Oregon, now that Texas had been secured, could
+{325} certainly find no fault with the President's attitude toward the
+question. At any rate, it was a challenge to them which could not be
+ignored.
+
+[Sidenote: The debate upon the President's recommendation.]
+
+Both Houses entered immediately upon the discussion of the question of
+giving the notice. As the debate progressed the war fever became
+allayed, and the conviction grew that the claim to the line of
+fifty-four forty was extravagant. The majority, at least, saw that the
+claim by occupation and settlement was the right basis for the
+determination of the dispute, and that this claim would give the
+United States the territory only to the line of the northern watershed
+of the Columbia.
+
+This line does, indeed, reach at points above the forty-ninth
+parallel, but the fact that this parallel was already the divisional
+line between the possessions of the two Powers from the Great Lakes to
+the Rockies, and that the United States had already proposed to Great
+Britain the continuation of this line to the Pacific, produced the
+general feeling that the United States should be satisfied with the
+forty-ninth parallel as the northern boundary of Oregon, rather than
+risk war for the more northern line. Still, the opponents of the
+Administration had been so quick to charge the President with
+indifference to the acquisition of territory, upon which
+non-slaveholding Commonwealths would be established, that they were
+now fairly ashamed to lag behind him.
+
+[Sidenote: The conclusion reached by Congress.]
+
+Owing to the course taken by the Senate, Congress did not, however,
+come to any conclusion upon the recommendation of the President until
+April 23rd, 1846, and then, in the resolution finally passed, it
+almost emasculated the President's proposition. It empowered the
+President to give the notice, but explained that the purpose of the
+same was {326} to direct the attention of the two Governments toward
+the adoption of more earnest measures for the amicable settlement of
+the question, and it threw upon the President the responsibility as to
+the time of giving the notice, by placing that matter entirely within
+his discretion.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's retort upon Congress.]
+
+The President had already reopened negotiations with Great Britain
+upon the subject, and, on June 10th, he laid before the Senate a
+proposal, from the British Envoy, of the forty-ninth parallel for the
+boundary, and asked the Senate to advise him as to whether he should
+close with the offer. It was not customary to consult the Senate at
+this point of the negotiations, but there was precedent for it, and
+the letter of the Constitution appears to warrant it, and the
+President was determined to retort upon the Senate, for its action in
+the matter of the notice, by throwing the responsibility upon that
+body of sacrificing the claims of the United States to territory above
+the forty-ninth parallel. He plainly informed the Senate that he would
+reject the offer unless advised by it to accept.
+
+[Sidenote: The Oregon Treaty.]
+
+The Senate was fairly caught in its own net, and had the good sense to
+refrain from a resistance which would have been only an undignified
+floundering in meshes prepared by itself. On the 12th, the Senate
+advised the President to accept the British overture. On the 15th, the
+President signed the treaty, and, on the 18th, the Senate ratified it
+by a large majority.
+
+Not many realized, at the moment, that the extension of the
+sovereignty of the United States to the Pacific above the forty-second
+parallel of north latitude would require the like extension to the
+south of it. Once across the Rockies it was inevitable that the
+natural boundary in the southwest, as well as in the northwest, should
+be ultimately attained. It came sooner than anybody expected.
+
+
+
+
+{327}
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE WAR WITH MEXICO
+
+Slidell's Mission to Mexico--The Failure of the Mission--The
+Concentration of the Mexican Forces at Matamoras--The United States
+Forces Ordered to the Rio Grande--Hostilities Opened--The Battles of
+Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma--The Attitude of Congress toward the
+War--Congressional Approval of the War--The Occupation of New Mexico
+and Upper California, and the Advance into Mexico--California's
+Importance--The Battle of Buena Vista--Vera Cruz and Cerro
+Gordo--Contreras, San Antonio, and Cherubusco--The Plan for a Cession
+of Territory from Mexico--The Wilmot Proviso--The Fate of the Wilmot
+Proviso in the Senate--The Proviso Again Voted by the House of
+Representatives--The Upham Amendment in the Senate--The Amendment
+Defeated by the Efforts of Mr. Cass--The Wilmot Proviso Dropped in the
+House--The Mission of Mr. Trist--Rejection of Mr. Trist's Propositions
+by the Mexicans--Negotiations Broken off--Molino del Rey, Chapultepec,
+Mexico--The Recall of Mr. Trist, and the Treaty of Guadalupe
+Hidalgo--Ratification of the Treaty.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Slidell's mission to Mexico.]
+
+As we have seen, the Mexican Government had announced to the
+Government of the United States that the annexation of Texas would be
+regarded by Mexico as a _casus belli_. Consequently, as soon as the
+matter was concluded, the Mexican Envoy left Washington, and all
+diplomatic relations between the two Powers were suspended. Some six
+months later, President Polk made overtures for the resumption of
+these relations, and, upon meeting a somewhat friendly response,
+commissioned Mr. John Slidell, of Louisiana, to go to Mexico and
+negotiate a treaty, which should settle all the differences between
+the two Powers.
+
+{328} Mr. Slidell arrived at Vera Cruz on November 30th, 1845, and
+found that President Herrera's Administration was afraid to receive
+him, because the military or war party in Mexico, led by General
+Paredes, was greatly excited by the attitude of the Administration
+toward the United States, and threatened revolution. The Mexican
+Government actually refused audience to Mr. Slidell, on December 21st.
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of the mission.]
+
+Before the end of the year, President Herrera gave way to General
+Paredes, who assumed the presidency of the Republic, and, under
+direction from President Polk, Mr. Slidell announced himself to the
+new Administration. This was March 1st, 1846. On the 12th, he received
+the refusal of the Paredes Government to give him audience, and
+immediately left Mexico.
+
+[Sidenote: The concentration of the Mexican forces at Matamoras.]
+
+During the summer of 1845, the Mexican Government had begun to collect
+troops and munitions of war at Matamoras, on the south bank of the Rio
+Grande near its mouth. The purpose of all this was without question an
+expedition across the Rio Grande, and into the region north of it.
+
+By an act of the Texan Congress, of December 19th, 1836, the Rio
+Grande was designated as the southwestern boundary of Texas. The
+United States took Texas with this boundary, reserving in the
+resolution of annexation the right of adjusting the Texan boundaries
+with foreign states. This meant, of course, that the United States
+might change the boundary which Texas had given herself, as the result
+of her successful rebellion, her revolution, against Mexico, by an
+agreement with Mexico, in so far as Texas was concerned. It further
+meant that any such change must be made either by an act of the
+Congress of the United States or by a treaty between the United States
+and Mexico. Until, {329} however, this adjustment should take place,
+it was the duty of the President of the United States to defend the
+boundary with which Texas came into the Union. Moreover, Congress had
+passed an act, on December 31st, 1845, in which Corpus Christi, a town
+situated on the south side of the river Nueces, was made an United
+States port of delivery. The town was, also, the head-quarters of the
+United States army in Texas, and had been so from the period of
+annexation.
+
+[Sidenote: The United States forces ordered to the Rio Grande.]
+
+When now the Mexican Government refused to receive Mr. Slidell, and
+continued to increase the forces at Matamoras, President Polk felt it
+to be his duty to defend the line of the Rio Grande. On January 13th,
+he ordered General Taylor, then in command at Corpus Christi, to
+advance to the northern bank of the Rio Grande. The General, with his
+little army of about 2,000 men, arrived upon the Rio Grande, at a
+point opposite Matamoras, on March 28th, and began fortifying his
+position.
+
+[Sidenote: Hostilities opened.]
+
+On April 12th, the Mexican commander, General Ampudia, demanded the
+withdrawal of Taylor's forces within twenty-four hours, and their
+retirement across the Nueces, under threat of the appeal to arms.
+Taylor paid no attention to the demand, and, on the 24th, he received
+notice from General Arista, the successor of Ampudia, that hostilities
+were opened.
+
+[Sidenote: The battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.]
+
+On the same day, a reconnoitring party of United States dragoons
+encountered a large detachment of Mexican soldiers, who had just
+crossed the river farther up, and were all killed or captured. General
+Taylor moved out from Fort Brown, opposite Matamoras, in order to
+cover his base of supplies at Point Isabel, and, having accomplished
+this, faced about again to relieve Fort Brown against assault from
+Matamoras. {330} While executing this movement he found himself, on
+May 8th, face to face with a Mexican army numbering three times as
+many men as his own. Nevertheless, he inflicted a crushing defeat upon
+the Mexicans in this battle of Palo Alto, and struck them again the
+next day at Resaca de la Palma, routing them completely, and driving
+the remnants of this once apparently formidable force across the Rio
+Grande.
+
+As soon as the news of these events reached Washington, the President
+informed Congress of them, claimed that war existed by the act of
+Mexican invasion, and asked for the means for its successful
+prosecution.
+
+[Sidenote: The attitude of Congress toward the war.]
+
+From the reception of this message to the end of the War, the Whigs in
+both Houses condemned the War, but only a few of them voted against
+furnishing the means for its prosecution. Strangely enough, they were
+aided by Mr. Calhoun, who opposed the whole war policy from the
+beginning to the end. He even opposed recognizing the existence of
+war. He was getting old and more peaceable in disposition, and also
+had probably seen, with Mr. Thompson, that any further slavery
+extension toward the Southwest meant the extinction of slavery in the
+border Commonwealths, and the greater exposure of the planting section
+to the influences of Abolition. Some of the Whigs claimed that if war
+existed at all, it was offensive war, and that the President had
+exceeded his constitutional powers in bringing it on, and should be
+impeached for so doing.
+
+The truth of this proposition depended, of course, upon the
+recognition by the United States of Mexico's title to the territory
+between the Rio Grande and the Nueces, or, at least, upon the
+recognition of it as a free zone, a proposition difficult to reconcile
+with the Acts {331} of Congress annexing Texas, and extending the
+revenue laws of the United States over this very district. The fact
+is, it was a defensive war at the outset, and if the Mexicans were
+excited to their move across the Rio Grande by the appearance of
+United States troops on the northern bank, they had only to thank
+themselves for bringing them there by previously massing their own
+troops on the south bank.
+
+[Sidenote: Congressional approval of the war.]
+
+Of course the Abolitionists could see nothing in the matter but a
+wicked scheme for the extension of slavery. Their attitude was,
+however, too narrow and bigoted to win much attention. And, as the
+debate on the President's message progressed, it became manifest that
+all the elements of the opposition were getting deeper and deeper into
+the quicksands. The bill for recognizing the existence of war, and
+authorizing the President to call for 50,000 volunteers, and for
+appropriating $10,000,000 to defray the expenses of the campaign, was
+passed by an overwhelming majority, in both Houses, on May 11th and
+12th, and approved by the President on the 13th.
+
+The President was now, certainly, authorized to carry the War into
+Mexico, if, indeed, he needed Congressional authority, at all, after
+the war had been once begun as defensive war. At any rate, General
+Taylor's occupation of Matamoras did not occur until May 18th, six
+days after Congress had recognized war.
+
+[Sidenote: The occupation of New Mexico and Upper California, and the
+advance into Mexico.]
+
+The President now ordered General Kearny to occupy New Mexico,
+Commodores Sloat and Stockton to make sure of Upper California, and
+General Taylor to prosecute the war upon Mexican soil. Kearny, Sloat,
+and Stockton quickly accomplished the work assigned them, and without
+much difficulty, and Taylor advanced, in September, from Matamoras
+upon Monterey. After a {332} three days siege, he captured the place,
+on the 24th, and established winter-quarters within its walls.
+
+At the same time, General Kearny sent Colonel Doniphan with a
+detachment of his army to Monterey, by way of Chihuahua, and marched
+himself with another detachment to San Diego in California. Doniphan's
+capture of Chihuahua brought the entire southern valley of the upper
+Rio Grande under the military control of the United States, and
+Kearny's successful march into California secured that territory
+against all eventualities.
+
+[Sidenote: California's importance.]
+
+The occupation of California was the matter of most vital importance
+to the United States. It is the way to Asia. Its government by Mexico
+was a farce. It would have been purchased or seized by Great Britain,
+or some other commercial Power, if the United States had not taken
+possession of it. Nothing was known of its vast mineral wealth at the
+time. Mere greed, therefore, did not prompt the movement. It was a
+great and correct stroke of public policy, supported by geographical,
+commercial, and political reasons.
+
+Still Mexico would not yield, and the Administration at Washington now
+determined to carry the war into the very vitals of the Mexican state.
+The campaign against the Mexican capital, by way of Vera Cruz, was now
+resolved on, and General Scott was directed to execute it.
+
+Santa Anna, who had now arrived in Mexico again from Cuba, and had
+again taken up the reins of government, thought that the army of
+General Scott would be unable to capture Vera Cruz without a long and
+painful siege, and planned to advance rapidly from the capital with
+the main body of his army to the north, crush Taylor, and return to
+the capital before Scott could pass Vera Cruz.
+
+[Sidenote: The battle of Buena Vista.]
+
+On February 20th, 1847, General Taylor, whose advance was now some
+hundred miles to the southwest of {333} Monterey, suddenly discovered
+a large Mexican force in front of him. It was Santa Anna, with about
+twenty thousand of his best troops. Taylor ordered his little army of
+about five thousand men to retire for a few miles, and take position
+on the rising ground at Buena Vista. The Mexicans soon caught up, and
+on the 23rd, Santa Anna demanded unconditional surrender. Taylor
+promptly declined, and the battle immediately opened. Both sides knew
+the serious character of the wager. California, New Mexico, and,
+perhaps, a large part of Texas were staked upon the issue. Before the
+day closed, Taylor and his little army had won a complete victory, and
+the Mexicans were in full retreat, after the loss of some two thousand
+men. Taylor lost about eight hundred men. With this the campaign in
+the north was closed, and attention turned almost exclusively to the
+operations of General Scott.
+
+[Sidenote: Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo.]
+
+On March 9th, General Scott effected a landing near Vera Cruz, and on
+the 29th captured that city. He immediately took up his line of march
+for the city of Mexico.
+
+The first great difficulty which he was compelled to encounter was,
+naturally, the forcing of the mountain pass of Cerro Gordo, through
+which the national road from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico led.
+Santa Anna had gathered here an army of some fifteen thousand men, and
+had thrown up strong earthworks commanding the defile. On the morning
+of April 18th, General Scott stormed the heights of Cerro Gordo, and
+in a sanguinary battle routed the Mexicans completely. Some three
+thousand Mexicans were captured, with five thousand muskets and
+forty-three pieces of artillery. Scott's loss was not over four
+hundred men. Jalapa, Perote, and Puebla fell into his hands as the
+immediate consequences of this victory.
+
+{334} General Scott rested his army for two months at Puebla, and in
+the beginning of August resumed his march upon the capital, with an
+army of about eleven thousand men. On the 18th, he arrived within ten
+miles of the city, and found himself confronted by an army of nearly
+thirty thousand men, commanded by President Santa Anna himself.
+
+[Sidenote: Contreras, San Antonio, and Cherubusco.]
+
+On the morning of the 19th, the struggle began, and lasted through the
+20th. Three distinct battles were fought--Contreras, San Antonio, and
+Cherubusco. The Mexicans outnumbered Scott's army three to one, and
+fought desperately to save their capital, but all to no avail. After
+killing, wounding, and capturing between seven and eight thousand
+Mexicans, General Scott dispersed the remainder of their army and
+opened his way into the city. The General was willing, however, to
+save the proud Mexicans from the humiliation of seeing their capital
+in the hands of the invader, and agreed to an armistice for the
+purpose of negotiating a peace.
+
+[Sidenote: The plan for a cession of territory from Mexico.]
+
+On August 8th, 1846, President Polk had asked of Congress that two
+millions of dollars be placed at his disposal for use in negotiating a
+treaty of peace with Mexico. It was quite evident from this that the
+President was going to demand a large cession of territory from
+Mexico. Mexico had not yet paid any of the claims awarded by the
+Claims Commission of 1840 to the citizens of the United States. There
+were also millions of dollars of claims unadjudged. And then there was
+the war indemnity, which would undoubtedly be required. Two millions
+of dollars, in addition to all this, to be paid by the victorious
+party for peace, could mean nothing less, or other, than a vast
+territorial cession from the vanquished. It was evident to all that
+California and New Mexico, already in the possession of {335} the
+United States, must constitute the sacrifice which Mexico must make.
+
+[Sidenote: The Wilmot Proviso.]
+
+[Sidenote: The fate of the Wilmot Proviso in the Senate.]
+
+Mr. McKay, of North Carolina, immediately introduced into the House of
+Representatives a bill making the appropriation asked by the
+President. Discussion upon the bill was scarcely under way, when a
+Northern Democrat, a supporter of the War and of the policy of
+territorial extension, Mr. David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, moved to
+amend the bill by inserting in it the condition that neither slavery
+nor involuntary servitude should exist in any territory acquired by
+treaty from Mexico. The House passed the bill, with the Wilmot
+proviso, as it was termed, on the day of its introduction, August 8th.
+Territorial extension, but not slavery extension, was its principle,
+and therefore the South voted almost solidly against it. The bill
+appeared in the Senate on the 10th, which was the last day of the
+session, and was still under discussion when the hour for the
+adjournment of the body _sine die_ arrived. It was thought by some
+competent judges that the Senate would have passed the bill, if it had
+then come to a vote, and would have thus settled, at the outset, the
+question of slavery extension; but this is at least doubtful. At the
+moment, the South had four more votes in the Senate than the North,
+and it is probable that the Whig Senators from the South would have
+united with their Democratic brethren upon this question.
+
+[Sidenote: The Proviso again voted by the House of Representatives.]
+
+At the beginning of the session of 1846-47, the President again
+preferred his request for an appropriation for the same purpose, and
+during the month of January, 1847, bills were introduced into the two
+Houses, providing an appropriation of three millions of dollars for
+the President's use in his negotiations with Mexico.
+
+{336} When the House took up its bill for consideration, on February
+1st, Mr. Wilmot immediately asked permission to move the attachment of
+his proviso to the appropriation, and made a strong argument in favor
+of the same. On the 15th, the proviso was again voted, but by a
+reduced majority. The members from the South voted, this time, solidly
+against it. A few Northern Democrats voted with them; among these was
+Stephen A. Douglas.
+
+[Sidenote: The Upham amendment in the Senate.]
+
+[Sidenote: The amendment defeated by the efforts of Mr. Cass.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Wilmot Proviso dropped in the House.]
+
+On March 1st, Senator Upham, of Vermont, introduced an amendment to
+the Senate bill, of the same tenor as the Wilmot proviso in the House,
+and urged its adoption in a strong and convincing argument. It really
+seemed as if the victory for Free-soil in the new acquisitions,
+whatever they might be, was about to be won, when, to the surprise of
+at least a considerable number of the Senators, General Cass, of
+Michigan, who was thought to have indicated his favor to the Wilmot
+proviso at the last session, made a determined effort against Mr.
+Upham's motion. Mr. Cass declared the measure premature, and contended
+that its only effect, if passed, at the moment would be to weaken the
+Government by internal dissensions upon the slavery question, and
+consequently encourage the Mexicans to continue the War. He urged the
+Senators to stand solidly together for the vigorous prosecution of the
+War to its successful close, and then, after the peace, take up the
+internal questions arising out of the settlement. The Senate rejected
+Mr. Upham's amendment, passed the bill without it, and, on the last
+day of the session, the House accepted the bill as it passed the
+Senate. Mr. Cass's idea that the anti-slavery proviso would embarrass
+the President in his negotiations with Mexico, and would {337}
+encourage the Mexicans to continue the War seems to have convinced the
+House as well as the Senate.
+
+[Illustration: CALIFORNIA AND NEW MEXICO in 1850.]
+
+The President had now the tacit consent of Congress to the acquisition
+of California and New Mexico, and the means to pay for them in hand.
+And the greater military successes of General Scott from Vera Cruz to
+the Mexican capital prepared the way for the President to make use of
+his power.
+
+[Sidenote: The mission of Mr. Trist.]
+
+The President sent Mr. N. P. Trist, of Virginia, to the head-quarters
+of General Scott with the draft of a treaty to be offered the Mexican
+Government. It designated the Rio Grande from the Gulf to the point
+where the River touched the line of New Mexico as the boundary between
+Mexico and the United States from the Gulf to that point, and provided
+for the cession of New Mexico and the Californias to the United
+States, and the privilege of the right of way across the Isthmus of
+Tehuantepec. Mr. Trist was instructed, however, that he might withdraw
+the demands for Lower California and for the right of way across the
+Isthmus, and might also offer a payment of money, if he should find
+these things necessary.
+
+[Sidenote: Rejection of Mr. Trist's propositions by the Mexicans.]
+
+After the armistice of August 24th, the Mexican Government sent
+commissioners to meet Mr. Trist. They promptly rejected Mr. Trist's
+propositions, and offered, as their ultimatum, the Nueces boundary,
+the cession of Upper California above the thirty-seventh parallel of
+latitude for a pecuniary consideration, the payment by the United
+States of an indemnity for private injuries inflicted by the United
+States troops during the invasion, etc. Nothing, moreover, was said in
+their offer concerning the claims of the citizens of the United States
+against Mexico.
+
+[Sidenote: Negotiations broken off. Molino del Rey, Chapultepec,
+Mexico.]
+
+The proposals were so far apart, and the Mexicans {338} bore
+themselves with so much arrogance, that the negotiations were broken
+off, the armistice was terminated, and General Scott resumed military
+operations. On September 8th, he inflicted a crushing defeat upon the
+Mexicans at Molino del Rey. On the 13th, he stormed successfully the
+heights of Chapultepec and two gates of the city. And on the 14th, he
+captured the city.
+
+President Polk now recalled Mr. Trist, and informed Congress of the
+failure of the negotiations, at the same time intimating that the
+policy of the Administration would be war _a outrance_. The opposition
+to the Administration in Congress declared that the total
+dismemberment of the Mexican Republic was intended, and raised their
+voices against it. The outcry helped the Administration, in that it
+called the attention of the Mexicans to the great danger they were
+incurring in not accepting the terms of peace which had been offered
+them.
+
+[Sidenote: The recall of Mr. Trist, and the Treaty of Guadalupe
+Hidalgo.]
+
+Mr. Trist did not, however, return to the United States, but waited in
+and around the City of Mexico for something to turn up. It seems that
+he did not even acquaint the Mexican Government with the fact of his
+recall. In the latter part of January, 1848, the Mexican commissioners
+approached him, and, on February 2nd, they signed with him, at
+Guadalupe Hidalgo, a treaty of peace, which provided for the Rio
+Grande boundary between the two Powers, the cession of New Mexico and
+Upper California to the United States, the payment of $15,000,000 by
+the United States to Mexico, and the assumption by the United States
+of all the obligations of Mexico to citizens of the United States
+incurred before the conclusion of the Treaty.
+
+[Sidenote: Ratification of the Treaty.]
+
+Mr. Trist immediately took the proposed Treaty to {339} Washington,
+and President Polk immediately laid it before the Senate for
+ratification. After three weeks of determined opposition by Senators
+from both parties and both sections, ratification was voted by the
+requisite two-thirds majority, on March 16th, 1848. With this the
+whole political energy of the nation was turned away from the
+international question to the internal questions involved in the
+organization of the vast territorial empire upon the Pacific, which
+had now been added to the United States by the Treaties with Great
+Britain and Mexico.
+
+
+
+
+{340}
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE ORGANIZATION OF OREGON TERRITORY AND THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
+
+Bills for Oregon Territory--Thirty-six Degrees and Thirty Minutes to
+the Pacific--Mr. Rhett on the Rights of the South in the
+Territories--The Third Oregon Bill--The Party Platforms of 1848--The
+President Urges the Organization of California and New Mexico--Mr.
+Clayton's Attempt at Compromise--Passage of the Oregon Bill by
+Congress--The Free-soil Party in 1848--The President's Approval of the
+Oregon Bill--Gold and Silver in California--The Election of Taylor,
+and the Disaffection of the Northern Democrats--Plans for the
+Organization of California and New Mexico--The House Bill for the
+Territorial Organization of Upper California--Mr. Walker's Scheme in
+the House--Mr. Webster and Mr. Berrien on the Status of Slavery in the
+Territory Acquired from Mexico--Emigration to California--President
+Taylor's Scheme--The Convention at Monterey--The Policy of the
+Administration--The Policy of the Slavery Extensionists--The Elements
+of the Slavery Question in Congress--Mr. Clay's Plan of
+Compromise--Objections to Mr. Clay's Plan--California's Application
+for Admission--Mr. Calhoun's Last Speech--Mr. Webster's March 7th
+Speech--Mr. Bell's Proposition--The Death of Mr. Calhoun--Mr. Foote's
+Motion and the Committee of Thirteen--The Report and Recommendations
+of the Committee--The Debate Upon the Bills Proposed by the Committee,
+and the Failure to Pass Them--The Temper of the Country--The
+Succession of Fillmore and His Message of August 6th--The Passage of
+Bills, Separately, Covering All Questions Contained in Mr. Clay's
+Compromise Measures.
+
+
+[Sidenote: First bill for Oregon Territory.]
+
+On August 6th, 1846, Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, chairman of the
+committee on Territories, asked the House {341} of Representatives to
+consider a bill prepared by that committee for the organization of
+Oregon as a Territory. The House consented, and immediately upon the
+second reading of the bill, Mr. Thompson, of Pennsylvania, a Democrat
+and friend of the Administration, moved to amend the bill by the
+provision "that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever
+exist in said Territory, except for crimes, whereof the party shall
+have been duly convicted." The amendment was adopted by a very large
+majority, and the bill, as thus amended, was passed. On the following
+day, the bill was presented in the Senate, and referred by that body
+to its Judiciary committee, which committee did not report the bill
+during the session.
+
+[Sidenote: The second bill.]
+
+At the beginning of the next session, Mr. Douglas introduced a new
+bill for the same purpose. This bill virtually contained the Thompson
+amendment in the proviso that all the restrictions in the Ordinance of
+1787, in regard to the Northwest Territory, should apply to Oregon.
+
+[Sidenote: Thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes to the Pacific.]
+
+On January 12th, 1847, Mr. Burt, of South Carolina, moved to insert
+before this proviso the words, "inasmuch as the whole of the said
+Territory lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north
+latitude, known as the line of the Missouri Compromise." The purpose
+of this was, of course, to commit Congress and the North to that line
+to the Pacific. This was so evident that the Northern members voted
+the amendment down. We can, however, hardly charge the invention of
+this idea to the South Carolinian. On August 8th preceding, Mr. Wick,
+of Indiana, had moved to amend the Wilmot proviso, so as to make it
+read, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist, in
+any territory {342} acquired from Mexico _north of thirty-six degrees
+and thirty minutes_.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Rhett on the rights of the South in the Territories.]
+
+It was during the debate on this bill, just after Mr. Burt's amendment
+had been rejected, that Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, made his noted
+speech, in which the new view, which the South was now beginning to
+take upon the rights of the two sections in the Territories, was first
+pronounced. That view was, briefly expressed, that the "States" were
+joint owners of the Territories, and "co-Sovereigns" in them; that the
+general Government was only the agent of the "States" therein, and had
+only the power "to dispose of, and make all needful rules and
+regulations respecting the territory, or other property of the United
+States," from which power, the power to determine in what property
+should consist within the Territories could not be derived; and that
+the "ingress of the citizen" of any "State" into any Territory, "is
+the ingress of his Sovereign," his "State," who is bound to protect
+him in his settlement.
+
+Mr. Rhett qualified this conclusion by saying that it did not mean
+that each "State" should set up government in the Territories over its
+citizens immigrating into them, but that it meant that the citizens of
+each "State" should have equal right to enter the Territories and
+settle and occupy them with their property, with whatever was
+recognized as property by their respective "States." Stated more
+clearly, it meant that the general Government must execute the laws of
+each "State;" defining and protecting property, in each Territory of
+the Union--of each "State" from which citizens had emigrated into the
+Territory concerned--and must execute these several "State" laws over
+the immigrants from the several "States" separately.
+
+{343} In plain, blunt Anglo-Saxon, it meant that the general
+Government must recognize and protect, as property, in any Territory,
+anything which was so recognized and protected by any "State" of the
+Union. It meant the establishment of slavery in every Territory of the
+Union.
+
+This was a new doctrine in 1847, and it could not immediately prevail,
+but its appearance is a mark of the progress which the political
+system of the United States was making toward confederatism and
+dissolution.
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of the bill in the Senate.]
+
+The bill passed the House on January 16th, 1847, by a vote of nearly
+four to one, and was immediately sent to the Senate. The Senate
+referred it to its Judiciary committee. The committee reported on it,
+and the bill was laid on the table, the last day of the session.
+
+[Sidenote: The third Oregon bill.]
+
+During the next session, bills were introduced into both Houses for
+organizing Oregon as a Territory. On January 10th, 1848, Mr. Douglas,
+who had been transferred from the House to the Senate, presented in
+the Senate a bill for the organization of a Territorial government for
+Oregon, which provided, among other things, that the laws which the
+Oregon settlers had constructed for themselves should, in so far as
+they were compatible with the Constitution and laws of the United
+States, remain in force until the Territorial legislature should
+change them. These laws excluded slavery. Here was the germ of
+"squatter-sovereignty," afterward developed by Mr. Douglas in his
+Kansas-Nebraska bill.
+
+The House bill, containing substantially the same provision as the
+bill of the preceding session, was introduced on February 9th, 1848,
+but this time it met with much more opposition, and the discussion on
+it revealed the fact that Mr. Rhett's doctrine had, within the year,
+made many converts.
+
+{344} [Sidenote: The President urging action on the bill.]
+
+The bills were dragging along slowly in both Houses, when, on May
+29th, the President sent a special message to Congress urging
+immediate action on the subject. This gave some impetus to the
+proceedings in both Houses.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Hale's amendment.]
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Davis' amendment.]
+
+On May 21st, Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, moved to amend the Senate
+bill by a provision excluding slavery, and insisted upon the power and
+the duty of Congress to settle the question of slavery in the
+Territories, and to settle it in the interest of freedom. The debate
+in the Senate upon Mr. Hale's motion was long and acrimonious, during
+which the Southerners advanced to more and more radical ground, until
+Mr. Calhoun and his disciple, Mr. Jefferson Davis, expressed the same
+constitutional doctrine upon the subject of the extension of slavery
+to the Territories as Mr. Rhett had done, which was, in brief, that
+neither Congress nor the inhabitants of a Territory had any
+constitutional power to abolish slavery in, or exclude it from, a
+Territory. On June 23rd, Mr. Davis moved to amend the Oregon bill by
+the provision that nothing in the bill should be so construed as to
+authorize the prohibition of domestic slavery in said Territory while
+it remained in the condition of a Territory. The direct contradiction
+between the two amendments expressed, at last, the difference of
+attitude now assumed between the North and the South upon the question
+of the extension of slavery.
+
+[Sidenote: The party platforms of 1848.]
+
+It cannot be said, however, that it represented the difference of
+attitude of the two great parties upon the subject. The National
+conventions of these parties for the nominations of candidates for the
+presidency had just been held. The convention of the Democratic party
+had refused to insert the declaration in its platform that Congress
+had no {345} power to interfere with slavery in the Territories, in
+spite of the fact that the candidate nominated by it, General Cass,
+had acknowledged a leaning to something akin to that view, some five
+months previous, in a letter to Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, which was
+probably intended for circulation in the South. The exact wording of
+Mr. Cass' letter does not warrant us in representing him as holding to
+anything more, at that time, than that it was sound policy for
+Congress to leave the matter of the admission of slavery to, or its
+exclusion from, the Territories to the people of the Territories
+themselves. It was hardly time for Northern men to take the view of
+Congressional impotence in the matter held by Messrs. Rhett, Calhoun,
+and Davis.
+
+On the other hand, the convention of the Whig party had refused to
+make the principle of the Wilmot proviso a plank in its platform, in
+fact had dodged the whole question of principles by adopting no
+platform at all, and by nominating a military man, with no political
+record at all, for its candidate, the old hero of Buena Vista, General
+Taylor.
+
+The contradiction of view upon the question of the extension of
+slavery to the Territories was, thus, not one between the parties, but
+one between the sections. The parties were yet to be transformed by
+the differences between the sections. That this was to be the outcome
+no far-seeing eye ought then to have failed to perceive.
+
+[Sidenote: The President urges the organization of California and New
+Mexico.]
+
+For a fortnight more the confusion produced by the contradictory
+propositions of Mr. Hale and Mr. Davis paralyzed the efforts of the
+Senate to pass the Oregon bill, when, on July 6th, 1848, the President
+sent a special message to Congress urging the immediate organization
+of Territorial governments for California and New Mexico, {346} which
+were still under the military regime established at the time of their
+occupation.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Clayton's attempt at compromise.]
+
+It appeared to some of the Senators that here was now offered the
+opportunity for settling the whole question of the extension of
+slavery to the Territories, by compromise; and, on July 12th, Mr.
+Bright, of Indiana, moved to refer the whole matter of the
+organization of Territorial governments in Oregon, California, and New
+Mexico, to a select committee, composed of four Whigs and four
+Democrats, two of each party from the North and the South,
+respectively. Mr. Bright's motion was in the form of an amendment or
+suggestion to a motion made by Mr. Clayton, that the Oregon bill be
+referred to such a committee. Mr. Clayton accepted Mr. Bright's
+modification of his motion, and the Senate immediately voted the
+resolution, and appointed the committee, with Mr. Clayton as chairman.
+
+On the 18th, Mr. Clayton reported the bill from his committee, which
+provided for the organization of Oregon, with its existing
+anti-slavery laws, and with the recognition of the power to the
+Territorial legislature to change them; and for the organization of
+California and New Mexico, referring the question of the legality of
+slavery in them to the Territorial courts, with appeal to the Supreme
+Court of the United States, as a constitutional question. That is, the
+proposition with reference to slavery in California and New Mexico
+was, that slaveholders might take their slaves into these Territories
+upon their own responsibility, and that if any slaveholder should be
+disturbed in the possession of his slave, he might bring an action in
+the Territorial courts against the party disturbing him, with the
+right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, which final
+tribunal should determine the question as a matter {347} of
+constitutional law, and, therefore, upon its own independent
+interpretation of the Constitution.
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of Mr. Clayton's bill in the Senate, and rejection
+of it in the House.]
+
+The Senate debated this bill for a week, during which time the flimsy
+character of the makeshifts became painfully apparent. The Senate
+passed the bill, however, on the 26th, and sent it to the House.
+
+The House rejected it, and proceeded with its own bill, and, on August
+2nd, passed the latter by a strict sectional vote, and sent it to the
+Senate for concurrence.
+
+[Sidenote: The House bill in the Senate, and Mr. Douglas' amendment.]
+
+[Sidenote: Passage of the Oregon bill by Congress.]
+
+On the 10th, the Senate passed this bill, with an amendment, proposed
+by Mr. Douglas, extending the Missouri Compromise line of thirty-six
+degrees and thirty minutes to the Pacific. The House immediately
+rejected the amendment, and the Senate was compelled to recede, or let
+Oregon go without Territorial government. It wisely voted, on the
+12th, to recede from its amendment, and passed the bill, with the
+Congressional prohibition of slavery, and without compromise as to the
+settlement of the slavery question in California and New Mexico. Among
+the Senators who changed their votes upon the amendment were Douglas
+from the North, and Benton and Houston from the South.
+
+[Sidenote: The Free-soil party in 1848.]
+
+The feeling aroused outside of Congress by the contest within the body
+was most intense, and had, for its permanent result the organization
+of the Anti-slavery-extension party. It called itself then the
+"Free-soil" party. It held a National convention at Buffalo, New York,
+on August 9th, and nominated Mr. Van Buren for the presidency, on a
+platform which distinctly affirmed the power of Congress to exclude
+slavery from the Territories, and its duty to exercise the power. Here
+was, at last, the {348} principle and the party of the future. Those
+who composed it held to the Union and the Government, vindicated the
+national character of both, and while they denied none of the
+constitutional rights of the Southern Commonwealths, and none of the
+compromises of the Constitution with the slaveholders, yet they
+refused to allow the great evil under which the country suffered to
+spread into regions uncontaminated by it.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's approval of the Oregon bill.]
+
+The President signed the Oregon bill, on August 14th, for the reason,
+he said, among other reasons, that it preserved the principle of the
+Missouri Compromise, making the territory north of thirty-six degrees
+and thirty minutes free soil. And in his message of December 5th,
+following, he urged the speedy organization of California and New
+Mexico, either upon that principle, or upon the principle of
+non-interference by Congress with the question of slaveholding in
+them, or upon the basis of an appeal of the question to the Supreme
+Court of the United States, which body should interpret the
+Constitution upon the subject. He said he believed the first way
+contained the true principle, and was the fair thing, but that he was
+willing to proceed in either of the other two ways.
+
+[Sidenote: Gold and silver in California.]
+
+At the same time, the President gave official verification to the
+rumors of the discovery of great quantities of gold and silver in
+California, which quickened the emigration of the bold and adventurous
+spirits from all parts of the country to the new El Dorado.
+
+[Sidenote: The election of Taylor, and the disaffection of the
+Northern Democrats.]
+
+[Sidenote: Plans for the organization of California and New Mexico.]
+
+The temper of Congress against slavery extension was even stronger in
+the session of 1848-49, than in the preceding session. The Whig
+majority in the House of Representatives remained, and now came a
+support to the anti-slavery-extension principle of the Northern {349}
+Whigs from Northern Democrats, which had not been before accorded. The
+elections of 1848 had greatly surprised the Northern Democrats. The
+Whig candidate, General Taylor, carried a majority of the Southern
+Commonwealths, and was chosen President. The Democrats of the North
+considered that they had been left in the lurch by the Democrats of
+the South, and came to the session of 1848-49 with revenge in their
+hearts. They were disposed to join hands with the Northern Whigs
+against the extension of slavery into any more of the Territories of
+the Union. This spirit was, however, far more manifest in the House of
+Representatives than in the Senate. On December 11th, 1848, Mr.
+Douglas brought into the Senate a plan for avoiding the question in
+respect to slavery in California and New Mexico, by immediately
+erecting the whole of the territory acquired from Mexico into a single
+Commonwealth, and reserving the right to Congress to create new
+Commonwealths in that part of this territory lying east of the Sierra
+Nevada Mountains. This proposition was referred to the Judiciary
+committee for report; but before the report was presented Mr. Smith,
+of Indiana, chairman of the committee on Territories, brought in bills
+for the organization of Upper California and New Mexico, with the
+slavery restriction of the Ordinance of 1787 in them. On January 9th,
+1849, Mr. Berrien, chairman of the Judiciary committee, reported
+adversely upon Mr. Douglas' proposition, on the grounds, alleged by
+him, that Congress could not create a Commonwealth, but could only
+admit a Commonwealth into the Union after it had been created by the
+sovereign act of the people residing in it, for the performance of
+which act the status of Territorial organization was necessary, and
+that Congress could never {350} constitutionally disconnect from any
+Commonwealth any portion of its territory for the purpose of forming
+it into another Commonwealth, without the consent of the Commonwealth
+itself.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' plan.]
+
+Mr. Douglas immediately modified his bill so as to meet the latter
+objection; and on January 24th, offered a substitute for his former
+proposition, which provided for a Commonwealth of California that
+would not quite cover the territory which the Mexicans included under
+the title of the Province of Upper California. On Mr. Douglas' own
+motion, this proposition was referred to a select committee, of which
+he was appointed chairman; and, on the 29th, he reported a bill from
+the committee for forming the territory acquired from Mexico into two
+Commonwealths, to be called California and New Mexico; but the Senate
+showed so much opposition to the project that it was dropped. More
+than half the session had now passed, and the Senate appeared to be
+farther than ever from any consensus in regard to what should be done
+for California and New Mexico. It was a serious condition of things.
+The inhabitants of these Territories were importunately demanding the
+establishment of civil government over them for the protection of
+life, liberty, and property, and Congress was apparently to do nothing
+for them during the current session.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Walker's expedient.]
+
+On February 19th, Mr. Walker, of Wisconsin, came forward in the Senate
+with an expedient. He moved to attach to the Civil and Diplomatic
+Appropriation Bill a provision for extending the Constitution, and the
+laws of the United States naturally applicable, over all the territory
+acquired from Mexico, and for authorizing the President to make all
+needful rules and regulations, and to appoint civil officials, for
+their execution. The Senate passed this amendment, {351} and sent the
+Appropriation Bill thus modified back to the House for concurrence.
+
+[Sidenote: The House bill for the Territorial organization of Upper
+California.]
+
+Meanwhile the bill in the House for the Territorial organization of
+Upper California, with the slavery prohibition clause in it, was
+proceeding through a most exciting debate, but with increasing
+prospect of final passage. On February 27th, it was passed, by an
+almost sectional vote, and sent to the Senate. The Senate referred it
+to its committee on Territories, and there it slept as in "the tomb of
+all the Capulets."
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Walker's scheme in the House.]
+
+On March 1st, the House took up the Senate's amendment to the Civil
+and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill, and referred it to the committee on
+Ways and Means. This committee reported, on March 2nd, an amendment to
+the Senate's amendment, which provided for the continuance of the
+status of military possession and of the Mexican laws in all the
+territory acquired from Mexico, until six months after the close of
+the next session of Congress. The purpose of this amendment was the
+continuance of the Mexican law excluding slavery. The House did not,
+however, adopt this proposition, but sent the Appropriation Bill back
+to the Senate stripped of the Senate's amendment. The Senate asked a
+conference upon the subject, which was granted by the House, but the
+Conference committee could come to no agreement.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Webster and Mr. Berrien on the status of slavery in the
+territory acquired from Mexico.]
+
+The House now passed the proposition of the Ways and Means committee,
+slightly modified in form, and sent it to the Senate. Mr. Webster
+moved concurrence with the House in this proposition, and said that it
+meant no more than the existing status, which would continue if
+nothing were done. Mr. Berrien contended, on the contrary, that only
+the private law of the ceding country, {352} the law regulating the
+relations between individuals, remains in force in the territory
+ceded, until changed by the positive acts of the country receiving the
+cession; that the public law of the receiving country is extended at
+once, by virtue of the occupation, over the cession; and that slavery
+was a part of the public law of the United States, since both the
+system of taxation and that of representation rested in part upon it.
+Mr. Berrien concluded from these postulates of international and
+constitutional law that, if Congress did nothing in the premises, the
+President would continue to administer, by means of his military
+officials, the private law of Mexico, and the public law of the United
+States, in the territory acquired from Mexico, and that this would
+allow slaveholders to take their slaves into this territory, and hold
+them in slavery; but that if Congress, by a positive enactment, should
+adopt the Mexican laws, _en bloc_, for this territory, slavery would
+be thereby excluded from it. In a word, he demonstrated, or thought he
+did, that the proposition of the House of Representatives contained
+the principle of the Wilmot proviso. The Senate was so deeply
+impressed by Mr. Berrien's argument, and so much opposition to the
+proposition of the House was manifested, that Mr. Webster offered to
+withdraw his motion, if the Southerners would agree to recede from the
+Senate's amendment. The bargain was struck, and the Thirtieth Congress
+expired without having done anything for the governmental organization
+of California and New Mexico, and without having advanced, in the
+slightest measure, toward the solution of the fateful question of
+slavery extension in the vast empire conquered from Mexico.
+
+[Sidenote: Emigration to California.]
+
+The official announcement made by President Polk of the mineral wealth
+of California had increased the excitement for emigration thither to a
+fever, and by the {353} close of the spring of 1849, California had a
+population within her provincial limits numerous enough, according to
+prevailing conceptions, to make a Commonwealth.
+
+[Sidenote: President Taylor's scheme.]
+
+The new President, Taylor, thought that all further controversy about
+the Territorial organization of California might now be avoided, by
+skipping the Territorial period and status altogether, and organizing
+California immediately as a Commonwealth. He sent a commissioner to
+examine the situation on the ground and make report. Whether the
+commissioner imparted the President's scheme to General Riley, the
+military Governor, or not, we are not informed. We have good reason,
+however, to suspect it, since Riley immediately issued a call for a
+convention of the people of California to frame a Commonwealth.
+
+[Sidenote: The convention at Monterey.]
+
+The people quickly responded by choosing delegates, and the delegates
+met at Monterey on September 1st, 1849. By October 13th, their work
+was completed, and the organic law which they drafted was ratified by
+the people, on November 13th. One of its provisions was the
+prohibition of slavery. The filling up of California by immigration
+had been too sudden for the holders of slaves to take part in the
+movement. It was accomplished, it could be accomplished, only by bold,
+alert, shrewd adventurers, untrammelled by families or stupid African
+retainers. It was reported that every delegate in the convention voted
+for the prohibition of slavery, and the people ratified the instrument
+containing it by a vote of fifteen to one.
+
+[Sidenote: The policy of the Administration.]
+
+The President informed Congress, in his message of December 4th, 1849,
+of the proceedings in California, and manifested his desire to admit
+California into the Union at once. He also predicted that the people
+of {354} New Mexico would soon follow the example of the Californians.
+The policy of the Administration in reference to this question was
+thus clearly defined, and was, whether intentional or not, a policy
+favorable to the prohibition of slavery in both California and New
+Mexico. The slaveholders, or rather the slavery extensionists,
+regarded the President's position as treachery to his section.
+
+[Sidenote: The policy of the slavery extensionists.]
+
+The policy of the slavery extensionists was to organize California and
+New Mexico as Territories, without the prohibition of slavery in them,
+giving thus time and opportunity for slaveholders to settle in them,
+with their slaves, and, when the time should come for the formation of
+Commonwealth governments in them, to vote an organic law perpetuating
+slavery. This policy was manifested anew in the bill introduced into
+the Senate, on the last day of December, 1849, by Mr. Foote, of
+Mississippi, for the organization of the entire Mexican cession into
+three Territories--California, Deseret or Utah, and New Mexico.
+
+[Sidenote: The elements of the slavery question in Congress.]
+
+The slavery question in Congress had now come, however, to include
+more than the matter of the governmental organization of the territory
+acquired from Mexico. There was, in the first place, the question of
+the Texas boundary, in that, by the Joint Resolution annexing Texas,
+the adjustment of that boundary, as regarded foreign states, at least,
+was reserved to Congress. Texas, as we know, claimed the Rio Grande
+from mouth to source, and thence the longitude to the forty-second
+parallel of latitude as her southwestern and western boundary. She
+came into the Union with a law on her statute book asserting this
+boundary. The Treaty with Mexico, recognizing the line of the Rio
+Grande to the {355} limits of New Mexico, and ceding New Mexico, made
+the question of the Texan boundary a purely internal question for the
+United States, if it was any longer a question. The Abolitionists and
+anti-slavery-extensionists wanted to reduce Texas in area, since
+slavery was established by the law of the Commonwealth throughout its
+entire extent. They therefore interpreted the Resolution of annexation
+as reserving that power to Congress, even after the question had
+become purely internal. The slavery extensionists, on the contrary,
+contended that the power reserved to Congress in reference to the
+Texan boundary was now obsolete, since it expressly related only to
+the adjustment of the same with Mexico, and that had been accomplished
+by the Treaty. Then, there was the war debt of Texas, which was justly
+a charge upon the United States--although the Resolution of annexation
+repudiated it--since it was hypothecated upon revenue, the proceeds
+from which were being covered into the United States Treasury, the
+customs collected in the Texan ports. And, then, there was the
+question of the rendition of fugitive slaves, since the execution of
+the existing law, that of 1793, in regard to this matter, had been
+rendered so difficult by the movements of the Abolitionists, after
+1835, as to make a more strenuous measure necessary, unless the
+slaveholders would abandon their constitutional rights to the
+rendition of their escaped slaves. And, lastly, there was the
+ever-recurring question of slavery and the slave-trade in the District
+of Columbia, which was still clamoring for a hearing.
+
+Already, before the closing week of January, 1850, had bills been
+brought forward, both in the Senate and in the House, touching all of
+these subjects, except, perhaps, the last, when, on the 29th, Mr. Clay
+came forward with his famous proposition for the adjustment of them
+all in one grand scheme.
+
+{356} [Sidenote: Mr. Clay's plan of compromise.]
+
+This proposition provided, in the first place, for the immediate
+admission of California as a Commonwealth, with suitable boundaries,
+and without any restrictions as to slavery; in the second place, for
+the establishment of Territorial governments in all of the remainder
+of the Mexican cession, without any restrictions as to slavery; in the
+third place, for fixing the western boundary of Texas, so as to
+exclude any portion of New Mexico; in the fourth place, for the
+assumption of the Texan debt contracted before annexation and
+hypothecated upon the Texan customs, on condition of the
+relinquishment by Texas of all claims on New Mexico; in the fifth
+place, for the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of
+Columbia, in slaves brought into the District from the outside for the
+purpose of sale; and in the sixth place, for a more effective law for
+the rendition of fugitive slaves. The resolutions also contained
+declarations that slavery did not then exist in any of the territory
+acquired from Mexico, and that Congress had no power to prohibit or
+obstruct trade in slaves between the slaveholding Commonwealths.
+
+[Sidenote: Slaveholders' objections to Mr. Clay's plan.]
+
+In spite of the fact that Mr. Clay asked the Senators to consider his
+propositions carefully before committing themselves, and suggested
+that they should lay over for a week, the Southern Senators
+immediately proceeded to attack the plan at several points. They
+objected to California being allowed to jump the Territorial period of
+probation and preparation for Commonwealth government. They declared
+Mr. Clay's dictum about the existing illegality of slavery in the
+territory acquired from Mexico to be an assumption, and asserted that
+slavery was legal everywhere in the United States, unless a positive
+law forbade it. They vindicated the claims of Texas to the boundaries
+designated by the Act of the Texan {357} Congress in 1836. And while
+some of them were not decidedly opposed to the abolition of the
+slave-trade in the District of Columbia, most of them deprecated
+meddling with the subject at all, and wanted to substitute for Mr.
+Clay's proposition on the subject a declaration of the lack of any
+power in Congress to deal with slavery in the District. The
+improvement of the fugitive slave-law was about the only thing in the
+entire plan which met with their approval. Mr. Jefferson Davis said
+outright that he wanted a positive recognition from Congress of the
+legality of slavery in the new territory south of the parallel of
+thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes.
+
+[Sidenote: Anti-slavery objections to Mr. Clay's plan.]
+
+On the other hand, the Abolitionists and the
+anti-slavery-extensionists insisted upon the immediate admission of
+California, with its anti-slavery constitution; upon the insertion of
+the principle of the Wilmot proviso in the Territorial organization of
+the remainder of the acquisition from Mexico; upon the contraction of
+the Texan limits, without any compensation to Texas; upon the
+abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, and a
+declaration of the power of Congress to deal with slavery in the
+District; and upon a jury trial, at the place of apprehension, for
+every claimed fugitive from labor.
+
+[Sidenote: California's application for admission.]
+
+The contradiction between these views appeared irreconcilable. We may
+say, however, that a start toward an approach was caused by the
+transmission of California's application to Congress for admission, as
+a Commonwealth, into the Union.
+
+This happened on February 13th. On the following day, Mr. Douglas
+moved to take up the President's message accompanying the application,
+and thus to consider the California question separately from the
+others. Mr. Clay agreed to this. Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, scolded
+Mr. Clay for thus betraying the South, but the {358} Southerners were
+made to feel that they must modify their opposition to Mr. Clay's
+plan, if they desired to avoid something like this.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Calhoun's last speech.]
+
+On March 4th, Mr. Calhoun made his last great speech upon the whole
+political situation, its threatening character, and its possible
+rectification. He was too feeble to pronounce it himself, and it was
+read for him by Senator Mason. Mr. Calhoun's propositions were, that
+the Union was endangered; that the immediate cause of the danger was
+the universal discontent prevailing in the South from the feeling that
+the South could no longer remain with safety and honor in the Union;
+and that the cause of this feeling was the fact that the balance of
+power between the two sections of the country in the Government was
+gone, and the stronger section was endeavoring to make the Government
+an unlimited centralized democracy, and use it for interfering in the
+internal affairs of the weaker, and for absorbing the substance, as
+well as destroying the rights, of the weaker.
+
+He suggested as remedies for the evils, which he thought existed and
+impended, an equal division of the territory to the Pacific between
+the North and the South, an amendment to the Constitution restoring
+the balance of power between the two sections, proper laws for the
+rendition of fugitives from labor, and cessation of the agitation of
+the slavery question.
+
+What should be the provisions of the amendment, restoring the balance
+of power in the Government, and how the cessation of the agitation
+could be compelled, were not explained. It was not easy to see how
+these points could be advanced beyond the position of general
+propositions. It was, however, a great and solemn presentation of the
+whole question, and it made a great impression.
+
+{359} [Sidenote: Mr. Webster's March 7th speech.]
+
+On March 7th, Mr. Webster made his famous speech, giving his great
+influence to pacification and compromise, and to the preservation of
+the Constitution. He told the Northerners that they were bound by the
+agreement with Texas to admit four new Commonwealths from Texan
+territory, under the usual conditions; that they were bound by the
+Constitution to deliver up fugitive slaves; and that since nature had
+made slavery impossible in California and New Mexico, they ought not
+to irritate the Southerners by demanding a Congressional prohibition
+of slavery therein. He told the Southerners, on the other hand, that
+they should desist from denying to citizens from Northern
+Commonwealths, temporarily within the jurisdiction of Southern
+Commonwealths, the rights of citizens. And he told the Abolitionists
+that they should measure their ideas of right, in some degree at
+least, by the standard of the common consciousness of the country, and
+modify them, in some degree, thereby. His words were received with
+great satisfaction by all moderate and prudent men. Of course, they
+did not satisfy the extremists, either in the North or the South, but
+they settled the minds of many who were wavering, and moved the work
+of temporary pacification, at least, several stages onward.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Bell's proposition.]
+
+During the course of the debate upon Mr. Clay's resolutions, and
+before the great efforts either of Mr. Calhoun or Mr. Webster, Mr.
+Bell, of Tennessee, had offered some propositions, looking to the
+admission of California as a Commonwealth, and to the formation of
+Territorial government for New Mexico. On the day after Mr. Webster's
+great speech, Mr. Foote moved the reference of Mr. Bell's resolutions
+to a select committee of thirteen members. No vote, however, was
+immediately taken, but the debate upon {360} both sets of resolutions
+dragged on from day to day, and was made more complicated by the
+introduction of a bill from the committee on Territories, providing
+for the immediate admission of California, and the formation of
+Territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah.
+
+[Sidenote: The death of Mr. Calhoun.]
+
+On March 31st, Mr. Calhoun passed away. The announcement of his death,
+the eulogies pronounced upon his memory, and the funeral rites, were
+most solemn and impressive occasions. The influence of the sad event
+seemed, for the moment, to soften the hearts of those who had
+associated with him toward one another. It seemed as if political foes
+would be willing to join hands across his bier.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Foote's motion and the Committee of Thirteen.]
+
+On April 11th, Mr. Mangum, of North Carolina, moved to refer the
+resolutions of Mr. Clay, along with those of Mr. Bell, to the
+committee suggested by Mr. Foote. Mr. Foote accepted Mr. Mangum's
+motion as an amendment to his own. After a most determined opposition
+by Senator Benton to Mr. Foote's motion, during which temper rose so
+high that Mr. Benton threatened to cudgel Mr. Foote, and Mr. Foote
+actually drew a pistol upon Mr. Benton, both in the course of the
+debate in the Senate chamber, Mr. Foote's motion was passed. On the
+next day, April 19th, the members of the committee were chosen by
+ballot. They were Mr. Clay, Mr. Bell, Mr. Berrien, Mr. Bright, Mr.
+Cass, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Downs, Mr. King, Mr. Mason, Mr.
+Mangum, Mr. Phelps, and Mr. Webster. Seven members, including the
+chairman, Mr. Clay, were from the South and six from the North.
+
+[Sidenote: The report and recommendations of the committee.]
+
+On May 8th, Mr. Clay made the report, and offered the bills, from the
+grand committee, covering all the {361} subjects referred. The first
+bill provided for the admission of California, with the Commonwealth
+organization formed by her people the preceding autumn; for the
+Territorial organization of Utah and New Mexico, without any slavery
+restriction, and with restrictions upon the Territorial legislatures
+against passing any acts in regard to slavery; for fixing the northern
+boundary of Texas upon a line drawn from a point on the Rio Grande
+twenty miles above El Paso to the point on the Red River where the
+line of the one hundredth degree of longitude intersects this river;
+for quit-claiming, so to speak, to Texas the claims of the United
+States to the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande; and for
+paying Texas a sum of money, in consideration of the discharge of the
+United States from all obligations to pay the Texan debt, and of the
+surrender of all claims by Texas to country north of the northern
+boundary as fixed in the bill.
+
+The second bill provided that a fugitive from labor must be delivered
+up on the order of any judge or commissioner of the United States
+authorized by the laws of the United States so to act, and that such
+judge or commissioner was authorized to issue such order on
+presentation to him, by the claimant of the fugitive, of a copy of the
+record of a competent court in the Commonwealth, Territory, or
+District from which the fugitive was said to have escaped, before
+which the facts of ownership, identity, and escape had been
+satisfactorily proven. The judge or commissioner issuing such order
+was required, in case the fugitive declared himself to be a free man,
+to demand of the claimant of the fugitive a bond, with surety, for
+$1,000, pledging the claimant to accord the fugitive a trial by jury
+of the question of his freedom, in a competent court of the
+Commonwealth, {362} Territory, or District from which he was said to
+have escaped.
+
+The third bill provided for the abolition of the slave-trade in the
+District of Columbia, and for the liberation of any slave brought into
+the District for the purposes of sale or depot.
+
+[Sidenote: The debate upon the bills proposed by the committee, and
+the failure to pass them.]
+
+The debate began immediately upon the first bill, and the opposition
+to it from both sections advanced about the same arguments as were
+employed against these same subjects when presented in the form of Mr.
+Clay's resolutions. The discussion continued through May, June, and
+July, until, at the end of July, nothing remained of the bill but that
+part of it which provided for the Territorial organization of Utah.
+The general plan of the compromise was lost.
+
+[Sidenote: The temper of the country.]
+
+The whole country was amazed, disappointed, and angry. The Senators
+were quickly and decidedly made to feel that they dare not separate
+without doing something to heal the distractions of the land.
+
+[Sidenote: The succession of Fillmore and his message of August 6th.]
+
+The death of President Taylor, on July 9th, and the accession of Mr.
+Fillmore, made the Administration more favorable to the measures
+included in the compromise plan. On August 6th, he communicated to
+Congress the fact that the Governor of Texas, P. H. Bell, in execution
+of an act of the Texas legislature, was extending the jurisdiction of
+Texas over the disputed territory on the eastern border of New Mexico,
+and that the President, as military Governor, in highest instance, of
+New Mexico, felt obliged to resist the movement, and that he had
+informed the Governor of Texas of his purpose. He besought Congress to
+avert the calamity which now threatened, by attending at once {363} to
+the matter of the boundary between Texas and New Mexico.
+
+[Sidenote: The passage of bills, separately, covering all the
+questions contained in Mr. Clay's compromise measures.]
+
+Under this pressure, the Senate took up the Texan boundary bill,
+introduced by Mr. Pierce, of Maryland, which provided that the
+northern boundary of Texas should be the parallel of thirty-six
+degrees and thirty minutes from the one hundredth degree of longitude
+to the one hundred and third degree; that the western and southwestern
+boundary should be the one hundred and third parallel of longitude
+from the northern line to latitude thirty-two degrees, thence along
+this parallel westward to the Rio Grande, thence the Rio Grande to the
+Gulf; and that ten millions of dollars should be paid Texas for
+agreeing to this boundary, and for relinquishing all claims on the
+United States in regard to the payment of her public debt. On August
+9th, the bill passed the Senate.
+
+On the 13th, the Senate took up the bill for the immediate admission
+of California, reported from the committee on Territories, and passed
+it by a large majority.
+
+On August 15th, the Senate passed the bill from the committee on
+Territories for the Territorial organization of New Mexico, without
+any provision as to slavery. The bill for the organization of Utah had
+passed, it will be remembered, on August 1st, as the remnant of the
+compromise plan.
+
+The Senate then took up the Fugitive Slave Bill reported in March from
+the Judiciary committee. Inasmuch as the United States Supreme Court
+had given its opinion, in the case of Prigg versus Pennsylvania, that
+Commonwealth officers were not required by the Constitution of the
+United States to render any assistance in the rendition of fugitive
+slaves, the Judiciary {364} committee had so constructed its bill as
+to make use of the machinery of the central Government alone in the
+execution of the proposed law. The bill was a somewhat more stringent
+measure than that proposed by Mr. Clay's committee. It did away with
+the right of a fugitive claiming to be a freeman to a trial by jury of
+the question of his freedom in a competent court of the Commonwealth,
+Territory, or District from which he was said to have escaped. It made
+it the duty of the marshals and deputy marshals of the United States
+courts to obey and execute all of the warrants and precepts issued
+under the provisions of the Act. It imposed a penalty of fine and
+imprisonment upon any person knowingly hindering the arrest of a
+fugitive, or attempting to rescue one from custody, or harboring one,
+or aiding one to escape. And it made the fee of the commissioner $10
+in case he should issue the certificate of arrest to the claimant of
+the fugitive, and only $5 in case he should not. Otherwise it was
+substantially the same as the bill proposed by the Clay committee. The
+Senate passed this bill, on August 26th.
+
+At last, on September 16th, the Senate passed the bill recommended by
+Mr. Clay's committee, for the abolition of the slave-trade in the
+District of Columbia.
+
+One after another, all these bills passed the House of
+Representatives, against great opposition, but with no material
+alteration, except the connection of the bill for the organization of
+Territorial government in New Mexico with that for the adjustment of
+the Texan boundary, in which change the Senate acquiesced, and were
+all signed by the President; and before the first session of the
+Thirty-first Congress expired, on September 30th, 1850, the great work
+of pacification, as it was hoped and believed to be, had been
+accomplished.
+
+
+
+
+{365}
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE EXECUTION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, AND THE ELECTION OF 1852
+
+Change of Attitude of the Slaveholders by the Fugitive Slave Law of
+1850--The First Cases Under the New Law--The Opposition to the
+Execution of the Law--Establishment of the "Underground"--The Support
+of the Law by the Political Leaders--The President's Support of the
+Law--Joshua R. Giddings--Petitions for the Repeal of the Law--The
+Shadrach Case--The Investigation of the Case by Congress--The Question
+of Increasing the Power of the President to Execute the Law--The Sims
+Case--Excitement in Boston Over the Rendition of Sims--The "Jerry
+Rescue"--The President's Rebuke--Mr. Foote's Finality Resolutions--The
+Failure of the Resolutions to Pass the Senate, but Their Success in
+the House--The National Conventions of 1852 and the Finality of the
+Compromise Measures--The Deaths of Clay and of Webster, and the
+Appearance of a Free-soil Candidate--The Overwhelming Democratic
+Victory of 1852--The True Policy of the Slaveholders, and Their
+Failure to Discern It.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Change of attitude of the slaveholders by the Fugitive
+Slave Law of 1850.]
+
+Down to the time of the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850,
+it may be said that the slaveholders were acting, in a certain sense,
+on the defensive. Before 1787, slavery had been regarded as a
+temporary relation, demanded by the moral and intellectual degradation
+of the Africans, and by the necessities of the social structure in
+which Anglo-Saxon and negro were brought together. It had been
+considered that the rise of the negro in civilization, by his contact
+with the white race, {366} would gradually change this relation in the
+direction of freedom. In fact it had done so, in a considerable
+degree. But the formation of the Constitution of 1787, the invention
+and use of the cotton-gin, the acquisition of Louisiana, and the
+general subsidence of the revolutionary spirit of the eighteenth
+century, were all unfavorable to further progress in this only proper
+and correct direction. Between 1830 and 1840, a strong retrogressive
+movement set in, as we have seen, provoked indeed, in a considerable
+degree, by the Abolition propaganda; and in consequence of it, the
+slaveholders abandoned the only moral principle upon which slavery
+could be justified, and began to adopt the idea of the permanency of
+the relation, and to undertake the adjustment of the laws, customs,
+institutions, and policies of the country to this idea. And, at last,
+by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, they committed the whole country to
+this course. In a word, they made slavery by this law a national
+matter, and they did it from the property point of view of slavery,
+the point of view which exhibits it in its most hateful light, and
+from which no moral justification whatsoever for its existence can be
+found.
+
+It is true that the Constitution commanded the return of fugitive
+slaves, and that the Supreme Court of the United States had
+interpreted the provision as vesting the power of executing this
+command in, and imposing the duty of its execution exclusively upon,
+the general Government, but it was a fatal policy for the slaveholders
+to insist upon the realization of this right through the general
+Government. In fact, it was a fatal policy to insist upon its
+realization at all. There was no way to effect it without requiring
+the aid of the North in the perpetuation of slavery. The attempt to
+effect it was, therefore, the assumption of an offensive attitude on
+the part of the slaveholders, an attitude which was bound to {367}
+provoke a general hostility to slavery throughout the North, instead
+of the indifference which had prevailed under the idea that slavery
+was an institution of the Southern Commonwealths, with which the North
+and the general Government had no concern. Calhoun and Rhett and Davis
+had seen this danger, and they were not supporters of a national
+fugitive slave law. They preferred to consider the matter of the
+rendition of fugitive slaves as a special compact between the
+"States," and treat its non-fulfilment as a rupture of the Union.
+Possibly, protected as their "States" were by the border slaveholding
+Commonwealths, they did not feel the necessity of such a law. At any
+rate, it was the border slaveholding Commonwealths which wanted the
+law.
+
+[Sidenote: The first cases under the new law.]
+
+The first apprehension of an escaped slave, under the new Act, was
+made in the city of New York. One James Hamlet, who had three years
+before left his mistress, Mary Brown, of Baltimore, was the victim. He
+had a wife and children in New York. He was surprised at his work,
+hastily tried, and delivered to Mrs. Brown's agent, who conducted him
+back to Baltimore. When the news of the event spread abroad it created
+great excitement among the negro population throughout the North, and
+great indignation on the part of the white citizens in many quarters.
+
+[Sidenote: The opposition to the execution of the law.]
+
+It was calculated that there were from fifteen to twenty thousand
+escaped slaves living at that time in the non-slaveholding
+Commonwealths who were liable to apprehension under the law; and every
+person having any negro blood, whether escaped from slavery or not,
+felt the insecurity created by the law. Meetings of persons belonging
+to these classes were immediately held in Boston and New York, and
+resolutions were passed at them, praying the white people to move for
+the repeal of the law.
+
+{368} In answer, so to speak, to these appeals, mass-meetings of white
+people were held in Lowell, Syracuse, and Boston, at which the law was
+denounced, its repeal demanded, and aid pledged to the negroes in the
+North in resisting the execution of the law. Ministers of the Gospel,
+such as Beecher, Storrs, Furness, Spear, and Cheever, rained down
+denunciations upon the law from their pulpits, declared it to be in
+direct contravention of the law of God, and counselled resistance to
+its execution.
+
+[Sidenote: Establishment of the "Underground."]
+
+In the midst of this excitement two Georgia slaves, named William and
+Ellen Crafts, had succeeded in reaching Boston, and were concealed by
+some of the most high-toned people of that city, the Hillards,
+Lorings, and Parkers, from their pursuers, and aided in a successful
+escape to England. The first branch of the "Underground," established
+after the passage of the law, ran through very respectable quarters.
+
+[Sidenote: The support of the law by the political leaders.]
+
+The lawyers, politicians, and statesmen now felt that it was high time
+for them to call the people back to the proper comprehension and
+observance of their constitutional duties. Clay, Webster, Cass,
+Douglas, Buchanan, Shields, Curtis, Choate, and many others,
+instructed the people, both in speeches and written articles, in
+regard to the constitutionality of the law, and their duty to obey its
+requirements. With this the tide of public opinion began to change,
+and the idea that it was the constitutional duty of the North to the
+South to secure the execution of the law began to prevail. Such was
+the state of feeling when the Congressional session of 1850-51 opened,
+on December 2nd.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's support of the law.]
+
+In his message to Congress President Fillmore proclaimed his adherence
+to the Compromise Measures, as a {369} final settlement of the
+subjects to which they related, said that he believed the great mass
+of the American people sympathized with him, indicated that he would
+veto any measure for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, and
+declared that he would execute the laws to the utmost of his ability
+and to the extent of the power vested in him.
+
+This bold and determined language on the part of the President, who
+had been considered in the North as personally hostile to the Fugitive
+Slave Law, took the North somewhat by surprise, painfully so in some
+quarters, while it was highly approved at the South. It undoubtedly
+contributed, ultimately and in large degree, to the suppression of the
+resistance in the North to the execution of the law. At the moment,
+however, it drew out some of the bitterest denunciations of the law
+which were ever pronounced.
+
+[Sidenote: Joshua R. Giddings.]
+
+Mr. Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, moved the reference of this part of
+the message to the Judiciary committee in the House of
+Representatives, and made a speech in support of his motion, which was
+an anti-slavery harangue of the most radical and violent character,
+and in the course of which he denounced the President and Mr. Webster
+in unmeasured language as apostates from principle and suitors for
+Southern favor. The reckless outburst of radical extravagance,
+although somewhat balanced by many points of sound sense, disgusted
+the House, and it voted down Mr. Giddings' motion by a large majority.
+
+[Sidenote: Petitions for the repeal of the law.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Shadrach case.]
+
+Petitions began now to flow into Congress for the repeal of the law.
+Generally they were laid upon the table, but more than once a fierce
+debate was opened, which threatened to precipitate another contest
+over the right of petition. It was about the time that the Senate was
+considering what {370} to do with one of these petitions, offered by
+Mr. Hamlin, of Maine, in February of 1851, that the news of the
+failure of the law in the Shadrach case reached Washington. Shadrach,
+claimed slave of John DeBree, of Norfolk, Va., was rescued by a negro
+mob, while held in custody in the court-house in Boston under a
+warrant from the United States Commissioner, Mr. George T. Curtis, and
+was spirited away to Canada. The mob seems to have had no difficulty
+in accomplishing its purpose.
+
+[Sidenote: The investigation of the case by Congress.]
+
+The Senate, on motion of Mr. Clay, passed a resolution, on February
+18th, 1851, calling upon the President for information concerning the
+failure of the law in the Shadrach case, and the means he had adopted
+to meet the occurrence, and asking the President if, in his opinion,
+further means should be placed at his disposal by Congress for
+enabling him to execute the laws with more success.
+
+On the 21st, the reply of the President was received. It contained an
+account of the occurrence in Boston; a summary of the laws of the
+United States and of Massachusetts on the subject of confining United
+States prisoners in the jails of the Commonwealth, which demonstrated
+the fact that Massachusetts had forbidden the use of her jails and the
+aid of her officials in fugitive slave cases; a declaration of opinion
+that the President was authorized by the Constitution to use the
+regular army and navy, when, in his judgment, it was necessary for the
+suppression of violence and the execution of the laws, and without
+giving warning of his intention by any proclamation; and a suggestion
+to Congress to confirm this opinion by a positive act, which would
+include the militia as well as the regular army and navy, and would
+authorize a marshal or commissioner of the {371} United States to
+summon an organized militia force as a part of the posse comitatus.
+
+[Sidenote: The question of increasing the power of the President to
+execute the law.]
+
+Mr. Clay immediately moved the reference of the communication to the
+Judiciary committee. This motion called out a three days debate in the
+Senate, during which it became manifest that the extremists, from both
+the North and the South, had little faith in the power of the
+Government to execute the law, and were unfavorable to the policy of
+using the military power in its execution. Mr. Chase and Mr. Hale, on
+the one side, and Mr. Butler, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Rhett, on the other,
+contended that the provision of the Constitution guaranteeing the
+rendition of fugitive slaves did not require a Congressional act, even
+if it authorized one. Mr. Davis said that he would see Massachusetts
+quit the Union rather than execute the law by military power within
+her limits. It was evident that these men were not anxious to have the
+law executed at all. Their motives for the same must have been very
+different, but it would hardly be an unfair speculation if one should
+imagine that the slaveholders were not averse to having the failure of
+the law for another count in their indictment against the Union.
+
+The moderate men, however, of both the North and the South, claimed
+that the law was constitutional, that it was politic and necessary,
+that it had been successfully executed in a number of cases, that it
+could be executed in practically all cases, that it must be, even
+though it should require the whole military power of the country, and
+that the great mass of the people would sustain it as carrying out the
+pledges of the Constitution.
+
+Mr. Clay's motion was finally unanimously voted, and, on March 3rd,
+two reports were presented to the {372} Senate, one signed by all the
+members of the Judiciary committee except Mr. Butler, of South
+Carolina, and the other by Mr. Butler alone. The former expressed the
+opinion that the President already possessed full and adequate powers
+to execute the laws, and that no further legislation upon the subject
+was necessary. It also held that the organized military could be
+summoned and used by a civil officer as a part of the posse comitatus.
+Mr. Butler, while agreeing with the other members in recommending no
+further legislation for the execution of the law, denied that the
+President had the power from the Constitution to use the regular army
+and navy at his own discretion in suppressing insurrections and
+executing the laws, and held that the President could employ these
+forces for such purposes in the same manner only that he could employ
+the militia, that is, under the Congressional Acts of 1795 and 1807,
+which required, among other things, that a proclamation should precede
+the actual employment of military power in such cases.
+
+Congress closed its session, on the next day, without having changed
+or modified the law, and without having given the President any
+additional means for its execution. The thoughts of men were turned
+again upon the incidents of its execution.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sims case.]
+
+During the spring of 1851, several cases of slave apprehension
+occurred, the most exciting of which was that of Thomas Sims, claimed
+in Boston by Mr. James Potter, of Georgia. He was arrested by the City
+Marshal on the charge of having committed a larceny, and put under
+guard in the Court House. Charles G. Loring, Robert Rantoul, Jr., and
+Samuel E. Sewall, lawyers of much ability and men of high social
+standing, offered their services in defence of the negro. After
+applying to several judges of the {373} supreme court of the
+Commonwealth, without success, for a writ of habeas corpus, they
+finally obtained one from Judge Woodbury, and argued the case before
+him. The Judge finally refused to interfere with the possession of the
+negro by the United States Marshal. The United States Commissioner,
+Mr. George T. Curtis, then heard the case, and issued the certificate
+for the rendition of the fugitive to his master. In the early morning
+of the next day, the negro was conducted by three hundred armed
+policemen to the wharf and placed on board a vessel bound for
+Savannah. The vessel sailed safely out of port, and the Fugitive Slave
+Law was, at last, executed in Boston.
+
+[Sidenote: Excitement in Boston over the rendition of Sims.]
+
+During the trial, and for a week afterward, the city was in a fever of
+excitement. Meetings of the citizens were held in Tremont Temple and
+Washington Hall, and on the Common, at which the eloquence of
+Phillips, Channing, Edmund Quincy, and Horace Mann, and the violent
+words of Garrison and Parker, stirred the indignation of their hearers
+and lashed it into an almost rebellious fury. A very large part of the
+inhabitants felt that a stain had been put upon the city, which must
+be wiped out by any means necessary to accomplish it.
+
+The summer months of 1851 now passed without any notable instances of
+resistance to the law, and conservative men, of both the North and the
+South, began to hope that the worst was over, and that the North would
+acquiesce without further opposition in the execution of the odious
+Act.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Jerry rescue."]
+
+In the early autumn, however, violence again appeared. The minor
+outbreaks were soon overshadowed by an event which occurred at
+Syracuse, N. Y., in October, 1851. A negro, named Jerry McHenry, who
+had lived for several years in Syracuse, was suddenly {374} seized and
+carried before the United States Commissioner. In the course of the
+hearing he eluded the officer having him in charge, and bounded out of
+the court-room. He was, however, overtaken and, after a fierce
+struggle, recaptured and brought back. A little later, a party of
+highly respectable men, led by Gerrit Smith and the Rev. S. J. May,
+broke into the court-room, rescued the negro, and smuggled him safely
+across the Canadian boundary. Eighteen of these gentlemen were
+indicted and ordered to appear for trial. But the whole community
+manifested so much active sympathy with them that the matter was
+quietly dropped.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's rebuke.]
+
+In his message to Congress, of December 2nd, 1851, President Fillmore
+referred to these cases of resistance to the execution of the law;
+declared the law to be required by the Constitution; denounced the
+opposition to its execution as directed against the Constitution and
+the Union itself; repeated his dictum that the Compromise Measures
+were a final settlement of the subjects embraced in them; and
+congratulated the country upon the general acquiescence in these
+Measures manifested throughout the Union.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Foote's finality resolutions.]
+
+Two days later, Mr. Foote introduced into the Senate a resolution
+declaring these Measures to be a definite settlement of the questions
+embraced in them, and recommending acquiescence in them by all good
+citizens.
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of the resolutions to pass the Senate, but
+their success in the House.]
+
+The debate upon this proposition, which began December 8th, and
+lasted, off and on, until February 28th, was, in the main, a
+discussion between four Southern members--Mr. Foote, Mr. Butler, Mr.
+Rhett, and Mr. Clemens--during which the history of the movements of
+the Southern leaders in 1850 and 1851 were brought to light, beginning
+with the Southern Address, issued {375} from Washington before the
+passage of the Compromise Measures, for the purpose of producing a
+united action on the part of the South in behalf of Southern rights,
+and the call of the Nashville convention by the Mississippi
+legislature, and ending with the demand of the convention for the line
+of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes to the Pacific Ocean, and the
+declaration by the convention and by conventions in Mississippi,
+Georgia, and South Carolina, of the abstract right of secession as a
+principle of the political system of the Union. It was evident that
+these movements had approached dangerously near to an attempt at
+something like practical secession, and that the Southern leaders were
+now anxious to underrate their significance. The Northern Senators
+allowed these Southern brethren to proceed with criminations and
+recriminations against each other, until they themselves were
+convinced that they would lose more by the continuance of the debate
+than they could gain by the passage of the resolution. After a fiery
+speech by Mr. Clemens, on February 28th, 1852, the attempt to pass the
+resolution was abandoned in the Senate.
+
+The House of Representatives, on the other hand, incited by memorials
+sent into it by the legislatures of New Jersey and Iowa, actually
+passed resolutions, on April 5th, 1852, by a large majority, declaring
+the finality of the Measures.
+
+Petitions began again to pour into the Senate for the repeal of the
+law. Mr. Seward, Mr. Hale, and Mr. Sumner presented such petitions and
+tried to get a hearing upon them, but the Senate voted to lay them all
+on the table.
+
+[Sidenote: The National conventions of 1852 and the finality of the
+compromise measures.]
+
+Such was the situation when the two great parties assembled in their
+National conventions for the {376} nomination of their respective
+candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency. It was indicated
+from the first day of the Congressional session of 1851-52, that the
+finality of the Compromise Acts would be a plank in the platforms of
+both parties, although it was soon revealed that the Whig party
+leaders were divided upon the subject.
+
+The Democratic convention met June 1st, at Baltimore, and, on account
+of the three-cornered fight between Buchanan, Cass, and Douglas, was
+obliged to produce a "dark horse." This proved to be General Franklin
+Pierce, of New Hampshire, a good lawyer, a brave soldier, a fine
+orator, and a courtly gentleman. He was known to be a true friend to
+the Compromise Acts, and was entirely acceptable to the South. The
+platform contained the finality plank.
+
+The Whig convention met fifteen days later, at the same place. The
+Northern Whigs, under the lead of Seward, were determined to defeat
+both Fillmore and Webster, chiefly on account of their fidelity in the
+execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. The Southerners were for Fillmore
+first, and then Webster, for the same reason. A sufficient number of
+the Northern delegates voted with the Southerners to put the finality
+plank into the platform, and then offered the Southerners one of their
+own fellow-citizens, General Scott, the military hero of the country.
+The Southerners finally accepted the offer.
+
+If Seward desired the defeat and destruction of the Whig party, he
+could not have acted more adroitly. It was to be foreseen that the
+Northern Whigs would not be wholly faithful to their own choice upon
+that platform, and that many of the Southern Whigs would arrive at the
+conclusion that the Democratic platform and the Democratic candidate
+furnished stronger guarantees for {377} the finality of the Compromise
+Measures than the Whig platform and candidate did.
+
+[Sidenote: The deaths of Clay and of Webster, and the appearance of a
+Free-soil candidate.]
+
+Clay died at the beginning of the campaign, and Webster at the end of
+it; and, in the midst of it, Sumner succeeded in getting in his
+ferocious attack on the Fugitive Slave Law, in a four hours speech
+before the Senate, and the Free-soilers set up a candidate, Mr. Hale,
+for the suffrages of the Abolitionists and the
+anti-slavery-extensionists. All of these events were unfavorable to
+the Whigs; still, they did not probably determine the result. The
+people were determined to have peace in regard to the slavery
+question, and they felt that the Democratic party was more likely to
+give them the peace they desired than the Whig party.
+
+[Sidenote: The overwhelming Democratic victory of 1852.]
+
+The Democratic victory was overwhelming. Twenty-seven Commonwealths
+gave their electoral vote for General Pierce, and only four gave
+theirs for General Scott; while the popular vote cast for Mr. Hale was
+only about one-half as large as that cast for Mr. Van Buren in 1848.
+The Democrats themselves were surprised. Since the "era of good
+feeling," no presidential candidate had received such a vote, either
+popular or electoral, as that now given to General Pierce. The country
+accepted the decision, and settled down into universal acquiescence in
+the Compromise Measures, and in the execution of the Fugitive Slave
+Law, in most sections cheerfully, but in some sullenly and with
+bitterness of heart.
+
+[Sidenote: The true policy of the slaveholders, and their failure to
+discern it.]
+
+Had the slaveholders made a wise use of this, to them, most favorable
+turn in affairs, there is little question that they might have
+preserved indefinitely their peculiar institution where it existed.
+But wisdom in the case meant that the slaveholders should themselves
+give no further {378} occasion for slavery agitation. It meant that
+they should cease to claim the rendition of their fugitive slaves by
+the general Government; that they should turn their attention to
+perfecting the police administration in the slaveholding Commonwealths
+for preventing the escape of their slaves, and let the few slaves who
+might have cleverness enough to elude the police of these
+Commonwealths go; and that they should, above all things, abstain from
+any attempt to extend slavery beyond the limits placed upon it by
+existing law. The status of every inch of the territory of the United
+States, in reference to the legality or illegality of slavery, was now
+fixed, and the public opinion of the country, of the world, and of the
+age, would never permit that status to be altered to the advantage of
+slavery.
+
+It is an interesting, though by no means an inexplicable, fact that
+the slaveholders in the Commonwealths south of Virginia, Kentucky, and
+Missouri, showed more tendency to follow this view of their best
+policy than those within these border Commonwealths. These latter were
+an efficient protection to the former in preventing the escape of
+slaves, while they were themselves exposed in much higher degree to
+loss. Still, it would have been the true policy for the slaveholders
+in these also to have looked to their own police administration for
+the recapture of their runaways before the latter had reached free
+soil, and to have considered that a slave having sufficient
+intelligence to elude this had already attained the point of mental
+activity and of courage which required in good morals his liberation,
+and made his further retention in slavery both a wrong to himself and
+a danger to the peace of the slaveholding community in which he might
+be held in bondage.
+
+We may fairly say that the slaveholders in the more southern
+Commonwealths sustained the Fugitive Slave {379} Law more out of
+consideration for their brothers in the border Commonwealths than for
+the sake of their own immediate interests, or from their own
+convictions of its policy, while they would have greatly preferred the
+restriction of slavery to the territory south of the line of
+thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes to the Pacific, with some sort
+of a guarantee of its existence there during the Territorial period,
+to any chance of extending slavery north of that line by the repeal of
+the prohibitions already existing. It is not at all surprising, in
+view of this state of feeling in 1852, that, ten years later, the
+Confederates considered themselves left in the lurch by the border
+Commonwealths, in the support of whose views and interests they had
+done so much to provoke the North to the contest.
+
+
+
+
+{380}
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE
+
+The Connection of California with the Mississippi
+Valley--Nebraska--Mr. Douglas' Nebraska Bill and Report--The
+Surprising Assumptions in the Report--Mr. Douglas' Purpose--The Report
+and Bill Together in Conflict with the Act of 1820--The New
+Section--Mr. Dixon's Proposed Amendment--Mr. Blair's Letter in
+Reference to Mr. Seward's Connection with Dixon's Proposition--Douglas
+and Dixon--Mr. Douglas' New Bill--The Free-soil Protest Against the
+Bill--Mr. Douglas' Reply to the Address--Mr. Chase's First Amendment
+to the Bill--The Southern Whigs Aroused by Mr. Wade's Accusations--Mr.
+Chase's Amendment Lost--Mr. Douglas' Last Change in the Wording of the
+Clause--Mr. Everett's Views--Mr. Houston's Opposition to the Bill--Mr.
+Bell's Attitude Toward the Bill--Mr. Douglas' Amendment Passed by the
+Senate--Mr. Chase's Amendments--Mr. Bell's Argument Against the
+Bill--Mr. Douglas' Final Argument--The Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska
+Bill by the Senate--Analysis of the Vote Upon the Bill--Development of
+Popular Opposition to the Bill--The Kansas-Nebraska Bill in the
+House--The Relation of the Administration to the Bill--President
+Pierce and Mr. Davis--The Bill Taken up in the Committee of the Whole
+of the House of Representatives--Mr. A. H. Stephens' Management of the
+Bill--The Bill Passed and Signed by the President--Analysis of the
+Vote on the Bill in the House--What the Figures Taught--The
+Kansas-Nebraska Act a Stupendous Fallacy.
+
+
+When President Fillmore's last annual message to Congress was sent in,
+on December 6th, 1852, the quiet of the country in regard to the
+slavery question was more {381} complete than it had been since 1830.
+The President did not even mention the subject. Evidently the people
+believed that the Measures of 1850, and their cordial endorsement in
+the elections just passed, had finally solved the great question, in
+so far as the Congress could solve it at all. But never was there a
+more deceptive peace. It was merely the dead calm before the dread
+cyclone.
+
+[Sidenote: The connection of California with the Mississippi valley.]
+
+This time the storm came from the Northwest. After the acquisitions of
+the territory upon the Pacific coast, it was immediately apparent that
+these new possessions must be connected, so soon as possible, with the
+line of Commonwealths on the west bank of the Mississippi by the
+Territorial organization of the country lying between. Mr. Douglas had
+conceived this idea as far back as 1847, and had endeavored from that
+time forward to secure the attention of Congress for its realization.
+The seemingly more important questions involved in the Compromise
+Measures gave little room for the consideration of other subjects
+between 1848 and 1850. Now, however, that these questions had
+apparently received their final settlement, the moment seemed
+opportune for the solution of the problem of binding the Pacific slope
+with the settled country of the west valley of the Mississippi.
+
+[Sidenote: Nebraska.]
+
+In the Congressional session of 1852-53, a bill passed the House of
+Representatives for organizing the region lying between Missouri and
+the Rocky Mountains, and between the latitudes thirty-six degrees,
+thirty minutes, and forty-three degrees, into the Territory of
+Nebraska. A vote upon the measure was, however, not reached in the
+Senate before the close of the session.
+
+During the consideration of the bill in the House, Mr. Howe, of
+Pennsylvania, asked Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, {382} who was a member of
+the committee on Territories, from which the bill had come, why there
+was no clause in the bill prohibiting slavery. Mr. Giddings replied
+that the Act of 1820 did that for all of this territory. Whereupon Mr.
+Howe used these significant words: "I should like to know of the
+gentleman of Ohio, if he has not some recollection of a compromise
+made since that time." Mr. Giddings quietly replied: "That does not
+affect this question."
+
+During the discussion of the bill in the Senate, Mr. Atchison, of
+Missouri, said that one of his objections to the organization of this
+Territory was that Missouri would be surrounded on three sides by free
+soil, into which the slaves of the citizens of Missouri could easily
+escape, but that, as he could see no prospect of a repeal of the Act
+of 1820 making this region free soil, he would not be willing to delay
+the organization of the Territory on that account.
+
+There is no explanation of the language used by these three gentlemen,
+except that Mr. Howe had conceived that, in some way or other, the
+Measures of 1850 had modified the Act of 1820 prohibiting slavery in
+the Louisiana territory above thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes,
+and that Mr. Giddings and Mr. Atchison had never thought of such a
+thing.
+
+On December 14th, 1853, Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, introduced a bill into the
+Senate for the organization of Nebraska Territory. It was referred to
+the committee on Territories, of which Mr. Douglas was chairman.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' Nebraska bill and report.]
+
+On January 4th, 1854, Mr. Douglas presented a bill from the committee,
+with a special report, in which latter document the principles of the
+laws of the United States in respect to slavery in the Territories, as
+understood by the committee, or rather as Mr. Douglas {383} understood
+them, were stated. The report was a more important document than the
+bill, since the bill, drawn in vague terms upon this subject, was to
+be interpreted by the principles declared in the report. The first
+paragraph of the report read: "The principal amendments which your
+committee deem it their duty to commend to the favorable action of the
+Senate, in a special report, are those in which the principles
+established by the Compromise Measures of 1850, so far as they are
+applicable to Territorial organization, are proposed to be affirmed
+and carried into practical operation within the limits of the new
+Territory." The report then declares these principles to be: "That all
+questions pertaining to slavery in the Territories, and in the new
+States to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the
+people residing therein, by their appropriate representatives, to be
+chosen by them for that purpose: That all cases involving title to
+slaves, and questions of personal freedom, are to be referred to the
+adjudication of the local tribunals, with the right of appeal to the
+Supreme Court of the United States: That the provisions of the
+Constitution of the United States, in respect to fugitives from
+service, are to be carried into faithful execution in all the
+organized Territories the same as in the States."
+
+[Sidenote: The surprising assumptions in the report.]
+
+These were most astonishing and confusing propositions in a variety of
+respects. In the first place, the claim that the Compromise Acts of
+1850 contained any general principles of Territorial organization in
+respect to slavery, which were applicable to any other Territories
+than those organized under these Acts, was a surprising assumption. It
+was an induction from one precedent when there were half a dozen
+precedents against it. The fact was that the Acts of 1850 only set up
+a rule for a single case, a rule patched {384} up by compromise, and
+not derived from any general principle. This claim was also, if
+admitted, highly confusing. Was it a principle of the Constitution,
+and therefore supreme over all Congressional policies in the case? Or
+was it simply a principle of Congressional policy? If the former, then
+it had already rendered the prohibition upon slavery in the Louisiana
+territory, by the Act of 1820, nugatory. If it was the latter, then it
+would require a new act of Congress to apply it to any other Territory
+than Utah and New Mexico. In the second place, the statement, also
+contained in the report, that there was a pronounced conflict of
+opinion in the country upon the question of the constitutional
+validity of the Act of 1820, prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana
+territory above thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, was equally
+surprising. Nobody had heard the noise of any such conflict. The fact
+is, that conflict was yet to be aroused. And, lastly, it was most
+highly surprising and confusing that the attempt to rouse this
+conflict should proceed from the bosom of the party which had won its
+splendid victory under the peace issue upon the subject of slavery,
+and should be inaugurated by a member of that party from the North.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' purpose.]
+
+What was, or what could have been, Mr. Douglas' purpose? It is held by
+most historians that it was simply a reckless and dishonest bid for
+Southern support, in his ambitious plans to gain the presidency. Most
+of Mr. Douglas' political opponents at the time believed that he was
+animated solely by that desire. His character was, according to their
+view, that of a scheming politician, who would sacrifice anything and
+anybody for his own advancement. While we can understand this radical
+estimate of him by those with whom he was in daily conflict, it does
+seem that the historians, with his subsequent career before them,
+might {385} suspect, at least, that some conviction of the
+rightfulness of his views may have aided in moving him to the position
+which he took. Mr. Douglas was a Western Democrat; that is, he was a
+radical Democrat. He had, therefore, an exaggerated notion of the
+virtues of the people, and of the importance of local autonomy. He
+resented the idea that the sturdy adventurers who accomplished the
+first settlement of a Western Territory were not as fully capable of
+local self-government, from the very outset, as the "effeminate"
+inhabitants of an Eastern Commonwealth. He repudiated the notion that
+they needed any pupilage from the general Government in the management
+of public affairs. He was not alone in such views. It is safe to say
+that the mass of the people in his section held the same views at that
+time. They have not progressed much beyond them now. Is it not, then,
+fair to say that Mr. Douglas, in all probability, really believed that
+the reference of the questions in regard to slavery to the residents
+of each Territory, as well as to those of each "State," was the true
+principle of the political science of the Republic, and the true
+policy of its legislation? If his convictions and his ambition went
+hand in hand, and if his convictions were not the product of his
+ambition, should he be so harshly criticised for declaring them? It is
+true that his announcement of them filled the land with clamor and
+angry dispute, and that their adoption by Congress led to violence,
+bloodshed, and war; but can we conclude that he had any conception
+whatsoever that this could be the result of them? Is it not far more
+probable that he thought the quiet of the country would be confirmed
+and forever established by their general acceptance? There is
+certainly ground for this view of his motives. It is certainly very
+improbable that there was ever any balancing, in his mind, of risks to
+his country's peace {386} and safety against his ambition for the
+presidency. It is much more probable that he believed his principles,
+without his presidency, would contribute, in high degree, to the peace
+and welfare of his country, but that, taken together with his
+presidency, they would shed untold blessings upon the land. This is no
+unusual psychology. It is decidedly common.
+
+[Sidenote: The doctrines of the report at first not inserted in the
+bill.]
+
+Mr. Douglas did not, however, insert his doctrine of popular
+sovereignty in the Territories, and his dictum as to the repeal of the
+slavery prohibition in the Act of 1820 by the principles of the Acts
+of 1850, in the bill. Possibly he thought it unnecessary. Possibly he
+did not venture to do so. Possibly he did intend to leave things in
+such an ambiguous shape that one interpretation might be put upon them
+in one section, and a somewhat different one in another. He would
+hardly have been an American politician if he had not, at some time or
+other in his life, practised something of this kind. This is what they
+call feeling the public pulse, which is a main point in the practice
+of democratic statesmanship. It is not particularly edifying to the
+academic statesman, but it is business, and Americans are a business
+people. Mr. Douglas simply modelled the bill after the Utah and New
+Mexico bills, in respect to slavery, that is, he made no mention of
+the subject in that part of the bill which provided for the
+Territorial period, but added a clause which read: "When admitted as a
+State, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be
+received into the Union, with or without slavery, as its Constitution
+may prescribe at the time of its admission."
+
+[Sidenote: The report and bill together in conflict with the Act of
+1820.]
+
+Taken apart from the report, the bill might be interpreted as not in
+conflict with the Act of 1820, but taken with the report, it meant the
+repeal of the Act of 1820, and the attribution of all power over the
+question of {387} slavery in the Territory to those who might squat
+upon its soil. Of course it was entirely within the power of Congress
+to repeal the Act of 1820. The restraints resting upon Congress in
+regard to this matter were moral, not legal. If Congress would,
+nevertheless, do it, it must do it in the form of a statute, and not
+in that of a report doubting the constitutionality of the Act, or even
+declaring it unconstitutional. It was entirely natural that the demand
+should be made for clearing the bill of its ambiguities.
+
+[Sidenote: The new section.]
+
+Before the demand came, however, the committee itself did something in
+this direction. When the bill was printed, on January 7th, it
+contained twenty sections. On the 10th, a revised edition of it
+appeared, which contained twenty-one sections. The last section was
+the dictum of the report in regard to the principles of the Measures
+of 1850 upon the subject of slavery in the Territories. The committee
+explained that it had been left out of the first draft by a clerical
+error. This change did not, however, clear the bill of all ambiguity.
+The added provision was declaratory only, and did not expressly repeal
+the Act of 1820.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Dixon's proposed amendment.]
+
+At length, on the 16th, Mr. Dixon, of Kentucky, gave notice to the
+Senate that he should move, as an amendment to the bill, a provision
+expressly repealing the Act of 1820 in so far as it prohibited slavery
+in any of the Territories of the United States.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Blair's letter in reference to Mr. Seward's connection
+with Dixon's proposition.]
+
+In a letter of May 17th, 1873, to Mr. Gideon Welles, Mr. Montgomery
+Blair wrote of Mr. Seward: "I shall never forget how shocked I was at
+his telling me that he was the man who put Archy Dixon, the Whig
+Senator from Kentucky in 1854, up to moving the repeal of the {388}
+Missouri compromise, as an amendment to Douglas' first Kansas
+[Nebraska?] bill, and had himself forced the repeal by that movement,
+and had thus brought to life the Republican Party. Dixon was to
+out-Herod Herod at the South, and he was to out-Herod Herod at the
+North."
+
+If this be true, it was a most reprehensible trick of unscrupulous
+politics. Mr. Seward scoffed at the doctrine of "popular sovereignty"
+in the Territories as arrant nonsense, and knew that the assertion of
+any such doctrine as a principle of the law of the country in respect
+to Territorial organization would rouse the North to angry and bitter
+resistance. What he did, he did with his eyes open. His vision did not
+probably reach so far as to civil war, but he knew that the risks of
+another slavery agitation were very grave. Neither could the ambiguity
+in Mr. Douglas' bill, and the necessity for relieving it of this
+obscurity, palliate such an offense. If he desired to make Mr.
+Douglas' bill entirely plain he should have done this, not by holding
+out a temptation to the South to enter upon a new course of slavery
+extension, but by an amendment asserting the continuing validity of
+the slavery prohibition in the Act of 1820. Mr. Sumner did this very
+thing on the next day. It was, however, too late to chain the spirit
+which Dixon's fatal move had loosed.
+
+[Sidenote: Douglas and Dixon.]
+
+It is said that Mr. Douglas was surprised and disconcerted by Mr.
+Dixon's notice, and endeavored to dissuade him from carrying out his
+expressed intention, but was finally convinced by Mr. Dixon that the
+proposed amendment was only the fair and honest statement of
+constitutional principles, and of the legal results of the Compromise
+of 1850, and only made distinct and express what was unclear, though
+implied, in the bill.
+
+{389} [Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' new bill.]
+
+On the 23rd, Mr. Douglas brought in a new bill, and offered it as a
+substitute for the original bill. The new bill contained a clause
+declaring that that part of the Act of 1820 prohibiting slavery in the
+Louisiana territory above thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes was
+inoperative, being contrary to, and superseded by, the principles of
+the legislation of 1850. Mr. Douglas' new bill changed the southern
+boundary from thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes to thirty-seven
+degrees, made the northern boundary run up to the forty-ninth parallel
+west of Minnesota Territory, and cut this vast domain of nearly five
+hundred thousand square miles in area into two Territories by the
+fortieth parallel of latitude, the one to the north of it to be called
+Nebraska, and the one to the south of it Kansas. Mr. Dixon immediately
+expressed himself as satisfied with the provisions of the new bill,
+and said that they fulfilled the purposes of the amendment which he
+had intended to offer, and that he should, therefore, withhold the
+same. The Senate agreed to take up the bill on the following Monday.
+
+[Sidenote: The Free-soil protest against the bill.]
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' reply to the address.]
+
+On the same day that Mr. Douglas presented this second bill, there
+appeared in the _National Era_, the Abolition journal at Washington,
+and in several New York City papers, the noted address, signed by
+Messrs. Chase, Sumner, Wade, Smith, and De Witt, in which the Douglas
+bill was denounced in the most trenchant language as "a gross
+violation of a sacred pledge, as a criminal betrayal of precious
+rights, as a part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from a
+vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers
+from our own States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism
+inhabited by masters and slaves." The contents of this celebrated
+paper constituted, it may be said, the {390} first draft of the creed
+of the party to be founded on the doctrine of resistance to slavery
+extension, the Republican party. The propositions contained in it
+drove Mr. Douglas to a fierce diatribe against their authors, in which
+he included an elaborate argument in defence of his dictum, that the
+Measures of 1850 had rendered the slavery prohibition in the Act of
+1820 inoperative. He contended that the fact that Congress had, in the
+joint resolution admitting Texas, provided that in Texan territory
+north of the line of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes slavery
+should be prohibited, proved that Congress and the people of the
+United States understood the legislation of 1820 to mean that the line
+of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes was to be run through any and
+all territory that might be subsequently acquired by the United
+States; that the refusal of Congress to do this in regard to the
+territory acquired from Mexico had made the establishment of a new
+principle in regard to slavery in the Territories necessary; that that
+principle, as established by the legislation of 1850, was the
+neutrality of Congress in the question, and the right of the residents
+in each Territory to settle the question for themselves; and that this
+new principle had superseded the old principle and rendered all
+legislation under the old principle inoperative.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Chase's amendment to the bill.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Southern Whigs aroused by Mr. Wade's accusations.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Douglas doctrine convincing to many.]
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Chase's amendment lost.]
+
+Such jurisprudence in respect to the effect upon each other of
+statutes relating to different and distinct Territories had never been
+heard before, and it was easy to show it to be a tissue of sophistries
+from beginning to end. It was entirely evident that Mr. Douglas and
+his committee shrank from proposing a bare and bald repeal of the
+slavery prohibition in the Act of 1820, and sought to avoid the
+responsibility of doing so under the convenient claim that it had
+already been repealed. But {391} Mr. Chase was determined to make them
+take this responsibility, and to expose their fallacies in their
+attempts to escape it. On February 3rd, Mr. Chase moved to remove from
+the bill the words referring to the Measures of 1850, and their effect
+upon the Act of 1820, and make the bill simply repeal the slavery
+prohibition of the Act of 1820, in so far as it applied to the
+Territories to be organized by the bill. Mr. Chase supported his
+amendment in a powerful speech, in which he demonstrated most clearly
+the fallacy and the duplicity of the doctrine which held that the
+legislation of 1850 in regard to Utah and New Mexico had repealed the
+legislation of 1820 in regard to the Louisiana territory north of
+thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. Both he and his colleague, Mr.
+Wade, went, however, too far in denouncing the subterfuge as a
+conspiracy between the Southerners and the friends of Douglas to
+extend slavery. It was especially imprudent, to say the least, in Mr.
+Wade to do so. The Southern Whigs were highly incensed at the charge
+of conspiring with Northern Democrats, made by one of their own party,
+and they repudiated the accusation with great earnestness. Besides
+this, the Douglas idea of "popular sovereignty," or, as we now call
+it, home rule, in the Territories, had won many adherents. There is no
+question that a great many men, in both the North and the South, now
+began to feel that Mr. Douglas had discovered the true principle in
+regard to slavery in the Territories. Mr. Chase's amendment was lost
+by a vote of thirty to thirteen. The thirteen voting in favor of the
+amendment were all from the North. Of those voting against it, ten
+were from the North, and twenty from the South. Nineteen Senators, ten
+of whom were from the South, did not vote at all. The {392} vote meant
+that the large majority of those voting held that, in some way or
+other, the legislation of 1850 had repealed the slavery prohibition in
+the legislation of 1820. This was execrable jurisprudence, and even
+Mr. Cass, who was really the father of the idea of home rule in the
+Territories, dissented from it, and voted for Mr. Chase's amendment.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' last change in the wording of the clause.]
+
+In spite of this support by the majority, Mr. Douglas was apparently
+disquieted by the attitude of Mr. Cass, and by the arguments against
+the correctness of his doctrine. He, himself, now moved to strike out
+of the bill the words: "which was superseded by the principles of the
+legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, and is
+hereby declared inoperative," and to insert instead thereof the words:
+"which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by
+Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by
+the legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is
+hereby declared inoperative and void, it being the true intent and
+meaning of this Act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or
+State, nor exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
+perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in
+their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Everett's views.]
+
+In a most able argument, remarkable both for its strong logic and its
+admirable temper, Mr. Everett demonstrated the weakness of Mr.
+Douglas' proposition in its last form, the declaration of
+inconsistency between the legislation of 1820 and that of 1850. He
+showed conclusively that, in place of an inconsistency, here were
+simply two policies in reference to different Territories, in which
+different conditions and relations obtained. He predicted that the
+{393} insistence upon the same policy for all the Territories would
+lead to the struggle for determining whether they should be all slave
+or all free, and he demonstrated that "popular sovereignty" in the
+Territories was an illusion, since Congress could not by any act of
+its own divest itself of its duty, laid upon it by the Constitution,
+to legislate for the Territories. Mr. Everett was a member of the
+committee on Territories, from which the bill had proceeded, and his
+views should, on this account, have possessed an added weight.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Houston's opposition to the bill.]
+
+Mr. Houston, of Texas, another member of the committee, now declared
+himself against the bill, on the ground, among other reasons, that it
+would reopen the slavery question by the destruction of one of the
+great measures upon which the settlement of that question rested.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Bell's attitude toward the bill.]
+
+It was furthermore suspected that Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, another
+member of the committee, was opposed to the bill. This suspicion
+turned out to be true. The bill can hardly be regarded therefore as
+having been reported by the committee at all. The committee consisted
+of six Senators, and it was at last found that it had, at no time,
+received the support of more than three. Of these three, two were from
+the North, Douglas, of Illinois, and Jones, of Iowa, and one was from
+the South, Johnson, of Arkansas.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' amendment passed by the Senate.]
+
+The vote upon this amendment was taken on February 15th. Thirty-five
+Senators voted for it, and ten against it. Of those voting for it,
+twenty-four were from the North and eleven from the South. Of those
+voting against it, nine were from the North and one, Mr. Houston, was
+from the South. Mr. Bell voted for the amendment for the reason, as he
+afterwards explained, that he thought Mr. Douglas ought to be allowed
+to perfect his bill.
+
+{394} [Sidenote: Mr. Chase's second amendment.]
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Pratt's amendment to Mr. Chase's amendment.]
+
+Mr. Chase now suspected that there might be some catch concealed in
+the last words of the amendment just adopted. These words, it will be
+remembered, were: "subject only to the Constitution of the United
+States." Mr. Chase, therefore, moved to add the words: "under which
+the people of the Territory, through their appropriate
+representatives, may, if they see fit, prohibit the existence of
+slavery therein." Mr. Chase now put the home rule principle in regard
+to slavery in the Territories to the test, for if the people of a
+Territory could not, under the Constitution of the United States,
+prohibit slavery in the Territories, then was the Douglas doctrine a
+mere deception, a mere jugglery of words. Mr. Chase put his
+proposition, however, in a form which appeared one-sided, and Mr.
+Badger, of North Carolina, the best constitutional lawyer from the
+South in the Senate, contended that Mr. Chase's amendment would have
+the effect of denying to the Territories the power to admit slavery,
+and thus destroy, from that side, the home rule principle of the bill.
+To remedy this defect, Mr. Pratt moved to amend Mr. Chase's
+proposition so as to make it read that the people might introduce or
+prohibit slavery in the Territories. But this was an amendment to Mr.
+Chase's amendment to Mr. Douglas' amendment, and was held to be
+unparliamentary, unless Mr. Chase would accept it, and incorporate it
+into his amendment. This he refused to do, on the ground, first, that
+he did not believe that the Territories could, under the Constitution,
+introduce slavery, and, second, on the ground that the union of his
+proposition and that of Mr. Pratt in a single amendment would unite
+those who did not believe that the people of a Territory could
+introduce slavery with those who did not believe they could prohibit
+slavery {395} against the entire amendment, and probably defeat it,
+while, if the two propositions could be voted on separately, they
+would both probably pass, and the bill would be cleared of all
+ambiguity.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Chase's amendment lost.]
+
+Mr. Chase's attitude toward Mr. Pratt's motion compelled the Senate to
+vote upon his proposition separately, and the amendment was lost by a
+vote of thirty-six to ten.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Badger's amendment.]
+
+Just before the close of the debate on Mr. Chase's motion, Mr. Walker,
+of Wisconsin, startled the Senate by the declaration that the repeal
+of the Act of 1820 prohibiting slavery would revive the old French law
+legitimizing slavery in all of the territory acquired from France.
+Both Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Badger said it would not have that effect,
+but on different grounds. In order to quiet apprehension on this
+point, and remove the difficulty out of the way of the passage of the
+bill, Mr. Badger gave notice that so soon as the vote should be taken
+on Mr. Chase's motion, he should move an amendment to the bill
+providing that "nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to
+revive or put in force any law or regulation, which may have existed
+prior to 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or
+abolishing slavery." After the vote upon Mr. Chase's motion, Mr.
+Badger offered this amendment, and it was voted, without debate, by a
+very large majority.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Chase's third amendment.]
+
+Mr. Chase now turned his assaults upon other points of the bill. Mr.
+Douglas had been impressed by the taunts of the opponents of the bill
+that home rule was to be granted to the people of the Territories only
+upon the subject of slavery, but that they were to continue in all
+other respects subject to the control of the general Government, and
+he now moved to strike out the veto power of {396} Congress over
+Territorial legislation, in the cases in hand, and to so modify the
+usual veto power of the Territorial governors as to allow a two-thirds
+majority of the Territorial legislatures to overcome it. These
+propositions were voted without debate. Whereupon Mr. Chase moved that
+the governors, secretaries, and judges of the two Territories be
+elected by the people instead of being appointed by the President.
+This was logical, but it made the "squatter-sovereignty" doctrine
+ridiculous. It was, therefore, rejected with a considerable show of
+spirit.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Chase's fourth amendment.]
+
+Mr. Chase now moved that the whole country should be organized as one
+Territory instead of two. He seemed to anticipate that if two should
+be established at the same time, the slaveholders would claim one.
+This proved to be a correct suspicion. It was subsequently declared
+throughout the South that the purpose in forming two Territories was
+to give one to the North and the other to the South. And when the
+North made the fight for Kansas, it was really felt in the South by
+the mass of the people that a tacit agreement had been violated. The
+Senators in favor of the bill had now come to think that Mr. Chase was
+simply endeavoring to discredit the bill, and they quickly voted this
+motion down by a large majority.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Bell's argument against the bill.]
+
+Down to this juncture, the bill had been considered in the Senate as a
+committee of the Whole. It was now reported to the Senate as amended
+by this committee, and, on March 3rd, it came to the vote upon its
+final passage. It was at this point that Mr. Bell revealed his
+opposition to the bill, and made his great argument, the greatest
+effort of his long and useful life, against it. The speech was chiefly
+a logical and an eloquent elaboration of the three propositions, that
+popular sovereignty could not be {397} established in the Territories
+by an Act of Congress, that the passage of the bill before the Senate
+attempting it would produce a vast development of the anti-slavery
+sentiment at the North, and that no practical benefits whatsoever
+could accrue to the South by the repeal of the restriction upon
+slavery extension in the Act of 1820. But the Southerners would not
+listen to these words of wisdom from their own greatest colleague.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Douglas' final argument.]
+
+Mr. Douglas is generally represented as having closed the debate,
+although Mr. Houston spoke briefly after him in opposition to the
+measure. Mr. Douglas' argument was masterful from every point of view
+but the highest. His chief proposition was, that, when his committee
+were charged with the duty of framing the bill, they were forced to
+choose between the principle of Congressional intervention in the
+Territories, in the matter of slavery, on the one hand, the principle
+of 1820, the principle which had, for thirty years, filled the land
+with agitation and conflict, and had been a standing menace to the
+existence of the Union, and the principle of Congressional
+non-intervention, on the other hand, the principle of the Measures of
+1850, the principle which had tranquillized the country and cemented
+anew the Union, the principle which both of the two great political
+parties had unequivocally approved in their platforms of 1852, and
+which the people of the whole country had just as unequivocally
+approved in the elections of 1852. And his conclusion from this
+proposition was, that, as servants of the people who had established
+this principle of Congressional non-intervention, his committee were
+morally obligated to make it the principle of the bill presented by
+them for the organization of the new Territories, and that whoever
+arraigned him and his committee for so doing virtually arraigned the
+people of the United States. It was a {398} most excellent and refined
+bit of demagogy, and it fell upon an audience whose mental _niveau_
+was not quite high enough to distinguish between it and sound
+reasoning. He enforced this argument by another piece of catching
+demagogism, which, though not quite so refined, was equally effective.
+It was the proud and boastful assertion that American citizens were
+capable of self-government anywhere, whether in "States" or
+Territories, and under all conditions, whether aided by long
+established customs, or without any such guides to steady them in
+their progress. It was evident that his opponents preferred to avoid
+this point, and that he was sure he had them upon it. He was so
+thoroughly democratic in his own feelings that he entertained no doubt
+as to the triumph of his argument when stated in this form.
+
+[Sidenote: The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill by the Senate.]
+
+A few minutes before five o'clock on the morning of March 4th, after a
+continuous session of seventeen hours, the vote upon the bill was
+taken, resulting in thirty-seven voices in its favor and fourteen
+against it. Eleven Senators had not voted. Of these, three sent word
+that, if they could have been present, they would have voted for the
+bill, and one that he would have voted against it. There were also two
+vacancies at the moment, one in the Vermont delegation, and one in
+that of North Carolina. This reduced the number of those who actually
+refrained from voting, though present, to five. These gentlemen were
+Mr. Everett, of Massachusetts, Mr. Wright, of New Jersey, Mr. Cooper,
+of Pennsylvania, Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, and Mr. Pearce, of
+Maryland, all Whigs with the exception of Mr. Wright.
+
+[Sidenote: Analysis of the vote upon the bill.]
+
+Counting the names of those who announced how they would have voted
+had they been able to be present, and considering the Commonwealths in
+whose delegations there were vacancies as represented fully by the one
+{399} member from each, we may say that, in the Senate, New Hampshire,
+Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, California, Virginia, Kentucky,
+Missouri, North Carolina, Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
+Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana voted for the bill; that Maine,
+Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin voted against the
+bill; that Connecticut, Tennessee, and Texas were divided; and that
+Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland were
+doubtful. Not a single Northern Whig voted for the bill, and only two
+Northern Whigs failed to vote against it. One Southern Whig, Mr. Bell,
+voted against it, and two Southern Whigs, Mr. Clayton and Mr. Pearce,
+failed to vote for it. Every Southern Democrat, except only Mr.
+Houston, voted for the bill, while, even if we count Mr. Chase and Mr.
+Sumner as Democrats, only six Northern Democrats voted against it. The
+bill may thus be fairly considered to have been a Western and Southern
+measure, and a Democratic measure. The Western Democracy, with its
+crude and radical notions about local self-government, invited the
+South into a position which turned out to be a snare and a pitfall. It
+is not meant by this that the Western Democracy was insincere, but
+only that it was crude and vulgarly over self-confident. And it is not
+meant that the South was insincere, but only too eager to vindicate
+its honor and dignity, by obliterating the inequality with the North
+in regard to the common territory of the Union, under which it fancied
+it had suffered since the restriction placed upon slavery extension by
+the Act of 1820.
+
+[Sidenote: Development of popular opposition to the bill.]
+
+If the bill had been subjected to the plebiscite on February 1st, it
+is very probable that the people in the Northern Commonwealths would
+have sustained the positions taken by their respective Senators. Had
+this been {400} done on March 1st, it is probable that this would not
+have been the case in some of the Northern Commonwealths, whose
+Senators voted for the measure. And had it been done on April 1st, it
+is practically certain that it would not have been. After February
+1st, there was developed throughout the North a very strong opposition
+to the bill among the people. The most influential newspapers
+denounced it. Numerous meetings, largely attended, protested against
+it. The legislatures of several of the Commonwealths passed
+resolutions condemning it. And the clergy generally arraigned it as
+immoral, inhuman, and irreligious. The movements against it seem to
+have been spontaneous and to have been connected with each other only
+by the common sentiment against the extension of slavery. It is,
+however, probable that the Address to the people, issued by Mr. Chase
+and his Free-soil friends in the latter part of January, furnished the
+necessary excitant. The Address seems to have been the text from which
+most of these articles, protests, memorials, speeches, and sermons
+were drawn. When the bill was sent to the House of Representatives, it
+was thus evident to all impartial observers that its growing
+unpopularity at the North would be a very great obstacle to its
+passage by the House. Its friends felt that they must get it through
+speedily or see it lost altogether.
+
+Already, on January 31st, Mr. Richardson, of Illinois, Mr. Douglas'
+lieutenant in the House of Representatives, had reported from the
+House committee on Territories a bill for the organization of the
+Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which was the same in substance
+and language as that reported by Mr. Douglas to the Senate. It had
+been discussed a little in the committee of the Whole House, but had
+slumbered there after February 15th.
+
+{401} [Sidenote: The Kansas-Nebraska bill in the House.]
+
+On March 7th, the Senate bill was sent into the House for concurrence.
+It was taken up for consideration on the twenty-first, and, after some
+parliamentary passes, was referred to the House committee on
+Territories.
+
+[Sidenote: The relation of the Administration to the bill.]
+
+Some of the historians teach that this would have been the end of the
+bill, except for the interference of President Pierce and his two most
+trusted advisers, Mr. Caleb Cushing and Mr. Jefferson Davis. Mr. Davis
+relates his connection with the matter in his own book. He says that,
+on Sunday morning, January 22nd, gentlemen from the two Congressional
+committees on Territories called at his house and asked his aid in
+obtaining an interview with the President; that he went with them to
+the executive mansion, and secured for them the desired access to the
+President; that the President listened patiently to the reading of the
+bill for organizing Kansas and Nebraska; and that the President
+decided that the bill "rested upon sound constitutional principles,
+and recognized in it only a return to that rule which had been
+infringed by the Compromise of 1820, and the restoration of which had
+been foreshadowed by the legislation of 1850." Mr. Davis furthermore
+specifically denies that the measure was inspired by President Pierce
+or any member of his Cabinet. Of course, though not inspired, it may
+have been aided on the way of its passage through Congress by the
+Administration. The proof upon which these historians chiefly rely, in
+their assertion that it was so aided, was the fact that the editorials
+in the Washington _Union_ supported the bill, and the claim that this
+paper was the organ of the Administration. But Mr. Sidney Webster,
+President Pierce's private secretary at the time, has recently
+declared that the Washington _Union_ was not President {402} Pierce's
+organ in the Kansas-Nebraska matter, or in any other matter; that
+President Pierce had no organ.
+
+[Sidenote: President Pierce and Mr. Davis.]
+
+The character of President Pierce was that of a punctilious gentleman.
+Mr. Davis resembled him much in this general trait. In fact, it was
+said to have been this likeness which drew them so closely together in
+their friendship for each other. Men of such character are not
+inclined to meddle, and a strong positive evidence is necessary to
+substantiate any such charge against them. There is no doubt that the
+President's view of the doctrine of the bill was well known. There is
+no doubt that there were members of Congress who made a chief point of
+coinciding with the Administration upon every subject, and who thought
+that such servility would give weight to their recommendations for
+official positions. And there is no doubt that the President appointed
+some persons to office recommended by such members. But no
+satisfactory evidence has been as yet produced to prove that President
+Pierce gave or promised any patronage to any member for supporting the
+bill, or withheld any to punish any member for not supporting it. In
+fact, the President's attitude toward the two factions of the
+Democratic party in New York in the matter of appointments, making
+selections from both in almost equal numbers, without regard to the
+Free-soil sentiments of the "Softs," manifests a quite different
+spirit from that with which these historians represent him to have
+been animated in meddling with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska
+bill.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's consistency.]
+
+And, finally, the inconsistency which these historians find between
+the President's message of December preceding and his attitude toward
+the Kansas-Nebraska bill can be so explained as to appear a perfect
+consistency. What the President said in his message was that the {403}
+acquiescence of distinguished citizens in the Compromise Measures of
+1850 had given renewed vigor to our institutions, and restored a sense
+of repose and security to the public mind throughout the Union, and
+that this repose should suffer no shock during his official term. If,
+now, we consider these measures of 1850 as containing the principle of
+home rule in the Territories in regard to the question of slavery, and
+if we attribute the repose of the public mind upon this subject to
+that principle, would it not be maintaining that repose to apply this
+principle in the organization of the new Territories, and would it not
+be destructive of that repose to undertake to settle the slavery
+question in the new Territories by an act of Congress, either original
+or confirmatory? This view is certainly intelligible. It was professed
+and advanced by all the supporters of the bill. It was unquestionably
+the view which the President took of the matter. It proved to be an
+erroneous view, but the views which mortal men hold, and
+conscientiously hold, are very frequently erroneous.
+
+[Sidenote: The bill taken up in the committee of the Whole of the
+House of Representatives.]
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. A. H. Stephens' management of the bill.]
+
+[Sidenote: The bill passed and signed by the President.]
+
+The Senate bill slept in the committee of the Whole of the House of
+Representatives from March 21st until May 8th. During this period its
+friends were undoubtedly working for it, and its opponents against it.
+By the latter date the leaders in favor of the bill knew that they had
+a reliable majority in the House, and, on that day, Mr. Richardson
+moved that the House go into committee of the Whole, for the purpose
+of taking up the House Kansas-Nebraska bill for consideration. After
+much parliamentary fencing, this was accomplished. Mr. Richardson then
+proposed to substitute the Senate bill, shorn of the provision in it
+confining suffrage and office-holding in these Territories {404} to
+American citizens, for the House bill. The opponents of the bill now
+entered upon a course of obstruction, and, although there was a safe
+majority of about twenty in favor of the bill, they prevented such a
+vote being taken in the committee of the Whole, as would bring the
+matter to a crisis, for about two weeks. By this time Mr. Richardson
+seems to have been completely demoralized, and Mr. Alexander H.
+Stephens came forward and took the management of the bill into his own
+hands. He moved to strike out the enacting clause of the House bill.
+According to the rules of the House, this motion took the precedence
+of all motions to amend, and the effect of it would be, if passed,
+equivalent to the rejection of the bill, upon the happening of which
+the committee must rise and report its action to the House. The House
+could then refuse to concur with the report of the committee of the
+Whole, upon the happening of which Mr. Richardson could then offer the
+Senate bill, as a substitute, in the House, and in the House the
+obstructive tactics of the opposition could be dealt with as they
+could not be in the committee of the Whole. Mr. Stephens explained his
+tactics to the committee, in order that the friends of the bill might
+know how to vote. The opponents of the bill called this procedure a
+new "gag," but Mr. Stephens remained firm, and drove the Senate bill
+in this manner through the House by a vote of one hundred and thirteen
+to one hundred. The Senate concurred in the omission of the provision
+limiting suffrage and office-holding in the Territories to American
+citizens; and the President signed the bill, on May 30th.
+
+[Sidenote: Analysis of the vote on the bill in the House.]
+
+Eighty-seven members from the North, of whom forty-five were Whigs,
+counting the Free-soilers as Whigs, and forty-two of whom were
+Democrats, voted against {405} the bill; while only forty-four members
+from the North, all Democrats, voted for it. Sixty-nine members from
+the South, of whom fifty-seven were Democrats and twelve were Whigs,
+voted for the bill; while seven Whigs and two Democrats from the South
+voted against it.
+
+[Sidenote: What the figures taught.]
+
+These figures pretty well disposed of the claim that the bill was a
+tender from the North to the South. It was simply a Western and
+Southern Democratic measure. Taken together with the vote in the
+Senate, these figures also showed that the Whig party was a party
+opposed to slavery extension, unanimously so in the North, and in some
+degree in the South. They revealed that the Whig party in the North
+was to be merged in a Northern party with the Free-soil element of the
+Democratic party, and was to be overwhelmed in the South by the union
+of the proslavery-extension Whigs with the Democrats. They indicated
+that one sectional party was soon to hold the majority in the North,
+and another in the South; and gave thus the fearful warning that the
+North was, at last, to be arrayed against the South upon the subject
+which was of greater interest to the South, in the minds of the
+slaveholders, than the Union itself.
+
+[Sidenote: The Kansas-Nebraska Act a stupendous fallacy.]
+
+From the point of view of the present, we are compelled to regard the
+passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act as probably the greatest error
+which the Congress of the United States ever committed, and the
+arguments by which it was supported as among the most specious
+fallacies that have ever misled the minds of men. We must take this
+ground, unless we assume that we could not have solved the slavery
+problem in any other way than we did, and at any less cost. If we make
+this assumption, we may then consider this Act as providential, in
+{406} that it precipitated a crisis, which was bound to come, and
+which would only have been made more terrible by delay. While,
+however, we of the succeeding generation may explain the place of this
+Act in our history in this way, no considerations of this kind can
+justify the men who produced it, and placed it upon the statute-book.
+That God should "make the wrath of man to praise him" does not excuse
+the wrath of man.
+
+
+
+
+{407}
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS
+
+Eli Thayer and His Emigrant Aid Scheme--Reports in Regard to its
+Character and Purposes--The Missouri "Border Ruffian" of
+1854--Nebraska for the North and Kansas for the South--General
+Atchison--Dr. Charles Robinson--The First Party of Emigrants--The
+"Platte County Self-defensive Association"--The Founding of
+Lawrence--First Invasion of the Missourians--Governor A. H.
+Reeder--The Second Invasion of the Missourians and the Election of the
+Delegate to Congress--The Indignation of the North--The Republican
+Party--The Third Invasion of the Missourians--Governor Reeder and the
+Territorial Elections--The Organization of the First Legislature of
+Kansas Territory--The Topeka Constitution--The Removal of Governor
+Reeder; and His Election as Congressional Delegate--Establishment of
+the "Free-state" Government--The First Violence--The "Free-state"
+Government and the Administration--The New Governor, Shannon, and the
+"Law and Order" Party--John Brown--The President's Proclamation--The
+Congressional Committee to the Territory--Application for
+Admission--The "Treason Indictments"--The Sacking of Lawrence--The
+Attack on Senator Sumner--The Pottawattomie Massacres--The Battle at
+Black Jack--The Governor's Proclamation, Enforced by United States
+Soldiers--The Passage of the Bill for the Admission of Kansas by the
+House--Dispersal of the "Free-state" Legislature by Colonel
+Sumner--The "Free-state" Directory--The Treaty of August 17th--The New
+Invasion from Missouri--General Smith's Attitude Toward Invaders--The
+failure of "Popular Sovereignty" in the Territories--The New Governor
+Establishes Peace by Means of the Army of the United States--The
+Judicial Contribution to Kansas History.
+
+
+The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the purchase of nearly fifty
+thousand square miles of territory {408} from Mexico on the Southern
+boundary of New Mexico, and the issue of a manifesto from Ostend by
+the Ministers of the United States to Great Britain, France, and
+Spain, Messrs. Buchanan, Mason, and Soule, advising the acquisition of
+Cuba by the United States, together with the preparation of
+filibustering expeditions in the South for the execution of this and
+similar designs, all coming within the same year, 1854, seemed to be
+sufficient evidence of a fixed plan among the slaveholders for the
+extension of slavery and the increase of the number of slaveholding
+Commonwealths in the Union, and roused the people of the North to an
+appreciation of the impending danger and to extraordinary exertions
+for meeting the same and warding it off.
+
+[Sidenote: Eli Thayer and his emigrant aid scheme.]
+
+During the debate upon the Kansas-Nebraska bill in Congress, it does
+not seem to have been generally appreciated that it might, after all,
+turn out to be a Free-soil measure, and that the question whether it
+would be such or not in a specific case resolved itself into the
+problem of immigration. There lived, however, in the town of
+Worcester, Mass., a shrewd, far seeing business man, with whose
+shrewdness, however, ideality and patriotism were mingled in an
+uncommon degree, who immediately comprehended the situation from this
+point of view. This man was the now well known and universally honored
+Eli Thayer. Before the Kansas-Nebraska bill had become law, the idea
+in his mind had ripened into a wide-reaching plan. This plan was the
+organization of an emigrant aid society, with an immense capital, the
+purpose of which should be to foster emigration from the Northern
+Commonwealths and the European states into the Territories and the
+slaveholding Commonwealths of the Union, to the end that a Free-soil
+population should gain control of them, and prohibit or abolish
+slavery in them by their {409} own local acts. Mr. Thayer reasoned
+with himself that masters would be very timid about immigrating into a
+Territory with their slaves until the question should be determined
+whether slavery should have a legal existence in the Territory, while
+men without such impediments would go boldly forward and occupy the
+country, and vote the free status for the Territory; and again, that
+with only about one-fourth of the white population of the slaveholding
+Commonwealths pecuniarily interested in slavery, the immigration of a
+few thousand active anti-slavery men into these would finally turn the
+balance at the polls against the further existence of the institution
+in the slaveholding Commonwealths themselves. The plan was so
+comprehensive that most of Mr. Thayer's friends thought it visionary,
+and he modified it, after having obtained his charter from the
+legislature of Massachusetts, limiting it to the settlement of the
+Territories, and especially to that of Kansas Territory, by
+anti-slavery men. The organization, as thus finally effected, counted
+among its directors some of the purest, most patriotic, and most
+capable men of the country--Mr. A. A. Lawrence, Dr. Samuel Cabot, Mr.
+John Lowell, Mr. Moses H. Grinnell, Rev. Edward E. Hale, Rev. Horace
+Bushnell, Professor Benjamin Silliman, and others of the like fame and
+fortune. The way in which they proposed to accomplish their purpose
+was by lessening the hardships of the journey to the distant country,
+and the hardships of life in the new country. They proposed to
+organize the emigrants into companies, procure transportation for them
+at the most favorable rates, build hotels, boarding-houses, mills,
+school-houses, churches--in a word to send capital in advance of
+population, in order to attract a good, law-abiding population by
+planting for them the advantages and conveniences of civilization in
+the new country. It was a {410} noble scheme, and none the less so
+because of the idea of making it pay ultimately as a business venture.
+
+[Sidenote: Not an entirely new thing in American history.]
+
+[Sidenote: Denunciations of it as an odious innovation.]
+
+It cannot be said that it was a movement entirely new in American
+history, although this was charged by many of the politicians, both of
+the North and of the South. A number of the American colonies were
+originally planted under the auspices of corporations in the
+motherland, and others were formed by companies of immigrants for the
+purpose of securing more freedom than the Old World afforded. It is
+difficult to see how any objection could have been found to such an
+association, animated with such motives and purposes, and operating
+through such means, and yet it was charged, even by Northern men, with
+the responsibility for all the outrages perpetrated in Kansas during
+the stormy period of 1855-56. Even the President of the United States
+denounced it with great severity.
+
+The view held by the President and his friends, both of the North and
+of the South, was that no aid should be allowed to be given, and no
+incentive offered, by any person or organization to any other person,
+to go to, and settle in, the common Territories of the Union, but that
+every emigrant should go entirely upon his own impulse, and be
+sustained entirely by his own means. This they regarded as the only
+natural and fair method for carrying into effect the principle of
+popular sovereignty in the Territories. Such a view was a perfect
+travesty of popular liberty, and manifests the tyranny which slavery
+was imposing upon the minds of freemen.
+
+[Sidenote: The organization of Mr. Thayer's company.]
+
+Mr. Thayer's company was never organized under its original charter,
+but under a charter obtained in 1855. During the period when the
+counter movements, to be described, were set on foot against it in
+Missouri, it had no corporate existence at all, but was a movement
+{411} conducted by three private gentlemen, Mr. Thayer, Mr. Lawrence,
+and Mr. J. M. S. Williams. Moreover, the establishments which they
+founded in Kansas were open to use by immigrants from any and every
+part of the Union, or of the world, without distinction. Such was the
+organization which was made the justification, or better the
+subterfuge, for excesses, which had never before been committed in the
+history of the building of the Commonwealths of the Union.
+
+[Sidenote: Reports in regard to its character and purposes.]
+
+During the early summer of 1854, exaggerated and false reports in
+regard to the character, purposes, and means of the proposed Emigrant
+Aid Company were circulated through Missouri and the entire South. It
+was said that an organization, chartered by the legislature of
+Massachusetts, possessing an immense capital, was preparing to
+abolitionize Kansas by means of military colonies, recruited from the
+slums of the Eastern cities, and planted in Kansas with all the
+munitions of war, to be used not only when necessary for their own
+defence, but for keeping out immigrants from the South. The notorious
+B. F. Stringfellow, co-editor with one Kelly of the _Squatter
+Sovereign_, a paper published at Atchison, which professed to be the
+organ of the Washington Government in western Missouri, rang the
+changes upon these misrepresentations in his newspaper, and advised
+that the emigrants sent out by the Aid Society be met with the weapons
+of their choice, which he charged were those of violence.
+
+[Sidenote: The Missouri "border ruffian" of 1854.]
+
+[Sidenote: Nebraska for the North and Kansas for the South.]
+
+The population of western Missouri was then such as to receive ready
+impression from such representations, and respond heartily to such
+counsel. This region was then the frontier between civilization and
+savagery, and into it had gathered a horde of desperate characters,
+{412} vulgar, fearless, brutal, without respect for civilization or
+reverence for God, usually inflamed with whiskey and stained with
+tobacco, gambling by day and jayhawking by night, always ready for any
+adventure which promised fun, blood, or booty. It is true that they
+had no special interest in slavery. They were simply the ready
+material out of which the slaveholders of Missouri might recruit their
+mercenaries for any villainous work which might be found necessary.
+Such was the Missouri "border ruffian" of 1854. It must not be
+understood that western Missouri contained no other sort of people.
+There were many generous-hearted, fair-minded, upright men there,
+among both the slaveholders and the non-slaveholders, who would no
+sooner have done wrong than suffered wrong. Most of them felt,
+however, that Kansas for the South and slavery, and Nebraska for the
+North, was the fair thing, the only fair thing, the thing understood
+and intended in the organization of the two Territories by one Act,
+and that any attempt on the part of the North to make Kansas a
+non-slaveholding Territory was a breach of faith, which ought to be
+resisted by the South, and especially by Missouri.
+
+[Sidenote: General Atchison.]
+
+General D. R. Atchison was such a man, and such was his view of the
+case. He was, at the time, the leading man of western Missouri, had
+represented Missouri in the Senate of the United States, and had been
+president _pro tem._ of the Senate. His opinion and his advice
+naturally determined the course which the people of western Missouri
+would pursue toward Kansas. In justice to his memory, however, it must
+be said that, while he was resolved to make Kansas a slaveholding
+Territory, and then a slaveholding Commonwealth, his presence and
+counsel exerted a moderating influence upon his fierce and reckless
+followers. He {413} left Washington soon after the passage of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act, and repaired to the scene of the coming conflict,
+for the purpose of organizing and conducting his forces.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Charles Robinson.]
+
+In June of 1854, Mr. Thayer, Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Williams invited
+Dr. Charles Robinson, of Fitchburg, Mass., to meet them in council, in
+regard to the projects of the Emigrant Aid Company. Dr. Robinson was a
+prominent "forty-niner," and the leader of the California squatters in
+the war against the Sutter land claims. He was shrewd, calm,
+courageous, and full of expedients. These qualities, together with his
+large experience in organizing the forces of an embryonic
+Commonwealth, fitted him exactly for the work which Mr. Thayer and his
+colleagues were seeking to accomplish. Dr. Robinson was not an
+Abolitionist, and neither was Thayer, Lawrence, nor Williams. They
+were simply working to prevent the extension of slavery. They were all
+Whigs or Free-soil Democrats. They were thus by their moderation in
+principles and their conservatism in character admirably fitted to
+undertake the great work of making Kansas a free Commonwealth.
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. C. H. Branscomb.]
+
+The conference resulted in the sending of Dr. Robinson to the front to
+inspect the Territory of Kansas and make arrangements for settlements.
+Accompanied by Mr. C. H. Branscomb, a young lawyer, of Holyoke, Mass.,
+he started for Kansas in the last days of June, 1854. They went by way
+of St. Louis and Kansas City. When they arrived in Missouri they found
+the excitement in reference to the reported doings of the Emigrant Aid
+Company already at a high pitch. They heard threats that no
+anti-slavery man would be allowed to settle in Kansas, and they heard
+of rewards offered for the head of Eli Thayer. They found also that a
+goodly number of pro-slavery Missourians had already {414} immigrated
+into the Territory, had held a popular convention or assembly at Salt
+Creek Valley, at which they had declared slavery to be an existing
+institution in the Territory, and called upon its friends to aid in
+its firmer establishment and its wider extension.
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Robinson and Mr. Branscomb in Kansas.]
+
+From Kansas City Mr. Branscomb proceeded alone up the Kansas River to
+Fort Riley, while Dr. Robinson went up the Missouri to Fort
+Leavenworth. The Doctor found surveyors laying off a town near Fort
+Leavenworth, despite the fact that the Government at Washington had
+not yet opened the country for purchase. He immediately returned to
+Kansas City, where he received a letter from Boston informing him that
+the first party of emigrants was on the eve of starting for Kansas,
+and instructing him to join them at St. Louis. Upon meeting them at
+St. Louis, a letter was handed him asking for his immediate presence
+in Boston. He wrote to Mr. Branscomb to join the party at Kansas City
+and lead them to a settlement, while he himself hurried to Boston.
+
+[Sidenote: The first party of emigrants.]
+
+Mr. Branscomb and a Colonel Blood, of Wisconsin, who had also been
+sent out by Mr. Lawrence, met the emigrants at Kansas City, and, after
+a good deal of deliberation, led them to the spot on the Kansas River,
+above the confluence of the Wakarusa with the Kansas, on which the
+town of Lawrence was afterward built.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Platte County self-defensive association."]
+
+A few days before this first party of emigrants had arrived from the
+East, a meeting of residents of Platte County in Missouri took place
+at Weston, and, under the lead of B. F. Stringfellow, an organization
+was formed, which called itself the "Platte County Self-defensive
+Association," with the declared purpose of aiding in the removal of
+all persons from the soil of Kansas who might go there through {415}
+the aid or protection or guidance of emigrant aid societies in the
+North. Other such associations were formed in other localities of
+western Missouri, and before the autumn of 1854 had hardly opened,
+from five to ten thousand persons, mostly desperate and reckless
+characters, were organized in the border counties of western Missouri,
+and ready to invade Kansas for the purpose of protecting the settlers
+in the Territory from Missouri and the South generally in the
+exclusive possession of the Territory.
+
+[Sidenote: The founding of Lawrence.]
+
+In September, the little party of about thirty men, who had pitched
+their tents upon the site of the present city of Lawrence, were joined
+by Dr. Robinson and S. C. Pomeroy, with the second party from the
+East, numbering some two hundred men. Upon the arrival of these the
+work of laying out and building the town was begun, and the place was
+named, in honor of the strong financial supporter of the Emigrant Aid
+enterprise, Lawrence.
+
+[Sidenote: First invasion of the Missourians.]
+
+When the first party arrived at the site they found it occupied by a
+single settler, named Stearns. Mr. Branscomb immediately purchased
+Stearns' claim and improvements for the company. The Missourians had,
+however, rushed into the Territory, at the earliest moment after the
+passage of the organic Act, and marked all the best lands as taken,
+leaving very little for bona fide settlers. As the result of this
+procedure, another claimant to the site of Lawrence soon appeared, one
+John Baldwin, and ordered the Yankees to decamp. Robinson proposed
+that each settler be left in possession until some authorized tribunal
+could pass upon the claims, and declared that his party would hold
+possession until removed by a legal act. Baldwin and his party
+rejected the proposition, and summoned their Missouri friends to
+assist them. Some came, {416} but not enough to overcome the Yankees.
+The Yankees stood firm and the Missourians retired, declaring that
+they would come again, and breathing out threats of war and bloodshed
+upon their return. This was October 6th, 1854, and such was the first
+invasion of the Missourians.
+
+[Sidenote: Governor A. H. Reeder.]
+
+On the next day, the Governor of the Territory, the President's
+representative, the Hon. A. H. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, arrived at
+Fort Leavenworth, and began his regime in the Territory. From this
+time forward the history of the Territory is the resultant of four
+elemental forces in contact with each other--the general Government,
+the pro-slavery inhabitants, the anti-slavery inhabitants, and the
+Missourians.
+
+Governor Reeder was a genial, intelligent, upright man, a good lawyer
+and a fine orator. He was a Union-loving Democrat, and a firm believer
+in the doctrine of home rule in the Territories. He declared that he
+would maintain peace and order in the Territory, and immediately set
+out on a tour of inspection through the Territory. After having
+finished this, he caused the Territory to be districted, and ordered
+the election of a delegate to Congress.
+
+[Sidenote: The second invasion of the Missourians and the election of
+the delegate to Congress.]
+
+There is little question that at the moment a majority of the bona
+fide settlers in the Territory were pro-slavery, and would have
+elected the delegate to Congress without any outside aid, but the
+pro-slavery men in Kansas and Missouri had become excited by the
+rumors of the vast schemes in the East for planting anti-slavery
+military colonies in the Territories, and also in the slaveholding
+Commonwealths, and were in no state of mind to think quietly and act
+calmly. They felt that they must make sure of all of the elements of
+government in {417} Kansas at the outset. The Missourians consequently
+committed the fatal and unnecessary blunder of going over into Kansas,
+to the number of some seventeen hundred or more, and voting for the
+pro-slavery candidate for Congress, J. W. Whitfield, who was thus
+elected by a large majority. Without the vote of the Missourians,
+Whitfield had still a substantial majority, but this travesty of the
+principle of home rule in the Territories, this pollution of
+republican principles at the very fountain-head, roused the North to
+the highest pitch of indignation.
+
+[Sidenote: The indignation of the North.]
+
+This election took place on November 29th, 1854. Had it occurred
+before the Congressional elections of that year, it would most
+probably have caused a much more rapid development of the Republican
+party than happened, and the election of the Republican candidate for
+the presidency two years later. As it was, the struggle over the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, and its final passage, had started the
+amalgamation of the Northern Whigs, the Free-soilers, and the Northern
+Democrats who opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, into the
+Republican party, and had, in the Congressional elections of 1854,
+been the chief cause in changing a Democratic majority of more than
+eighty in the House of Representatives into a minority by more than
+seventy.
+
+[Sidenote: The Republican party.]
+
+Of course the disintegration of the two old parties would, under
+ordinary conditions, proceed slowly. The members of neither were
+willing to enter the organization, or bear the name, of the other. As
+the Northern Whigs had unanimously opposed the repeal of the
+restriction of 1820 upon slavery in the Territories, it was not
+unnatural that they should at first feel that they were already the
+anti-slavery-extension party, and that all persons holding to that
+principle should be {418} willing to march under their banner. Some of
+the more liberal minds among them in the Northwest, especially in
+Wisconsin and Michigan, had, already in the summer of 1854, joined
+with the Free-soilers, and the Democrats who opposed the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise, to form a new party, under a new name, the
+Republican party, which, indeed, had no other principle than that
+already represented by the Northern Whigs, but which did not repel the
+Democrats by requiring them to desert to their old enemy. The great
+majority of both Whigs and Democrats were, however, rather waiting to
+see how home rule in the Territories would work, and were in the
+meantime busying themselves, in large degree, with other questions,
+chief among which was the question whether the country ought not to be
+preserved against foreign Roman Catholic immigration, the question
+which gave rise to the short-lived Know-nothing party, with its
+principle of America for Americans, the only real service of which
+movement was the aid which it lent to the dissolution of the Whig
+party, and to the preparation of the way for the union of the Northern
+Whigs with the anti-slavery-extension elements of the other parties
+into the Republican party.
+
+The interference of the Missourians in the first election in Kansas,
+demonstrating the impracticability of "popular sovereignty" in the
+Territories, was the very thing necessary to hasten the development of
+the Republican party, but it came too late to influence the elections
+of 1854, and the shock which it caused lost some of the sharpness of
+its effect before the autumn of 1856.
+
+The Congress to which Whitfield presented his credentials was the one
+whose House of Representatives had been chosen in 1852. His claim to
+his seat was at first not resisted, and the first step in the
+programme for making Kansas a slaveholding Territory was thus
+successful.
+
+{419} [Sidenote: The Territorial legislature.]
+
+Of far more importance, however, than the election of the delegate to
+Congress was the election of the members of the first Territorial
+legislature, since, according to the principle of "popular
+sovereignty" in the Territories, it would have the power probably of
+determining primarily the legality or illegality of slavery in Kansas.
+
+In February of 1855, the Territorial authorities took a census of the
+inhabitants of the Territory, and it was estimated that there were
+between eight and nine thousand bona fide settlers in the Territory,
+about three thousand of whom were voters. It was also found that about
+four-sevenths of the legal voters had emigrated from the South. It is
+not probable, however, that all of these were pro-slavery men.
+
+[Sidenote: The third invasion of the Missourians.]
+
+March 13th following was the day appointed for the election. All
+through the month the Missourians of the border counties were
+assembling in their "Blue Lodges," arming, organizing and drilling. On
+the day of the election some four or five thousand of them marched,
+fully armed, to the voting places in the more eastern districts of the
+Territory, and compelled the acceptance of their ballots by the
+regular judges of the elections, or by judges appointed by themselves.
+About six thousand three hundred votes were cast at this election, and
+it was estimated that three-fourths of them were cast by the Missouri
+invaders. Some of them pretended to be residents of the Territory, but
+most of those who thought it necessary to justify the procedure at all
+claimed that the Emigrant Aid Company had sent out men for the sole
+purpose of voting, and that their own action was retaliatory. The
+invasion was a notoriously public deed. The Missourians came in
+companies, with music and banners, and made no attempt at concealment.
+The {420} Governor of the Territory resided, at the time, near the
+Missouri border, and probably had ocular proof of the outrage. The
+anti-slavery men thought that he would set the entire election aside.
+He did call for protests, and appointed April 5th as the time for
+hearing the same and canvassing the returns.
+
+When the day arrived protests had been received from only six or seven
+of the eighteen election districts, and affected the elections of not
+more than three of the thirteen persons returned as elected to the
+upper house, and of not more than nine of the twenty-six persons
+returned as elected to the lower house, of the Territorial
+legislature.
+
+[Sidenote: Governor Reeder and the Territorial elections.]
+
+Dr. Robinson and the anti-slavery men who had gathered about the
+Governor as a sort of body-guard wanted the Governor to declare the
+entire election null and void, but the Governor was a good lawyer, and
+he quickly determined that he could not pronounce an election null and
+void in a district from which no charges of fraud were presented, on
+account of fraud charged in some other district, and that he could not
+refuse his certificate to any one elected on the face of the returns,
+if nobody disputed the regularity of his election. Upon examining the
+disputed cases he decided to refuse his certificate to eight of the
+twelve persons chosen on the face of the disputed returns. Thirty-one
+members were thus duly qualified to take their seats, and new
+elections for eight seats were ordered. Of these thirty-one,
+twenty-eight were counted as pro-slavery men, a large majority in both
+houses.
+
+Dr. Robinson and the anti-slavery men found great fault with the
+Governor, and charged him with being frightened out of his original
+purpose to set the entire election aside, but it is difficult to see
+how he could have done this without protests against the return of
+each {421} and every person. It would certainly have been an arbitrary
+procedure to have done so. If the anti-slavery men were not brave
+enough to protest, it certainly did not become them to taunt the
+Governor with backing down, when they gave him nothing upon which to
+base the refusal to issue his certificates.
+
+[Sidenote: The new elections to the legislative seats unfilled at the
+first elections.]
+
+The 22nd day of the following month (May) was appointed for holding
+the elections for the seats declared unfilled by the Governor. The
+anti-slavery candidates were elected to all of them. The pro-slavery
+men ignored the election. This meant that those holding the Governor's
+certificate by virtue of this election would be rejected by the
+legislature itself, and those returned as elected at the first
+election would be seated, under the power of the legislature to
+determine finally upon the legitimacy of its members. This happened as
+soon as the legislature assembled and organized itself in the first
+days of July.
+
+[Sidenote: The organization of the first legislature of Kansas
+Territory.]
+
+The legislature as thus organized contained only a single anti-slavery
+man, a Mr. Houston, and he voluntarily vacated his seat a few weeks
+later in great disgust. From a technical point of view this
+legislature was a legitimate body, but from a moral and a political
+point of view it did not represent the people of the Territory. It
+represented simply the pro-slavery party, and used its powers in utter
+disregard of justice and right reason.
+
+[Sidenote: The problem for the anti-slavery men. Dr. Robinson's plan.]
+
+The great problem for the anti-slavery men now was to repudiate the
+jurisdiction of this legislature without rebelling against the general
+Government and its agent in the Territory, the Governor. Dr. Robinson
+had had the experience in California of aiding to make a Commonwealth
+in the Union, without the transitional period of {422} Territorial
+organization. He now applied this experience to the solution of the
+Kansas question.
+
+The idea of Dr. Robinson and his colleagues was, to hold a convention
+of the people of the Territory for the purpose of framing an organic
+statute for Commonwealth government, which, after adoption by the
+people, should be sent to Congress, with a petition for the admission
+of Kansas into the Union as a Commonwealth. They proposed in the
+meantime to get on without any Territorial government as best they
+could.
+
+Their idea was, in the second place, to ignore the Territorial
+government altogether as bogus, but to yield obedience to the
+officials of the general Government in the Territory. This distinction
+might be made, so far as the Territorial legislature was concerned,
+upon the "popular sovereignty" principle. The difficulty was in
+applying it to the Governor and the Territorial judges appointed by
+the President. To distinguish between their functions in such a way as
+to deny their authority when administering the acts of the Territorial
+legislature, and yield to it when administering the acts of Congress
+in the Territory, was certainly a very delicate procedure, if possible
+at all. Such distinctions would have to be very clearly understood,
+and very correctly applied in each case, in order to avoid the charge
+of rebellion and treason.
+
+[Sidenote: Conflict between the Governor and the Territorial
+legislature.]
+
+Had the Governor remained true to the legislature it is possible that
+this plan of rebellion against the Territorial government might have
+been suppressed at the outset, but such was not to be the course of
+history. He called the legislature to assemble at Pawnee on July 2nd.
+It remained in session there only four days. It did little more than
+unseat the persons holding the Governor's certificate by virtue of the
+second election, and seat {423} those to whom he had denied his
+certificate on account of fraud at the first election. It then
+adjourned itself to Shawnee Mission, a place nearer the Missouri
+border. The Governor denied the power of the legislature to do this,
+since by the Act organizing the Territory, the legislature must first
+meet at the time and place appointed by the Governor, and was vested
+by the Act with power, thereafter, only over the time of commencing
+its regular sessions. The Governor vetoed the proposition of the
+legislature to change its place of meeting. The legislature passed the
+project over his veto, and removed to Shawnee Mission; after which the
+Governor broke off all official connection with it. There is little
+doubt that the pro-slavery legislature wanted to be where it could be
+easily supported by the Missourians, and that the Governor considered
+this a menace to his own independence, and an outrage upon the people
+of Kansas, and upon the principle of "popular sovereignty" in the
+Territories.
+
+[Sidenote: Sharpe's riles.]
+
+The attitude now assumed by the Governor toward the legislature at
+Shawnee Mission was a great encouragement to the anti-slavery men. Dr.
+Robinson had already sent to Mr. Thayer for Sharpe's rifles, and, at
+the time of the Governor's quarrel with the legislature, a sufficient
+number of these had arrived to furnish almost every anti-slavery man
+with a good outfit.
+
+[Sidenote: Factional movements among the anti-slavery men suppressed.]
+
+Dr. Robinson had, at the same time, overcome the attempts of James S.
+Lane to separate the anti-slavery men into parties, by the
+organization of a Democratic party in Kansas. In a powerful speech at
+Lawrence, on July 4th, 1855, the Doctor convinced his hearers of the
+necessity for all anti-slavery men standing together until Kansas
+should be admitted into the Union as a {424} non-slaveholding
+Commonwealth. It was in this address that the Doctor repudiated the
+existing legislature as a Missouri institution, advising resistance to
+the execution of its acts, and made his noted declaration, that, if
+slavery in Missouri was impossible with freedom in Kansas, then
+slavery in Missouri must die in order that freedom in Kansas might
+live.
+
+[Sidenote: Excitement in Missouri and throughout the country over the
+"Free-state" movement.]
+
+These bold utterances startled the North and the South, the people of
+Kansas and, especially, the people of Missouri. This speech, together
+with the letter of M. F. Conway to Governor Reeder, resigning his seat
+in the legislature and repudiating that body "as derogatory to the
+respectability of popular government and insulting to the virtue and
+intelligence of the age," set the "Free-state" scheme in motion.
+
+[Sidenote: The enactments of the Territorial legislature.]
+
+The enactments of the Territorial legislature greatly aided the
+movement by demonstrating to the people what they had to expect from
+the dominance of that body. They made the decoying, or aiding therein,
+of a slave away from his master in the Territory grand larceny,
+punishable by death. They made the decoying into Kansas of any slave
+away from his master in any other place, for the purpose of effecting
+his freedom, grand larceny, punishable by death. And they made the
+denial of the right to hold slaves in Kansas, either by word of mouth
+or in writing or printing, a felony, punishable by imprisonment at
+hard labor for not less than two years.
+
+[Sidenote: The North aroused by this legislation.]
+
+When the knowledge of this infamous legislation spread throughout the
+North, it roused that section of the country to new efforts for
+peopling Kansas with anti-slavery men, who would rescue the Territory
+from the reign of such laws and such law-makers. The necessary
+reinforcements {425} were being assembled in the North when the
+creation of the "Free-state" government was begun.
+
+[Sidenote: The Topeka constitution.]
+
+A series of conventions, beginning with the convention at Lawrence on
+August 14th, and culminating with that assembled at Topeka on the 23rd
+day of October, 1855, consolidated the anti-slavery men in the
+Territory into the "Free-state" party, constructed a temporary
+election machinery, and produced, finally, a proposed Commonwealth
+constitution, which, in addition to the provisions for the structure
+of a Commonwealth government for Kansas, contained a clause
+prohibiting slavery in Kansas after July 4th, 1857, and excluding
+negroes from residence in Kansas after that date.
+
+[Sidenote: The removal of Governor Reeder; and his election as
+Congressional delegate.]
+
+In the meantime Governor Reeder had been removed by the President from
+the governorship of the Territory, and the Secretary of the Territory,
+one Daniel Woodson, a pro-slavery man, had become acting Governor for
+the time being. Ex-Governor Reeder now went over to the anti-slavery
+men, and was chosen by them on October 9th, at the same election at
+which the delegates to the Topeka convention were chosen, as delegate
+to Congress. Over twenty-seven hundred votes were cast at this
+election.
+
+[Sidenote: The ratification of the Topeka constitution; and the
+establishment of the "Free-state" government.]
+
+On December 15th, the Topeka constitution was submitted to the
+suffrages of the people. Seventeen hundred and thirty-one votes were
+cast in favor of its adoption, and forty-six votes against it. The
+pro-slavery men took no part in the voting. It is probable, however,
+that a majority of the legal voters in Kansas ratified this
+constitution. On January 5th, 1856, the elections for the legislative
+members and officials of the government provided by this constitution
+were held, and Dr. Robinson was chosen Governor.
+
+{426} [Sidenote: The first violence.]
+
+It was at this election that the conflict of arms between the
+"Free-state" government and the Territorial government began. A
+Territorial military company, called the Kickapoo Rangers, threatened
+to interfere with the elections at the town of Easton. A captain, R.
+P. Brown, organized a company of "Free-state" men at Leavenworth, and
+went to Easton to protect the ballot box. As the evening drew on a
+fight ensued, in which a Territorial man was killed. The next day the
+Leavenworth company was attacked, on their return, by the Kickapoo
+company, and Captain Brown was taken prisoner. Some movements were in
+progress for trying him, when one of the ruffians put an end to the
+matter by striking him on the head with a hatchet.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Free-state" government and the Administration.]
+
+Two local governments of Kansas were now in existence. One, the
+Territorial, had been recognized as legitimate by the Washington
+Government. What, then, was the other? Was it a body of
+insurrectionists? If so, must the general Government suppress it? And,
+if the general Government must suppress it, must it do so at once, or
+should it wait until the insurrectionists should undertake to exercise
+some governmental power? These were knotty problems for the
+Administration at Washington, but they were problems which had to be
+solved. From the inaction of the Washington authorities we must
+conclude that the prevailing view with them was that the new
+government in Kansas must do something before it could be dealt with.
+
+[Sidenote: The acts of the "Free-state" legislature.]
+
+The "Free-state" legislature met March 4th, 1856. It prepared a
+memorial to Congress, praying for the entrance of Kansas as a
+Commonwealth into the Union, under the Topeka constitution. It elected
+Reeder and Lane United States Senators. It appointed a committee to
+put the {427} legislative business into shape for the next session.
+And it passed a few laws.
+
+None of these acts were treasonable. Treason, by the Constitution, is
+levying war against the United States or any of the "States," or
+adhering to those who are doing so, giving them aid and comfort; and
+levying war has been defined by the Supreme Court to be the actual
+assembly of armed men for the treasonable purpose. Not even the
+voluntary submission to the laws passed by the "Free-state"
+legislature was treason or rebellion. The danger point would be
+reached when the "Free-state" government should undertake to enforce
+its laws, or should interpose armed resistance to the enforcement of
+the laws of the United States, or of the acts of the Territorial
+government, which government had been recognized as legitimate by the
+general Government, which was, in fact, but the local agent of the
+general Government.
+
+[Sidenote: Governor Robinson's message.]
+
+Governor Robinson understood the situation. In his message to the
+legislature he recommended "no course to be taken in opposition to the
+general Government, or to the Territorial government, while it shall
+remain with the sanction of Congress."
+
+[Sidenote: The new Governor, Shannon, and the "law and order" party.]
+
+In the midst of these movements by the "Free-state" men, the
+pro-slavery men organized themselves more closely for aggressive
+action. The new Governor appointed by the President, Wilson Shannon,
+ex-Governor of Ohio, a man of intelligence and high character, arrived
+at Shawnee Mission on September 3rd, 1855. The pro-slavery men did not
+like his appointment. They wanted the acting Governor, Woodson, to be
+made Governor. However, they received the new Governor with much pomp
+and ceremony, and succeeded in imposing upon him, at the outset, their
+view of the situation. On {428} November 14th, they held a pro-slavery
+convention at Leavenworth. They called it an assembly of "the lovers
+of law and order." The Governor presided over it, and made a rather
+violent speech, in which he declared that the Territorial government
+had the support of the Administration at Washington. The practical
+work of this convention was the organization of the "law and order"
+party; that is, the party for enforcing the acts and authority of the
+Territorial government.
+
+[Sidenote: The attempt to enforce the Territorial laws upon the
+"Free-state" men.]
+
+Naturally a dispute about a land claim furnished the occasion for
+trying the powers of the Territorial government. In the course of this
+quarrel, which took place in the latter part of November, 1855, a
+pro-slavery man, named Coleman, killed a "Free-state" man, named Dow.
+The friends of Dow gathered about the spot where his dead body was
+found, and indulged in threats of vengeance. Among them was one Jacob
+Branson, who uttered threats against one Buckley, as the instigator of
+the murder of his friend. Buckley secured a peace warrant against
+Branson, and put it in the hands of one S. J. Jones, the sheriff,
+under the Territorial government, of Douglas County. The arrest of
+Branson under this warrant inaugurated the contest for imposing the
+authority of the Territorial government upon the "Free-state" men.
+
+[Sidenote: The Branson rescue.]
+
+Sheriff Jones arrested Branson, and started for Lecompton with him, by
+way of Lawrence. His purpose in going through the head-quarters of the
+"Free-state" men was undoubtedly to tempt them to the rescue of
+Branson. But Branson was rescued several miles away from Lawrence by a
+company of "Free-state" men, under the lead of a Captain Abbott. This
+party, however, immediately repaired to Lawrence, while the sheriff
+went to Franklin, and from {429} this place summoned his Missouri
+friends to his aid, and then reported his trouble to the Governor, and
+asked for his support.
+
+[Sidenote: The advance of the Missourians on Lawrence.]
+
+The Governor immediately ordered the officers of the Territorial
+militia to collect the forces, and march to Lawrence. Although the
+sheriff asked for three thousand men, not one hundred residents of the
+Territory answered the call of the militia officers; but a great horde
+came from Missouri. By December 5th, 1855, more than a thousand
+Missourians had arrived, and had encamped upon the Wakarusa, a few
+miles to the east of Lawrence. General Atchison was with them.
+
+Naturally the people of Lawrence were much excited, and set about
+preparing for defence. They constructed several small forts, and
+organized a military force of some six or seven hundred men, pretty
+well armed and equipped. They stood a very good chance to win in the
+trial of battle, but they resolved, most wisely, to rely upon the
+justice of their cause more than upon the power of their arms.
+
+[Sidenote: Lawrence's demand of protection from Governor Shannon.]
+
+The committee of safety, which was directing matters in Lawrence, sent
+commissioners to Governor Shannon to enlighten him, from the point of
+view of the "Free-state" men, in regard to the situation. They made
+their way to Shawnee Mission, where they were coldly received by the
+Governor, who charged the "Free-state" men with rebellion against his
+government. The commissioners disputed his charge, told him that
+nobody in Lawrence had had anything to do with the rescue of Branson,
+that his rescuers had been warned out of the town as soon as they came
+into it, and had obeyed the warning, and gave him the committee's
+message demanding his protection against the invaders.
+
+{430} [Sidenote: Shannon at Lawrence, and his agreement with the
+"Free-state" men.]
+
+The Governor was somewhat staggered by these statements, and decided
+to go to Lawrence himself, and examine affairs on the spot. This was
+just what the "Free-state" men wanted. He arrived in Lawrence on
+December 7th. Dr. Robinson and Colonel Lane immediately stated the
+situation and the views of the "Free-state" men to him. The Governor
+saw, at once, that they were in the right, and could not be attacked.
+He recognized, at once, that his task was to send the Missourians out
+of the Territory. He entered into a sort of written agreement with the
+citizens of Lawrence, in which the people of Lawrence pledged
+themselves not to resist the legal service of any criminal process,
+but to aid in the execution of the laws, when called on by proper
+authority, and the Governor declared that he had no authority to call
+upon non-residents of Kansas to aid him in the execution of the laws,
+had not done so, and would not do so. The last clause provided that
+nothing in the agreement should be taken as a recognition of the
+validity of the acts of the Territorial legislature by the
+"Free-state" men.
+
+[Sidenote: The retreat of the Missourians.]
+
+The Governor felt that he would have difficulty in reconciling the
+Missourians to his agreement, and insisted that Dr. Robinson and
+Colonel Lane should accompany him to Franklin, and aid him in his
+task. The calm statements of the Governor and of Dr. Robinson
+prevailed, and the Missourians saw the error into which they had been
+betrayed by the inconsiderate pro-slavery zeal of Sheriff Jones.
+General Atchison told his followers plainly that Dr. Robinson's
+position was impregnable, and that if they should persist in an attack
+upon Lawrence, contrary to the Governor's orders, they were only a
+mob. He added, that such a movement was not only without show of
+legality, but would ruin the Democratic {431} party, and cause the
+election of an Abolitionist President the next year. By these efforts
+and representations on the part of the Governor, Dr. Robinson, and
+General Atchison, the Missourians were induced to break camp and turn
+their faces homeward.
+
+[Sidenote: John Brown.]
+
+At the moment of this victory of the "Free-state" men, won by moral
+forces and diplomatic address, appeared the Loki of Kansas
+"Free-state" history, John Brown. He mounted a box in one of the
+streets of Lawrence, railed and ranted against the settlement which
+had been reached, and breathed out words of slaughter and pillage,
+until some man of common sense pulled him down, and stopped his
+murderous canting babble.
+
+[Sidenote: Shannon's report to the President.]
+
+The Governor reported the affair to the President, expressed to him
+his forebodings as to the future, and suggested that he be allowed to
+call upon the United States troops stationed at Fort Leavenworth at
+his discretion, as a call for the militia would only end in a party
+struggle. This communication seems to have opened the eyes of the
+President, for the first time, to the true situation.
+
+[Sidenote: The appeal of the "Free-state" men to the President.]
+
+The "Free-state" men now addressed the President and demanded his
+protection against another invasion from Missouri, which they claimed
+was in preparation. On January 23rd, 1856, the leaders at Lawrence
+telegraphed the President that the outrage was on the point of
+consummation, and besought the President to issue his proclamation, at
+once, forbidding the invasion. At the same time, they informed certain
+members of Congress and the Governors of certain Northern
+Commonwealths of the impending danger; and they sent commissioners
+into the Northern Commonwealths to inform the people of the {432}
+North in regard to the situation in Kansas, and to appeal to them to
+emigrate thither in sufficient numbers to save the Territory against
+the pro-slavery movement.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's proclamation.]
+
+The agitation became now so general throughout the country, that the
+President felt constrained to interfere. On February 11th, he issued
+his proclamation, in which he warned all persons concerned that "an
+attempted insurrection" in the Territory of Kansas or "an aggressive
+intrusion into the same" would be resisted by the employment of the
+United States troops in Kansas, as well as the local militia; and
+called upon all good citizens outside of Kansas to abstain from
+intermeddling with the local affairs of the Territory, and upon all
+good citizens in Kansas to render obedience to the laws.
+
+[Sidenote: The situation made more embarrassing for the "Free-state"
+men.]
+
+The "Free-state" men did not regard the proclamation as particularly
+friendly to them. While it forbade invasion, it commanded obedience to
+the existing Territorial government within. They were afraid that they
+would not be allowed to organize their "Free-state" government,
+created by the Topeka constitution. But, as we have seen, the day came
+and went for this, without any interference on the part of the
+President or the Governor against the movement, although the President
+had authorized the Governor to call upon the United States troops at
+Fort Leavenworth at his discretion. Under these circumstances it was
+certainly the part of wisdom for the "Free-state" men to do nothing
+superfluous or sensational in the organization of the new government,
+and to delay operations under it for the time being. The question of
+the recognition of the "Free-state" movement was before Congress,
+under the issue of the contest between Whitfield and Reeder for the
+seat in the House of Representatives. The policy, therefore, {433} of
+representing the organization of the new government as tentative, and
+as conditioned upon the presumption of Congressional recognition, and
+as holding its powers in abeyance until that recognition should be
+secured, was wise and necessary.
+
+[Sidenote: The Congressional committee to the Territory.]
+
+The discussion of Kansas affairs in the House of Representatives
+revolved about the question of the admission of Whitfield or Reeder
+from the middle of February to March 19th, 1856, when it was voted to
+send a special committee of investigation to the Territory. The
+gentlemen selected were Mr. Howard, of Michigan, Mr. Sherman, of Ohio,
+and Mr. Oliver, of Missouri. They proceeded to the Territory and
+opened their investigations about the middle of April.
+
+[Sidenote: Application for admission.]
+
+A week before this, the memorial from the "Free-state" legislature
+praying for the admission of Kansas, as a Commonwealth, under the
+Topeka constitution, was presented in both Houses of Congress, and
+placed upon the calendar in each. The slavery question was herewith
+again before Congress in both principle and detail. The measure which
+was intended to put its discussion out of the halls of Congress had
+thus, in less than two years, proved itself an utter fiasco.
+
+[Sidenote: Sheriff Jones again at Lawrence; and the attempts to
+assassinate him.]
+
+[Sidenote: The outrage repudiated by the "Free-state" men.]
+
+In the Territory the pro-slavery men pursued their policy of bringing
+the "Free-state" men into conflict with the general Government. The
+"Free-state" men sought just as diligently to avoid it. Both sides
+recognized this as the crucial test. By the middle of April, some of
+the men who participated in the rescue of Branson had made their way
+back to Lawrence, and Sheriff Jones laid his plans for arresting them.
+On April 19th, he rode into Lawrence and served a writ upon S. N.
+Wood, but the crowd jostled them apart, and Wood escaped. The {434}
+Sheriff returned on the next day with more writs, and undertook to
+arrest S. F. Tappan. Tappan resisted and struck the Sheriff. Jones
+went at once to the Governor, and the Governor gave him a detachment
+of United States soldiers. With these he returned to Lawrence, but
+they could find no one for whom the Sheriff had a writ. The party
+pitched tent at Lawrence to spend the night. After darkness came on,
+some wretch, then unknown to the "Free-state" leaders, approached the
+tent and shot the Sheriff, wounding him dangerously. This was an
+almost irreparable blow to the "Free-state" cause. The very thing
+which the "Free-state" leaders had sought most earnestly to avoid had
+been thrust upon them by the criminal deed of some meddlesome crank.
+The "Free-state" men recognized at once the seriousness of the
+situation, and, on the morning following the event, held a meeting, at
+which the outrage was repudiated and denounced, and a reward of five
+hundred dollars offered for the apprehension of the criminal. Colonel
+Sumner, the commander of the United States troops in Kansas, wrote to
+Dr. Robinson, urging him to use every effort to move the citizens of
+Lawrence to bring the assassin to justice, as his act would be charged
+by the pro-slavery men upon the whole community. The Doctor replied at
+once that the community repudiated the foul deed, and would certainly
+bring the guilty party to justice if he could be found. There was no
+municipal government in Lawrence at the time, and Dr. Robinson acted,
+in his reply to Colonel Sumner, as a sort of self-constituted
+representative of the citizens. He certainly represented the views of
+the large majority of them, but there were some who, at the time, knew
+who the guilty person was, and gave no sign which would aid in his
+discovery.
+
+{435} [Sidenote: Judge Lecompte's charge to the Grand Jury.]
+
+The Sheriff's wound was not fatal, but it was reported that he was
+dead, and the Missourians began to organize for another invasion.
+Before they were ready, the Territorial judiciary came to their
+assistance. Chief Justice Lecompte charged the Grand Jury of Douglas
+County, in the early part of May, that resistance to the Territorial
+laws was high treason against the United States, and that entering
+into combinations for the purpose of making such resistance was
+constructive treason, and instructed the body to find true bills
+against all persons guilty of such offences. This was a most
+astounding piece of jurisprudence. It looked like nothing but a trick
+to deprive the "Free-state" men of their leaders, since one arrested
+for treason was considered as not having the privilege of bail.
+
+[Sidenote: The "treason indictments."]
+
+The Grand Jury found indictments against nine or ten persons, among
+them Robinson, Reeder, and Lane, and also against two newspapers
+published in Lawrence, and the Emigrant Aid Company's hotel there. The
+indictments were put in the hands of the United States Marshal for the
+Territory, J. B. Donaldson. On May 11th, Donaldson issued a
+proclamation, declaring that the service of these writs by his deputy
+had been resisted in Lawrence, and calling "the law-abiding citizens
+of the Territory to appear at Lecompton, as soon as possible, and in
+numbers sufficient for the proper execution of the law." As a matter
+of fact, only Reeder had resisted service, and had succeeded in
+escaping. All the others, except Lane and Wood, were taken into
+custody without difficulty. Reeder's justification was that he was at
+the moment in attendance, as a witness, upon the Congressional
+committee sent to the Territory, and was, therefore, legally exempt
+from arrest at the time.
+
+{436} [Sidenote: The Marshal's proclamation in Lawrence.]
+
+The Marshal did not publish his proclamation in Lawrence, but a copy
+of it fell into the hands of a Lawrence citizen, who hastened to make
+known to the people the peril which was impending. The citizens
+already knew of forces being organized, both in the Territory and in
+Missouri, against Lawrence, and had demanded the Governor's protection
+against them. The Governor had replied that he knew of no force near
+or approaching Lawrence, except the posse under the orders of the
+United States Marshal and the Sheriff of Douglas County, who had writs
+to serve in Lawrence, and that he should not interfere.
+
+[Sidenote: The action of the citizens of Lawrence.]
+
+The citizens of Lawrence now held a meeting and passed formal
+resolutions, declaring that the charges contained in the Marshal's
+proclamation were untrue, and that the citizens were not only ready to
+acquiesce in the service of any judicial writs against them by the
+United States Marshal, but to furnish him a posse, if required, to aid
+him in the discharge of his duty. And after receiving the Governor's
+reply, they appealed to the Marshal, asking him to state his demands,
+promising not to resist the service of his processes, but to aid him
+in the discharge of his legal duties, and praying his protection
+against the lawless bands collecting about their town for the purpose
+of its destruction.
+
+[Sidenote: The Marshal's reply.]
+
+The Marshal replied in a flippant and sarcastic manner, saying that
+his correspondents must be strangers in Lawrence if they were ignorant
+of the demands against the citizens of the town, referring in
+exaggerated language to the shooting of Jones, and Reeder's resistance
+to his deputy, and to the military organization and equipment of the
+people of Lawrence, and declaring that he should execute all processes
+in his hands in his own time and way.
+
+{437} [Sidenote: Appeal of the citizens to the Marshal and the
+Governor.]
+
+Three days later, on May 17th, the citizens communicated again with
+the Marshal, calling his attention to the depredations committed by
+the bands around Lawrence, asking if he was responsible for these
+bodies, and demanding protection from him against them. At the same
+time, the managers of the hotel appealed to the Governor to protect
+their property, and carried with them an offer from the citizens to
+give up their arms to Colonel Sumner, if he would station a detachment
+of United States soldiers in the town for their protection.
+
+[Sidenote: The hotel and the printing offices.]
+
+The Marshal and the Governor thought favorably of this proposition.
+They were willing to guarantee the safety of the citizens and their
+individual property, but they thought they must consult with the
+captains of the squads composing the posse before they could give such
+assurances in regard to the hotel and the printing offices. These
+persons were found to be determined on the destruction of the printing
+offices, certainly, and of the hotel, probably. Colonel Titus, of
+Florida, declared that the South Carolina boys in the posse would be
+satisfied with nothing short of the destruction of the printing
+offices.
+
+The hotel managers and the representatives of the citizens turned
+again to the Governor and implored him to send the United States
+soldiers for the protection of the town, but he again refused to
+interfere; and, finally, when they said to him that they feared the
+citizens would be compelled to defend themselves by armed power, and
+precipitate the horrors of civil war, he answered angrily, while
+striding out of their presence: "War then it is, by God!"
+
+[Sidenote: The sacking of Lawrence.]
+
+On the morning of the 21st, the Marshal's armed force appeared upon
+one of the heights overlooking the town, displaying first a white
+flag, then a red one, and, lastly, {438} the flag of the United
+States. The Deputy-marshal then entered the town with a small posse,
+and called the managers of the hotel and several of the citizens to
+join his posse and assist him in the service of his writs. They
+obeyed, and two persons were arrested. The Deputy, with his force and
+his prisoners, returned to the camp. Colonel C. W. Topliff, a
+prominent citizen, went with them, bearing a communication from the
+committee of safety of Lawrence to the Marshal, in which the promise
+of obedience to his processes was again made, and his protection
+claimed.
+
+It was hoped that the crisis was now passed. The Marshal dismissed his
+posse. But the Sheriff immediately reorganized the bands as _his_
+posse. This was most ominous of evil. The Sheriff was burning with
+passion for personal revenge. In the middle of the afternoon (May
+21st), he rode into the town at the head of his army, and, in spite of
+every plea and remonstrance, caused the contents of the printing
+offices to be scattered through the streets and the hotel to be
+burned, and allowed the pillage, and even the burning, of private
+houses.
+
+[Sidenote: Repudiation of the deed by Atchison and others.]
+
+The atrocious and disgraceful deed of sacking Lawrence was denounced
+by many of the persons who had joined the Marshal's posse. General
+Atchison tried to prevent the Sheriff from thus wreaking his
+vengeance, and denounced his deed afterward. Jackson, the leader of
+the Georgians, and Buford, the captain of the Alabama squad, also
+denounced the vile procedure, and declared that they had not come to
+Kansas to destroy property.
+
+Atchison knew well enough that a great blow had been given to the
+prospects of the Democratic party in the now approaching presidential
+election. What, then, must have been his despair upon learning that an
+attack, {439} even more outrageous than the sacking of Lawrence, had
+been made, at the same time, upon the defender of "Free-state" Kansas
+in the Senate chamber at Washington?
+
+[Sidenote: The attack on Senator Sumner.]
+
+The debate on the bills for the admission of "Free-state" Kansas had
+progressed from day to day, in both Houses of Congress, with
+increasing earnestness and excitement. At length, on May 19th and
+20th, Mr. Sumner delivered his fierce philippic on the "Crime against
+Kansas." It was not only an unvarnished statement of the case from the
+Abolitionist point of view, but it was a personal arraignment of
+several of the Senators. The attack contained in it upon Senator
+Butler, of South Carolina, a gentleman of great refinement and
+politeness, and much honored and esteemed by his associates, was
+especially coarse and brutal. Almost all the Senators felt the attack
+to be more than a discourtesy. Senator Butler was in ill health and
+was absent from his seat, both of which circumstances made the affair
+all the more exasperating. For two days the Capital rang with
+denunciations of the insulting speech, when Preston S. Brooks, a
+nephew of Senator Butler, and a member of the House of
+Representatives, demanded and took satisfaction of Mr. Sumner for the
+attack upon his kinsman. Had he carried out his purpose in a brave and
+manly way, he would have been generally applauded for it, but being no
+match physically for Sumner, Brooks had recourse to a method which
+stamped him as a coward, and his attack upon Sumner as a brutal
+outrage. He entered the Senate chamber on May 22nd, after the
+adjournment of the body, and approaching Mr. Sumner, who was seated
+and bending over his desk, charged him with libel on South Carolina
+and her sons, and struck him with a cane upon the head {440} until the
+Senator became helpless and unconscious. With this, Sumner's outrage
+upon Butler was entirely lost sight of in Brooks's far more brutal
+outrage upon Sumner.
+
+The cowardly deed was looked upon everywhere in the North as the fit
+companion-piece to the sacking of Lawrence. The indignation of the
+North was roused to the highest pitch, and it seemed as if the
+elections of 1856 must bring the anti-slavery party into the seats of
+power.
+
+[Sidenote: The Pottawattomie massacres.]
+
+But just at this most critical juncture, when everything depended on
+calmness and moderation on the part of the "Free-state" men to secure
+immediate victory, and when immediate victory, thus pursued, was, so
+far as human eye can discern, within their grasp, an outrage was
+perpetrated by a gang of men, or rather fiends, who claimed some sort
+of relation to the "Free-state" party, which so far overshadowed in
+cruel atrocity all that had gone before as to produce a revulsion of
+feeling most damaging to the "Free-state" cause. On May 23rd, John
+Brown, with six or seven others, all, except two, members of his own
+family, went to the settlement about Dutch Henry's Crossing on the
+Pottawattomie Creek, and, on the night of the 24th, took five men,
+innocent of anything which could even justify arrest by proper
+authorities, from their cabins, and murdered them, cutting and
+slashing their bodies with cutlasses, until their savage thirst for
+blood was partially satiated. So barbarously atrocious was the deed,
+so calculated to rouse the sentiment of the whole country against the
+"Free-state" cause in Kansas, that the Republican members of the
+Congressional committee of investigation in the Territory refused to
+make the event a part of their inquiry. The Democratic member, Mr.
+Oliver, investigated it, and reported it to Congress and to the
+public.
+
+{441} No sane mind can find the slightest justification, excuse, or
+palliation for this atrocious crime. It was murder, pure and simple.
+And when we consider the purpose for which, as well as the mind with
+which, it was committed, it became, in addition to common crime, also
+public crime of the most grievous nature. Dr. Robinson says it was
+done for the purpose of involving the North and the South in war
+against each other. Thus to the murderous mind was added the seditious
+purpose. Some men have professed to find virtue in this noxious
+compound, but such minds have lost their moorings, and are roaming
+without star or compass over the border lands between reason and
+insanity. To murder, Brown and his vile brood added robbery; but this
+was so slight a crime in comparison with the other that it may be
+passed without further notice.
+
+[Sidenote: The excitement produced by them.]
+
+The inhabitants of the region were thrown into the greatest
+consternation and excitement. The pro-slavery and the anti-slavery men
+assembled together, denounced the horrible deed as foulest murder, and
+resolved to act together as men of reason and common sense for the
+maintenance of peace and order and the suppression of crime.
+
+[Sidenote: The battle at Black Jack.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Governor's proclamation, enforced by United States
+soldiers.]
+
+For a few days it was not known who the authors of these murders were,
+but suspicion soon pointed to Brown and his gang, and steps were taken
+to procure warrants for their arrest. The Governor, also, sent down a
+body of troops to the scene of the massacre. The troops were
+volunteers, chiefly Missourians, commanded by a Captain Pate. Pate's
+force met Brown's at Black Jack, and Brown captured Pate and his men.
+This was June 2nd. With nothing to hinder him for the moment, Brown
+now robbed and pillaged all around. By the 3rd, however, the
+Missourians, led by Whitfield, were rallying to the aid of their
+pro-slavery friends in {442} Kansas, and by the 5th, battle was
+impending between the Missourians and the "Free-state" men, who had
+gathered in the neighborhood of the excitement. The Governor had at
+last comprehended the serious character of the situation. He issued
+his proclamation warning invaders to retire, and commanding armed and
+illegal organizations to disperse. And he sent Colonel Sumner with a
+company of regular cavalry to the scene of action.
+
+Sumner rescued Pate and his men, dispersed Brown's gang, and ordered
+the Missourians to get out of Kansas. He did not arrest Brown, because
+he had no warrant for his apprehension, and did not know, at the time,
+that he was the author of the Pottawattomie murders. Sumner remained a
+fortnight or more in southern Kansas until the excitement was somewhat
+spent, and then returned to Fort Leavenworth. Brown disappeared, and a
+measure of peace was momentarily restored.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Free-state" cause greatly injured by Brown's deeds.]
+
+[Sidenote: The passage of the bill for the admission of Kansas by the
+House.]
+
+The Pottawattomie murders, and the robberies succeeding them, had,
+however, greatly damaged the "Free-state" cause. The great advantage
+which had accrued to it through the sacking of Lawrence and the
+outrage upon Senator Sumner was now largely lost again. Still,
+emigration from the Northern Commonwealths to Kansas continued in
+great activity, and the House of Representatives at Washington was
+steadily advancing toward the passage of the resolution for the
+admission of "Free-state" Kansas into the Union, although the flight
+of its committee of investigation from the Territory, in consequence
+of the excitement following the murders on the Pottawattomie, and the
+two reports which its members made of the situation in Kansas,
+exercised an unfavorable influence on the movement. The House passed
+the bill, {443} however, on July 3rd, by a majority of two votes, but
+it would admit neither of the claimants to a seat in the House.
+
+[Sidenote: Dispersal of the "Free-state" legislature by Colonel
+Sumner.]
+
+On the other hand, Colonel Sumner, while personally in sympathy with
+the "Free-state" cause, felt it to be his official duty to disperse
+the "Free-state" legislature which assembled at Topeka on July 4th.
+The President and the Secretary of War, Mr. Jefferson Davis,
+subsequently disapproved of this act, and denied that the authority
+for it was either expressed or implied in any of their instructions to
+Colonel Sumner. The Colonel thought the contrary, and felt that the
+unpopularity of the procedure throughout the North had caused the
+President and the Secretary to disavow a responsibility for it which
+was rightfully their own. A careful reading of the dispatches leads to
+the conclusion that the Colonel did exceed his powers. He was,
+doubtless, led to do so unconsciously by the violent deeds of men
+professing connection with the "Free-state" party. The
+misunderstanding led finally to the retirement of Colonel Sumner from
+the command of the United States forces in Kansas, and the assignment
+of General P. F. Smith to that duty.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Free-state" Directory.]
+
+After the dispersion of the "Free-state" legislature, the "Free-state"
+men, who were gathered in Lawrence, held a convention, and elected a
+committee, whose duty it should be to look after the interests of the
+people. This committee selected from among its members a sub-committee
+of five, and transferred all of its powers and duties to this
+sub-committee. The "Free-state" government had now become a
+directorial board of five persons, chief among whom were William
+Hutchinson and James Blood. The seat of this Directory was Lawrence.
+
+{444} [Sidenote: The organization of the "Free-state" military.]
+
+The Directory organized a strong military force under the command of
+Colonel Walker. This force attacked and broke up three pro-slavery
+bands during the month of August, the last one at Fort Titus, near
+Lecompton, and commanded by the noted Colonel Titus himself. Titus and
+his men were captured.
+
+[Sidenote: The Treaty of August 17th.]
+
+[Sidenote: Resignation of Shannon.]
+
+The Governor now became alarmed for his own safety. Accompanied by
+Major Sedgwick, he went to Lawrence, on August 17th, and concluded
+with the Directory the noted agreement of that date, the terms of
+which were, that the "Free-state" men should keep the arms which they
+had captured from the pro-slavery bands; that the howitzer taken from
+Lawrence should be returned to the town; that all persons arrested by
+the United States Marshal, under charge of participating in the attack
+upon the pro-slavery band at Franklin, should be delivered unharmed to
+the Directory; that the Governor should disband the Territorial
+militia, order all bands of armed men to disperse, and command all
+armed bands of nonresidents to leave the Territory. The Directory
+engaged, upon its side, to release Titus and his men. The Governor
+virtually surrendered to the Directory. He then returned to Lecompton,
+resigned his office, and made his way back to Ohio.
+
+[Sidenote: Woodson's proclamation, and the new invasion from
+Missouri.]
+
+Secretary Woodson was now again in the Governor's chair, and this, of
+itself, was notice to the Missourians to come on. They had already
+gathered on the border. On August 25th, Woodson published a
+proclamation, in which he declared the Territory to be "in a state of
+open insurrection and rebellion," called "upon all law-abiding
+citizens of the Territory to rally to the support of their country and
+its laws," and commanded "all officers, {445} civil and military, and
+all other citizens of the Territory, to aid and assist by all means in
+their power in putting down the insurrectionists."
+
+The Missourians took this as an invitation to advance. They entered
+the Territory again, on the 29th, and pitched their camp on Bull
+Creek. Atchison was in command. On the 13th, a detachment of them
+attacked and destroyed Ossawattomie. About a dozen men were killed in
+the fight.
+
+[Sidenote: General Smith's attitude toward invaders.]
+
+General Smith now issued instructions that the United States troops
+should not "interfere with persons who may have come from a distance
+to give protection to their friends or others, and who may be behaving
+themselves in a peaceable and lawful manner." This attitude seemed at
+first view to be friendly to the pro-slavery men; but the friends of
+the "Free-state" men were now pouring into the Territory by way of
+Iowa and Nebraska, and Smith's order worked ultimately to their
+advantage. Unquestionably the General intended to be impartial.
+
+[Sidenote: Marching and counter-marching.]
+
+The attack on Ossawattomie roused the "Free-state" men to new
+exertions. Three hundred of them, commanded by Lane, advanced upon the
+camp at Bull Creek. The two forces drew up in battle array, but, after
+a slight skirmish, they both drew off.
+
+Acting Governor Woodson now ordered Colonel Cooke to attack Topeka
+with United States troops, but the Colonel refused to obey the order,
+and General Smith sustained him.
+
+The "Free-state" men now planned an attack upon Lecompton. They moved
+in two separate columns, one commanded by Harvey and the other by
+Lane. The attack was to be made on September 4th, but the failure of
+Lane's column to arrive until the 5th enabled the {446} United States
+soldiers to reach the town first. When the "Free-state" men learned
+that the regulars were in the town, they returned to Lawrence.
+
+[Sidenote: The failure of "Popular Sovereignty" in the Territories.]
+
+The Missourians were now roused to serious and decided action. An army
+of some three thousand of them had gathered on the border, and was on
+the point of marching in for the purpose of destroying every
+"Free-state" settlement in the Territory. Only one thing could now
+save the Territory from thoroughgoing and relentless civil war, and
+that was the interference of the United States army. The fiasco of
+"popular sovereignty" in the Territories was at last complete. The
+general Government must assume control.
+
+[Sidenote: Release of the "treason prisoners," and appointment of
+Geary.]
+
+[Sidenote: The new Governor establishes peace by means of the army of
+the United States.]
+
+The President's eyes had at last been opened to the fact, that if he
+allowed things to drift any farther in Kansas, the Republicans would
+win the presidential election in November. He, therefore, resolved to
+put the government of the Territory into impartial hands. He ordered
+the United States Marshal to release Robinson and his colleagues;
+appointed J. W. Geary, of Pennsylvania, a man of strong character,
+Governor of the Territory; and authorized Geary to call the United
+States troops to his assistance. Geary arrived at Lecompton on
+September 10th. On the 12th, he went to Lawrence, and, after promising
+the "Free-state" men protection against the Missourians, returned to
+Lecompton. On the 14th, the force advancing on Lawrence arrived in the
+neighborhood of the town. Word was immediately sent to the Governor.
+The Governor summoned a detachment of United States soldiers, and set
+out for the scene of action. On the morning of the 15th, he met the
+army of Missourians and interposed the United States army between
+{447} them and Lawrence. The Governor informed the Missouri leaders
+that they must leave the Territory. They dared not put themselves in
+an attitude of hostility to the military power of the Union, and
+quickly retreated back to Missouri. With this the warfare inaugurated
+by the murders on the Pottawattomie ended. The Governor had at last
+brought peace to the distracted Territory, but at the expense of the
+principle of home rule in the Territory, and upon the point of the
+sword of the Union.
+
+[Sidenote: Geary and the Administration.]
+
+The establishment of order in Kansas saved the Democratic party,
+according to the general opinion, from the threatened defeat in the
+November election, and made Buchanan, instead of Fremont, President.
+After the danger was over, the Administration became less hearty in
+its support of Geary; and when Geary virtually espoused the
+"Free-state" cause, as he did during the winter of 1856-57, the
+Administration became largely estranged from him. He resigned in
+disgust on the day of Buchanan's inauguration to power.
+
+[Sidenote: The judicial contribution to Kansas history.]
+
+The next contribution to the history of the struggle for Kansas was to
+come from an entirely new quarter. The new President indicated, in his
+inaugural, whence it was to come, if not what it was to be. He said:
+"A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time
+when the people of a Territory shall decide this question"--the
+question of slavery--"for themselves. This is, happily, a matter of
+but little practical importance. Besides it is a judicial question,
+which legitimately belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States,
+before whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily
+and finally settled." The President referred to the Dred Scott case,
+which had been twice argued before the {448} Supreme Court, and
+decision upon which, it was understood, would be published to the
+world in a few days. We must, therefore, break the thread of Kansas
+history here for a moment, and trace the history of this case down to
+the point where it becomes connected with the further history of the
+Territory.
+
+
+
+
+{449}
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE DRED SCOTT CASE
+
+The Origin of the Dred Scott Case--Two Dred Scott Cases--The Facts of
+the Cases--The Case in the Missouri Courts--The Case in the United
+States Courts--The Case a Genuine Proceeding--The Decision by the
+Supreme Court of the United States--The Dissenting Opinion of Mr.
+Justice Curtis--Criticism of the Court's Opinion--The Obiter
+Dictum--The Chief Justice and the President--Justice Curtis' Dissent
+Continued--The Printing and Distribution of the Decision and the
+Dissenting Opinion--The Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty in the
+Territories Overthrown by the Opinion of the Court.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The origin of the Dred Scott case.]
+
+The time has come when the correct story of the Dred Scott case may be
+told, and should be told. The author of this volume has been so
+fortunate as to obtain from A. C. Crane, Esq., of St. Louis, an
+account of the early history of the case, which is entirely original
+and authentic. Mr. Crane was, at the time that the case was brought in
+the Circuit Court of the United States, a clerk in the law office of
+the great lawyer who espoused Dred Scott's case, and who freely gave
+his legal services to the work of securing the negro's freedom,
+Roswell M. Field. Mr. Field was a native of Vermont, and a strong
+anti-slavery man. He was utterly incapable of any collusion with
+slaveholders for the getting up of a case, through which the Supreme
+Court of the United States might be brought to support the cause of
+slavery in the Territories, the purpose charged by many of the
+anti-slavery {450} men of the North for which this case was created.
+Mr. Crane most emphatically declares that Mr. Field was influenced to
+undertake the case only by humanitarian motives of the highest order.
+
+[Sidenote: Two Dred Scott cases.]
+
+There were, indeed, two Dred Scott cases, one in the courts of
+Missouri, and one in the United States courts, but they had no
+connection with each other. The case decided by the Supreme Court of
+the United States originated in the Circuit Court of the United
+States, and did not come up on a writ of error from the Missouri
+court.
+
+[Sidenote: The facts of the cases.]
+
+The facts in the two cases were, however, the same. One Dr. Emerson,
+the owner of Dred Scott, had taken Dred, as his slave, into Illinois,
+a Commonwealth in which slavery was forbidden, and then into the
+Louisiana territory above the latitude thirty-six degrees and thirty
+minutes, where slavery was prohibited by the Congressional Act of
+1820; had allowed Dred to marry in the free territory; had purchased
+the woman he married from an army officer at a post within the same;
+and had taken Dred back to Missouri, with his wife and a child born to
+them on free territory, and held them as slaves in Missouri. Dr.
+Emerson's return to Missouri was in 1838. In 1844 the Doctor died,
+leaving Dred and his wife and child to Mrs. Emerson. According to the
+statement of facts recited by the Chief Justice of the United States,
+Dr. Emerson sold Dred and his family to a Mr. Sandford, a citizen of
+New York, the defendant in the case before the Supreme Court, but Mr.
+Crane says that Dr. Emerson's will, in the Probate Office at St.
+Louis, shows that Dred and his family belonged to the Doctor at the
+time of the latter's death, and that Dred told him that such was the
+case. Mr. Crane also says that Dred told him that, after the Doctor's
+death, Mrs. {451} Emerson hired him out to different persons, and that
+he became dissatisfied with this treatment, and resolved to sue for
+his freedom.
+
+[Sidenote: The case in the Missouri courts.]
+
+This first suit was brought in one of the inferior courts of Missouri,
+and was decided in Dred's favor. Mrs. Emerson appealed the case to the
+supreme court of Missouri, and two of the three judges upon that bench
+held that the condition of slavery reattached to the negro upon his
+being brought back into Missouri, and reversed the decision of the
+lower court.
+
+While the case in the Missouri courts was in progress Mrs. Emerson
+made over the control of the Scotts to a relative of hers, a Mr.
+Sandford, then a citizen of New York, who hired them out to residents
+of Missouri. It was then, and for this reason, that Dred appealed to
+Roswell M. Field for his powerful aid in bringing suit against
+Sandford in the Courts of the United States.
+
+[Sidenote: The case in the United States courts.]
+
+The case in the Circuit Court of the United States was begun before
+the case in the Missouri court was concluded. The defendant in the
+Circuit Court of the United States first pleaded that Dred was not a
+citizen of Missouri, and could not be, since he was a negro and
+descended from slaves held in the United States, but the court
+overruled the plea, that is, decided that Dred Scott could be party in
+a suit in the courts of the United States.
+
+The evidence in the case consisted simply of a statement of facts
+agreed upon by the two parties. The pleas then put forward by the
+defendant in bar of the action were argued, on the basis of this
+statement, and the court ordered the jury to find for the defendant.
+Judgment was rendered in his favor in the month of April, 1854.
+
+Mr. Field then carried the case to the Supreme Court {452} of the
+United States, upon a writ of error, and secured the services of his
+friend, the Hon. Montgomery Blair, for the negro. Mr. Blair undertook
+the management of the case at Washington, and, like Mr. Field, gave
+his time and labor without pecuniary reward. The court costs incurred
+by Dred in both cases were paid by Taylor Blow, son of the man who
+sold Dred to Doctor Emerson.
+
+[Sidenote: The case a genuine proceeding.]
+
+There is certainly not the slightest evidence in this history of the
+case that the case was anything but a genuine proceeding from
+beginning to end, conducted by anti-slavery men, for the purpose of
+securing the freedom of an intelligent and worthy African, who had
+been taken voluntarily by his master upon free soil, and had thus been
+made, by the principles of the common law, a free man.
+
+[Sidenote: The decision by the Supreme Court of the United States.]
+
+The case was argued twice with great learning before the Supreme
+Court, and the decision finally reached was virtually acquiesced in by
+seven of the nine Justices, although Justice Nelson did not give his
+assent to any part of the opinion except that which decided that, on
+the return of Dred to Missouri with his master, any effect upon his
+slavery, which the taking of him into Illinois and the Louisiana
+territory above the latitude thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes
+might have had, disappeared. This seemed to Justice Nelson sufficient
+to the decision of the case, and he was unwilling to go farther, but
+some of his brethren, especially Justice Wayne, thought that the
+entire record of the case in the Circuit Court was brought up for
+examination by the Supreme Court, and that the Supreme Court ought to
+decide every point contained in the record. Justice Nelson had been,
+at first, selected by his colleagues to write the opinion, and it is
+thought that this attitude of his was what moved the Chief Justice to
+write the opinion himself.
+
+{453} Justice Catron also thought that there was nothing before the
+Supreme Court but the question whether, after the return of the Scotts
+to Missouri, their temporary sojourn on free territory could be held
+to have worked their emancipation. Justice Catron presided at the
+trial in the Circuit Court and ruled, as we have seen, in favor of
+Dred Scott on the point of his having a standing in the United States
+Courts, and the Justice thought that Scott could not bring up to the
+Supreme Court, on a writ of error, a point decided in his favor in the
+court below.
+
+The Chief Justice, Mr. Taney, held that there were two leading
+questions presented by the record from the Circuit Court. The first
+was the question whether the Circuit Court had jurisdiction over the
+case, and the second was whether the judgment it gave was correct or
+erroneous.
+
+The Chief Justice was right in holding that the writ of error brought
+up the entire record for examination by the Supreme Court, but it was
+not necessary that the Supreme Court should include every point of the
+record in its decision. And he was certainly wrong when he extended,
+as is now generally conceded he did, the opinion of the court beyond
+the points in the record of the case in the Circuit Court. The form of
+the judgment pronounced by the Chief Justice as the opinion of the
+Court, that is, of the majority of the Justices, was that the Circuit
+Court did not have jurisdiction of the case, since the Scotts were not
+citizens of Missouri, in the meaning of the Constitution of the United
+States, and that the judgment of the Circuit Court for the defendant
+must, therefore, be set aside, and a mandate be issued, directing the
+suit to be dismissed by the Circuit Court for want of jurisdiction.
+The Chief Justice undertook to sustain his opinion by a long argument,
+{454} the principal propositions of which were, that negroes descended
+from negro slaves held in this country were not citizens in any of the
+"States" of the Union at the time of the formation of the Constitution
+of 1787; that by that Constitution the "States" transferred all power
+to make new classes of persons citizens to the Congress of the United
+States, and limited the power of Congress in this respect to the
+naturalization of persons born outside of the dominion of the United
+States; and that, consequently, negroes born of negro slave parents in
+the United States were not only not citizens of any of the "States" at
+the time of the formation of the Constitution of 1787, but could not
+be made such, either by the "States" or by Congress, subsequent to the
+adoption of that Constitution.
+
+[Sidenote: The dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Curtis.]
+
+In his powerful dissenting opinion, Mr. Justice Curtis demolished this
+argument completely, by simply showing from the statute books and the
+judicial decisions of several of the "States" that, at the time of the
+formation of the Constitution of 1787, negroes descended from
+Africans, who had been held as slaves in the country, were citizens,
+even to the point of possessing the suffrage, in several of the
+"States" of the Union. The great argument of the Chief Justice turned
+out to be only a political essay, without fact, law, or jurisprudence
+to sustain it. Mr. Justice Curtis, therefore, held that, as nothing
+against Dred Scott's citizenship had been alleged by the defendant in
+the Circuit Court, except that he was a negro, and descended from
+negroes who had been held as slaves in this country, the jurisdiction
+assumed by the Circuit Court ought to be sustained by the Supreme
+Court.
+
+[Sidenote: Criticism of the Court's opinion.]
+
+But if the opinion of the Court should be accepted as correct upon
+this point, it is difficult to see why the opinion should not have
+ended with the decision upon {455} this point. Nothing further was
+necessary in the determination of the case. And it is certainly most
+difficult to see what connection the Act of 1820, prohibiting slavery
+in the Louisiana territory, north of the latitude thirty-six degrees
+and thirty minutes, had with the case. No decision upon that point was
+rendered by the Circuit Court, whose record the Supreme Court was
+reviewing.
+
+If the Supreme Court had confirmed the jurisdiction of the Circuit
+Court in the case, and had then ruled that the Circuit Court was in
+error in holding that slavery reattached to the Scotts by Missouri
+law, upon their return to Missouri, even if they had been made free by
+their temporary sojourn upon free soil, probably the Supreme Court
+should have decided the question as to what effect that sojourn may
+have had, and, in this way, included the question of the
+constitutionality of the slavery prohibition clause in the Act of
+1820. But the majority of the Supreme Court approved the view of the
+Circuit Court upon this point.
+
+There is little doubt that the majority of the Justices thought that a
+declaration from the Supreme Court in regard to the mooted question of
+slavery in the Territories would aid in bringing quiet to the country,
+and that they had persuaded themselves that it was necessary to the
+decision of the point in issue. But they were certainly in error, as
+to the first consideration, and it is difficult to see that they were
+not as to the second.
+
+[Sidenote: The obiter dictum.]
+
+The Chief Justice advanced to his conclusion in this part of the
+opinion through a most labored argument. He started with the dictum
+that there was no clause in the Constitution which gave Congress any
+power over territory acquired subsequently to the adoption of the
+Constitution, interpreting the provision which vests in Congress "the
+power to make {456} all needful rules and regulations concerning the
+territory and other property of the United States," as applying only
+to territory held by the United States at the time of the adoption of
+the Constitution. He then founded the power to govern the territory
+subsequently acquired upon the right to acquire territory; and
+declared that in governing such territory, or providing for its
+government, Congress was limited by all those provisions of the
+Constitution which protect private rights against governmental power.
+He claimed, finally, that that one of these provisions which ordains
+that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without
+due process of law protected property in slaves, taken into the
+Territories by their masters, against both the power of Congress and
+of the agents of Congress in the Territories, the Territorial
+governments, to free them. The conclusion from this reasoning was that
+anybody could take slaves into a Territory of the United States, and
+hold them there in slavery, no matter what might be the disposition of
+Congress or of the Territorial government in regard to the subject,
+and that the question whether slavery was to be permanently
+established in a Territory or not could not be determined until the
+Territory should become a "State," and then only by an act of the
+"State."
+
+[Sidenote: The Chief Justice and the President.]
+
+This was the point which the Kansas-Nebraska Act had not covered, and
+which the President said, in his inaugural address, would be decided
+in the forthcoming opinion on the Dred Scott case. The opinion was
+pronounced several days after the inaugural, and it was later charged
+by Mr. Seward, and intimated by Mr. Lincoln, and believed by a large
+number of persons, that the Chief Justice imparted the opinion of the
+Court to the President before it was pronounced. But this point,
+though {457} not necessarily involved in the case, had been argued by
+counsel, and the newspapers had declared that it would be decided, and
+both Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Taney were men of the highest personal and
+official integrity, and possessed the most delicate sense of the
+requirements and proprieties of the great stations which they
+occupied. It is almost certain that the charge was an unfounded
+suspicion. The prevalence of the suspicion was, however, an ominous
+sign of the danger impending over the land.
+
+[Sidenote: Justice Curtis's dissent continued.]
+
+Justice Curtis found no more difficulty in controverting these
+propositions than those upon the first point treated in the opinion of
+the Chief Justice. He first referred to the undoubted facts that not
+all the territory claimed by the several "States" had been ceded to
+the United States at the time that the Constitution of 1787 was
+adopted, but that it was expected that what remained would soon be so
+ceded, and that therefore the clause vesting in Congress "the power to
+make all needful rules and regulations concerning the territory of the
+United States" must have been framed with these future acquisitions in
+view, and intended to apply to them also. He then demanded to know
+why, if the Court could derive the power of Congress to govern
+territory acquired from foreign states from a right which is not
+expressed in the Constitution, but is itself implied, the right to
+acquire, should it hesitate to derive it from a power in respect to
+the territory of the United States which is expressed in the
+Constitution. He contended that until Congress or the Territorial
+legislature had legalized slavery in a Territory, no one could be said
+to be deprived of his property in slaves in the given Territory,
+either by a Congressional act forbidding the existence of such
+property, or by the failure of Congress or the Territorial {458}
+legislature to enact laws for the security of such property. He
+repudiated the idea that a holder of slaves could take the law of the
+place from which he emigrated, securing such property, into a
+Territory with him as a monstrosity in jurisprudence, since it would
+introduce into a given Territory as many slave codes as there were
+slaveholding Commonwealths represented therein by their slaveholding
+emigrants, and he indicated, finally, that the reasoning of the Court
+must reach ultimately the proposition that Congress was required by
+the Constitution to establish slavery in every Territory of the Union,
+and consequently to make every new "State" a slaveholding "State."
+
+[Sidenote: The printing and distribution of the decision and the
+dissenting opinion.]
+
+[Sidenote: The doctrine of popular sovereignty in the Territories
+overthrown by the opinion of the Court.]
+
+The slaveholders and the Douglas Democrats of the North were in high
+glee over the decision, and hardly stopped to read the powerful
+dissenting opinion which had shattered it to atoms. They caused
+thousands upon thousands of copies of the decision to be printed and
+distributed among the masses of the people. The Free-soilers did the
+same thing with the opinion of Justice Curtis. It was not many weeks
+before it became entirely manifest that the cause of slavery had lost
+immensely by the decision, and the cause of free-soilism had gained in
+the same degree. Justice Curtis had demonstrated that the decision had
+cast the responsibility for the further extension of slavery upon the
+nation, and the nation now began to show its resolution to meet its
+responsibility by acquitting itself of any participation in this great
+wrong, in the only manner now left to it, that is, by preventing it.
+The nation could no longer deceive itself with the idea that it could
+stand neutral. The Court had actually swept away the dogma of "popular
+sovereignty" in the Territories. The nation must now {459} neither
+prohibit, nor allow the Territorial governments to prohibit, slavery
+within the Territories, as the decision would have it, or the nation
+must itself prohibit it, as the dissenting opinion would have it. When
+these alternatives were distinctly recognized as necessary and
+exhaustive, it did not take the nation long to decide which course it
+must pursue.
+
+
+
+
+{460}
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS CONCLUDED
+
+The Lecompton Convention Ordered--Robert J. Walker and F. P.
+Stanton--Stanton and the "Free-state" Men--Walker's Address--The
+"Free-State" Legislature and Mass-meeting--The Plan to Capture the
+Territorial Legislature by the "Free-state" Men--The "Free-state" Men
+in Majority in the Territorial Legislature--The Lecompton
+Convention--The Lecompton Constitution--Only the Slavery Article to be
+Submitted Fully to the People--Protest of the "Free-state" Men--The
+Extra Session of the New Territorial Legislature--Stanton
+Removed--Lecompton Constitution With Slavery Adopted--The "Free-state"
+Men Capture the Lecompton Government and Reject the Lecompton
+Constitution--Denver Advises the President Against the Admission of
+Kansas Under the Lecompton Instrument--The President's Message of
+February 2nd (1858)--The Passage of the Lecompton Bill by the
+Senate--The Rejection of the Bill by the House--The English Bill--The
+Rejection of the Lecompton Constitution by the People of Kansas--A
+Fourth Government for Kansas--The Struggle for Kansas Closed--Dr.
+Robinson--The General Government--Mr. Jefferson Davis--The Beginning
+of Error and Wrong--Brown's Atrocities--The Forerunners of War.
+
+
+According to the dictum of the Court in the great case reviewed in the
+preceding chapter, slave property was lawful in Kansas during the
+Territorial period, and could be first dealt with by the
+constitutional convention, which should prepare the organic law for
+Kansas as a Commonwealth of the Union.
+
+{461} [Sidenote: The Lecompton convention ordered.]
+
+Already before the promulgation of the decision, the Territorial
+legislature had provided for the holding of the constitutional
+convention at Lecompton, and for the election of the delegates
+thereto. This election was appointed for June 15th, 1857.
+
+It was certain that the "Free-State" men now outnumbered the
+pro-slavery men, and that upon a fair census, registration, and
+distribution of seats, and with a fair election and count, they would
+be able to secure the majority in the convention. But could they
+consistently participate in an election ordered by, and under the
+control of, the Territorial government? Many of them felt that they
+could not. Others, however, were inclined to do so, if the regulations
+were impartial. They examined the provisions made by the Territorial
+legislature for the machinery of the registration and the election,
+and found that they were grossly favorable to the pro-slavery party.
+They also found that the legislature had made no provision for
+submitting the constitution which might be framed to the vote of the
+people.
+
+[Sidenote: Robert J. Walker, and F. P. Stanton.]
+
+While the "Free-state" men were deliberating upon this matter, the new
+Territorial officials appointed by the new President appeared.
+President Buchanan had selected Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, to
+be Governor, and F. P. Stanton, of Tennessee, to be Secretary, of the
+Territory. Both of these men were capable, honest, and resolute.
+Walker was a shrewd politician, indeed, but he was fair-minded and
+faithful to his plighted word. Stanton arrived on the scene about the
+middle of April. Walker came a month later. Stanton, therefore, was
+Acting Governor during the first month of his residence in the
+Territory.
+
+[Sidenote: Stanton and the "Free-state" men.]
+
+Stanton went to Lawrence, on the 24th, and urged the {462}
+"Free-state" men to take part in the approaching election. He had,
+however, already apportioned the representation in the convention on
+the basis of the existing census. It was evident that he was unaware
+that this was unjust to the "Free-state" men. Seeing this, the
+"Free-state" men made a counter proposition for a new census and
+apportionment, and for an impartial control of the elections. Stanton
+did not think he had the power to conclude an agreement with them on
+this basis, and the negotiations fell through.
+
+[Sidenote: Walker's address.]
+
+The new Governor now arrived, and bent all his energies to induce the
+"Free-state" men to participate in the election. He issued an address,
+in which he solemnly declared that he would secure honest elections
+and returns, and pledged himself that the constitution, which the
+convention might form, should be submitted to the people for
+ratification or rejection. He also threatened that he would enforce
+the laws of the Territory. His idea seems to have been to create an
+Administration party, which would win a majority of the seats in the
+convention and make Kansas a Democratic non-slaveholding Commonwealth.
+The pro-slavery men discovered the plan at once, and accused the
+Governor of leaning toward the "Free-state" party.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Free-state" legislature and mass-meeting.]
+
+The "Free-state" men were not yet, however, ready to trust the
+Governor. They thought it wisest to maintain their own organization,
+and make the Governor feel their power. On June 9th the "Free-state"
+legislature assembled, to provide for the election of successors to
+the existing members and officials. Along with it was convoked a sort
+of mass-meeting of citizens. The legislature was at first without a
+quorum, and never had an honest quorum. {463} This fact was sedulously
+concealed from the Governor, while the orators at the mass-meeting
+raised enough dust and smoke to cover up the real condition of
+affairs. They made the place fairly blue with their bluster and their
+threats, and the little Governor was greatly impressed by the apparent
+seriousness of the situation.
+
+[Sidenote: The plan to capture the Territorial legislature by the
+"Free-state" men.]
+
+By this time, however, the "Free-state" men had become considerably
+discouraged in regard to the admission of Kansas into the Union under
+the Topeka constitution. The Senate had given the application the cold
+shoulder, and had, apparently, laid it aside permanently. The
+prevarications of Lane were said to have produced this result. As
+matters now stood, Robinson and the more conservative men of the
+"Free-state" party began to consider the advisability of attempting to
+capture the Territorial legislature, by participating in the election
+of members, which was to take place in the following October. They
+felt certain that upon a true census and a fair apportionment, and
+with an honest election, they could win a majority of the seats in the
+legislature, and would then be in a position to nullify the work of
+the Lecompton convention, which, on account of the abstention of the
+"Free-state" men from the election of the delegates, would be packed
+with pro-slavery representatives.
+
+The matter of first importance was to obtain a true census. Senator
+Wilson, of Massachusetts, was at the moment in Lawrence, conferring
+with Robinson and his friends concerning the state of affairs, and he
+strongly advised these gentlemen to take a correct census under the
+auspices of the "Free-state" government, and to nominate candidates
+for seats in the Territorial legislature, and elect them. He felt so
+decidedly about the matter that he offered to secure the funds
+necessary to defray the expenses of taking the new census.
+
+{464} Robinson and his friends were now convinced that this was the
+wise course, but they knew that it would be difficult to persuade the
+radical elements in their party to go with them. The mass-meeting at
+Topeka of June 9th had voted to stick to the "Free-state" government,
+and a convention of the "Free-state" men had assembled on July 15th to
+provide for its continuance. This convention, after nominating
+candidates for the legislative seats and for the offices, and
+resolving to adhere to the "Free-state" government, recommended the
+people to assemble in mass convention, at Grasshopper Falls, on the
+26th of the following August, to take action in regard to the
+participation of the "Free-state" men in the October election of
+members of the Territorial legislature, since Governor Walker had
+declared that this election would be held under the laws of Congress,
+and not under the acts of the Territorial legislature, and had pledged
+himself to secure an honest election. It was evident from this that
+the conservative element in the "Free-state" party had won the day.
+
+Before the day appointed for the Grasshopper Falls convention had
+arrived, the new census had been completed under the direction of the
+"Free-state" government, and it was morally certain that the
+"Free-state" men could elect a majority of the members of the new
+Territorial legislature. When the convention assembled, it therefore
+resolved, by a large majority, that the "Free-state" men should
+participate in the October election, warning the people, however, of
+the seriousness of the undertaking, and cautioning them against
+over-confidence in success.
+
+The Lecompton convention assembled on the seventh day of September,
+and, after organizing, adjourned to October 19th, as if to await the
+result of the election of the members of the Territorial legislature.
+
+{465} [Sidenote: The "Free-state" men in majority in the Territorial
+legislature.]
+
+This election came off on October 5th. The Governor remained true to
+his pledge of protecting the ballot-box. The presence of United States
+soldiers discouraged any movements from Missouri, and peace reigned at
+the polls. The returns from the counties of McGee and Johnson were,
+however, so manipulated by the pro-slavery election officers as to
+give the majority of the seats in the legislature to the pro-slavery
+party. These returns, as well as those from the other counties, were,
+however, to be canvassed finally by the Governor and Secretary. The
+"Free-state" men now demanded of them the fulfilment of their pledge
+of pure elections. The "Free-state" men had their newly taken census,
+and they convinced the Governor and Secretary that about ten times as
+many votes had been returned from these localities as there were
+residents in them. Walker and Stanton threw out the fraudulent
+returns, and gave, thus, the Territorial legislature to the
+"Free-state" men.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lecompton convention.]
+
+Two days before the Governor announced his intention of purging the
+returns of the frauds committed by the pro-slavery men in regard to
+them, and while the excitement about them was intense, it was suddenly
+discovered by the conservative "Free-state" men that Lane was working
+up a conspiracy for using violence against the members of the
+Lecompton convention. He, as commander-in-chief, had ordered the
+"Free-state" forces to assemble in Lawrence on October 19th for that
+purpose. The conservative men at once set themselves against this
+movement, and after a serious struggle happily won the day. They
+appointed a mass-meeting of the party at Lecompton for the following
+week, as much to protect the members of the convention against any
+sudden attack by {466} Lane and his reckless adherents as to watch
+their constitution-framing work. Before the meeting took place the
+Governor had announced the rejection of the fraudulent returns, and
+had thus deprived the "Free-state" men of all excuse for violence.
+Some boisterous speeches were, nevertheless, indulged in at the
+meeting, but the convention was allowed to complete its work in peace.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lecompton constitution.]
+
+[Sidenote: Only the Slavery article to be submitted fully to the
+people.]
+
+The convention framed an instrument after the Missouri model, and
+incorporated in it an article guaranteeing the property in slaves
+already within the Territory. The convention then framed an
+independent provision in regard to slavery as a permanent institution
+of the new Commonwealth. This provision alone was to be fully
+submitted to the vote of the people. The people must take the
+Lecompton constitution with slavery as a permanent institution, or the
+Lecompton constitution without slavery as a permanent institution but
+containing a guarantee of the slave property already in the Territory.
+The day appointed by the convention for the voters to signify their
+approval or disapproval of the provision in regard to slavery as a
+permanent institution was December 21st, 1857, and the day designated
+for the election of members and officers under the new constitution
+was January 4th following.
+
+[Sidenote: Protest of the "Free-state" men.]
+
+The "Free-state" men regarded this submission of only a single article
+of the constitution to popular vote as a fraud upon the principle of
+"popular sovereignty," and demanded of Stanton, who was then
+discharging the Governor's duties, in the temporary absence of the
+latter, that the Governor's pledge as to the full submission of the
+proposed constitution to the people at the polls should be redeemed.
+Stanton bravely resolved to keep the Governor's word of {467} honor,
+although he believed it would cost him his position.
+
+[Sidenote: The extra session of the new Territorial legislature.]
+
+What the "Free-state" men asked of him was to convene at once the new
+Territorial legislature, in which the "Free-state" men now had a
+majority of the seats, for the purpose of giving it the opportunity to
+order the full submission of the Lecompton constitution to the
+suffrages of the people. Stanton yielded to their request, and called
+the legislature to meet at Lecompton on December 7th. This body at
+once resolved to submit the proposed constitution fully and in all its
+parts to the people, to be adopted or rejected by them at their
+pleasure, and appointed the 4th day of the following January as the
+time for taking the vote.
+
+[Sidenote: Stanton removed.]
+
+Stanton was immediately removed from office by the Administration, and
+General John W. Denver, of Virginia, at the moment Indian
+Commissioner, was assigned to the duties of Acting Governor in the
+Territory.
+
+[Sidenote: Lecompton constitution with slavery adopted.]
+
+The "Free-state" men resolved to take no part in voting upon the
+slavery article of the Lecompton constitution, since they must take
+this constitution either with or without slavery as a permanent
+institution, and could not vote against the constitution as a whole.
+Consequently the Lecompton constitution with slavery as a permanent
+institution was, so far as the returns of the voting on December 21st
+were concerned, adopted. According to these returns six thousand two
+hundred and sixty-six votes were cast for it. Of these, nearly three
+thousand were afterward shown to be fraudulent. Between five and six
+hundred votes were cast for this constitution without slavery as a
+permanent institution. None were counted against it _in toto_. That is
+to say, out of a {468} voting population of about fifteen thousand,
+less than four thousand were in favor of this constitution in either
+form.
+
+The more prudent of the "Free-state" men now thought, however, that it
+would be wise to participate in the election of members and officers
+of the Lecompton "State" government on the day fixed by the Lecompton
+constitution, January 4th, 1858. They were to vote fully at that time,
+as we have seen, upon the Lecompton constitution, by order of the
+Territorial legislature, now in their hands. They felt certain of
+defeating the constitution, and they knew that they could win in the
+election of the officers and members. They nominated a ticket with G.
+W. Smith at its head, as their candidate for Governor.
+
+[Sidenote: The "Free-state" men capture the Lecompton government and
+reject the Lecompton constitution.]
+
+On January 4th, more than ten thousand votes were cast against the
+Lecompton constitution entire, and only about one hundred and fifty
+votes were cast in its favor. The "Free-state" men also elected their
+candidates for the offices and seats in the government created by the
+Lecompton constitution.
+
+The "Free-state" men now had possession of the Topeka "Free-state"
+government, of the Territorial legislature, and of the Lecompton
+"State" government, and had rejected the Lecompton constitution by an
+undoubted majority of the suffrages of the citizens of Kansas.
+
+[Illustration: NEBRASKA & KANSAS, 1854-61.]
+
+[Sidenote: Denver advises the President against the admission of
+Kansas under the Lecompton instrument.]
+
+As yet the Lecompton constitution had not been presented by the
+President to Congress, and Acting Governor Denver hastened to give him
+a truthful statement of the condition of affairs in the Territory, and
+to urge him not to recommend to Congress the admission of Kansas under
+this constitution, but to suggest to that body the passage simply of
+an enabling {469} act, under which the people of Kansas might begin
+again the work of forming a Commonwealth constitution.
+
+[Sidenote: The President's message of February 2nd (1858).]
+
+But the President did not heed this wise warning. On February 2nd,
+1858, he sent the Lecompton constitution, with the provision making
+slavery a permanent institution in Kansas, to Congress, and
+recommended the admission of the distracted Territory into the Union,
+as a "State," under it. His line of argument was that every step in
+the procedure of framing and adopting this constitution had been
+regularly and legally taken, and that all the voters could have
+participated in the work if they had chosen to do so. He claimed that
+the act of the Territorial legislature, after it came under the
+control of the "Free-state" men, in ordering another vote, and a
+different sort of vote, upon the constitution, than and from that
+appointed and required by the convention, was irregular; and he
+undertook to comfort the "Free-state" men with the suggestion that,
+Kansas once admitted, they could change its constitution to suit
+themselves, if they were really in majority.
+
+[Sidenote: The passage of the Lecompton bill by the Senate.]
+
+The President's argument carried the Senate with him despite the
+powerful opposition of Mr. Douglas, who bravely antagonized the
+Administration, and held firmly that his great principle of "popular
+sovereignty" required the unreserved submission of every part of the
+constitution to the free suffrages of the people, in order to
+establish its validity. He declared that unless this should be done
+Congress could not know whether the people of Kansas had made a
+constitution or not, and that without that knowledge the admission of
+Kansas under the constitution before the Senate was tantamount to
+making a {470} constitution for Kansas by Congressional act. The
+honest and manly stand taken by Mr. Douglas upon this great subject
+certainly presents him in the role of a patriotic statesman, rather
+than in his usual character of the shrewd politician.
+
+[Sidenote: The rejection of the bill by the House.]
+
+The Senate passed the Lecompton bill on March 23rd, 1858, by a
+substantial majority, but the House promptly rejected it. The House
+passed a measure, instead, for referring the Lecompton constitution
+back to the people of Kansas, who should vote freely upon it in all
+its parts, and for admitting Kansas, without further Congressional
+action, under this constitution, if it should receive the popular
+ratification; but the Senate rejected this substitute for its bill.
+
+[Sidenote: The English bill.]
+
+The matter was then sent to a conference committee of the two Houses.
+After long deliberation a measure was matured by this committee which
+appeared to deal with a subsidiary question only, but which, by some
+sort of an understanding, was held to give the people of Kansas the
+chance to reject the Lecompton constitution _in toto_ at the polls.
+The measure is known as the English bill from its projector, Mr. W. H.
+English, a member of the conference committee from the House of
+Representatives. It provided for a reduction of the land grants from
+twenty-three millions of acres, asked for by Kansas under the
+Lecompton constitution, to about four millions of acres, and proposed
+the submission of this change to a vote of the people of Kansas. If
+the people adopted the change, they would be considered as having
+adopted the Lecompton constitution _in toto_. If, on the other hand,
+they rejected this change, they would be considered as having rejected
+this constitution _in toto_.
+
+{471} [Sidenote: The rejection of the Lecompton constitution by the
+people of Kansas.]
+
+The English bill was agreed to by both Houses; and on August 2nd,
+1858, the people of Kansas voted upon the measure. They rejected it,
+and with it the Lecompton constitution, by a vote of more than eleven
+thousand in a total vote of about thirteen thousand.
+
+[Sidenote: A fourth government for Kansas.]
+
+In the meantime, fearing that Congress might pass the bill for
+admitting Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, the Territorial
+legislature, now in the hands of the "Free-state" men, passed a bill
+ordering a new constitutional convention. The bill was passed within a
+few days of the end of the session, and Governor Denver, thinking that
+Kansas had about enough governments already, pocketed the measure. The
+convention was, however, held, and a constitution was framed and
+submitted to the people which received some three thousand votes in
+favor of its adoption, while none were cast against it. Officers were
+chosen under it, and thus a fourth government for Kansas was created.
+All of these governments were now, however, in the hands of the
+conservative men of the "Free-state" party.
+
+[Sidenote: The struggle for Kansas closed.]
+
+[Sidenote: Dr. Robinson.]
+
+With the rejection of the Lecompton constitution by the people of
+Kansas, on August 2nd, the struggle for Kansas was closed. It was to
+be a non-slaveholding Commonwealth and a Republican Commonwealth. The
+record of this struggle is certainly one of the most remarkable
+chapters in the history of the United States. There is much to admire
+in it, much to be ashamed of, and much to be repudiated as foul and
+devilish. The prudence, moderation, tact, and bravery of Dr. Robinson
+and his friends have rarely been excelled by the statesmen and
+diplomatists of the New World or of the Old. They were placed in a
+most trying situation {472} both by their foes and by those who,
+professing to be their friends, endangered the cause more by violent
+and brutal deeds than did their open enemies. Their triumph over all
+these difficulties is a marvel of shrewd, honest, and conservative
+management, which may well serve as one of the best object-lessons of
+our history for succeeding generations.
+
+[Sidenote: The general Government.]
+
+[Sidenote: Mr. Jefferson Davis.]
+
+The attitude of the general Government was also honorable and
+praiseworthy. It did its best to hold the balance even and impartial
+between the contending forces. It sent out intelligent, honest, and
+resolute men as Governors; and it used the army to maintain the peace,
+and protect person and property from violence. Even President Pierce's
+Secretary of War, Mr. Jefferson Davis, who was considered the very
+high-priest of the slavery interest, sent a military commander,
+Colonel E. V. Sumner, to Kansas, whom he knew to be in sympathy with
+Free-soil principles, and instructed him only to do what was just
+between all parties; and when Colonel Sumner, fearing that, from
+personal sympathy with the cause of the "Free-state" men, he might
+unconsciously act too favorably toward them, really went farther than
+his duty required against them, in dispersing their legislature, Mr.
+Davis expressed the opinion that the United States forces ought not to
+have interfered with the "Free-state" government until it had
+undertaken to execute some of its measures. It was said at the time
+that Mr. Davis' quasi disavowal of Colonel Sumner's act was caused by
+its unpopularity throughout the North; but Mr. Davis was not to any
+such degree sensitive to Northern opinion. Personally and officially
+Mr. Davis was a remarkably upright man, and was accustomed to take
+counsel chiefly of his own judgment and conscience, and to disturb
+himself very little about the views of {473} others concerning his
+duties and acts. Governor Robinson has recently testified to the
+impartial attitude of the military power of the United States in
+Kansas, and has declared that "had it not been for the officers of the
+United States army, the 'Free-state' struggle would have ended in
+disaster on more than one occasion."
+
+[Sidenote: The beginning of error and wrong.]
+
+[Sidenote: Brown's atrocities.]
+
+Error began, unquestionably, with the repeal of the Act prohibiting
+slavery in the Louisiana territory above thirty-six degrees and thirty
+minutes north latitude, and wrong began, just as unquestionably, with
+the incursion of the Missourians, and their fraudulent voting at the
+Territorial election in March of 1855. A bogus legislature was thus
+thrust upon Kansas Territory at the outset. It was a political outrage
+of the first degree, and it would have justified rebellion against the
+execution of the enactments of this body. But it does not excuse, or
+even palliate, the criminal atrocities inaugurated by John Brown at
+Dutch Henry's Crossing, and the wild reign of murder and robbery which
+followed in their train. All this was common crime of the blackest and
+most villainous sort, and the men who engaged in it were cutthroats
+and highwaymen, who took advantage of the confusion in Kansas to
+prosecute their nefarious work.
+
+It is often said that the Civil War began in Kansas, and simply spread
+from there over the country. It is true that violence began there, and
+in its degeneration into savagery developed those devilish
+dispositions that carried murder and robbery into Virginia, and
+thereby helped mightily to create that intensely hostile feeling
+between the North and the South which resulted in Civil War, but we
+affront good morals and common sense when we dignify those Kansas
+atrocities by the title of war; and we obliterate moral distinctions
+when {474} we attempt to justify them by the end which their authors
+professed to have in view, the extermination of African slavery
+throughout the country. Such deeds are not means to anything except
+the establishment of the reign of hell on earth, and the maudlin
+adoration sometimes accorded their doers is evidence of an unbalanced
+moral sense. It is a source of congratulation that the juristic sense
+of the last decades of the nineteenth century refuses to place the
+crank who kills or robs for what he considers, or professes to
+consider, the welfare of society under any other class than that of
+the most dangerous criminals. It remains for the ethical sense of the
+twentieth century to sweep the hero-worship too often accorded such
+characters out of the world's literature.
+
+     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+[Sidenote: The forerunners of war.]
+
+But if the murders, and robberies, and arson committed in Kansas were
+not war, they were the forerunners of war. The last expedient which
+the minds of men could invent for putting the slavery question in the
+position of a purely local matter had been tried, and had utterly and
+miserably failed. The nation must now settle the question, by
+peaceable means if it could, but if it could not, then by force. The
+record of its attempts, first upon the one line, and then upon the
+other, will be the chief subject of the next and last volume of this
+series.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+   THE ELECTORAL VOTE IN DETAIL, 1820-1856.
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1820.
+
+                         PRESIDENT.
+                 | James     | John Quincy
+                 | Monroe,   | Adams,
+                 | of        | of
+     STATES.     | Virginia. | Massachusetts.
+   --------------+-----------+---------------
+   Alabama       |     3     |       ..
+   Connecticut   |     9     |       ..
+   Delaware      |     4     |       ..
+   Georgia       |     8     |       ..
+   Illinois      |     3     |       ..
+   Indiana       |     3     |       ..
+   Kentucky      |    12     |       ..
+   Louisiana     |     3     |       ..
+   Maine         |     9     |       ..
+   Maryland      |    11     |       ..
+   Massachusetts |    15     |       ..
+   Mississippi   |     2     |       ..
+   Missouri[1]   |     3     |       ..
+   New Hampshire |     7     |        1
+   New Jersey    |     8     |       ..
+   New York      |    29     |       ..
+   North Carolina|    15     |       ..
+   Ohio          |     8     |       ..
+   Pennsylvania  |    24     |       ..
+   Rhode Island  |     4     |       ..
+   South Carolina|    11     |       ..
+   Tennessee     |     7     |       ..
+   Vermont       |     8     |       ..
+   Virginia      |    25     |       ..
+   --------------+-----------+---------------
+      Total      |   231     |        1
+
+                                       VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 | Daniel D. | Richard   | Daniel  | Richard  | Robert G.
+                 | Tompkins, | Stockton, | Rodney, | Rush,    | Harper,
+                 | of        | of        | of      | of       | of
+     STATES.     | New York. | New       | Dela-   | Pennsyl- | Maryland.
+                 |           | Jersey.   | ware.   | vania.   |
+   --------------+-----------+-----------+---------+----------+----------
+   Alabama       |     3     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Connecticut   |     9     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Delaware      |    ..     |    ..     |    4    |    ..    |    ..
+   Georgia       |     8     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Illinois      |     3     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Indiana       |     3     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Kentucky      |    12     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Louisiana     |     3     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Maine         |     9     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Maryland      |    10     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |     1
+   Massachusetts |     7     |     8     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Mississippi   |     2     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Missouri[1]   |     3     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   New Hampshire |     7     |    ..     |   ..    |     1    |    ..
+   New Jersey    |     8     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   New York      |    29     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   North Carolina|    15     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Ohio          |     8     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |    24     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |     4     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   South Carolina|    11     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Tennessee     |     7     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Vermont       |     8     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Virginia      |    25     |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   --------------+-----------+-----------+---------+----------+----------
+      Total      |   218     |     8     |    4    |     1    |     1
+
+   [Footnote 1: Missouri was not formally admitted as a state until
+   August, 1821.]
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1824.
+
+                                      PRESIDENT.
+                 | Andrew     | John Quincy | William H. | Henry
+                 | Jackson,   | Adams,      | Crawford,  | Clay,
+                 | of         | of          | of         | of
+     STATES.     | Tennessee. | Massachu-   | Georgia.   | Kentucky.
+                 |            | setts.      |            |
+   --------------+------------+-------------+------------+----------
+   Alabama       |     5      |     ..      |     ..     |    ..
+   Connecticut   |    ..      |      8      |     ..     |    ..
+   Delaware      |    ..      |      1      |      2     |    ..
+   Georgia       |    ..      |     ..      |      9     |    ..
+   Illinois      |     2      |      1      |     ..     |    ..
+   Indiana       |     5      |     ..      |     ..     |    ..
+   Kentucky      |    ..      |     ..      |     ..     |    14
+   Louisiana     |     3      |      2      |     ..     |    ..
+   Maine         |    ..      |      9      |     ..     |    ..
+   Maryland      |     7      |      3      |      1     |    ..
+   Massachusetts |    ..      |     15      |     ..     |    ..
+   Mississippi   |     3      |     ..      |     ..     |    ..
+   Missouri      |    ..      |     ..      |     ..     |     3
+   New Hampshire |    ..      |      8      |     ..     |    ..
+   New Jersey    |     8      |     ..      |     ..     |    ..
+   New York      |     1      |     26      |      5     |     4
+   North Carolina|    15      |     ..      |     ..     |    ..
+   Ohio          |    ..      |     ..      |     ..     |    16
+   Pennsylvania  |    28      |     ..      |     ..     |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |    ..      |      4      |     ..     |    ..
+   South Carolina|    11      |     ..      |     ..     |    ..
+   Tennessee     |    11      |     ..      |     ..     |    ..
+   Vermont       |    ..      |      7      |     ..     |    ..
+   Virginia      |    ..      |     ..      |     24     |    ..
+   --------------+------------+-------------+------------+----------
+      Total      |    99[2]   |     84      |     41     |    37
+
+   [Footnote 2: Since no President was elected, the House of
+   Representatives proceeded to elect one, and John Quincy Adams was
+   chosen on the first ballot, the vote standing Adams, 13 States;
+   Jackson, 7 States; Crawford, 4 States.]
+
+                                     VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 | John C.   | Nathan   | Henry  | Andrew   | Martin
+                 | Calhoun,  | Sanford, | Clay,  | Jackson, | Van Buren,
+                 | of        | of       | of     | of       | of
+     STATES.     | South     | New      | Ken-   | Tenne-   | New
+                 | Carolina. | York.    | tucky. | see.     | York.
+   --------------+-----------+----------+--------+----------+-----------
+   Alabama       |     5     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Connecticut   |    ..     |    ..    |   ..   |     8    |    ..
+   Delaware      |     1     |    ..    |    2   |    ..    |    ..
+   Georgia       |    ..     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |     9
+   Illinois      |     3     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Indiana       |     5     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Kentucky      |     7     |     7    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Louisiana     |     5     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Maine         |     9     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Maryland      |    10     |    ..    |   ..   |     1    |    ..
+   Massachusetts |    15     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Mississippi   |     3     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Missouri      |    ..     |    ..    |   ..   |     3    |    ..
+   New Hampshire |     7     |    ..    |   ..   |     1    |    ..
+   New Jersey    |     8     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   New York      |    29     |     7    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   North Carolina|    15     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Ohio          |    ..     |    16    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |    28     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |     3     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   South Carolina|    11     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Tennessee     |    11     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Vermont       |     7     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   Virginia      |    ..     |    ..    |   ..   |    ..    |    ..
+   --------------+-----------+----------+--------+----------+----------
+      Total      |   182     |    30    |    2   |    13    |     9
+
+              VICE-PRESIDENT (Continued).
+                 | Nathaniel |
+                 | Macon,    |
+                 | of        | Vacancies.
+     STATES.     | North     |
+                 | Carolina. |
+   --------------+-----------+-----------
+   Rhode Island  |    ..     |     1
+   Virginia      |    24     |    ..
+   --------------+-----------+-----------
+      Total      |    24     |     1
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1828.
+
+                        PRESIDENT.     |          VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 |          | John     |           |          |
+                 | Andrew   | Quincy   | John C.   | Richard  | William
+                 | Jackson, | Adams,   | Calhoun,  | Rush,    | Smith,
+                 | of       | of       | of        | of       | of
+     STATES.     | Tenne-   | Massach- | South     | Pennsyl- | South
+                 | see.     | usetts.  | Carolina. | vania.   | Carolina.
+   --------------+----------+----------+-----------+----------+----------
+   Alabama       |     5    |    ..    |      5    |    ..    |    ..
+   Connecticut   |    ..    |     8    |     ..    |     8    |    ..
+   Delaware      |    ..    |     3    |     ..    |     3    |    ..
+   Georgia       |     9    |    ..    |      2    |    ..    |     7
+   Illinois      |     3    |    ..    |      3    |    ..    |    ..
+   Indiana       |     5    |    ..    |      5    |    ..    |    ..
+   Kentucky      |    14    |    ..    |     14    |    ..    |    ..
+   Louisiana     |     5    |    ..    |      5    |    ..    |    ..
+   Maine         |     1    |     8    |      1    |     8    |    ..
+   Maryland      |     5    |     6    |      5    |     6    |    ..
+   Massachusetts |    ..    |    15    |     ..    |    15    |    ..
+   Mississippi   |     3    |    ..    |      3    |    ..    |    ..
+   Missouri      |     3    |    ..    |      3    |    ..    |    ..
+   New Hampshire |    ..    |     8    |     ..    |     8    |    ..
+   New Jersey    |    ..    |     8    |     ..    |     8    |    ..
+   New York      |    20    |    16    |     20    |    16    |    ..
+   North Carolina|    15    |    ..    |     15    |    ..    |    ..
+   Ohio          |    16    |    ..    |     16    |    ..    |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |    28    |    ..    |     28    |    ..    |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |    ..    |     4    |     ..    |     4    |    ..
+   South Carolina|    11    |    ..    |     11    |    ..    |    ..
+   Tennessee     |    11    |    ..    |     11    |    ..    |    ..
+   Vermont       |    ..    |     7    |     ..    |     7    |    ..
+   Virginia      |    24    |    ..    |     24    |    ..    |    ..
+   --------------+----------+----------+-----------+----------+----------
+      Total      |   178    |    83    |    171    |    83    |     7
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1832.
+
+                                       PRESIDENT.
+                 | Andrew   | Henry  | John      | William   |
+                 | Jackson, | Clay,  | Floyd,    | Wirt,     | Vacancies.
+                 | of       | of     | of        | of        |
+     STATES.     | Tenne-   | Ken-   | Virginia. | Maryland. |
+                 | see.     | tucky. |           |           |
+   --------------+----------+--------+-----------+-----------+-----------
+   Alabama       |     7    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Connecticut   |    ..    |    8   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Delaware      |    ..    |    3   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Georgia       |    11    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Illinois      |     5    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Indiana       |     9    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Kentucky      |    ..    |   15   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Louisiana     |     5    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Maine         |    10    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Maryland      |     3    |    5   |    ..     |     ..    |     2
+   Massachusetts |    ..    |   14   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Mississippi   |     4    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Missouri      |     4    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   New Hampshire |     7    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   New Jersey    |     8    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   New York      |    42    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   North Carolina|    15    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Ohio          |    21    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |    30    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |    ..    |    4   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   South Carolina|    ..    |   ..   |    11     |     ..    |    ..
+   Tennessee     |    15    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   Vermont       |    ..    |   ..   |    ..     |      7    |    ..
+   Virginia      |    23    |   ..   |    ..     |     ..    |    ..
+   --------------+----------+--------+-----------+-----------+-----------
+      Total      |   219    |   49   |    11     |      7    |     2
+
+                                    VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 | Martin  |           |           |          |
+                 | Van     | John      | William   | Henry    | Amos
+                 | Buren,  | Sergeant, | Wilkins,  | Lee,     | Ellmaker,
+                 | of      | of        | of        | of       | of
+     STATES.     | New     | Pennsyl-  | Pennsyl-  | Massach- | Pennsyl-
+                 | York.   | vania.    | vania.    | usetts.  | vania.
+   --------------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------
+   Alabama       |    7    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Connecticut   |   ..    |      8    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Delaware      |   ..    |      3    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Georgia       |   11    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Illinois      |    5    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Indiana       |    9    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Kentucky      |   ..    |     15    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Louisiana     |    5    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Maine         |   10    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Maryland      |    3    |      5    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Massachusetts |   ..    |     14    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Mississippi   |    4    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Missouri      |    4    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   New Hampshire |    7    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   New Jersey    |    8    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   New York      |   42    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   North Carolina|   15    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Ohio          |   21    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |   ..    |     ..    |     30    |    ..    |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |   ..    |      4    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   South Carolina|   ..    |     ..    |     ..    |    11    |    ..
+   Tennessee     |   15    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Vermont       |   ..    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |     7
+   Virginia      |   23    |     ..    |     ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   --------------+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------
+      Total      |  189    |     49    |     30    |    11    |     7
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1836.
+
+                                        PRESIDENT.
+                 | Martin  | William   |         |          | Willie
+                 | Van     | Henry     | Hugh L. | Daniel   | P.
+                 | Buren,  | Harrison, | White,  | Webster, | Mangum,
+                 | of      | of        | of      | of       | of
+     STATES.     | New     | Ohio.     | Tenne-  | Massach- | North
+                 | York.   |           | see.    | usetts.  | Carolina.
+   --------------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+----------
+   Alabama       |     7   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Arkansas      |     3   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Connecticut   |     8   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Delaware      |    ..   |     3     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Georgia       |    ..   |    ..     |   11    |    ..    |    ..
+   Illinois      |     5   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Indiana       |    ..   |     9     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Kentucky      |    ..   |    15     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Louisiana     |     5   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Maine         |    10   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Maryland      |    ..   |    10     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Massachusetts |    ..   |    ..     |   ..    |    14    |    ..
+   Michigan[3]   |     3   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Mississippi   |     4   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Missouri      |     4   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   New Hampshire |     7   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   New Jersey    |    ..   |     8     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   New York      |    42   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   North Carolina|    15   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Ohio          |    ..   |    21     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |    30   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |     4   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   South Carolina|    ..   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    11
+   Tennessee     |    ..   |    ..     |   15    |    ..    |    ..
+   Vermont       |    ..   |     7     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   Virginia      |    23   |    ..     |   ..    |    ..    |    ..
+   --------------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+----------
+      Total      |   167   |    73     |   26    |    14    |    11
+
+                                   VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 | Richard M. | Francis   | John      | William
+                 | Johnson,   | Granger,  | Tyler,    | Smith,
+                 | of         | of        | of        | of
+     STATES.     | Kentucky.  | New York. | Virginia. | South Carolina.
+   --------------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------------
+   Alabama       |      7     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Arkansas      |      3     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Connecticut   |      8     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Delaware      |     ..     |      3    |     ..    |     ..
+   Georgia       |     ..     |     ..    |     11    |     ..
+   Illinois      |      5     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Indiana       |     ..     |      9    |     ..    |     ..
+   Kentucky      |     ..     |     15    |     ..    |     ..
+   Louisiana     |      5     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Maine         |     10     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Maryland      |     ..     |     ..    |     10    |     ..
+   Massachusetts |     ..     |     14    |     ..    |     ..
+   Michigan[3]   |      3     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Mississippi   |      4     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Missouri      |      4     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   New Hampshire |      7     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   New Jersey    |     ..     |      8    |     ..    |     ..
+   New York      |     42     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   North Carolina|     15     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Ohio          |     ..     |     21    |     ..    |     ..
+   Pennsylvania  |     30     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   Rhode Island  |      4     |     ..    |     ..    |     ..
+   South Carolina|     ..     |     ..    |     11    |     ..
+   Tennessee     |     ..     |     ..    |     15    |     ..
+   Vermont       |     ..     |      7    |     ..    |     ..
+   Virginia      |     ..     |     ..    |     ..    |     23
+   --------------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------------
+      Total      |    144     |     77    |     47    |     23
+
+   [Footnote 3: Michigan had not been formally admitted as a State at the
+   time when the electors were chosen. When the votes were counted the
+   President of the Senate declared Martin Van Buren elected President,
+   no election for Vice-President. The Senate then elected a
+   Vice-President, Richard M. Johnson receiving 33 votes and Francis
+   Granger 16.]
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1840.
+
+                         PRESIDENT.
+                 | William   | Martin
+                 | Henry     | Van
+                 | Harrison, | Buren,
+                 | of        | of
+     STATES.     | Ohio.     | New York.
+   --------------+-----------+----------
+   Alabama       |    ..     |     7
+   Arkansas      |    ..     |     3
+   Connecticut   |     8     |    ..
+   Delaware      |     3     |    ..
+   Georgia       |    11     |    ..
+   Illinois      |    ..     |     5
+   Indiana       |     9     |    ..
+   Kentucky      |    15     |    ..
+   Louisiana     |     5     |    ..
+   Maine         |    10     |    ..
+   Maryland      |    10     |    ..
+   Massachusetts |    14     |    ..
+   Michigan      |     3     |    ..
+   Mississippi   |     4     |    ..
+   Missouri      |    ..     |     4
+   New Hampshire |    ..     |     7
+   New Jersey    |     8     |    ..
+   New York      |    42     |    ..
+   North Carolina|    15     |    ..
+   Ohio          |    21     |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |    30     |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |     4     |    ..
+   South Carolina|    ..     |    11
+   Tennessee     |    15     |    ..
+   Vermont       |     7     |    ..
+   Virginia      |    ..     |    23
+   --------------+-----------+----------
+      Total      |   234     |    60
+
+                                   VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 | John      | Richard M. | Littleton W. | James K.
+                 | Tyler,    | Johnson,   | Tazewell,    | Polk,
+                 | of        | of         | of           | of
+     STATES.     | Virginia. | Kentucky.  | Virginia.    | Tennessee.
+   --------------+-----------+------------+--------------+-----------
+   Alabama       |     ..    |      7     |      ..      |    ..
+   Arkansas      |     ..    |      3     |      ..      |    ..
+   Connecticut   |      8    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Delaware      |      3    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Georgia       |     11    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Illinois      |     ..    |      5     |      ..      |    ..
+   Indiana       |      9    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Kentucky      |     15    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Louisiana     |      5    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Maine         |     10    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Maryland      |     10    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Massachusetts |     14    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Michigan      |      3    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Mississippi   |      4    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Missouri      |     ..    |      4     |      ..      |    ..
+   New Hampshire |     ..    |      7     |      ..      |    ..
+   New Jersey    |      8    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   New York      |     42    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   North Carolina|     15    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Ohio          |     21    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |     30    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |      4    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   South Carolina|     ..    |     ..     |      11      |    ..
+   Tennessee     |     15    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Vermont       |      7    |     ..     |      ..      |    ..
+   Virginia      |     ..    |     22     |      ..      |     1
+   --------------+-----------+------------+--------------+-----------
+      Total      |    234    |     48     |      11      |     1
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1844.
+
+                        PRESIDENT.      |         VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 | James K.   | Henry   | George M.     | Theodore
+                 | Polk,      | Clay,   | Dallas,       | Frelinghuysen,
+                 | of         | of      | of            | of
+     STATES.     | Tennessee. | Ken-    | Pennsylvania. | New Jersey.
+                 |            | tucky.  |               |
+   --------------+------------+---------+---------------+---------------
+   Alabama       |      9     |    ..   |        9      |      ..
+   Arkansas      |      3     |    ..   |        3      |      ..
+   Connecticut   |     ..     |     6   |       ..      |       6
+   Delaware      |     ..     |     3   |       ..      |       3
+   Georgia       |     10     |    ..   |       10      |      ..
+   Illinois      |      9     |    ..   |        9      |      ..
+   Indiana       |     12     |    ..   |       12      |      ..
+   Kentucky      |     ..     |    12   |       ..      |      12
+   Louisiana     |      6     |    ..   |        6      |      ..
+   Maine         |      9     |    ..   |        9      |      ..
+   Maryland      |     ..     |     8   |       ..      |       8
+   Massachusetts |     ..     |    12   |       ..      |      12
+   Michigan      |      5     |    ..   |        5      |      ..
+   Mississippi   |      6     |    ..   |        6      |      ..
+   Missouri      |      7     |    ..   |        7      |      ..
+   New Hampshire |      6     |    ..   |        6      |      ..
+   New Jersey    |     ..     |     7   |       ..      |       7
+   New York      |     36     |    ..   |       36      |      ..
+   North Carolina|     ..     |    11   |       ..      |      11
+   Ohio          |     ..     |    23   |       ..      |      23
+   Pennsylvania  |     26     |    ..   |       26      |      ..
+   Rhode Island  |     ..     |     4   |       ..      |       4
+   South Carolina|      9     |    ..   |        9      |      ..
+   Tennessee     |     ..     |    13   |       ..      |      13
+   Vermont       |     ..     |     6   |       ..      |       6
+   Virginia      |     17     |    ..   |       17      |      ..
+   --------------+------------+---------+---------------+---------------
+      Total      |    170     |   105   |      170      |     105
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1848.
+
+                         PRESIDENT.       |     VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 |            |           |           |
+                 | Zachary    | Lewis     | Millard   | William O.
+                 | Taylor,    | Cass,     | Fillmore, | Butler,
+                 | of         | of        | of        | of
+     STATES.     | Louisiana. | Michigan. | New York. | Kentucky.
+   --------------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------
+   Alabama       |     ..     |      9    |     ..    |      9
+   Arkansas      |     ..     |      3    |     ..    |      3
+   Connecticut   |      6     |     ..    |      6    |     ..
+   Delaware      |      3     |     ..    |      3    |     ..
+   Florida       |      3     |     ..    |      3    |     ..
+   Georgia       |     10     |     ..    |     10    |     ..
+   Illinois      |     ..     |      9    |     ..    |      9
+   Indiana       |     ..     |     12    |     ..    |     12
+   Iowa          |     ..     |      4    |     ..    |      4
+   Kentucky      |     12     |     ..    |     12    |     ..
+   Louisiana     |      6     |     ..    |      6    |     ..
+   Maine         |     ..     |      9    |     ..    |      9
+   Maryland      |      8     |     ..    |      8    |     ..
+   Massachusetts |     12     |     ..    |     12    |     ..
+   Michigan      |     ..     |      5    |     ..    |      5
+   Mississippi   |     ..     |      6    |     ..    |      6
+   Missouri      |     ..     |      7    |     ..    |      7
+   New Hampshire |     ..     |      6    |     ..    |      6
+   New Jersey    |      7     |     ..    |      7    |     ..
+   New York      |     36     |     ..    |     36    |     ..
+   North Carolina|     11     |     ..    |     11    |     ..
+   Ohio          |     ..     |     23    |     ..    |     23
+   Pennsylvania  |     26     |     ..    |     26    |     ..
+   Rhode Island  |      4     |     ..    |      4    |     ..
+   South Carolina|     ..     |      9    |     ..    |      9
+   Tennessee     |     13     |     ..    |     13    |     ..
+   Texas         |     ..     |      4    |     ..    |      4
+   Vermont       |      6     |     ..    |      6    |     ..
+   Virginia      |     ..     |     17    |     ..    |     17
+   Wisconsin     |     ..     |      4    |     ..    |      4
+   --------------+------------+-----------+-----------+---------------
+      Total      |    163     |    127    |    163    |    127
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1852.
+
+                         PRESIDENT.       |     VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 |            |           | William   |
+                 | Franklin   | Winfield  | Rufus     | William A.
+                 | Pierce,    | Scott,    | King,     | Graham,
+                 | of         | of        | of        | of
+     STATES.     | New        | Virginia. | Alabama.  | North
+                 | Hampshire. |           |           | Carolina.
+   --------------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------
+   Alabama       |      9     |     ..    |      9    |     ..
+   Arkansas      |      4     |     ..    |      4    |     ..
+   California    |      4     |     ..    |      4    |     ..
+   Connecticut   |      6     |     ..    |      6    |     ..
+   Delaware      |      3     |     ..    |      3    |     ..
+   Florida       |      3     |     ..    |      3    |     ..
+   Georgia       |     10     |     ..    |     10    |     ..
+   Illinois      |     11     |     ..    |     11    |     ..
+   Indiana       |     13     |     ..    |     13    |     ..
+   Iowa          |      4     |     ..    |      4    |     ..
+   Kentucky      |     ..     |     12    |     ..    |     12
+   Louisiana     |      6     |     ..    |      6    |     ..
+   Maine         |      8     |     ..    |      8    |     ..
+   Maryland      |      8     |     ..    |      8    |     ..
+   Massachusetts |     ..     |     13    |     ..    |     13
+   Michigan      |      6     |     ..    |      6    |     ..
+   Mississippi   |      7     |     ..    |      7    |     ..
+   Missouri      |      9     |     ..    |      9    |     ..
+   New Hampshire |      5     |     ..    |      5    |     ..
+   New Jersey    |      7     |     ..    |      7    |     ..
+   New York      |     35     |     ..    |     35    |     ..
+   North Carolina|     10     |     ..    |     10    |     ..
+   Ohio          |     23     |     ..    |     23    |     ..
+   Pennsylvania  |     27     |     ..    |     27    |     ..
+   Rhode Island  |      4     |     ..    |      4    |     ..
+   South Carolina|      8     |     ..    |      8    |     ..
+   Tennessee     |     ..     |     12    |     ..    |     12
+   Texas         |      4     |     ..    |      4    |     ..
+   Vermont       |     ..     |      5    |     ..    |      5
+   Virginia      |     15     |     ..    |     15    |     ..
+   Wisconsin     |      5     |     ..    |      5    |     ..
+   --------------+------------+-----------+-----------+---------------
+      Total      |    254     |     42    |    254    |     42
+
+
+   ELECTORAL VOTE IN 1856.
+
+                                   PRESIDENT.
+                 | James         | John C.     | Millard
+                 | Buchanan,     | Fremont,    | Fillmore,
+                 | of            | of          | of
+     STATES.     | Pennsylvania. | California. | New York.
+   --------------+---------------+-------------+----------
+   Alabama       |       9       |     ..      |    ..
+   Arkansas      |       4       |     ..      |    ..
+   California    |       4       |     ..      |    ..
+   Connecticut   |      ..       |      6      |    ..
+   Delaware      |       3       |     ..      |    ..
+   Florida       |       3       |     ..      |    ..
+   Georgia       |      10       |     ..      |    ..
+   Illinois      |      11       |     ..      |    ..
+   Indiana       |      13       |     ..      |    ..
+   Iowa          |      ..       |      4      |    ..
+   Kentucky      |      12       |     ..      |    ..
+   Louisiana     |       6       |     ..      |    ..
+   Maine         |      ..       |      8      |    ..
+   Maryland      |      ..       |     ..      |     8
+   Massachusetts |      ..       |     13      |    ..
+   Michigan      |      ..       |      6      |    ..
+   Mississippi   |       7       |     ..      |    ..
+   Missouri      |       9       |     ..      |    ..
+   New Hampshire |      ..       |      5      |    ..
+   New Jersey    |       7       |     ..      |    ..
+   New York      |      ..       |     35      |    ..
+   North Carolina|      10       |     ..      |    ..
+   Ohio          |      ..       |     23      |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |      27       |     ..      |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |      ..       |      4      |    ..
+   South Carolina|       8       |     ..      |    ..
+   Tennessee     |      12       |     ..      |    ..
+   Texas         |       4       |     ..      |    ..
+   Vermont       |      ..       |      5      |    ..
+   Virginia      |      15       |     ..      |    ..
+   Wisconsin     |      ..       |      5      |    ..
+   --------------+---------------+-------------+----------
+      Total      |     174       |    114      |     8
+
+                                 VICE-PRESIDENT.
+                 | J. C.         | William L.  | A. J.
+                 | Breckinridge, | Dayton,     | Donelson,
+                 | of            | of          | of
+     STATES.     | Kentucky.     | New Jersey. | Tennessee.
+   --------------+---------------+-------------+-----------
+   Alabama       |       9       |     ..      |    ..
+   Arkansas      |       4       |     ..      |    ..
+   California    |       4       |     ..      |    ..
+   Connecticut   |      ..       |      6      |    ..
+   Delaware      |       3       |     ..      |    ..
+   Florida       |       3       |     ..      |    ..
+   Georgia       |      10       |     ..      |    ..
+   Illinois      |      11       |     ..      |    ..
+   Indiana       |      13       |     ..      |    ..
+   Iowa          |      ..       |      4      |    ..
+   Kentucky      |      12       |     ..      |    ..
+   Louisiana     |       6       |     ..      |    ..
+   Maine         |      ..       |      8      |    ..
+   Maryland      |      ..       |     ..      |     8
+   Massachusetts |      ..       |     13      |    ..
+   Michigan      |      ..       |      6      |    ..
+   Mississippi   |       7       |     ..      |    ..
+   Missouri      |       9       |     ..      |    ..
+   New Hampshire |      ..       |      5      |    ..
+   New Jersey    |       7       |     ..      |    ..
+   New York      |      ..       |     35      |    ..
+   North Carolina|      10       |     ..      |    ..
+   Ohio          |      ..       |     23      |    ..
+   Pennsylvania  |      27       |     ..      |    ..
+   Rhode Island  |      ..       |      4      |    ..
+   South Carolina|       8       |     ..      |    ..
+   Tennessee     |      12       |     ..      |    ..
+   Texas         |       4       |     ..      |    ..
+   Vermont       |      ..       |      5      |    ..
+   Virginia      |      15       |     ..      |    ..
+   Wisconsin     |      ..       |      5      |    ..
+   --------------+---------------+-------------+----------
+      Total      |     174       |    114      |     8
+
+
+
+
+   APPENDIX II.
+
+   THE CABINETS OF MONROE, ADAMS, JACKSON, VAN BUREN, HARRISON, TYLER,
+   POLK, TAYLOR, FILLMORE, PIERCE, AND BUCHANAN--1816-1858.
+
+
+   THE SECRETARIES OF STATE.
+
+   Department created by Act of Congress, September 15, 1789.
+
+   NAME.                    STATE.     FROM
+   ----------------------+----------+------------------------------
+   John Quincy Adams     |  Mass.   |  March 5, 1817.
+   Henry Clay            |  Ky.     |  March 7, 1825.
+       James A. Hamilton |  N. Y.   |  March 4, 1829, _ad int._
+   Martin Van Buren      |  N. Y.   |  March 6, 1829.
+   Edward Livingston     |  La.     |  May 24, 1831.
+   Louis McLane          |  Del.    |  May 29, 1833.
+   John Forsyth          |  Ga.     |  June 27, 1834.
+       J. L. Martin      |  N. C.   |  March 3, 1841, _ad int._
+   Daniel Webster        |  Mass.   |  March 5, 1841.
+       Hugh S. Legare    |  S. C.   |  May 9, 1843, _ad int._
+       Abel P. Upshur    |  Va.     |  June 24, 1843, _ad int._
+   Abel P. Upshur        |  Va.     |  July 24, 1843.
+       John Nelson       |  Md.     |  February 29, 1844, _ad int._
+   John C. Calhoun       |  S. C.   |  March 6, 1844.
+   James Buchanan        |  Penna.  |  March 6, 1845.
+   John M. Clayton       |  Del.    |  March 7, 1849.
+   Daniel Webster        |  Mass.   |  July 22, 1850.
+       Charles M. Conrad |  La.     |  September 2, 1852, _ad int._
+   Edward Everett        |  Mass.   |  November 6, 1852.
+       William Hunter    |  R. I.   |  March 3, 1853, _ad int._
+   William L. Marcy      |  N. Y.   |  March 7, 1853.
+   Lewis Cass            |  Mich.   |  March 6, 1857.
+   ----------------------+----------+------------------------------
+
+
+   THE SECRETARIES OF THE TREASURY.
+
+   Department created by Act of Congress, September 2, 1789.
+
+   NAME.                     STATE.     FROM
+   -----------------------+----------+------------------------------
+   William H. Crawford    |  Ga.     |  October 22, 1816.
+       Samuel L. Southard |  N. J.   |  March 7, 1825, _ad int._
+   Richard Rush           |  Penna.  |  March 7, 1825.
+   Samuel D. Ingham       |  Penna.  |  March 6, 1829.
+       Asbury Dickins     |  N. C.   |  June 21, 1831, _ad int._
+   Louis McLane           |  Del.    |  August 8, 1831.
+   William J. Duane       |  Penna.  |  May 29, 1833.
+   Roger B. Taney         |  Md.     |  September 23, 1833.
+       McClintock Young   |  Md.     |  June 25, 1834, _ad int._
+   Levi Woodbury          |  N. H.   |  June 27, 1834.
+       McClintock Young   |  Md.     |  March 3, 1841, _ad int._
+   Thomas Ewing           |  Ohio    |  March 5, 1841.
+       McClintock Young   |  Md.     |  September 13, 1841, _ad int._
+   Walter Forward         |  Penna.  |  September 13, 1841.
+       McClintock Young   |  Md.     |  March 1, 1843, _ad int._
+   John C. Spencer        |  N. Y.   |  March 3, 1843.
+       McClintock Young   |  Md.     |  May 2, 1844, _ad int._
+   George M. Bibb         |  Ky.     |  June 15, 1844.
+   Robert J. Walker       |  Miss.   |  March 6, 1845.
+       McClintock Young   |  Md.     |  March 6, 1849, _ad int._
+   William M. Meredith    |  Penna.  |  March 8, 1849.
+   Thomas Corwin          |  Ohio    |  July 23, 1850.
+   James Guthrie          |  Ky.     |  March 7, 1853.
+   Howell Cobb            |  Ga.     |  March 6, 1857.
+   -----------------------+----------+------------------------------
+
+
+   THE SECRETARIES OF WAR.
+
+   Department created by Act of Congress, August 7, 1789.
+
+   NAME.                     STATE.     FROM
+   -----------------------+----------+-----------------------------
+   Isaac Shelby           |  Ky.     |  March 5, 1817.
+       George Graham      |  Va.     |  April 7, 1817, _ad int._
+   John C. Calhoun        |  S. C.   |  October 8, 1817.
+   James Barbour          |  Va.     |  March 7, 1825.
+       Samuel L. Southard |  N. J.   |  May 26, 1828, _ad int._
+   Peter B. Porter        |  N. Y.   |  May 26, 1828.
+   John H. Eaton          |  Tenn.   |  March 9, 1829.
+       Philip G. Randolph |  Va.     |  June 18, 1831, _ad int._
+       Roger B. Taney     |  Md.     |  July 21, 1831, _ad int._
+   Lewis Cass             |  Ohio    |  August 1, 1831.
+       Benjamin F. Butler |  N. Y.   |  October 25, 1836, _ad int._
+   Joel R. Poinsett       |  S. C.   |  March 7, 1837.
+   John Bell              |  Tenn.   |  March 5, 1841.
+   John McLean            |  Ohio    |  September 13, 1841.
+   John C. Spencer        |  N. Y.   |  October 12, 1841.
+   James M. Porter        |  Penna.  |  March 8, 1843.
+   William Wilkins        |  Penna.  |  February 15, 1844.
+   William L. Marcy       |  N. Y.   |  March 5, 1845.
+   George W. Crawford     |  Ga.     |  March 8, 1849.
+       Winfield Scott     |  Va.     |  July 23, 1850, _ad int._
+   Charles M. Conrad      |  La.     |  August 15, 1850.
+   Jefferson Davis        |  Miss.   |  March 7, 1853.
+       Samuel Cooper      |  N. Y.   |  March 3, 1857, _ad int._
+   John B. Floyd          |  Va.     |  March 6, 1857.
+   -----------------------+----------+-----------------------------
+
+
+   THE SECRETARIES OF THE NAVY.
+
+   Department created by Act of Congress, April 30, 1798.
+
+   NAME.                        STATE.    FROM
+   --------------------------+---------+------------------------------
+   Benjamin W. Crowninshield |  Mass.  |  December 19, 1814.
+   Smith Thompson            |  N. Y.  |  November 9, 1818.
+       John Rodgers          |  Md.    |  September 1, 1823, _ad int._
+   Samuel L. Southard        |  N. J.  |  September 16, 1823.
+   John Branch               |  N. C.  |  March 9, 1829.
+   Levi Woodbury             |  N. H.  |  May 23, 1831.
+   Mahlon Dickerson          |  N. J.  |  June 30, 1834.
+   James K. Paulding         |  N. Y.  |  June 25, 1838.
+   George E. Badger          |  N. C.  |  March 5, 1841.
+   Abel P. Upshur            |  Va.    |  September 13, 1841.
+   David Henshaw             |  Mass.  |  July 24, 1843.
+   Thomas W. Gilmer          |  Va.    |  February 15, 1844.
+   John Y. Mason             |  Va.    |  March 14, 1844.
+   George Bancroft           |  Mass.  |  March 10, 1845.
+   John Y. Mason             |  Va.    |  September 9, 1846.
+   William B. Preston        |  Va.    |  March 8, 1849.
+   William A. Graham         |  N.C.   |  July 22, 1850.
+   John P. Kennedy           |  Md.    |  July 22, 1852.
+   James C. Dobbin           |  N. C.  |  March 7, 1853.
+   Isaac Toucey              |  Conn.  |  March 6, 1857.
+   --------------------------+---------+------------------------------
+
+
+   THE SECRETARIES OF THE INTERIOR.
+
+   Department created by Act of Congress, March 3, 1849.
+
+   NAME.                     STATE.     FROM
+   -----------------------+----------+---------------------
+   Thomas Ewing           |  Ohio    |  March 8, 1849.
+   Thomas M. T. McKennan  |  Penna.  |  August 15, 1850.
+   Alexander H. H. Stuart |  Va.     |  September 12, 1850.
+   Robert McClelland      |  Mich.   |  March 7, 1853.
+   Jacob Thompson         |  Miss.   |  March 6, 1857.
+   -----------------------+----------+---------------------
+
+
+   THE ATTORNEYS-GENERAL.
+
+   Duties prescribed by the Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789.
+   Department reorganized in 1870.
+
+   NAME.                  STATE.     FROM
+   --------------------+----------+---------------------
+   Richard Rush        |  Penna.  |  February 10, 1814.
+   William Wirt        |  Va.     |  November 3, 1817.
+   John M. Berrien     |  Ga.     |  March 9, 1829.
+   Roger B. Taney      |  Md.     |  July 20, 1831.
+   Benjamin F. Butler  |  N. Y.   |  November 15, 1833.
+   Felix Grundy        |  Tenn.   |  July 5, 1838.
+   Henry D. Gilpin     |  Penna.  |  July 11, 1840.
+   John J. Crittenden  |  Ky.     |  March 5, 1841.
+   Hugh S. Legare      |  S. C.   |  September 13, 1841.
+   John Nelson         |  Md.     |  July 1, 1843.
+   John Y. Mason       |  Va.     |  March 6, 1845.
+   Nathan Clifford     |  Me.     |  October 17, 1846.
+   Isaac Toucey        |  Conn.   |  June 21, 1848.
+   Reverdy Johnson     |  Md.     |  March 8, 1849.
+   John J. Crittenden  |  Ky.     |  July 22, 1850.
+   Caleb Cushing       |  Mass.   |  March 7, 1853.
+   Jeremiah S. Black   |  Penna.  |  March 6, 1857.
+   --------------------+----------+---------------------
+
+
+   THE POSTMASTERS-GENERAL.
+
+   A Bureau of the Treasury until 1829. Made a Cabinet office in that
+   year.
+
+   NAME.                    STATE.     FROM
+   ----------------------+----------+---------------------
+   Return J. Meigs, Jr.  |  Ohio    |  March 17, 1814.
+   John McLean           |  Ohio    |  June 26, 1823.
+   William T. Barry      |  Ky.     |  March 9, 1829.
+   Amos Kendall          |  Ky.     |  March 1, 1835.
+   John M. Niles         |  Conn.   |  May 19, 1840.
+   Francis Granger       |  N. Y.   |  March 6, 1841.
+   Charles A. Wickliffe  |  Ky.     |  September 13, 1841.
+   Cave Johnson          |  Tenn.   |  March 6, 1845.
+   Jacob Collamer        |  Vt.     |  March 8, 1849.
+   Nathan K. Hall        |  N. Y.   |  July 23, 1850.
+   Samuel D. Hubbard     |  Conn.   |  August 31, 1852.
+   James Campbell        |  Penna.  |  March 7, 1853.
+   Aaron V. Brown        |  Tenn.   |  March 6, 1857.
+   ----------------------+----------+---------------------
+
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGY
+
+
+Territory of Missouri erected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 4, 1812
+
+Treaty of Fort Jackson  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  August 10, 1814
+
+Treaty of Ghent signed  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  December 24, 1814
+
+Commonwealth of Indiana admitted  . . . . . . . . .  December 11, 1816
+
+Madison's veto of internal improvements bill  . . . . .  March 3, 1817
+
+Attack on Fowltown  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  November 21, 1817
+
+Commonwealth of Mississippi admitted  . . . . . . .  December 10, 1817
+
+Jackson's "Rhea" letter to Monroe . . . . . . . . . .  January 6, 1818
+
+Execution of Ambrister and Arbuthnot  . . . . . . . . . April 29, 1818
+
+Convention with Great Britain as to Oregon  . . . . . October 20, 1818
+
+Commonwealth of Illinois admitted . . . . . . . . . . December 3, 1818
+
+Tallmadge amendment offered . . . . . . . . . . . .  February 13, 1819
+
+Treaty with Spain as to Florida . . . . . . . . . .  February 22, 1819
+
+Decision in McCulloch vs. Maryland  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1819
+
+Commonwealth of Alabama admitted  . . . . . . . . .  December 14, 1819
+
+Thomas amendment offered  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . February 3, 1820
+
+Maine bill approved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 3, 1820
+
+First Missouri bill approved  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 6, 1820
+
+Commonwealth of Maine admitted  . . . . . . . . . . . . March 15, 1820
+
+Report of Clay's Committee of Thirteen  . . . . . .  February 10, 1821
+
+Second Missouri bill approved . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 2, 1821
+
+Jackson, as Governor, takes command in Florida  . . . .  July 17, 1821
+
+Commonwealth of Missouri admitted . . . . . . . . . .  August 10, 1821
+
+Congress of Verona  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October-December, 1822
+
+Monroe's veto of internal improvements bill . . . . . . .  May 4, 1822
+
+Clay nominated for presidency by the Kentucky
+  legislature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  November 18, 1822
+
+"Monroe Doctrine" announced . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2, 1823
+
+Congressional caucus nominates Crawford . . . . . .  February 14, 1824
+
+Harrisburg convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 4, 1824
+
+Jackson's "Coleman Letter"  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 26, 1824
+
+Presidential election in House of Representatives . . February 9, 1825
+
+Indian Springs convention . . . . . . . . . . . . .  February 12, 1825
+
+Mexico-Columbia treaty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 25, 1825
+
+The Creek treaty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  January, 1826
+
+Abduction of Morgan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 11, 12, 1826
+
+Protectionist convention at Harrisburg  . . . . . . . .  July 30, 1827
+
+Treaty with Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 6, 1827
+
+Tariff bill approved  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 19, 1828
+
+The "South Carolina Exposition" published . . . . . . . . . . . . 1828
+
+Hayne's speech on Foote's resolution  . . . . . . . . January 19, 1830
+
+Webster's reply to Hayne  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 26, 1830
+
+Jackson's speech on the Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 13, 1830
+
+Veto of the Maysville Road bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 27, 1830
+
+Publication of the "Liberator" begun  . . . . . . . .  January 1, 1831
+
+"Address to the People of South Carolina" published . .  July 26, 1831
+
+The Southampton massacre  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August, 1831
+
+Anti-Masonic convention at Baltimore  . . . . . . . September 26, 1831
+
+National Republican convention at Baltimore . . . .  December 12, 1831
+
+New England Anti-Slavery Society formed . . . . . . .  January 6, 1832
+
+Bank of the United States asks re-charter . . . . . .  January 9, 1832
+
+National Democratic convention at Baltimore . . . . . . . May 21, 1832
+
+Calhoun's letter to Governor Hamilton . . . . . . . .  August 28, 1832
+
+South Carolina convention meets at Columbia . . . .  November 19, 1832
+
+Ordinance of nullification  . . . . . . . . . . . .  November 24, 1832
+
+President Jackson's nullification proclamation  . .  December 10, 1832
+
+Clay proposes compromise tariff . . . . . . . . . .  February 12, 1833
+
+The "Force Bill" approved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 2, 1833
+
+Compromise tariff bill approved . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 2, 1833
+
+Re-assembling of the South Carolina convention  . . . . March 11, 1833
+
+The "Paper read in the Cabinet" . . . . . . . . . . September 18, 1833
+
+Removal of the deposits ordered . . . . . . . . . . September 26, 1833
+
+American Anti-Slavery Society formed  . . . . . . . . . December, 1833
+
+Van Buren nominated by Baltimore convention . . . . . . . May 20, 1835
+
+Charleston, S. C., post-office robbed . . . . . . . . .  July 29, 1835
+
+Provisional declaration of Texan independence . . . . November 7, 1835
+
+Meeting of Texas convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 1, 1836
+
+Declaration of Texan independence . . . . . . . . . . .  March 2, 1836
+
+The Alamo massacre  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 6, 1836
+
+Battle of San Jacinto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 21, 1836
+
+House adopts the "gag" resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . May 26, 1836
+
+Commonwealth of Arkansas admitted . . . . . . . . . . .  June 15, 1836
+
+The "Specie Circular" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  July 11, 1836
+
+Senate passes the "expunging resolution"  . . . . . . January 16, 1837
+
+Commonwealth of Michigan admitted . . . . . . . . . . January 26, 1837
+
+Financial panic begins  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  April, 1837
+
+Murder of Lovejoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . November 7, 1837
+
+Harrisburg "harmony" convention . . . . . . . . . .  September 4, 1839
+
+Whig convention at Harrisburg . . . . . . . . . . . . December 4, 1839
+
+Democratic Republican convention at Baltimore . . . . . .  May 5, 1840
+
+Independent Treasury bill approved  . . . . . . . . . . . July 4, 1840
+
+Death of President Harrison . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  April 4, 1841
+
+The Ashburton treaty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 9, 1842
+
+Veto of National Bank bill  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  August 16, 1842
+
+Second bank bill vetoed . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  September 9, 1842
+
+Abolition convention at Buffalo . . . . . . . . . . .  August 30, 1843
+
+Whitman's party reaches the Columbia  . . . . . . .  September 5, 1843
+
+Whig convention at Baltimore  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  May 1, 1844
+
+Democratic convention at Baltimore  . . . . . . . . . . . May 27, 1844
+
+Commonwealth of Florida admitted  . . . . . . . . . . .  March 3, 1845
+
+Polk's message on Oregon  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . December 2, 1845
+
+Commonwealth of Texas admitted  . . . . . . . . . .  December 29, 1845
+
+Mexicans cross the Nueces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 23, 1846
+
+Arista notifies Taylor of beginning of hostilities  . . April 24, 1846
+
+Battle of Palo Alto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  May 8, 1846
+
+Congress declares war begun by Mexico . . . . . . . . May 12, 13, 1846
+
+Treaty with Great Britain as to Oregon  . . . . . . . .  June 15, 1846
+
+Kearny takes Santa Fe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  August 18, 1846
+
+Battle of Monterey  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  September 21-23, 1846
+
+Commonwealth of Iowa admitted . . . . . . . . . . .  December 28, 1846
+
+Battle of Buena Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . .  February 22, 23, 1847
+
+Capture of Vera Cruz  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 27-29, 1847
+
+Battle of Cerro Gordo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 18, 1847
+
+Battle of Chapultepec . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 12, 13, 1847
+
+Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . . . . . . . . . . . . . February 2, 1848
+
+Democratic convention at Baltimore  . . . . . . . . . . . May 22, 1848
+
+Special message on Oregon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 29, 1848
+
+Commonwealth of Wisconsin admitted  . . . . . . . . . . . May 29, 1848
+
+Abolition convention at Rochester . . . . . . . . . . . . June 2, 1848
+
+Whig convention at Philadelphia . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 7, 1848
+
+Special message on California and New Mexico  . . . . . . July 6, 1848
+
+Free-soil convention at Buffalo . . . . . . . . . . . . August 9, 1848
+
+Territory of Oregon organized . . . . . . . . . . . .  August 14, 1848
+
+California convention at Monterey . . . . . . . . .  September 1, 1849
+
+Clay proposes his compromise  . . . . . . . . . . . . January 29, 1850
+
+Calhoun's last speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 4, 1850
+
+Webster's speech on the Constitution  . . . . . . . . .  March 7, 1850
+
+Death of Calhoun  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 31, 1850
+
+Clayton-Bulwer treaty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 19, 1850
+
+Clay reports on the compromise  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  May 8, 1850
+
+Death of President Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 9, 1850
+
+Commonwealth of California admitted . . . . . . . .  September 9, 1850
+
+President's message on the fugitive slave law . . .  February 21, 1851
+
+The "Jerry rescue"  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  October, 1851
+
+Democratic convention at Baltimore  . . . . . . . . . . . June 1, 1852
+
+Whig convention at Baltimore  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  June 16, 1852
+
+Death of Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  June 29, 1852
+
+Free-soil Democratic convention at Pittsburg  . . . .  August 11, 1852
+
+Death of Webster  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 23, 1852
+
+The Gadsden treaty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  December 30, 1853
+
+Douglas reports on Nebraska . . . . . . . . . . . . .  January 4, 1854
+
+Kansas-Nebraska bill approved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 30, 1854
+
+Salt Creek Valley convention  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  June 10, 1854
+
+The Ostend manifesto  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 18, 1854
+
+Congressional election in Kansas  . . . . . . . . .  November 29, 1854
+
+Territorial election in Kansas  . . . . . . . . . . . . March 30, 1855
+
+Kansas legislature meets at Pawnee  . . . . . . . . . . . July 2, 1855
+
+Robinson's speech at Lawrence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 4, 1855
+
+Convention at Lawrence, Kansas  . . . . . . . . . . .  August 14, 1855
+
+Convention at Big Springs, Kansas . . . . . . . . .  September 5, 1855
+
+Convention at Topeka, Kansas  . . . . . . . . . . . September 19, 1855
+
+Convention at Topeka, Kansas  . . . . . . . . . . . . October 23, 1855
+
+Popular vote on the Topeka constitution . . . . . .  December 15, 1855
+
+Robinson elected governor of Kansas . . . . . . . . .  January 5, 1856
+
+President's proclamation on Kansas  . . . . . . . .  February 11, 1856
+
+Kansas Free-state legislature meets . . . . . . . . . .  March 4, 1856
+
+Philadelphia convention of the "American party" . .  February 22, 1856
+
+Congressional committee begins sessions at Kansas City  April 14, 1856
+
+Sumner's speech on the "Crime against Kansas" . . . . May 19, 20, 1856
+
+The sack of Lawrence  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 21, 1856
+
+Brooks's attack on Sumner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 22, 1856
+
+Massacre at Dutch Henry's Crossing  . . . . . . . . . . . May 24, 1856
+
+Affair at Black Jack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 2, 1856
+
+Democratic national convention at Cincinnati  . . . . . . June 2, 1856
+
+Republican national convention at Philadelphia  . . . .  June 17, 1856
+
+Assault on Sheriff Jones  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  June 23, 1856
+
+House Committee reports on Kansas . . . . . . . . . . . . July 1, 1856
+
+Dispersal of Free-state legislature at Topeka . . . . . . July 4, 1856
+
+Oliver makes minority report on Kansas  . . . . . . . .  July 11, 1856
+
+Treaty at Lawrence  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  August 17, 1856
+
+Woodson's proclamation in Kansas  . . . . . . . . . .  August 25, 1856
+
+Destruction of Ossawattomie . . . . . . . . . . . . .  August 29, 1856
+
+Whig convention at Baltimore  . . . . . . . . . . . September 17, 1856
+
+Free-state legislature dispersed at Topeka  . . . . .  January 6, 1857
+
+Territorial legislature meets at Lecompton  . . . . . January 12, 1857
+
+Dred Scott decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  March 6, 1857
+
+Election of Lecompton constitutional convention . . . .  June 15, 1857
+
+Meeting of Free-state convention at Topeka  . . . . . .  July 15, 1857
+
+Convention at Lecompton, Kansas . . . . . . . . . .  September 7, 1857
+
+Free-state election in Kansas . . . . . . . . . . . .  October 5, 1857
+
+Convention at Lecompton, Kansas . . . . . . . . . . . October 19, 1857
+
+Mass-meeting at Lawrence, Kansas  . . . . . . . . . . December 2, 1857
+
+Kansas legislature meets at Lecompton . . . . . . . . December 7, 1857
+
+Pro-slavery vote on the Lecompton constitution  . .  December 21, 1857
+
+Free-state vote on the Lecompton constitution . . . .  January 4, 1858
+
+Buchanan's message on Kansas  . . . . . . . . . . . . February 2, 1858
+
+Commonwealth of Minnesota admitted  . . . . . . . . . . . May 11, 1858
+
+Vote in Kansas on the English bill propositions . . . . August 2, 1858
+
+Commonwealth of Oregon admitted . . . . . . . . . .  February 14, 1859
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+This bibliography must not be taken as containing the material used in
+the preparation of this volume, but as a list of good books
+recommended to the general reader, which treat of, or touch upon, the
+subjects considered. Only a few of the books in this list have been
+consulted by the author in the preparation of this work. As indicated
+in the preface, the author has endeavored, in all cases, to go back to
+original matter, which is usually disconnected and fragmentary, and
+practically inaccessible to the general reader.
+
+
+LIST OF TITLES
+
+_The alphabetical arrangement is, in most instances, based upon the
+names of authors or editors._
+
+Adams, C. F.: Railroads; their origin and problems. New York, 1878.
+
+Adams, H.: Life of Albert Gallatin. Philadelphia, 1879.
+
+Adams, H.: History of the United States. 9 vols. New York, 1889-91.
+
+Adams, H.: John Randolph. Boston, 1882.
+
+Adams, J. Q.: Memoirs; Comprising Parts of His Diary from 1795 to
+1848. 12 vols. Philadelphia, 1874-77.
+
+Alfriend, F. H.: Life of Jefferson Davis. Cincinnati, 1868.
+
+Baker, G. E. [Ed.]: Works of William H. Seward. 5 vols. New York,
+1853-54.
+
+Bancroft, H. H.: Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888. San Francisco,
+1889.
+
+Bancroft, H. H.: History of California. 7 vols. San Francisco,
+1884-90.
+
+Bancroft, H. H.: North Mexican States and Texas, 1531-1889. 2 vols.
+San Francisco, 1884.
+
+Bancroft. H. H.: Oregon, 1834-1888. 2 vols. San Francisco, 1886-88.
+
+Barrows, W.: Oregon: The Struggle for Possession. Boston, 1883.
+
+Benton, T. H.: Thirty Years' View; or, History of the Working of the
+American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850. 2 vols. New
+York, 1854-56.
+
+Birney, W.: James G. Birney and His Times. New York, 1890.
+
+Blaine, J. G.: Twenty Years of Congress (1860-80). 2 vols. Norwich,
+1884-86.
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+Bolles, A. S.: The Financial History of the United States. 3 vols. New
+York, 1879-86.
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+Bolles, A. S.: Industrial History of the United States. Norwich, 1878.
+
+Bourne, E. G.: History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837. New York, 1885.
+
+Bruce, H.: Life of General Houston. New York, 1891.
+
+Bryce, J.: The American Commonwealth. 2 vols. New York, 1895.
+
+Cairnes, J. E.: Slave Power: Its Character, Career, and Probable
+Designs. New York, 1862.
+
+Calhoun, J. C.: Works. 6 vols. New York, 1853-55.
+
+Carr, L.: Missouri, a Bone of Contention. Boston, 1888.
+
+Channing, E.: The United States of America, 1765-1865. New York, 1896.
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+Choate, R.: Works, with a Memoir by S. G. Brown. 2 vols. Boston, 1862.
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+Chase, L. B.: History of the Polk Administration. New York, 1850.
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+Cobb, T. R. R.: Historical Sketch of Slavery. Philadelphia, 1858.
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+Cobb, T. R. R.: Enquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United
+States. Philadelphia, 1858.
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+Colton, C. [Ed.]: Works of Henry Clay. 6 vols. New York, 1857.
+
+Colton, C.: Life and Times of Henry Clay. 2 vols. New York, 1846.
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+Colton, C. [Ed:]: Private Correspondence of Henry Clay. New York,
+1855.
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+Colton, C.: The Last Seven Years of the Life of Henry Clay. New York,
+1856.
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+Cooper, T.: Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy. Columbia,
+1826.
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+Curtis, G. T.: Constitutional History of the United States. 2 vols.
+New York, 1889, 1896.
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+Curtis, G. T.: Life of James Buchanan. 2 vols. New York, 1883.
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+Curtis, G. T.: Life of Daniel Webster. 2 vols. New York, 1870.
+
+Davis, J.: The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. 2 vols.
+New York, 1881.
+
+Davis, V. H.: Jefferson Davis, ex-President of the Confederate States.
+2 vols. New York, 1890.
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+Douglass, F.: Life and Times. Written by himself. Hartford, 1881.
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+Draper, J. W.: History of the American Civil War. 3 vols. New York,
+1867-70.
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+Dunbar, C. F.: Laws of the United States relating to currency, finance
+and banking from 1789 to 1891. Boston, 1893.
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+Fremont, J. C.: Memoirs of My Life. Chicago, 1887.
+
+Frothingham, O. B.: Gerrit Smith; A Biography. New York, 1879.
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+Frothingham, O. B.: Theodore Parker; A Biography. Boston, 1874.
+
+Gannett, H.: Boundaries of the United States, and of the several
+States and Territories. Washington, 1885.
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+Giddings, J. R.: Speeches In Congress. Boston, 1853.
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+Gillet, R. H.: Democracy in the United States. New York, 1868.
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+Gilman, D. C.: James Monroe in his Relation to the Public Service.
+Boston, 1883.
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+Greeley, H.: The American Conflict. 2 vols. Hartford, 1864-67.
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+Greeley, H.: Recollections of a Busy Life. New York, 1868.
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+Greeley, H.: History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension or
+Restriction in the United States. New York, 1856.
+
+Hall, B. F.: The Republican Party, 1796-1832. New York, 1856.
+
+Hammond, J. D.: The History of Political Parties in the State of New
+York. 4th edit. 2 vols. Cooperstown, 1846.
+
+Hay, J.: see Nicolay, J. G.
+
+Helper, H. R: Impending Crisis of the South, and how to meet it. New
+York, 1857.
+
+Hildreth, R.: The History of the United States. 6 vols. New York,
+1851-56.
+
+Holst, H. E. von: The Constitutional History of the United States. 8
+vols. Chicago, 1876-92.
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+Holst, H. E. von: John Brown. Boston, 1888.
+
+Holst, H. E. von: John C. Calhoun. Boston, 1882.
+
+Hurd, J. C.: Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States. 2 vols.
+Boston, 1858-62.
+
+Jay, W.: Miscellaneous writings on slavery. Boston, 1853.
+
+Jay, W.: Review of the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War.
+Boston, 1849.
+
+Jenkins, J. S.: History of Political Parties in the State of New York.
+Auburn, 1846.
+
+Jenkins, J. S.: Life of James K. Polk. Auburn, 1850.
+
+Johnson, O.: William Lloyd Garrison and his Times. Boston, 1880.
+
+Johnston, A.: History of American Politics. New York, 1880.
+
+Johnston, A. [Ed.]: Representative American Orations. 3 vols. New
+York, 1884.
+
+Julian, G. W.: Life of Joshua R. Giddings. Chicago, 1892.
+
+Kapp, F.: Die Sklaverei in den Vereinigten Staaten. Hamburg, 1861.
+
+Kinley, D.: History, Organization, and Influence of the Independent
+Treasury of the United States. New York, 1893.
+
+Knox, J. J.: United States Notes. New York, 1888.
+
+Lalor, J. J.: Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and
+of the Political History of the United States. 3 vols. Chicago,
+1881-84.
+
+Lodge, H. C.: Daniel Webster. Boston, 1883.
+
+Lyman, T.: Diplomacy of the United States. Boston, 1826.
+
+Mackenzie, W. L.: Life and Times of M. Van Buren. Boston, 1846.
+
+McLaughlin, A. C.: Lewis Cass. Boston, 1891.
+
+McCulloch, H.: Men and Measures of Half a Century. New York, 1888.
+
+Mallory, D.: Life and Speeches of Henry Clay. 2 vols. New York, 1843.
+
+May, S. J.: Memoirs: Consisting of Autobiography and Selections from
+his Diary and Correspondence. Boston, 1873.
+
+May, S. J.: Some Recollections of our Anti-Slavery Conflict. Boston,
+1869.
+
+Morse, J. T., Jr.: Abraham Lincoln. 2 vols. Boston, 1893.
+
+Morse, J. T., Jr.: John Quincy Adams. Boston, 1882.
+
+Nicolay, J. G. and Hay, J.: Abraham Lincoln: A History. 10 vols. New
+York, 1890.
+
+Nicolay, J. G. and Hay, J. [Eds.]: Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln.
+2 vols. New York, 1894.
+
+Nixon, O. W.: How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon. Chicago, 1895.
+
+Ormsby, R. McK.: History of the Whig Party. Boston, 1860.
+
+Parker, J.: Personal Liberty Laws. Boston, 1861.
+
+Parton, J.: General Jackson. New York, 1893.
+
+Parton, J.: Life of Andrew Jackson. 3 vols. Boston, 1883.
+
+Phillips, W.: Conquest of Kansas. Boston, 1856.
+
+Phillips, W.: Speeches, Lectures, and Letters. Boston, 1863.
+
+Pierce, E. L.: Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner. 4 vols. Boston,
+1893.
+
+Pike, J. S.: First Blows of the Civil War. New York, 1879.
+
+Pollard, E. A.: The Lost Cause. New York, 1868.
+
+Quincy, E.: Life of Josiah Quincy. Boston, 1867.
+
+Quincy, J.: Memoirs of the Life of John Quincy Adams. Boston, 1858.
+
+Redpath, J.: Public Life of Capt. John Brown. Boston, 1860.
+
+Rhodes, J. F.: History of the United States from the Compromise of
+1850. 3 vols. New York, 1893-95.
+
+Robinson, C.: The Kansas Conflict. New York, 1892.
+
+Robinson, S. T. L.: Kansas, Its Interior and its Exterior Life.
+Boston, 1856.
+
+Roosevelt, T.: Thomas Hart Benton. Boston, 1887.
+
+Royce, J.: California from the Conquest in 1846 to the Second
+Vigilance Committee in San Francisco. Boston, 1886.
+
+Schouler, J.: History of the United States Under the Constitution. 5
+vols. New York, 1893.
+
+Schurz, C.: Life of Henry Clay. 2 vols. Boston, 1887.
+
+Schuyler, E.: American Diplomacy. New York, 1886.
+
+Seward, W. H.: Autobiography, from 1801 to 1834, with a Memoir of His
+Life. New York, 1877.
+
+Seward, W. H.: Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams. Auburn,
+1849.
+
+Shepard, E. M.: Martin Van Buren. Boston, 1888.
+
+Smith, W. L. G.: Fifty Years of Public Life; the Life and Times of
+Lewis Cass. New York, 1856.
+
+Spring, L. W.: Kansas; the Prelude to the War for the Union. Boston,
+1885.
+
+Stanwood, E.: A History of Presidential Elections. Boston, 1892.
+
+Stephens, A. H.: A Constitutional View of the Late War between the
+States. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1868-70.
+
+Stickney, W. [Ed.]: Autobiography of Amos Kendall. Boston, 1872.
+
+Story, W. W.: Life and Letters of Joseph Story. 2 vols. Boston, 1851.
+
+Story, W. W. [Ed.]: Miscellaneous Writings of Joseph Story. Boston,
+1835.
+
+Strohm, I. [Ed.]: Speeches of Thomas Corwin. Dayton, 1859.
+
+Sumner, C.: Works. 15 vols. Boston, 1870-83.
+
+Sumner, W. G.: Andrew Jackson as a Public Man. Boston, 1882.
+
+Sumner, W. G.: History of American Currency. New York, 1884.
+
+Taussig, F. W.: State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff. Cambridge,
+1893.
+
+Taussig, F. W.: Tariff History of the United States, 1789-1888. New
+York, 1888.
+
+Thayer, E.: History of the Kansas Crusade. New York, 1889.
+
+Tyler, L. G.: Letters and Times of the Tylers. 2 vols. Richmond, 1884.
+
+Tyler, S.: Memoir of R. B. Taney. Baltimore, 1872.
+
+Van Buren, M.: Inquiry into the Origin and Growth of Political Parties
+in the United States. New York, 1867.
+
+Webster, D.: Works. 6 vols. Boston, 1851.
+
+Webster, F. [Ed.]: Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster. 2 vols.
+Boston, 1857.
+
+Williams, A. M.: Sam Houston and the War of Independence in Texas.
+Boston, 1893.
+
+Williams, E.: The Statesman's Manual. 4 vols. New York, 1849.
+
+Wilson, H.: History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in
+America. 3 vols. Boston, 1872-77.
+
+Wilson, W.: Division and Reunion, 1829-1889. New York, 1893.
+
+Wise, H. A.: Seven Decades of the Union. Philadelphia, 1876.
+
+Woodbury, L.: Writings, Political, Judicial, and Literary. 3 vols.
+Boston, 1852.
+
+Yoakum, H. K.: History of Texas, from its First Settlement in 1685, to
+its Annexation to the United States in 1846. 2 vols. New York, 1856.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+Material in the Appendices is not included in this Index.
+
+
+ABBOTT, J. B., leader of "Free-state" Company, 428
+
+Abolition, 242 _et seq._;
+  relation to Revolution of 1830, 244, 245;
+  its philosophy, 245;
+  the opposite theory, 245;
+  the true philosophy of history, 245, 246;
+  the beginning of abolition, 246 (_see_ Garrison, William Lloyd);
+  possible ways of attacking slavery, 248;
+  charges as to Southampton massacre, 249;
+  denials by abolitionist historians, 249;
+  abolitionist methods, 249, 250;
+  killing of Lovejoy, 250;
+  significance of abolition movement, 250, 251;
+  its growth, 251;
+  the moderates, 251;
+  petitions for abolition in District of Columbia, 251, 252;
+  position of Adams, 252, 253;
+  Quaker petition, 253;
+  position of Mason and Adams, 253;
+  more petitions, 253 (_see_ Petition, right of);
+  Dickson presents petitions, 254;
+  his controversy with Chinn, 254;
+  the Fairfield petitions, 254;
+  excitement begun by Slade's motion, 254;
+  Polk's ruling, 255;
+  action on Jackson's petitions, 255 _et seq._;
+  assumption as to ethical position, 265;
+  attitude of Calhoun and Rives, 267, 268;
+  the Vermont petition, 269;
+  the Calhoun resolutions, 269;
+  use of mails, 270 _et seq._ (_see_ Mail, United States);
+  significance of the contests over petitions and the mails, 274-277;
+  result of struggle over petitions, 296;
+  demands of Clay, 319;
+  criticism of Clay as to annexation, 320;
+  candidacy of Birney, 320;
+  position on Polk's first message, 324, 325;
+  as to war with Mexico, 330, 331;
+  attitude on Texan boundary, 355;
+  attitude to fugitive slave law of 1793, 355;
+  attitude to Clay's proposals, 357;
+  Webster's Seventh of March speech, 359;
+  effect of propaganda, 366;
+  nomination of Hale for presidency, 377;
+  the _National Era_ address, 389;
+  effect of the address, 400;
+  as to leaders of Emigrant Aid Company, 413;
+  relation of Kansas affairs to presidential nominee, 431;
+  point of view of the "Crime against Kansas," 439
+
+Abolitionists, _see_ Abolition
+
+Adams, John Quincy,
+  relation to Jackson, 34-36;
+  opinion of treaty with Spain, 36;
+  negotiations with Spain, 37, 38;
+  effect of Seminole War, 38;
+  declaration to Tuyl, 124, 125;
+  qualification as presidential candidate in 1824, 132-136;
+  electoral vote of 1824, 136, 137;
+  supported in House by Clay, 141;
+  the Kremer charge, 141;
+  elected president, 142;
+  offers State Department to Clay, 142, 143;
+  threats of opposition, 142, 143;
+  no proof of bargain with Clay, 143;
+  opposition to Administration organized, 144-146;
+  relation to Panama Congress, 148, 149;
+  nominates commissioners to the Congress, 149;
+  nomination confirmed, 150;
+  relation to Spain's colonies, 152, 153;
+  as to internal improvements, 155, 156;
+  message of December, 1826, 157;
+  appropriations approved for internal improvements, 169;
+  chairman of committee, 184;
+  reports tariff bill, 185;
+  bill passed, 186;
+  report on Bank, 191;
+  relation to Bank history, 192;
+  representations from Creek chiefs, 212;
+  orders Gaines to Georgia, 213;
+  controversy with Troup, 213, 214;
+  steps to carry out agreement of 1826, 214;
+  defiance of Georgia, 214;
+  submits matter to Congress, 215;
+  refers Cherokee affair to Jackson, 215, 216;
+  view of Indian titles, 217;
+  principles of administration reviewed by Supreme Court, 219;
+  relation to Cabinet intrigue against Jackson, 220;
+  as to authorship of Jacksonian principles, 240;
+  presents abolition petitions, 252;
+  his position on abolition, 252, 253;
+  prevents debate on abolition petitions, 253;
+  compared with Slade, 254;
+  opinion as to procedure on petitions, 256;
+  appeal for right of petition, 257;
+  presents petition on abolition, 258, 259;
+  his belief as to the right involved, 259;
+  effort at settlement, 260;
+  affair of February 6, 1837, 262;
+  address on annexation, 303
+
+"Address on the Relations of the States and Federal Government," 179
+
+"Address to the People of South Carolina," 179
+
+Admiralty jurisdiction, proposal to decrease that of federal courts,
+    109
+
+Africa, 41
+
+Alabama, Commonwealth of,
+  in process of creation, 62;
+  slavery allowed, 63;
+  Indian problem in Jackson's message of 1829, 216, 217;
+  Alabama letter of Clay, 319, 320;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  Buford's men in Kansas, 438
+
+Alamo atrocities, 293, 294
+
+Albany Regency, The, 133;
+  in election of 1824, 137
+
+Alien and Sedition Laws, 173
+
+Alleghanies, The, 116, 129, 139, 163, 193
+
+Ambrister, Robert C., 32, 36
+
+Amelia Island, 30, 31
+
+America for Americans, principle of, 418
+
+American Anti-Slavery Society, formed, 251
+
+American Board of Missions, sends out Whitman, 315
+
+American Society for Emancipation, 62
+
+"American System," The, 178, 189 (_see_ Clay, H.)
+
+Ampudia, Pedro de, demands Taylor's withdrawal, 329
+
+Anderson, Richard Clough, Jr.,
+  nominated commissioner to Panama Congress, 149;
+  nomination confirmed, 150
+
+Appalachicola River, The, 21, 22, 25, 26, 31
+
+Arbuthnot, Alexander, 32, 36
+
+Archer, William S.,
+  opposition to Texas treaty, 308, 309;
+  his doctrine adopted by Tyler, 309;
+  report on Texas resolution, 322, 323
+
+Arista, Mariana, notifies Taylor of beginning of hostilities, 329
+
+Arkansas, Commonwealth of,
+  admitted, 290;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Arkansas, Territory of, 88
+
+Arkansas River, the, 33
+
+Army of the United States,
+  legislation upon, 13, 14;
+  troops in Florida, 24 _et seq._ (_see_ Mexico, and Kansas, Territory
+    of);
+  as to South Carolina, 230
+
+Ashburton, Alexander Baring, first Baron, negotiations with Webster,
+    314
+
+Ashburton Treaty, 303
+
+Asia, California the road to, 332
+
+Astor, John Jacob, understanding with the Government, 313
+
+Astoria, founded, 312, 313
+
+Atchison, Missouri, place of publication of _Squatter Sovereign_, 411
+
+Atchison, David R.,
+  criticism of organization of Nebraska Territory, 382;
+  his record and influence, 412, 413;
+  on the Wakarusa, 429;
+  agrees with Robinson, 430;
+  causes Missourians to withdraw, 431;
+  repudiates the sacking of Lawrence, 438;
+  in command at Bull Creek, 445
+
+Austin, Moses, secures Texan grant from Mexico, 291
+
+Austin, Stephen Fuller, colonizes grant in Texas, 291
+
+Austria, in Holy Alliance, 123
+
+
+BADGER, GEORGE EDMUND,
+  contention as to Chase's amendment, 394;
+  offers amendment, 395
+
+Baldwin, John, claims site of Lawrence, 415
+
+Baltimore, Maryland,
+  petition for abolition, 252;
+  Hamlet case, 367;
+  conventions of 1852, 376
+
+Baltimore & Ohio railroad, system begun, 169
+
+Bank of the United States,
+  bill for its creation, 3;
+  Calhoun's argument, 4, 5, 6;
+  Clay's early view, 4;
+  Webster's objections, 6;
+  Clay's support, 6, 7;
+  modified bill passed by House, 7, 8;
+  attitude of Barbour, Bibb, Taylor, Wells, 8;
+  passed by Senate, 8;
+  bill of 1816 a Southern and national measure, 8, 14;
+  bank bill under comparison, 15, 16;
+  Jackson's message of 1829, 190;
+  later interpretations of Jackson's attack, 191, 192;
+  the troubles in New Hampshire, 191;
+  the opposition of principle, 192, 193;
+  origin of opposition to "money power," 193, 194;
+  origin of "State's rights" opposition to Bank, 194;
+  tax on branches in Ohio and Maryland, 194;
+  the results, 195;
+  relation to "relief party" in Kentucky, 195, 196;
+  Benton's attack, 196;
+  his resolution defeated, 196;
+  attitude of Benton, 197;
+  and of Jackson, 197, 198;
+  Bank supported by committees, 198;
+  Jackson's message of December, 1830, 198, 199;
+  relation of question to slavery, 198;
+  relation to politics, 198;
+  Jackson's second attack, 198, 199;
+  Benton's resolution of 1831, 199, 200;
+  Jackson's message of 1831, 200;
+  the Bank question before the people, 200, 201;
+  advice of Clay and Webster, 201;
+  petition for re-charter, 201;
+  relation of Bank question to question of Jackson's election, 201;
+  action by the Senate, 201, 202;
+  Clayton committee report in House, 202;
+  McDuffie's report on Bank, 202;
+  House passes the Senate bill, 202;
+  veto by Jackson, 202;
+  analysis of his message, 202-206;
+  interpretation of the message, 206-209;
+  the principles of Jackson ratified by the people, 209;
+  effect on Jackson's views of election on Bank issue, 279;
+  control of deposits, 279;
+  removal of McLane and Duane, 280;
+  deposits suspended by Taney, 280;
+  Taney's contention, 280, 281;
+  Senate's resolutions of censure, 281;
+  attitude of Benton, 281;
+  Jackson successful in all points, 282;
+  result of removal of deposits, 283;
+  enforcement and effect of Act of June 23, 283, 284;
+  Bank bills vetoed by Tyler, 286
+
+Barbour, James,
+  supports bank bill, 8;
+  proposes union of Maine and Missouri bills, 82;
+  position on Maine-Missouri bill, 83;
+  on conference committee, 88;
+  letter to Troup, 212, 213;
+  controversy with Troup, 213
+
+Barbour, Philip Pendleton,
+  in Missouri bill debate, 70;
+  opposes tariff bill of 1824, 113, 114
+
+Beaufort, South Carolina, instructions to collector, 230
+
+Beecher, Henry Ward, opposes fugitive slave law, 368
+
+Behring's Strait, 123
+
+Belgium, recognizes Texan independence, 304
+
+Bell, John,
+  report on President's powers, 235;
+  proposition as to California and New Mexico, 359;
+  its reference, 359, 360;
+  on Committee of Thirteen, 360;
+  attitude to Kansas-Nebraska bill and to Douglas's amendment, 393;
+  speech against the bill, 396, 397;
+  vote on the bill, 399
+
+Bell, P. H., extends jurisdiction of Texas, 362, 363
+
+Benton, Thomas Hart,
+  attacks the Bank, 196;
+  resolution defeated, 196;
+  becomes Jackson's lieutenant, 197;
+  resolution against the Bank, 199;
+  his resolution not accepted, 200;
+  attack on practices of Bank, 201;
+  opinion on use of Government deposits by the Bank, 205;
+  defends Jackson against censure of Senate, 281;
+  criticism of Texas treaty, 308;
+  changes vote, 347;
+  opposition to Foote's motion, 360;
+  offers to cudgel Foote, 360
+
+Berrien, John McPherson,
+  opinion of Indian agreement of 1826, 214;
+  report on Calhoun's proposition, 349, 350;
+  views on slavery in Mexican acquisition, 351, 352;
+  on Committee of Thirteen, 360
+
+Bibb, William Wyatt, supports bank bill, 8
+
+Biddle, Nicholas,
+  beginning of bank trouble, 191;
+  management of bank, 195
+
+Birney, James G., effect of Clay's Alabama letter, 320
+
+Bishop of London, 44
+
+Black Jack, Brown captures Pate at, 441
+
+Blair, Montgomery, letter to Welles on Seward, 387, 388
+
+Blood, James,
+  at Kansas City, and at site of Lawrence, 414;
+  in "Free-State" directory, 443
+
+Bloomfield, Joseph, voting, 73
+
+Blow, Taylor, connection with Dred Scott case, 452
+
+"Blue Lodges," in Missouri, 419
+
+Body of Liberties, Massachusetts, 41
+
+Bonaparte, Napoleon,
+  relation to slavery in Louisiana, 54, 55;
+  commercial system, 123;
+  relation to Holy Alliance, 123
+
+Boon, Ratliff, in House proceedings, 254
+
+Boston, Massachusetts,
+  beginning of Abolition, 246;
+  meetings on fugitive slave law, 367;
+  the Crafts case, 368;
+  the Shadrach case, 370;
+  the Sims case, 372, 373;
+  Kansas emigrants departing, 414
+
+Boston and Albany railroad, survey begun, 169
+
+Branscomb, Charles H.,
+  goes to Kansas, 413, 414;
+  at the site of Lawrence, 414;
+  buys claim of Stearns, 415
+
+Branson, Jacob,
+  threatens Buckley, 428;
+  arrested by Sheriff Jones, 428;
+  rescued by "Free-state" men, 428, 429;
+  charges as to the rescue, 429;
+  effort to arrest participants in rescue, 433
+
+Bright, Jesse D.,
+  motion as to Territorial governments, 346;
+  on Committee of Thirteen, 360
+
+Brooks, Preston Smith,
+  assault upon Sumner, 439, 440;
+  effect of assault modified by Pottawattomie massacre, 442
+
+Brown _vs._ Maryland [12 Wheaton, 419], 195, 198
+
+Brown, John,
+  appears at Lawrence, 431;
+  the Pottawattomie massacre, 440;
+  the massacre characterized, 441;
+  captures Pate at Black Jack, 441;
+  dispersal of the gang and disappearance of Brown, 442;
+  effect of massacre, 442;
+  his work characterized, 473, 474
+
+Brown, Mary, arrest of Hamlet, 367
+
+Brown, R. P.,
+  organizes company of "Free-state" men, 426;
+  captured and murdered, 426
+
+Buchanan, James,
+  position upon tariff bill of 1827, 158, 159;
+  attitude to fugitive slave law, 368;
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 376;
+  the Ostend manifesto, 408;
+  relation of his election to events in Kansas, 447;
+  inaugural address quoted, 447;
+  charge as to improper official conduct, 458;
+  appoints Walker and Stanton to office in Kansas, 461;
+  special message of February 2, 1858, 469
+
+Buckley, ----, secures peace warrant against Branson, 428
+
+Buenos Ayres, 30
+
+Buffalo, New York, Free-soil convention, 347
+
+Buford, Jefferson, repudiates sacking of Lawrence, 438
+
+Bull Creek, Kansas,
+  Missourians encamped on, 445;
+  skirmish at, 445
+
+Burrill, James, Jr., position on Maine-Missouri bill, 83
+
+Burt, Armistead, moves amendment to Douglas's bill, 341
+
+Bushnell, Horace, member of Emigrant Aid Society, 409
+
+Bustamente, Anastasio, decree on immigration, 291
+
+Butler, Andrew Pickens,
+  contention as to fugitive slave law, 371;
+  minority report on president's powers, 372;
+  in debate on Foote's resolutions, 374;
+  attacked by Sumner, 439
+
+
+CABOT, SAMUEL, member of Emigrant Aid Society, 409
+
+Calhoun, John Caldwell, 2;
+  committee service, 3;
+  argument for the bank, 4-6;
+  chief author of bank bill, 8;
+  speech on tariff bill, 10-12;
+  on internal improvements, 14-16;
+  views rejected by Madison, 17;
+  relation to Jackson, 34, 35;
+  effect of Seminole War, 38;
+  as to relation between protection and slavery, 109;
+  bill for internal improvements vetoed, 1817, 116, 117;
+  qualifications as presidential candidate in 1824, 133, 134;
+  as to vice-presidency, 138;
+  elected vice-president, 142, 143;
+  relation to administration, 143;
+  relation to Adams's administration, 144, 146;
+  elected vice-president, 163, 164;
+  political scientist of slavery, 173;
+  publishes "South Carolina Exposition," "Address on Relation of
+    States and Federal Government," and "Address to the People of
+    South Carolina," 179;
+  his argument, 180, 181;
+  his doctrine of nullification, 189;
+  relation to Jackson and Seminole War, 220;
+  the Forsyth letter, 220;
+  hostility of Jackson and Calhoun, 220, 221;
+  his letter to Governor Hamilton, 221;
+  his theory of nullification reproduced, 223;
+  resigns vice-presidency and becomes Senator, 224;
+  opinion on the position of South Carolina, 226, 227;
+  statement in Senate as to South Carolina's acts, 232, 233;
+  opinion of the "Force Bill," 234;
+  attitude to Clay's compromise tariff, 236;
+  attitude to the Wilkins "Force Bill," 236;
+  argument answered by Webster, 237;
+  attitude to Clay's bill, 237;
+  motive in course on nullification, 238;
+  restatement of Jefferson's principles, 239;
+  opinion of slavery cited, 253;
+  antedated by Hammond, 255;
+  contention as to petitions, 264;
+  view of slavery, 265-268;
+  resolutions of December 27, 1837, 269;
+  fallacy of his position, 270;
+  makes committee report, with bills, on use of mails, 273, 274;
+  his plan defeated, 274;
+  views on recognition of Texas, 295, 296;
+  view on annexation of Texas, 301;
+  his views expressed by Wise, 302;
+  again Secretary of State, 307;
+  notifies Texas of proposal to move forces, 307;
+  view of constitutional position of Texas, 308;
+  adopts idea of Archer as to annexation, 309;
+  views as to method of annexation, 321;
+  characterization of his views on annexation, 323, 324;
+  attitude to Mexican War, 330;
+  views as to slavery in Territories, 344, 345;
+  his last speech, 358;
+  his death, 360;
+  views on fugitive slave laws, 367
+
+California,
+  as to Congress of Verona, 124;
+  occupied by Kearny, 332;
+  importance of its occupation, 332;
+  importance of Buena Vista, 333;
+  about to be transferred, 334;
+  acquisition in view, 337;
+  in negotiations, 337 (_see_ Upper California);
+  Polk's message of July 6, 1848, 345, 346;
+  motions of Bright and Clayton, 346;
+  the Clayton bill, 346, 347;
+  Polk's message of December, 1848, 348;
+  gold and silver discoveries, 348;
+  Douglas's bill, 349;
+  Smith's bill, 349;
+  Berrien's report, 349, 350;
+  new bill by Douglas, 350;
+  motion by Walker, 350, 351;
+  proceedings in Congress, 351;
+  views of Berrien and Webster, 351, 352;
+  failure of Congress to act, 352;
+  effect of discoveries, 352, 353;
+  plan of Taylor, 353;
+  the Monterey Convention, 353;
+  Taylor's message of December 4, 1849, 353, 354;
+  Foote's bill, 354;
+  Clay's plan, 355, 356;
+  objections of Southerners, 356;
+  attitude of abolitionists, 357;
+  application for admission, 357;
+  consideration begun, 357, 358;
+  Calhoun's last speech, 358;
+  Webster's Seventh of March speech, 359;
+  Bell's proposition, 359;
+  report of Committee on Territories, 360;
+  Committee of Thirteen, 360;
+  Clay's report, 360-362;
+  passage of bill for admission, 363, 364;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  Robinson in, 413;
+  Sutter land troubles, 413;
+  Robinson's experience in, applied to Kansas, 421, 422
+
+Cambreleng, Churchill C., opposes tariff bill of 1824, 113
+
+Canada, 21, 370, 374
+
+Canning, George,
+  proposal to Rush, 125;
+  declaration to Polignac, 125
+
+Cape Breton, 21
+
+Capulets, tomb of the, 351
+
+Cass, Lewis,
+  opposes Upham's amendment, 336;
+  views on relation of slavery and Mexican War, 338;
+  Presidential nominee, 345;
+  letter to Nicholson, 345;
+  on Committee of Thirteen, 360;
+  attitude to fugitive slave law, 368;
+  candidate for Presidential nomination, 376;
+  attitude to Chase and Douglas, 392
+
+Castle Pinckney,
+  becomes seat of custom-house for Charleston district, 230;
+  Congress notified of change, 232
+
+Catron, John, opinion on Dred Scott case, 453
+
+Cerro Gordo, battle of, 333
+
+Channing, William Ellery, opposition to fugitive slave law, 373
+
+Chapultepec, battle of, 338
+
+Charleston, South Carolina,
+  Government in control of anti-nullifiers, 181;
+  nullifiers elect mayor, 182;
+  test of tariff law, 182;
+  Scott ordered to, 230;
+  instructions to collectors, 230;
+  removal of custom-house, 230;
+  Congress notified, 232;
+  post-office robbed, 271;
+  committee of public safety elected, 271;
+  postmaster communicates with New York postmaster, 271;
+  the position of Postmaster-General Kendall, 271, 272
+
+Chase, Salmon Portland,
+  contention as to fugitive slave law, 371;
+  signs _National Era_ address, 389;
+  moves amendment to Kansas-Nebraska bill, 391;
+  speech in Senate, 391;
+  proposes further amendment, 394;
+  contention with Pratt, 394, 395;
+  proposes third amendment, 395, 396;
+  proposes fourth amendment, 396;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  effect of _National Era_ address, 400
+
+Chattahoochee River, the, 211, 214
+
+Cheever, George Burrell, opposes fugitive slave law, 368
+
+Cherokee Nation _vs._ Georgia [5 Peters, 1], 218
+
+Cherokees,
+  brought under criminal jurisdiction of Georgia, 215;
+  appeal to President, 215, 216;
+  Jackson's reply, 216;
+  Cherokees refuse offers for cession of claims, 216;
+  the question in Jackson's message of 1829, 216, 217;
+  different views of Indian land titles, 217, 218;
+  Cherokee lands incorporated by Commonwealth of Georgia, 218;
+  the Cherokee nation case, 218;
+  the case of Worcester against Georgia, 218, 219
+
+Cherubusco, battle of, 334
+
+Cheves, Langdon, management of bank, 195
+
+Chihuahua, captured by Doniphan, 332
+
+Chili, treaty of 1823 with Columbia, 147
+
+Chillicothe, O., bank trouble, 195
+
+Chinn, Joseph W., resents Dickson's attack, 254
+
+Choate, Rufus, attitude to fugitive slave law, 368
+
+Christian baptism, relation to slavery, 44
+
+Clark, George Rogers, sent out by Jefferson, 312
+
+Clay, Henry,
+  views on the bank in 1812, 4;
+  Speaker of House, 6;
+  support of bank bill, 6, 7;
+  on tariff bill, 10;
+  relation to Jackson, 34, 35;
+  opinion of treaty with Spain, 36, 38;
+  suggests union of Maine and Missouri bills, 77;
+  plan of Clay, 100;
+  report of Committee of Thirteen, 100, 101;
+  first plan defeated, 101;
+  conference committee and its report on Missouri, 101, 102;
+  plan accepted, 102, 103;
+  supports tariff bill of 1824, 112, 113;
+  opposed by Barbour, Cambreleng and Webster, 113, 114;
+  efforts with reference to "Monroe Doctrine," 128;
+  qualifications as presidential candidate in 1824, 134-136;
+  electoral vote of 1824, 137;
+  in control of situation, 140, 141;
+  supports Adams, 141;
+  the Kremer charge, 141;
+  offer of secretaryship of state, 142, 143;
+  opposition threatened, 142, 143;
+  Clay accepts office, 143;
+  no proof of corruption, 143;
+  opposition in Senate to his appointment, 144;
+  approached by ministers of Mexico and Columbia, 147;
+  negotiations, 148, 149;
+  negotiations with Czar of Russia and with Spanish-American colonies,
+    152, 153;
+  his "American System" anticipated by Jackson, 172;
+  resolution on tariff, 186;
+  speech on the "American System," 187;
+  bill reported and tabled, 188;
+  his ideas used, 188;
+  nominated for presidency in 1831, 201;
+  advice to Bank party, 201;
+  proposes compromise tariff, 235;
+  his purposes, 235, 236;
+  attitude of Calhoun, 236;
+  his bill amended and passed by both Houses, 237, 238;
+  signed by President, 238;
+  motive in course on nullification, 238;
+  opinion of Jacksonian principles, 240;
+  criticises Calhoun's bill as to use of mails, 274;
+  his followers called Whigs, 282;
+  dropped by Whigs, 286;
+  reports resolution on Texas, 295;
+  nominated for presidency, 309;
+  election an apparent certainty, 319;
+  demands of abolitionists, 319;
+  the _National Intelligencer_ letter, 319, 320;
+  effect of the Alabama letter, 320;
+  presidential election of 1844, 320;
+  the Alabama letter, 329;
+  plan as to California, New Mexico and Texas, 355, 356;
+  objections of Southerners, 356, 357;
+  agrees to Douglas's motion, 357;
+  relations with Foote, 357, 358;
+  debate on Clay's resolutions, 358, 359;
+  their reference, 360;
+  chairman of Committee of Thirteen, 360;
+  Clay's report, 360-362;
+  results of debates, 362;
+  passage of bills separately, 363, 364;
+  attitude to fugitive slave law, 368;
+  motion on Shadrach case, 370;
+  motion on President's message, 371;
+  death, 377
+
+Clayton, John Middleton,
+  secures appointment of committee on Bank, 202;
+  makes committee report against Bank, 202;
+  motion as to Territorial government, 346;
+  reports bill, 346, 347;
+  not voting on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 398, 399
+
+Clemens, Jeremiah, in debate on Foote's resolutions, 374, 375
+
+Clinton, DeWitt, qualifications as presidential candidate in 1824, 132
+
+Coahuila-Texas,
+  a province and Commonwealth of Mexico, 291;
+  local government, 291;
+  resistance to Santa Anna, 292;
+  Texans in control, 292, 293;
+  war begun by Mexicans, 293;
+  declaration of independence, 293. _See_ Texas
+
+Cobb, Thomas A., relation to Jackson, 34, 35
+
+Coleman, L. H., letter from Jackson, 138
+
+Coleman, F. N., murders Dow, 428
+
+Columbia, treaties with Chili, Mexico, Peru, and Central America, 147
+
+Colorado River, 291
+
+Columbia, South Carolina, convention of 1827, 159, 160
+
+Columbia River, 123;
+  sources discovered, 312, 314, 316, 318, 324, 325
+
+Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives, 185
+
+Committee on District of Columbia of House of Representatives, 252,
+    253, 254, 257
+
+Committee on the District of Columbia of the Senate, 253
+
+Committee on Finance of the Senate, 198, 199
+
+Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, 321
+
+Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, 150, 295, 308, 322
+
+Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, 232, 235,
+    369
+
+Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, 82, 83, 84, 87, 232, 233,
+    341, 343, 349, 363, 371, 372
+
+Committee on Manufactures of the House of Representatives, 110, 112,
+    158, 160, 172, 174, 175, 184, 185
+
+Committee on Manufactures of the Senate, 188
+
+Committee on Territories of the House of Representatives, 340, 382,
+    400, 401
+
+Committee on Territories of the Senate, 349, 363, 382, 401
+
+Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, 9, 10,
+    110, 172, 174, 185, 198, 231, 351
+
+Compromise Measures of 1850,
+  in Fillmore's message, 368, 369;
+  in Fillmore's message of December 2, 1851, 374;
+  memorials on finality, 375;
+  Democratic platform of 1852, 376;
+  Whig platform of 1852, 376;
+  unity of Whig party imperilled, 376, 377;
+  effect of election of 1852, 377;
+  situation in December, 1852, 381;
+  the Howe-Giddings colloquy, 381, 382;
+  interpretation of the compromise, 382;
+  the Douglas report on Nebraska, 383-387;
+  dictum of the committee, 387;
+  claim of Dixon, 388;
+  as to Kansas-Nebraska bill, 389;
+  dictum of Douglas, 390;
+  the amendment of Chase, 391;
+  the amendment of Douglas, 392;
+  views of Everett, 392, 393 (_see_ Kansas, Territory of, and
+    Nebraska, Territory of);
+  effect of acquiescence, 403
+
+Concord, New Hampshire, 191
+
+Confederation of Spanish-American States,
+  plan initiated, 147;
+  proposed congress and relations of United States, 147 _et seq._
+
+Congress of the Confederation,
+  lack of power over slavery, 48;
+  passed Ordinance of 1787, 48;
+  power in the case, 49
+
+Congress, Continental, forbids importation of slaves, 48
+
+Congress of the United States,
+  Acts of the Fourteenth, 1, 2;
+  Congress of 1801 and 1815, 3;
+  power over Bank, 4, 5;
+  early action on tariff, 8;
+  meeting in December, 1815, 9;
+  vote as to tariff, 9;
+  acts of the Fourteenth, 12-14;
+  discussion of its powers by Calhoun, 13, 14;
+  powers discussed by Monroe, 15;
+  pay of members, 16;
+  passage of internal improvements bill, 16;
+  acts as to Florida, 24, 25;
+  acts of 1811 as to Florida, 30;
+  limitation as to slavery, 50;
+  abolition of slave trade, 51;
+  division of Louisiana territory, 55, 56;
+  power over Territories, 63;
+  power to erect Commonwealths, 64;
+  attitude to slavery, 65;
+  debate on powers of Congress, 67 _et seq._;
+  annals of, 74;
+  powers discussed by Taylor, 79, 80, and by Holmes, 80, 81, and by
+    McLane, 81, 82;
+  Pinckney's argument on powers of, 84-87;
+  conference committee on Missouri, 88, 89;
+  interpretation of Act of Congress, 89;
+  significance of the Compromise, 90-95;
+  powers considered by Lowndes, 96;
+  Sergeant on power of creating Commonwealths, 96, 97;
+  course of Congress considered, 97, 98;
+  oath of members, 98;
+  second conference committee on Missouri, 101-103;
+  significance of the compromise, 104;
+  doctrine of its control of commerce, 110;
+  conference committee on tariff, 114, 115;
+  early practice as to internal improvements, 116, 117;
+  vote on internal improvements bill of 1822, 118;
+  Monroe on the powers of, 120, 121;
+  power over expenditures, 121;
+  act of April 30, 1824, 122;
+  inaction upon "Monroe Doctrine," 128;
+  Calhoun a member of, 133;
+  joint session for count of electoral votes, 141, 142;
+  as to power over roads, 155;
+  Act of April 30, 1824, 155, 156;
+  memorials to, 158;
+  attitude of South Carolina to, 159 _et seq._;
+  passes Maysville Road bill, 167;
+  appropriations for internal improvements, 169;
+  as to powers of, 170;
+  attitude to tariff, 178;
+  Calhoun's attitude to, 179;
+  control of courts by, 180;
+  President's message before, 184;
+  conference committee on tariff, 188;
+  attitude to the planters, 189;
+  decision on Bank Act of, 195;
+  relation to President as to legislation, 206, 207;
+  as a nominating body, 208;
+  failure to override Jackson's veto, 209;
+  inaction as to Indian problem, 215;
+  Jackson's message to, 216;
+  ten years' struggle of South in, 221;
+  its acts nullified, 222;
+  Jackson's messages on South Carolina, 231, 232;
+  abolition petitions to, 251, 252;
+  abolition petitions before, 253;
+  recommendations of Jackson, 272, 273;
+  argument as to power over mails, 273 _et seq._;
+  conflict with President over Bank, 279 _et seq._;
+  passage of Independent Treasury bill, 285, 286;
+  erection of new Commonwealths, 290;
+  President's message on Texas, 298;
+  action of Congress, 298-300;
+  effect of its action, 300;
+  address of certain Whig members, 303;
+  message of Tyler to, 305;
+  affairs of Texas, 306 _et seq._;
+  Tyler's message of December, 1844, 320, 321;
+  competency as to matters of treaty, 322;
+  Polk's message on Oregon, 324;
+  action as to Oregon, 325, 326;
+  power over Texan boundary, 328;
+  Act as to Corpus Christi, 329-331;
+  Polk's message on Mexican War, 330;
+  action on war, 331;
+  Polk's message to, August 8, 1846, 334;
+  consent to acquisition of California and New Mexico, 337;
+  Polk's message on Trist, 338;
+  as to attitude to Missouri Compromise, 341;
+  special message on Oregon, 344;
+  discussion of powers of, 344;
+  Cass on policy of, 345;
+  special message of July 6, 1848, to, 345, 346;
+  as to power in Territories, 347;
+  attitude to slavery, 348;
+  Taylor's message of December 4, 1849, 353, 354;
+  action on new Territories, 353 _et seq._;
+  Fillmore's message of August 6, 1850, 362;
+  completion of compromise measure, 363, 364;
+  Fillmore's message of December, 1850, 368;
+  petitions on fugitive slave law, 369;
+  Fillmore's message of December 2, 1851, 374;
+  Fillmore's message of December 6, 1852, 380;
+  action on organization of Kansas and Nebraska, 381 _et seq._;
+  Kansas election for delegate to, 416, 417;
+  Whitfield in, 418;
+  as to powers in Kansas, 422;
+  memorial from Kansas, 426;
+  Kansas question before, 432;
+  slavery question before, 433;
+  laws of, in Kansas, 464;
+  President's message of February 2, 1858, 469
+
+Connecticut, Commonwealth of, 13;
+  legislation on slavery, 48;
+  in election of 1824, 142;
+  resolution on independence of Texas, 290;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Constitution of the Confederation, 48;
+  relation to Ordinance of 1787, 48, 49
+
+Constitution of the United States of America, the,
+  as to Bank, 5;
+  as cited by Calhoun, 13;
+  as interpreted by Monroe, 17;
+  relative to parties, 17, 18;
+  slavery in, 49, 50;
+  interpreted with reference to national character of slavery, 59;
+  the control of slavery, 62, 65;
+  powers of Congress, 63, 64;
+  test of the Tallmadge amendment, 66 _et seq._;
+  Taylor as to powers of Congress, 79;
+  Holmes' speech, 80, 81;
+  McLane's argument, 81, 82;
+  limitations on new Commonwealths, 85;
+  as to restriction on Commonwealths, 89;
+  significance of the first Missouri Compromise, 90-95;
+  as cited by Lowndes, 97;
+  cited by Sergeant, 97;
+  extent of its protection, 98, 99;
+  second Missouri compromise, 102, 103;
+  significance of the compromise, 104, 106;
+  as to fourteenth amendment, 105;
+  Taylor's interpretation of, 119;
+  Monroe's interpretation of, 120, 121;
+  development of the particularistic interpretation, 122;
+  as construed by Adams, and Clay, 146;
+  as to international status of slavery, 151;
+  amendment proposed, 155;
+  reaction as to interpretation of, 156;
+  as interpreted by Buchanan, 159;
+  amendment suggested by Jackson, 167, 168;
+  as interpreted by Taylor, 168, 169;
+  as interpreted by McDuffie, 173, 174;
+  as interpreted by Calhoun, 178-181;
+  regard for processes of, 181;
+  as interpreted by Calhoun, 183;
+  as to origin of revenue bill, 188;
+  political science of, 192, 193;
+  decision as to constitutionality of Bank Act, 195;
+  as construed by Jackson, 199;
+  Jackson on operation of, 205, 206;
+  effect of his Bank veto, 207-209;
+  as cited by Jackson, 216, 217;
+  the Cherokee nation case, 218;
+  case of Worcester _vs._ Georgia, 218, 219;
+  powers conferred on President by, 220;
+  as interpreted in the Nullification Ordinance, 222;
+  as construed by the nullifiers, 227;
+  as interpreted in Jackson's proclamation, 229;
+  as expounded by Calhoun, 236;
+  as explained by Webster, 237;
+  effect of events of 1832 and 1833 on, 238-241;
+  as to control of civil status, 247, 248;
+  attitude of Garrison to, 248;
+  guarantees as to right of petition, 255, 256;
+  in Calhoun's argument, 273;
+  provision as to treaties, 305;
+  nature of war according to, 306;
+  as to treaty-making powers, 307, 308;
+  as to annexation of Texas, 321;
+  as to procedure on treaties, 324;
+  as interpreted by Rhett, 342;
+  as to Oregon bill, 343;
+  compromises of, 348;
+  as to extension of its effect, 350;
+  amendment suggested by Calhoun, 358;
+  Webster on the, 359;
+  effect of formation of, 366;
+  as to fugitive slaves, 366, 367;
+  as interpreted by Fillmore, 370;
+  as interpreted by Butler, 372;
+  as cited by Fillmore, 374;
+  in Douglas's report, 383, 392;
+  as viewed by Everett, 393;
+  in Chase's amendment, 394;
+  treason, as defined by, 427;
+  the Dred Scott case, 449 _et seq._
+
+Continental Congress. _See_ Congress, Continental
+
+Contreras, battle of, 334
+
+Convention, Federal Constitutional, of 1787, attitude to slavery, 49,
+    50
+
+Convention. _See_ Treaty
+
+Conway, M. F., letter to Governor Reeder, 424
+
+Cooke, P. St. George,
+  ordered to attack Topeka, 445;
+  refuses to obey, 445
+
+Cooper, James,
+  on committee of Thirteen, 360;
+  not voting on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 398
+
+Cooper, Thomas,
+  speech at Columbia, 159;
+  his life and views, 173;
+  his relation to slavery and to McDuffie, 173
+
+Corpus Christi,
+  made port of delivery, 329;
+  advance of Taylor, 329
+
+Cos, Martin Perfectos de,
+  attacks Gonzales, 293;
+  driven from Texas, 294
+
+Cotton,
+  relation to slavery, 52, 53;
+  exportation reduced, 54
+
+Crafts, Ellen, escape, 368
+
+Crafts, William, escape, 368
+
+Cramer, John, motion in House, 254
+
+Crane, A. C., statement as to Dred Scott case, 449, 450
+
+Crawford, William Harris,
+  relation to Jackson, 34, 35;
+  opinion of treaty with Spain, 36;
+  effect of Seminole War, 38;
+  qualifications as presidential candidate in 1824, 132, 133, 136,
+    141;
+  electoral vote of 1824, 137;
+  relation to Adams' administration, 144-146;
+  relation to Jackson and the Seminole War, 220
+
+Creeks, the, 26, 29;
+  Council of 1824, 212;
+  Indian Springs convention, 212;
+  its repudiation, 212;
+  resistance to Georgia, 212;
+  protest to general government, 212, 213;
+  controversy as to Creek lands, 213, 214;
+  new agreement of 1826 as to lands, 214;
+  agreement repudiated by Georgia, 214
+
+"Crime against Kansas," the, delivered, 439
+
+Cuba,
+  in the Spanish-American troubles, 152-154;
+  the Ostend manifesto, 408
+
+Cumberland Road,
+  built, 116;
+  bill of 1822, 118;
+  analysis of vote, 118, 119;
+  attitude of East and West, 119, 120
+
+Curtis, Benjamin Robbins, opinion on Dred Scott case, 454, 457, 458
+
+Curtis, George Ticknor,
+  attitude to fugitive slave law, 368;
+  in Shadrach case, 370;
+  connection with Sims case, 373
+
+Cushing, Caleb, relation to Kansas-Nebraska bill, 401
+
+Customs Act,
+  of 1789, 8;
+  of 1812, 9
+
+
+DAGGETT, DAVID, voting, 74
+
+Dallas, Alexander James,
+  presents Bank memorial, 201;
+  on Senate committee, 201;
+  reports Bank bill, 201
+
+Davis, Jefferson,
+  views as to slavery in Territories, 344, 345;
+  moves amendment to Oregon bill, 344;
+  effect of his action, 345;
+  attitude to Clay's proposal, 357;
+  views on fugitive slave law, 367;
+  contention as to fugitive slave law, 371;
+  relation to Kansas-Nebraska bill, 401, 402;
+  disapproves Col. Sumner's course, 443;
+  attitude to Kansas affairs, 472, 473
+
+De Bree, John, owner of Shadrach, 370
+
+Declaration of Independence, the, 70, 92, 94, 193, 229, 245
+
+Delaware, Commonwealth of, 8;
+  legislation on slavery, 48;
+  in election of 1828, 163;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Democratic party,
+  appearance, 38, 104;
+  principles, 104;
+  circumstances of its appearance, 146;
+  party nomenclature, 162, 163;
+  demands of 1828, 163;
+  the making of its creed, 165;
+  divisions of the party and policies of each, 165;
+  origin and influence, 193, 194;
+  radical development in Kentucky, 195, 196;
+  attack of western element upon privilege, 196;
+  Jackson becomes leader, 196, 197;
+  opposes Gordon's proposal as to independent treasury, 285;
+  supports Independent Treasury Bill of 1840, 285;
+  relation to the questions of slavery and territorial extension, 287,
+    288;
+  nominates Polk for presidency, 309;
+  the platform, 309, 316;
+  views of the union of Texas and Oregon in platform, 317;
+  Thompson's opinion, 317;
+  characterization the work of the Democrats, 317;
+  platform of 1844, 318;
+  attitude to Wilmot proviso, 338;
+  platform of 1848 as to slavery in Territories, 344, 345;
+  the Clayton committee, 346;
+  election of 1848, 348, 349;
+  convention of 1852, 376;
+  election of 1852, 377;
+  controversy on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 391;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  attitude of Pierce to New York factions, 402;
+  vote in House on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 404, 405;
+  meaning of the vote, 405, 406;
+  as to leaders of Emigrant Aid Company, 413;
+  effect of Kansas struggle, 417;
+  relation to rise of Republican party, 418;
+  Lane's effort at organization in Kansas, 423;
+  relation of Kansas affairs to national party organization, 430, 431;
+  effect on party prospects of sacking of Lawrence, 438;
+  as to effect of events in Kansas, 447;
+  effect of Dred Scott decision, 458;
+  plan as to Democracy in Kansas, 462
+
+Denver, John W.,
+  appointed Acting-Governor of Kansas Territory, 467;
+  his report to the President, 468, 469;
+  pockets bill for constitutional convention, 471
+
+Deseret, Foote's bill, 354
+
+Des Moines River, the, Falls of, 66
+
+De Witt, Alexander, signs _National Era_ address, 389
+
+Dickerson, Mahlon, reports tariff bill in Senate, 188
+
+Dickinson, Daniel Stevens, on Committee of Thirteen, 360
+
+Dickson, John,
+  presents abolition petitions, 254;
+  controversy with Chinn, 254
+
+District of Columbia,
+  adoption of Maryland laws, 51;
+  exclusive government vested in central Government, 247, 248;
+  petitions for abolition of slavery in, 251, 252;
+  report on slavery in District, 253;
+  disposal of Quaker petitions, 253;
+  more petitions in House, 254;
+  contest begins, 254;
+  petitions presented by Dickson and Fairfield, 254;
+  the Dickson-Chinn controversy, 254;
+  Slade's motion, 254;
+  Granger's intimation, 257;
+  the demand of Wise, 257, 258 (_see_ Petition, Right of);
+  Pinckney resolutions quoted, 261;
+  re-enacted, 262;
+  Vermont petition, 265, 269;
+  effort of Calhoun as to slavery in the District, 268;
+  recurrence of the slavery question, 355;
+  Clay's plan, 356;
+  attitude of Southerners, 357;
+  attitude of abolitionists, 357;
+  Clay's report, 362;
+  bill passed, 364.
+  _See_ Washington, D. C.
+
+Dixon, Archibald,
+  proposes amendment to Nebraska bill, 387;
+  Blair's letter on Dixon, 387, 388;
+  attitude of Douglas, 388
+
+Dodge, Augustus Caesar, introduces bill on Nebraska, 382
+
+Donaldson, J. B.,
+  proclamation as to resistance to service of writs, 435;
+  dealings with citizens of Lawrence, 436, 437;
+  appears with force before Lawrence, 437;
+  dismisses posse, 438;
+  the sacking of Lawrence, 438
+
+Doniphan, Alexander William, captures Chihuahua, 332
+
+Douglas, Stephen Arnold,
+  attitude to Wilmot proviso, 338;
+  presents bill on Oregon in House, 340, 341;
+  presents bill in Senate on Oregon, 343;
+  moves amendment, 347;
+  changes vote, 347;
+  reports bill, 349;
+  Berrien's adverse report, 349, 350;
+  new bill on Territories, 350;
+  motion as to California, 357;
+  attitude to fugitive slave law, 368;
+  candidate for presidential nomination, 376;
+  early plans for organization of territory west of the Mississippi,
+    381;
+  presents bill and report on Nebraska, 382, 383;
+  consideration of report and its author, 383-387;
+  attitude to Dixon, 388;
+  presents new bill on Nebraska and Kansas, 389;
+  _National Era_ address, 389, 390;
+  Douglas's reply, 390;
+  charged with conspiracy, 391;
+  his principle as to slavery in Territories, 391;
+  amendment to bill, 392;
+  vote on his amendment, 393;
+  debate on further amendments, 394-397;
+  proposes amendment, 395, 396;
+  final argument on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 397, 398;
+  substance of bill reported in House bill, 400;
+  Douglas's bill in House, 401, 403;
+  effect of Dred Scott decision on Douglas Democrats, 458;
+  opposition to Buchanan, 469, 470
+
+Douglas county, Kansas,
+  Sheriff Jones of, 428;
+  charge of Chief Justice Lecompte, 435;
+  indictment by Grand Jury, 435
+
+Dow, C. M., murdered by Coleman, 428
+
+Downs, Solomon W., on Committee of Thirteen, 360
+
+Drayton, William, relation to nullification, 181
+
+Dred Scott _vs._ Sandford [19 Howard, 293], 447, 449 _et seq._
+
+Duane, William John, removed from head of Treasury Department, 280
+
+Dutch Traders, at Jamestown, 40
+
+Dutch Henry's Crossing, massacre at, 440;
+  the massacre characterized, 441;
+  and denounced by settlers, 441;
+  effect of massacre, 442;
+  the work characterized, 473, 474
+
+
+EAST FLORIDA, 21
+
+Eaton, John Henry, as to Bank trouble, 192
+
+Easton, Kansas, election trouble at, 426
+
+Election, presidential,
+  of 1820, 129;
+  of 1824, 130-137;
+  in House of Representatives, 140-142;
+  of 1828, 163, 164;
+  of 1832, 189, 190 _et seq._;
+  of 1836, 283;
+  of 1840, 286;
+  of 1844, 320;
+  of 1848, 349;
+  of 1852, 377;
+  of 1856, relation to election of Whitfield in Kansas, 417;
+  indications as to election of 1856, 440;
+  of 1856, as related to affairs in Kansas, 446, 447
+
+Electoral Colleges, 50
+
+Ellis, Powhatan, ordered to make final demand on Mexican Government,
+    299
+
+El Paso, 361
+
+Emancipation, early schemes for, 243, 245
+
+Embargo, of 1807, 54
+
+Emerson, Dr.,
+  owner of Dred Scott, 450;
+  his will, 450
+
+Emerson, Irene,
+  owner of Dred Scott, 450;
+  sells him to Sandford, 451
+
+Emigrant Aid Company,
+  misrepresentations as to, 411;
+  conference with Robinson, 413;
+  excitement occasioned in Missouri, 413;
+  claims as to its purpose, 419;
+  indictment against hotel in Lawrence, 435
+
+England, 21, 45, 368
+
+English, William Hayden, bill on Kansas, 470, 471
+
+Erie Canal, 132
+
+Eustis, William, efforts for admission of Missouri, 100
+
+Everett, Edward,
+  reply to McDuffie, 176;
+  speech on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 392, 393;
+  not voting on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 398
+
+Ewing, Thomas, on Bank Committee of Senate, 201
+
+
+FAIRFIELD, JOHN, presents abolition petition, 254
+
+Federal Party, 12, 104;
+  extinction, 129;
+  its errors, 129;
+  effects of War of 1812, 130;
+  principles on which it lost power, 239
+
+Field, Roswell M., connection with Dred Scott case, 449, 452
+
+Fillmore, Millard,
+  becomes President, 360;
+  message on Texas, 360;
+  message of December, 1850, 368, 369;
+  opposition of Giddings, 369;
+  message on Shadrach case, 370, 371;
+  report on President's powers, 372;
+  message of December 2, 1851, 374;
+  contest in Whig Convention of 1852, 376;
+  message of December 6, 1852, 380, 381
+
+Fitchburg, Massachusetts, home of Charles Robinson, 413
+
+Flint River, 22
+
+Florida,
+  its acquisition, 19-38;
+  treaty of Florida Seminoles, 290;
+  constitution formed, 290;
+  admitted as Commonwealth, 290;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 390
+
+Floyd, John, message on Southampton massacre, 249
+
+Foote, Henry Stuart,
+  bill for Territories, 354;
+  criticises Clay, 357, 358;
+  motion on Bell's resolutions, 359;
+  accepts amendment, 360;
+  draws pistol on Benton, 360;
+  introduces finality resolutions, 374;
+  passed by House and rejected by Senate, 375
+
+"Force Bill," the. _See_ Wilkins, William
+
+Foreign affairs,
+  relation to party development, 122;
+  the Holy Alliance, 123-125;
+  the "Monroe Doctrine," 125-128;
+  significance of the diplomatic questions, 129;
+  success of Van Buren, 164.
+  _See_ Committee on Foreign Relations
+
+Forsyth, John,
+  letter as to intrigue against Jackson, 220;
+  letter from Morfit, 296, 297
+
+Fort Brown, attempt at relief, 329
+
+Fort Jackson, treaty of, 26, 29
+
+Fort Leavenworth,
+  Robinson at, 414;
+  arrival of Governor Reeder, 416;
+  Governor authorized to call troops from, 432;
+  Sumner returns to, 442
+
+Fort Monroe, transfer of artillery, 230
+
+Fort Moultrie, transfer of artillery, 230
+
+Fort Riley, Branscomb at, 414
+
+Fort Scott, 31
+
+Fort Titus, Kansas conflict at, 444
+
+Fowltown, destroyed, 28, 29
+
+France, 21, 22, 23, 24;
+  abolition of slavery, 54;
+  gets Louisiana territory, 54, 65;
+  in Holy Alliance, 123;
+  relation to Congress of Verona, 124;
+  boundary dispute with Spain, 290;
+  recognizes Texan independence, 304;
+  cedes Louisiana to United States, 312, 318, 395. _See_ Treaty
+
+Francis, Indian priest, 26
+
+Franklin, Kansas,
+  Jones goes to, 428;
+  Lane and Robinson accompany Shannon to, 430, 431;
+  as to treaty of August 17, 444
+
+Free-Soil party,
+  Buffalo convention of 1848, 347;
+  nomination and platform, 347, 348;
+  nomination of Hale, 377;
+  the _National Era_ address, 389;
+  its effect, 400;
+  vote in House on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 404, 405;
+  meaning of the vote, 405, 406;
+  appearance of Eli Thayer, 408, 409;
+  as to leaders of Emigrant Aid Company, 413;
+  effect of Kansas struggle, 417;
+  relation of Free-soil party to rise of Republican party, 418;
+  effect of Dred Scott decision, 458
+
+Fremont, John Charles, effect of events in Kansas on his candidacy in
+    1856, 447
+
+French Republic, the, 23
+
+Fugitive slave law,
+  passed by Congress, 51;
+  law of 1850, 363, 364 (_see also_ Slavery);
+  law of 1850 makes slavery a national matter, 366;
+  its further effect, 366, 367;
+  views of Calhoun, Davis, and Rhett, 367;
+  the Hamlet case, 367;
+  efforts at repeal of law, 367, 368;
+  the Crafts case, 368;
+  the "Underground" established, 368;
+  attitude of the lawyers, 368;
+  Fillmore's message of December, 1850, 368, 369;
+  Fillmore's message, 369;
+  motion of Giddings, 369;
+  petitions for repeal, 369, 370;
+  the Shadrach case, 370;
+  Fillmore's message, 370, 371;
+  debate on Clay's motion, 371;
+  report on powers of President, 371, 372;
+  the Sims case, 372, 373;
+  Boston meetings, 373;
+  leaders of opinion, 373;
+  the "Jerry rescue," 373, 374;
+  Fillmore's message of December 2, 1851, 374;
+  debate on Foote's finality resolutions, 374, 375;
+  the result, 375;
+  petitions for repeal, 375;
+  Whig convention of 1852, 376;
+  attack by Sumner, 377;
+  effect of election of 1852, 377;
+  various policies as to slavery, 377-379
+
+Fuller, Timothy, in Missouri bill debate, 68
+
+"Fundamentals," Massachusetts, 41
+
+Furness, William Henry, opposes fugitive slave law, 368
+
+
+GAINES, EDMUND PENDLETON,
+  in Florida, 28, 30, 31;
+  ordered to Georgia, 213;
+  authorized to advance into Texas, 298
+
+Garland, James, reply to Slade, 258
+
+Garrison, William Lloyd,
+  beginning of abolition, 246;
+  estimate, 246;
+  the constitutional situation, 246-248;
+  attack on the Constitution, 248;
+  publishes the _Liberator_, 251;
+  compared with moderates, 251;
+  opposition to fugitive slave law, 373
+
+Geary, John White,
+  appointed governor of Kansas with authority over troops, 446;
+  at Lecompton and Lawrence, 446;
+  enforces withdrawal of Missourians, 446, 447;
+  his resignation, 447
+
+Geography, relation to political development, 20
+
+Georgetown, South Carolina, instructions to collector, 230
+
+Georgia, Commonwealth of, 8, 26, 27, 28, 33;
+  slavery prohibited, 43;
+  conditional cession of western lands, 50, 56;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  stock held in United States Bank, 203;
+  nullification in Georgia, 210;
+  conditional cession of lands of 1802, 211;
+  the attempt to erect an Indian State, 211;
+  problem of land titles in Georgia, 211, 212;
+  legislature memorializes for quieting of Indian claims, 212;
+  the Indian Springs convention, 212;
+  its repudiation, 212;
+  the attempt to survey the lands, 212;
+  Barbour's letter to Troup, 212, 213;
+  quieting of Indian titles by agreement of 1826, 214;
+  Georgia repudiates the agreement, 214;
+  defiance of central Government, 214, 215;
+  President refers matter to Congress, 215;
+  Congress fails to act, 215;
+  legislature extends criminal jurisdiction over Cherokees, 215;
+  Jackson's opinion of Georgia's position, 216;
+  obstinacy of the Cherokees, 216;
+  the question in Jackson's message of 1829, 216, 217;
+  opinions of Indian titles, 217;
+  the solution in Georgia, 217, 218;
+  legislature incorporates Cherokee lands in the Commonwealth, 218;
+  the Cherokee Nation case, 218;
+  the case of Worcester against Georgia, 218, 219;
+  failure to execute decision, 219, 220;
+  convention in, 375;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  Jackson's Georgians in Kansas, 438
+
+Ghent, treaty of, 9, 26
+
+Giddings, Joshua Reed,
+  denounces Fillmore and Webster, 369;
+  colloquy with Howe, 381, 382
+
+Glascock, Thomas, attitude on procedure as to petitions, 259
+
+Goliad, atrocities, 293
+
+Gonzales, attacked, 293
+
+Gordon, William F.,
+  proposal as to independent treasury, 285;
+  relation of parties to its rejection, 285
+
+Gorham, Benjamin,
+  attitude to tariff bill of 1823, 111;
+  reply to McDuffie, 176
+
+Gorostiza, Manuel Eduardo de, leaves Washington, 299
+
+Granger, Francis, claim as to District of Columbia, 257
+
+Grasshopper Falls, Kansas, convention at, 464
+
+Great Britain,
+  treaty of 1763, 21, 23;
+  treaty of 1783, 22;
+  war of United States with, 24;
+  treaty of 1814, 26;
+  Nicholls's proposition to, 27;
+  Indian allies of, 29;
+  relations with United States as to slaves, 58, 59;
+  claims in North Pacific, 123;
+  relation to Holy Alliance, 123, 124;
+  proposal as to Holy Alliance, 125;
+  Canning's declaration, 125;
+  diplomatic relations, 287;
+  Ashburton Treaty, 303;
+  recognizes Texan independence, 304;
+  as mediator between Mexico and Texas, 304;
+  the London letter of British plans, 304;
+  claims to Oregon, 311;
+  Nootka Convention, 311, 312;
+  effect of war with Spain, 312;
+  Treaty of Utrecht, 312;
+  claim of United States, 312, 313;
+  treaty of 1818 with United States, 313;
+  effect of treaty of 1819 between United States and Spain, 313;
+  agreement of 1828 with United States, 314;
+  in Ashburton-Webster negotiations, 314;
+  ignorance as to Oregon, 314, 315;
+  the work of Whitman, 315, 316;
+  Democratic platform of 1844, 316;
+  negotiations as to Oregon, 321;
+  statement of negotiations in Polk's first message, 324;
+  his recommendations, 324;
+  action of Congress, April, 1846, 325, 326;
+  treaty of June, 1846, 326;
+  possibility of holding California, 332;
+  result of treaty with, 339;
+  United States minister to, 408
+
+Great lakes, 325
+
+Greeley, Horace, views on election of 1844, 320
+
+Grimke, Thomas Smith, relation to nullification, 181
+
+Grinnell, Moses H., member of Emigrant Aid Society, 409
+
+Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of,
+  terms, 336;
+  ratified by Senate, 339
+
+
+HALE, EDWARD EVERETT, member of Emigrant Aid Society, 409
+
+Hale, John Parker,
+  moves amendment to Oregon Bill, 344;
+  effect of his action, 345;
+  contention as to fugitive slave law, 371;
+  presents petitions for repeal of fugitive slave law, 375;
+  nominated for presidency, 377;
+  popular vote compared with Van Buren's in 1848, 377
+
+Hamilton, James,
+  the Calhoun letter, 221;
+  calls special meeting of legislature, 221;
+  chairman of nullification convention, 221;
+  sends ordinance of nullification to legislature, 224
+
+Hamlet, James, arrest, 367
+
+Hamlin, Hannibal, presents petition in Senate, 370
+
+Hammond, James Hamilton,
+  motion not to receive abolition petitions, 255;
+  wrangle over his two motions, 256
+
+Harrisburg, Penn., convention of 1824, 139
+
+Harrison, William Henry,
+  voting, 73;
+  nominated for presidency, 286;
+  succeeded, on his death, by Tyler, 286
+
+Harvey, James Madison, commands column of "Free-state" force, 445
+
+Hayne, Robert Young,
+  theory on tariff, 114;
+  view of slave labor, 161;
+  view repeated by McDuffie, 177;
+  Calhoun and the Webster debate, 179;
+  criticism of Clay's resolution on tariff, 187, and amendment of it,
+    188;
+  on Bank committee of Senate, 201;
+  his inaugural as governor of South Carolina, 224
+
+Hayti,
+  its affairs mentioned by Salazar, 151;
+  consideration of its example in the United States, 152;
+  isolated, 154
+
+Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, cited on human purpose, 243, 244
+
+Heister, William, presents abolition petition, 253
+
+Herrera, Jose Joaquin de,
+  refuses to receive Slidell, 328;
+  gives way to Paredes, 328
+
+Hill, Isaac, in Bank trouble, 191
+
+Hillards, the, in Crafts case, 368
+
+Hillis Hajo, 32
+
+Himallemico, 32
+
+Holmes, John,
+  voting, 73;
+  presents Maine petition for admission, 77;
+  reports bill, 77;
+  speech on Missouri, 80, 81;
+  on conference committee, 88
+
+Holy Alliance,
+  formation, 123;
+  relation to England, 124;
+  Congress of Verona, 124;
+  Canning's declaration to Polignac, 125;
+  the "Monroe Doctrine," 125-128;
+  relation to Spain's colonies, 153, 154
+
+Holst, Hermann Edouard von,
+  opinions reviewed, 27;
+  opinion of Jackson's veto message considered, 206, 207
+
+Holyoke, Massachusetts, residence of Branscomb, 413
+
+Home Government [of England], as to baptism of slaves, 44
+
+Hopkinson, Joseph, committee service, 3
+
+House of Representatives, of the United States,
+  action on Madison's message, 3;
+  Clay, Speaker of, 6;
+  passage of Bank bill, 7, 8;
+  reference of tariff matters, 9;
+  debate on tariff, 10-12;
+  passage of tariff bill, 12;
+  debate on internal improvements, 13, 14;
+  pay of members, 16;
+  passage of internal improvements bill, 18;
+  second passage of internal improvements bill, 18;
+  vote on censure of Jackson, 35, 36;
+  representation in, 63;
+  petitions from Missouri, 66;
+  debate on the Tallmadge amendment, 66 _et seq._;
+  passage of Tallmadge amendment and Missouri bill, 73;
+  disagreement with Senate, 74;
+  petition from Maine referred, 75;
+  Maine bill passed by House, 75;
+  Missouri bill and Taylor's amendment, 78-80;
+  Holmes's speech, 80, 81;
+  McLane's speech, 81, 82;
+  Pinkney's speech on powers of Congress, 84-87;
+  disagreement with Senate, 88;
+  conference committee, 88-89;
+  significance of the compromise, 90-95;
+  Missouri constitution considered, 95, 96;
+  report of Lowndes, 96;
+  speech of Sergeant, 96, 97;
+  consideration of the question, 97, 98;
+  defeat of the Lowndes bill, 99;
+  tables Senate bill, 99;
+  Clay's proposals, 100;
+  report of committee of thirteen, 100, 101;
+  defeat of the bill and amendment, 101;
+  second conference committee, 101, 103;
+  plan to limit membership, 109;
+  reference of Monroe's recommendations, 110;
+  tariff bill of 1823, 110, 111;
+  tariff bill of 1824, 112;
+  Clay's argument, 112, 113;
+  replies to Clay, 113, 114;
+  conclusion in conference committee, 114, 115;
+  early votes on internal improvements, 117;
+  vote on internal improvements bill of 1822, 117, 118, 119, 120;
+  Monroe's letter on internal improvements, 120, 121;
+  vote on vetoed bill, 121;
+  Clay, Speaker of, 134;
+  election of President in, 140-142;
+  memorials on tariff, 158;
+  tariff bill passed, 159;
+  tariff bill reported, 160;
+  vote on tariff bill, 162;
+  vote on vetoed Maysville road bill, 168;
+  question as to reference of President's message, 172-174;
+  tariff bill before House, 174, 175;
+  McDuffie's argument, 175, 176, 177;
+  reference of President's message, 184, 185;
+  tariff bill before, 185, 186;
+  tariff bill passed, 186;
+  refusal to concur with Senate, 188;
+  conference committee, 188;
+  report on the Bank, 198;
+  relation of members of constituencies, 200;
+  reports on Bank, 202;
+  bill for re-charter passed, 202;
+  Jackson on duty of members, 206;
+  early control of presidential elections, 208;
+  action on President's message, 231, 232;
+  bill reported on President's powers, 235;
+  claim as to origin of tariff bills, 236;
+  passage of tariff bill and "Force Bill," 237;
+  abolition petitions in, 252;
+  report on petitions, 253;
+  more petitions referred, 253;
+  action on Dickson's motion, 254;
+  conflict over right of petition, 254 _et seq._;
+  adoption of the Pinckney resolutions, 261;
+  further work of Adams and Slade, 262;
+  rule of January 8, 1840, 263;
+  Gordon's amendment in, 285;
+  resolutions as to recognition of Texan independence, 296;
+  contingent action as to Texan independence, 299, 300;
+  effect of action, 300;
+  Wise's speech in, 302;
+  Tyler's message on Texan treaty, 309;
+  action on annexation of Texas, 321, 322;
+  action on admission of Texas, 322;
+  concurrence with Senate's action on Texas, 323;
+  McKay's bill, 335;
+  the Wilmot proviso, 335, 336;
+  Oregon bill in, 341;
+  action on Oregon bills, 343;
+  rejects Clayton bill, 347;
+  final agreement with Senate, 347;
+  action on erection of California and New Mexico, 349 _et seq._;
+  completion of compromise measures, 363, 364;
+  action on President's message, 369;
+  passage of finality resolutions, 375;
+  action on organization of Kansas and Nebraska, 381 _et seq._;
+  contest for seat in, 432;
+  appointment of committee of investigation for Kansas affairs, 433;
+  memorials from Kansas, 433;
+  bill for admission of Kansas, 442, 443;
+  action on Kansas, 470.
+  _See_ Congress of the United States
+
+Houston, Samuel,
+  leader of Texans, 293;
+  Benton's description, 293, 294;
+  his early record, 294;
+  San Jacinto and the presidency of Texas, 294;
+  sends special envoy to Washington, 306;
+  promise of Murphy disavowed, 307;
+  changes vote, 347;
+  speech on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 393;
+  vote on Douglas's amendment, 393;
+  speech on the bill, 397;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Houston, S. D., withdraws from Kansas Territorial legislature, 421
+
+Howard, William A., on committee for Kansas investigation, 433
+
+Howe, John W., discussion with Giddings, 381, 382
+
+Hudson Bay Company,
+  agents in Oregon, 314;
+  relation to policy of Great Britain, 314;
+  representations as to Oregon, 314, 315
+
+Hunt, Memucan, proposes Texan annexation to Van Buren, 301
+
+Hutchinson, William, in "Free-state" directory of Kansas, 443
+
+
+IBERVILLE RIVER, the, 21, 22
+
+Illinois, Commonwealth of,
+  slavery forbidden, 62, 63;
+  condition on erection, 68, 69, 71;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  as to Dred Scott case, 450
+
+Independent treasury,
+  Van Buren's message of September 4, 1837, 284, 285;
+  Gordon's proposal, 285;
+  attitude of the parties, 285;
+  Act of July 4, 1840, 285;
+  party contest over the bill, 285, 286
+
+Indian Springs, Convention at, 212
+
+Indiana, Commonwealth of,
+  slavery forbidden, 62, 63;
+  condition on erection, 68, 69, 71;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Indiana, Territory of,
+  relation to slavery, 51;
+  jurisdiction over part of Louisiana Territory, 55
+
+Ingersoll, Joseph R.,
+  claim as to District of Columbia, 257;
+  reports joint resolution on Texas, 321
+
+Ingham, Samuel D.,
+  in debate, 10;
+  position upon tariff bill of 1827, 158;
+  as to Bank trouble, 191
+
+Internal improvements,
+  bill presented, 14;
+  Calhoun's speech, 15, 16;
+  bill passed, 16;
+  President's veto, 17;
+  Madison's earlier recommendations, 17;
+  failure to overcome veto, 18;
+  development in theory, 116-119;
+  the Act of 1806, 116;
+  Calhoun's bill of 1817 vetoed by Madison, 116, 117;
+  analysis of vote, 117, 118;
+  Cumberland road bill of 1822, 118;
+  analysis of vote, 118, 119;
+  Taylor's position, 119;
+  attitude of East and West, 119, 120;
+  Monroe's veto, 120, and message, 120, 121;
+  vote on vetoed bill, 121;
+  Act of April, 1824, 122;
+  relation to foreign affairs, 122;
+  significance of the questions, 129;
+  Adams's first message, 155;
+  Van Buren's opposition, 155;
+  relation to political divisions, 156;
+  practical difficulties, 156, 157;
+  Jackson's views in 1829, 167;
+  passage of Maysville road bill, 167;
+  the veto, 167, 168;
+  vote on vetoed bill, 168;
+  analysis of vote, 168;
+  significance of veto, 169;
+  appropriations approved by Adams and Jackson, 169;
+  relation to private enterprise, 169, 170;
+  relation to slavery, 170;
+  Jackson's message of December, 1830, 178;
+  Jackson's message of December, 1831, 184
+
+Iowa, Commonwealth of,
+  admitted, 290;
+  memorial of legislature on finality resolutions, 375;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+
+JACKSON, ANDREW,
+  in Florida, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33;
+  attempt at censure, 34, 35, 36;
+  vindicated, 36;
+  Territorial governor of Florida, 38;
+  effect of Seminole War, 38;
+  qualifications as presidential candidate in 1824, 135, 136, 139,
+    141;
+  electoral vote of 1824, 136, 137;
+  the Coleman letter, 138;
+  opposition to Adams threatened, 142, 143, and begun, 144, 146;
+  elected President, 163, 164;
+  makes Van Buren secretary of state, 164;
+  vigorous foreign policy, 164;
+  first annual message, 166, 167;
+  vetoes Maysville road bill, 167, 168;
+  significance of the veto, 169;
+  appropriations approved by Adams and Jackson, 169;
+  message of December, 1829, as to tariff, 171, 172;
+  its reference, 172;
+  message of December, 1830, 178;
+  message of December, 1831, 184;
+  message of December, 1829, 190;
+  later interpretations of his attack on Bank, 191, 192;
+  relation to "relief party" in Kentucky, 196;
+  leader of Democratic party, 196, 197;
+  attitude to Bank, 197, 198;
+  his views opposed by committees, 198;
+  message of December, 1830, 198, 199;
+  his message of December, 1831, 200;
+  puts the Bank question before the people, 200;
+  relation of Bank question to question of Jackson's election, 201;
+  effect of his veto of Bank bill, 202;
+  analysis of his message, 202-206;
+  opinion of von Holst on the veto message considered, 206, 207;
+  the message interpreted, 206-209;
+  relation of Congress to his election as President, 207;
+  the people accept the principles of Jacksonian democracy, 209;
+  opinion of Georgia's claims, 216;
+  reply to Cherokees, 216;
+  message of December, 1829, 216, 217;
+  different opinions of Indian titles, 217;
+  failure to execute decision of Supreme Court, 219, 220;
+  view on South Carolina's opinion of tariff, 220;
+  supposition as to Cabinet intrigue of 1819, 220;
+  the Forsyth letter, 220;
+  hostility of Jackson and Calhoun, 220, 221;
+  message of December, 1832, 228;
+  proclamation of December 10, 1832, 228-230;
+  active military preparations, 230, 231;
+  instructions to collectors, 230;
+  instructions to Scott, 230, 231;
+  popular approval of Jackson's course, 231;
+  attitude of Congress, 231;
+  Hayne's proclamation, 232;
+  Jackson's message of January, 1833, 232;
+  Bell's report on President's powers, 235;
+  signs Compromise Tariff, and "Force Bill," 238;
+  motive in course on nullification, 238;
+  significance of his doctrines, 239, 240;
+  as to responsibility for Jacksonian principles, 240;
+  message of 1835 as to use of mails, 272, 273;
+  decides to destroy the Bank, 279;
+  power of removal, 279;
+  removal of McLane and Duane, 280;
+  the work of Taney, 280;
+  consideration of the proper exercise of power, 280;
+  censured by Senate, 281;
+  Benton begins effort at removal of censure, 281;
+  his contest successful, 282;
+  tendency of government to his day, 282;
+  his successor, 284;
+  sends Morfit to Texas, 296;
+  message of December 21, 1836, on Texas, 298;
+  special message as to reprisals, 298;
+  authorizes Gaines to advance into Texas, 298;
+  orders Ellis to make demands on Mexico, 299;
+  satisfaction not given, 299;
+  special message of February 6, 1837, 299;
+  request for unusual powers not granted by Congress, 299;
+  recognizes Texas and her agent, 300;
+  ends diplomatic relations with Mexico, 301
+
+Jackson, William, presents abolition petition, 255
+
+Jackson, Zadock, repudiates sacking of Lawrence, 438
+
+Jalapa, captured by Scott, 333
+
+Jamestown, slaves introduced at, 40
+
+Janus, gates open, 260
+
+Jefferson, Thomas, 2, 3;
+  relation to French philosophy, 129;
+  share of Congress in his election as President, 207;
+  principles restated by Calhoun, 239;
+  tendency of government from his day, 282;
+  sends out Lewis and Clark, 312;
+  view as to extent of Louisiana, 312
+
+Johnson, Robert Ward, position on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 393
+
+Johnson, William, relation to nullification, 181
+
+Johnson County, Kansas, contested election, 465
+
+Johnston, Josiah S., on bank committee of Senate, 201
+
+Jones, George Wallace, position on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 393
+
+Jones, John W., reply to Adams on right of petition, 257
+
+Jones, Samuel J.,
+  as sheriff, arrests Branson, 428;
+  rescue of Branson, 428;
+  goes to Franklin and calls help from Missouri, 428, 429;
+  his error recognized, 430;
+  serves writ on Wood, 433;
+  tries to arrest Tappan, 434;
+  attempt to assassinate, 434;
+  Donaldson's reference to the shooting, 436;
+  the sacking of Lawrence, 438
+
+
+KANSAS CITY, MO., 316;
+  Branscomb and Robinson at, 413, 414
+
+Kansas, Territory of,
+  bill for organization of, 389;
+  the abolition protest, 389, 390;
+  reply of Douglas, 390;
+  amendment of Chase, 391, 392;
+  position of Wade, 391;
+  amendment of Douglas, 392;
+  views of Everett, 392, 393;
+  speech of Houston, 393;
+  position of Bell and the committee, 393;
+  vote on the amendment, 393;
+  Chase's amendment, 394, 395;
+  Pratt's amendment, 394;
+  Walker's declaration and Badger's amendment, 395;
+  Chase's third amendment, 395, 396;
+  Douglas's amendment, 395, 396;
+  Chase's fourth amendment, 396;
+  speech of Bell against bill, 396, 397;
+  speech of Houston, 397;
+  final argument of Douglas, 397, 398;
+  vote on bill in Senate, 398;
+  analysis of vote, 398, 399;
+  rise of popular opposition, 399, 400;
+  the Richardson bill, 400;
+  the Senate bill in the House, 401;
+  position of Cushing, Davis, and Pierce, 401-403;
+  action in House, 403;
+  management of bill by Stephens, 404;
+  bill signed by President, 404;
+  analysis of vote, 404, 405;
+  meaning of the vote, 405, 406;
+  relation of Act to slavery, 407, 408;
+  the struggle for Kansas, 407 _et seq._;
+  the plan of Thayer and his associates, 409;
+  organization of the society, 409, 410;
+  opposition, 410;
+  incorporation of the society, 410, 411;
+  misrepresentations as to Emigrant Aid Company, 411;
+  considered as of the South, 412;
+  influence of Atchison, 412, 413;
+  expedition of Robinson and Branscomb, 413, 414;
+  "Platte County Self-defensive Association," 414, 415;
+  the founding of Lawrence, 415;
+  trouble over contesting claimants, 415, 416;
+  arrival of Governor Reeder, 416;
+  election of Whitfield, 417;
+  effect on Republican party of interference of Missourians in Kansas,
+    418;
+  significance of the seating of Whitfield, 418;
+  census of Kansas, 419;
+  interference of Missourians in election of first Territorial
+    legislature, 419, 420;
+  action on contested election cases, 420;
+  supplementary elections, 421;
+  first Territorial legislature, 421;
+  Robinson's plan for anti-slavery party, 421, 422;
+  legislature meets at Pawnee, 422;
+  pro-slavery members seated, 422, 423;
+  trouble over adjournment to Shawnee Mission, 423;
+  arrival of Sharpe's rifles, 423;
+  Lane's faction checked by Robinson's Lawrence speech, 423, 424;
+  Robinson's declaration as to slavery, 424;
+  Conway's letter to Reeder, 424;
+  beginning of the "Free-state" movement, 424;
+  legislation upon slavery, 424;
+  its effect on the North, 424, 425;
+  the Lawrence and Topeka conventions, 425;
+  the adoption of the Topeka constitution, 425;
+  removal of Governor Reeder, 425;
+  Woodson Acting-Governor, 425;
+  election of Reeder as Congressional delegate, 425;
+  election of Robinson as Governor, 425;
+  conflicts between "Free-state" and Territorial Governments, 426;
+  petition for admission and election of Senators by "Free-state"
+    party, 426, 427;
+  characterization of "Free-state" acts, 427;
+  Robinson's message to legislature, 427;
+  arrival of Governor Shannon, 427;
+  the Leavenworth convention, 428;
+  conflict between the two governments, 428;
+  the Branson rescue, 428, 429;
+  invasion of Missourians, 429;
+  Lawrence committee meet Governor Shannon, 429;
+  Shannon goes to Lawrence, 430;
+  agreement of Shannon with citizens of Lawrence, 430;
+  Lane, Robinson, and Shannon at Franklin, 430;
+  Atchison and the withdrawal of the Missourians, 430, 431;
+  appearance of John Brown, 431;
+  Shannon's report to President, 431;
+  appeal of leaders at Lawrence, 431;
+  the President's proclamation, 432;
+  attitude of "Free-state" party to proclamation, 432;
+  difficulty of the situation, 432, 433;
+  organization under Topeka constitution, 432;
+  contest for seat in House of Representatives, 432, 433;
+  House appoints committee of investigation, 433;
+  application for admission under Topeka constitution, 433;
+  work of Jones and attempt to assassinate him, 433, 434;
+  the assault repudiated by the "Free-state" party, 434;
+  letters of Robinson and Sumner, 434;
+  Lecompte's charge to grand jury, 435;
+  the "treason indictments," 435;
+  Donaldson's proclamation, 435, 436;
+  dealings of citizens of Lawrence with Shannon and Donaldson, 436,
+    437;
+  the sacking of Lawrence, 438;
+  repudiation by Atchison and others, 438;
+  the "Crime against Kansas," 439;
+  the attack on Sumner, 439, 440;
+  the Pottawattomie massacres, 440;
+  attitude of the Congressional committee, 440;
+  characterization of the massacre, 441;
+  denunciation by settlers, 441;
+  Brown and Pate at Black Jack, 441;
+  Shannon's proclamation and the work of the troops, 442;
+  effect of massacre on "Free-state" cause, 442, 443;
+  committee report and bill in House, 442, 443;
+  dispersal of legislature at Topeka, 443;
+  Smith succeeds Sumner, 443;
+  the Lawrence convention and the directory, 443;
+  "Free-state" military force organized and in conflict, 444;
+  capture of Titus, 444;
+  treaty of August 17, at Lawrence, 444;
+  resignation of Shannon, 444;
+  Woodson again Acting-Governor, 444;
+  proclamation of August 25, 444;
+  Missourians under Atchison in camp on Bull Creek, 445;
+  destruction of Ossawattomie, 445;
+  Smith's orders as to invaders, 445;
+  Lane leads in skirmish at Bull Creek, 445;
+  Woodson's order and Cooke's refusal to attack Topeka, 445;
+  failure of plan to attack Lecompton, 445, 446;
+  active steps by President, 446;
+  actions of Geary, 446;
+  retirement of the Missourians, 446, 447;
+  resignation of Geary, 446;
+  effect of events on presidential election, 447;
+  Buchanan's inaugural address, 447, 448;
+  plan for convention at Lecompton, 461;
+  Walker and Stanton in charge, 461;
+  negotiations of Stanton with "Free-state" men, 461, 462;
+  address by Walker, 462;
+  the party situation, 462;
+  the "Free-state" legislature, 462;
+  the "Free-state" mass-meeting, 463;
+  chances of the Topeka constitution, 463;
+  Robinson's plan to capture Territorial government, 463;
+  Wilson's advice, 463;
+  the Topeka mass-meeting, 464;
+  the Grasshopper Falls convention, 464;
+  census completed, 464;
+  Lecompton convention assembles, 464;
+  the election of October 5, 465;
+  contests in McGee and Johnson counties, 465;
+  Lane's conspiracy and its failure, 465, 466;
+  mass-meeting and convention at Lecompton, 465, 466;
+  the Lecompton constitution, 466;
+  "Free-state" demands on Stanton, 466, 467;
+  constitution to be submitted in full, 467;
+  Stanton removed, 467;
+  Denver appointed Acting-Governor, 467;
+  Lecompton Constitution accepted in election of December 21, 467;
+  Lecompton Constitution rejected in election of January 4, 1858, 468;
+  "Free-state" men in control of three Governments in Kansas, 468;
+  Denver's report to the President, 468, 469;
+  President submits Lecompton constitution to Congress, 469;
+  attitude of Douglas, 469, 470;
+  Lecompton bill passed by Senate and rejected by House, 470;
+  the House proposal rejected, 470;
+  the English bill, 470, 471;
+  the proposals rejected in Kansas, 471;
+  a fourth government erected, 471;
+  close of the struggle, 471;
+  characterization of the leaders, 471, 472;
+  attitude of the general government, of Davis, and of Sumner, 472,
+    473;
+  Act of 1854 the beginning of error, Missourians the beginners of
+    wrong, 473;
+  characterization of John Brown's work, 473, 474;
+  relation of events in Kansas to Civil War, 473, 474.
+  _See_ Nebraska, Territory of
+
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, 343, 456 (_see_ Kansas, Territory of; and
+    Nebraska, Territory of);
+  effect of the Dred Scott dictum, 460
+
+Kansas river, 66, 414
+
+Kearny, Philip,
+  ordered to occupy New Mexico, 331;
+  orders to Doniphan, 332;
+  occupies California, 332
+
+Kelly, ----, Editor of _Squatter Sovereign_, 411
+
+Kendall, Amos, instructions to New York postmaster, 271, 272
+
+Kentucky,
+  created Commonwealth with slavery, 50, 62, 63;
+  attitude to tariff of 1824, 115;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  legislature nominates Clay for presidency, 136;
+  attitude toward tariff bill of 1827, 158;
+  relation to tariff of 1832, 188;
+  relief measures for debtors, 195, 196;
+  electoral vote in 1844, 320;
+  views as to slave policy, 378;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Kickapoo Rangers,
+  organized, 426;
+  capture Captain Brown, 426
+
+King, Rufus, voting, 74
+
+King, William Rufus,
+  states his creed on State sovereignty, 269, 270;
+  on Committee of Thirteen, 360
+
+Kinsey, Charles, on conference committee, 88
+
+Know Nothing party, 418
+
+Kremer, George, charge against Adams and Clay, 141
+
+
+LACOCK, ABNER, voting, 74
+
+Lake of the Woods, 312, 313
+
+Lane, James S.,
+  effort to organize Democratic party in Kansas, 423;
+  elected Senator by "Free-state" party, 426;
+  negotiations with Shannon, 430;
+  at Franklin, 430;
+  indictment against, 435;
+  as to service of indictment, 435;
+  in command of "Free-state" force, 435;
+  failure to arrive at Lecompton for attack, 445, 446;
+  result of his prevarications, 463;
+  conspiracy against Lecompton convention, 465;
+  thwarted, 465, 466
+
+Lawrence, Amos Adams,
+  member of Emigrant Aid Society, 409;
+  his work, 411;
+  conference with Robinson, 413;
+  town named in honor of, 415
+
+Lawrence, Kansas,
+  site occupied, 411;
+  town founded, 415;
+  quarrels as to claims, 415, 416;
+  Robinson's speech of July 4, 1855, 423;
+  convention at, 425;
+  the Branson rescue, 428;
+  Missourians approach, 429;
+  committee sent to Shannon, 429;
+  Shannon goes to, 430;
+  agreement of citizens with Governor Shannon, 430;
+  appearance of John Brown, 431;
+  appeal of citizens to President, 431;
+  Jones serves writ on Wood, 433;
+  trouble with Tappan, 434;
+  attempt to assassinate Jones, 434;
+  communications of Robinson and Sumner as to assault on Jones, 434;
+  indictment against hotel and newspapers in, 435;
+  Donaldson's proclamation, 435, 436;
+  dealings of citizens with Shannon and Donaldson, 436, 437;
+  Donaldson's force approaches the town, 437;
+  sacking of the town, 438;
+  repudiation of the deed, 438;
+  effect of the sacking and of assault on Sumner, 440;
+  effect of sacking modified by Pottawattomie massacre, 442;
+  "Free-state" convention at, 443;
+  treaty of August 17, 444;
+  Geary at, 446;
+  Stanton at, 461;
+  Wilson meets Robinson at, 463;
+  "Free-state" forces ordered to meet at, 465
+
+Leavenworth, Kansas,
+  "Free-state" company organized at, 426;
+  convention at, 428
+
+Lecompte, S. D., charge to grand jury of Douglas County, 435
+
+Lecompton, Kansas,
+  the Branson rescue, 428;
+  citizens summoned to, by Donaldson, 435;
+  conflict at Fort Titus, 444;
+  failure of plan to attack Lecompton, 445, 446;
+  Geary at, 446;
+  plan for convention at, 461;
+  as to work of convention, 463;
+  convention assembles at, 464;
+  Lane's conspiracy against convention at, 465;
+  "Free-state" mass-meeting at, 465, 466;
+  constitution formed at, 466;
+  legislature meets at, 467.
+  _See_ Kansas
+
+Lewis, Meriwether,
+  sent out by Jefferson, 312;
+  on the Columbia, 312
+
+Lewis, William B., 33;
+  the Coleman letter, 138
+
+Lexington, Kentucky, 167
+
+_Liberator, The_, publication begun, 251
+
+Liberties, Body of, 41
+
+Lincoln, Abraham, intimation as to official conduct of Taney, 456
+
+Loki, the, of Kansas, appears, 431
+
+London, 26, 33
+
+London, Bishop of, as to baptism of slaves, 44
+
+Loring, Charles Greeley, in Sims case, 372
+
+Lorings, the, in Crafts case, 368
+
+Louisiana, Commonwealth of,
+  erected, 56;
+  slavery in, 56, 62, 63, 65;
+  condition on erection, 69, 71;
+  relation to tariff of 1832, 188;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Louisiana territory, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 37;
+  added to public domain, 51;
+  slavery in, 54, 55, 56, 57;
+  owned by France and Spain, 54;
+  ceded to United States, 55;
+  divided, 55;
+  early ownership and division, 65;
+  condition on cession to United States, 72;
+  motion of Thomas as to slavery, 84;
+  motion renewed, 87;
+  carried, 88;
+  conference report, 88;
+  relation to Missouri bill, 92, 93;
+  ceded to France, and to United States, 312;
+  as to inclusion of Oregon, 312;
+  cession of 1803, 318;
+  effect of acquisition, 366;
+  act of 1820, 382;
+  as to the Douglas report on Nebraska, 384;
+  as to repeal of Acts of 1820, 391;
+  as to Dred Scott case, 450, 452
+
+Louisiana, Territory of,
+  organized, 56;
+  name changed, 56.
+  _See_ Missouri, Territory of
+
+Lovejoy, Owen, killed, 250
+
+Lowell, John, member of Emigrant Aid Society, 409
+
+Lowell, Massachusetts, meetings on fugitive slave law, 368
+
+Lower California, 337
+
+Lowndes, William,
+  committee service, 9;
+  on conference committee, 88;
+  reports bill on Missouri, 95, 96;
+  bill defeated, 99;
+  relation of family to nullification, 181
+
+Lundy, Benjamin, instigates abolition petition, 252
+
+
+MCCULLOCH _vs._ Maryland [4 Wheaton, 316], 205
+
+McDuffie, George,
+  opinion on slave labor, 161;
+  chairman ways and means committee, 172;
+  relation to Dr. Cooper, 173;
+  contention as to origin of tariff bills, 173, 174;
+  reports a tariff bill, 174;
+  its terms and disposal, 174;
+  forms economic basis of nullification, 175, 176, 177;
+  opposition to tariff, 177;
+  amendment lost, 177;
+  as to bill of 1832, 185;
+  tariff bills in House, 186;
+  attitude to the Bank, 198;
+  makes minority report in support of Bank, 202
+
+McGee County, Kansas, contested election, 465
+
+McGregor, Gregor, 30
+
+McHenry, Jerry, rescue of, 373, 374
+
+McKay, James J., introduces bill, 335
+
+McLane, Louis,
+  speech on Missouri, 81, 82;
+  removed from head of Treasury Department, 280
+
+McLean, John, voting, 73
+
+Macon, Nathaniel,
+  committee service, 3;
+  position on Maine-Missouri bill, 83
+
+Madison, James,
+  his message of 1815, 2, 3;
+  vetoes internal improvements bill, 17;
+  earlier recommendations, 17;
+  relation to Republican party, 17;
+  relation to War of 1812, 17;
+  as to relation between slavery and protection, 109;
+  vetoes bill, 1817, for internal improvements, 116, 117;
+  his views, 117
+
+Mail, United States,
+  effect of presence of abolition literature, 251;
+  use by abolitionists, 270 _et seq._;
+  Charleston, South Carolina, post-office robbed, 271;
+  request of Charleston postmaster to New York postmaster, 271;
+  refusal to receive abolitionist documents in New York post-office,
+    271;
+  Kendall's instructions to the postmasters, 271, 272;
+  the question in Jackson's message, 272, 273;
+  Calhoun's report and bill, 273, 274;
+  criticism by Clay, 274;
+  defeat of the bill, 274;
+  Act of July 2, 1836, 274;
+  significance of the contest, 274-277
+
+Maine, Commonwealth of,
+  constitution formed, 76;
+  petition for admission, 77;
+  bill introduced and passed by House, 77;
+  bill in Senate, 82;
+  connection with Missouri bill, 82, 83, 87;
+  amended bill passed in Senate, 88;
+  House disagrees, 88;
+  conference committee report, 88, 89;
+  bill approved by president, 89;
+  significance of the controversy, 88, 90 _et seq._;
+  attitude to tariff of 1824, 114;
+  attitude toward tariff of 1824, 115;
+  attitude toward tariff bill of 1827, 158;
+  in election of 1828, 164;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Mallary, Daniel,
+  reports tariff bill of 1827, 158;
+  opposes bill of 1828 as reported, 160, 161
+
+Mangum, Willie Person,
+  motion as to Clay's and Bell's resolutions, 360;
+  on Committee of Thirteen, 360
+
+Mann, Abijah, Jr., motion in House, 258
+
+Mann, Horace, opposition to fugitive slave law, 373
+
+Martin, Luther, letter to Maryland legislature, 49, 50
+
+Maryland, Commonwealth of, 9;
+  legislation on slavery, 48;
+  Martin's letter to legislature, 49, 50;
+  laws of, in District of Columbia, 51;
+  domestic slave trade, 57, 58;
+  relation to Cumberland road, 116;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119, 120;
+  in election of 1828, 163, 164;
+  tax on Bank of the United States, 194;
+  decision on the tax, 195;
+  relation to slavery in District of Columbia, 253;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Mason, James Murray,
+  reads Calhoun's speech, 358;
+  on Committee of Thirteen, 360
+
+Mason, Jeremiah, in Bank trouble, 191
+
+Mason, John Young,
+  calls yeas and nays, 253;
+  yields to Adams, 253;
+  the Ostend manifesto, 408
+
+Mason, Jonathan, voting, 73
+
+Mason and Dixon's Line, 163
+
+Massachusetts, Commonwealth of, 13;
+  slavery recognized, 41;
+  slave laws, 46;
+  substantial abolition of slavery, 48;
+  separation of Maine, 76 _et seq._;
+  as a type, 86;
+  as to citizenship law, 99;
+  attitude to tariff bill of 1823, 111;
+  and to that of 1824, 114;
+  attitude toward tariff of 1824, 115;
+  attitude toward tariff bill of 1827, 158;
+  abolition petition in House, 255;
+  laws on jails, 370;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  legislature grants charter to Thayer's society, 409
+
+Matamoras,
+  concentration of Mexican troops at, 328;
+  approach of Taylor, 329;
+  occupied by Taylor, 331
+
+Maurepas, Lake, 21, 23
+
+May, Samuel Joseph, the "Jerry rescue," 374
+
+Maysville road bill,
+  passed, 167;
+  vetoed, 167, 168;
+  vote on vetoed bill, 168;
+  analysis of vote, 168
+
+Mellen, Prentiss, position on Maine-Missouri bill, 83
+
+Mexico,
+  as to Congress of Verona, 124;
+  treaty of 1825 with Colombia, 147;
+  revolts from Spain, 291;
+  the Austin grant, 291;
+  establishment of federal government, 291;
+  Bustamente's decree on immigration, 291;
+  refuses to sell any Texan territory, 292;
+  overthrow of federal government, 292;
+  possibility of complications with, 296;
+  minister leaves Washington, 298, 299;
+  demand by Ellis, 299;
+  full satisfaction refused, 299;
+  impossibility of regaining Texas, 300;
+  diplomatic relations with United States resumed, 301;
+  the claims commission, 301, 302;
+  Great Britain as mediator between Mexico and Texas, 304;
+  threatens war on United States, 305;
+  claims Texans are still rebels, 305;
+  Benton's criticism of the Texas treaty, 308;
+  relation of war to election of Polk, 320;
+  threatens war, 320;
+  Tyler's message of 1844, 320, 321;
+  makes annexation of Mexico a casus belli, 327;
+  envoy leaves Washington, 327;
+  Slidell's mission, 327, 328;
+  governments of Herrera and Paredes, 328;
+  gathering of forces at Matamoras, 328;
+  position of Mexico with reference to Texan boundary, 328;
+  war with United States, 329-334;
+  title between Nueces and Rio Grande, 330, 331;
+  persistence of the Government, 332;
+  Santa Anna again in control, 332;
+  Polk's message of August 6, 1846, 334, 335;
+  McKay's bill and the Wilmot proviso, 335-337;
+  Polk's message of December, 1846, 335;
+  the First embassy, 337;
+  rejection of proposals, 337;
+  the Mexican offer, 337;
+  war resumed, 337, 338;
+  treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 338;
+  result of treaty with, 339;
+  proposal as to Mexican acquisitions, 341, 342, 349, 350;
+  views of Berrien and Webster as to slavery in Mexican acquisitions,
+    351, 352;
+  Foote's bill, 354;
+  problem of Texan boundary, 354, 355;
+  Clay's plan, 356;
+  opposition of Southerners, 356;
+  attitude of abolitionists, 357;
+  relation of Mexican acquisition to slavery, 408
+
+Mexico, City of, captured, 338
+
+Mexico, Gulf of, 20, 21, 297, 307, 337, 363
+
+Michigan, Commonwealth of, 290;
+  electoral vote in 1844, 320;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  early Republican party in, 418
+
+Mississippi, Commonwealth of,
+  created with slavery, 62, 63;
+  legislature calls Nashville convention, 375;
+  convention in, 375;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Mississippi River, the, 21, 22, 38, 66, 78, 290, 381
+
+Missouri, Commonwealth of, 33;
+  creation, 61-107;
+  significance of the circumstance, 65;
+  petition for erection, 66;
+  memorial for erection, 66;
+  the Tallmadge amendment, 66-73;
+  bill for erection passed by House, 73;
+  bill passes Senate without Tallmadge amendment, 74;
+  disagreement, 74;
+  question again presented, 74, 75;
+  Taylor's plan, 75, 76, 78;
+  Storrs's plan, 78;
+  Taylor's motion and argument on it, 78 _et seq._;
+  Holmes's speech, 80, 81;
+  McLane's speech, 81, 82;
+  memorial for admission referred, 82;
+  connection with Maine bill, 82, 83, 87;
+  argument of Pinkney, 84-86;
+  motion of Thomas, 84, 87, 88;
+  amended bill carried in Senate, 88;
+  House disagrees, 88;
+  agreement of conference committee, 88, 89;
+  report accepted, 89;
+  bill signed by President, 89;
+  consideration of the results, 90-95;
+  proposed constitution before Congress, 95;
+  the Lowndes bill, 95, 96;
+  opposition of Sergeant, 96, 97;
+  consideration of the situation, 97, 98, 99;
+  defeat of Lowndes bill, 99;
+  Smith bill passes Senate, 99;
+  tabled by House, 99;
+  efforts of Eustis, 100;
+  Clay's plan, 100;
+  report of Committee of Thirteen, 100, 101;
+  plan defeated, 101;
+  opposition of Tomlinson, 101;
+  conference committee and its report, 101, 102;
+  report attached, 102;
+  resolution passed, 102, 103;
+  effects of the compromise, 103-107;
+  decision brings slavery into national politics, 108;
+  attitude toward tariff of 1824, 115;
+  attitude toward tariff bill of 1827, 158;
+  relation to tariff of 1832, 188;
+  admitted as Commonwealth, 289;
+  line of compromise in Burt's amendment, 341, and in Douglas's
+    amendment, 347;
+  the compromise in connection with the Oregon bill, 348;
+  views as to slavery policy, 378;
+  bill to organize territory west of, 381;
+  Atchison's objection to such organization, 382;
+  Dixon and the repeal of the Compromise, 387, 388;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  misrepresentations as to Emigrant Aid Company, 411;
+  the "border ruffians," 411, 412;
+  attitude to slavery in Kansas, 412;
+  influence of Atchison, 412, 413;
+  "Platte County Self-defensive Association," 414, 415;
+  claimants to site of Lawrence, Kansas, 415, 416;
+  interference in election of Whitfield in Kansas, 416, 417;
+  relation of Missouri Compromise and Republican party, 417, 418;
+  effect on Republican party of Missourian interference in Kansas,
+    418;
+  organization in "Blue Lodges," 419;
+  interference in Kansas Territorial election, 419, 420;
+  Kansas legislature at Shawnee Mission, 423;
+  Robinson's declaration as to slavery in, 424;
+  Missourians summoned by Sheriff Jones, 429;
+  Missourians on the Wakarusa, 429;
+  attitude of Shannon toward Missourians, 430;
+  influenced by Atchison to withdraw, 430, 431;
+  claims of intended invasion, 431, 432;
+  preparation for further invasion, 435, 436;
+  volunteers under Pate, 441;
+  dispersal of volunteers under Whitfield in Kansas, 441, 442;
+  import of Woodson's accession to power, 444;
+  Missourians on Bull Creek and at Ossawattomie, 445;
+  new invasion of Kansas, 446;
+  forced to retire by United States troops, 446, 447;
+  as to Dred Scott case, 450-452;
+  decision of Supreme Court of Missouri, 451;
+  the Missourians the beginners of wrong, 473
+
+Missouri, Territory of,
+  organized, 56;
+  slavery in, 56, 65
+
+Missouri River, the, 66, 414
+
+Mitchell, David B., 28, 29
+
+Mobile, cession of river and port of, 21
+
+Mohawk and Hudson railroad, begun, 169
+
+Molino del Rey, battle of, 338
+
+Monroe, James,
+  relation to Jackson, 31, 34, 35;
+  as to relation between protection and slavery, 110;
+  messages of 1821 and 1822, 110;
+  message of 1823, 111;
+  veto of 1822, 120;
+  message on internal improvements, 120, 121, 156;
+  message of December, 1823, 125-128;
+  electoral vote of 1820, 129;
+  interpretation of message of 1823 by Spanish-Americans, 146, 147,
+    149;
+  cabinet intrigue against Jackson, 220
+
+"Monroe Doctrine," the, 125-128, 146
+
+Monterey,
+  captured by Taylor, 331, 332;
+  Doniphan sent to, 332
+
+Monterey, California, convention at, 343
+
+Moors, 45
+
+Morfit, Henry M.,
+  agent to Texas, 296;
+  report to Forsyth, 296, 297
+
+Murphy, W. S.,
+  letter from Upshur, 304;
+  assurance to Texas of protection, 306;
+  promise to Houston disavowed, 307
+
+
+NAPOLEON. _See_ Bonaparte
+
+Napoleonic decrees, 54
+
+Nashville convention, 375
+
+National Assembly of France, 54
+
+_National Era_, the,
+  protest against Kansas-Nebraska bill, 389;
+  effect of the address, 400
+
+_National Intelligencer_, letter of Clay, 319, 320
+
+National Republican party,
+  the origin, 104;
+  circumstance of appearance, 146;
+  party nomenclature, 162, 163;
+  insists on taking the Bank as a campaign issue, 200, 201;
+  nominates Clay for presidency, 201;
+  feeling toward Jackson, 202;
+  its defeat in 1832, 202;
+  basis of party action, 278, 279;
+  known as Whig party, 281, 282. _See_ Whig Party
+
+Navy of the United States, legislation upon, 13, 14
+
+Nebraska, Territory of,
+  bill for organization passed by House, 381;
+  the Howe-Giddings colloquy, 381, 382;
+  speech of Atchison, 382;
+  bill introduced by Dodge, 382;
+  bill and report by Douglas, 382, 383;
+  consideration of the report and its author, 383-387;
+  dictum of the committee, 387;
+  Dixon's proposal, 387;
+  Seward and Dixon, 387, 388;
+  new bill presented by Douglas, 389;
+  abolition protest in _National Era_, 389;
+  reply of Douglas, 390;
+  amendment of Chase, 391;
+  position of Wade, 391;
+  amendment of Douglas, 392;
+  views of Everett, 392, 393;
+  Houston's speech, 393;
+  position of Bell and committee, 393;
+  vote on amendment, 393;
+  Chase's amendment, 394, 395;
+  contention of Badger and Pratt, 394;
+  declaration of Walker and Badger's amendment, 395;
+  Chase's third amendment, 395, 396;
+  Douglas's amendment, 395, 396;
+  Chase's fourth amendment, 396;
+  speech of Bell against bill, 396, 397;
+  speech of Houston, 397;
+  final argument of Douglas, 397, 398;
+  vote in Senate on bill, 398;
+  analysis of vote, 398, 399;
+  rise of popular opposition, 399, 400;
+  the Richardson bill, 400;
+  Senate bill in House, 400;
+  position of Cushing, Davis, and Pierce, 401-403;
+  actions in House, 403;
+  management of bill by Stephens, 404;
+  bill signed by President, 404;
+  analysis of vote, 404, 405;
+  meaning of the vote, 405, 406;
+  relation of Act to slavery, 407, 408;
+  considered as of North, 412;
+  immigrants to Kansas through, 445;
+  the Act of 1854 the beginning of error, 473
+
+Negro Fort, 28, 29
+
+Negro labor, adapted to the South, 42
+
+Negro slavery. _See_ Slavery
+
+Nelson, Samuel, position on Dred Scott case, 452
+
+Nelson, John, Secretary of State,
+  disavows Murphy's promise to Houston, 307;
+  relation to Texas question, 307
+
+New England, 7, 59;
+  opposed to internal improvements bill of 1817, 117;
+  attitude to improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  attitude upon Maysville road bill, 168;
+  votes as to Pinckney resolution, 263
+
+New England Anti-Slavery Society, formed, 251
+
+New Hampshire, Commonwealth of,
+  legislation on slavery, 48;
+  attitude toward tariff of 1824, 115;
+  in election of 1824, 142;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+New Jersey, Commonwealth of,
+  legislation on slavery, 48;
+  attitude on Maysville road bill, 168;
+  legislative memorial on finality resolutions, 375;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+New Mexico,
+  Kearny ordered to occupy, 331;
+  importance of Buena Vista, 333;
+  about to be transferred, 334;
+  acquisition in view, 337;
+  in negotiations, 337;
+  treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 338;
+  Polk's message of July 6, 1848, 345, 346;
+  motions of Bright and Clayton, 346;
+  the Clayton bill, 346, 347;
+  Polk's message of December, 1848, 348;
+  Douglas's bill, 349;
+  Smith's bill, 349;
+  Berrien's report, 349, 350;
+  new bill by Douglas, 350;
+  motion of Walker, 350, 351;
+  failure of Congress to act, 352;
+  Taylor's message of December 4, 1849, 354;
+  Foote's bill, 354, as to question of Texan frontier, 355, Clay's
+    plan, 355, 356;
+  Webster's Seventh of March Speech, 359;
+  Bell's propositions, 359, 360;
+  report from committee on Territories, 360;
+  Committee of Thirteen, 360;
+  Clay's report, 360, 361;
+  encroachments of Bell, 362, 363;
+  passage of bill for territorial organization, 363, 364;
+  as to the Douglas report on Nebraska, 384;
+  Chase on Act of 1850, 391
+
+New York, Commonwealth of,
+  legislation on slavery, 48;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  in election of 1824, 137;
+  in election of 1828, 164;
+  attitude on Maysville road bill, 168;
+  electoral vote in 1844, 320;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+New York Central Railroad, system begun, 169
+
+New York City,
+  attitude to tariff bill of 1823, 111;
+  and to that of 1824, 114;
+  attitude to tariff of 1824, 115;
+  attitude toward tariff bill of 1827, 158;
+  postmaster refuses to receive abolitionist documents, 271;
+  the instructions from Kendall, 271, 272;
+  arrest of Hamlet, 367;
+  meetings on fugitive slave law, 367;
+  publication of protest against Kansas-Nebraska Act, 389
+
+New York _Courier and Enquirer_, applies name to Whig Party, 282
+
+Nicholls, Edward, 25, 26, 27, 28
+
+Nicholls Fort, 27, 28
+
+Nicholson, A. O. P., letter from Cass, 345
+
+Niles, John Milton, presents memorial on Texas, 295
+
+Nootka Convention, 311
+
+North Carolina, Commonwealth of,
+  conditional cession of western lands, 50, 56;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 117, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  stock held in United States Bank, 203;
+  electoral vote in 1844, 320;
+  vacancy in Senate delegation, 398;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Northwest, the,
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119
+
+Nueces, River, 300, 316, 329, 330, 337, 361
+
+Nullification,
+  origin, 169;
+  economic basis, 175, 176, 177;
+  attitude of South Carolina, 176;
+  threatened by McDuffie, 177;
+  Calhoun's publications, 179, and argument, 180, 181;
+  parties in South Carolina, 181, 182;
+  nullification or rebellion, 183, 184;
+  Calhoun's theory, 189;
+  in Georgia and South Carolina, 210;
+  the South Carolina convention, 221;
+  the Ordinance of Nullification, 222, 223;
+  Ordinance sent to the legislature, 224;
+  Hayne's attitude, 224;
+  acts for enforcement of Ordinance, 224-226;
+  views on the position of South Carolina, 226-228;
+  South Carolina in Jackson's message of 1832, 228;
+  Jackson's proclamation of December 10, 1832, 228-230;
+  Jackson's message of January, 1833, 232;
+  execution of Ordinance postponed, 235;
+  character of nullification defined by Webster, 237;
+  Ordinance of Nullification withdrawn, 238;
+  motive of leaders in affairs of nullification, 238;
+  nullification as represented by Amos Kendall, 272
+
+
+OBREGON, PABLO, negotiations as to Panama Congress, 147, 148, 149
+
+Ohio, Commonwealth of,
+  slavery forbidden, 62, 63;
+  condition on erection, 68, 69, 71;
+  appropriation of enabling act, 116;
+  tax on Bank of United States, 194;
+  the result, 195;
+  memorial on Texas, 296;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Ohio River, the, 48, 62, 63, 167
+
+Oliver, Mordecai,
+  on committee for Kansas investigation, 433;
+  investigates Pottawattomie massacre, 440
+
+Onis, Luis de, 37, 38
+
+Orders in Council, British, 54
+
+Ordinance of 1787,
+  passed, 48;
+  authority of the Congress, 49;
+  restriction on slavery, 69;
+  in Douglas's bill, 341;
+  in the Smith bills, 349
+
+Oregon,
+  its "re-occupation" in the Democratic platform, 309;
+  points in the question, 310;
+  Oregon of the last century, 311;
+  Spanish and English claims, 311;
+  the Nootka Convention, 311, 312;
+  effect of war between Spain and Great Britain, 312;
+  ceded to France and to United States, 312;
+  work of Lewis and Clark, 312;
+  treaty of Utrecht, 312;
+  Astoria founded, 312, 313;
+  joint occupation agreement, 313;
+  agreement of 1828, 314;
+  effect of Whitman's work, 316;
+  in platform of 1844, 318;
+  effect of election of 1844, 320;
+  Tyler's message of 1844, 321;
+  Polk's first message, 324;
+  his recommendations, 324;
+  the question before Congress, 324;
+  the action of Congress, 324, 325;
+  treaty of June, 1846, 326;
+  bill reported by, 340, 341;
+  Thompson's amendment, 341;
+  the Douglas bill, 341;
+  defeat of Burt's amendment, 341;
+  Wick's proposal, 341, 342;
+  speech by Rhett, 342, 343;
+  end of the second bill, 343;
+  new bill by Douglas, 343;
+  special message of Polk, 344;
+  Hall's amendment, 344;
+  views of Calhoun and Davis, 344;
+  Davis moves amendment, 344;
+  effect of Davis and Hale on action of Senate, 345;
+  motions of Bright and Clayton, 346;
+  the Clayton bill, 346, 347;
+  the final settlement, 347;
+  bill approved, 348
+
+Orleans, Territory of,
+  organized, 55;
+  slavery in, 55;
+  erected into Commonwealth, 56
+
+Osceola,
+  begins hostilities, 290;
+  defeated, 290
+
+Ossawattomie, Kansas,
+  destroyed by Missourians, 445;
+  effect of the attack, 445
+
+Ostend, the manifesto from, 408
+
+Otis, Harrison Gray,
+  voting, 74;
+  position on Maine-Missouri bill, 83
+
+Oxford University, Professor Senior of, 186
+
+
+PACIFIC OCEAN, claims in the north of various nations, 123, 311, 324,
+  325, 326, 341, 358, 375, 379, 381
+
+Palo Alto, battle of, 330
+
+Panama Congress,
+  early negotiations, 147, 148, 149;
+  commissioners of United States named, 149, 150;
+  popular views of the movement, 150;
+  analysis of vote in Senate, 150, 151;
+  relation of vote to slavery, 151;
+  nature of opposition, 153;
+  adjournment of the congress, 153, 154;
+  discussion of the results, 154, 155;
+  effect of question on Republican party, 155
+
+Paredes y Arrillago, Mariano,
+  leader of military party, 328;
+  overthrows Herrera, 328;
+  refuses to receive Slidell, 328
+
+Paris, treaty of. _See_ Treaty
+
+Parker, Severn E., on Conference Committee, 88
+
+Parker, William, opposition to fugitive slave law, 373
+
+Parkers, the, in Crafts case, 368
+
+Parma, Duke of, 23
+
+Parrot, John T., voting, 73
+
+_Partus sequitur ventrem_, 43, 44, 45
+
+Pate, H. C.,
+  captured at Black Jack by Brown, 441;
+  rescued by Sumner, 442
+
+Patton, John M.,
+  speaks in House, 259;
+  conclusion from his position, 259
+
+Pawnee, Kansas, legislature meets at, 422
+
+Pearce, James Alfred,
+  introduces bill on Texan boundary, 363;
+  not voting on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 398, 399
+
+Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of, 3;
+  provision for gradual emancipation, 48, 62, 63;
+  attitude to tariff bill of 1823, 111;
+  relation to Cumberland Road, 116;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  conventions nominate Jackson for presidency, 136;
+  in election of 1824, 137, 138, 139;
+  attitude toward tariff bill of 1827, 158;
+  in election of 1828, 162, 164;
+  attitude on Maysville road bill, 168;
+  petitions for abolition, 252, 253;
+  memorial on Texas, 296;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Pennsylvania railroad, system begun, 169
+
+Pensacola, 24, 25, 32
+
+Perdido River, the, 21, 22, 23, 25
+
+Perote, captured by Scott, 333
+
+Peru, treaty of 1823 with Columbia, 147
+
+Petition, Right of,
+  early action on abolition petitions, 253;
+  the Chinn-Dickson controversy, 254;
+  Slade's motion, 254;
+  Polk's ruling, 255;
+  Jackson's petition and Hammond's motion, 255;
+  relation of the Constitution to the right of petition, 255, 256;
+  customary procedure before 1834, 256;
+  wrangle over Hammond's two motions, 256;
+  the final arrangement, 256;
+  Adams's appeal for right of petition, 257;
+  reply by Jones, 257;
+  Granger's and Ingersoll's claim as to District of Columbia, 257;
+  demand of Wise, 257, 258;
+  Slade's declaration of war on slavery, 258;
+  Garland's argument, 258;
+  disposal of the question, 258;
+  revived by Adams, 258, 259;
+  ruling of Speaker, 259;
+  Southern members take advanced ground, 259, 260;
+  effort of Adams at peace, 260;
+  decision on the fifty-fourth rule, 260;
+  the contest precipitated, 260;
+  Pinckney resolutions quoted, 261;
+  the new rule of procedure, 261, 262;
+  affair of February 6, 1837, 262;
+  rule as to petition by slaves, quoted, 262;
+  further attempt at agitation by Slade, 262;
+  increase of petitions, 263;
+  the standing rule of 1840, quoted, 263;
+  effect of this step, 263, 264;
+  disposal of the question by the Senate, 264, 265;
+  the Vermont petition, 265-269;
+  position of Calhoun, 270;
+  disposal by Swift's motion, 270;
+  significance of the contest, 274-277;
+  result of the struggle, 296
+
+Petigru, James L., relation to nullification, 181
+
+Phelps, Samuel Shethar, on Committee of Thirteen, 360
+
+Philadelphia, Pa., constitutional convention at, 49
+
+Phillips, Wendell, opposes fugitive slave law, 373
+
+Philosophy of the eighteenth century, 47
+
+Philosophy of 1776, 52
+
+Pickering, Timothy, committee service, 3
+
+Pierce, Franklin,
+  nominated for presidency, 376;
+  elected, 377;
+  relation to Kansas-Nebraska bill, 401, 403;
+  views of historians stated and considered, 401, 402;
+  signs Kansas-Nebraska bill, 404;
+  views on emigration to Territories, 410;
+  appoints Shannon Governor of Kansas Territory, 427;
+  Shannon's report to, 431;
+  appeal from "Free-state" party in Kansas, 431;
+  proclamation as to Kansas, 432;
+  disapproves Col. Sumner's course, 443;
+  takes active steps as to Kansas, 446
+
+Pinckney, Henry Laurens,
+  reports resolution on control of slavery, 261;
+  resolution re-enacted, 262
+
+Pinkney, William,
+  argument on powers of Congress, 84-86;
+  argument restated, 86, 87;
+  effect of his argument, 87;
+  on conference committee, 88
+
+"Platte County Self-defensive Association," formed, 414, 415
+
+Pleasants, James, committee service, 3
+
+Poinsett, Joel Roberts, effort with reference to "Monroe Doctrine,"
+    128
+
+Point Isabel, base of supplies, 329
+
+Polignac, Jules Auguste Armand Marie de, declaration of Canning, 125
+
+Political philosophy, French, 129, 139, 193
+
+Polk, James Knox,
+  ruling as Speaker, 255;
+  quoted, 256;
+  confused rulings, 256;
+  further ruling on procedure as to petitions, 259;
+  conclusion from his position, 259;
+  decision on fifty-fourth rule, 260;
+  nominated for presidency, 309;
+  attitude of abolitionists, 320;
+  elected President, 320;
+  first annual message, 324;
+  his recommendations, 324;
+  the question before Congress, 325;
+  the action of Congress, 325, 326;
+  Polk's dealings with the Senate, 326;
+  treaty of June, 1846, 326;
+  overtures to Mexico, 327;
+  the Slidell mission, 327, 328;
+  duty as to Texan boundary, 329;
+  orders to General Taylor, 329;
+  message on Mexican War, 330;
+  authorized to call for volunteers, 331;
+  orders to Kearny, Sloat, Stockton, and Taylor, 331;
+  message of August 6, 1846, 334;
+  McKay's bill, 335;
+  Wilmot's amendment, 335;
+  Polk's message of December, 1846, 335;
+  empowered tacitly to secure California and New Mexico, 337;
+  the treaty offered through Trist, 337;
+  rejected by Mexico, 337;
+  recalls Trist, 338;
+  message to Congress, 338;
+  treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 338;
+  sends treaty to Senate, 339;
+  special message on Oregon, 344;
+  message on California and New Mexico, 345, 346;
+  approves Oregon bill, 348;
+  message on California and New Mexico, 348;
+  effect of message on California, 352, 353
+
+Pomeroy, S. C., at Lawrence, 415
+
+Pontchartrain, Lake, 21, 23
+
+Porto Rico, in Spanish-American troubles, 152, 153, 154
+
+Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 191
+
+Portugal, Clay's attitude to its colonies, 135
+
+Pottawattomie Creek,
+  massacre on, 440;
+  the massacre characterized, 441;
+  and denounced by the settlers, 441;
+  effect of massacre, 442;
+  end of fighting occasioned by massacre, 447
+
+Potter, James, owner of Sims, 372
+
+Pratt, Thomas George, contention as to amendment of Chase's amendment,
+    394, 395
+
+Prigg _vs._ Pennsylvania [16 Peters, 539], 363
+
+Protection,
+  as regarded between 1815 and 1820, 109;
+  as voiced by the House in 1822, 110;
+  Monroe's messages of 1821 and 1822, 110;
+  bill of 1823, 111;
+  Monroe's message of 1823, 111;
+  bill of 1824, 112.
+  _See_ Tariff
+
+Prussia, King of, as arbiter for claims commission, 302
+
+Prussia, in Holy Alliance, 123
+
+Puebla, captured by Scott, 333
+
+
+QUAKERS, petitions for abolition of slavery, 252, 253
+
+Quincy, Edmund, opposition to fugitive slave law, 373
+
+
+RAILROADS,
+  begun in the United States, 169;
+  relation to national improvements, 169, 170
+
+Randolph, John, 11;
+  opposition to tariff of 1816, 12
+
+Rantoul, Robert, Jr., in Sims case, 372
+
+Red River, the, 33
+
+Reeder, Andrew H.,
+  arrives at Fort Leavenworth, 416;
+  character and work, 416;
+  action upon contested election cases, 420;
+  criticism by Robinson, 420, 421;
+  disregard of his certificates of election, 421, 422;
+  attitude of anti-slavery party, 421;
+  difficulties in treatment proposed by Robinson, 422;
+  calls legislature to meet at Pawnee, 422;
+  breaks with legislature over question of adjournment to Shawnee
+    Mission, 423;
+  letter from Conway, 424;
+  removed from governorship of Kansas Territory, 425;
+  elected Congressional delegate, 425;
+  elected Senator by "Free-state" party, 426;
+  contest for seat in House of Representatives, 432, 433;
+  indictment against, 435;
+  avoids arrest, 435;
+  Donaldson's reference to his resistance, 436
+
+Representatives, House of. _See_ House of Representatives
+
+[Jeffersonian] Republican Party,
+  its nationalization, 1-18;
+  its principles in 1801 and 1816, 3;
+  position on national bank, 4, 5;
+  early principles, 17;
+  division, 38, 103, 104, 115;
+  absorption of Federal party, 129;
+  effect of War of 1812, 130;
+  nature of the struggle of 1824, 130;
+  division of the party, 145 _et seq._;
+  effect of Panama Congress, 155;
+  effect of tariff on division of party, 157;
+  power of Congress in its regime, 207;
+  principles on which it gained power, 239;
+  effect of War of 1812, 239
+
+Republican Party,
+  brought to life, 388;
+  creed in the _National Era_ address, 390;
+  effect of troubles in Kansas, 417;
+  the union of the various elements, 417, 418;
+  effect of interference of Missourians in Kansas, 418;
+  as to possible effect of events in Kansas, 446;
+  Kansas assured to the party, 471
+
+Resaca de la Palma, battle of, 330
+
+Revenue. _See_ Tariff
+
+Revolution of 1830, relation to abolition, 244
+
+Revolution, the American,
+  slave laws before, 46;
+  effect upon slavery, 47, 80
+
+Revolution, the French, 47
+
+Rhea, John, 31
+
+Rhett, Robert Barnwell,
+  speech on control of Territories, 342, 343, 345;
+  views adopted by Calhoun and Davis, 344;
+  views on fugitive slave law, 367;
+  contention as to fugitive slave law, 371;
+  in debate on Foote's resolutions, 374
+
+Rhode Island, Commonwealth of, 13;
+  legislation on slavery, 48;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Richardson, William A.,
+  reports bill on Kansas and Nebraska, 400;
+  motion in House, 403;
+  yields management of Kansas-Nebraska bill to Stephens, 404
+
+Riley, Bennett, calls California convention, 353
+
+Rio del Norte River, 36
+
+Rio Grande River, 297, 300, 305;
+  Mexican troops on, 328;
+  claimed by Texas a boundary, 328;
+  scene of conflict, 329, 330, 331, 332;
+  upper valley occupied by Doniphan, 332, 337, 338, 354, 361, 363
+
+Rio Grande del Norte River, 290, 297
+
+Rives, William Cabell, view of slavery, 265-267
+
+Roberts, Jonathan,
+  motion on Maine-Missouri bill, 82;
+  position as to the bill, 83;
+  moves to amend, 83
+
+Robertson, George, committee service, 3
+
+Robinson, Charles,
+  conference with leaders of Emigrant Aid Company, 413;
+  expedition to Missouri and Kansas, 413, 414;
+  the founding of Lawrence, 415;
+  criticism of Reeder's action on contested election cases, 420, 421;
+  plan of procedure for anti-slavery party in Kansas, 421, 422;
+  sends for Sharpe's rifles, 423;
+  checks factions by the Lawrence speech, 423, 424;
+  elected Governor of Kansas, 425;
+  message to legislature, 427;
+  negotiations with Shannon, 430;
+  at Franklin, 430;
+  communication with Sumner as to assault on Jones, 434;
+  indictment against, 435;
+  opinion as to purpose of Pottawattomie massacre, 441;
+  his release ordered, 446;
+  plan to capture Territorial government, 463;
+  conference with Wilson, 463;
+  difficulty of the situation, 464;
+  his work characterized, 471, 472;
+  his work quoted, 473
+
+Rocky Mountains, 312, 313, 324, 325, 326, 381
+
+Rush, Benjamin, proposal of Canning, 125
+
+Russia,
+  in the North Pacific, 123;
+  edict as to northwest lands, 123;
+  in Holy Alliance, 123, 124;
+  Adams's statement to Tuyl, 124, 125;
+  the Czar in negotiation with Clay, 152, 153
+
+Russian American Company claims in North Pacific, 123
+
+
+SABINE RIVER, the, 33, 36, 290
+
+St. Augustine, 25
+
+St. Ildefonso, treaty of, 22, 23, 24, 54, 312
+
+St. Louis, 65;
+  Branscomb and Robinson at, 413, 414
+
+St. Mark's, 25, 32
+
+St. Mary's River, the, 22, 30
+
+Salazar, Jose Maria,
+  negotiations as to Panama Congress, 147, 148, 149;
+  cites Haytian affairs, 151
+
+Salt Creek Valley, pro-slavery convention, 414
+
+San Antonio, battle of, 334
+
+Sandford, John F. A.,
+  owner of Dred Scott, 451;
+  defendant in federal courts, 451 _et seq._
+
+San Diego, Cal., occupied by Kearny, 332
+
+San Jacinto, battle of, 294, 295
+
+San Jacinto River, 294
+
+Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez de,
+  establishes presidential government in Mexico, 292;
+  opposition in Coahuila-Texas, 292;
+  war of Texan independence, 293, 294;
+  a prisoner, 297;
+  in power again, 332;
+  his plan of action, 332;
+  battle of Buena Vista, 332, 333;
+  battle of Cerro Gordo, 333;
+  battles of Contreras, San Antonio and Cherubusco, 334
+
+Savannah, Ga., 373
+
+Scott, Dred,
+  his case as referred to in Buchanan's inaugural address, 447, 448;
+  origin of the case, 449, 450;
+  facts of the case, 450, 451;
+  decision of Missouri Supreme Court, 451;
+  sold to Sandford, 451;
+  judgment in Circuit Court, 451;
+  case before Supreme Court, 451;
+  opinion of Justice Nelson, 452;
+  opinion of Justice Catron, 453;
+  opinion of Chief Justice Taney, 453, 454;
+  opinion of Justice Curtis, 454;
+  criticism of the decision, 455;
+  criticism of Taney's argument, 455, 456;
+  relation of inaugural and decision, 456, 457;
+  opinion of Justice Curtis, 457, 458;
+  distribution of the opinions, 458;
+  effect of the decision, 458, 459;
+  effect of the dictum, 460
+
+Scott, John, secures reference of Missouri memorials, 74
+
+Scott, Martin, in Florida, 31
+
+Scott, Winfield,
+  ordered to Charleston, 330;
+  his instructions, 330, 331;
+  ordered against Vera Cruz, 332;
+  captures Vera Cruz, 333;
+  battle of Cerro Gordo, 333;
+  captures Jalapa, Perote, Puebla, 333;
+  effect of his successes, 337;
+  Trist at his head-quarters, 337;
+  battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, 338;
+  takes Mexico, 338;
+  nominated for presidency, 376;
+  defeated, 377
+
+Sedgwick, Major, accompanies Shannon to Lawrence, 444
+
+Seminole War, 28, 29, 33;
+  results, 38;
+  cabinet intrigue on conduct of war, 220
+
+Seminoles, 32;
+  treaty of 1832, 290;
+  repudiate treaty and are expelled, 290
+
+Senate of the United States,
+  passage of Bank bill, 8;
+  passage of tariff bill, 12;
+  pay of members, 16;
+  passage of internal improvements bill, 16;
+  action on censure of Jackson, 36;
+  ratifies treaty of 1819, 36, 38;
+  effect of method of representation in, 63;
+  Missouri bill referred, 73;
+  vote on Tallmadge amendment, 74;
+  disagreement with House, 74;
+  Clay's suggestion of effect, 75;
+  Maine and Missouri bills in, 82, 83;
+  the Thomas amendment, 84;
+  Pinkney's speech, 84-87;
+  Missouri-Maine bill, and Thomas amendment, 87, 88;
+  the conference committee, 88, 89;
+  significance of the compromise, 90-95;
+  Missouri constitution considered, 95, 96;
+  passage of Smith bill on Missouri, 99;
+  bill defeated in House, 101;
+  work of second conference committee, 101-103;
+  plan to alter judicial system and limit number of Representatives,
+    109;
+  conference committee on tariff, 114, 115;
+  recommendation of Cumberland road, 116;
+  vote on internal improvements bill of 1822, 118, 119;
+  Clinton a member of, 132;
+  Crawford a member of, 133;
+  Clay a member of, 134;
+  Jackson a member of, 136;
+  opposition to Clay's appointment, 144;
+  action on Panama mission, 149, 150;
+  Van Buren's statement on action of, 153;
+  Van Buren leader of opposition in, 155;
+  action on tariff bill, 159, 160;
+  passage of tariff bill, 162;
+  South Carolina memorial in, 171;
+  Clay's proposal as to tariff, 186;
+  speeches of Clay and Hayne, 187;
+  vote on House tariff bill, 188;
+  conference committee, 188;
+  Benton's attack on Bank, 196;
+  report on the Bank, 198;
+  Benton's resolution on the Bank, 199, 200;
+  relation of members to constituencies, 200;
+  memorial for recharter of Bank, 201;
+  Benton's attack on Bank, 201;
+  bill, for recharter passed, 201, 202;
+  Jackson on duty of members, 206;
+  ratifies Indian Springs convention, 212;
+  Calhoun takes Hayne's seat in, 234;
+  Calhoun's statement in, 232, 233;
+  "Force Bill" reported, 233, 234;
+  Clay's proposition in, 235, 236;
+  support of Calhoun, 236;
+  passage of "Force Bill" and of tariff bill, 237;
+  abolition petitions referred, 253;
+  contest on right of petition, 264, 265;
+  Calhoun's efforts as to policy of, 268;
+  incident of the Vermont memorial, 269, 270;
+  reference of President's message, 273;
+  Connecticut memorial on Texas, 295;
+  Clay resolutions adopted, 295;
+  Calhoun's statement, 295, 296;
+  the Walker resolution on Texas, 298, 299;
+  action on President's message as to refusals, 298, 299;
+  effect of action, 300;
+  as to power over treaties, 307, 308;
+  treaty with Texas, 308, 309;
+  action as to Texas, 322, 323;
+  action as to Oregon, 325, 326;
+  bills on Mexico, and the Wilmot proviso, 335, 336;
+  ratifies treaties with Mexico, 339;
+  Oregon bill in, 341;
+  action on Oregon bills, 343;
+  debate on Oregon bill, 344;
+  lack of result, 345;
+  Bright and Clayton on Oregon, 346;
+  passes Clayton bill, 347;
+  final agreement with House, 347;
+  action on erection of California and New Mexico, 349 _et seq._;
+  Calhoun's last speech, 358;
+  Webster's Seventh of March speech, 359;
+  action on Texan boundary, 363, 364;
+  completion of compromise measures, 363, 364;
+  action on Shadrach case, 370;
+  action on President's powers, 371, 372;
+  Foote's finality resolutions, 374, 375;
+  petitions to, 375;
+  action on organization of Kansas and Nebraska, 381 _et seq._;
+  Atchison, President _pro tem._, 412;
+  memorials from Kansas, 433;
+  speech on the "Crime against Kansas," 439;
+  Brooks' assault, 439, 440;
+  action on Kansas, 469, 470.
+  _See_ Congress of the United States
+
+Senior, Nassau William, cited, 186
+
+Sergeant, John,
+  opposition to Lowndes's bill, 96, 97;
+  nominated commissioner to Panama Congress, 149;
+  nomination confirmed, 150
+
+Sewall, Samuel E., in Sims case, 372
+
+Seward, William Henry,
+  presents petitions for repeal of fugitive slave law, 375;
+  contest in convention of 1852, 376;
+  relation to Dixon and Nebraska bill, 387, 388;
+  charge as to official conduct of Taney, 456
+
+Shadrach,
+  escape to Canada, 370;
+  Clay's motion and Fillmore's message, 370, 371
+
+Shannon, Wilson,
+  becomes Governor of Kansas Territory, 427;
+  presides over Leavenworth convention, 428;
+  orders to Territorial militia, 429;
+  meets Lawrence committee at Shawnee Mission, 429;
+  goes to Lawrence, 430;
+  agreement with citizens of Lawrence, 430;
+  treats with Missourians at Franklin, 430, 431;
+  report to President, 431;
+  gives troops to Sheriff Jones, 434;
+  dealings with citizens of Lawrence, 436, 437;
+  orders troops to the Pottawattomie, 441;
+  his proclamation, 442;
+  orders troops out under Sumner, 442;
+  goes to Lawrence, 444;
+  treaty of August 17, 444;
+  resigns office, 444
+
+Shaw, Henry, voting, 73
+
+Shawnee Mission, Kansas,
+  removal of legislature to, 423;
+  arrival of Governor Shannon, 427;
+  Lawrence committee at, 429
+
+Sherman, John, on committee for Kansas investigation, 433
+
+Shields, James, attitude to fugitive slave law, 368
+
+Sierra Nevada Mountains, 349
+
+Silliman, Benjamin, member of Emigrant Aid Society, 409
+
+Silsbee, Nathaniel, attitude to tariff of 1828, 162
+
+Sims, Thomas,
+  arrest, 372;
+  trial and rendition, 372, 373
+
+Slade, William,
+  motion to print abolition petitions, 254;
+  compared with Adams, 254;
+  Polk's ruling on his attempt to debate, 255;
+  his motion tabled, 255;
+  declares war on slavery, 258;
+  his object, 259;
+  further attempt at agitation, 262
+
+Slave Code, Virginia code of 1705, 45
+
+Slavery,
+  beginnings in United States, 40;
+  early view of system, 40;
+  legal recognition, 41;
+  prohibited in Georgia, 43;
+  legislation in Virginia, 43;
+  Virginia statute of 1662, 44, 45;
+  relation to Christian baptism, 44;
+  Virginia code of 1705, 45;
+  legislation on public relations of slavery, 46;
+  law of slavery before the Revolution, 46;
+  substantially abolished in Massachusetts, 48;
+  legislation in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire,
+    Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and
+    Virginia, 48;
+  letter of Luther Martin, 49, 50;
+  in Constitution of 1787, 50;
+  status in Georgia and North Carolina cessions and in Kentucky, 50,
+    51, 56;
+  passage of fugitive slave law, 51;
+  abolition of slave trade by Congress, 51;
+  relation to cotton culture, 52, 53;
+  in Louisiana territory, 54, 55, 57, 65, 72, 88;
+  in Orleans Territory, 55;
+  in Louisiana Territory, 55, 56;
+  in Missouri Territory and Commonwealth of Missouri, 56, 65;
+  effect of abolition of foreign slave-trade, 57;
+  domestic slave-trade, 57, 58;
+  relation of slavery to diplomacy, 58;
+  international status, 59;
+  relation of slavery to public policy, 60;
+  status in various States, 62, 63;
+  division of Congress on territorial basis as to slavery, 63;
+  in the Territories, 63;
+  in Northwest Territory, 69;
+  in the Tallmadge amendment, 73;
+  slavery in Territories, 75;
+  Taylor's plan as to Missouri, 75, 76, 78;
+  Storrs's plan as to Missouri, 78;
+  Taylor's motion, 78 _et seq._;
+  motion of Thomas, 84, 87, 88;
+  relation of slavery to Missouri struggle, 92, 93, 106, 107;
+  status of slavery in 1776, 1787, 1820, 93;
+  slavery in national politics after 1820, 108;
+  relation of slavery to protection, 109, 110;
+  relation of slavery to Panama Congress, 151;
+  relation to tariff, 157;
+  relation to Maysville road bill, 168;
+  relation to internal improvements, to Missouri struggle, and to
+    tariff of 1828, 170;
+  view of Hayne and McDuffie, 177;
+  relation to the Bank question, 198;
+  effect of race domination, 244;
+  as regarded before 1830, 244;
+  humanitarianism of 1830, 244;
+  the philosophy of abolition and of its opponents, 245;
+  the true philosophy, 245, 246;
+  slavery in the Constitution, 246-248;
+  possible ways of attacking slavery, 248;
+  Southampton insurrection, 248, 249;
+  Floyd's message, 249 (_see_ Petition, Right of);
+  declaration of war by Slade, 258;
+  the contest precipitated, 260;
+  the Pinckney resolutions evoked, 261;
+  relation to denial of right of petition, 263, 264;
+  views of Rives, 265-267;
+  views of Calhoun, 265-268;
+  significance of the contest over petitions and the mails, 274-277;
+  relation of Whig principles to slavery, 283;
+  relation of Whig and Democratic parties to slavery extension, 287,
+    288;
+  slavery in Florida constitution of 1838, 290;
+  slavery in the Texas constitution of 1836, 294;
+  relation of slavery to recognition of Texas, 296;
+  relation of slavery to question of Texan annexation, 300, 301, 302;
+  Clay's views of relation of slavery and annexation, 319;
+  relation of slavery to Mexican War, 330, 331;
+  the Wilmot proviso, 335, 336;
+  Cass's view of relation of Mexican war and slavery, 338;
+  Thompson's amendment, 341;
+  Burt's motion as to the Wilmot proviso, 341, 342;
+  meaning of Rhett's views, 343;
+  views of Calhoun and Davis as to slavery in territories, 344;
+  Democratic platform of 1848, 344, 345;
+  Cass's letter to Nicholson, 345;
+  Whig platform of 1848, 345;
+  the Clayton bill, 346, 347;
+  Free-soil platform of 1848, 347, 348;
+  as to signature of Oregon bill, 348;
+  Douglas's and Smith's bills, 349;
+  Berrien's report, 349, 350;
+  views of Berrien and Webster on slavery in Mexican acquisitions,
+    351, 352;
+  Taylor's message of December 4, 1849, 354;
+  indication of policy in the Foote bill, 354;
+  relation of slavery to question of Texan boundary, 354, 355;
+  question of slavery in District of Columbia, 355;
+  Clay's plan of compromise, 355, 356;
+  opposition of Southerners, 356, 357;
+  attitude of Davis, and of abolitionists, 357;
+  Calhoun's last speech, 358;
+  Webster's Seventh of March speech, 359;
+  Clay's report, 361, 362;
+  the bills as adopted, 363, 364;
+  slavery before and after 1850, 365-367;
+  relation of parties to slavery question, 377;
+  various policies as to slavery, 377-379;
+  situation in December, 1852, 380, 381;
+  Douglas's report on Nebraska, 382-387;
+  dictum of the committee, 387;
+  Dixon's motion, 387;
+  dictum of Douglas as to act of 1820, 390;
+  controversy on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 390 _et seq._;
+  speech of Houston, 393;
+  the _National Era_ address, 399, 400;
+  the struggle for Kansas, 407 _et seq._;
+  indications of plan for extension, 408;
+  the question in Kansas, 412;
+  Robinson's declaration as to slavery in Kansas and Missouri, 424;
+  Kansas legislation on slavery, 424;
+  its effect on the North, 424, 425;
+  the Topeka constitution, 425;
+  the Dred Scott case, 449-459;
+  effect of the Dred Scott dictum, 460;
+  further struggle in Kansas, 460-474;
+  the Lecompton constitution, 467, 468.
+  _See_ Kansas, Territory of
+
+Slaves, introduced at Jamestown, 40.
+  _See_ Slavery
+
+Slidell, John,
+  sent to Mexico, 327;
+  refused audience, and leaves Mexico, 328;
+  effect of his rejection, 329
+
+Sloat, John Drake, ordered to Upper California, 331
+
+Smith, Caleb B., reports bills on New Mexico and Upper California, 349
+
+Smith, Gerrit,
+  the "Jerry rescue," 374;
+  signs _National Era_ address, 389
+
+Smith, Persifer Frazer,
+  assigned to command in Kansas, 443;
+  orders as to invaders of Kansas, 445;
+  sustains Cooke in disobeying Woodson, 445
+
+Smith, George W., candidate for Governor of Kansas, 468
+
+Smith, William,
+  reports Maine-Missouri bill, 82;
+  position on the bill, 83;
+  presents bill to Senate on Missouri, 99;
+  bill passed by Senate and tabled by House, 99;
+  presents protest as to tariff, 170
+
+"Softs," the, attitude of Pierce, 402
+
+Soule, Pierre, the Ostend manifesto, 408
+
+South Carolina, 8, 9;
+  slave laws, 46;
+  repeals law against slave importation, 51;
+  as to citizenship law, 99;
+  protest against tariff of 1824, 115, 116;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  in election of 1824, 137, 138;
+  opposition to tariff bill of 1827, 159, 160;
+  legislature protests against tariff of 1828, 170, 171, 174;
+  attitude to Jackson's views, 172;
+  relation to McDuffie bill of 1830, 174;
+  attitude to McDuffie's argument, 176;
+  attitude to Congress in 1830-31, 178;
+  the tariff and Calhoun's work, 179, 181, 183;
+  nullification or rebellion, 183;
+  relation to Jackson's message of 1831, 184;
+  stock held in United States Bank, 203;
+  nullification earlier in Georgia, 210;
+  relation to the Indian troubles in Georgia, 220;
+  special meeting of legislature, 221;
+  the nullification convention and its work, 221;
+  the ordinance of nullification, 222;
+  committee to the legislature, 223;
+  addresses of the convention, 223, 224;
+  Hamilton's message, 224;
+  Hayne's inaugural, 224;
+  the Replevin Act, 224-226;
+  change of representation in Senate, 224;
+  acts to enforce ordinance of nullification, 226;
+  opinion of Calhoun and others as to position of South Carolina,
+    226-228;
+  South Carolina in Jackson's' message of 1832, 228;
+  Jackson's proclamation of December 10, 1832, 228-230;
+  active steps taken by Jackson, 230, 231;
+  feeling of the other States, 231;
+  Hayne's proclamation and the action of South Carolina, 232;
+  Jackson's message of January, 1833, 232;
+  Calhoun's statement in the Senate, 232, 233;
+  the "Force Bill" reported, 233, 234;
+  answers Replevin Act, 234;
+  attitude of Calhoun, 234;
+  postponement of execution of nullification ordinance, 235;
+  Bell's report on President's powers, 235;
+  Clay's proposals, 235, 236;
+  attitude of Calhoun, 236, 237;
+  attitude to Clay's bill, 237, 238;
+  ordinance of nullification withdrawn, 238;
+  motive of leaders in affairs of nullification, 238;
+  effect of nullification considered, 238-241;
+  opinion of Jacksonian principles, 240;
+  convention in, 375;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  demands of South Carolinians in Kansas, 437;
+  the assault upon Sumner, 439
+
+South Carolina College, 173
+
+"South Carolina Exposition, The," 179
+
+South Sea, the, 33
+
+Southampton County, Virginia,
+  slave insurrection, 248, 249;
+  Floyd's message, 249;
+  passed over, 250;
+  effect on consideration of abolition petitions, 252
+
+"Southern Address," the, 374
+
+Spain,
+  as to American possessions, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 32, 33,
+    35, 36;
+  cedes Louisiana territory, 54, 65;
+  claims in North Pacific, 123;
+  relation to colonies and to Congress of Verona, 124;
+  attitude of Great Britain and United States as to her colonies, 125;
+  the "Monroe Doctrine," 125-128;
+  Clay's attitude to Spain's colonies, 135, 152, 153;
+  trouble in the colonies, 147, 151-153;
+  boundary disputes with France and United States, 290;
+  treaty of 1819, 290;
+  revolt of Mexico, 291;
+  claim to Oregon, 311;
+  the Nootka Convention, 311, 312;
+  effect of war with Great Britain, 312;
+  cedes Louisiana to France, 312;
+  cedes Florida, 313;
+  treaty of 1819, 318
+
+Spalding, Henry Harmon, missionary to Oregon, 315
+
+Spanish Government, 37
+
+Spear, Samuel T., opposes fugitive slave law, 368
+
+"Specie Circular," its results, 283
+
+_Squatter Sovereign_, the, misrepresentations as to Emigrant Aid
+    Company, 411
+
+Stanton, F. P.,
+  appointed secretary of Kansas Territory, 461;
+  as Acting Governor, negotiates with "Free-state" men, 461, 462;
+  action on fraudulent elections, 465;
+  demands of "Free-state" men, 466, 467;
+  calls legislature at Lecompton, 467;
+  removed, 467
+
+"States' rights,"
+  founder of party, 2;
+  position of Webster, 6;
+  early condition of party, 122;
+  nucleus of party, 146;
+  Calhoun's doctrine, 179 _et seq._;
+  as to the Bank, 194, 195;
+  Benton's speech, 199;
+  Troup's attitude, 213;
+  Calhoun's position, 234, 236, 268, 269, 270;
+  King's views, 269, 270;
+  and _see_ 3, 49, 109, 130, 136, 137, 159, 192, 215, 217, 274
+
+Stearns, ----, sells rights to site of Lawrence, 415
+
+Stephens, Alexander Hamilton, management of the Kansas-Nebraska bill,
+    404
+
+Stockton, Robert Field, ordered to Upper California, 331
+
+Storrs, Henry R.,
+  voting, 73;
+  on Missouri affair, 78
+
+Storrs, Richard Salter, opposes fugitive slave law, 368
+
+Strange, Robert, motion in Senate, 270
+
+Stringfellow, B. F.,
+  coeditor of _Squatter Sovereign_, 411;
+  formation of "Platte County Self-defensive Association," 414
+
+Sullivan, G., interview with Adams, 142, 143
+
+Sumner, Edwin Vose,
+  communication with Robinson as to assault on Jones, 434;
+  conditional offer of Lawrence citizens to surrender arms to, 437;
+  rescues Pate, 442;
+  returns to Fort Leavenworth, 442;
+  disperses legislature at Topeka, 443;
+  his act disapproved, 443;
+  retirement, 443;
+  attitude to Kansas affairs, 472
+
+Sumner, Charles,
+  presents petitions for repeal of fugitive slave law, 375;
+  speech on fugitive slave law, 377;
+  effort to improve Nebraska bill, 388;
+  signs _National Era_ address, 389;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  speech on the "Crime against Kansas," 439;
+  assaulted by Brooks, 439, 440;
+  effect of assault modified by Pottawattomie massacres, 442
+
+Supreme Court of the United States, decisions by:
+  Brown _vs._ Maryland, 195, 198;
+  McCulloch _vs._ Maryland, 205;
+  Cherokee Nation case, 218;
+  Worcester _vs._ Georgia, 218, 219;
+  _see also_ 109, 207, 222, 229, 346, 348, 366, 383, 427, 447, 460;
+  Prigg _vs._ Pennsylvania, 363;
+  Dred Scott _vs._ Sandford, 447, 449, _et seq._
+
+Sutter land claims, war against, 413
+
+Swift, Benjamin,
+  presents abolition petition, 269;
+  motion to lay on table, 270
+
+Syracuse, New York,
+  meetings on fugitive slave law, 368;
+  the "Jerry rescue," 373, 374
+
+
+TACUBAYA, 153
+
+Tait, Charles, report, 74
+
+Tallmadge, James, 34;
+  amendment to Missouri bill, 66-74;
+  leader of restrictionists, 68
+
+Taney, Roger Brooke,
+  appointed secretary of the treasury, 280;
+  ceases deposits in United States Bank, 280;
+  the contention as to propriety and legality, 280, 281;
+  criticism by the Senate, 281;
+  opinion on Dred Scott case, 453, 454;
+  criticism of his argument, 455, 456;
+  charge as to divulging court secrets, 456, 457
+
+Tappan, S. F., resists Sheriff Jones, 434
+
+Tariff,
+  bill of 1816, 3, 8, 9, 10;
+  views of Clay, 10;
+  speech of Calhoun, 10, 11, 12;
+  passed by House and Senate, 12;
+  attitude of Randolph and Telfair, and the New Englanders, 12;
+  act under comparison, 15, 16;
+  Monroe's messages of 1821 and 1822, 110;
+  bill of 1823, 110, 111;
+  failure of the bill, 111;
+  Monroe's message of 1823, 111;
+  bill of 1824, 112;
+  support of Tod, 112, and of Clay, 112, 113;
+  opposition of Webster, Cambreleng and Barbour, 113, 114;
+  Hayne's theory, 114;
+  modified bill passed by House, 114;
+  House rejects Senate amendments, 114;
+  conference committee, 114, 115;
+  characterization of tariff of 1827, 115;
+  attitude of various States toward tariff of 1824, 115;
+  protest of South Carolina, 115, 116;
+  significance of the question, 129;
+  relation to slavery, 157;
+  act of 1824 a failure, 157;
+  memorials, 158;
+  Mallary bill of 1827, 158;
+  provisions, 158;
+  attitude of the various sections, 158, 159;
+  bill passed by House, 159;
+  opposition of South Carolina, 159, 160;
+  bill abandoned in Senate, 160;
+  bill of 1828 reported, 160;
+  its provisions, 160;
+  opposed and modified, 160, 161;
+  analysis of vote in House, 162;
+  passed by Senate and approved, 162;
+  relation to party lines, 162, 163;
+  South Carolina protests against bill of 1828, 170, 171, 174;
+  Jackson's message of December, 1829, 171, 172;
+  its reception in South Carolina, 172;
+  its reference, 172;
+  question of origin of tariff bills, 173, 174;
+  bill reported by McDuffie, 174;
+  its terms and disposal, 174;
+  manufactures committee bill, 175;
+  argument of McDuffie, 175, 176, 177;
+  passage of bills of 1830, 177, 178;
+  Jackson's message of December, 1830, 178;
+  the work of Calhoun, 179-181, 183;
+  the law in court, 182, 183;
+  Jackson's message of December, 1831, 184;
+  two bills of 1832, 185;
+  disposal in House, 186;
+  Clay's resolution in Senate, 186, 187, 188;
+  House bill in Senate, 188;
+  amended and passed, 188;
+  distribution of vote in Senate, 188;
+  conference and bill becomes law, 188;
+  its effect on the situation, 188, 189;
+  proposal in address of South Carolina convention, 224;
+  Jackson's message of December, 1832, 228;
+  bill reported by Verplanck, 231, 232;
+  discussion of Verplanck bill, 235;
+  Clay proposes compromise tariff, 235;
+  his purposes, 235, 236;
+  attitude of Calhoun, 236;
+  controversy over the bill, 236;
+  Clay's bill amended and substituted for Verplanck's bill, 237;
+  attitude of South Carolina, 238;
+  President's approval, 238;
+  result of modified bill of 1833, 283;
+  tariff bills vetoed by Tyler, 286
+
+Tassells, Cherokee Indian, executed, 218
+
+Taylor, John,
+  supports Bank bill, 8;
+  presides over Columbia convention, 159
+
+Taylor, John W.,
+  in Missouri bill debate, 68;
+  plan as to Missouri, 75, 76, 78;
+  new motion and argument, 78 _et seq._;
+  on conference committee, 88;
+  attitude toward internal improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  vote upon Maysville road bill, 168
+
+Taylor, Zachary,
+  ordered to advance from Corpus Christi, 329;
+  demand of Ampudia, 329;
+  hostilities begun, 329;
+  battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, 329, 330;
+  occupies Matamoras, 331;
+  takes Monterey, 331, 332;
+  battle of Buena Vista, 332, 333;
+  battles of Contreras, San Antonio, and Cherubusco, 334;
+  armistice, 334;
+  presidential nominee, 345;
+  elected President, 349;
+  plan as to California, 353;
+  message of December 4, 1849, 353, 354;
+  special message under consideration, 357, 358;
+  death, 362
+
+Tehuantepec, Isthmus of, 337
+
+Telfair, Thomas, opposition to tariff of 1816, 12
+
+Tennessee, 31, 32, 35;
+  created a Commonwealth, 51;
+  with slavery, 62, 63;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 118;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  legislature nominates Jackson for the presidency, 136;
+  electoral vote in 1844, 320;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Territorial extension, position of Whig and Democratic parties, 287,
+    288
+
+Texas,
+  early boundary dispute, 290;
+  Austin grant, 291;
+  efforts of United States to buy Texas, 292;
+  declares independence, 293;
+  the Mexicans defeated, 294;
+  constitution formed and Houston elected President, 294;
+  the Connecticut resolution, 295;
+  the Senate's resolution, 295;
+  Calhoun's position, 295, 296;
+  House passes resolution, 296;
+  Morfit's mission, 296-298;
+  Jackson's message of December 21, 1836, 298;
+  Walker's resolution, 298;
+  Jackson's special message as to reprisals, 298;
+  Walker resolution adopted, 299;
+  Texas in diplomatic appropriation bill 299;
+  Jackson deals with agent of Texas, 300;
+  Texan independence recognized, 300;
+  the question of annexation, 300, 301;
+  Wise's doctrine as to annexation, 302;
+  Whig address on annexation, 303;
+  negotiations of Upshur and Van Zandt, 304;
+  independence recognized by Powers, 304;
+  possibility of British interference, 304;
+  relations to Mexico, 305, 306;
+  proposal of annexation, 305;
+  legal position, 306;
+  Murphy's assurance to President of Texas, 306;
+  Houston sends special envoy to Washington, 306;
+  Murphy's assurance disavowed, 307;
+  President's proposal to move forces, 307;
+  Texas treaty sent to Senate, 307, 308;
+  President's view of constitutional position of Texas, 308;
+  treaty rejected by Senate, 308;
+  Benton's claim, 308;
+  opposition of Archer, 308, 309;
+  "reannexation" in the Democratic platform, 309;
+  documents sent to House, 309, 310;
+  in Democratic platform of 1844, 316, 317, 318;
+  the Clay letters, 319;
+  demands of abolitionists, 319;
+  the _National Intelligencer_ letter, 319, 320;
+  relation to annexation of election of Polk, 320;
+  Greeley's views as to triumph of annexation, 320;
+  Tyler's message of 1844, 320, 321;
+  Ingersoll reports joint resolution, 321;
+  various views as to method of annexation, 321, 322;
+  House passes enabling act, 322;
+  the Archer report in the Senate, 322, 323;
+  the Walker amendment, 323;
+  measure signed by President, 323;
+  Texas admitted, 323;
+  annexation a casus belli for Mexico, 327;
+  Texas congress of December, 1836, 328;
+  the Rio Grande as boundary, 328;
+  President's duty as to Texan boundary, 329;
+  Congressional acts as to Corpus Christi, 329;
+  importance of Buena Vista, 333;
+  problem of Texan boundary, 354, 355;
+  Clay's plan, 355, 356;
+  opposition of Southerners, 356, 357;
+  attitude of abolitionists, 357;
+  Webster's Seventh of March speech, 359;
+  Clay's report, 361;
+  extension of jurisdiction by Bell, 362, 363;
+  passage of bill as to Texan boundary, 363, 364;
+  dictum of Douglas as to annexation of Texas, 390;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399.
+  _See also_ Coahuila-Texas
+
+Thayer, Eli,
+  beginning of his work, 408, 409;
+  his reasoning, 409;
+  organization effected, 409, 410;
+  incorporation, 410, 411;
+  conference with Robinson, 413;
+  reward offered for his head, 413;
+  sending of Sharpe's rifles, 423
+
+Thomas, Jesse B.,
+  motion as to slavery, 84, 87, 88;
+  on conference' committee, 88
+
+Thompson, James,
+  moves amendment to Oregon bill, 341;
+  amendment in Douglas bill, 341
+
+Thompson, Waddy,
+  as minister to Mexico receives threat of war, 305;
+  opinion on slavery extension, 330
+
+Titus, Colonel,
+  in troubles at Lawrence, 437;
+  captured, 444;
+  his release promised, 444
+
+Tod, John,
+  reports tariff bill, 110;
+  bill fails, 111;
+  reports tariff bill of 1824, 112;
+  supports the bill, 112
+
+Tomlinson, Gideon, opposes report of Committee of Thirteen, 101
+
+Topeka, Kansas,
+  convention at, 425 (_see_ Kansas, Territory of);
+  legislature at, dispersed, 443;
+  Cooke refuses to obey Woodson's order to attack Topeka, 445;
+  mass-meeting at, 464
+
+Topliff, C. W., dealings with Donaldson for Lawrence citizens, 438
+
+Treaty of April 11, 1713 (Utrecht), 312
+
+Treaty of 1762, between France and Spain, 21, 22, 23
+
+Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, between France, Great Britain, and
+    Spain, 20, 21, 22, 23
+
+Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783, 22
+
+Treaty of 1790 (Nootka Convention), between Great Britain and Russia,
+    311
+
+Treaty of 1800 (St. Ildefonso), between France and Spain, 22, 23, 24,
+    54, 312
+
+Treaty of April 30, 1803, between France and the United States, 23,
+    24, 55, 57, 72, 312, 318
+
+Treaty of Fort Jackson, 1814, 26, 29
+
+Treaty of December 24, 1814, between Great Britain and the United
+    States, 9, 26
+
+[Convention] of October 20, 1818, between Great Britain and the United
+    States, 313, 314
+
+Treaty of February 22, 1819, between Spain and the United States, 33,
+    36, 37, 38, 290, 313, 318
+
+Treaty of July 12, 1823, between Colombia and Peru, 147
+
+Treaty of July 12, 1823, between Colombia and Chili, 147
+
+Treaty of February 12, 1825, between United States and Creek Indians,
+    212, 214
+
+Treaty of April 12, 1825, between Colombia and United Provinces of
+   Central America, 147
+
+Treaty of September 20, 1825, between Colombia and Mexico, 147
+
+Treaty of January, 1826, between United States and Creek Indians, 214
+
+[Convention] of August 6, 1827, between Great Britain and the United
+    States, 314, 324
+
+Treaty of 1832, between United States and Seminole Indians, 290
+
+[Treaty] of April 11, 1839, between Mexico and the United States, 301
+
+Treaty of August 9, 1842, between Great Britain and the United States,
+    303
+
+Treaty of April 12, 1844, between Texas and the United States, 307,
+    308, 309
+
+Treaty of June 15, 1846, between Great Britain and the United States,
+    326, 339
+
+Treaty of February 2, 1848, between Mexico and the United States, 338,
+    339, 354, 355
+
+Tremont Temple, fugitive slave law meetings, 373
+
+Trist, Nicholas P.,
+  offers treaty to Mexico, 337;
+  proposals rejected, 337;
+  signs treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 388;
+  returns to Washington, 338, 339
+
+Troup, George McIntosh,
+  attempts survey of Creek land, 212;
+  letter from Barbour, 212, 213;
+  controversy with Barbour and Adams, 213, 214;
+  repudiates agreement of 1826, 214;
+  controversy with Administration as to surveys, 214, 215;
+  his message to the legislature, 215
+
+Tucker, George, committee service, 3
+
+Turks, 45
+
+Turner, Nat, leads slave insurrection, 249
+
+Tuyl, Baron, declaration from Adams, 124, 125
+
+Tyler, John,
+  succeeds Harrison, 286;
+  vetoes bank bills and tariff bills, 286;
+  Cabinet resignations, 286, 287;
+  friction with Whigs, 287;
+  accession to presidency, 301;
+  opens negotiations with Texas, 301;
+  relation to annexation, 302;
+  resignation of Webster, 303;
+  makes Upshur secretary of state, 303, 304;
+  the London story of interference in Texas, 304;
+  attitude to Mexican threat of war, 305;
+  relation to Texan negotiation, 307;
+  as to defence of Texas, 307;
+  sends treaty to Senate, 307, 308;
+  view of constitutional position of Texas, 308;
+  significance of Archer's criticism of annexation treaty, 309;
+  sends Texas documents to House, 309, 310;
+  relations with Whitman, 315, 316;
+  message of 1844, 320, 321;
+  views as to method of annexation, 321;
+  signs measure for annexation of Texas, 323;
+  characterization of his acts, 323, 324
+
+
+"UNCLE TOM'S CABIN," 106
+
+"Underground," the, established, 368.
+  _See_ Fugitive Slave Law
+
+United Provinces of Central America, treaty of 1825, with Colombia,
+    147
+
+United States Bank. _See_ Bank of the United States
+
+United States of America, the,
+  effect of military statutes, 13;
+  national spirit in, 19;
+  territorial extension of, 20;
+  independence recognized, 22;
+  purchase of Louisiana, 23;
+  claims on Florida, 23, 24;
+  occupation of Florida, 24, 25;
+  effect of treaty of Ghent, 26;
+  affair at Nicholls Fort, 27, 28;
+  character of Seminole War, 29, 30;
+  relations with Spain as to occupation of Florida, 32, 33;
+  treaty with Spain, 33, 36, 37, 38;
+  transfer of Florida, 38;
+  slavery in, 40, 50, 52, 53;
+  treaty of 1803, 55;
+  obligations to Georgia and North Carolina, 56, and to France, 57;
+  attitude to slavery, 58, 59, 60, 62-65;
+  debate on powers of general Government, 66 _et seq._;
+  Taylor's discussion of powers, 79, 80;
+  federal system of 1820, 87;
+  nature of the Union, 97;
+  effect of second Missouri compromise, 103;
+  significance of the compromise, 104-106;
+  commercial position, 112, 113;
+  foreign relations of, in 1822, 122;
+  claims in the North Pacific, 123;
+  relation to Spain's American possessions, 124 _et seq._;
+  attitude to Holy Alliance, 124 _et seq._;
+  relations with Spanish-American states, 146 _et seq._;
+  constitutional interpretation in the history of, 156;
+  relations with Great Britain, 164;
+  railroads in, 169;
+  tariff the necessary policy of, 171;
+  statistics from foreign trade of, 175, 176;
+  meaning of the term, 180;
+  regard for laws of, 181;
+  danger of bank to, 202;
+  Jackson's view considered, 203;
+  as to veto power, 207;
+  effect of Jackson's bank veto, 207-209;
+  cession by Georgia to, 211;
+  treaty with Creek Indians, 212;
+  dispute as to title, 213;
+  treaty with Creek Indians, 214;
+  trouble with Georgia, 214 _et seq._;
+  the issue as offered by South Carolina, 226;
+  principle of the governmental system of, 227;
+  the time for a revenue tariff, 228;
+  Jackson on the character of the Union, 229;
+  officers of, in South Carolina, 230;
+  resistance to laws checked, 234;
+  effect of events of 1832 and 1833, 238-241;
+  development of national purposes, 243, 244;
+  abolition and opinion of slavery in, 244;
+  contest over use of mails of, 270 _et seq._;
+  disputes as to deposits of, 280 _et seq._;
+  treaty with Seminoles, 290;
+  recognition of Spanish rights, 290;
+  immigration into Texas from, forbidden, 291;
+  attempts to purchase Texas, 292;
+  importation of slaves into Texas from, allowed, 294;
+  as to recognition of Texan independence by, 295, 296;
+  Morfit's report on Texas, 297;
+  question of natural boundaries, 300, 301;
+  annexation of Texas proposed, 301;
+  diplomatic relations with Mexico, 301, 302;
+  recognition of Texan independence by, 304;
+  relations with Mexico and Texas, 305 _et seq._;
+  as to admission of Texas, 310;
+  purchase of Louisiana, 312;
+  claims in Oregon, 312, 313;
+  conventions with Great Britain, 313, 314;
+  Oregon and Great Britain, 314 _et seq._;
+  as to claim on Texas and Oregon, 318;
+  Clay's views as to policy of, 319, 320;
+  relations with Mexico, 320, 321;
+  as to annexation of Texas, 321;
+  as to method of annexation to, 323, 324;
+  claims to Oregon, 324 _et seq._;
+  negotiations with Great Britain, 326;
+  suspension of diplomatic relations with Mexico, 327;
+  mission to Mexico, 328;
+  question of the Texan frontier, 328, 329;
+  relations with Mexico, 329 _et seq._;
+  military power in California, 332;
+  the Trist mission, 337, 338;
+  treaty with Mexico, 338;
+  Rhett on the nature of the union, 342, 343;
+  extension of public law of, 352;
+  relations to Cuba, 408;
+  relation to affairs in Kansas, 445 _et seq._
+
+Upham, William,
+  introduces amendment, 338;
+  opposition of Cass and rejection, 338
+
+Upper California,
+  to be occupied to Sloat and Stockton, 331;
+  treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 338;
+  Smith's bill, 349.
+  _See_ California
+
+Upshur, Abel P.,
+  made secretary of state, 303, 304;
+  negotiations with Van Zandt, 304;
+  letter to Murphy, 304;
+  formally proposed annexation, 305;
+  demand from Van Zandt, 306;
+  relation to Murphy's promise, 306;
+  death, 306
+
+Utah,
+  Foote's bill for territorial organization, 254;
+  report of committee on territories, 360;
+  Committee of Thirteen, 360;
+  Clay's report, 360, 361;
+  bill as to Utah passed, 362;
+  as to the Douglas report on Nebraska, 384;
+  Chase on Act of 1850, 391
+
+Utrecht, treaty of, 312
+
+
+VAN BUREN, MARTIN,
+  relation to Crawford, 133;
+  attitude toward civil service reform, 133;
+  in election of 1824, 137;
+  attitude upon Panama Congress, 153;
+  opposition to Adams on internal improvements, 155;
+  share in election of 1828, 164;
+  made secretary of state, 164;
+  his success in diplomacy, 164;
+  relation of Administration to the financial situation, 284;
+  message of September 4, 1837, 284, 285;
+  origin of independent treasury idea, 285;
+  Van Buren's recommendation and the law of July 4, 1840, 285, 286;
+  declines proposition of Texan annexation, 301;
+  resumed diplomatic relations with Mexico, 301;
+  treaty proclaimed, 301, 302;
+  put aside by his party, 309;
+  nominated for presidency, 347;
+  popular vote in 1848 compared with that for Hale in 1852, 377
+
+Vanderpoel, Aaron, motion in House, 255
+
+Van Zandt, Isaac,
+  negotiations with Upshur, 304;
+  proposal of Upshur, 305;
+  demand upon Upshur, 306
+
+Venezuela, 30
+
+Vera Cruz,
+  campaign against, ordered, 332;
+  captured by Scott, 333
+
+Vermont,
+  slavery forbidden, 62, 63;
+  Rev. S. A. Worcester, of, 218;
+  abolition petition, 265, 269;
+  position of Calhoun, 270;
+  disposal of Swift's motion, 270;
+  vacancy in Senate delegation, 398;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+Verona, Congress of, 124
+
+Verplanck, Gulian Crommelin,
+  reports tariff bill, 231, 232;
+  bill discussed, 235;
+  bill used in argument, 236;
+  Clay's bill substituted for Verplanck's bill, 237
+
+Virginia, Commonwealth of, 8, 41;
+  legislation on slavery, 43;
+  statute of 1662, 44, 45;
+  slave code of 1705, 45;
+  legislation on public elements of slavery, 46;
+  forbids importation of slaves, 48;
+  domestic slave-trade, 57, 58;
+  as a type, 86;
+  relation to Cumberland road, 116;
+  attitude to internal improvements bill of 1817, 117;
+  attitude to improvements bill of 1822, 119;
+  stock held in United States Bank, 203;
+  relation to slavery in District of Columbia, 253;
+  anticipated by Connecticut in recognizing Texas, 295;
+  views as to policies on slavery, 378;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399
+
+"Virginia dynasty," the, extinct, 131
+
+Vives, Francisco D., 37
+
+
+WADE, EDWARD,
+  signs _National Era_ address, 389;
+  opposition to Douglas, 391
+
+Wakarusa River, the,
+  settlement near, 414;
+  Missourians on, 429
+
+Walker, Isaac P.,
+  motion as to Mexican acquisitions, 350, 351;
+  declaration as to repeal of act of 1820, 395
+
+Walker, Robert John,
+  offers resolution as to Texas, 298;
+  adopted, 299;
+  offers amendment to Texas resolution, 323;
+  appointed Governor of Kansas Territory, 461;
+  his address, 462;
+  party relations, 462;
+  declaration as to law controlling territorial election, 464;
+  action on fraudulent elections, 465
+
+Walker, Samuel, in command of "Free-state" forces in Kansas, 444
+
+Walla Walla, mission on the, 315, 316
+
+War of 1812, 1, 5, 8, 9, 13, 17, 24, 25, 28, 29, 33, 54, 58, 59;
+  effect upon political parties, 130;
+  effect on Republican party, 239;
+  as to Astoria, 313
+
+War with Mexico,
+  a result of social development, 277;
+  relation of war to election of Polk, 320;
+  details, 327 _et seq._;
+  the casus belli, 327;
+  the concentration of forces, 328;
+  point of conflict, 328, 329;
+  beginning of hostilities, 329;
+  battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, 329, 330;
+  attitude of parties to war, 330;
+  character of war, 330, 331;
+  Congress authorizes war, 331;
+  occupation of New Mexico and Upper California, 331;
+  capture of Monterey, 331, 332;
+  seizure of California, 332;
+  return of Santa Anna and plans against Vera Cruz, 332;
+  battle of Buena Vista, 333;
+  capture of Vera Cruz, 333;
+  battle of Cerro Gordo, 333;
+  capture of Jalapa, Perote, and Puebla, 333;
+  battles of Contreras, San Antonio, and Cherubusco, 334;
+  armistice, 334;
+  Cass's view of relation of the war and slavery, 338;
+  battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, 338;
+  capture of Mexico, 338;
+  opposition to the war, 338;
+  treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 338
+
+War of 1861,
+  an historical necessity, 65;
+  a result of social development, 277;
+  relation of events in Kansas to, 473, 474
+
+War Department, 28, 30, 31, 32, 35
+
+Warrenton, Virginia, 138
+
+Washington, D. C., 2, 33, 124, 299, 300, 301, 302, 304, 307, 313, 315,
+    327, 330, 339, 375, 389, 401, 426, 428, 439
+
+Washington Hall, fugitive slave law meetings, 373
+
+Washington _Union_, the, relation to President Pierce, 401, 402
+
+Webb, James Watson, applies name to Whig party, 281, 282
+
+Webster, Daniel,
+  objection to Bank bill, 6;
+  as to tariff bill, 12;
+  qualifications as presidential candidate in 1824, 134, 136;
+  attitude to tariff of 1828, 162;
+  Calhoun and the Hayne debate, 179;
+  relation to Jackson and the Bank, 191;
+  advice to Bank party, 201;
+  on Bank committee of Senate, 201;
+  answers Calhoun's argument, 237;
+  retires from Tyler's cabinet, 286, 287;
+  New York speech on Texas, 301;
+  checks annexation plans, 303;
+  resigns from State Department, 303;
+  the Ashburton treaty, 303;
+  negotiation with Ashburton, 314;
+  views on slavery in Mexican acquisitions, 351, 352;
+  Seventh of March speech, 359;
+  on Committee of Thirteen, 360;
+  attitude to fugitive slave law, 368;
+  denounced by Giddings, 369;
+  contest in Whig convention of 1852, 376;
+  death, 377
+
+Webster, Sidney, statement as to position of Washington _Union_, 401,
+    402
+
+Welles, Gideon, Blair to Welles on Seward, 387, 388
+
+Wells, William, as to Bank bill, 8
+
+West Florida, 21
+
+Weston, Missouri, meeting of residents of Platte County, 414
+
+Westport, Missouri, meeting of Whitman colonists, 316
+
+Wheeling, West Virginia, 116
+
+Whig party,
+  appearance, 38, 104;
+  acquisition of name, 279, 281, 282;
+  significance of its composition and principles, 282, 283;
+  relation to Gordon's independent treasury proposal, 285;
+  opposes independent treasury bill of 1840, 285, 286;
+  convention of 1839, 286;
+  election of 1840, 286;
+  Bank bill and tariff bill as party measures, 286;
+  friction between Congress and President, 286, 287;
+  relation of its principle to the new question of slavery and
+    territorial extension, 287, 288;
+  address on Texas annexation, 303;
+  convention nominates Clay for presidency, 309;
+  position on Polk's first message, 324, 325;
+  attitude to Mexican War, 330;
+  platform of 1848, 345;
+  the Clayton bill, 346, 347;
+  election of 1848, 348, 349;
+  convention of 1852, 376;
+  tendency to division of party, 376, 377;
+  election of 1852, 377;
+  controversy over Kansas-Nebraska bill, 391;
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 398, 399;
+  vote in House on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 404, 405;
+  meaning of the vote, 405, 406;
+  as to leaders of Emigrant Aid Company, 413;
+  effect of Kansas struggle, 417;
+  tendency to dissolution, 417, 418
+
+Whitfield, John W.,
+  elected to Congress in Kansas, 417;
+  credentials accepted, 418;
+  contest for seat in House of Representatives, 432, 433;
+  leads Missourians in Kansas, 441
+
+Whitman, Marcus,
+  missionary to Oregon, 315;
+  settlement, and visit to Tyler, 315;
+  helped by the Administration, 315, 316;
+  the Oregon colony, 315
+
+Wick, William W., moves amendment, 341, 342
+
+Wilkins, William,
+  reports "Force Bill," 233, 234;
+  bill used in argument, 236;
+  attitude of Calhoun, 236;
+  bill passed by Senate, 237;
+  and by House, 237, 238;
+  approved, 238;
+  "Force Bill" considered, 240
+
+Williams, J. M. S.,
+  in emigrant aid work, 411;
+  conference with Robinson, 413
+
+Wilmot, David,
+  moves amendment, 335;
+  passed by House, 335;
+  no action in Senate, 336;
+  amendment again passed by House, 336 (_see_ Upham, William);
+  motion for amendment of Wilmot proviso, 341, 342;
+  the proviso and the Whig platform of 1848, 345;
+  the proviso in Berrien's speech, 352;
+  the proviso in abolitionist demands, 357
+
+Wilson, Henry,
+  meets Robinson at Lawrence, 463;
+  urges new census for Kansas, 463
+
+Wisconsin, Commonwealth of,
+  vote on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 399;
+  early Republican party in, 418
+
+Wise, Henry A.,
+  demand as to District of Columbia, 257;
+  doctrine on Texan annexation, 302;
+  connection of speech with President's policy, 303
+
+Witan, 262
+
+Wood, S, N.,
+  Jones serves writ on, 433;
+  as to "treason indictment," 435
+
+Woodbury, Charles Levi, connection with Sims case, 373
+
+Woodbury, Levi, beginning of Bank trouble, 191
+
+Woodson, Daniel,
+  Acting-Governor of Kansas Territory, 425;
+  superseded by Shannon, 427;
+  again Acting-Governor, 444;
+  proclamation of August 25, 444, 445;
+  orders Cooke to attack Topeka, 445
+
+Worcester _vs._ Georgia [6 Peters, 515], 218, 219
+
+Worcester, Samuel A.,
+  violation of Georgia statute, 218, 219;
+  case of Worcester against Georgia, 219
+
+Worcester, Massachusetts, home of Eli Thayer, 408
+
+Wright, William, not voting on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 398
+
+
+
+
+THE AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES
+
+_Seven volumes, 12mo, with maps and plans._
+
+_Price per volume, $1.00, net._
+
+
+THE COLONIAL ERA.--By Rev. GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., LL.D., Professor of
+Ecclesiastical History in Yale University.
+
+THE FRENCH WAR AND THE REVOLUTION.--By WILLIAM M. SLOANE, Ph.D.,
+Professor of History in Columbia University.
+
+THE MAKING OF THE NATION.--By General FRANCIS A. WALKER, LL.D., late
+President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
+
+THE MIDDLE PERIOD.--By JOHN W. BURGESS. Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of
+Political Science and Constitutional Law in Columbia University.
+
+THE CIVIL WAR AND THE CONSTITUTION.--By JOHN W. BURGESS, Ph.D., LL.D.,
+Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law in Columbia
+University. 2 vols.
+
+RECONSTRUCTION AND THE CONSTITUTION.--By JOHN W. BURGESS, Ph.D.,
+LL.D., Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law in
+Columbia University.
+
+
+"The 'American History Series,' now in the course of publication by
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+to find a place in every city and town library, and among the
+prescribed text-books of our colleges and schools."--_The New York
+Sun._
+
+
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+and of special authority in this field. The volumes are sold
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+books."--President JOHN FRANKLIN CROWELL, Trinity College, N. C.
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