to have money to pay his debts. The government had received Martin Van Buren for public lands and duties many million dollars more than it needed to use, and had deposited the money in various banks. These banks had loaned it to speculators, and to men who wished to build railroads or canals or to buy western lands. Suddenly the government decided to divide this money among the states, and ordered the banks to return it. The banks called upon the speculators and others to bring it back.

To do this at once was often difficult or impossible; for instance, men who had borrowed money to buy land where they Hard times expected a railroad would be built could not sell their land at a fair price till the road was completed, and had no money with which to pay the banks. Another trouble was that the government had declared that men who bought western land must pay for it in gold or silver; and, therefore, much coin had gone West. The banks united, and said that for the present they would not give coin for their bills, and they would make no new loans. No one knew what to-morrow's value of the paper money, or rag money," as it was called, would be. Every one wanted coin, and whoever had any coin held on to it. Business firms failed, banks failed, mills stopped, work stopped, poverty and suffering were everywhere. The acts that caused the trouble came before Van Buren's term of office, but as the trouble itself appeared while he was president, it was always associated with his name.

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After a while the money difficulties passed away, but there was another difficulty that was growing worse all the time, and that Anti-slavery was the difference of opinion about slavery. Anti-slavery socie- societies ties were formed in the North. William Lloyd Garrison had for several years been publishing a paper called the "Liberator," whose object was to arouse people to do away with slavery. "It is wrong," said these societies, "for one man to hold another as his slave." "It is right," said the South, "for us to hold the

66

negro. He is happier and better cared for than he would be as a free man." The societies sent pictures and pamphlets throughout the land to persuade people that slavery was wrong. The South declared that these papers would make the slaves rebel, and demanded that the government should forbid such acts in order to prevent the danger of a slave insurrection.

Not all northerners sympathized with the anti-slavery societies Differences by any means. Probably most men in the North thought that it of opinion in the North would be better if there were no such thing as slavery, but many believed that each state had the right to do as it chose in the matter, and some who would have done anything in their power to keep slavery out of a new state thought that no one had a right to interfere where it already existed. Anti-slavery papers were sometimes taken from the mails and destroyed. A hall in which an anti-slavery meeting had been held was burned, and the offices of the "Liberator" and other publications of the sort were raided.

SUMMARY.

During Monroe's term of office, the Seminoles were subdued, Florida was acquired, Spain gave up all claim to the Oregon Territory, and the Monroe doctrine was proclaimed. Emigration to the West increased, and the Missouri Compromise postponed the slavery trouble. Lafayette became the guest of the nation.

While John Quincy Adams was president, the fiftieth birthday of the nation was celebrated. Jefferson and John Adams both died on the

day of the celebration.

The success of the Erie Canal brought about the building of many other canals and railroads, which made new towns and manufactures possible. Jackson's enforcement of the law and a decreased tariff prevented nullifica tion in South Carolina.

Irving, Cooper, and Bryant wrote the first great American books.

Van Buren's administration was marked by hard times and by increasing difference of opinion about slavery.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK.

Fulton's difficulties in making the first steamboat.
Governor Clinton tells why he favors the Erie Canal.
A ride on one of the early railroads.

XX

TROUBLE ARISES OVER SLAVERY

PEOPLE Suffered so much while Van Buren was in office that, although he was not to blame for their misfortunes, they wished Harrison to have a man who belonged to another political party. William and Tyler Henry Harrison was chosen president and John Tyler vicepresident. Harrison was a brave, faithful, upright man, who had always done his best and could be trusted to do well whatever he undertook. Just before the War of 1812, he had subdued the Indians at Tippecanoe in Indiana, and before the election took place his friends used to sing an absurd song, which ran : —

"Oh, what has caused this great commotion

Our country through?

It is the ball that's rolling on

For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too;

And with them we 'll beat little Van, Van, Van!

Van! oh, he's a used-up man,

And with them we 'll beat little Van!"

Perhaps what helped Harrison most was a remark made by

date

a newspaper that was opposed to him. It was that Harrison The "logcabin candi would feel more at home in a log cabin than in the White House. "That is just what we want," said his friends. “A man who can live in a log cabin, plough his own field, and build his own

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Tyler succeeds Harrison

The Lone
Star State

house-he's the man for us." Pictures of log cabins appeared

ALMANAC

on flags and medals.

Real

ones were drawn in the torchlight processions by stout horses or oxen. Mammoth

log cabins were built for the meetings held by Harrison's friends, and the "log-cabin candidate" was elected.

Just one month after Harrison was inaugurated he died, and John Tyler took his place. The chief subject about which people were talking was the annexation of Texas. The land southwest of the United States which formerly belonged to Spain had become free and taken the name of

STATE OF

Mexico. Mexico was willing that settlers from other nations
should form colonies on her soil, and it came to pass that more
than twenty thousand people from the United States settled on
the land between the Red River and the Gulf
of Mexico, called Texas. After a while the de-
mands of the Mexican government became too
severe to please the Texan-Americans. Just as
Mexico had fought herself free from Spain, so
Texas fought herself free from Mexico. She
then asked to become a state, but for several
years her request was not granted, and she was a state alone by
herself. This is why Texas is called the "Lone Star State."

SEAL OF TEXAS

There were various reasons why people wished or did not wish

sion of
Texas

to have Texas admitted, but the most important one was the ques- The admis. tion of slavery. Texas held slaves, and if it became a state, the slave states would gain in power because they would have more votes in Congress. There was a long discussion in Congress, but finally the state was admitted. The South was triumphant; but the abolitionists, as those were called who wished to abolish slavery, set to work with more energy than ever.

People were not thinking about slavery alone. Many a man was

tions

at work on some invention that would be a gain to the country. Great invenThe sewing machine had been invented long before, but it was a clumsy affair. Elias Howe succeeded in making machines that were practical. Rubber shoes had been used, but they were thick and heavy and they had a fashion of melting when they were left in a warm place. Charles Goodyear found a way to vulcanize the rubber so it would not melt. "Daguerreotypes" of buildings had been taken, but now a way was found to take pictures of persons. A vast amount of suffering was prevented by the discovery that by inhaling sulphuric ether the most severe operation would be painless. Samuel F. B. Morse worked for many years to find out the way to send messages by electricity. Even after he was sure that he could do it, so few believed in him that it was a long time before he could persuade Congress to give him the money to build a line of telegraph. At last the line was built, and the reverent message, "What hath The first God wrought!" was sent from Washington to Baltimore.

A TELEGRAPH SOUNDER

"Telegraph" means "far-writing," and it was a great mystery how writing could be done so far from where the message was given. Some did not believe any news that the telegraph brought until letters had come to prove that it was true. Some believed that the wonderful invention could not only carry the news, but collect it, and it is said that one woman objected to having a tele

telegraph