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or by change of policy at home. The people of New CHAP. England had complained of these changes. Their climate and soil forbade their becoming rivals of their sister States 1828. in agriculture, and their industry had been turned into other channels, especially those of commerce and the fisheries. Upon them had fallen nearly all the losses inflicted by the cruisers of France and England, and yet they had been more discouraged and had suffered more loss by the embargoes and other restrictions of their own government. During this period, the central position of New York had been gradually drawing to herself much of the commerce and shipping that once belonged to Boston. A territory so extensive, and climates so diverse, brought into existence many kinds of industry that were liable to be injured or ruined by foreign competition. At first New England was opposed to the policy of protection, and the Middle and Southern States were in its favor. Now this was reversed. New England had been forced to adapt her industry to the change of national policy, while the South had changed her views.

Said Webster, when this bill was under discussion in Congress "New England held back and labored to restrain the General Government from the adoption of this policy, but when it was adopted she then adapted herself to it, and turned herself to manufactures, but now just as she is successful, another change is to be brought about, and she set adrift in another direction."

The South, on the other hand, expected to reap the harvest, not merely from the exports of the raw material, but also a due share of the profits arising from manufactures. She was disappointed in seeing northern towns becoming cities, and southern cities decaying; the North a money lender, the South a borrower. Before the Revolution she was pre-eminently the richest part of the colonies, a position which she fully expected to retain after that period. Hers were the only exports from the

XLVII.

1

CHAP. land; the North was dependent upon commerce and fisheries; both precarious. Since the Revolution, the South 1828. had exported more in value than three times all that the mines of Mexico had produced for the same period, yet she did not prosper. This effect she attributed to the protective tariffs of the National Government. She failed to notice that this decline began before these tariffs were May imposed. Other causes aided in the result. A bill passed Congress, imposing higher duties upon cottons and woollens, and also other foreign articles, which would come into competition with those of domestic origin. The dissatisfaction felt in South Carolina led, two years after, to the open avowal on her part, of the doctrine of nullification and secession, based upon the ground that the act was unconstitutional.

15.

The contest for the office of President was between Adams and General Jackson. The "era of good feeling" had passed away, and party lines were stringently drawn. The spirit of the contest was more violent than ever before; and the whole nation seemed moved to its very centre. The denunciation of the candidates and their principles was, on both sides, unjust, unreasonable and disgraceful. The choice fell upon Jackson as President, and Calhoun as Vice-President. The election over, the excitement calmed down. This fact, as usual, was adduced as an evidence of the stability of our institutions, and of the willingness of the people to submit to the will of the majority. Yet who does not lament such exhibitions of party strife, or their demoralizing effects?

The nation had never been in a condition so prosperous as at this time. The national debt was much diminished, and a surplus of more than five millions of dollars was in the public treasury. The blessings of peace had been showered upon the land, and it was rejoicing in prosperity and abundance-the rewards of active industry.

'Benton's Thirty Years' View, Chap. xxxiv., Vol. i.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION.

Appointments to Office.-Removal of the Indians from Georgia.-Bank of the United States.-Hayne and Webster's Debate.-Nullification.-The Compromise Bill; its final Passage.-Removal of the Deposits.Effect upon the Country.-Indian Wars.-Black Hawk; Osceola.-Indemnity for French Spoliations.

XLVIII.

THE new President nominated the members of his cabi- CHAP. net, at the head of which he placed Martin Van Buren as Secretary of State. The Postmaster-General was now for the first time admitted as a Cabinet Officer.

The President professed to take the Constitution as the chart by which he should be governed in fulfilling the duties of his office; rather, it would seem, as he himself understood it, than as expounded by the Supreme Court of the United States. His vigorous arm was immediately exerted in favor of his political friends, and this gave to his administration a decided partisan character. The former Presidents, during a period of forty-four years, had removed sixty-four persons from office; during his rule of eight years, Jackson removed six hundred and ninety, and put in their places his political friends. These sweeping removals secured ardent partisans, as well as produced bitter opponents; but regardless of either friend or foe, the President pursued the course he had marked out, with his wonted determination.

1829.

CHAP. XLVIII.

During his administration, an unusual number of exciting questions came up for consideration, and the many 1829. interests thus involved affected the people in every State in the Union. The first important measure, was the removal of the Cherokee Indians from the State of Georgia. They had been protected by the General Government, under Adams. The Supreme Court of the United States had decided in their favor, and against the action of the State; but that decision had little influence with the President. He did not rebuke the State, when she began to drive them from their homes, and to distribute their lands, many of them cultivated farms, among her own citizens. He sent General Scott with troops to remove them, and his kindness and persuasions induced them to migrate peacefully; yet with lamentations, they 183 took leave of "the beloved land."

Their sacrifices as a people were very great, not only in the loss of property, but in the check given to their industrial and moral progress. The self-denying labors

of missionaries and teachers had enabled them to advance rapidly toward a Christianized civilization. They derived their sustenance from their own cultivated fields; they clothed themselves almost entirely with the fabrics which their women spun and wove; they lived in settled habitations, some of wood and some of brick; they made provision for the education of their children-five hundred of whom were in schools-besides endowing a National Academy for the youth further advanced. They also established a newspaper, printed partly in English, and partly in their own language. "We hope," said they, "that with God's blessing the time will soon come when the words war-whoop and scalping-knife will be heard no more.

Two of their missionaries, the Rev. S. A. Worcester and Dr. Elisur Butler, were ruthlessly imprisoned in the penitentiary by the authority of the State of Georgia,

UNITED STATES BANK-FOOT'S RESOLUTION.

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though they acted in accordance with the law of the land, CHAP. as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States, in refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the State.

Chief Justice Marshall, in pronouncing the opinion of the court, declared the act of the State to be "repugnant to the Constitution, treaties and laws of the United States; and therefore void, and ought to be reversed and annulled, and the prisoners discharged. Yet these men obtained no redress on their appeal to the General Government, either for themselves or the Indians.

When at length liberated from prison, the missionaries accompanied the Indians to their distant homes beyond the Mississippi, there to labor for their good.

The President, in his first message to Congress, intimated his hostility to the Bank of the United States, and his design of refusing his signature to any bill renewing its charter.

However, when the stockholders of the Bank applied to Congress, a bill to renew its charter passed both Houses, and the President refused to sign it. He gave, as a reason, his opinion that Congress had no constitutional authority to charter such an institution, and moreover he deemed it inexpedient to continue the Bank.

As the bill could not obtain the requisite two-thirds vote to become a law, the Bank was forced to close its affairs, when its charter should expire.

1829.

1836,

Senator Foot, of Connecticut, submitted a resolution of inquiry as to the disposal of the public lands. The de- 1830. bate on the resolution took a wide range, in the course of which the young and brilliant Senator, Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina, avowed the opinion that any State had a right, as a sovereign power, to declare null and void any act of Congress, which that State deemed unconstitutional. 'This was the first time that the doctrine of nullification