House of Representatives, two years afterwards, "found a corresponding response in the breasts of the free people of the United States." Congress, however, declined to sustain. it by any formal action. Congress ama. Some time afterwards, when the author of the of Pan- Monroe Doctrine had risen to the presidency, an invitation was received by the government from some of the Central and South American states to unite in a congress at Panama. The objects, ranging from mere commercial negotiations up to the Monroe Doctrine, were rather indefinite; but Adams appointed two envoys, whom the Senate confirmed, and for whom the House made the necessary appropriations, though not without great opposition, (December, 1825 — March, 1826.) One of the envoys died, the other did not go upon his mission; so that the congress began and ended without any representation from the United States, (June-July.) It adjourned to meet at Tacubaya, near Mexico, in the beginning of the following year. The ministers of the United States repaired to the appointed place, and at the appointed time, but there was no congress. An Thus terminated the vision of an American American league. league. of its having been realized on one side, the perils to which the United States would have been exposed, and on the other, the services which they might have rendered, amongst such confederates as those of Central and of South America. Administra tions. CHAPTER V. TARIFF COMPROMISE. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, the son of the second president, was elected by the House of Representatives the electoral colleges failing to make a choice to succeed Monroe, (1825.) Andrew Jackson, a rival candidate, was chosen by the people at the next election, (1829.) John C. Calhoun was vice president under both. Two men more unlike than Adams and Jackson, in associations and in principles, could hardly have been found amongst the politicians of the period. They resembled each other, however, in the resolution with which they met the dangers of their times. Question The great question before the country for several before the years was one as old as the Constitution; older, country. even, inasmuch as it occupied a chief place in the debates of the Constitutional Convention. It was the subordination of the state to the nation. Georgia versy. The first occasion to revive the question, and to contro- invest it with fresh importance, was a controversy between the national government and the government of Georgia. Many years had passed since that state consented to cede her western lands, including the present Alabama and Mississippi, on condition that the government would extinguish the Indian title to the territory of Georgia itself. Of twenty-five millions of acres then held by the Creek nation, fifteen had been bought up by the United States, and transferred to Georgia. Half of the remaining ten millions belonged to the Cherokees, and half to the Creeks, a nominal treaty with the latter of whom declared the United States possessors of all the Creek territory within the limits both of Georgia and of Alabama, (1825.) This treaty, however, agreed to by but one or two of the chiefs, provoked a general outbreak on the part of the Creeks. To pacify them, or rather to do common justice to them, the government first suspended the treaty, and then entered into a new one, by which the cession of land was confined to the Georgian territory. A longer time was also allowed for the removal of the Indians from the ceded country, (April, 1826.) What satisfied the Creeks dissatisfied the Georgians or their authorities. Governor Troup accused the administration of violating the law of the land, in the shape of the earlier treaty, hinting at anti-slavery motives for the course that had been taken, and calling upon the adjoining states to "stand by their arms." Not confining himself to protests or defensive measures, Troup sent surveyors into the Indian territory. President Adams communicated the matter to Congress, asserting his intention "to enforce the laws, and fulfil the duties of the nation by all the force committed for that purpose to his charge." Whereat the governor wrote to the secretary of war, "From the first decisive act of hostility, you will be considered and treated as a public enemy," (1827.) Fortunately, the winds ceased. The state that had set itself against the nation more decidedly than had ever yet been done returned to its senses. As for the unhappy Indians, not only the Creeks, but all the other tribes that could be persuaded to move, were gradually transported to more distant territories in the west. Tariffs. Other causes were operating to excite the states, or some of them, against the general government. Amidst the vicissitudes of industry and of trade through which the nation was passing, repeated attempts were made to steady affairs by a series of tariffs in favor of domestic productions. The first measure, intended to serve for protection rather than for revenue, was adopted at the beginning of the period embraced in a previous chapter, (1816.) It was a duty, principally, upon cotton fabrics from abroad. Some years afterwards, a new scale was framed, with provision against foreign woollens, as well as cottons, (1824.) This not turning out as advantageous to the home manufactures as was anticipated, an effort for additional protection was made; but at first in vain. On one side were the manufacturers, not merely of cotton and of woollen goods, but of iron, hemp, and a variety of other materials, clustered in the Northern and Central States. On the other were the merchants, the farmers, and the artisans of the same states, with almost the entire population of the agricultural south. A convention of the manufacturing interests, attended by delegates from New England, the Middle States, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, was held at Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania. We want protection," was the language used by the delegates, "and it matters not if it amounts to prohibition;" in which spirit they pressed what they called the American System upon the federal government, (July-August, 1827.) The administration, by the report of the secretary of the treasury, commended the subject to the favorable attention of Congress. That body took it up, and after protracted discussions, consented to a tariff in which the system of protection was carried to its height. Its adversaries called the bill a bill of abominations, many of which, however, were introduced by themselves, with the avowed intention of making the measure as odious and as short lived as possible, (December, 1827-May, 1828.) Nullification at the south. All the interests of the north were by no means consulted by the recent tariff. Meetings had been held to prevent its passage; nor was it received, when passed, without murmurs and remonstrances. But it was in the south that the flames burst forth most violently. State rights, the relations of master and slave, as well as the cotton market, principles and interests of every sort were declared to be threatened. While the tariff was in abeyance, South Carolina instructed her representatives to oppose the bill, taking care that "the state should appear as a sovereign, not as a suppliant." After the bill became a law, South Carolina pronounced it unconstitutional; so did Georgia; so did Virginia; in fact, it was a trial among the states which should precipitate itself the deepest into nullification. The administration stood firm. "To the voice of just complaint," the president had said, "from any portion of their constituents, the representatives of the states and people will never turn away their ears. But so long as the duty of the foreign shall operate only as a bounty upon the domestic article, the planter, and the merchant, and the shepherd, and the husbandman will not denounce, as violations of the Constitution, the deliberate acts of Congress to shield the native industry of the Union." Remo Jackson came into office to devote himself at first to vals from those who had elected him. Never before had the office. nation been under so professedly a party rule. Its subjection was proved by the removals from office of such as had served under the previous administrations. In all the forty years that had elapsed since the opening of the government, the successive presidents had removed just sixty-four public officers, and no more. Jackson turned out the servants of government by the hundred. This imprinting a partisan character upon the administration was far |