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an end to Mediterranean piracy, it had seen a Marshall* complete the establishment of American law upon a firm basis, it had sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clarke † across the continent to point the way to the Pacific Ocean and show the possibilities for growth in that direction; it had begun the new policy of purchasing Indian lands, and establishing the tribes on reservations where they should be educated to rely more upon agriculture than hunting; and it had fixed at Washington in some degree the fashions of republican simplicity which the first two Presidents dared not introduce for fear of compromising their official dignity.‡

During this administration, the subject of internal

*John Marshall was born at Germantown, Va., in 1755, and served in the army of the Revolution, resigning in 1781. He supported the Constitution, and contributed more to its adoption by his native State than any other person except Madison. Appointed Justice of the Supreme Court the last day of 1801, he occupied the high office thirty-five years. His decisions in the department of Constitutional law were of the greatest importance at the beginning of the nation, and have always been deemed of the highest authority. Judge Story said of them, that for "power of thought, beauty of illustration, variety of learning, and elegant demonstrations," they "are justly numbered among the highest reaches of the human mind."

† Lewis and Clark were commissioned by Jefferson in 1803 to explore the region between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. Lewis had been Jefferson's private Secretary, and Clarke was familiar with the Indians and their ways. Their expedition occupied more than two years, and was of great importance to geographical science and to the future growth of America.

Mr. Jefferson composed the epitaph which he wished upon his tomb, and it shows the importance that he placed upon the different acts of his administration. It is: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia."

improvements by the general government, made its entrance into American politics. It was denied by the strict constructionists that the Constitution gave the government power to appropriate money for the purpose, but they supported some of the most em

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phatic enterprises of the sort notwithstanding. In 1807, Secretary Gallatin was directed to report a scheme for a general movement in this direction, and the next year he proposed a great road from Maine to Georgia, to cost $7,800,000.00, and canals and other works estimated to cost in all twenty millions. The question stirred political circles for half a century. In 1838, John C. Calhoun declared that his life should be devoted to efforts to stop internal improvements by Congress, in the hope of restoring the government to its pristine purity, but in 1816, he had believed the powers of Congress ample to "bind the republic together by a perfect system of roads and canals," and reported a bill to appropriate money for the purpose.

This embryo capital, where fancy sees
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees;
Which second-sighted seers, e'en now, adorn,
With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn,
Though nought but woods and Jefferson they see,
Where streets should run and sages ought to be.

– Thomas Moore, Letter from Washington, in 1804.

CHAPTER XIX.

WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

AMES MADISON, of Virginia, a graduate of

the College of New Jersey, a scholar of extensive culture, and, as Jefferson said, "of a pure and spotless virtue which no calumny has ever attempted to sully," became the fourth President of the United States, March 4th, 1809. He was a man who made his mark by the strength of his character and the closeness of his logic; not by aggressiveness or impetuosity. At first a Federalist, and one of the authors. of the essays which so much influenced public opinion at the time that the Constitution was under consideration, he subsequently became a leader in the opposition party, and when he took the place of President Jefferson, made no change in the policy of the government. It was hoped, however, that he would not sympathize with the strong anti-British sentiments of his predecessor, and the public expected that the pending difficulties with England would soon be settled.

At the moment when the new President assumed his office, the Governor of Canada, Sir James Craig, was plotting in an underhanded way to undermine the Union, by commissioning an adventurer, John Henry by name, to go to Boston to organize a revolution in

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favor of England.* simply looking for an opportunity to fill his pockets, but he managed, three years later, to give the impression that he had been the accredited agent of the British government to increase the antagonism of the Federal party against the Union, to deepen the discontent already felt in New England, and to create a popular feeling in favor of the secession of the Eastern States and their union with Canada. The government paid Henry fifty thousand dollars for his pretended revelations, and the feeling of the public was strengthened against England to a wonderful extent. The Federalists could not prove the falsity of the story of Henry, though it was not shown that he had succeeded in corrupting a single American, and the Republicans, or Democrats, were glad to have such telling testimony against their partisan opponents as Henry was popularly supposed to have furnished. It was generally believed that the British ministry had been proved to be more hostile to America and less to be trusted than it had been supposed to be, and the war feeling was greatly increased.

This man seems to have been

The Embargo Act, which had been repealed three days before Madison entered office, was followed by other measures intended to offset the unfriendly acts of Great Britain and France, but they were neither successful nor popular. They all interfered with American commerce, and did no special damage to her opponents. In 1810, in seemed as though France was about to institute friendly measures, when Napoleon promised to retract his decrees of which the United States complained, provided England would recall its *See Schouler's "History of the United States," ii. 346-47.