lowered. South Carolina's reply was the "Nullification Act" of November 19, 1832, declaring the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 "null and void." This act further declared that the state of South Carolina would permit no tariff duties to be collected at any ports of entry in South Carolina; and finally made the bold declaration, "that, if the general government should attempt to use force to maintain the authority of the Federal law, the state of South Carolina would secede from the union." Just three weeks later, President Jackson issued his famous nullification proclamation, in which he announced that the union "must and shall be maintained." Declaring his determination to enforce the laws of the United States, he ordered troops under General Winfield Scott to Charleston. In the meantime, congress had passed Clay's compromise tariff bill, providing for a gradual reduction of tariff duties. This bill being satisfactory to both sides, the crisis passed. 402. National Nominating Conventions.-The presidential election of 1832 marks the beginning of national nominating conventions. The first national nominating convention was held by the "Anti-Masonic" party, a short-lived organization opposed to secret societies, which met at Baltimore in September, 1831, and nominated William Wirt as a candidate for the presidency. In the December following, the National-Republican party met in the same city and nominated Henry Clay to succeed Jackson. In May, 1832, the Democratic national convention met at Baltimore and nominated Jackson to succeed himself as president, and named Martin Van Buren as the candidate for vice-president. 403. Origin of the Whig Party in 1834.-The leaders of the National-Republican party, finding themselves unable to muster strength enough to overcome the Democratic party, formed a union (1834) of all the factions opposed to Jackson. This coalition opposed the power of the president, whom they charged with usurpation, and took the name of "Whigs"-in imitation of the revolutionary party which opposed King George during the struggle for independence. The Whigs, having so recently organized, made no nominations in the election of 1835. Henry Clay was their first great leader. Strictly speaking, the Whig party was not a party at all, but a combination of parties representing many opposing views within its own ranks. This made it impossible for it to formulate any agreed statement of principles upon which all its membership could unite. It supported a protective tariff, stood for internal improvements, and a majority favored "loose construction. The Whigs won in two national elections, but disappeared after their defeat in 1852, on account of the fact that the party became divided upon the slavery question. 404. The Black Hawk and Florida Wars.-During, the years 1831-32, the Sac and Fox Indians, led by their noted chief, Black Hawk, refused to surrender certain lands in Illinois and Wisconsin, which they had ceded to the whites in 1830. In the war which ensued, Black Hawk was defeated and these Indians forced to move to the Indian land west of the Mississippi River. In this war two young men appear for the first time in American history-Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, a captain of the Illinois militia; and Jefferson Davis, a lieutenant in the regular army. In 1835 an attempt was made to remove the Seminole Indians to lands set aside for them west of the Mississippi. This precipitated a war known as the Florida war, characterized by the usual Indian barbarities. Osceola, chief of the Seminoles, was finally captured and confined as a prisoner of war at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, where he died some time later. The Indians were later defeated in the battle of Okechobee (1837) by Colonel Zachary Taylor. They, however, persisted in their opposition to removal until the year 1842. 405. New States Admitted: Arkansas-1836; Michigan— 1837.-Arkansas, the twenty-fifth state, was admitted to the union in 1836 as a slave state; and Michigan, the twenty-sixth, in 1837, as a free state. 406. The Fifth Census-1830.-The fifth census showed a population of 12,866,020, including 2,009,043 slaves, of which 3,568 were north of Mason and Dixon's line, the remainder south. 407. The Presidential Election of 1836.—In the election of 1836 Martin Van Buren of New York, the Democratic nominee, won over William Henry Harrison of Ohio, the Whig candidate-receiving one hundred seventy electoral votes as against seventy-three cast for Harrison. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky was elected vice-president by the senateno candidate for that office having received a constitutional majority in the electoral college. The Democrats adhered to the principles of Jackson, opposed the United States Bank and a protective tariff. The Whigs stood by the principles on which the party had been organized two years previous. In this election both the Democrats and Whigs were divided into factions. In the electoral college, South Carolina cast her votes for W. P. Mangum; and Tennessee and Georgia cast theirs for Hugh L. White, both of whom were Anti-Van Buren Democrats. Massachusetts cast her electoral votes for Daniel Webster, who with Clay had helped to organize the Whig party. VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION DEMOCRATIC: 1837-1841 408. Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States, was, like two of his predecessors, the son of a small farmer. He was admitted to the bar in 1803, and soon won distinction as an able lawyer. Like Jackson, Van Buren was a self-educated man, but he far excelled the former in polish and culture. He was a man of simple tastes and |