Tyler and Congress.-Before Harrison's death he had issued a call for a special session of congress, which convened in the following May and continued in session until September. During that time there was constant clashing between Tyler and the Whig majority in congress. A bill repealing the Sub-Treasury Act was promptly passed. There having been many business failures during the recent commercial disaster, congress sought to relieve business men in all sections of the country from their debts by passing a general bankruptcy law. The Independent Treasury out of the way, congress now sought to restore the United States Bank by passing an act rechartering it. To the chagrin of the Whigs, Tyler vetoed the bill. The party leaders now sought a conference with the president, and secured his approval of a bill looking to the recharter of the bank. This bill was promptly passed through congress, but Tyler, disregarding his pledge, again used his power of veto.

The Whigs, angered by this unexpected opposition from the man whom they had been instrumental in placing in the presidential chair, bitterly denounced Tyler as a traitor. Led by Clay, they read him out of the party and forced him, during the remainder of his administration, to act with the Democratic party. The entire cabinet resigned excepting only Webster, who remained until he had settled the northeastern boundary dispute with England.

416. The Tariff of 1842.-When the Whig congress of 1841 convened, it found itself facing a deficit of eleven million dollars inherited from Van Buren's administration. The time, too, had arrived when duties were to be reduced to the lowest point, as provided in Clay's Compromise Tariff of 1833. The Whigs, true to their party pledges, passed a tariff act which was promptly vetoed by Tyler. Another act was now prepared, and met with a similar fate. Millard Fillmore then came forward with a measure which, through his personal influence, he induced Tyler to support. This bill became a law in 1842, and remained in force four years.

It was chiefly a revenue bill, though slightly protective. It soon discharged the deficit, and by the end of Tyler's administration another surplus had accumulated in the treasury.

417. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty: The Northeastern Boundary-1842.-Since the treaty of 1783 there had been a constant dispute between the United States and Great Britain over the northeastern boundary-particularly that portion located on the line between Maine and New Brunswick. This dispute had at times threatened the peaceful relations of the two countries. All efforts to settle it satisfactorily had failed until the year 1842, when the two governments agreed to refer the question at issue to Daniel Webster as secretary of state, and Lord Ashburton as the representative of Great Britain.

By the treaty which they made, the northeastern boundary was established at its present limits-from the mouth of the St. Croix River on the Atlantic coast to the St. Lawrence River. The treaty also provided for fixing the northern boundary of the United States westward from the upper extremity of Lake Huron along the present boundary line, to the crest of the Rocky Mountains, leaving the northwestern boundary-northern boundary of Oregon-still unsettled.

418. Dorr's Rebellion in Rhode Island 1842.-Rhode Island had for two hundred years acted under the charter which had been granted to Roger Williams by Charles II. This, her only constitution, contained some provisions which were not in keeping with the growth of republican ideas in America. One clause was particularly objectionable—that restricting the right to vote to property holders. At the time of the adoption of a new constitution in 1842, two rival parties contested for the control of the state. The "Law and Order party," acting under the old charter, elected a governor and proceeded, in a regular way, to organize the state government under the new constitution. The

"Suffrage party," throwing the charter aside, elected Thomas W. Dorr as governor, and organized a rival government. A clash resulted, but Dorr's rebellion was soon suppressed by the aid of the United States troops. Dorr was tried for treason in Rhode Island and imprisoned, but afterwards released.

419. The Patroon War: Antirent Difficulties-1844.-A domestic disturbance also occurred in New York, called the "Patroon War," growing out of the old "patroon system" established in 1629.

Owing to the generosity of the wealthy proprietor of one of these rich estates-the Van Rensselaer-in the vicinity of Albany, rents had not been collected from the tenants for several years. This proprietor dying in 1839, his heirs undertook to force the collection of all back rents. This collection the tenants resisted, even going so far as to heap indignities upon officers of the law, who were sent to enforce the collection of the rents. Tenants on other estates imitated their example. Finally, open revolt resulted, and riot and bloodshed followed. The aid of the military was called in and the revolt suppressed. The tenants continuing to resist, the question was taken to the New York Court of Appeals, which in 1852 gave a decision, in the main sustaining the contention of the antirenters, although the matter has not to this day been quite satisfactorily settled.

420. The Mormons. Another domestic disturbance occurred, this time of a religious nature. The Mormons, under the leadership of their prophet, Joseph Smith, settled in Jackson County, Missouri, where they rapidly multiplied until they numbered some fifteen hundred people. Their practices and their teachings were so objectionable to their neighbors that the state of Missouri, through the aid of its militia, in 1839, ejected them from the state. Crossing the Mississippi into the state of Illinois, they laid out, on a high bluff overlooking the river, the city of Nauvoo, and there 1 See Sec. 103, page 91,

erected a Mormon temple. Here they continued to increase more rapidly than before, their settlement numbering by the year 1844 ten thousand persons.

The greatest hostility was manifested toward this sect. They were held responsible, perhaps unjustly, for many murders and thefts which had been committed in the vicinity. Their doctrines were abhorred. An uprising against them was threatened, when Smith and his brother were arrested,

taken across the river into Missouri, and imprisoned at Carthage. Here the people stormed the jail in which the "prophet" was confined, and killed Smith and his brother. Determined to drive the Mormons from the state, the Illinois legislature annulled the charter of the city of Nauvoo. Acts of violence continuing against them, the Mormons now determined to retire beyond the bounds of civilization. They sojourned for a while in the vicinity of Council Bluffs, Iowa; and a few years later transplanted their entire settlement beyond the Rocky Mountains, and began the building of a "Mormon Empire" at Salt Lake City. Brigham Young succeeded Smith as the Mormon prophet.

BUNKER HILL MONUMENT

421. Bunker Hill Monument-1842.-The year 1842 marks the completion of the Bunker Hill monument, located on the crest of Bunker Hill, Boston, Massachusetts. At the time of Lafayette's visit in 1825, that hero had laid the corner-stone, and Daniel Webster, then in the prime of life, had delivered the oration. At the completion of the monument in 1842, Webster again, at the age of sixty, delivered an oration to an audience of twenty-five thousand of his fellow countrymen.

The occasion was one of great patriotic interest in which the whole nation joined. All hearts were stirred as the great orator referred to Lafayette as the "electric spark through which liberty had been transmitted from the new to the old world”; and in a burst of the grandest eloquence paid tribute to the soldiers of the Revolution. The reference was all the more pathetic, since there sat upon the platform with the orator a few old veterans,-gray, grizzled, and bent with the weight of years-the remnant of the army of the Revolution.

422. The "Gag-Rule" and the Right of Petition.-In 1836 the republic of Texas applied for admission to the United States. The abolition societies at once sent petition after petition to congress opposing its annexation on grounds of slavery. This angered the slaveholding members of the house of representatives, which on the suggestion of the southern members revived an old rule prohibiting the house from receiving petitions in any way referring to the question of slavery. Ex-President John Quincy Adams, then a member of the house, with all the powers of his eloquence protested against this "gag-rule" as an infringement of the constitutional rights of the individual citizen of the republic.

From that time until the year 1842, the "Old Man Eloquent" persistently attacked the rule, and fought for the "right of petition." He was abused on all sides by the members from the slaveholding states, but he kept up the fight. On one occasion he introduced a petition signed by a number of slaves, whereupon the wrath of the southern members knew no bounds. The greatest disorder prevailed in the house, when the high falsetto voice of Adams rang out clear above the din, as he read the concluding clause in the petition-begging the congress of the United States not to abolish the institution of slavery. The slaveholding members, disconcerted and baffled, saw nothing laughable in this incident, and never forgave Adams for presenting the petition.