and manufacturing North as a menace to the more pastoral South; by others as an attempt to discriminate against the slave-labor States; by a third, of whom Mr. Calhoun was the leader, as clearly and mischievously unconstitutional. This latter position was assumed with greatest defiance by the people of South Carolina. Immediately upon the passage of the bill the legislature passed resolutions declaring the tariff acts to be unconstitutional, and therefore null and void and not. binding upon the people, and inviting other States to cooperate with South Carolina in devising measures of resistance. Although this action created considerable excitement at the time, it found its expression for some years mainly in threatening and other intemperate language in the public press, on the stump, and in Congress; but the passage of the tariff bill of 1832 caused a renewal of the manifestations of 1824 and a more determined attitude upon the part of South Carolina. At a delegate convention called to consider the situation resolutions were passed condemnatory of the law, forbidding citizens of the State from paying any taxes under it, or accepting any office as collector, or recognizing it in any manner. It was further declared that if the United States should attempt to enforce these laws by military or naval force, the Union was to be dissolved and a convention called to frame a new constitution for South Carolina. The legislature, which met soon after the adjournment of this convention, ratified its action by passing laws in conformity with its suggestions. Ten thousand stand of arms were ordered purchased, and measures ordered to be taken to put the State in a condition of thorough defense.

The President (Jackson) met this defiance by his proclamation of December 10, 1832, in which he declared the ordinances of the convention to be subversive of the Federal Constitution, and after appealing to the sense of justice, reason, and patriotism of the people of South Carolina, announced his determination to enforce the laws at whatever hazard. In anticipation of the reception of this warning, two companies of artillery were ordered to Fort Moultrie on the 7th of November, and on the 12th the troops then at the Citadel in Charleston were strengthened by two additional companies from the forts in the harbor. The "Citadel" was the property of the State and contained arms belonging to the State, and as it was anticipated that its delivery would be demanded, the commanding officer was instructed to turn it over upon presentation of a proper and peaceable legal demand, but to resist any attack with all the force at his command. On the 18th the following confidential instructions were sent to General Scott, then commanding the Army:

[Confidential.]

WASHINGTON, November 18, 1832.

SIR: The state of affairs in South Carolina has occasioned much solicitude to the President. He indulges the hope that the intelligence and patriotism of the citizens will prevent any infraction of the Constitution and laws of the General Government.

But, while he anxiously looks for this result, he deems it possible, from the information he has received, that in the first effervescence of feeling some rash attempt may be made by individuals to take possession of the forts of the United States in the harbor of Charleston. The possibility of such a measure furnishes a sufficient reason for guarding against it. You are at liberty to take such measures either by strengthening these defenses, or by reenforcing these garrisons with troops drawn from any other posts, as you may think prudence and a just precaution require.

* * *

Your duty will be one of great importance and of great delicacy. You will consult fully and freely with the collector of the port of Charleston, and with the district attorney of South Carolina, and you will take no step, except what relates to the immediate defense and security of the posts, without their order and concurrence. The execution of the laws will be enforced through the civil authority, and by the mode pointed out by the acts of Congress. Should, unfortunately, a crisis arise, when the ordinary powers in the hands of the civil officers shall not be sufficient for this purpose, the President shall determine the course to be taken and the measures adopted. Till, therefore, you are otherwise instructed, you will act in obedience to the legal requisitions of the proper civil officers of the United States.

To the proclamation South Carolina responded by an order from the governor calling out 12,000 volunteers to maintain the supremacy of the laws of the State. The winter of 1832-33 was one of great anxiety. The volunteers had been ordered "to hold themselves in readiness to take the field at a moment's notice," and recruiting offices were opened at Charleston and other points for the purpose of enlisting men to resist the enforcement of the Federal laws. On the 16th of January the President, in a special message to Congress, recited the situation and asked for further authority. February 1 had been fixed as the date when the open resistance was to take effect, but this date passed without disturbance. On the 28th of February a bill passed both houses of Congress extending the jurisdiction of the Federal courts in cases arising under the revenue laws, and empowering the use of any additional military force necessary to maintain the peace and supremacy of the laws. The effect of this unexpected action was instantaneous. South Carolina, finding herself unsupported by any other State, and realizing the hopelessness of continuing a contest that was certain to have but one result, finally rescinded the ordinances of the convention and disbanded the militia. "

a President's message, January 16, 1833, transmitting certain documents, proclamations, orders, etc., in relation to the opposition of South Carolina to the execution of the laws. (Senate Doc. No. 30, Twenty-second Congress, second session, 112 pages.) President's message, February 12, 1833, transmitting copies of orders given the military and naval commanders at Charleston, S. C. (Senate Doc. No. 71, Twenty-second Congress, second session.) Resolutions of the legislature of South Carolina, December 20, 1832, declaring the late proclamation of the President of the United States to be unconstitutional and unprecedented. (Senate Doc. No. 24, Twenty-second Congress, second session.)

The Black Hawk war.

The same year (1832) witnessed the culmination of the hostile aggressions of the Sac and Fox Indians upon the borders of Illinois and Michigan, that had been going on since the earliest settlements. While there was never any serious doubt as to the ability of these States to take care of themselves, these constant and unprovoked aggressions seemed to render a severe lesson necessary in the trust that its impression would be permanent and salutary. To this end a campaign having been determined upon, the executives of the States of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and of the Territory of Michigan were called upon to furnish a small quota of militia, and these, to the number of 3,000, in combination with some 1,500 regular troops, were concentrated under the command of Brigadier-General Atkinson, and in June-July moved in several columns upon the Indians. The campaign terminated in the unqualified submission of the hostile tribes, and the adoption of measures for the permanent security of the frontier. But the experiences of this campaign exposed some of the serious faults of our military system, and impelled the President to urge the adoption of some method by which the defects may be remedied. In his annual message December 4, 1832, the President (Jackson) remarked:

Neither our situation nor our institutions require or permit the maintenance of a large regular force. History offers too many lessons of the fatal result of such a measure not to warn us against its adoption here. The expense which attends it, the obvious tendency to employ it because it exists, and thus to engage in unnecessary wars, and its ultimate danger to public liberty, will lead us, I trust, to place our principal dependence for protection upon the great body of the citizens of the Republic. If, in asserting rights or in repelling wrongs, war should come upon us, our regular force should be increased to an extent proportioned to the emergency, and our present small Army is a nucleus around which such force could be formed and embodied. But for the purposes of defense under ordinary circumstances we must rely upon the electors of the country.

1821-1846.

The specter of a regular army, and an assumed confidence in the heroism of the people, so eloquently set forth by the President, were an expression of the sentiment of the political party he represented, rather than of his own or of the people at large. At that time and for the ten years preceding it the Regular Army had been too insignificant in numbers to call forth other feelings than those Strength of the Regular Army, of commiseration. The act of March 2, 1821, which had fixed the strength at 6,126, had been supplemented by those of April 15, and June 15 and 28, 1832, which by the addition of a regiment of mounted riflemen and a few minor changes in the organization, had increased it about a thousand, so that up to 1836 the aggregate of the Army had not exceeded an authorized strength of 7,129. This small force, something less than a European brigade, was posted along a coast line of 2,000 miles and a frontier of 3,500, garrisoning 42 to 50 posts and 10 arsenals, and pretending to afford

the necessary protection and defense to a population of more than 13,000,000, scattered over an area of 2,000,000 square miles. By acts of May 23 and July 4, 1836, this meager force was increased by the addition of a regiment of dragoons to 7,957, and July 5 and 7, 1838, to 12,559, where it remained until the desirability of making certain military demonstrations against Mexico in 1846 necessitated a trifling increase.

The Sabine affair,

1836.

The struggle for Texan independence, which deeply engrossed the interest and sympathy of our people, was the occasion of much embarrassment to the Government. Large numbers of adventurous Americans, in their desire to contribute to the cause of liberty, crossed the frontier and joined the Texan fighting forces, and this having been made a matter of complaint by the Government of Mexico, General Gaines, who commanded the Western Department, was instructed to preserve a strict neutrality and to prevent all armed bodies from entering Texas from this side of the border. But notwithstanding his efforts armed men crossed the line at a hundred unguarded points and contributed no inconsiderable strength to the Texan cause. As a method of prevention-perhaps of retaliation-it was rumored that the Mexican Government had sent envoys to the Indians residing along the borders of Louisiana, to arouse and entice them to join the war against Texas. To inquire into this rumor General Gaines, with a considerable escort, was directed to proceed to the frontier. He reached Natchitoches, a town on the Red River, about 50 miles east from the river Sabine, which formed the boundary between the two countries, about the middle of April, 1836, where, deeming that the rumors were well founded, and the frontier settlements exposed to danger, he called upon the Governor of Louisiana for a brigade of volunteers, and upon the governors of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Mississippi, for a regiment each of mounted men; in all, 10,000 men. General Gaines's letters to the Secretary of War show that at the time he called for the militia, he had reason to believe that the Mexicans were on their way in force to the Sabine; that a battle with them and their Indian allies was imminent, and that a war between the two countries had already commenced. In that view of the situation, Congress was asked for an appropriation of $1,000,000 to carry on the war, and General Gaines was authorized to cross the Sabine into Texan territory, "if he deemed such a measure necessary, for the defense of the frontier." Acting upon this qualified permission, he moved a column of several hundred men across the Sabine on the 10th of July, and occupied the town of Nacogdoches, about 50 miles to the westward of the river within Texas territory.

As soon as it became known to the President that General Gaines had crossed into Texan territory and made requisition upon the neighboring States for volunteers, he refused to give it his sanction, and

although the States upon which requisition had been made had taken prompt measures to fill their quota, the requisition was recalled, and such men as had been enrolled were mustered out and discharged. Orders were also sent to General Gaines to withdraw at once from Texas territory. The rumors of the Mexican advance having proved to be wholly unfounded, and General Houston having arrived at Nacogdoches with a considerable force of Texans, there was no further danger from Indian attack, and no longer an excuse for this extraordinary occupation of a foreign territory. On the 17th of December, 1836, he abandoned his camp at Nacogdoches and recrossing the Sabine, returned to United States soil. General Gaines was severely criticised for this movement into which he seems to have been drawn by carefully planned misinformation and too implicit a confidence in the Texan authorities, whose interest it was that the United States should countenance their plans." The prompt response of the States to this sudden and unexpected call, however, demonstrated that reliance was still to be placed in the militia system.

Intruders on the Cherokee lands.

In every emergency up to this date, and in fact for many years later, the paucity of the Regular Army rendered a call upon the militia an indispensability. This necessity was to be repeated in 1838, when the withdrawal of the troops from Camp Armistead, in the Cherokee country, had afforded the opportunity for a large number of unauthorized persons to enter upon the lands occupied by the Cherokees within the limits of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Under date of March 13, 1833, two companies of artillery were ordered to that section "to receive and execute any instructions they may receive from the governor of North Carolina in regard to the removal of the intruders on the Cherokee lands within the limits of that State," and three companies of the Fourth Infantry then at Augusta Arsenal were ordered to march to Fort Mitchell, Ala., to remove intruders within that State and Georgia, under the instructions of the district attorney of Alabama. These efforts to protect the rights of the Cherokees proved in the end ineffectual, and it was determined to remove them to lands west of the Mississippi. To accomplish this the governors of these four States were called upon in the spring of 1838 to furnish a militia force to be mustered into the service of the United States for a period

a Secretary of War (Cass) to Major-General Gaines, January 23, April 25, May 4, July 12, August 20, 1836. General Gaines to Secretary of War, March 29, April 8, May 11, July 4, 11, 1836. Secretary of War to chairman Ways and Means, May 4, 1836. General Gaines to governor of Tennessee, August 28, 1836. Message of President Jackson to Congress, May 14, 1836. General Macomb to Secretary of War, New Orleans, April 25, 1836. Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Richardson), vol 3, pp. 234, 236. Niles Register, vols. 50, 51, index.

b Major-General Macomb to Brevet Major-General Scott, March 13, 1833.