that the court was practically reorganized and made a Democratic organ.

The stronghold of the Federalists was at last taken by their opponents, and it was destined to be held by them for twenty-eight years.

West of the Alleghanies, people considered the old class distinctions which long prevailed in the East unsuited to a country like ours. The West was aggressive. The whole population was stirring with land speculations; new manufactories, new canals, new railroads, new turnpikes. The hero of the West was Andrew Jackson. Had he not risen from poverty to be a great general? Had he not been "counted out" of the presidency? Certainly. The city of Washington was full of corruption, and it was high time that the people took possession of their government again.

At last, in 1828, the November day came when the Jackson men could vote again. For Jackson and Calhoun 647,231 votes were cast; for John Quincy Adams and Richard Rush, 509,097. Of the electoral vote, Jackson received 178, Calhoun 171, Adams and Rush 83. Only three states (New York, Delaware, and South Carolina) chose their electors by their legislatures. This showed how democratic the country had become. The party voting for Adams now called its members Whigs. It was in the minority in both houses. Andrew Jackson was a typical American of his day. He had received more votes than were ever before cast for anybody in America.

CHAPTER XXVII

IN THE DAYS OF JACKSON AND VAN BUREN

1829-1840

At last "a man of the people, as his supporters called him, was made President, and inaugurated March 4, 1829. He brought an army of other men of the people with him who took the offices that "the well-born" had so long held. Two thousand office-holders were turned out for what would now be termed "offensive partisanship," and their places filled by the President's supporters. This was the beginning of "the spoils system," which continued nearly seventy years, and which is not yet abolished. Many of Jackson's appointments were highly capable men. It was the Whigs who complained. No party stood for an efficient civil service. From 1829 our country was guided by a new

policy.

The tariff of 1828 divided the country into unfriendly sections. The South pronounced it unconstitutional, and with this idea some in the North agreed. But the majority of voters in the North believed in a tariff for protection and revenue, and not one for revenue only. A high protective tariff displeased the South, because its people manufactured almost nothing and imported much. They also exported nearly three-fifths of all the exports of the country. South wanted a low tariff, for revenue only; the North a high tariff, for both revenue and protection.

The

During the winter of 1830, a bill regulating the sale of public lands, known, from its author, as the "Foote Resolution," was under discussion. Senator Hayne, of South Carolina, on January 21, 1830, in a speech scarcely excelled in the annals of Congress, entered upon a masterly exposition of "State Sovereignty," the "Doctrine of 1798,' nullification and secession. On the 26th, Webster made his famous speech, known as the "Reply to Hayne," now

It con

considered the greatest ever delivered in Congress. cluded with the famous declaration: "Liberty and Union, now and forever; one and inseparable."

The Constitution requires that all taxes levied by Congress shall be uniform throughout the United States. The South insisted that the tariff of 1828 violated this provision. In the Senate, the leader of the South was John C. Calhoun. He had resigned the vice-presidency in order to re-enter the Senate to defend his ideas. His colleague, Robert Y. Hayne, warmly and ably supported him. In 1831, Calhoun in a powerful speech set forth the case of the South. He declared a tariff for protection unconstitutional and a violation of the rights of the states. In 1832, the tariff of 1828 was amended, and some duties taken off or reduced. But the principle of a tariff was not abandoned. Largely influenced by Calhoun, the legislature of South Carolina called a convention to consider the question of a tariff. It met at Columbia, and on the 24th of November passed an ordinance of nullification which declared the tariff laws of 1828 and 1832 "null and void"; forbade any citizen of South Carolina to pay the duties after February 1, 1833, and even made compliance with the laws an offense.

The summer of 1832 was full of excitement. What would Jackson do with South Carolina? The presidential election occurred in November. Jackson was the only person thought of by his party to succeed himself. He suggested that a convention be called to nominate a candidate for Vice-President. It met in Baltimore, March 22, 1832; was the first Democratic national convention, and nominated Martin Van Buren. The National Republicans (or Whigs) had met in convention, in the same city, December 12, 1831, and nominated Henry Clay for President and John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. This was the first national convention of the party..

It was not, however, the first national convention. The first had met in Baltimore, September 26, 1831, and had nominated William Wirt, of Maryland, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, as the anti-Masonic candidates. Jackson received 219 electoral votes, Van Buren 189, Clay and Sergeant 49, Wirt and Ellmaker 7 each. The popular

1832]

JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION

371

vote stood 687,502 for Jackson and 530,189 for Clay. South Carolina was the only state that chose presidential electors by its legislature. The re-election of Jackson by so large a vote showed the confidence of the country in him. On the 6th of December, 1832, the President issued a proclamation to the people of the United States, in which he reviewed the whole case of South Carolina. The review was masterly, and the proclamation ranks among the great state papers of America. Said Jackson: "I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed." He concluded his proclamation with an affectionate appeal to the people of South Carolina, whom he addressed as "fellow-citizens of my native state,' that they rescind their nullification act, support the government, and preserve the Union.

In compliance with the President's wishes, Congress on the 1st of March, 1833, passed a "force bill" authorizing him to use troops to enforce the collection of customs in South Carolina. Almost at the same time (March 2) it passed Clay's compromise bill, providing for the gradual reduction of the duties. During the progress of these bills, Calhoun delivered a great speech defending nullification and the right of a state to withdraw from the Union. Webster replied, in one of his powerful speeches, denying the existence of such rights. But Clay, by his compromise, had pulled the dragon's teeth. South Carolina met on March 11, and repealed its ordinance. Jackson was hailed as the savior of the Union. The Whigs thought Henry Clay had again saved the country by a compromise as he had saved it in 1820.

The West opposed the bank, because it maintained a monopoly of the business of the country. The new states wanted banks of their own. Jackson opposed the bank for many reasons, of which not the least was because the Whigs supported it. Another was because he believed it to be unconstitutional. He was not satisfied with the decision

He said Mar

of the Supreme Court sustaining the bank. shall and the court were wrong. Lest there be any doubt of his feelings, he suddenly announced, in his first message to Congress, in 1829, that he wholly disapproved of the bank, and that its charter ought not to be renewed. This was a declaration of war on the bank, for its charter had yet eight years to run. But the President was resolved to crush the bank, and have his supporters to understand that no one who favored it could expect favors from him. Every Jackson man understood that the Democratic party was now opposed to the bank. Opposition to it was, as we would now say, "a plank in the party's platform." Jackson construed his re-election as proof that the people wished the bank destroyed.

The Whig, or National Republican, platform advocated a different policy. Clay and Sergeant stood for "an adequate protection to American industry"; that is, a protective tariff; "a uniform system of internal improvements, maintained and supported by the general government." They maintained that "the doctrine . . . that 'to the victors belong the spoils of the vanquished' is detrimental to the interests, corruptive to the morals, and dangerous to the liberties of the country.'

Convinced that the people had repudiated the Whig platform, Jackson renewed his warfare on the bank. He instructed the Secretary of Treasury, William J. Duane, in 1833, to remove the public money from it, place it in designated state banks, and no longer deposit in the national bank. Duane refused to obey or to resign. Jackson declared the secretaryship vacant, and appointed Roger B. Taney (then Attorney-General) Secretary, and he obeyed. The Whigs at once nicknamed the chosen state banks "pet banks. But the President's course was a severe blow to the bank.

*They were the Girard, of Philadelphia; the Manhattan, Mechanics', and Bank of America, of New York; the Commonwealth and Merchants', of Boston; the Maine, of Portland; the Commercial, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire; the Burlington, of Vermont; the Farmers' and Mechanics', of Hartford, Connecticut; the Union, of Baltimore; the Metropolis, of Washington; the Virginia, of Richmond; the Union and Commercial, of New Orleans; the Alabama, of Mobile; the Planters', of Natchez, Mississippi; the Union, of Nashville, Tennessee, and the Franklin, of Cincinnati, Ohio.