carrying 63 guns, was captured on September 10, 1813, by Commodore Perry at the head of an American flotilla of 9 vessels with 54 guns (see ERIE, BATTLE OF LAKE); and this latter success enabled General Harrison to invade Canada, where he defeated General Proctor in the battle of the Thames (October 5th), in which the great Indian warrior-chief Tecumseh was killed. During the same period General Andrew Jackson in Alabama and Georgia defeated the Creek Indians, who had been incited to make war upon the frontier settlements. In the summer of 1814 General Jacob Brown, with Colonel Winfield Scott as his second in command, crossed to the Canadian side, captured Fort Erie (q.v.) on July 2d, and defeated General Riall at Chippewa on July 5th. On July 25th the indecisive battle of Lundy's Lane was fought, the Americans being under the immediate command of Scott; and the American forces then withdrew to Fort Erie, where they were besieged. (See FORT ERIE.) General Wilkinson also invaded Canada along the Sorel River, but was easily repulsed. A British invasion, by Lake Champlain, under Prevost, with 14,000 men and a flotilla on the lake, ended disastrously. On September 11th the flotilla was signally defeated in the harbor of Plattsburg by an American squadron under Commodore McDonough, while the army was repulsed on shore, and retreated with heavy loss. In August a British fleet ascended Chesapeake Bay and landed troops which, after dispersing with little difficulty a force of American militia at Bladensburg (q.v.), entered Washington and burned the Government buildings. A subsequent attack on Baltimore was unsuccessful. New York, New London, and Boston were blockaded, and a large expedition was sent against Mobile and New Orleans. On January 8, 1815, General Pakenham at tacked New Orleans, but his army was repulsed with great loss by General Jackson at the head of an inferior militia force. (See NEW ORLEANS, BATTLE OF.) This action was fought two weeks after peace had been concluded by the commissioners of England and the United States. From the middle of 1813 the fortunes of war alternated on the sea. On June 1, 1813, the American frigate Chesapeake was taken by the Shannon and the American sloop Argus by the Pelican on August 14th; the British brig Boxer was captured by the Enterprise on September 5, 1813; the American frigate Essex, after a memorable career under Porter, surrendered to the Phoebe and Cherub on March 28, 1814; the British brig Epervier was captured by the Peacock on April 29, 1814; the British sloop Avon was sunk by the Wasp on September 8, 1814; on January 15, 1815, after the conclusion of peace, the American frigate President was taken by the British; and on February 20th the American frigate Constitution captured the Cyane and the Levant. In December, 1814, the Federalists of New England held a convention at Hartford in opposition to the war and the Administration. (See HART FORD CONVENTION.) The treaty of peace concluded with England at Ghent on December 24, 1814 (see GHENT, TREATY OF), was announced in February, 18 15. The terms did not include any affirmative withdrawal of England's claim to search American ships, but nevertheless all parties in the country approved it. In 1815 Commodore Decatur commanded an expedition against the Algerians, whose corsairs had preyed on American commerce in the Mediterranean and dictated terms to Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. See BARBARY POWERS, WARS WITH THE. With the end of the War of 1812 came the virtual extinction of the Federalist Party, whose unpatriotic course during the struggle had made its name odious to the nation as a whole. It ceased, thereafter, to make itself felt in national affairs (see FEDERALIST PARTY), and for a time the country had the singular fortune to find all its citizens of one party, with principles derived from both the old party creeds. Perhaps the most marked influence left by the Federalists upon the political tenets of their opponents, and upon the popular mind, was to be found in the now very general recognition of the broad powers of the Central Government. This national idea had sustained the Republicans in the more liberal view which the war had compelled them to take of the inherent powers of the Federal Government. The noticeable effect of the war period in strengthening the nationalist tendency was immediately illustrated by the granting of the charter of the second United States Bank (see BANK, BANKING) in 1816, by the passage of the first really protective tariff, under the guidance of Dallas, in the same year (see TARIFF), and by the activity of Congress in attempting to appropriate large amounts of the national funds for public roads and similar improvements of a local character, an important bill for this purpose, passed by Congress in 1816, being, however, vetoed by Madison on the ground of its unconstitutionality. The tendency was also emphasized by judicial decisions (as in Martin vs. Hunter's Lessee, 1816, and Cohens vs. Virginia, 1821), establishing the supremacy of the Federal judicial power over that of the States, while in McCulloch vs. Maryland, in 1819, Chief Justice Marshall introduced into the law of the land his advanced views as to the relation of the States to the Union and elaborated his theory of the supreme and exclusive authority son's administration found the country, as of the latter. For the moment, the close of Madiwhole, scarcely divided by party differences, so that the Presidential election of November, 1816, resulted in the choice of James Monroe, of Virginia, as President, and Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, as Vice-President, these candidates receiving 183 electoral votes, while the votes of and Delaware-were cast for the Federalist canonly three States-Massachusetts, Connecticut, didate, Rufus King, of New York. The Federalists made no formal nomination for the office of a Vice-President. In Madison's first administration Louisiana was admitted into the Union (1812), and in the second Indiana (1816). VIII. and IX. ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES MONROE (1817-25). Cabinet.-Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, Massachusetts, March 5, 1817. Secretary of the Treasury, William H. Crawford, continued. Secretary of War, George Graham, Virginia, April 7, 1817; John C. Calhoun, South Carolina, October 8, 1817. Secretary of the Navy, B. W. Crowninshield, continued: Smith Thompson, New York, November 9, 1818; John Rogers, Massachusetts, September 1, 1823; Samuel L. Southard, New Jersey, September 16, 1823; Attorney-General, Richard Rush, continued; William Wirt, Virginia, November 13, 1817; Postmaster-General, R. J. Meigs, continued; John McLean, Ohio, June 26, 1823. The period of Monroe's term of office has been commonly known in American political history as the Era of Good Feeling. Party questions were in abeyance, and when, in May, 1817, the President began an extended tour in the Northern and Western States, the warmth of the welcome given him by all classes of the people showed that the nation was contented, prosperous, and loyal. In accordance with the recommendations of the President's first message, the slightly protective tariff of 1816 was continued for seven years. (See TARIFF.) On December 10, 1817, Mississippi was admitted to the Union. In 1818 (December 3d) Illinois became a State, and on February 22, 1819, the United States purchased from Spain for $5,000,000 the territory of east and west Florida (in which region hostilities had recently been carried on against the Seminole Indians), together with all the claims which Spain might have to territory as far west as the Pacific, north of the forty-second parallel, including, of course, the Oregon country; while the United States relinquished all claim to the province west of the Sabine River (Texas). This treaty, however, was not formally ratified until 1821. Early in 1818 the people of the Territory of Missouri (q.v.), which had been included in the Louisiana Purchase, applied for admission to the Union. A bill providing for such admission was framed, but amended in the House in such a way as to forbid slavery in the new State. As so amended, the bill passed the House by the votes of the members from the free States, but was defeated in the Senate. This action brought the question of slavery prominently into the sphere of national politics, never again to disappear until the extinction of that institution as the result of the war between the States in 1861-65. In the Congress which met in December, 1819, the question of the admission of Missouri was again brought forward, coupled with a proposition for the admission of Maine, which had hitherto been a part of Massachusetts. An arrangement known as the Missouri Compromise' (q.v.) was effected (1820) by the action of Clay and the conservative members of both sections, which provided that the admission of Maine and Missouri should be voted upon separately, that slavery should be permitted in Missouri, but that slavery should forever be prohibited in territories acquired from France north of the parallel of 36° 30' except Missouri. Maine was admitted in 1820 and Missouri in 1821, the latter step having been delayed by a vigorous debate in Congress occasioned by a clause in the proposed State Constitution which prohibited the settling of free negroes in the State (see MISSOURI COMPROMISE), the Missouri Legislature finally pledging the State not to shut out any negro citizen of another State. At the same session of Congress, Alabama was admitted to the Union (December 14, 1819). In 1820 the Presidential campaign resulted in the reëlection of Monroe and Tompkins, Monroe receiving all the electoral votes but one, which was cast for John Quincy Adams. In 1821 the strict constructionists among the Republicans defeated bills looking to a national canal system and a higher tariff, and the Presi dent vetoed a bill for the outlay of national funds upon the Cumberland Road (q.v.). In December, 1823, in his annual message to Congress, Monroe promulgated the famous declaration that has since been known as the Monroe Doctrine (q.v.). In 1824, the nationalist policy being then followed by a majority in both Houses, there was adopted a more strictly protective tariff, framed with the design of excluding foreign competitors from American markets (see TARIFF), while a bill for making surveys for a national canal system also became law. The political issues arising out of the founding of a new government as well as out of international complications had now lost their importance, and attention was becoming centred on internal matters, as to none of which were sectional or factional issues as yet clearly drawn, although the sudden introduction of the slavery question into Congressional politics was to acquire more significance than any other circumstance of the administration. However, as there was now only one political party, the Republican, the Presidental election of 1824 was largely a personal and factional contest. When the electoral votes were counted, 99 were for Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee; 84 for John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts; 41 for William H. Crawford, of Georgia; and 37 for Henry Clay, of Kentucky; there being thus no choice for President, and the decision being thrown into the House of Representatives, where, by a coalition of the supporters of Clay and Adams, the latter was finally chosen, Adams receiving the votes of thirteen States, while Jackson had those of seven, and Crawford those of four. The electors had chosen John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, to be Vice-President, by a vote of 182 to 78 for various other candidates. X. ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (1825-29). Cabinet.-Secretary of State, Henry Clay, Kentucky, March 7, 1825. Secretary of the Treasury, Richard Rush, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1825. Secretary of War, James Barbour, Virginia, March 7, 1825; Peter B. Porter, New York, May 26, 1828. Secretary of the Navy, S. L. Southard, continued. Attorney-General, William Wirt, continued. Postmaster-General, John McLean, continued. A new division of the American people into parties dates from the beginning of this administration. The party previously known as Republican or Democratic-Republican soon took the name of Democratic (see DEMOCRATIC PARTY), while the Clay and Adams factions, which had been identified with the doctrine of loose construction, after taking the name of National Republican, changed it eventually to that of Whig (see WHIG PARTY), by which the party continued to be known for some twenty-five years. The basis for the new party division lay largely in the factional differences between the followers of Adams and those of Jackson, and one result of this was the prolonged controversy throughout the administration of Adams and the development of especially bitter relations between the factions of the leaders, which continued throughout the two terms of Jackson. Owing to the determined obstruction which was made by the opponents of the Administration, few of its measures were carried, so that the net results of the four years' work were comparatively slight, and the period became distinguished chiefly by the partisan conflicts preliminary to the overthrow of the Adams faction in 1828. During the suspension of commerce by the War of 1812, large amounts of capital were withdrawn from trading ventures and diverted to manufacturing establishments, with the result that gradually New England and the Northern coast States ceased to be free-trade regions, and became desirous of a protective tariff policy, while the South arrayed itself on the side of free trade. Upon the return of peace, the new manufacturing establishments were not firmly enough established to compete successfully with the foreign manufacturers, and accordingly in 1824 an act was passed for the purpose of giving the control of the home market to the wool manufacturers. This failing of its purpose, a national convention of protectionists at Harris burg, Pa., in July, 1827, advocated a strongly protective policy, and in 1828 a tariff framed in accordance with these views became law. The South denounced this measure as being sectional legislation, intended to benefit New England and the Middle States at the expense of the South, and the doctrine of Nullification (q.v.), which had been promulgated in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798( see VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS), and had been revived in South Carolina in 1827, began to be widely accepted in the Southern States. Adams's administration was further marked by the expenditure by the National Government of some $14,000,000 for 'internal improvements,' by the rapid immigration to the West greatly promoted by the opening of the Erie Canal, and by the debates in Congress over the advisability of sending delegates to the Panama Congress (q.v.). In 1828 the Democratic candidate for President, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, received 178 electoral votes to 83 cast for John Quincy Adams; and John C. Calhoun was reelected Vice-President, having 171 electoral votes. The accession of President Jackson was the beginning of a new era in political practice. A radical change was typified by the discontent with the existing methods, which led to the more direct participation of the public at large in political affairs through the rise of the nominating convention and through the practice of choosing Presidential electors by popular vote. This marked departure toward practical democracy was emphasized by the striking influence which the new Western States and their ideals and standards of life now secured over national politics. XI. and XII. ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JACKSON (1829-37). Cabinet. Secretary of State, Martin Van Buren, New York, March 6, 1829; Edward Livingston, Louisiana, May 24, 1831; Louis McLane, Delaware, May 29, 1833; John Forsyth, Georgia, June 27, 1834. Secretary of the Treasury, Samuel D. Ingham, Pennsylvania, March 6, 1829; Louis McLane, Delaware, August 8, 1831; William J. Duane, Pennsylvania, May 29, 1833; Roger B. Taney, Maryland, September 23, 1833; Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire, June 27, 1834. Secretary of War, John H. Eaton, Tennessee, March 9, 1829; Lewis Cass, Michigan, August 1, 1831; Benjamin F. Butler, New York, March 3, 1837. Secretary of the Navy, John Branch, North Carolina, March 9, 1829; Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire, May 23, 1831; Mahlon Dickerson, New Jersey, June 30, 1834. Attorney-General, John M. Berrien, Georgia, March 9, 1829; Roger B. Taney, Maryland, July 20, 1831; Benjamin F. Butler, New York, November 15, 1833. Postmaster-General, William T. Barry, Kentucky, March 9, 1829; Amos Kendall, Kentucky, May 1, 1835. The bold, decisive, and impetuous character of President Jackson was shown in a general removal of those, down to small postmasters and tidewaiters, who had held office under the late Administration, and in the appointment of his own partisans. The administration was distinctively one of conflict, the chief issues being the United States Bank and the tariff; and Jackson was swayed throughout, to a considerable extent, by the influence of a group of friends, who became known collectively as the 'Kitchen Cabinet' (q.v.). South Carolina declared the high protective tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 to be unconstitutional, and therefore null and void, and threatened to withdraw from the Union if an attempt were made to collect the duties on foreign importations. The President prepared to execute the laws by force; Calhoun resigned his office of Vice-President, and in the Senate, to which he was promptly sent, asserted the doctrine of State rights, including the right of secession. (See NULLIFICATION.) A collision seemed imminent, but the affair was settled by a compromise bill, introduced by Henry Clay, providing for a gradual reduction of duties until 1842, when they were not to exceed 20 per cent. ad valorem. As an incident of this controversy, though nominally occasioned by a resolution calling for an inquiry into the sale of Government lands, occurred the famous debate (January, 1830) in the Senate between Daniel Webster (q.v.), of Massachusetts, and Robert Y. Hayne (q.v.), of South Carolina, in which the two opposing views regarding slavery, nullification, and the true interpretation of the Constitution were advocated and discussed with such eloquence, learning, and enthusiasm as to make the debate a landmark in the constitutional development of the United States. The same period witnessed the rise of the Anti-Masonic Party, based on opposition to Free Masonry and to secret societies generally. See MORGAN, WILLIAM; ANTI-MASONS. The President was a pronounced opponent of the national bank, the existence of which under its second charter was to continue to 1836. Jackson early raised the issue of its constitutionality, whereupon the friends of the bank introduced and carried through both Houses a bill for its continuation. This was vetoed, and its supporters were unable to carry the bill over the veto. The question, however, was made the chief issue in the campaign of 1832, in which the decisive triumph of Jackson was taken by him to be a vindication of his policy and an assurance that he represented the popular will more accurately even than did Congress. The result was still further to strengthen his position and to increase his influence over Congressional action. In the election of 1832 he received 219 electoral votes, as against only 49 for Henry Clay, 11 for John Floyd, of Virginia, and 7 for William Wirt, of Virginia. Martin Van Buren was elected VicePresident, receiving 189 votes. The Cherokee Indians in Georgia, who had *The Postmaster-General first came to be a regular member of the Cabinet in Jackson's administration. |