attained to a certain degree of civilization, appealed to the President for protection against the seizure of their lands by the State; but they were told that he "had no power to oppose the exercise of the sovereignty of any State over all who may be within its limits;" and the Indians were obliged to remove to the territory set apart for them west of the Mississippi. In 1832, in the West, trouble with the Indians had culminated in the Black Hawk War (see BLACK HAWK), and now in 1835 the Seminole War broke out in Florida, and a tribe of Indians, insignificant in numbers, under the crafty leadership of Osceola (q.v.), kept up hostilities for years, at a cost to the United States of several thousands of men and some $50,000,000. The removal in 1835 by order of the President of the Government deposits from the United States Bank to certain State banks, led to the weakening of the bank, and, after some years, to the adoption of Van Buren's plan of an independent treasury. Later the Senate, which was controlled by the Whigs, as Jackson's opponents now styled themselves, led by Henry Clay, took the extraordinary step of passing formal resolutions of censure of the President for his order removing the Government deposits from the bank. The President protested against the resolution, but the protest was not allowed by the Senate to appear upon the record. The warfare between the President and Senate continued through the next two years, the latter frequently rejecting the nominations made by the Executive. In 1837, however, largely under the influence of Benton, the Senate, which had at last become Democratic, voted to expunge from its records the resolutions of censure already mentioned. In 1835 (December 7th) the President announced to Congress that the national debt would soon be paid, and that provision should be made for the surplus revenue which was anticipated. In June, 1836, a bill was passed providing that after January 1, 1837, any surplus exceeding the sum of $5,000,000 should be divided among the States as a loan, subject to a recall by Congress; and in accordance with this act, some $28,000,000 was divided in 1837, which has never been recalled. In July, 1836, the President caused the famous Specie Circular to be issued, which ordered the agents of the Government to receive only gold or silver in payment for public lands.

At this time Texas, which had been colonized by Americans, was endeavoring to free itself from Mexican control and to establish its independence. The South saw in the movement a prospect of annexing this large territory to the United States, and of carving from it new slave States whose votes in the Senate would counterbalance those of the new free States. Many manifestations of sympathy with the Texans were therefore made. and a resolution recognizing the independence of Texas passed the Senate, but not the House. A new era in the slavery controversy had been inaugu rated with the establishm nt of the Liberator by Garrison in 1831. The New England Anti-Slavery Society was organized in 1832, and the American Anti-Slavery Society at Philadelphia in 1833. (See SLAVERY; GARRISON, W. L.; PHILLIPS, WENDELL; ABOLITIONISTS: GAG RULES.) Arkansas (June 15, 1836) and Michigan (January 26, 1837) were admitted to the Union. The administration of Jackson was further marked by the

political acerbities growing partly out of the Peggy O'Neill affair (see EATON, MARGARET), and leading to the reorganization of the Cabinet, by the treaty with France settling the spoliation claims and the treaty with England securing unrestricted direct trade with the British West Indies, by the adoption on a large scale by Jackson of the 'spoils system,' and by the introduction of railroads. The election of 1836 resulted in the success again of the Democratic Party, whose candidate for President, Martin Van Buren, of New York, received 170 electoral votes, against 73 for William Henry Harrison, of Indiana, and 51 scattering. No candidate for Vice-President received a clear majority, and so the Senate elected Richard M. Johnson (q.v.), of Kentucky.

XIII. ADMINISTRATION OF MARTIN VAN BUREN (1837-41). Cabinet.-Secretary of State, John Forsyth, continued. Secretary of the Treasury, Levi Woodbury, continued. Secretary of War, Joel R. Poinsett, South Carolina, March 7, 1837. Secretary of the Navy, Mahlon Dickerson, continued; James K. Paulding, New York, June 25, 1838. Attorney-General, Benjamin F. Butler, continued; Felix Grundy, Tennessee, July 5, 1838; Henry D. Gilpin, Pennsylvania, January 11, 1840. Postmaster-General, Amos Kendall, continued; John M. Niles, Connecticut, May 19, 1840.

un

Van Buren, in accordance with his pledges, carried out and perpetuated the policy of his predecessor. The new Administration was fortunate in its beginnings. A financial disaster, such as had not until then been known in the United States, swept over the country in 1837. A general suspension of specie payments occurred; many banks suspended altogether, and innumerable corporations and individuals were ruined. Congress authorized the issue of $10,000,000 in treasury notes, and Jackson's Specie Circular was revoked. Van Buren's administration was marked by the establishment of the independent treasury system (reëstablished in 1846), by a renewal of hostilities against the Seminole Indians, and by the establishment of regular steamship communication with Europe. The Democrats with difficulty retained control of the House of Representatives, and through such methods as to decrease public confidence in the party leaders. This, together with the prevalent depression in business, weakened the dominant party in the country at large, so that in the campaign of 1840 the candidacy of the Whig nominee, General William Henry Harrison (q.v.), of Ohio, was supported with an enthusiasm such as no subsequent political campaign has ever witnessed. It has become known as the 'Log Cabin Campaign' and the 'Hard Cider Campaign,' from the prevalent symbols of the homely and simple frontier life of General Harrison. The Liberty Party' (q.v.) also made nominations, their candidates being James G. Birney (q.v.), of New York, for President, and Francis Lemoyne, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. The Democrats renominated Van Buren, but the convention did not agree upon the choice of a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. General Harrison received 234 electoral votes, to 60 for Van Buren; and for Vice-President the Whig, John Tyler, of Virginia, received 234, against 48 for R. M. Johnson and 12 scattering.

XIV. ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON (1841) AND OF JOHN TYLER (1841-45).

Cabinet.-Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, Massachusetts, March 5, 1841; Hugh S. Legaré, South Carolina, May 9, 1843; A. P. Upshur, Virginia, July 24, 1843; John C. Calhoun, South Carolina, March 6, 1844. Secretary of the Treasury, Thomas Ewing, Ohio, March 5, 1841; Walter Forward, Pennsylvania, September 13, 1841; John C. Spencer, New York, March 3, 1843; George M. Bibb, Kentucky, June 15, 1844. Secretary of War, John Bell, Tennessee, March 5, 1841; John McLean, Ohio, September 13, 1841; John C. Spencer, New York, October 12, 1841; James M. Porter, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1843; William Wilkins, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1844. Secretary of the Navy, G. E. Badger, North Carolina, March 5, 1841; A. P. Upshur, Virginia, September 13, 1841; David Henshaw, Massachusetts, July 24, 1843; T. W. Gilmer, Virginia, February 15, 1844; John Y. Mason, Virginia, March 14, 1844. Attorney-General, John J. Crittenden, Kentucky, March 5, 1841; Hugh S. Legaré, South Carolina, September 13, 1841; John Nelson, Maryland, July 1, 1843. Postmaster-General, Francis Granger, New York, March 6, 1841; Charles A. Wickliffe, Kentucky, September 13, 1841.

Two weeks after his inauguration, President Harrison issued a proclamation calling an extra session of Congress to consider the financial distress prevailing throughout the country and other questions that beset the Government. The extra session was called for May 31st, but on April 4th the President died after a short illness. The new President, John Tyler, retained for a few months his predecessor's Cabinet. When Congress met in accordance with General Harrison's call of March 17th, the Whigs, who had a majority in both Houses, began to carry out the changes to which their party had pledged itself in the campaign of the preceding year. A bill was passed for the incorporation of a new United States Bank, to be called the 'Fiscal Bank of the United States,' planned somewhat after the model of that which had been so vigorously attacked by President Jackson. To the consternation of the Whigs, the new President on August 16th vetoed it as being unconstitutional, since it provided for the establishment of branches of the bank in the various States without securing the prior consent of these States. The leading members of the party then conferred with President Tyler and asked him to suggest the provisions of a bill that he would be willing to accept. He agreed to do so, yet after the bill framed largely in accordance with his own ideas had passed the two Houses (September 3d) it promptly met the fate of the former act. It now became evident that the President was at heart a Democrat, and that his political principles would prevent him from acting cordially with the party that had elected him to office. The indignation and chagrin of the Whigs was unbounded. The entire Cabinet with one exception immediately resigned, Webster remaining in the State Department until pending negotiations with England had been completed. On September 11th the leaders of the Whig Party issued a manifesto ‘reading' the President out of the party, and holding him responsible for the failure to effect the reforms that had been promised. President Tyler immediately filled the places in his Cabinet with conservative politiVOL. XVII.-9.

cians, and having been cut off from political affiliation with his own party, turned to the Democrats for support.

During Tyler's administration the relations between the United States and Great Britain became very strained. In the course of an insurrection in Canada in 1837 a party of supporters of the Canadian Government had crossed over to the American territory and destroyed a vessel, the Caroline, owned by the friends of the insurgents. In the affair one American had been killed. In 1840 one Alexander McLeod, who had come to New York State and boasted of having taken part in the destruction of the Caroline, was arrested and indicted for murder. England protested vigorously and serious international complications for a time seemed imminent. (See CAROLINE.) Again, in October, 1841, the British freed most of the slaves aboard an American vessel, the Creole, which had been seized by them and carried into a port in the Bahamas. (See CREOLE.) Thus each nation had a grievance against the other, and such ill feeling resulted that war was feared.

Fortunately, Webster, Tyler's Secretary of State, was liked and respected by English statesmen, and upon the reorganization of the Cabinet he retained his office until the pending negotiations were concluded. In 1842 Lord Ashburton was sent out from England to nego tiate a treaty, with particular reference to adjusting the boundary between Canada and the Northeastern States. The boundary question was settled by a compromise, though Great Britain gave up the larger and more valuable share of the disputed territory. Two other points of importance were settled by this treaty. One was the agreement of the two governments looking to the suppression of the slave trade. The other was the provision for mutual surrender of criminals. The treaty was concluded on August 9, 1842, and was proclaimed on November 10th. See NORTHEAST BOUNDARY DISPUTE; WEBSTERASHBURTON TREATY.

In 1843 the Government arranged a treaty with the new Republic of Texas (q.v.), providing for the future annexation of that country to the United States. The Senate rejected this treaty by a vote of 35 to 16, seven Democrats voting with the Whigs for rejection. The problem of the future relations with Texas became still more critical in national politics, and its immediate importance was increased by the strong desire for annexation among the Southern leaders. Το maintain the status quo, the annexation of Texas became an actual necessity to the interests of the South; for should the free States ultimately aequire a dominant power in the Senate, as they had already done in the House, the time might come when the existence of slavery would be imperiled. The possibility of this was kept continually before the Southern mind by the increasing activity in the North of the Liberty Party (q.v.), which in 1843 held a national convention at Buffalo and there put forth a series of resolutions denouncing slavery, and calling on the free States to pass penal laws to prevent the return of fugitive slaves, and which again nominated James G. Birney for the Presidency. The Whigs at their convention held at Baltimore in May, 1844, nominated Henry Clay, of Kentucky, with Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New York, as

the candidate for Vice-President. The Democratic convention, in the same month, nominated James K. Polk, of Tennessee, and George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, and adopted a platform calling for the 'reannexation of Texas' and the 'reoccupation of Oregon.' The position of Clay as to the annexation of Texas was so equivocal as to arouse the suspicion of many Northerners, while the position of the Democrats on the Oregon question helped them in the Northwestern States. The election resulted in the choice of Polk and Dallas after a very close contest in which the Democrats succeeded only by the fact that several thousand votes in New York were cast for the anti-slavery ticket.

At the next session of Congress a joint resolution for the annexation of Texas was passed early in 1845 by both Houses and approved on March 1st by the President. It renewed the features of the Missouri Compromise as regards the Texan territory north of the compromise line, and as to the territory south of that line the question of slavery was left to the decision of the inhabitants of the States to be formed out of Texas. Tyler's administration was marked by the 'Dorr Rebellion' in Rhode Island (see DORR, THOMAS W.; RHODE ISLAND), by anti-rent disturbances in New York (see ANTI-RENTISM), and by the construction under the direction of S. F. B. Morse (q.v.) of the first successful longdistance telegraph line (1844).

XV. ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES K. POLK (1845-49). Cabinet.-Secretary of State, James Buchanan, Pennsylvania, March 6, 1845. Secretary of the Treasury, Robert J. Walker, Mississippi, March 6, 1845. Secretary of War, William L. Marcy, New York, March 6, 1845. Secretary of the Navy, George Bancroft, Massachusetts, March 10, 1845; John Y. Mason, Virginia, September 9, 1846. Attorney-General, John Y. Mason, Virginia, March 5, 1845; Nathan Clifford, Maine, October 17, 1846. Postmaster-General, Cave Johnson, Tennessee, March 6, 1845.

Soon after the beginning of Polk's administration United States troops under General Taylor were sent across the Nueces River to Corpus Christi, in territory then in dispute between the United States and Mexico, the United States claiming the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas, and Mexico claiming the Nueces. In the meantime, both the Texan Congress (on June 18, 1845) and a convention of the people (on July 4th) had ratified the act of annexation, and on December 29th Texas formally entered the Union. Up to this date Mexico, being distracted by revolutions, had simply protested against the action of the United States and had recalled her Minister from Washington; but in the spring of 1846 the further advance of General Taylor toward the Rio Grande brought United States troops into conflict with the Mexicans, a small engagement taking place on April. 24th. The Mexicans were then defeated at Palo Alto on May 8th, and on the following day at Resaca de la Palma. On May 11, 1846, news of the hostilities on April 24th having reached Washington, the President officially informed Congress of the occurrence and asked that war be declared. Both Houses responded to the message and to the awakened war spirit of the country by passing a bill (on May 13th) whose preamble began as follows: "Whereas, by the act of Mexico, a

The

state of war exists between that Government and the United States"-a statement that provoked much criticism from the opponents of the Administration, as false, in view of the fact that hostilities had been precipitated by the military occupation of territory claimed by Mexico. bill appropriated $10,000,000 for the prosecution of the war, and under it enlistment was actively begun. Volunteers to the number of 50,000 men were authorized. On May 23d Mexico formally declared war upon the United States. Whatever view one might take of the political aspect of the war, the brilliant series of victories aroused widespread enthusiasm and pride; as against forces that outnumbered them, sometimes four to one and not inferior in training, in a hostile country, and against formidable obstacles, both natural and artificial, the troops of Taylor and Scott won successive triumphs by the most splendid courage and the most stubborn fighting. For a detailed account, see MEXICAN WAR.

On February 2, 1848, peace was signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo (q.v.). Mexico resigned her claim to Texas, agreeing to the Rio Grande as the boundary, and also ceded New Mexico and Upper California to the United States for a payment of $15,000,000, the completion being thus attained of that great westward movement which had been going on since the Revolution.

Other important events of Polk's administration were the treaty with England (June 15, 1846) by which the long-disputed question of the northwest boundary was settled (see NORTHWEST BOUNDARY DISPUTE; OREGON); the so-called Tariff of 1846' (see TARIFF), which limited its purpose to the collection of revenues alone, without protection to native industries; the reënactment (1846) of the Independent Treasury Act; the introduction of the Wilmot Proviso (q.v.); the formation of the Free-Soil Party; the admission of Iowa (December 28, 1846); the establishment of the new Territory of Oregon without slavery, and the admission of Wisconsin (May 29, 1848). It was during Polk's term also that in 1848 gold was discovered in California, that the sewing machine was patented (1846) by Elias Howe, and that the use of anesthetics was introduced in surgery. It was at this time that the great flood of Irish immigration consequent upon the potato famine of 1846 began.

The opposing candidates at the Presidential election of 1848 were Lewis Cass (q.v.), of Michigan, and William O. Butler, of Kentucky, Democrats, against General Zachary Taylor, of Louisi ana, and Millard Fillmore, of New York, Whigs, the newly-organized Free-Soil Party (q.v.) nominating Martin Van Buren, of New York, and Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts. Taylor and Fillmore received 163 electoral votes, as against 127 cast for Cass and Butler, the Democratic vote being reduced by the support given by the Barnburners (q.v.) in New York to Van Buren.

XVI. ADMINISTRATION OF ZACHARY TAYLOR (1849-50) AND OF MILLARD FILLMORE (1850-53). Cabinet.-Secretary of State, John M. Clayton, Delaware, March 7, 1849; Daniel Webster, Massachusetts, December 6, 1852. Secretary of the Treasury, W. M. Meredith, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1849; Thomas Corwin, Ohio, July 23, 1850. Secretary of War, George W. Crawford, Georgia, March 8, 1849; Winfield Scott (ad interim), July