commerce were obtained from various foreign countries. The national debt was extinguished, the Cherokees were removed from Georgia and the Creeks from Florida, while the original number of the States was doubled by the admission into the Union of Arkansas, in 1836, and of Michigan, in 1837. On the other hand, the slavery dispute was renewed with much bitterness, and the Seminole War re-commenced.

On the 4th of March, 1837, Jackson retired from public life. He returned to "the Hermitage," his country seat, where he remained until his death, on the 8th of June, 1845. The immediate cause of his death was dropsy; but through the greater part of his life he had been a sufferer from disease in one form or another.

General Jackson has been described as a man of unbounded hospitality. He loved fine horses and had a passion for racing them. "His temper," writes Colonel Benton, "was placable as well as irascible, and his reconciliations were cordial and sincere." He abhorred debt, public as well as private. His love of country was a master passion. "He was a thoroughly honest man, as straightforward in action as his thoughts were unsophisticated." Of book-knowledge he possessed little-scarcely anything; but his vigorous native intelligence and intuitive judgment carried him safely through where the most profound learning without them would have failed.

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MARTIN VAN BUREN,

HE eighth chief executive of the Union, was the son of a thrifty farmer in the old town of Kinderhook, in Columbia County, New York, where he was born on the 5th of December, 1782. Early evidencing unusual mental vigor, a good academic education was given to him. Finishing this at the age of fourteen, he then began the study of the law. After seven years of study he was admitted to the bar, and commenced to practice in his native village. His growing reputation and practice warranting him in seeking a wider field, in 1809 he removed to Hudson. In 1812, he was elected to the Senate of New York; and, in 1815, having been appointed Attorney-General of the State, he removed to Albany. In 1821, he was elected to the United States Senate, and was also a member of the Convention to revise the Constitution of New York. He speedily rose to distinction in the National Senate, and, in 1827, was re-elected to that body, but the year following resigned his seat to take the position of Governor of New York.

In 1829, General Jackson, whose election to the Presidency was no doubt due in a great measure to the shrewd political management of Van Buren, offered him the post of Secretary of State.

In 1831, circumstances making it necessary for Jackson to re-organize his Cabinet, Van Buren resigned his Secretaryship, but was immediately named Minister to England. The Senate, however, greatly to the President's dissatisfaction, refused to confirm the nomination, though Van Buren had already reached London. This rejection of his friend aroused all of Jackson's determined spirit. He not only succeeded in placing Mr. Van Buren in the Vice-Presidency during his own second term, but he also began to work zealously to obtain Van Buren's nomination as his successor in the Presidency. He triumphed, and his friend received the Democratic nomination, and was elected by a handsome majority, taking his seat in the Presidential chair on the 4th of March, 1837.

Shortly after Van Buren's inauguration, a financial panic, ascribed to General Jackson's desire to make specie the currency of the country, and his consequent war upon the banks, brought the country to the very verge of ruin. Failures came fast and frequent, and all the great industries of the nation were paralyzed. At the same time, the war in Florida against the Seminoles lingered along, without the slightest apparent prospect of coming to an end, entailing enormous expenses on the Government; while the antislavery agitation, growing steadily stronger, excited mobs and violence, and threatened to shake the Republic from its foundations. Rightly or wrongly, these troubles were attributed to President Van Buren and his party, as resulting from the policy they had pursued. His popularity waned rapidly, and at the Presidential election in 1840, in which he was a candidate for re-election, he was overwhelmingly defeated.

Retiring to Lindenwald, his fine estate near Kinderhook, Van Buren, in 1844, endeavored to procure a re-nomination for the Presidency, but was unsuccessful, though a majority of delegates was pledged to support him. His defeat was due to the opposition of Southern members, based on the fact that he had written a letter adverse to the annexation of Texas.

In 1848, he was brought forward by the Free-soil Democrats. Though not elected, the party which had nominated him showed unexpected strength, nearly three hundred thousand votes having been cast in his favor.

Mr. Van Buren now retired from public life. Fourteen years later, at the age of eighty, on the 24th of July, 1862, he died at Lindenwald. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, of cultivated manners, and genial disposition. Though shrewd, he was not a dishonest politician. His private character was beyond reproach. He deserves a conspicuous position among those who have been worthy successors of our immortal first President.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.

W

ILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, ninth President of the United States, was born at Berkeley, on the banks of the James River, in Virginia, on the 9th of February, 1773. His father, Benjamin Harrison, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and for several years Governor of Virginia. Having received a good education at Hampden-Sid ney College, young Harrison began the study of medicine; but the barbarities of the savages on our northwestern frontier having excited his sympathies in behalf of the suffering settlers, he determined to enter the army, as being a place where he could do good service. Accordingly, in. 1791, shortly after St. Clair's defeat, he obtained from President Washington a commission as ensign in the artillery. Though winter was coming on, he at once set out on foot across the wilderness to Pittsburg, whence he descended the Ohio to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. He soon became a favorite with his superiors, and by his bravery in battle speedily attained the rank of captain. In 1797, when but twenty-four years old, having recently married, he resigned his commission, to accept the secretaryship of the Northwest Territory. In 1801, he was appointed Governor of "the Indiana Territory," comprising the present