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missioner to investigate the affair. On his report, which seemed to prove clearly bad faith and corruption in obtaining the treaty, the president decided that the Creeks should not be interfered with until the next session of Congress. The governor of Georgia was disposed to take matters in his own. hands, and used a good deal of lofty language, which was far from respectful to the government; but, on the whole, discretion being the better part of valor, he concluded to wait the result of the action of Congress.

1825.

During the summer of the present year, other treaties with Indian tribes were made on equitable terms. The Kansas Indians ceded to the United States all their lands both within and without the limits of Missouri, except a reservation beyond that state on the Kansas River, about thirty miles square, including their villages. In consideration of this cession, the United States agreed to pay $3,500 a year for twenty years; to furnish the Kansas immediately with three hundred head of cattle, three hundred hogs, five hundred fowls, three yoke of oxen, and two carts, and with such farming utensils as the Indian superintendent may deem necessary; to provide and support a blacksmith for them; and to employ persons to aid and instruct them in their agricultural pursuits, as the president may deem expedient. Of the ceded lands, thirty-six sections on the Big Blue River, were to be laid out under the direction of the president, and sold for the support of schools among the Kansas. Reservations were also made for the benefit of certain

half-breeds; and other stipulations mu tually satisfactory. It was also agreed, that no private revenge shall be taken by the Indians for the violation of their rights; but that they shall make their complaint to the superintendent or other agent, and receive justice in a due course of law; and it was lastly agreed, that the Kansas nation shall never dispose of their lands without the consent of the United States, and that the United States shall always have the free right of navigation in the waters of the Kansas.

A treaty was also concluded, early in June, with the Great and Little Osages, at St. Louis, Missouri. The general principles of this treaty were the same as those of the treaty with the Kansas. The Indians ceded all their lands in Arkansas and elsewhere, and then reserved a defined territory, west of the Missouri line, fifty miles square; an agent was to be permitted to reside on the reservation, and the United States were to have the right of free naviga tion in all the waters on the tract. The United States agreed to pay an annuity of $7000 for twenty years; to furnish forthwith six hundred head of cattle, six hundred hogs, one thousand fowls, ten yoke of oxen, six carts, with farming utensils, persons to teach the Indians agriculture, and a blacksmith, and build a commodious dwelling-house for each of the four principal chiefs, at his own village. Reservations were made for the establishment of a fund for the support of schools for the benefit of the Osage children; and provision was made for the benefit of the Harmony missionary

1825.

CH. V.]

THE NINETEENTH CONGRESS.

establishment. The United States also assumed certain debts due from certain chiefs of the tribes; and agreed to deliver at the Osage villages, as soon as might be, $4000 in merchandise, and $2600 in horses and their equipments.* In October, the legislature of Tennessee, by a nearly unanimous vote, passed a resolution, nominating General Jackson for the presidency at the next election. This led to Jackson's resignation as Senator, on the

1825.

ground that candidates for the presidency ought not to be members of Congress. In this connection, we may mention the fact, that immediately on Adams's election, all the friends of the disappointed candidates resolved to unite, so as to prevent his re-election, and bring in Andrew Jackson in his place. Personal differences were speedily reconciled. Benton and Jackson, who had formerly met with pistols and dirks in a duel, put their quarrels on one side, in order to work for a common object; and Crawford and Calhoun were also ranged on the side of Jackson, in opposition to the administration. The reader will do well to bear these things in mind, in order to understand some of the difficulties and trials of Mr. Adams's four years of service.t

During the autumn of the present year the completion of the Erie canal was effected, and was duly celebrated in the city of New York. It demonstrated the wisdom of that policy which

* Holmes's "Annals,” vol. ii., pp. 512, 13.

† De Witt Clinton was offered the mission to England, but declined it; Mr. Poinsett was sent as minister to Mexico; and Mr. Everett to Madrid.

VOL. III.-45

353

De Witt Clinton advocated with so much perseverance and ability, and the final success of the great undertaking has established on a firm basis, the sagacity and statesmanship of this distinguished son of New York. The ground for the canal was broken on the 4th of July, 1817; and the first boat from Lake Erie, arrived at New York, on the 4th of October, 1825. The length of the canal is three hundred and sixty miles.

1825.

Mr. Taylor was

The nineteenth Congress began its first session on the 5th of December, and the president's first annual message was sent in the next day. The Senate numbered among its members, Woodbury, Van Buren, Macon, Hayne, Eaton, Harrison, etc.* In the House were, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, C. C. Cambreling, James K. Polk, J. W. Taylor, and others of more or less note. elected speaker on the second ballot. The president's message was unusually long, but ably and clearly written, and containing suggestions and views which demanded attention. There was presented in it a favorable picture of the general concerns of the nation, both foreign and domestic. Yet several questions, arising out of the foreign relations of the Union, were spoken of as unsettled. It recommended the entire abolition of discriminating duties

* John Randolph entered the Senate at the close of the month of December, having been elected to supply the vacancy caused by Mr. Barbour's acceptance of the post of secretary of war. At the close of the term, in March, 1827, Mr. John Tyler was elected to the Senate, in Mr. Randolph's place, and he was returned again for a seat in the House,

on tonnage, in respect of all nations who were willing to reciprocate the privilege; a revision of the judiciary system; a general bankruptcy law; an extension of the law of patents; internal improvements on an enlarged scale; the establishment of an observatory, a national university, and a uniform standard of weights and measures; and the promotion of voyages of discovery. Mr. Adams also added, "The Constitution under which you are assembled is a charter of limited powers; after full and solemn deliberation upon all or any of the objects which, urged by irresistible sense of my own duty, I have recommended to your attention, should you come to the conclusion, that, however desirable in themselves, the enactment of laws for effecting them would transcend the powers committed to you by that venerable instrument, which we are all bound to support, let no consideration induce you to assume the exercise of powers not granted to you by the people."

The state of the finances was pronounced to be very flourishing. There had been a balance, little short of $2,000,000 in the treasury, at the commencement of the year; and the receipts, to the end of September, were estimated at $16,500,000, while those of the current quarter were expected to exceed $5,000,000. And this was without reckoning the loan of $5,000,000 which had been authorized by Congress. The expenditure of the year, it was said, would not exceed the receipts by more than $2,000,000; but in it was included he extinction of $8,000,000 of the public debt. The revenue for the coming year

1825.

was calculated at $24,000,000, which would exceed the whole expenditure of the year. The entire amount of public debt, remaining due on the last day of the current year, was stated to be less than $81,000,000. The president, in conclusion, thus expressed himself: "Finally, fellow-citizens, I shall await with cheering hope, and faithful co-operation, the result of your deliberations; assured that, without encroaching upon the powers reserved to the authorities of the respective states, or to the people, you will, with a due sense of your obligations to your country, and of the high responsibilities weighing upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means committed to you for the common good. And may He, who searches the hearts of the children of men, prosper your exertions to secure the blessings of peace, and promote the highest welfare of our country.'

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The president's views in regard to the American Congress at Panama, afforded a fair ground of attack to the opposition. It appears, that in 1823, Bolivar, at that time president of Columbia, invited the governments of the provinces which had thrown off the Spanish yoke, to join in a general Congress at Panama; and some steps were taken to effect it, but without success. At the

*This copious and conciliatory message was commented on by the political press, and by numerous opponents of the administration, with great severity; freedom on the subject of internal improvements, and and as the president had expressed himself with much

had termed observatories, by a rather unusual conceit, "light-houses of the sky," ridicule and argument were both brought to bear, for the purpose of render

ing the administration unpopular, and thus the better

prepare for the success of Andrew Jackson.

CH. V.I

AMERICAN CONGRESS AT PANAMA.

end of the next year, the invitation was renewed, and all the governments accepted it, excepting Buenos Ayres. Next spring, the government of the United States was invited to send representatives to Panama, and John Quincy Adams replied, that, although the United States would take no part in the war with Spain, or in deliberating on the manner or means of carrying it on, he believed that such a Congress might be serviceable, by giving authority to some important principles of public law, arranging matters of great interest to the whole of the New World, and promoting a friendly intercourse between the various republican governments which had become established in America. In his message, the president thus spoke of his reception of Bolivar's proposal; "The invitation has been accepted, and ministers on the part of the United States will be commissioned to attend those deliberations, and to take part in them, so far as may be compatible with that neutrality, from which it is neither our intention, nor the desire of the other

1825.

American states, that we should depart." This announcement was followed by the nomination of Richard C. Anderson and John Sergeant, as commissioners to the Congress, and William B. Rochester, as secretary. The Senate, after a long and violent discussion of the expediency of taking part in this Congress, in the course of which the members of the opposition attacked the administration with unsparing severity, approved the nomination of the commissioners. This was at the close of March, 1826. In the House of Rep

355

resentatives, also, the subject was fully discussed; and, what is not usual, with less violence on the part of the 1826.

opposition.* In the end, however, the necessary appropriation was voted, the arguments and oratory of Daniel Webster proving unanswerable. It was quite evident, that the great heat and excitement of the dispute on this subject was due rather to political factiousness, than because there was any danger arising from this mission to the interests of the United States; but, so far as appears by the result, neither side gained or lost anything of moment from the discussion on this question. It is worth noticing, in this connection, that no representative from the United States ever appeared at the Panama Congress. For the debates in the House of Representatives were so protracted, that it was impossible for Sergeant to reach Panama in time for the meeting; although it had been postponed from October, 1825, to midsum mer, in the year following. Anderson, who was minister at Columbia, as soon as he received instructions, set out for Panama; but on reaching Carthagena, he was attacked by a malignant fever,

*It was in the course of John Randolph's furious diatribe on this topic, that he used the expressions, "1 was defeated, horse, foot, and dragoons-cut up, and clean broke down, by the coalition of Blifil and Black George-by the combination, unheard of till then, of the puritan with the black-leg." Mr. Clay, deeming himself insulted by this language and its vile imputa

tions, challenged Randolph to the field. They met on Saturday, the 8th of April, on the Virginia side of the Potomac; Clay missed Randolph, and Randolph fired into the air. No murderous result, consequently fol

lowed; but the insult was considered as wiped out, and the parties renewed their former friendly relations,

and died. Poinsett, the ambassador at Mexico, was then appointed in his place, and he, with Sergeant, immediately prepared to be present, when the Congress should reassemble, in February, 1827, at Tacubaya. It did not, however, meet at the appointed time; and Sergeant, therefore, returned to the United States. This project was never afterwards revived, principally because the intestine dissensions of South America rendered it impossible to effect anything of importance, and also because no further political capital could well be made out of it.*

Early in the session, on the 20th of December, 1825, the House called on the president for information, respecting the convention between England and the United States for the suppression of the slave trade. On the 27th, the president sent in the correspondence between Mr. Clay and Mr. Addington, the English chargé d'affaires, from which it appeared, that there was no immediate prospect of a harmonising of the views held by the two govern

ments.

As helping to keep alive the spirit of opposition to the administration, various amendments to the Constitution were proposed, in order to do away, if possible, with the intervention of the House of Representatives in electing

*At the close of Mr. Adams's administration, in compliance with a call to that effect, copies of the instructions given to the commissioners to Panama, were supplied to both Houses; and not long after they were made public. These instructions the reader may be

Interested in examining; we are of opinion that he will discover little, if anything, to justify the favorers

of this Congress, or excite the fears of its opponents.

1826.

the president, it being asserted that Mr Adams, though elected in the constitutional way, was not the choice of the people. In the Senate, Mr. Benton took the lead, with a resolution, declaring for what, in rather fantastic phraseology, be terms "the demos-krateo principle;" by which was meant the direct vote of the people. Mr. Benton's bill provid ing for the proposed change in the Constitution, was laid on the table on the 9th of May. In the House, Mr. M'Duffie, of South Carolina, proposed the establishment of a uniform mode of electing the executive. officers by districts, instead of leaving it to the state legislatures, who were capable, it was thought, of doing very unhandsome things for unjust and party purposes. He also introduced a declaration, in favor of preventing the election from ever devolving upon Congress. Other amendments, one of them prohibiting the re-election of a president for more than a second term of office, were also introduced. There were, in fact, nearly a dozen different resolutions upon

this subject before Congress at the same time, and they were all referred by the House to a committee of twentyfour; which, after much discussion, and many efforts to reach some practical conclusion, found it impossible to agree in favor of any scheme, and begged to be discharged. Thus nothing resulted from the movement, unless perhaps an increase to the unpopularity of Mr. Adams's administration.

At the close of January, another treaty was negotiated with the Creeks, which was ratified by the Senate in April. By this treaty, the lands

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