of 1824, the people were called upon to select his successor. It soon became evident that a large proportion of the old politicians of the Democratic party had decided to support William H. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, for the succession. Four candidates, representing the different sections of the Union,' were finally put in nomination. The result was, that the choice devolved upon the House of Representatives, for the second time. That body, by an election held in February, 1825, chose John Quincy Adams for President. John C. Calhoun had been chosen Vice-President by the people. The election and final choice produced great excitement throughout the country, and engendered political rancor equal to that which prevailed during the administration of the elder Adams. Mr. Monroe's administration closed on the 4th of March ensuing, and he resigned to his successor the Chief Magistracy of a highly-prosperous nation.

CHAPTER VIII.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION.

3

[1825-1829.]

Ar about half-past twelve o'clock, on the 4th day of March, 1825, John Quincy Adams, son of the second President of the United States, entered the hall of the House of Representatives, and took his seat in the chair of the Speaker. He was dressed in a suit of black cloth, and, being small in stature, did not present a more dignified appearance than hundreds of his fellow-citizens around him. He appeared, as he really was, a plain Republican-one of the people. When silence was obtained, he arose and delivered his inaugural address; then descending, he placed himself on the right hand of a table, and took the oath of office, administered by Chief-Justice Marshall. The Senate being in session, Mr. Adams immediately nominated his cabinet officers,' and

John Quincy Adams in the East, William H. Crawford in the South, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay in the West. * Page 388. John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, was born at Quincy, Massachusetts, on the 11th of July, 1767. He went to Europe, with his father, at the age of eleven years; and, in Paris, he was much in the society of Franklin and other distinguished men. At the age of fourteen years he accompanied Mr. Dana to St. Petersburg, as private secretary to that embassador. He traveled much alone, and finally returned, and finished his education at Harvard College. He became a lawyer, but public service kept him from that pursuit. He was made United States minister to the Netherlands in 1794, and afterward held the same office at Lisbon and Berlin. He was a member of the United States Senate in 1803; and in 1809 he was sent as minister to the Russian court. After negotiating a treaty of peace at Ghent [page 443], he was appointed minister to the English court. In 1817 he was made Secretary of State, by Mr. Monroe. Having served one term as President of the United States, he retired; and from 1831, he was a member of Congress until his death, which occurred in the Speaker's room, at the Federal Capitol, on the 22d of February, 1848, when in the eighty-first year of his age.

Henry Clay, Secretary of State; Richard Rush, Secretary of the Treasury; James Barbour, Secretary of War; Samuel L. Southard (continued in office), Secretary of the Navy; and William Wirt (continued), Attorney-General. There was considerable opposition in the Senate to the confirmation of Henry Clay's nomination. He had been charged with defeating the election of General Jackson, by giving his influence to Mr. Adams, on condition that he should be appointed his Secre

all but one were confirmed by a unanimous vote of that body. His political views were consonant with those of Mr. Monroe, and the foreign and domestic policy of his administration were generally conformable to those views. The amity which existed between the United States and foreign governments, and the absence of serious domestic troubles, made the administration of Mr. Adams

a remarkably quiet one, and gave the executive opportunities for adjusting the operations of treaties with the Indian tribes, and the arrangement of measures for the promotion of those great staple interests of the country-agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. Discords, which the election had produced, excited the whole country during Mr. Adams's administration, with the agitations incident to excessive party zeal, and bitter party rancor; yet the President, thoroughly acquainted with all the public interests, and as thoroughly skilled in every art of diplomacy and jurisprudence, managed the affairs of State with a fidelity and sagacity which command our warmest approbation.

One of the most exciting topics, for thought and discussion, at the beginning of Adams's administration [1825], was a controversy between the Federal Government and the chief magistrate of Georgia, concerning the lands of the Creek Indians, and the removal of those aboriginals from the territory of that State. When Georgia relinquished her claims to considerable portions of the Mississippi Territory,' the Federal Government agreed to purchase, for that State,

tary of State. This, however, was only a bubble on the surface of political strife, and had no truthful substance. In the Senate, there were twenty-seven votes in favor, and fourteen against confirming the nomination of Mr. Clay. Note 2, page 447.

the Indian lands within its borders, "whenever it could be peaceably done upon reasonable terms." The Creeks, who, with their neighbors, the Cherokees, were beginning to practice the arts of civilized life, refused to sell their lands. Troup, the governor of Georgia, demanded the immediate fulfillment of the contract. He caused a survey of the lands to be made, and prepared to distribute

Detritt Center

them by lottery, to the citizens of that State. Impatient at the tardiness of the United States in extinguishing the Indian titles and removing the remnants of the tribes, according to stipulation, the governor assumed the right to do it himself. The United States took the attitude of defenders of the Indians, and, for a time, the matter bore a serious aspect. The difficulties were finally settled, and the Creeks' and Cherokees' gradually removed to the rich wilderness beyond the Mississippi.

At about this time a great work of internal improvement was completed. The Erie Canal, in the State of New York, was finished in 1825. It was the most important and stupendous public improvement ever undertaken in the United States; and, though it was the enterprise of the people of a single State, that originated and accomplished the labor of forming the channel of a river through a large extent of country, it has a character of nationality. Its earliest advocate was Jesse Hawley, who, in a series of articles published in 1807 and 1808, signed Hercules, set forth the feasibility and great importance of such a connection of the waters of Lake Erie and the Hudson River.' His 1 Page 30. 2 Page 27. In a manuscript letter now before the writer, dated "Albany, 4th March, 1822," Dewitt Clinton says to Jesse Hawley, to whom the letter is addressed: "In answer to your letter, I have no

views were warmly seconded by Gouverneur Morris,' Dewitt Clinton, and a few others, and its final accomplishment was the result, chiefly, of the untiring efforts, privately and officially, of the latter gentleman, while a member of the Legislature and governor of the State of New York. It is three hundred and sixty-three miles in length, and the first estimate of its cost was $5,000,000. Portions of it have since been enlarged, to meet the increasing demands of its commerce; and in 1853, the people of the State decided, by a general vote, to have it enlarged its entire length. That work is now [1856] in progress.

2

A most remarkable coincidence occurred on the 4th of July, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence. On that day, and almost at the same hour, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson expired. They were both members of the committee who had framed the Declaration of Independence, both signed it, both had been foreign ministers, both had been Vice-Presidents, and then Presidents of the United States, and both had lived to a great age. These coincidences, and the manner and time of their death, produced a profound impression upon the public mind. In many places throughout the Union, eulogies or funeral orations were pronounced, and these, collected, form one of the most remarkable contributions to our historical and biographical literature.

After the difficulties with Georgia were settled, the remaining years of Mr. Adams's administration were so peaceful and prosperous, that public affairs present very few topics for the pen of the general historian. The most important movement in foreign policy, was the appointment, early in 1826, of commissioners' to attend a congress of representatives of the South American Republics, held at Panama [July, 1826], on the Pacific coast. This appointment

hesitation in stating that the first suggestion of a canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River, which came to my knowledge, was communicated in essays under the signature of Hercules, on Internal Navigation, published in the Ontario Messenger, at Canandaigua. The first number appeared on the 27th of October, 1807, and the series of numbers amounted, I believe, to fourteen. The board

of Canal Commissioners, which made the first tour of observation and survey, in 1810, were possessed of the writings of Hercules, which were duly appreciated, as the work of a sagacious inventor and elevated mind. And you were at that time, and since, considered the author." Dewitt Clinton was a son of General James Clinton, of Orange county, New York. He was born in March, 1769. He was mayor of New York ten years, and was elected governor of the State in 1817, and again in 1820 and 1826. He died suddenly while in that office, in February, 1828. 1 Page 364. 2 Note 2, page 251.

3 Jefferson was its author, and Adams its principal supporter, in the Continental Congress. Note 2, page 383, and note 5, page 388.

Mr. Adams died at Quincy, Massachusetts, at the age of almost ninety-one years. Mr. Jefferson died at Monticello, Virginia, at the age of almost eighty-three years.

An event occurred in 1826 which produced great excitement throughout the country, and led to the formation of a new, and for a time, quite a powerful political party. William Morgan, of Western New York, announced his intention to publish a book, in which the secrets of Free Masonry were to be disclosed. He was suddenly seized at Canandaigua one evening, placed in a carriage, and was never heard of afterward. Some Free Masons were charged with his murder, and the report of an investigating committee, appointed by the New York State Legislature, confirmed the suspicion. The public mind was greatly agitated, and there was a disposition to exclude Free Masons from office. An Anti-Masonic party was formed, and its organization spread over several States. In 1831, a national anti-Masonic convention was held at Philadelphia, and William Wirt, of Virginia, was nominated for the office of President of the United States. Although the party polled a considerable vote, it soon afterward disappeared.

R. C. Addison, and John Sargeant, commissioners; and William B. Rochester, of New York, their secretary.

*Note 5, page 448. As early as 1823, General Bolivar, while acting as President of Colombia,

produced much discussion in Congress, chiefly on party grounds. The result of the congress at Panama was comparatively unimportant, so far as the United States was concerned, and appears to have had very little influence on the affairs of South America.

During the administration of Mr. Adams, the policy of protecting home

Яв, bulhoun

manufactures, by imposing a heavy duty upon foreign articles of the same kind, assumed the shape of a settled national policy, and the foundations of the American System, as that policy is called, was then laid. The illiberal commercial policy of Great Britain, caused tariff laws to be enacted by Congress as early as 1816, as retaliatory measures.' In 1824, imposts were laid on foreign fabrics, with a view to encourage American manufactures. In July, 1827, a national convention was held at Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, to discuss the subject of protective tariffs. Only four of the slave States sent delegates. The result of the convention was a memorial to Congress, asking an augmentation of duties on several articles then manufactured in the United States. The Secretary of the Treasury called attention to the subject in his report in Decem

invited the governments of Mexico, Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, to unite with him in forming a general congress at Panama, and the same year arrangements between Colombia, Mexico, and Peru were made, to effect that object. In the spring of 1825, the United States government was invited to send a delegation to the proposed congress. The objects of the congress were, to settle upon some line of policy having the force of international law, respecting the rights of those republies; and to consult upon measures to be taken to prevent further colonization on the American continent by European powers, and their interference in then existing contests.

1 Page 367.