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degrees, 30 minutes; this treaty gave away, first which occasioned the cession of Texas to Spain. This chapter is a point in the history of the times which will require to be understood by all who wish to understand and appreciate the events and actors of twenty years later.

CHAPTER VII.

DEATH OF MR. LOWNDES.

to Spain, and then to Mexico, nearly all the slave territory south of that line; and what little was left by the Spanish treaty was assigned in perpetuity by laws and by treaties to different Indian tribes. These treaties (Indian and Spanish), together with the Missouri compromise line-a measure contemporaneous with the treaty-extinguished slave' soil in all the United States territory west of the Mississippi, except in the diagram which was to constitute the State of Arkansas; and, including the extinction in Texas consequent upon its cession to a nonslaveholding power, constituted the largest territorial abolition of slavery that was ever effect- I HAD but a slight acquaintance with Mr. ed by the political power of any nation. The Lowndes. He resigned his place on account of ordinance of 1787 had previously extinguished declining health soon after I came into Congress; slavery in all the northwest territory-all the but all that I saw of him confirmed the imprescountry east of the Mississippi, above the Ohio, sion of the exalted character which the public and out to the great lakes; so that, at this voice had ascribed to him. Virtue, modesty, moment-era of the second election of Mr. Mon- benevolence, patriotism were the qualities of his roe-slave soil, except in Arkansas and Florida, heart; a sound judgment, a mild persuasive elowas extinct in the territory of the United States. cution were the attributes of his mind; his manThe growth of slave States (except of Arkansas ners gentle, natural, cordial, and inexpressibly and Florida) was stopped; the increase of free engaging. He was one of the galaxy, as it was States was permitted in all the vast expanse well called, of the brilliant young men which from Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River to South Carolina sent to the House of Representthe Rocky Mountains, and to Oregon; and there atives at the beginning of the war of 1812-Calwas not a ripple of discontent visible on the sur-houn, Cheves, Lowndes ;-and was soon the face of the public mind at this mighty transfor-brightest star in that constellation. He was one mation of slave into free territory. No talk then of those members, rare in all assemblies, who, about dissolving the Union, if every citizen was when he spoke, had a cluster around him, not not allowed to go with all his "property," that of friends, but of the House-members quitting is, all his slaves, to all the territory acquired by their distant seats, and gathering up close about the " 'common blood and treasure" of all the him, and showing by their attention, that each Union. But this belongs to the chapter of 1844, one would feel it a personal loss to have missed whereof I have the material to write the true and a word that he said. It was the attention of secret history, and hope to use it with fairness, affectionate confidence. He imparted to others with justice, and with moderation. The outside the harmony of his own feelings, and was the view of the slave question in the United States moderator as well as the leader of the House, at this time, which any chronicler can write, is, and was followed by its sentiment in all cases that the extension of slavery was then arrested, in which inexorable party feeling, or some powcircumscribed, and confined within narrow terri- erful interest, did not rule the action of the memtorial limits, while free States were permitted an bers; and even then he was courteously and almost unlimited expansion. That is the out- deferentially treated. It was so the only time side view; the inside is, that all this was the I ever heard him speak-session of 1820–21— work of southern men, candidates for the presi- and on the inflammable subject of the admission dency, some in abeyance, some in præsenti, and of the State of Missouri-a question on which the all yielding to that repugnance to territorial ag- inflamed passions left no room for the influence grandizement, and slavery extension in the south- of reason and judgment, and in which the memwest, which Mr. Monroe mentioned in his letter bers voted by a geographical line. Mr. Lowndes to General Jackson as the "internal difficulty" was of the democratic school, and strongly indi

cated for an early elevation to the presidency-judgment, his logic, his power of argument; indicated by the public will and judgment, and but, like many other men of acknowledged prenot by any machinery of individual or party eminence in some great gift of nature, and who management-from the approach of which he are still ambitious of some inferior gift, he shrunk, as from the touch of contamination. courted his imagination too much, and laid too He was nominated by the legislature of his na- much stress upon action and delivery-so potent tive State for the election of 1824; but died be- upon the small circle of actual hearers, but so fore the event came round. It was he who ex- lost upon the national audience which the press pressed that sentiment, so just and beautiful in now gives to a great speaker. In other respects itself, and so becoming in him because in him it Mr. Pinkney was truly a great orator, rich in was true, "That the presidency was an office his material, strong in his argument-clear, neither to be sought, nor declined." He died at natural and regular in the exposition of his the age of forty-two; and his death at that early subject, comprehensive in his views, and chaste age, and in the impending circumstances of the in his diction. His speeches, both senatorial country, was felt by those who knew him as a and forensic, were fully studied and laboriously public and national calamity. I do not write prepared-all the argumentative parts carefully biographies, but note the death and character of digested under appropriate heads, and the showy some eminent deceased contemporaries, whose passages often fully written out and committed fame belongs to the country, and goes to make to memory. He would not speak at all except up its own title to the respect of the world. upon preparation; and at sexagenarian agethat at which I knew him-was a model of study and of labor to all young men. His last speech in the Senate was in reply to Mr. Rufus King, on the Missouri question, and was the master effort of his life. The subject, the place, the audience, the antagonist, were all such as to excite him to the utmost exertion. The subject was a national controversy convulsing the Union and menacing it with dissolution; the place was the American Senate; the audience was Europe and America; the antagonist was PRINCEPS SENATUS, illustrious for thirty years of diplo

CHAPTER VIII.

DEATH OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.

He died at Washington during the session of the Congress of which he was a member, and of the Supreme Court of which he was a practitioner. He fell like the warrior, in the plenitude of his strength, and on the field of his fame-matic and senatorial service, and for great digunder the double labors of the Supreme Court and of the Senate, and under the immense concentration of thought which he gave to the preparation of his speeches. He was considered in his day the first of American orators, but will hardly keep that place with posterity, because he spoke more to the hearer than to the reader to the present than to the absent-and avoided the careful publication of his own speeches. He labored them hard, but it was for the effect of their delivery, and the triumph of present victory. He loved the admiration of the crowded gallery-the trumpet-tongued fame which went forth from the forum-the victory which crowned the effort; but avoided the publication of what was received with so much applause, giving as a reason that the published speech would not sustain the renown of the delivered onc. His forte as a speaker lay in his

nity of life and character. He had ample time for preparation, and availed himself of it. Mr. King had spoken the session before, and published the "Substance" of his speeches (for there were two of them), after the adjournment of Congress. They were the signal guns for the Missouri controversy. It was to these published speeches that Mr. Pinkney replied, and with the interval between two sessions o prepare. It was a dazzling and overpowering reply, with the prestige of having the union and the harmony of the States for its object, and crowded with rich material. The most brilliant part of it was a highly-wrought and splendid amplification (with illustrations from Greek and Roman history), of that passage in Mr. Burke's speech upon "Conciliation with the Colonies," in which, and in looking to the elements of American resistance to British power, he looks to the spirit

raging, with a beautiful and apt quotation from the quarrel of Adam and Eve at their expulsion from paradise. The published debates give this account of it: "Mr. Randolph rose to announce to the House an event which he hoped would put an end, at least for this day, to all further jar or collision, here or elsewhere, among the members of this body. Yes, for this one day, at least, let us say, as our first mother said to our first father—

While yet we live, scarce one short hour perbaps,
Between us two let there be peace.'

"I rise to announce to the House the not unlooked for death of a man who filled the first place in the public estimation, in the first profession in that estimation, in this or in any other country. We have been talking of General Jackson, and a greater than him is, not here, but gone for ever. I allude, sir, to the boast of Maryland, and the pride of the United States

the pride of all of us, but more particularly the pride and ornament of the profession of which you, Mr. Speaker (Mr. Philip P. Barbour), are a member, and an eminent one."

of the slaveholding colonies as a main ingredient, and attributes to the masters of slaves, who are not themselves slaves, the highest love of liberty and the most difficult task of subjection. It was the most gorgeous speech ever delivered in the Senate, and the most applauded; but it was only a magnificent exhibition, as Mr. Pinkney knew, and could not sustain in the reading the plaudits it received in delivery; and therefore he avoided its publication. He gave but little attention to the current business of the Senate, only appearing in his place when the "Salaminian galley was to be launched," or some special occasion called him-giving his time and labor to the bar, where his pride and glory was. He had previously served in the House of Representatives, and his first speech there was attended by an incident illustrative of Mr. Randolph's talent for delicate intimation, and his punctilious sense of parliamentary etiquette. Mr. Pinkney came into the House with a national reputation, in the fulness of his fame, and exciting a great expectation-which he was obliged to fulfil. He spoke on the treatymaking power-a question of diplomatic and constitutional law; and he having been minister Mr. Pinkney was kind and affable in his to half the courts of Europe, attorney general temper, free from every taint of envy or jealousy, of the United States, and a jurist by profession, conscious of his powers, and relying upon them could only speak upon it in one way-as a great alone for success. He was a model, as I have master of the subject; and, consequently, ap- already said, and it will bear repetition, to all peared as if instructing the House. Mr. Ran-young men in his habits of study and applicadolph-a veteran of twenty years' parliamentary tion, and at more than sixty years of age was service thought a new member should serve a little apprenticeship before he became an instructor, and wished to signify that to Mr. Pinkney. He had a gift, such as man never had, at a delicate intimation where he desired to give a hint, without offence; and he displayed it on this occasion. He replied to Mr. Pinkney, referring to him by the parliamentary designation of "the member from Maryland;" and then pausing, as if not certain, added, "I believe he is from Maryland." This implied doubt as to where he came from, and consequently as to who he was, amused Mr. Pinkney, who understood it perfectly, and taking it right, went over to Mr. Randolph's seat, introduced himself, and assured him that he was "from Maryland." They became close friends for ever after; and it was Mr. Randolph who first made known his death in the House of Representatives, interrupting for that purpose an angry debate, then

still a severe student. In politics he classed democratically, and was one of the few of our eminent public men who never seemed to think of the presidency. Oratory was his glory, the law his profession, the bar his theatre; and his service in Congress was only a brief episode, dazzling each House, for he was a momentary member of each, with a single and splendid speech.

CHAPTER IX.

ABOLITION OF THE INDIAN FACTORY SYSTEM.

THE experience of the Indian factory system, is an illustration of the unfitness of the federal government to carry on any system of trade, the liability of the benevolent designs of the gov

to abolish the factories, and throw open the fur trade to individual enterprise, and supported the bill with all the facts and reasons of which I was master. The bill was carried through both Houses, and became a law; but not without the strenuous opposition which the attack of every abuse for ever encounters-not that any member favored the abuse, but that those interested in it were vigilant and active, visiting the members who would permit such visits, furnish

ernment to be abused, and the difficulty of detecting and redressing abuses in the management of our Indian affairs. This system originated in the year 1796, under the recommendation of President Washington, and was intended to counteract the influence of the British traders, then allowed to trade with the Indians of the United States within our limits; also to protect the Indians from impositions from our own traders, and for that purpose to sell them goods at cost and carriage, and receive their furs and pel-ing them with adverse statements, lauding the tries at fair and liberal prices; and which being operation of the system, and constantly lugging sold on account of the United States, would de- in the name of Washington as its author. When fray the expenses of the establishment, and pre- the system was closed up, and the inside of it serve the capital undiminished-to be returned seen, and the balance struck, it was found how to the treasury at the end of the experiment. The true all the representations were which had been goods were purchased at the expense of the Unit- made against it. The Indians had been imposed ed States-the superintendent and factors were upon in the quality and prices of the goods sold paid out of the treasury, and the whole system them; a general trade had been carried on with was to be one of favor and benevolence to the the whites as well as with the Indians; large Indians, guarded by the usual amount of bonds per centums had been charged upon every thing and oaths prescribed by custom in such cases. sold; and the total capital of three hundred Being an experiment, it was first established by thousand dollars was lost and gone. It was a a temporary act, limited to two years-the usual loss which, at that time (1822), was considered way in which equivocal measures get a foothold large, but now (1850) would be considered in legislation. It was soon suspected that this small; but its history still has its uses, in showsystem did not work as disinterestedly as had ing how differently from its theory a well inbeen expected that it was of no benefit to the tended act may operate-how long the Indians Indians-no counteraction to British traders and the government may be cheated without an injury to our own fur trade-and a loss to knowing it-and how difficult it is to get a bad the United States; and many attempts were law discontinued (where there is an interest in made to get rid of it, but in vain. It was kept keeping it up), even though first adopted as a up by continued temporary renewals for a quar- temporary measure, and as a mere experiment. ter of a century—from 1796 to 1822-the name It cost me a strenuous exertion-much labor in of Washington being always invoked to continue collecting facts, and much speaking in laying abuses which he would have been the first to re- them before the Senate-to get this two years' press and punish. As a citizen of a frontier law discontinued, after twenty-five years of inState, I had seen the working of the system-jurious operation and costly experience. Of all seen its inside working, and knew its operation the branches of our service, that of the Indian to be entirely contrary to the benevolent de- affairs is most liable to abuse, and its abuses the signs of its projectors. I communicated all most difficult of detection. this, soon after my admission to a seat in the Senate, to Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary at War, to whose department the supervision of this branch of service belonged, and proposed to him the abolition of the system; but he had too good an opinion of the superintendent (then Mr. Thomas L. McKinney), to believe that any thing was wrong in the business, and refused THE Presidential election of 1824 was aphis countenance to my proposition. Confident that I was right, I determined to bring the question before the Senate-did so-brought in a bill

CHAPTER X.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.

proaching, the candidates in the field, their respective friends active and busy, and popular topics for the canvass in earnest requisition. The

New-York canal had just been completed, and to execute a system, and that in each and every had brought great popularity to its principal ad- part-in every mile of each and every canal vocate (De Witt Clinton), and excited a great road-it should undertake to construct. He beappetite in public men for that kind of fame. gan with acquiring the right of way, and purRoads and canals-meaning common turnpike, sued it to its results in the construction and prefor the steam car had not then been invented, servation of the work, involving jurisdiction, nor McAdam impressed his name on the new ownership, penal laws, and administration. class of roads which afterwards wore it-were Commissioners, he said, must first be appointed all the vogue; and the candidates for the Presi- to trace a route, and to acquire a right to the dency spread their sails upon the ocean of inter- | ground over which the road or canal was to pass, nal improvements. Congress was full of pro- with a sufficient breadth for each. The ground jects for different objects of improvement, and could only be acquired by voluntary grants from the friends of each candidate exerted themselves individuals, or by purchases, or by condemnain rivalry of each other, under the supposition tion of the property, and fixing its value through that their opinions would stand for those of their a jury of the vicinage, if they refused to give or principals. Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay, and Mr. sell, or demanded an exorbitant price. After Calhoun, were the avowed advocates of the mea- all this was done, then came the repairs, the care sure, going thoroughly for a general national of which was to be of perpetual duration, and system of internal improvement: Mr. Crawford of a kind to provide against criminal and wilful and General Jackson, under limitations and qua- injuries, as well as against the damages of accilifications. The Cumberland road, and the Chesa- dent, and deterioration from time and use. peake and Ohio canal, were the two prominent There are persons in every community capable objects discussed; but the design extended to a of committing voluntary injuries, of pulling general system, and an act was finally passed, in- down walls that are made to sustain the road; tended to be annual and permanent, to appropri- of breaking the bridges over water-courses, and ate $30,000 to make surveys of national routes. breaking the road itself. Some living near it Mr. Monroe signed this bill as being merely for might be disappointed that it did not pass through the collection of information, but the subject their lands, and commit these acts of violence drew from him the most elaborate and thorough- and waste from revenge. To prevent these ly considered opinion upon the general question crimes Congress must have a power to pass laws which has ever been delivered by any of our to punish the offenders, wherever they may be statesmen. It was drawn out by the passage of found. Jurisdiction over the road would not an act to provide for the preservation and repair be sufficient, though it were exclusive. There of the Cumberland road, and was returned by must be power to follow the offenders wherever him to the House in which it originated, with his they might go. It would seldom happen that the objections, accompanied by a state paper, in ex- parties would be detected in the act. They would position of his opinions upon the whole subject; generally commit it in the night, and fly far off befor the whole subject was properly before him. fore the sun appeared. Right of pursuit must atThe act which he had to consider, though mod-tach, or the power of punishing become nugatory. estly entitled for the "preservation" and "re- Tribunals, State or federal, must be invested pair" of the Cumberland road, yet, in its mode with power to execute the law. Wilful injuries of accomplishing that purpose, assumed the whole would require all this assumption of power, and of the powers which were necessary to the exe-machinery of administration, to punish and precution of a general system. It passed with sin-vent them. Repair of natural deteriorations gular unanimity through both Houses, in the would require the application of a different reSenate, only seven votes against it, of which I af-medy. Toll gates, and persons to collect the terwards felt proud to have been one. He denied the power; but before examining the arguments for and against it, very properly laid down the amount and variety of jurisdiction and authority which it would require the federal government to exercise within the States, in order

tolls, were the usual resort for repairing this class of injuries, and keeping the road in order. Congress must have power to make such an establishment, and to enact a code of regulations for it, with fines and penalties, and agents to execute it. To all these exercises of authority

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