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older States? In New England, where numer- of all the tribes on the east of the Mississippi ; ous and warlike tribes once so fiercely contended and his plan had been acted upon in some defor supremacy with our forefathers, but two gree, both by himself and his immediate succesthousand five hundred of their descendants re- sor. But it was reserved for Mr. Monroe's admain, and they are dispirited and degraded. Of ministration to take up the subject in its full the powerful league of the Six Nations, so long the sense, to move upon it as a system, and to acscourge and terror of New-York, only about five complish at a single operation the removal of thousand souls remain. In New Jersey, Pennsyl- all the tribes from the east to the west side of vania, and Maryland, the numerous and powerful the Mississippi-from the settled States and tertribes once seen there, are either extinct, or so re- ritories, to the wide and wild expanse of Louisiduced as to escape observation in any enumeration ana. Their preservation and civilization, and of the States' inhabitants. In Virginia, Mr. Jef- permanency in their new possessions, were to be ferson informs us that there were at the com- their advantages in this removal-delusive, it mencement of its colonization (1607), in the com- might be, but still a respite from impending deparatively small portion of her extent which lies struction if they remained where they were. This between the sea-coast and the mountains, and comprehensive plan was advocated by Mr. Calfrom the Potomac to the most southern waters houn, then Secretary of War, and charged with of James River, upwards of forty tribes of the administration of Indian affairs. It was a plan Indians: now there are but forty-seven individ- of incalculable value to the southern and westuals in the whole State! In North Carolina ern States, but impracticable without the hearty none are counted: in South Carolina only four concurrence of the northern and non-slaveholding hundred and fifty. While in Georgia, where States. It might awaken the slavery question, thirty years since there were not less than thirty hardly got to sleep after the alarming agitations thousand souls, there now remain some fifteen of the Missouri controversy. The States and thousand-the one half having disappeared in a territories to be relieved were slaveholding. To single generation. That many of these people remove the Indians would make room for the have removed, and others perished by the sword spread of slaves. No removal could be effected in the frequent wars which have occurred in the without the double process of a treaty and an progress of our settlements, I am free to admit. appropriation act-the treaty to be ratified by But where are the hundreds of thousands, with two thirds of the Senate, where the slave and their descendants, who neither removed, nor free States were equal, and the appropriation to were thus destroyed? Sir, like a promontory be obtained from Congress, where free States of sand, exposed to the ceaseless encroachments held the majority of members. It was evident of the ocean, they have been gradually wasting that the execution of the whole plan was in the away before the current of the advancing white hands of the free States; and nobly did they do population which set in upon them from every their duty by the South. Some societies, and quarter; and unless speedily removed beyond some individuals, no doubt, with very humane the influence of this cause, of the many tens of motives, but with the folly, and blindness, and thousands now within the limits of the southern injury to the objects of their care which generally and western States, a remnant will not long be attend a gratuitous interference with the affairs found to point you to the graves of their ances- of others, attempted to raise an outcry, and made tors, or to relate the sad story of their disap- themselves busy to frustrate the plan; but the pearance from earth." free States themselves, in their federal action, Mr. Jefferson, that statesman in fact as well and through the proper exponents of their will as in name, that man of enlarged and compre--their delegations in Congress-cordially conhensive views, whose prerogative it was to fore-curred in it, and faithfully lent it a helping and see evils and provide against them, had long fore-efficient hand. The President, Mr. Monroe, in seen the evils both to the Indians and to the the session 1824-25, recommended its adoption whites, in retaining any part of these tribes within to Congress, and asked the necessary appropriaour organized limits; and upon the first acquisition to begin from the Congress. A bill was retion of Louisiana-within three months after the ported in the Senate for that purpose, and unaniacquisition-proposed it for the future residence mously passed that body. What is more,

lapse of forty years. He was received with unbounded honor, affection, and gratitude by the American people. To the survivors of the Revo

new generation, born since that time, it was the apparition of an historical character, familiar from the cradle; and combining all the titles to love, admiration, gratitude, enthusiasm, which could act upon the heart and the imagination of the young and the ardent. He visited every State in the Union, doubled in number since, as the friend and pupil of Washington, he had spilt his blood, and lavished his fortune, for their independence.

the treaties made with the Kansas and Osage tribes in 1825, for the cession to the United States of all their vast territory west of Missouri and Arkansas, except small reserves to them-lution, it was the return of a brother; to the selves, and which treaties had been made without previous authority from the government, and for the purpose of acquiring new homes for all the Indians east of the Mississippi, were duly and readily ratified. Those treaties were made at St. Louis by General Clarke, without any authority, so far as this large acquisition was concerned, at my instance, and upon my assurance that the Senate would ratify them. It was done. They were ratified: a great act of justice was rendered to the South. The foundation was laid for the future removal of the Indians, which was followed up by subsequent treaties and acts of Congress, until the southern and western States were as free as the northern from the incumbrance of an Indian population; and I, who was an actor in these transactions, who reported the bills and advocated the treaties which brought this great benefit to the south and west, and witnessed the cordial support of the members from the free States, without whose concurrence they could not have been passed-I, who wish for harmony and concord among all the States, and all the sections of this Union, owe it to the cause of truth and justice, and to the cultivation of fraternal feelings, to bear this faithful testimony to the just and liberal conduct of the non-slaveholding States, in relieving the southern and western States from so large an incumbrance, and aiding the extension of their settlement and cultivation. The recommendation of Mr. Monroe, and the treaties of 1825, were the beginning of the system of total removal; but it was a beginning which assured the success of the whole plan, and was followed up, as will be seen, in the history of each case, until the entire system was accomplished.

CHAPTER XII.

VISIT OF LAFAYETTE TO THE UNITED STATES.

In the summer of this year General Lafayette, accompanied by his son, Mr. George Washington Lafayette, and under an invitation from the President, revisited the United States after a

His progress through the States was a triumphal procession, such as no Roman ever led up-a procession not through a city, but over a continent-followed, not by captives in chains of iron, but by a nation in the bonds of affection. To him it was an unexpected and overpowering reception. His modest estimate of himself had not allowed him to suppose that he was to electrify a continent. He expected kindness, but not enthusiasm. He expected to meet with surviving friends-not to rouse a young generation. As he approached the harbor of NewYork, he made inquiry of some acquaintance to know whether he could find a hack to convey him to a hotel? Illustrious man, and modest as illustrious! Little did he know that all America was on foot to receive him-to take possession of him the moment he touched her soil-to fetch and to carry him-to feast and applaud him-to make him the guest of cities, States. and the nation, as long as he could be detained. Many were the happy meetings which he had with old comrades, survivors for near half a century of their early hardships and dangers; and most grateful to his heart it was to see them, so many of them, exceptions to the maxim which denies to the beginners of revolutions the good fortune to conclude them (and of which maxim his own country had just been so sad an exemplification), and to see his old comrades not only conclude the one they began, but live to enjoy its fruits and honors. Three of his old associates he found ex-presidents (Adams, Jefferson, and Madison), enjoying the respect and affection of their country, after having reached its highest honors. Another, and the last one that Time would admit to the Presidency (Mr. Monroe), now in the Presidential chair, and inviting him to revisit the land of his adoption. Many of his

not limit themselves to honors: they added substantial rewards for long past services and sacrifices-two hundred thousand dollars in money, and twenty-four thousand acres of fertile land in Florida. These noble grants did not pass with

early associates seen in the two Houses of Con-
gress-many in the State governments, and
many more in all the walks of private life, pa-
triarchal sires, respected for their characters,
and venerated for their patriotic services. It
was a grateful spectacle, and the more impres-out objection-objection to the principle, not to
sive from the calamitous fate which he had seen
attend so many of the revolutionary patriots of
the Old World. But the enthusiasm of the
young generation astonished and excited him,
and gave him a new view of himself—a future
glimpse of himself—and such as he would be
seen in after ages. Before them, he was in the
presence of posterity; and in their applause and
admiration he saw his own future place in his-
tory, passing down to the latest time as one of
the most perfect and beautiful characters which
one of the most eventful periods of the world
had produced. Mr. Clay, as Speaker of the
House of Representatives, and the organ of their
congratulations to Lafayette (when he was re-
ceived in the hall of the House), very felicitously
seized the idea of his present confrontation with
posterity, and adorned and amplified it with the
graces of oratory. He said: "The vain wish
has been sometimes indulged, that Providence
would allow the patriot, after death, to return
to his country, and to contemplate the inter-
mediate changes which had taken place to view
the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains
levelled, the canals cut, the highways opened,
the progress of the arts, the advancement of
learning, and the increase of population. Gen-
eral! your present visit to the United States is
the realization of the consoling object of that
wish, hitherto vain. You are in the midst of
posterity! Every where you must have been
struck with the great changes, physical and
moral, which have occurred since you left us.
Even this very city, bearing a venerated name,
alike endearing to you and to us, has since
emerged from the forest which then covered its
site. In one respect you behold us unaltered,
and that is, in the sentiment of continued devo-
tion to liberty, and of ardent affection and pro-
found gratitude to your departed friend, the fa-
ther of his country, and to your illustrious asso-
ciates in the field and in the cabinet, for the mul-
tiplied blessings which surround us, and for the
very privilege of addressing you, which I now
have." He was received in both Houses of Con-
gress with equal honor; but the Houses did

the amount. The ingratitude of republics is the
theme of any declaimer: it required a Tacitus
to say, that gratitude was the death of republics,
and the birth of monarchies; and it belongs to
the people of the United States to exhibit an
exception to that profound remark (as they do
to so many other lessons of history), and show a
young republic that knows how to be grateful
without being unwise, and is able to pay the debt
of gratitude without giving its liberties in the dis-
charge of the obligation. The venerable Mr. Ma-
con, yielding to no one in love and admiration of
Lafayette, and appreciation of his services and sa-
crifices in the American cause, opposed the grants
in the Senate, and did it with the honesty of pur-
pose and the simplicity of language which distin-
guished all the acts of his life. He said: "It
was with painful reluctance that he felt himself
obliged to oppose his voice to the passage of this
bill. He admitted, to the full extent claimed for
them, the great and meritorious services of
General Lafayette, and he did not object to the
precise sum which this bill proposed to award
him; but he objected to the bill on this ground:
he considered General Lafayette, to all intents
and purposes, as having been, during our revolu
tion, a son adopted into the family, taken into
the household, and placed, in every respect, on
the same footing with the other sons of the same
family. To treat him as others were treated,
was all, in this view of his relation to us, that
could be required, and this had been done. That
General Lafayette made great sacrifices, and
spent much of his money in the service of this
country (said Mr. M.), I as firmly believe as I
do any other thing under the sun.
I have no
doubt that every faculty of his mind and body
were exerted in the Revolutionary war, in de-
fence of this country; but this was equally the
case with all the sons of the family. Many na-
tive Americans spent their all, made great sacri-
fices, and devoted their lives in the same cause.
This was the ground of his objection to this bill,
which, he repeated, it was as disagreeable to
him to state as it could be to the Senate to hear.
He did not mean to take up the time of the Se-

nate in debate upon the principle of the bill, or to move any amendment to it. He admitted that, when such things were done, they should be done with a free hand. It was to the principle of the bill, therefore, and not to the sum proposed to be given by it, that he objected."

ed by republican institutions." And in this Lafayette was consistent and sincere. He was a republican himself, but deemed a constitutional monarchy the proper government for France, and labored for that form in the person of Louis XVI. as well as in that of Louis Philippe.

while the grants were depending (for the bill was passed in the Christmas holidays, when I had gone to Virginia, and took the opportunity to call upon that great man), which showed his regard for liberty abroad as well as at home, and his far-seeing sagacity into future events. The ardent Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina, re- He said there would be a change in France, porter of the bill in the Senate, replied to the and Lafayette would be at the head of it, and objections, and first showed from history (not ought to be easy and independent in his circumfrom Lafayette, who would have nothing to do stances, to be able to act efficiently in conducting with the proposed grant), his advances, losses, and the movement. This he said to me on Christmas sacrifices in our cause. He had expended for day, 1824. Six years afterwards this view into the American service, in six years, from futurity was verified. The old Bourbons had to 1777 to 1783, the sum of 700,000 francs retire: the Duke of Orleans, a brave general in ($140,000), and under what circumstances? the republican armies, at the commencement of -a foreigner, owing us nothing, and throwing the Revolution, was handed to the throne by Lahis fortune into the scale with his life, to be la-fayette, and became the "citizen king, surroundvished in our cause. He left the enjoyments of rank and fortune, and the endearments of his family, to come and serve in our almost destitute armies, and without pay. He equipped and armed a regiment for our service, and freighted a vessel to us, loaded with arms and munitions. It was not until the year 1794, when almost ruined by the French revolution, and by his efforts in the cause of liberty, that he would receive the naked pay, without interest, of a general officer for the time he had served with us. He was entitled to land as one of the officers of the Revolution, and 11,500 acres was granted to him, to be located on any of the public lands of the United States. His agent located 1000 acres adjoining the city of New Orleans; and Congress afterwards, not being informed of the location, granted the same ground to the city of New Orleans. His location was valid, and he was so informed; but he refused to adhere to it, saying that he would have no contest with any portion of the American people, and ordered the location to be removed; which was done, and carried upon ground of little value-thus giving up what was then worth $50,000, and now $500,000. These were his moneyed advances, losses, and sacrifices, great in themselves, and of great value to our cause, but perhaps exceeded by the moral effect of his example in joining us, and his influence with the king and ministry, which procured us the alliance of France.

The grants were voted with great unanimity, and with the general concurrence of the American people. Mr. Jefferson was warmly for them, giving as a reason, in a conversation with me

Loaded with honors, and with every feeling of his heart gratified in the noble reception he had met in the country of his adoption, Lafayette returned to the country of his birth the following summer, still as the guest of the United States, and under its flag. He was carried back in a national ship of war, the new frigate Brandywine-a delicate compliment (in the name and selection of the ship) from the new President, Mr. Adams, Lafayette having wet with his blood the sanguinary battle-field which takes its name from the little stream which gave it first to the field, and then to the frigate. Mr. Monroe, then a subaltern in the service of the United States, was wounded at the same time. How honorable to themselves and to the American people, that nearly fifty years afterwards, they should again appear together, and in exalted station; one as President, inviting the other to the great republic, and signing the acts which testified a nation's gratitude; the other as a patriot hero, tried in the revolutions of two countries, and resplendent in the glory of virtuous and consistent fame.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE TARIFF, AND AMERICAN SYSTEM.

tion of a national distress, which those who were not cotemporary with the state of things which he described, would find it difficult to conceive or to realize. He said:

"In casting our eyes around us, the most prominent circumstance which fixes our attention and challenges our deepest regret, is the general distress which pervades the whole country, It is forced upon us by numerous facts cated by the diminished exports of native produce; by the depressed and reduced state of our foreign navigation; by our diminished commerce; by successive unthreshed crops of grain perishing in our barns for want of a market; by the alarming diminution of the circulating medium; by the numerous bankruptcies; by a universal complaint of the want of employment, and a consequent reduction of the wages of lations, not for the sake of their honors, and the bor; by the ravenous pursuit after public situaperformance of their public duties, but as a means of private subsistence; by the reluctant

of the most incontestable character. It is indi

THE revision of the Tariff, with a view to the protection of home industry, and to the establishment of what was then called, "The American System," was one of the large subjects before Congress at the session 1823-24, and was the regular commencement of the heated debates on that question which afterwards ripened into a serious difficulty between the federal government and some of the southern States. The presidential election being then depending, the subject became tinctured with party politics, in which, so far as that ingredient was concerned, and was not controlled by other considerations, members divided pretty much on the line which always divided them on a question of construct-resort to the perilous use of paper money; by ive powers. The protection of domestic industry not being among the granted powers, was looked for in the incidental; and denied by the strict constructionists to be a substantive power, to be exercised for the direct purpose of protection; but admitted by all at that time, and ever since the first tariff act of 1789, to be an incident to the revenue raising power, and an incident to be regarded in the exercise of that power. Revenue the object, protection the incident, had been the rule in the earlier tariffs: now that rule was sought to be reversed, and to make protection the object of the law, and revenue the incident. The revision, and the augmentation of duties which it contemplated, turned, not so much on the emptiness of the treasury and the necessity for raising money to fill it, as upon the distress of the country, and the necessity of creating a home demand for la- Mr. Clay was the leading speaker on the part bor, provisions and materials, by turning a larger of the bill in the House of Representatives, proportion of our national industry into the but he was well supported by many able and channel of domestic manufactures. Mr. Clay, effective speakers-by Messrs. Storrs, Tracy, the leader in the proposed revision, and the John W. Taylor, from New-York; by Messrs. champion of the American System, expressly Buchanan, Todd, Ingham, Hemphill, Andrew placed the proposed augmentation of duties on Stewart, from Pennsylvania; by Mr. Louis this ground; and in his main speech upon the McLane, from Delaware; by Messrs. Buckner, question, dwelt upon the state of the country, F. Johnson, Letcher, Metcalfe, Trimble, White, and gave a picture of the public distress, which Wickliffe, from Kentucky; by Messrs. Campdeserves to be reproduced in this VIEW of the bell, Vance, John W. Wright, Vinton, Whittleworking of our government, both as the leading sey, from Ohio; Mr. Daniel P. Cook, from argument for the new tariff, and as an exhibi- | Illinois.

relation between debtor and creditor; and, the intervention of legislation in the delicate above all, by the low and depressed state of the value of almost every description of the whole mass of the property of the nation, which has, on an average, sunk not less than about fifty per centum within a few years. This distress pervades every part of the Union, every class of society; all feel it, though it may be felt, at different places, in different degrees. It is like the hale it, and none can escape from it. A few atmosphere which surrounds us: all must inyears ago, the planting interest consoled itself with its happy exemptions from the general calamity; but it has now reached this interest also, which experiences, though with less severity, the general suffering. It is most painful to me to attempt to sketch, or to dwell on the gloom of this picture. But I have exaggerated nothing. Perfect fidelity to the original would have authorized me to have thrown on deeper and

darker hues."

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