JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION, FROM MARCH 4TH, 1829, TO MARCH 4TH, 1837.-His Election.- Van Buren VicePresident.-Death of John Jay.-Nullification in South Carolina.-Clay's Compromise Act.

1. FEW events worthy of note occurred in the year 1827. During the session of Congress which commenced December 4th of that year, a bill was passed for the revision of the tariff of the United States; but it did not give universal satisfaction. Some thought it encouraged domestic manufactures, etc., too much; others, too little.

2. The year 1828 was distinguished for party strife in the election of a president. The two opposing candidates were Adams, the in cumbent, and General Jackson. The result of the contest was the election of General Jackson by a large majority-one hundred and

CHAP. CXCII.-1. What bill passed in Congress in the year 1827? 2. Who were the candidates for the presidency in the year 1828? Who was elected? What was the majority of votes for Jackson? How did Jackson's administration begin?

seventy-eight of the electoral votes being given for him, and only eighty-three for Adams. It was a majority which even the friends of General Jackson himself hardly expected. His administration was begun by the appointment of a new cabinet, and by the removal from office of a great number of individuals known to be unfriendly to his election.

3. During the year 1829, John Jay, of Bedford, New York, died, at the age of eighty-four. He was one of the presidents of the old Continental Congress; and, without a doubt, one of the greatest men of his day. He was a truly good as well as a great man.

4. Before the close of the Congress which assembled in December, 1830, a rupture took place between the president and Calhoun, vicepresident, which produced other animosities and divisions; and, on the 20th of April, 1831, the cabinet officers of the president all resigned. During the summer, however, a new cabinet was organized.

5. A treaty of peace and commerce was made, in the year 1830, between the United States and the government of Turkey; a commercial treaty was also concluded with Mexico. Just before President Jackson came into office, General Harrison, afterward President Harrison, was made the United States minister-plenipotentiary to Colombia.

6. On the 10th of December, 1832, Jackson issued his celebrated proclamation against the Nullifiers of South Carolina. These politicians maintained that any one of the states might set aside, or nullify, any act of Congress which they deemed unconstitutional and oppressive. They called themselves the State Rights Party, inasmuch as they asserted the rights of the states to be supreme.

7. These views had been entertained from the adoption of the constitution by a few individuals; but, until the period of which we are now speaking, they had not produced any serious results. The chief occasion of the proceedings in South Carolina, already adverted to, was the existing tariff laws. Conventions of that state passed resolu tions declaring them to be null and void; and formidable preparations were made to resist their execution.

8. President Jackson's proclamation was aimed at these proceedings. Great anxiety and alarm prevailed in the country, and an apprehension was entertained that the Union was soon to be severed by the open rebellion of the state of South Carolina. In this state of things, the

8. What can you say of John Jay? When did he die? 4. What rupture took place in 1880? What of the cabinet? 5. What treaties were made in 1830? To what place had General Harrison been sent as minister? 6. What did Jackson do in 1832 ? Who were

the Nullifiers? What did they call themselves, and why? 7. By whom had these views been long entertained? What was the occasion of the feelings existing in South Carolina? What was done by conventions in that state? 8. What anxiety was felt! What was the effect on parties?

PRESIDENT JACKSON.

379

divisions of political parties were momentarily forgotten, and even the opposers of the president rallied on the side of his proclamation. Few were found, except those of the state rights party of South Carolina, to sustain the movements of the nullifiers.

9. The difficulty was at length pacified by the Compromise Act, brought forward by Mr. Clay, in the Senate of the United States, and passed in 1833. This act provided for a gradual reduction of duties for the succeeding ten years, when they should sink to the general level of twenty per cent.

10. This compromise act went into operation, and continued till 1842, when it was superseded by a new tariff system, as will be hereafter related.

CHAPTER CXCIII.

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-His Northern Tour.-Removal of the Deposits.-His Second Term.

1. ON counting the votes for president and vice-president of the

JACKSON'S TOUR.

United States, in the early part of the year 1833, President Jackson was found to be reelected by an overwhelming

majority; and Martin Van Buren was chosen vice-pres

ident.

2. One of the

early acts of

the president, during his sec

ond administration, was to pay a visit, May 6th, in company with the members of his cabinet and others, to Fredericksburg, to witness the

9. How was the difficulty at length pacified? For what did the compromise of 1888 provide?

CHAP. CXCIII.-1. Who were elected president and vice-president in 1888? was done May 6th, at Fredericksburg, in Virginia?

2. What

ceremony of laying a corner-stone of a monument to the mother of Washington.

3. While the steamboat which conveyed them was on the way from Washington to Alexandria, as the president and others were sitting at dinner, a dastardly assault was made by one Randolph, late a lieutenant in the navy, on the president. The company, however, interfered, so that Randolph only inflicted a single blow in the face.

4. It may not be out of place to say here that the centennial birth day of Washington had been celebrated with great pomp and rejoicing throughout the United States, on the 22d of February, 1832, or a little more than a year before the corner-stone was laid of a monument to his mother's memory.

5. On the 6th of June 1833, the president, with most of his cabinet, set out on a tour through the New England states. The objects of this tour were similar to those of his predecessors, Washington and Monroe; and he was received everywhere with similar demonstrations of respect.

6. In the autumn of this year, the president came to the conclusion that the deposits of the public moneys, amounting to about ten millions of dollars, ought to be removed from the Bank of the United States, where they had been placed for twenty years, to the state banks. He deemed this change necessary, as he said, in order "to preserve the morals of the people, the freedom of the press, and the purity of the elective franchise."

7. This was the beginning of a contest in Congress, respecting the deposits, which continued a long time, and created much excitement throughout the country. The deposits were, however, at length removed.

8. These vast sums being placed in the local banks of the several states, caused an immense inflation of the currency, and a consequent expansion of trade and speculation, which laid the foundation of a dreadful state of panic and bankruptcy, a short time after, all over the United States. The bitter fruits were reaped under Van Buren's administration.

3. What outrage was committed on board the steamboat? 4. When was Washington': hundredth birthday celebrated ? 5. What tour was made by Jackson in 1833? 6 What great change was determined upon by the president, and for what reason? 7. What of the contest which was occasioned by the removal of the deposits? 8. Whei were the consequences of the removal of the deposits?

STATE OF ARKANSAS.

CHAPTER CXCIV.

381

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION, CONTINUED.-State of Arkansas. Indian Territory.

1. ARKANSAS was admitted into the Union, as an independent state,

in the year 1836. This state lies to the southward of Missouri, and was originally, as we have elsewhere seen, a part of it. It has a fine climate and prolific soil, and is probably destined to be a very important member of the confederacy.

2. The earliest settlement of whites, within

the present limits of this state, was made at the Indian village of Arkansas, on the river of that name, in the year 1685. The first inhabitants and the emigrants who joined them, for many years, were French. The progress of the colony was very slow. It is scarcely thirty years since the tide of emigration from the Atlantic states began to flow in that direction.

3. Little Rock, the early seat of government, and present capital, was laid out in 1820. The first steamboat ascended the Arkansas River that year. It was eight days in going from New Orleans to the village of Arkansas, which is scarcely one hundred miles above the mouth of the Arkansas River.

4. Arkansas formerly contained within its bosom the remnants of several once numerous and powerful tribes of Indians. By a treaty made between the United States and the Cherokees, in 1833, the latter agreed to give up to the United States, for a sum equal to five millions of dollars, or more, all their lands east of the Mississippi, and to

CHAP. CXCIV.-1. When was Arkansas admitted into the Union? Where is it situated? 2. When was the earliest white settlement made there? Who were the first inhabItants? 3. What of Little Rock? What can you say of the first steamboat? 4. What of Indian tribes in this state?