His efforts to stay the spread of the social pestilence was for the time fruitless, as the compromise was adopted, and slavery had full sway over all the territory lying south of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude until the 1st of January, 1863, when it was abolished forever in all our borders.

In 1823, after the expiration of his term of office as Senator of the United States, he was invited to stand for the Legislature, an invitation which, with much reluctance, he accepted. At that time public attention became engrossed with the duty of selecting a successor to President Monroe. There were several candidates, all claiming to be Democrats-Crawford of Georgia, Adams of Massa. chusetts, Clay of Kentucky, Jackson of Tennessee, and Calhoun of South Carolina, each having some show of support. Mr. Roberts favored the nomination of Crawford, who was the favorite of the intellect of the Republican or Democratic party. Had not his health failed him the probability was that he would have proved the strongest candidate. Supposing that by obtaining a seat in the Legislature at that time he would thereby promote the chances of Crawford's election, Mr. Roberts accepted the nomination, and was elected. Almost single-handed and alone he stood out against the tide of Jacksonism that swept through the Pennsylvania Legislature. In this his standing as a public man was rendered quite unpopular, notwithstanding he was once thereafter returned to his seat. As the last of his legislative services he took an active and leading part in the great internal improvement scheme which at that time. started the prosperous career which has since been pursued by the Keystone State. That great system was not adopted in the form Mr. Roberts desired, owing to the refusal of the Senate to incorporate the essential provision for a sinking fund to eventually liquidate the outlay. He was urged to stand as a candidate for the next session of the Legislature, but he felt it was time for him to retire .and look more after his private affairs. One feature of the Improvement enactment was for a Canal Board to serve without pay, as an expedient to get rid of drones. This plan was only partially successful, as idle and incompetent men pressed themselves into even that public position. Governor Shultz at length sent a commission. to Mr. Roberts with the request that he would accept it. Being unwilling to show reluctance to execute a policy which he had so earnestly supported, and to keep the appointment out of improper hands, he consented to fill the place, although at great private sacritace. He continued to fulfill the duties of his office for three years,

much to the advantage of the State. This brought his public services up to the year 1827, when Jacksonism had acquired control of all State affairs in Pennsylvania. The Republican Canal Board was · obnoxious to the predominant Jackson junto in the Legislature, and the members of the former body were legislated out of office, they having refused to resign the discharge of their duties, and a new Jackson board was legislated into office, as they would not trust Governor Shultz to make other appointment.

From this time forward Mr. Roberts was active in his opposition to Jacksonism, and kept the defenders of the Hero of New Orleans engaged in an animated public discussion of the claims of that impetuous and arbitrary man to the confidence of the American people. This drew down upon him the displeasure of those who were carried away by the military renown of Jackson. Mr. Roberts was a warm and able defender of Mr. Adams, who was made the target for the bitter assaults of men like Samuel D. Ingham, and Timothy Pickering, who sought to advance Jackson's interests by creating popular prejudice against President Adams, who, as well as Jackson and Clay, had been Democrats up to the time of his election. In. this purpose these adversaries of Mr. Adams were successful, and in 1828 Jackson was elevated to the Presidency by the popular vote. In his opposition to General Jackson, Mr. Roberts was governed solely by patriotic and impersonal motives. He felt and knew he was engaged in an unpopular cause, and the public controversy was most distasteful to him; but he fearlessly breasted the storm and looked forward to the time when it was to spend its force. That time came with the expiration of President Jackson's last term. It is true Van Buren succeeded him, but the unnatural coalition which had constituted the Jackson party melted away under the administration of his more politic but less willful predecessor.

During his public career Mr. Roberts had been an earnest and active supporter of the policy of protection to American industries. in the laying of imposts on imported goods and merchandise. About the close of the last term of his public service the revision of the: tariff laws became necessary. Foreign governments had so adaptedtheir legislation as to defeat the protective policy of this country. The old free States had turned their attention to manufactures, while the Southern slave States could not adapt slave labor to these pur-suits. Notwithstanding this development of sectional interests, some advantages were gained for the manufacturing interests; but, as time: passed on, further measures in that direction were called for. A

society was formed in Philadelphia to promote the growth of the useful arts. At their instance a national convention was held at Harrisburg in 1827. Mr. Roberts took a prominent and influential part in that assemblage. So strongly was he in favor of encouraging home manufactures that he never knowingly would wear a garment of foreign-made fabrics.

The result of this movement was the triumph which the policy of protection gained in all our free territory, and population throve with wonderful rapidity, as New England had before done in the pursuits of navigation and the fisheries. The jealousy of the slaveholding South therefore became aroused on seeing the prosperity attending free labor. In 1831-32 it became obvious that the public debt, for which impost duties were largely required, would soon be extinguished, and it had become the cry of the South to conform the duties to the payment of the economical wants of the National Government. Their aim was to get something like a horizontal tariff of duties on all imported commodities.

A free-trade convention met in 1830 or 1831 in Philadelphia, at the head of which was Albert Gallatin as the representative of the importing trade. He was placed at the head of the committee to memoralize Congress in the interest of the free traders. In doing this he could not avoid admitting the discriminative principle, and if not to encourage at least to sustain home industry. The convention served no other purpose than to rally the cotton-growers and those concerned in the ocean-carrying trade to make a stand against a squarely protective policy. A few months thereafter the friends of home industry held a national convention in New York city, which was attended by from five hundred to six hundred delegates. Mr. Roberts was sent to that body, and, against the strong opposition of the Jackson element in the convention, was placed on the committee of business. In discharging the duties of that committee he performed the most valuable services. The session was continued for a week, and throughout its proceedings Mr. R. took an active and prominent part. The result of these popular movements was the compromise tariff of 1832-33, which subsequently proved so disastrous to the prosperity of the country.

During the anti-Masonic agitation in Pennsylvania, Mr. Roberts, feeling that he could not affiliate fully with either of the fragmentary political movements into which the people of the State were divided, withdrew for a time from active participation in politics. But in 1835 he warmly supported Joseph Ritner for Governor, as the Whig

candidate. Disappointed in the policy of Governor Ritner's administration, Mr. Roberts remained a passive observer of the drift of public affairs until the misgovernment of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren brought on a crisis in 1839 that called him again into the field of politics. A National Whig convention met at Harrisburg to nominate a Presidential candidate to succeed Van Buren. Mr. Roberts went as a delegate to that convention, and energetically supported the claims of Henry Clay to the nomination. The choice, however, fell to General Harrison, who received the untiring and able support of Mr. Roberts during the very exciting political campaign which followed. In making choice of a candidate for Vice President it fell to the lot of Mr. Roberts, on behalf of the Pennsylvania delegation, to nominate John Tyler, of Virginia, a duty the discharge of which subsequently caused him the deepest regret.

Unfortunately for the country General Harrison did not live to inaugurate the policy which was expected from his election. One short month after his inauguration he died, and the executive duties devolved upon Mr. Tyler, the Vice President. The terrible business depression under which the country was then laboring caused an unusual desire and pressure for public appointments. In Philadelphia the Collectorship and other offices connected with the revenue department were vehemently contested for, and remained unassigned on General Harrison's death. Among the aspirants for the Collectorship were ex-Governors Shultz and Ritner, ex-Mayor John Swift, Bela Badger, Henry Morris, and I. Washington Tyson. The warm competition among these prominent and influential applicants led Mr. Tyler to seek to avoid offence by appointing some person who would be calculated to soften the asperity of feeling to which the competition had given rise. He thought he knew enough of the character of Mr. Roberts to warrant him in giving him the appointment without solicitation or suggestion on his part or that of anybody else. Mr. Tyler had good reasons for this mark of confidence in Mr. Roberts. He had known the latter while in Congress, and knew his independent fidelity to what he believed his public duty. Accordingly on April 14th, 1841, the appointment of Mr. R. was made as Collector of Customs for the port of Philadelphia. The announcement was a great surprise to Mr. Roberts, as he had warmly urged the appointment of Henry Morris, the youngest son of Robert Morris, the great financier of the Revolutionary epoch. This appointment found Mr. R. just convalescing after a severe and protracted illness of five months. Knowing the difficulties and per

plexities which would necessarily attend the discharge of the duties of Collector at that anomalous period, Mr. Roberts nesitated to accept the appointment, although the President and others urged him to do so. After some days he decided to accept the commission from the President. In that short time the applicants for appointment to offices under the Collector, about eighty-two in all, numbered over a thousand. It was a difficult and trying duty to make the necessary selections from so many applicants. By the 1st of May the new appointments were made, and the Custom House force organized for an efficient administration.

At that time President Tyler gave no indication that he entertained the idea of becoming his own successor for the next Presidential term; but on the assembling of Congress the ensuing winter his purpose to accomplish that object became manifest. This brought him into antagonism with the two houses of Congress on measures which the latter bodies deemed important. Mr. Clay, who was an active opponent of the President's financial views, became an object of his hatred and jealousy as a rival candidate for the Presidency. Mr. Tyler knew Mr. Roberts' partiality for Mr. Clay, and he became distrustful of the latter. President Tyler at length determined to fill all the offices under Mr. Roberts with his clamorous partisans, and especially with those who would adopt his hatred of his dreaded rival. Mr. Roberts' sympathies were entirely with the Whig party, which was in open and avowed antagonism to the President.

In his last veto message President Tyler had promised to strive to meet Congress with some measure that might meet their reciprocal duties. Mr. Roberts thought of resigning his office, owing to his want of approbation of the course of the President, but he was urged by the Whigs not to resign, in order that the purposes of the President should be forced upon public attention. Finding that Mr. Roberts did not tender his resignation, and incited by intriguing parasites, President Tyler was guilty of the monstrous official impropriety of signing a requisition upon Mr. Roberts to dismiss without cause thirty of his subordinate officers for whom he was held pecuniarily and officially responsible, and to appoint thirty other persons who were named, about whom he knew nothing, and who did not possess his confidence. Mr. Roberts lost no time in personally expostulating with the President, but failing to have any influence with him peremptorily refused to comply or resign. It was Mr. Roberts' duty to hold the office until a successor could be lawfully appointed, and whose receipt would discharge him from its respon