first term, and was practically extinct by the time of his second inauguration (1820). This period of cessation from party strife is known as the "Era of Good Feeling." In times of political stagnation personal intrigue takes the place of party action. So it was in this case; but fortunately it is not necessary to describe any of these intrigues until we approach the election of 1824.

Monroe's Administration, 1817-25.

Monroe was well fitted to lead the nation in the peaceful times now approaching. With ordinary abilities he combined a large experience in affairs both at home and abroad. He had shown, too, strength to resist unwise popular demands and a capacity to rise above a mere desire for personal popularity. He had more sense of dignity than Jefferson, or even Madison, and he brought back to public life a part, at least, of the decorum of Washington's time. Like the first President, Monroe made progresses through the country and in this way did something to bring the federal government before the eyes of the people and at the same time to win their love and respect. The difficulties of his time were mainly with the outside world, with the rebellious Spanish American colonies, with Spain, and with Great Britain. The relations with the last-named power were still far from cordial, but they were more friendly than at any other time since 1775The Treaty of Ghent was hardly more than a basis for

Relations with Great Britain.

further negotiation. In 1815 the two countries entered into a commmercial convention which afforded slight relief as to the West India trade, but contained an important provision to secure the abolition of discriminating duties and charges in either country against the other. This convention was limited to four years, but was extended for ten years longer in 1818. As to the fisheries, some of the rights claimed by the United States under the Treaty of 1783 were surrendered as the price of a recognition of the permanent character of the rest. The northern boundary of the

VII.]

Foreign Relations.

199

United States was fixed at the forty-ninth parallel between the Lake of the Woods and the Rocky Mountains. An attempt was made to reach some agreement with a view to the suppression of the slave-trade; but, owing to the sensitiveness of the Americans as to the exercise of the right of search, no arrangement was made until many years later.

Jackson's

The seizure of West Florida in 1810 and 1812 has been already mentioned. Since that time the United States had sought with great pertinacity to Florida Campurchase East Florida from Spain. But that paign, 1818. monarchy, though too weak to govern the province itself, refused to sell it to the United States. Smuggling was constantly carried on over the boundary line, and the United States found it very difficult to keep the Southern Indians in order without pursuing them across the frontier. In 1818, General Andrew Jackson followed a hostile band over the border, and finding that the Indians received aid from the Spanish settlements, he captured two of them, St Marks and Pensacola.

He also executed two British subjects, Arbuthnot and Ambrister, who seemed to be intriguing with the Indians against the United States. The government, at the moment, was engaged in negotiations for the purchase of Florida. did not approve Jackson's conduct, and handed the captured posts back to the Spanish authorities. John C. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, asserted at a cabinet meeting that Jackson deserved to be court-martialled for disobedience. Many years afterward, the revelation of his attitude at this time brought about a rupture between Jackson and Calhoun, which had the most important results to Calhoun and to the American people. Henry Clay endeavoured in Congress to have Jackson brought to account for his arbitrary proceedings in Florida, and his hostility to Jackson also caused Clay much annoyance in later years.

Jackson's raid really furthered the negotiation which John Quincy Adams, Monroe's Secretary of State, was then carrying

on.

The "Florida Treaty," 1819.

Spain at last consented to sell what she could not defend, and in 1819 a treaty was signed at Washington. By this treaty, Spain abandoned all claim to the Floridas and to all territory north and east of a line running up the Sabine River and thence in an irregular manner to the Rocky Mountains in latitude 42°, and along that parallel to the Pacific Ocean. The United States, on its part, abandoned the claim to Texas, and agreed to pay five million dollars to its own citizens on account of Spanish spoliations. This treaty was not ratified by Spain until 1821, being held suspended, as it were, over the United States to secure its good behaviour in the Spanish colonial crisis then prevailing. Jackson was appointed Governor of Florida, and gruffly took possession in July, 1821, imprisoning the Spanish governor because he would not hand over the records to the new master. The people of the United States had watched the long struggle between the Spanish colonists and the Spanish government with great interest. These colonies had rebelled (1808) originally against the Napoleonic régime in Spain. Returning to their allegiance upon the restoration of the old monarchy, they had again rebelled when their restored masters re-imposed the Spanish colonial system. The matter now had reached a stage at which it seemed desirable for the United States to act, but beyond recognizing the rebels as belligerents the government did not go at that time. In March, 1822, Monroe recommended Congress to recognize the belligerent colonies as independent States. This was done (May, 1822) by the appropriation of money to defray the expenses of diplomatic missions to "the independent nations" on the American continent. The United States thus led the way in the recognition of these new peoples. The next year (1823) the "Holy Alliance" seemed to be about to interfere in the contest in the interests of Spain. Russia also chose this time to begin the colonization of the western shores of

The "Monroe Doctrine."

VII.]

The Monroe Doctrine.

201

North America. The closing of the Spanish American ports to foreign commerce would greatly interfere with the foreign trade, not of those colonies or States alone, but of the United States and of Great Britain as well. The interests of the two Englishspeaking nations were one. Mr George Canning was once more at the head of the British foreign office, owing to the suicide of Lord Castlereagh. Adopting for the moment a most conciliatory tone, he asked Mr Richard Rush - then American Minister at London · if it were not feasible for the United States and Great Britain to act together in opposing this project of the "Holy Alliance." The time was not yet ripe for such co-operation, but the two governments acted in harmony. In his Seventh Annual Message (December, 1823), Mr Monroe used the following language, whose import was unmistakable:

"The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.

"We owe it, therefore, to candour, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers [the members of the 'Holy Alliance'], to declare, that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have on great consideration and on just principles acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as

the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States."

These famous sentences, which have immortalized Monroe's

Canning's policy.

name, and given him a place in American history which he did not otherwise attain, were the embodiment of previous statements and of a policy well established at that time in America. Monroe's courageous act in declining Canning's overtures and defying the "Holy Alliance" single-handed merited the renown which has ever since attached to the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine. Mr Canning, on his part, caused the French government to be informed that the use of force by the "Holy Alliance" would at once lead to the recognition of the independence of the Spanish colonies by Great Britain. projects of the "Holy Alliance" fell dead. With this matter the old international policy of the United States may be said to have terminated. At almost the same time, the internal struggle over protection and the extension of slavery, which was to dominate the politics of the next half-century, began.

Like so many important events in the world's history, the

The Missouri Compromises,

I 20-21.

contest as to the limitation of slave territory, which began at this time, was largely due to accident. Mason and Dixon's line, separating the slave and the free States in the East, ran sixteen miles south of the fortieth parallel. By the Ordinance of 1787, the Ohio River formed the northern limit of slave territory in the district between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. The course of that river is to the south of west, and it joins the Mississippi River in about the thirty-seventh degree of latitude. Louisiana, acquired in 1803, contained two centres of population, New Orleans and St Louis. Slavery prevailed in the Province of Louisiana as in all Spanish colonies. The country dependent on New Orleans was admitted to the Union in 1812, under the