OUR COUNTRY.

CHAPTER XVII.

PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS-THE GEORGIANS AND THE INDIANS-THE ERIE CANALWEDDING THE LAKES AND THE SEA-DEATH OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON-SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS-THE AMERICAN SYSTEM-A NATIONAL CONVENTION AND ITS RESULTS-ADMIN

ISTRATION OF PRESIDENT ADAMS-PRESIDENT JACKSON'S INAUGURATION, CHARACTER AND POLICY-REMOVAL OF THE CHEROKEES-UNITED STATES BANK-BLACK HAWK WAR-STATE SUPREMACY AND NULLIFICATION-WAR ON THE UNITED STATES BANK-SPECULATION AND THE CREDIT SYSTEM-WAR WITH THE SEMINOLES-INTERCOURSE WITH FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS INDEMNITIES SETTLED-COMMERCIAL TREATIES- NEW STATES - JACKSON'S LAST

OFFICIAL ACT.

J

OHN QUINCY ADAMS, son of the second President of the United States, entered upon the duties of that high office on the 4th of March, 1825. He was small in stature, a thorough republican in principles, and with political views consonant with those held by Mr. Monroe. The Senate was in session at the time of his inauguration, and that body, by unanimous vote, immediately confirmed Mr. Adams's nominations for cabinet ministers, excepting Henry Clay, against whose confirmation fourteen votes were cast. It had been charged that Mr. Clay, seeing little chance for his own election to the Presidency, had used his influence in favor of Adams and against Jackson with the understanding that he was to be appointed Secretary of State. This alleged "bargain was the cause of opposition to Clay's confirmation. He was appointed Secretary of State; Richard Rush, Secretary of the Treasury; James Barbour, Secretary of War; Samuel L. Southard, Secretary of the Navy, and William Wirt, Attorney-General.

Mr. Adams's administration began under the most pleasant auspices. The country was at peace with all nations, and no serious domestic trouble appeared, while general prosperity reigned in the land and there seemed to be nothing that would disturb the serenity of public affairs. This quietude prevailed, in a degree, during the whole of Mr. Adams's administration of four years, which were the least conspicuous for stirring events in the history of the republic. The discords engendered by the late exciting election had produced healthful agitation, but measures were adopted that caused stormy times in the administration that followed.

He

A threatening cloud appeared in the firmament at the beginning of Adams's administration. When Georgia relinquished her claim to a considerable portion of the Mississippi Territory, the national government agreed to purchase for that State the Indian lands within its borders "whenever it could be peaceably done upon reasonable terms." The Creeks and the Cherokees, who were practising the arts of civilized life, refused to sell their lands and remove into an uncultivated wilderness. The Georgians were impatient, and their governor demanded of the United States the instant fulfillment of the contract, by a removal of the Indians. ordered a survey of their lands to be made, and he prepared to distribute their possessions among the citizens of Georgia; and because the national government seemed tardy, he assumed the right to remove the Indians himself. Our government took the just position of defenders of the Indians, and for awhile the matter bore a serious aspect. The diffi culties were finally settled, and in the course of a few years the Creeks and Cherokees were settled on lands beyond the Mississippi River.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

It was at the beginning of Mr. Adams's administration that the greatest work of internal improvement ever undertaken in our country, in the interest of commerce, was completed. It was the Erie Canal, which traverses the State of New York in an east and west line three hundred and sixty-three miles, between Buffalo and Albany, and connects the water of the great upper lakes and those of the Hudson River by a navigable stream. It was constructed by the State of New York at a cost of $7,600,000; and it was the consummation of a scheme which General Philip Schuyler (the father of the American canal system), Elkanah Watson, Gouverneur Morris, Jesse Hawley, De Witt Clinton and others had cherished for years. It was the grand result of a suggestion made by Gouverneur Morris twentyfive years before. When the canal was completed in 1825, it was formally

CHAP. XVII.

WEDDING OF THE OCEAN AND THE LAKES.

1331

opened to commerce after a grand "celebration," which consisted of an aquatic procession from Albany to the sea, in November of that year. The flotilla, led by the steamboat Chancellor Livingston, with De Witt Clinton (then governor of New York) and State officers on board, was composed of steamers and canal-boats. It halted at the city of New York; and on a cool and brilliant November morning, the whole fleet, accompanied by other vessels, went down the bay, everywhere greeted by the roar of cannon

and the unfurling of banners, and passing out the Narrows, were soon floating on the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean near Sandy Hook. There the Chancellor Livingston was anchored, with a swarm of other vessels around her, which were gayly decorated with flags and crowded with people. At a proper time Governor Clinton advanced to the taffrail of the Chancellor Livingston, and holding up a keg containing water of Lake Erie, which had been brought from Buffalo in a canal-boat, and pouring the liquid into the sea, completed the nuptials of the Ocean and the Great Lakes-nuptial ceremonies more important and significant than were ever performed in the wedding of the Doge of Venice and the Adriatic. That great work of internal improvement gave rise to similar ones elsewhere, and was of vast

benefit to the whole country. The Erie Canal continues to be the channel of a wonderful outflow of the agricultural products of the West to the seaboard, and of the inflow of the merchandise from the Atlantic ports to the interior. During the year 1872 (the year before the great depression in the business of the country began), the value of the property that was transported on that canal was $168,000,000; notwithstanding a three-track rail way, carrying an immense amount of freight, is laid parallel to it in its entire length.

The venerable father of the President, John Adams, died at Quincy, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July, 1826, just fifty years, almost to an hour, after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. On the same day and almost at the same hour, Thomas Jefferson expired, at Monticello, in Virginia. Mr. Adams was about ninety-one years of age, and Mr. Jefferson about eighty-three. They were both members of the committee appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Jefferson was its literary author, and Mr. Adams was its chief supporter in the Congress. The death, simultaneously, of these two of the chief founders of the republic, produced a profound sensation; and in many places throughout the Union, eulogies and funeral orations were pronounced.

The most important movement in the foreign policy of Adams's admin istration was the appointment of commissioners to attend a congress of representatives of the South American Republics, which assembled at Panama, on the Pacific coast, on the 22d of June, 1826. The result of that congress was not very important; but the policy of sending to it representatives of the government of the United States, caused much discussion here

The American System, as it was called (a system of protection and encouragement for American manufacturing establishments, by means of high duties imposed on fabrics made abroad and imported into the United States), was fully developed and assumed the form of a national policy late in the administration of Mr. Adams. On account of the illiberal com、 mercial policy of Great Britain, tariff laws were enacted in 1816 as retali ative measures; and in 1824 imposts were laid on foreign fabrics imported into our country, for the avowed purpose of encouraging home manufac tures. These movements were opposed by the cotton-growers, as inimical to their interests; and to a national convention assembled at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1826, to discuss the general subject of tariffs and manufactures, only four of the slave-labor States sent delegates. That convention petitioned Congress to increase the duties on foreign fabrics that were specified, and it was done in the spring of 1828. The measure pleased the manufacturing interest, and displeased the cotton-growing interest. It