Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
* * * * *
[Illustration: frontispiece]
[Illustration: Thomas H. Benton]
THIRTY YEARS' VIEW;
OR,
A HISTORY OF THE WORKING OF THE AMERICAN
GOVERNMENT FOR THIRTY YEARS,
FROM 1820 TO 1850.
CHIEFLY TAKEN
FROM THE CONGRESS DEBATES, THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF GENERAL JACKSON
AND THE SPEECHES OF EX-SENATOR BENTON, WITH HIS
ACTUAL VIEW OF MEN AND AFFAIRS:
WITH
HISTORICAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, AND SOME NOTICES OF EMINENT
DECEASED COTEMPORARIES:
BY A SENATOR OF THIRTY YEARS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN.
1883.
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
D. APPLETON & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
AUTO-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
[The outlines of the life of the lately deceased Thomas H.
Benton, which are contained in the following pages, were
prepared by the author and subject of them whilst he was
suffering excruciating pain from the disease that, a few weeks
later, closed his earthly career. They were not intended
for a Biography, properly so called, but rather to present
some salient points of character and some chief incidents of
life, and in respect of them, at least, to govern subsequent
Biographies.]
Thomas Hart Benton, known as a senator for thirty years in Congress,
and as the author of several works, was born in Orange County,
near Hillsborough, North Carolina, March 14th, 1782; and was the
son of Col. Jesse Benton, an able lawyer of that State, and of Ann
Gooch, of Hanover county, Virginia, of the family of the Gooches of
colonial residence in that State. By this descent, on the mother's
side, he took his name from the head of the Hart family (Col. Thomas
Hart, of Lexington, Kentucky), his mother's maternal uncle; and so
became related to the numerous Hart family. He was cousin to Mrs.
Clay, born Lucretia Hart, the wife of Henry Clay; and, by an easy
mistake, was often quoted during his public life as the relative of
Mr. Clay himself. He lost his father before he was eight years of
age, and fell under the care of a mother still young, and charged
with a numerous family, all of tender age--and devoting herself to
them. She was a woman of reading and observation--solid reading,
and observation of the men of the Revolution, brought together by
course of hospitality of that time, in which the houses of friends,
and not taverns, were the universal stopping places. Thomas was
the oldest son, and at the age of ten and twelve was reading solid
books with his mother, and studying the great examples of history,
and receiving encouragement to emulate these examples. His father's
library, among others, contained the famous State Trials, in the
large folios of that time, and here he got a foundation of British
history, in reading the treason, and other trials, with which
these volumes abound. She was also a pious and religious woman,
cultivating the moral and religious education of her children, and
connected all her life with the Christian church; _first_, as a
member of the English Episcopalian, and when removal to the Great
West, then in the wilderness, had broken that connection, then
in the Methodist Episcopalian--in which she died. All the minor
virtues, as well as the greater, were cherished by her; and her
house, the resort of the eminent men of the time, was the abode of
temperance, modesty, decorum. A pack of cards was never seen in her
house. From such a mother all the children received the impress
of future character; and she lived to see the fruits of her pious
and liberal cares--living a widow above fifty years, and to see her
eldest son half through his senatorial career, and taking his place
among the historic men of the country for which she had begun so
early to train him. These details deserve to be noted, though small
in themselves, as showing how much the after life of the man may
depend upon the early cares and guidance of a mother.
His scholastic education was imperfect: _first_, at a grammar
school taught by Richard Stanford, Esq., then a young New England
emigrant, soon after, and for many years, and until death, a
representative in Congress, noted as the life-long friend of Macon
and Randolph. Afterwards he was at Chapel Hill, the University of
North Carolina, but finished no course of study there, his mother
removing to Tennessee, where his father had acquired great landed
property (40,000 acres), and intended to make Nashville his home;
and now, as the eldest of the family, though not grown, the care and
management of a new settlement, in a new country, fell upon him.
The family went upon a choice tract of 3000 acres, on West Harpeth,
twenty-five miles south of Nashville, where for several years the
main care was the opening a farm in the wilderness. Wilderness! for
such was the state of the country at that time within half a day's
ride of the city of Nashville. "The widow Benton's settlement"
was the outside settlement between civilization and the powerful
southern tribes which spread to the Gulf of Mexico. The Indian wars
had just been terminated, and the boundary which these great tribes
were enabled to exact brought their frontier almost to the gates
of Nashville--within 25 miles! for the line actually touched the
outside line of the estate. The Indians swarmed about it. Their
great war trace (the trace on which they came for blood and plunder
in time of war, for trade in time of peace) led through it. Such a
position was not to be maintained by a small family alone--a widow,
and every child under age, only some twenty odd slaves. It required
strength! and found it in the idea of a little colony--leases to
settlers without price, for seven years; moderate rents afterwards.
The tract was well formed for the purpose, being four miles
square, with every attraction for settlement--rich land fine wood,
living streams. Settlers came; the ground was covered over: it was
called "Benton Town," and retains the name to this day. A rude log
school-house, a meeting house of the same primitive structure, with
roads and mills, completed the rapid conversion of this wilderness
into an abode of civilization. The scholastic education of her son
had ceased, but reading continued; and books of solid instruction
became his incessant companions. He has been heard to say that, in
no period of his life, has he ever read so much, nor with as much
system and regularity, nor with the same profit and delight. History
and geography was (what he considered) his light reading; national
law, the civil law, the common law--and, finally, the law itself,
so usually read by law students--constituted his studies. And all
this reading, and study, was carried on during the active personal
exertions which he gave to the opening of the farm and to the
ameliorations upon it which comfort exacted.
Then came the law license, indulgently granted by the three Superior
Court Judges--White, Overton, and Campbell--the former afterwards
senator in Congress, Overton an eminent lawyer before he was a
Superior Court judge, and Campbell, one of the respectable early
settlers and lawyers of the State. The law license signed, practice
followed, and successful--Gen. Jackson, Gen. James Robertson, Judge
McNairy, Major Thomas Hardeman, and the old heads of the population
giving him their support and countenance as a young man that might
become useful to the State, and so deserved to be encouraged.
Scarcely at the bar, and a legislative career was opened to him.
He was elected to the General Assembly of the State; and, though
serving but for a single session, left the impress of his mind and
principles on the statute book, and on the public policy. He was
the author of the Judicial Reform Act, by which the old system of
Superior Courts was substituted by the circuit system, in which the
administration of justice was relieved of great part of its delay,
of its expense, and of much of its inconvenience to parties and
witnesses. And he was the author of a humane law, giving to slaves
the same full benefit of jury trial which was the right of the
white man under the same accusation--a law which still remains on
the statute book, but has lost its effect under the fatal outside
interference which has checked the progress of Southern slave policy
amelioration, and turned back the current which was setting so
strongly in favor of mitigating the condition of the slave.
Returning to the practice of the law, the war of 1812 broke out.
Volunteers were called for, to descend the rivers to New Orleans,
to meet the British, expected there in the winter of 1812-'13, but
not coming until the winter of 1814-'15. Three thousand volunteers
were raised! raised in a flash! under the _prestige_ of Jackson's
name--his patriotic proclamation--and the ardent addresses of
Benton, flying from muster ground to muster ground, and stimulating
the inherent courage and patriotism of the young men. They were
formed into three regiments, of which Benton was colonel of one. He
had been appointed aide-de-camp to Jackson (then a major-general
in the Tennessee militia), on the first symptoms of war with Great
Britain, and continued to perform many of the most intimate duties
of that station, though, as colonel of a regiment, he could not
hold the place. The force descended to the Lower Mississippi: the
British did not come; the volunteers returned to Tennessee, were
temporarily disbanded, but called again into service by Gen. Jackson
at the breaking out of the Creek war. These volunteers were the
foundation of all Jackson's subsequent splendid career; and the
way in which, through their means, he was enabled to get into the
regular army, is a most curious piece of history, not told anywhere
but by Col. Benton, as a member of the House of Representatives, on
the presentation of Jackson's sword (Feb. 26th, 1855). That piece
of unknown history, which could only come from one who was part and
parcel of the transaction, deserves to be known, and to be studied
by every one who is charged with the administration of government,
and by every one who would see with what difficulties genius and
patriotism may have to contend--with what chances they may have to
wrestle--before they get an opportunity to fulfil a destiny for
which they were born.
The volunteers disbanded, Col. Benton proceeded to Washington, and
was appointed by Mr. Madison a lieutenant-colonel of infantry in the
army (1813); and afterwards (1814-15) proceeding to Canada, where
he had obtained service, he met the news of peace; and desiring no
service in time of peace, he was within a few months on the west
bank of the Mississippi, St. Louis his home, and the profession of
the law ardently recommenced. In four years the State of Missouri
was admitted into the Union, and Col. Benton was elected one of her
first senators; and, continuously by successive elections, until
1851. From that time his life was in the public eye, and the bare
enumeration of the measures of which he was the author, and the
prime promoter, would be almost a history of Congress legislation.
The enumeration is unnecessary here: the long list is known
throughout the length and breadth of the land--repeated with the
familiarity of household words from the great cities on the seaboard
to the lonely cabins on the frontier--and studied by the little
boys who feel an honorable ambition beginning to stir within their
bosoms, and a laudable desire to learn something of the history of
their country.
Omitting this detail of well-known measures, we proceed to something
else characteristic of Senator Benton's legislative life, less
known, but necessary to be known to know the man. He never had a
clerk, nor even a copyist; but did his own writing, and made his
own copies. He never had office, or contract, for himself, or any
one of his blood. He detested office seeking, and office hunting,
and all changes in politics followed by demand for office. He was
never in any Congress caucus, or convention to nominate a President
or Vice-President, nor even suffered his name to go before such a
body for any such nominations. He refused many offices which were
pressed upon him--the mission to Russia, by President Jackson; war
minister, by Mr. Van Buren; minister to France, by Mr. Polk. Three
appointments were intended for him, which he would have accepted if
the occasions had occurred--command of the army by General Jackson,
if war took place with Mexico during his administration; the same
command by the same President, if war had taken place with France,
in 1836; the command of the army in Mexico, by President Polk,
with the rank of lieutenant-general, if the bill for the rank had
not been defeated in the Senate after having passed the House by a
general vote. And none of these military appointments could have
wounded professional honor, as Col. Benton, at the time of his
retiring from the army, ranked all those who have since reached its
head.
Politically, Col. Benton always classed democratically, but with
very little regard for modern democracy, founded on the platforms
which the little political carpenters reconstruct about every
four years, generally out of office-timber, sometimes green and
sometimes rotten, and in either case equally good, as the platform
was only wanted to last until after the election. He admitted no
platform of political principles but the constitution, and viewed as
impertinent and mischievous the attempt to expound the constitution,
periodically, in a set of hurrah resolutions, juggled through the
fag-end of a packed convention, and held to be the only test of
political salvation during its brief day of supremacy.
His going to Missouri, then a Territory under the pupillage of
Congress, was at a period of great interest both for the Territory
and the Union. Violent parties were there, as usual in Territories,
and great questions coming on upon which the future fate of the
State, and perhaps of the Union, depended. The Missouri controversy
soon raged in Congress, throughout the States, and into the
Territory. An active restriction party was in the Territory, largely
reinforced by outside aid, and a decided paper was wanting to
give the proper tone to the public mind. Col. Benton had one set
up, and wrote for it with such point and vigor that the Territory
soon presented a united front, and when the convention election
came round there was but one single delegate elected on the side of
restriction. This united front had an immense effect in saving the
question in Congress.
Besides his legislative reports, bills and speeches, sufficient
to fill many volumes, Col. Benton is known as the author of some
literary works--the Thirty Years' View of the inside working of the
Federal Government; the Abridgment of Debates of Congress from 1789
to (intended) 1856; and an examination of the political part (as he
deemed it) of the Supreme Court's decision in the Dred Scott case,
that part of it which pronounced the abrogation of the Missouri
Compromise line and the self-extension of the Constitution to
Territories carrying African slavery along with it, and keeping it
there in defiance of Congress or the people of the Territory. There
was also a class of speeches, of which he delivered many, which were
out of the line of political or legislative discussion; and may be
viewed as literary. They were the funeral eulogiums which the custom
of Congress began to admit, though not to the degree at present
practised, over deceased members. These eulogiums were universally
admired, and were read over Europe, and found their charm in the
_perception of character which they exhibited_; in the perception
of the qualities which constituted the man, and gave him identity
and individuality. These qualities, thus perceived (and it requires
intimate acquaintance with the man, and some natural gift, to make
the perception), and presented with truth and simplicity, imparted
the interest to these eulogiums which survives many readings, and
will claim lasting places in biographies.
While in the early part of life, at Nashville and at St. Louis,
duels and affrays were common; and the young Benton had his share
of them: a very violent affray between himself and brother on one
side, and Genl. Jackson and some friends on the other, in which
severe pistol and dagger wounds were given, but fortunately without
loss of life; and the only use for which that violent collision
now finds a reference is in its total oblivion by the parties, and
the cordiality with which they acted together for the public good
in their subsequent long and intimate public career. A duel at St.
Louis ended fatally, of which Col. Benton has not been heard to
speak except among intimate friends, and to tell of the pang which
went through his heart when he saw the young man fall, and would
have given the world to see him restored to life. As the proof of
the manner in which he looks upon all these scenes, and his desire
to bury all remembrance of them forever, he has had all the papers
burnt which relate to them, that no future curiosity or industry
should bring to light what he wishes had never happened.
Col. Benton was married, after becoming Senator, to Elizabeth,
daughter of Col. James McDowell, of Rockbridge county, Virginia, and
of Sarah his wife, born Sarah Preston; and has surviving issue four
daughters: Mrs. William Carey Jones, Mrs. Jessie Ann Benton Fremont,
Mrs. Sarah Benton Jacob, and Madame Susan Benton Boilleau, now at
Calcutta, wife of the French consul general--all respectable in
life and worthy of their mother, who was a woman of singular merit,
judgment, elevation of character, and regard for every social duty,
crowned by a life-long connection with the church in which she was
bred, the Presbyterian old school. Following the example of their
mother, all the daughters are members of some church. Mrs. Benton
died in 1854, having been struck with paralysis in 1844, and from
the time of that calamity her husband was never known to go to any
place of festivity or amusement.
PREFACE
[Illustration: decorative]
1.--MOTIVES FOR WRITING THIS WORK.
Justice to the men with whom I acted, and to the cause in which
we were engaged, is my chief motive for engaging in this work. A
secondary motive is the hope of being useful to our republican
form of government in after ages by showing its working through a
long and eventful period; working well all the time, and thereby
justifying the hope of its permanent good operation in all time to
come, if maintained in its purity and integrity. Justice to the wise
and patriotic men who established our independence, and founded this
government, is another motive with me. I do not know how young I
was when I first read in the speeches of Lord Chatham, the encomium
which he pronounced in the House of Lords on these founders of our
republic; but it sunk deep into my memory at the time, and, what is
more, went deep into the heart: and has remained there ever since.
"When your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from America;
when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot
but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I
must declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation--and
it has been my favorite study--I have read Thucydides, and have
studied and admired the master states of the world--that for
solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion,
under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation,
or body of men, can stand in preference to the general congress
at Philadelphia." This encomium, so just and so grand, so grave
and so measured, and the more impressive on account of its gravity
and measure, was pronounced in the early part of our revolutionary
struggle--in its first stage--and before a long succession of
crowning events had come to convert it into history, and to show
of how much more those men were capable than they had then done.
If the great William Pitt--greater under that name than under the
title he so long refused--had lived in this day, had lived to see
these men making themselves exceptions to the maxim of the world,
and finishing the revolution which they began--seen them found a
new government and administer it in their day and generation, and
until "gathered to their fathers," and all with the same wisdom,
justice, moderation, and decorum, with which they began it: if he
had lived to have seen all this, even his lofty genius might have
recoiled from the task of doing them justice;--and, I may add, from
the task of doing justice to the PEOPLE who sustained such men.
Eulogy is not my task; but gratitude and veneration is the debt of
my birth and inheritance, and of the benefits which I have enjoyed
from their labors; and I have proposed to acknowledge this debt--to
discharge it is impossible--in laboring to preserve their work
during my day, and in now commending it, by the fruits it has borne,
to the love and care of posterity. Another motive, hardly entitled
to the dignity of being named, has its weight with me, and belongs
to the rights of "self-defence." I have made a great many speeches,
and have an apprehension that they may be published after I am
gone--published in the gross, without due discrimination--and so
preserve, or perpetuate, things said, both of men and of measures,
which I no longer approve, and would wish to leave to oblivion. By
making selections of suitable parts of these speeches, and weaving
them into this work, I may hope to prevent a general publication--or
to render it harmless if made. But I do not condemn all that I leave
out.
2.--QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE WORK.
Of these I have one, admitted by all to be considerable, but by no
means enough of itself. Mr. Macaulay says of Fox and Mackintosh,
speaking of their histories of the last of the Stuarts, and of the
Revolution of 1688: "They had one eminent qualification for writing
history; they had spoken history, acted history, lived history. The
turns of political fortune, the ebb and flow of popular feeling, the
hidden mechanism by which parties are moved, all these things were
the subject of their constant thought, and of their most familiar
conversation. Gibbon has remarked, that his history is much the
better for his having been an officer in the militia, and a member
of the House of Commons. The remark is most just. We have not the
smallest doubt that his campaigns, though he never saw an enemy, and
his parliamentary attendance, though he never made a speech, were of
far more use to him than years of retirement and study would have
been. If the time that he spent on parade and at mess in Hampshire,
or on the Treasury bench and at Brooke's, during the storms which
overthrew Lord North and Lord Shelburne, had been passed in the
Bodleian Library, he might have avoided some inaccuracies; he might
have enriched his notes with a greater number of references; but
he never could have produced so lively a picture of the court, the
camp, and the senate-house. In this respect Mr. Fox and Sir James
Mackintosh had great advantages over almost every English historian
since the time of Burnet."--I can say I have these advantages. I was
in the Senate the whole time of which I write--an active business
member, attending and attentive--in the confidence of half the
administrations, and a close observer of the others--had an inside
view of transactions of which the public only saw the outside,
and of many of which the two sides were very different--saw the
secret springs and hidden machinery by which men and parties were
to be moved, and measures promoted or thwarted--saw patriotism and
ambition at their respective labors, and was generally able to
discriminate between them. So far, I have one qualification; but
Mr. Macaulay says that Lord Lyttleton had the same, and made but a
poor history, because unable to use his material. So it may be with
me; but in addition to my senatorial means of knowledge, I have
access to the unpublished papers of General Jackson, and find among
them some that he intended for publication, and which will be used
according to his intention.
3.--THE SCOPE OF THE WORK.
I do not propose a regular history, but a political work, to show
the practical working of the government, and speak of men and events
in subordination to that design, and to illustrate the character of
Institutions which are new and complex--the first of their kind,
and upon the fate of which the eyes of the world are now fixed. Our
duplicate form of government, State and Federal, is a novelty which
has no precedent, and has found no practical imitation, and is still
believed by some to be an experiment. I believe in its excellence,
and wish to contribute to its permanence, and believe I can do so by
giving a faithful account of what I have seen of its working, and of
the trials to which I have seen it subjected.
4.--THE SPIRIT OF THE WORK.
I write in the spirit of Truth, but not of unnecessary or irrelevant
truth, only giving that which is essential to the object of the
work, and the omission of which would be an imperfection, and a
subtraction from what ought to be known. I have no animosities,
and shall find far greater pleasure in bringing out the good
and the great acts of those with whom I have differed, than in
noting the points on which I deemed them wrong. My ambition is
to make a veracious work, reliable in its statements, candid in
its conclusions, just in its views, and which cotemporaries and
posterity may read without fear of being misled.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
[Illustration: decorative]
PAGE.
PRELIMINARY VIEW from 1815 to 1820 1
CHAP.
I. Personal Aspect of the Government 7
II. Admission of the State of Missouri 8
III. Finances--Reduction of the Army 11
IV. Relief of Public Land Debtors 11
V. Oregon Territory 13
VI. Florida Treaty and Cession of Texas 14
VII. Death of Mr. Lowndes 18
VIII. Death of William Pinkney 19
IX. Abolition of the Indian Factory System 20
X. Internal Improvement 21
XI. General Removal of Indians 27
XII. Visit of Lafayette to the United States 29
XIII. The Tariff, and American System 32
XIV. The A. B. Plot 34
XV. Amendment of the Constitution, in relation
to the Election of President and Vice-President 37
XVI. Internal Trade with New Mexico 41
XVII. Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections
in the Electoral Colleges 44
XVIII. Death of John Taylor, of Caroline 45
XIX. Presidential Election in the House of Representatives 46
XX. The Occupation of the Columbia 50
XXI. Commencement of Mr. Adams's Administration 54
XXII. Case of Mr. Lanman--Temporary Senatorial
Appointment from Connecticut 56
XXIII. Retiring of Mr. Rufus King 57
XXIV. Removal of the Creek Indians from Georgia 58
XXV. The Panama Mission 65
XXVI. Duel Between Mr. Clay and Mr. Randolph 70
XXVII. Death of Mr. Gaillard 77
XXVIII. Amendment of the Constitution, in relation
to the Election of President and Vice-President 78
XXIX. Reduction of Executive Patronage 80
XXX. Exclusion of Members of Congress from
Civil Office Appointments 82
XXXI. Death of the ex-Presidents, John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson 87
XXXII. British Indemnity for Deported Slaves 88
XXXIII. Meeting of the first Congress Elected under
the Administration of Mr. Adams 91
XXXIV. Revision of the Tariff 95
XXXV. The Public Lands--Their Proper Disposition--Graduated
Prices--Pre-emption
Rights--Donations to Settlers 102
XXXVI. Cession of a Part of the Territory of Arkansas
to the Cherokee Indians 107
XXXVII. Renewal of the Oregon Joint Occupation
Convention 109
XXXVIII. Presidential Election of 1828, and Further
Errors of Mons. de Tocqueville 111
XXXIX. Retiring and Death of Mr. Macon 114
XL. Commencement of General Jackson's Administration 119
XLI. First Message of General Jackson to the
two Houses of Congress 121
XLII. The recovery of the Direct Trade with the
British West India Islands 124
XLIII. Establishment of the _Globe_ Newspaper 128
XLIV. Limitation of Public Land Sales--Suspension
of Surveys--Abolition of the Office
of Surveyor General--Origin of the
United States Land System--Authorship
of the Anti-slavery Ordinance of
1778--Slavery Controversy--Protective
Tariff--Inception of the Doctrine of Nullification 130
XLV. Repeal of the Salt Tax 143
XLVI. Birthday of Mr. Jefferson, and the Doctrine
of Nullification 148
XLVII. Regulation of Commerce 149
XLVIII. Alum Salt--The Abolition of the Duty
upon it, and Repeal of the Fishing Bounty
and Allowances Founded on It 154
XLIX. Bank of the United States 158
L. Removals from Office 159
LI. Indian Sovereignties within the States 163
LII. Veto on the Maysville Road Bill 167
LIII. Rupture between President Jackson and
Vice-President Calhoun 167
LIV. Breaking up of the Cabinet, and Appointment
of another 180
LV. Military Academy 182
LVI. Bank of the United States--Non-renewal
of Charter 187
LVII. Error of De Tocqueville, in relation to the
House of Representatives 205
LVIII. The Twenty-second Congress 208
LIX. Rejection of Mr. Van Buren, Minister to
England 214
LX. Bank of the United States--Illegal, and
Vicious Currency 220
LXI. Error of Mons. de Tocqueville, in relation
to the Bank of the United States, the
President, and the People 224
LXII. Expenses of the Government 229
LXIII. Bank of the United States--Recharter--Commencement
of the Proceedings 232
LXIV. Bank of the United States--Committee
of Investigation Ordered 235
LXV. The Three per Cent. Debt, and Loss in
not Paying it when the Rate was Low,
and the Money in the Bank of the
United States without Interest 242
LXVI. Bank of the United States--Bill for the
Recharter Reported in the Senate, and
Passed that Body 243
LXVII. Bank of the United States--Bill for the
Renewed Charter Passed in the House
of Representatives 250
LXVIII. The Veto 251
LXXIX. The Protective System 265
LXX. Public Lands--Distribution to the States 275
LXXI. Settlement of French and Spanish Land
Claims 279
LXXII. "Effects of the Veto" 280
LXXIII. Presidential Election of 1832 282
LXXIV. First Annual Message of President Jackson,
after his Second Election 283
LXXV. Bank of The United States--Delay in
Paying the Three per Cents.--Committee
of Investigation 287
LXXVI. Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt 291
LXXVII. Sale of United States Stock in the National
Bank 294
LXXVIII. Nullification Ordinance in South Carolina 297
LXXIX. Proclamation against Nullification 299
LXXX. Message on the South Carolina Proceedings 303
LXXXI. Reduction of Duties--Mr. Verplanck's
Bill 308
LXXXII. Reduction of Duties--Mr. Clay's Bill 313
LXXXIII. Revenue Collection, or Force Bill 330
LXXXIV. Mr. Calhoun's Nullification Resolutions 334
LXXXV. Secret History of the "Compromise" of
1833 342
LXXXVI. Compromise Legislation; and the Act,
so called, of 1833 344
LXXXVII. Virginia resolutions of '98-'99--Disabused
of their South Carolina Interpretation--1.
Upon their Own Words--2.
Upon Contemporaneous Interpretation 347
LXXXVIII. Virginia Resolutions of 1798--Disabused
of Nullification by their Author 354
LXXXIX. The Author's own View of the Nature
of Our Government, as being a Union
in Contradistinction to a League--Presented
in a Subsequent Speech on Missouri
Resolutions 360
XC. Public Lands--Distribution of Proceeds 362
XCI. Commencement of the Twenty-third
Congress--The Members', and President's
Message 369
XCII. Removal of the Deposits from the Bank
of the United States 373
XCIII. Bank Proceedings, on Seeing the Decision
of the President, in relation to the
Removal of the Deposits 379
XCIV. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury
to Congress on the Removal of the Deposits 381
XCV. Nomination of Government Directors,
and their Rejection 385
XCVI. Secretary's Report on the Removal of
Deposits 393
XCVII. Call on the President for a Copy of the
"Paper Read to the Cabinet" 399
XCVIII. Mistakes of Public Men--Great Combination
against General Jackson--Commencement
of the Panic 400
XCIX. Mr. Clay's Speech against President Jackson
on the Removal of the Deposits--Extracts 402
C. Mr. Benton's Speech in Reply to Mr. Clay--Extracts 406
CI. Condemnation of President Jackson--Mr.
Calhoun's Speech--Extracts 411
CII. Public Distress 415
CIII. Senatorial Condemnation of President
Jackson--his Protest--Notice of the
Expunging Resolution 423
CIV. Mr. Webster's Plan of Relief 433
CV. Revival of the Gold Currency--Mr. Benton's
Speech 436
CVI. Attempted Investigation of the Bank of
the United States 458
CVII. Mr. Taney's Report on the Finances--Exposure
of the Distress Alarms--End of the Panic 462
CVIII. Revival of the Gold Currency 469
CIX. Rejection of Mr. Taney--Nominated for
Secretary of the Treasury 470
CX. Senatorial Investigation of the Bank of
the United States 470
CXI. Downfall of the Bank of the United States 471
CXII. Death of John Randolph, of Roanoake 473
CXIII. Death of Mr. Wirt 475
CXIV. Death of the last of the Signers of the
Declaration of Independence 476
CXV. Commencement of the Session, 1834-'35:
President's Message 477
CXVI. Report of the Bank Committee 481
CXVII. French Spoliations before 1800 487
CXVIII. French Spoliations--Speech of Mr.
Wright, of New-York 489
CXIX. French Spoliations--Mr. Webster's Speech 505
CXX. French Spoliations--Mr. Benton's Speech 514
CXXI. Attempted Assassination of President
Jackson 521
CXXII. Alabama Expunging Resolutions 524
CXXIII. The Expunging Resolution 528
CXXIV. Expunging Resolution: Rejected, and
Renewed 549
CXXV. Branch Mints at New Orleans, and in the
Gold Regions of Georgia and North
Carolina 550
CXXVI. Regulation Deposit Bill 553
CXXVII. Defeat of the Defence Appropriation, and
loss of the Fortification Bill 554
CXXVIII. Distribution of Revenue 556
CXXIX. Commencement of Twenty-Fourth Congress--
President's Message 568
CXXX. Abolition of Slavery in the District of
Columbia 576
CXXXI. Mail Circulation of Incendiary Publications 580
CXXXII. French Affairs--Approach at a French
Squadron--Apology Required 588
CXXXIII. French Indemnities--British Mediation--
Indemnities Paid 600
CXXXIV. President Jackson's Foreign Diplomacy 601
CXXXV. Slavery Agitation 609
CXXXVI. Removal of the Cherokees from Georgia 624
CXXXVII. Extension of the Missouri Boundary 626
CXXXVIII. Admission of the States of Arkansas and
Michigan into the Union 627
CXXXIX. Attempted Inquiry into the Military
Academy 638
CXL. Military Academy--Speech of Mr. Pierce 641
CXLI. Expunging Resolution--Peroration of
Senator Benton's Second Speech 645
CXLII. Distribution of the Land Revenue 649
CXLIII. Recharter of the District Banks--Speech
of Mr. Benton--The Parts of Local and
Temporary Interest Omitted 658
CXLIV. Independence of Texas 665
CXLV. Texas Independence--Mr. Benton's
Speech 670
CXLVI. The Specie Circular 676
CXLVII. Death of Mr. Madison, Fourth President
of the United States 678
CXLVIII. Death of Mr. Monroe, Fifth President of
the United States 679
CXLIX. Death of Chief Justice Marshall 681
CL. Death of Col. Burr, Third Vice-President
of the United States 681
CLI. Death of William B. Giles, of Virginia 682
CLII. Presidential Election of 1836 683
CLIII. Last Annual Message of President Jackson 684
CLIV. Final Removal of the Indians 690
CLV. Recision of the Treasury Circular 694
CLVI. Distribution of Lands and Money--Various
Propositions 707
CLVII. Military Academy--Its Riding House 712
CLVIII. Salt Tax--Mr. Benton's Fourth Speech 714
CLIX. Expunging Resolution--Preparation for
Decision 717
CLX. Expunging Resolution--Mr. Benton's
Third Speech 719
CLXI. Expunging Resolution--Mr. Clay, Mr.
Calhoun, Mr. Webster--Last Scene--Resolution
Passed and Executed 727
CLXII. The Supreme Court--Judges and Officers 731
CLXIII. Farewell Address of President Jackson--Extract 732
CLXIV. Conclusion of General Jackson's Administration 733
CLXV. Retiring and Death of General Jackson--
Administration of Martin Van Buren 735
PRELIMINARY VIEW.
FROM 1815 TO 1820
The war with Great Britain commenced in 1812 and ended in 1815. It
was a short war, but a necessary and important one, and introduced
several changes, and made some new points of departure in American
policy, which are necessary to be understood in order to understand
the subsequent working of the government, and the VIEW of that
working which is proposed to be given.
1. It struggled and labored under the state of the finances and
the currency, and terminated without any professed settlement of
the cause for which it began. There was no national currency--no
money, or its equivalent, which represented the same value in
all places. The first Bank of the United States had ceased to
exist in 1811. Gold, from being undervalued, had ceased to be a
currency--had become an article of merchandise, and of export--and
was carried to foreign countries. Silver had been banished by the
general use of bank notes, had been reduced to a small quantity,
insufficient for a public demand; and, besides, would have been
too cumbrous for a national currency. Local banks overspread the
land; and upon these the federal government, having lost the
currency of the constitution, was thrown for a currency and for
loans. They, unequal to the task, and having removed their own
foundations by banishing specie with profuse paper issues, sunk
under the double load of national and local wants, and stopped
specie payments--all except those of New England, which section
of the Union was unfavorable to the war. Treasury notes were then
the resort of the federal government. They were issued in great
quantities; and not being convertible into coin at the will of the
holder, soon began to depreciate. In the second year of the war
the depreciation had already become enormous, especially towards
the Canada frontier, where the war raged, and where money was most
wanted. An officer setting out from Washington with a supply of
these notes found them sunk one-third by the time he arrived at the
northern frontier--his every three dollars counting but two. After
all, the treasury notes could not be used as a currency, neither
legally, nor in fact: they could only be used to obtain local bank
paper--itself greatly depreciated. All government securities were
under par, even for depreciated bank notes. Loans were obtained with
great difficulty--at large discount--almost on the lender's own
terms; and still attainable only in depreciated local bank notes.
In less than three years the government, paralyzed by the state of
the finances, was forced to seek peace, and to make it, without
securing, by any treaty stipulation, the object for which war had
been declared. Impressment was the object--the main one, with the
insults and the outrages connected with it--and without which there
would have been no declaration of war. The treaty of peace did
not mention or allude to the subject--the first time, perhaps, in
modern history, in which a war was terminated by treaty without any
stipulation derived from its cause. Mr. Jefferson, in 1807, rejected
upon his own responsibility, without even its communication to the
Senate, the treaty of that year negotiated by Messrs. Monroe and
Pinkney, because it did not contain an express renunciation of the
practice of impressment--because it was silent on that point. It
was a treaty of great moment, settled many troublesome questions,
was very desirable for what it contained; but as it was silent on
the main point, it was rejected, without even a reference to the
Senate. Now we were in a like condition after a war. The war was
struggling for its own existence under the state of the finances,
and had to be stopped without securing by treaty the object for
which it was declared. The object was obtained, however, by the war
itself. It showed the British government that the people of the
United States would fight upon that point--that she would have war
again if she impressed again: and there has been no impressment
since. Near forty years without a case! when we were not as many
days, oftentimes, without cases before, and of the most insulting
and outrageous nature. The spirit and patriotism of the people
in furnishing the supplies, volunteering for the service, and
standing to the contest in the general wreck of the finances and
the currency, without regard to their own losses--and the heroic
courage of the army and navy, and of the militia and volunteers,
made the war successful and glorious in spite of empty treasuries;
and extorted from a proud empire that security in point of fact
which diplomacy could not obtain as a treaty stipulation. And it
was well. Since, and now, and henceforth, we hold exemption from
impressment as we hold our independence--by right, and by might--and
now want the treaty acknowledgment of no nation on either point.
But the glorious termination of the war did not cure the evil of a
ruined currency and defective finances, nor render less impressive
the financial lesson which it taught. A return to the currency of
the constitution--to the hard-money government which our fathers
gave us--no connection with banks--no bank paper for federal
uses--the establishment of an independent treasury for the federal
government; this was the financial lesson which the war taught.
The new generation into whose hands the working of the government
fell during the THIRTY YEARS, eventually availed themselves of
that lesson:--with what effect, the state of the country since,
unprecedentedly prosperous; the state of the currency, never
deranged; of the federal treasury, never polluted with "unavailable
funds," and constantly crammed to repletion with solid gold;
the issue of the Mexican war, carried on triumphantly without a
national bank, and with the public securities constantly above
par--sufficiently proclaim. No other tongue but these results is
necessary to show the value of that financial lesson, taught us by
the war of 1812.
2. The establishment of the second national bank grew out of
this war. The failure of the local banks was enough to prove the
necessity of a national currency, and the re-establishment of a
national bank was the accepted remedy. No one seemed to think of
the currency of the constitution--especially of that gold currency
upon which the business of the world had been carried on from the
beginning of the world, and by empires whose expenses for a week
were equal to those of the United States for a year, and which the
framers of the constitution had so carefully secured and guarded
for their country. A national bank was the only remedy thought of.
Its constitutionality was believed by some to have been vindicated
by the events of the war. Its expediency was generally admitted.
The whole argument turned upon the word "necessary," as used in the
grant of implied powers at the end of the enumeration of powers
expressly granted to Congress; and this _necessity_ was affirmed
and denied on each side at the time of the establishment of the
first national bank, with a firmness and steadiness which showed
that these fathers of the constitution knew that the whole field of
argument lay there. Washington's queries to his cabinet went to that
point; the close reasoning of Hamilton and Jefferson turned upon it.
And it is worthy of note, in order to show how much war has to do
with the working of government, and the trying of its powers, that
the strongest illustration used by General Hamilton, and the one,
perhaps, which turned the question in Washington's mind, was the
state of the Indian war in the Northwest, then just become a charge
upon the new federal government, and beginning to assume the serious
character which it afterward attained. To carry on war at that time,
with such Indians as were then, supported by the British traders,
themselves countenanced by their government, at such a distance in
the wilderness, and by the young federal government, was a severe
trial upon the finances of the federal treasury, as well as upon the
courage and discipline of the troops; and General Hamilton, the head
of the treasury, argued that with the aid of a national bank, the
war would be better and more successfully conducted: and, therefore,
that it was "_necessary_," and might be established as a means of
executing a granted power, to wit, the power of making war. That war
terminated well; and the bank having been established in the mean
time, got the credit of having furnished its "sinews." The war of
1812 languished under the state of the finances and the currency,
no national bank existing; and this want seemed to all to be the
cause of its difficulties, and to show the necessity for a bank.
The second national bank was then established--many of its old,
most able, and conscientious opponents giving in to it, Mr. Madison
at their head. Thus the question of a national bank again grew
up--grew up out of the events of the war--and was decided against
the strict construction of the constitution--to the weakening of a
principle which was fundamental in the working of the government,
and to the damage of the party which stood upon the doctrine of a
strict construction of the constitution. But in the course of the
"Thirty Years" of which it is proposed to take a "View," some of
the younger generation became impressed with the belief that the
constitutional currency had not had a fair trial in that war of
1812! that, in fact, it had had no trial at all! that it was not
even in the field! not even present at the time when it was supposed
to have failed! and that it was entitled to a trial before it was
condemned. That trial has been obtained. The second national bank
was left to expire upon its own limitation. The gold currency and
the independent treasury were established. The Mexican war tried
them. They triumphed. And thus a national bank was shown to be
"unnecessary," and therefore unconstitutional. And thus a great
question of constitutional construction, and of party division,
three times decided by the events of war, and twice against the
constitution and the strict constructionists, was decided the last
time in their favor; and is entitled to stand, being the last, and
the only one in which the constitutional currency had a trial.
3. The protection of American industry, as a substantive object,
independent of the object of revenue, was a third question growing
out of the war. Its incidental protection, under the revenue clause
in the constitution, had been always acknowledged, and granted; but
protection as a substantive object was a new question growing out
of the state of things produced by the war. Domestic manufactures
had taken root and grown up during the non-importation periods
of the embargo, and of hostilities with Great Britain, and under
the temporary double duties which ensued the war, and which were
laid for revenue. They had grown up to be a large interest, and a
new one, classing in importance after agriculture and commerce.
The want of articles necessary to national defence, and of others
essential to individual comfort--then neither imported nor made at
home--had been felt during the interruption of commerce occasioned
by the war; and the advantage of a domestic supply was brought home
to the conviction of the public mind. The question of protection
for the sake of protection was brought forward, and carried (in the
year 1816); and very unequivocally in the _minimum_ provision in
relation to duties on cotton goods. This reversed the old course of
legislation--made protection the object instead of the incident,
and revenue the incident instead of the object; and was another
instance of constitutional construction being made dependent, not
upon its own words but upon extrinsic, accidental and transient
circumstances. It introduced a new and a large question of
constitutional law, and of national expediency, fraught with many
and great consequences, which fell upon the period of the THIRTY
YEARS' VIEW to settle, or to grapple with.
4. The question of internal improvement within the States, by the
federal government, took a new and large development after the
war. The want of facilities of transportation had been felt in
our military operations. Roads were bad, and canals few; and the
question of their construction became a prominent topic in Congress
common turnpike roads--for railways had not then been invented,
nor had MacAdam yet given his name to the class of roads which has
since borne it. The power was claimed as an incident to the granted
powers--as a means of doing what was authorized--as a means of
accomplishing an end: and the word "necessary" at the end of the
enumerated powers, was the phrase in which this incidental power was
claimed to have been found. It was the same derivation which was
found for the creation of a national bank, and involved very nearly
the same division of parties. It greatly complicated the national
legislation from 1820 to 1850, bringing the two parts of our double
system of government--State and Federal--into serious disagreement,
and threatening to compromise their harmonious action. Grappled with
by a strong hand, it seemed at one time to have been settled, and
consistently with the rights of the States; but sometimes returns to
vex the deliberations of Congress. To territories the question did
not extend. They have no political rights under the constitution,
and are governed by Congress according to its discretion, under that
clause which authorizes it to "dispose of and make all needful rules
and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging
to the United States." The improvement of rivers and harbors, was
a branch of the internal improvement question, but resting on a
different clause in the constitution--the commercial and revenue
clause--and became complex and difficult from its extension to small
and local objects. The party of strict construction contend for its
restriction to national objects--rivers of national character, and
harbors yielding revenue.
5. The boundaries between the treaty-making and the legislative
departments of the government, became a subject of examination after
the war, and gave rise to questions deeply affecting the working
of these two departments. A treaty is the supreme law of the land,
and as such it becomes obligatory on the House of Representatives
to vote the money which it stipulates, and to co-operate in forming
the laws necessary to carry it into effect. That is the broad
proposition. The qualification is in the question whether the treaty
is confined to the business of the treaty-making power? to the
subjects which fall under its jurisdiction? and does not encroach
upon the legislative power of Congress? This is the qualification,
and a vital one: for if the President and Senate, by a treaty with
a foreign power, or a tribe of Indians, could exercise ordinary
legislation, and make it supreme, a double injury would have been
done, and to the prejudice of that branch of the government which
lies closest to the people, and emanates most directly from them.
Confinement to their separate jurisdictions is the duty of each; but
if encroachments take place, which is to judge? If the President and
Senate invade the legislative field of Congress, which is to judge?
or who is to judge between them? or is each to judge for itself?
The House of Representatives, and the Senate in its legislative
capacity, but especially the House, as the great constitutional
depository of the legislative power, becomes its natural guardian
and defender, and is entitled to deference, in the event of a
difference of opinion between the two branches of the government.
The discussions in Congress between 1815 and 1820 greatly elucidated
this question; and while leaving unimpugned the obligation of the
House to carry into effect a treaty duly made by the President and
Senate within the limits of the treaty making power--upon matters
subject to treaty regulation--yet it belongs to the House to judge
when these limits have been transcended, and to preserve inviolate
the field of legislation which the constitution has intrusted to the
immediate representatives of the people.
6. The doctrine of secession--the right of a State, or a combination
of States, to withdraw from the Union, was born of that war. It
was repugnant to the New England States, and opposed by them, not
with arms, but with argument and remonstrance, and refusal to vote
supplies. They had a convention, famous under the name of Hartford,
to which the design of secession was imputed. That design was never
avowed by the convention, or authentically admitted by any leading
member; nor is it the intent of this reference to decide upon the
fact of that design. The only intent is to show that the existence
of that convention raised the question of secession, and presented
the first instance of the greatest danger in the working of the
double form of our government--that of a collision between a part
of the States and the federal government. This question, and this
danger, first arose then--grew out of the war of 1812--and were
hushed by its sudden termination; but they have reappeared in a
different quarter, and will come in to swell the objects of the
THIRTY YEARS' VIEW. At the time of its first appearance the right of
secession was repulsed and repudiated by the democracy generally,
and in a large degree by the federal party--the difference between
a UNION and a LEAGUE being better understood at that time when so
many of the fathers of the new government were still alive. The
leading language in respect to it south of the Potomac was, that no
State had a right to withdraw from the Union--that it required the
same power to dissolve as to form the Union--and that any attempt
to dissolve it, or to obstruct the action of constitutional laws,
was treason. If, since that time, political parties and sectional
localities, have exchanged attitudes on this question, it cannot
alter the question of right, and may receive some interest from
the development of causes which produce such changes. Secession,
a question of speculation during the war of 1812, has become a
practical question (almost) during the THIRTY YEARS; and thus far
has been "compromised," not settled.
7. Slavery agitation took its rise during this time (1819-'20),
in the form of attempted restriction on the State of Missouri--a
prohibition to hold slaves, to be placed upon her as a condition of
her admission into the Union, and to be binding upon her afterwards.
This agitation came from the North, and under a federal lead,
and soon swept both parties into its vortex. It was quieted, so
far as that form of the question was concerned, by admitting the
State without restriction, and imposing it on the remainder of
the Louisiana territory north and west of that State, and above
the parallel of 36 degrees, 30 minutes; which is the prolongation
of the southern boundary line of Virginia and Kentucky. This was
called a "compromise," and was all clear gain to the antislavery
side of the question, and was done under the lead of the united
slave state vote in the Senate, the majority of that vote in the
House of Representatives, and the undivided sanction of a Southern
administration. It was a Southern measure, and divided free and
slave soil far more favorably to the North than the ordinance of
1787. That divided about equally: this of 1820 gave about all
to the North. It abolished slavery over an immense extent of
territory where it might then legally exist, over nearly the whole
of Louisiana, left it only in Florida and Arkansas territory,
and opened no new territory to its existence. It was an immense
concession to the non-slaveholding States; but the genius of slavery
agitation was not laid. It reappeared, and under different forms,
first from the North, in the shape of petitions to Congress to
influence legislation on the subject; then from the South, as a
means of exciting one half the Union against the other, and laying
the foundation for a Southern confederacy. With this new question,
in all its forms, the men of the new generation have had to grapple
for the whole period of the "Thirty Years."
8. The war had created a debt, which, added to a balance of that of
the Revolution, the purchase of Louisiana, and some other items,
still amounted to ninety-two millions of dollars at the period of
the commencement of this "View;" and the problem was to be solved,
whether a national debt could be paid and extinguished in a season
of peace, leaving a nation wholly free from that encumbrance;
or whether it was to go on increasing, a burthen in itself, and
absorbing with its interest and changes an annual portion of the
public revenues. That problem was solved, contrary to the experience
of the world, and the debt paid; and the practical benefit added to
the moral, of a corresponding reduction in the public taxes.
9. Public distress was a prominent feature of the times to be
embraced in this PRELIMINARY VIEW. The Bank of the United States
was chartered in 1816, and before 1820 had performed one of its
cycles of delusive and bubble prosperity, followed by actual and
wide-spread calamity. The whole paper system, of which it was
the head and the citadel, after a vast expansion, had suddenly
collapsed, spreading desolation over the land, and carrying ruin
to debtors. The years 1819 and '20 were a period of gloom and
agony. No money, either gold or silver: no paper convertible into
specie: no measure, or standard of value, left remaining. The local
banks (all but those of New England), after a brief resumption of
specie payments, again sank into a state of suspension. The Bank
of the United States, created as a remedy for all those evils, now
at the head of the evil, prostrate and helpless, with no power
left but that of suing its debtors, and selling their property,
and purchasing for itself at its own nominal price. No price
for property, or produce. No sales but those of the sheriff and
the marshal. No purchasers at execution sales but the creditor,
or some hoarder of money. No employment for industry--no demand
for labor--no sale for the product of the farm--no sound of the
hammer, but that of the auctioneer, knocking down property.
Stop laws--property laws--replevin laws--stay laws--loan office
laws--the intervention of the legislator between the creditor and
the debtor: this was the business of legislation in three-fourths
of the States of the Union--of all south and west of New England.
No medium of exchange but depreciated paper: no change even, but
little bits of foul paper, marked so many cents, and signed by some
tradesman, barber, or innkeeper: exchanges deranged to the extent
of fifty or one hundred per cent. DISTRESS, the universal cry of
the people: RELIEF, the universal demand thundered at the doors of
all legislatures, State and federal. It was at the moment when this
distress had reached its maximum--1820-'21--and had come with its
accumulated force upon the machine of the federal government, that
this "VIEW" of its working begins. It is a doleful starting point,
and may furnish great matter for contrast, or comparison, at its
concluding period in 1850.
Such were some of the questions growing out of the war of 1812,
or immediately ensuing its termination. That war brought some
difficulties to the new generation, but also great advantages, at
the head of them the elevation of the national character throughout
the world. It immensely elevated the national character, and, as a
consequence, put an end to insults and outrages to which we had
been subject. No more impressments: no more searching our ships:
no more killing: no more carrying off to be forced to serve on
British ships against their own country. The national flag became
respected. It became the Ægis of those who were under it. The
national character appeared in a new light abroad. We were no longer
considered as a people so addicted to commerce as to be insensible
to insult: and we reaped all the advantages, social, political,
commercial, of this auspicious change. It was a war necessary to the
honor and interest of the United States, and was bravely fought, and
honorably concluded, and makes a proud era in our history. I was
not in public life at the time it was declared, but have understood
from those who were, that, except for the exertions of two men (Mr.
Monroe in the Cabinet, and Mr. Clay in Congress), the declaration of
war could not have been obtained. Honor to their memories!
THIRTY YEARS' VIEW.
CHAPTER I.
PERSONAL ASPECT OF THE GOVERNMENT.
All the departments of the government appeared to great advantage
in the personal character of their administrators at the time of
my arrival as Senator at Washington. Mr. Monroe was President;
Governor Tompkins, Vice-President; Mr. John Quincy Adams, Secretary
of State; Mr. William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury; Mr.
John C. Calhoun, Secretary at War; Mr. Smith Thompson, of New-York,
Secretary of the Navy; Mr. John McLean, Postmaster General; William
Wirt, Esq., Attorney General. These constituted the Executive
Department, and it would be difficult to find in any government,
in any country, at any time, more talent and experience, more
dignity and decorum, more purity of private life, a larger mass of
information, and more addiction to business, than was comprised
in this list of celebrated names. The legislative department was
equally impressive. The Senate presented a long list of eminent
men who had become known by their services in the federal or State
governments, and some of them connected with its earliest history.
From New-York there were Mr. Rufus King and Nathan Sanford; from
Massachusetts, Mr. Harrison Gray Otis; from North Carolina, Mr.
Macon and Governor Stokes; from Virginia, the two Governors,
James Barbour and James Pleasants; from South Carolina, Mr. John
Gaillard, so often and so long President, _pro tempore_, of the
Senate, and Judge William Smith; from Rhode Island, Mr. William
Hunter; from Kentucky, Colonel Richard M. Johnson; from Louisiana,
Mr. James Brown and Governor Henry Johnson; from Maryland, Mr.
William Pinkney and Governor Edward Lloyd from New Jersey, Mr.
Samuel L. Southard; Colonel John Williams, of Tennessee; William
R. King and Judge Walker, from Alabama; and many others of later
date, afterwards becoming eminent, and who will be noted in their
places. In the House of Representatives there was a great array
of distinguished and of business talent. Mr. Clay, Mr. Randolph,
Mr. Lowndes were there. Mr. Henry Baldwin and Mr. John Sergeant,
from Pennsylvania; Mr. John W. Taylor, Speaker, and Henry Storrs,
from New-York; Dr. Eustis, of revolutionary memory, and Nathaniel
Silsbee, of Massachusetts; Mr. Louis McLane, from Delaware; General
Samuel Smith, from Maryland; Mr. William S. Archer, Mr. Philip P.
Barbour, General John Floyd, General Alexander Smythe, Mr. John
Tyler, Charles Fenton Mercer, George Tucker, from Virginia; Mr.
Lewis Williams, who entered the House young, and remained long
enough to be called its "Father," Thomas H. Hall, Weldon N. Edwards,
Governor Hutchins G. Burton, from North Carolina; Governor Earle and
Mr. Charles Pinckney, from South Carolina; Mr. Thomas W. Cobb and
Governor George Gilmer, from Georgia; Messrs. Richard C. Anderson,
Jr., David Trimble, George Robertson, Benjamin Hardin, and Governor
Metcalfe, from Kentucky; Mr. John Rhea, of revolutionary service,
Governor Newton Cannon, Francis Jones, General John Cocke, from
Tennessee; Messrs. John W. Campbell, John Sloan and Henry Bush,
from Ohio; Mr. William Hendricks, from Indiana; Thomas Butler,
from Louisiana; Daniel P. Cook, from Illinois; John Crowell, from
Alabama; Mr. Christopher Rankin, from Mississippi; and a great
many other business men of worth and character from the different
States, constituting a national representation of great weight,
efficiency and decorum. The Supreme Court was still presided over
by Chief Justice Marshall, almost septuagenarian, and still in the
vigor of his intellect, associated with Mr. Justice Story, Mr.
Justice Johnson, of South Carolina, Mr. Justice Duval, and Mr.
Justice Washington, of Virginia. Thus all the departments, and all
the branches of the government, were ably and decorously filled, and
the friends of popular representative institutions might contemplate
their administration with pride and pleasure, and challenge their
comparison with any government in the world.