CONCLUSION OF MR. VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION.
The last session of the Twenty-sixth Congress was barren of
measures, and necessarily so, as being the last of an administration
superseded by the popular voice, and soon to expire; and therefore
restricted by a sense of propriety, during the brief remainder
of its existence, to the details of business and the routine of
service. But his administration had not been barren of measures, nor
inauspicious to the harmony of the Union. It had seen great measures
adopted, and sectional harmony conciliated. The divorce of Bank and
State, and the restoration of the constitutional currency, were
illustrious measures, beneficial to the government and the people;
and the benefits of which will continue to be felt as long as they
shall be kept. One of them dissolved a meretricious connection,
disadvantageous to both parties, and most so to the one that should
have suffered least, and was made to suffer most. The other carried
back the government to what it was intended to be--re-established it
as it was in the first year of Washington's administration--made it
in fact a hard-money government, giving solidity to the Treasury,
and freeing the government and the people from the revulsions and
vicissitudes of the paper system. No more complaints about the
currency and the exchanges since that time. Unexampled prosperity
has attended the people; and the government, besides excess of
solid money in time of peace, has carried on a foreign war, three
thousand miles from home, with its securities above par during the
whole time: a felicitous distinction, never enjoyed by our country
before, and seldom by any country of the world. These two measures
constitute an era in the working of our government, entitled to a
proud place in its history, on which the eye of posterity may look
back with gratitude and admiration.
His administration was auspicious to the general harmony, and
presents a period of remarkable exemption from the sectional
bitterness which had so much afflicted the Union for some years
before--and so much more sorely since. Faithful to the sentiments
expressed in his inaugural address, he held a firm and even course
between sections and parties, and passed through his term without
offence to the North or the South on the subject of slavery. He
reconciled South Carolina to the Union--received the support of
her delegation in Congress--saw his administration receive the
approving vote of her general assembly--and counted her vote
among those which he received for the presidency--the first
presidential vote which she had given in twelve years. No President
ever had a more difficult time. Two general suspensions of the
banks--one at the beginning, and the other towards the close of
his administration--the delinquent institutions in both instances
allying themselves with a great political party--were powerful
enough to derange and distress the business of the country, and
unscrupulous enough to charge upon his administration the mischiefs
which themselves created. Meritorious at home, and in his internal
policy, his administration was equally so in its foreign relations.
The insurrection in Canada, contemporaneous with his accession to
the presidency, made a crisis between the United States and Great
Britain, in which he discharged his high duties with equal firmness,
skill, and success. The border line of the United States, for a
thousand miles, was in commotion to join the insurgent Canadians.
The laws of neutrality, the duties of good neighborhood, our own
peace (liable to be endangered by lawless expeditions from our
shores), all required him to repress this commotion. And faithfully
he did so, using all the means--judicial and military--which the
laws put in his hands; and successfully for the maintenance of
neutrality, but with some personal detriment, losing much popular
favor in the border States from his strenuous repression of aid
to a neighboring people, insurging for liberty, and militarily
crushed in the attempt. He did his duty towards Great Britain by
preventing succor from going to her revolted subjects; and when
the scene was changed, and her authorities did an injury to us by
the murder of our citizens, and the destruction of a vessel on
our own shore--the case of the Caroline at Schlosser--he did his
duty to the United States by demanding redress; and when one of
the alleged perpetrators was caught in the State where the outrage
had been committed, he did his duty to that State by asserting her
right to punish the infraction of her own laws. And although he did
not obtain the redress for the outrage at Schlosser, yet it was
never _refused_ to him, nor the right to redress _denied_, nor the
outrage itself _assumed_ by the British government as long as his
administration lasted. Respected at home, his administration was
equally so abroad. Cordially supported by his friends in Congress,
he was equally so by his cabinet, and his leading newspaper, the
Washington Globe. Messrs. Forsyth, Secretary of State--Woodbury of
the Treasury--Poinsett of War--Paulding of the Navy--Kendall and
John M. Niles, Postmasters-general--and Butler, Grundy and Gilpin,
successive Attorneys-general--were all harmonious and efficient
co-operators. With every title to respect, and to public confidence,
he was disappointed of a second election, but in a canvass which had
had no precedent, and has had no imitation; and in which an increase
of 364,000 votes on his previous election, attests an increase of
strength which fair means could not have overcome.
ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.