THE UNITED STATES BANK.

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thereof in specie, passed both houses of congress and became a law. This act allowed the United States to subscribe for one fifth, and required individuals, companies, or corporations to subscribe for the balance of the capital stock. It was placed under the management of twentyfive directors, five of whom were to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate. It was to pay to the United States the sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars as a bonus, and to receive the government funds in deposit, which were not removable by the secretary of the treasury, except for sufficient reasons, to be laid before congress. It was chartered for the term of twenty years.*

In his seventh annual message to congress, in Decem ber, 1815, Mr. Madison urged upon that body a revision of the tariff on imports, with discriminations in favor of domestic industry. "However wise the theory may be," said Mr. M., "which leaves to the sagacity and interest of individuals the application of their industry and resources, there are in this, as in other cases, exceptions to the general rule. Besides the condition which the theory itself implies, of a reciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches that so many circumstances must oc cur in introducing and maturing manufacturing establish ments, especially of the more complicated kinds, that a country may remain long without them, although suffi ciently advanced, and in some respects even peculiarly fitted for carrying them on with success. Under circumstances giving a powerful impulse to manufacturing indus try, it has made among us a progress, and exhibited an efficiency, which justifies the belief that with a protection

The renewal of this institution encountered the veto of President Jackson in 1832, and also of President Tyler in 1841.

commerce.

not more than is due to the enterprising citizens whose interests are now at stake, it will become at an early day not only safe against occasional competitions from abroad, but a source of domestic wealth and even of external In selecting the branches more especially entitled to the public patronage, a preference is obviously claimed by such as will relieve the United States from a dependence on foreign supplies, ever subject to casual failures, for articles necessary, or connected with the primary wants of individuals. It will be an additional recommendation of particular manufactures, where the materials for them are extensively drawn from our agricul ture, and consequently impart and insure to that great fund of national prosperity and independence an encouragement which cannot fail to be rewarded."

Pursuant to this recommendation, congress enacted a law imposing a tariff on imported manufactures, with discriminations in favor of home industry. This was deemed a protective policy which, in view of the heavy duties imposed by Great Britain at that time upon raw cotton, was quite as popular in the south as in any other section of the country. Hence it received the support of Messrs. Calhoun and Lowndes, and other leading statesmen in the south, as a measure of obvious justice to all the people in the Union. Mr. Clay also supported the measure, whilst Webster and Randolph were against it. The positions of Calhoun and Webster were afterwards exchanged.

Many other Republican measures, not within the compass allowed for this sketch, yet of the same general character as those mentioned, filled up the remainder of Mr. Madison's administration. Commerce, domestic, coastwise, and foreign, navigation, inland and oceanic, improvements, internal and upon the sea-board, agriculture and

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the arts, all received more or less attention from time to time, as the business interests of the country, which had been disturbed by the war, resumed their wonted channels and regained the public confidence. Throughout all his measures, Republicanism, although subjected to a fiery ordeal during the conflict with Great Britain, was demonstrated to belong to the people, and to exist for the public good. It is true that a schism had occurred in the ranks of the party, yet the schismatics were no less earnest than the "old guard" in their professions of its salutary principles, and in their devotion to the permanent institutions of the country. In asking for an abolition of the caucus system and political monopolies, they had in no wise renounced their faith in the doctrines which distinguished them from the Federalists.

In relation to the subject of internal improvements by the Federal government, Mr. Madison's opinions underwent a change during his administration. At first he entertained the opinion that such works as the Erie canal and Cumberland road were fairly within the limits of Federal legislation, but on the day before he retired from office, he interposed his veto against a bill passed at that session of congress authorizing such works, on the ground of unconstitutionality. As this executive decision formed the basis of much subsequent discussion, it deserves to be specially noticed.

After an honorable service of eight years in the executive office, Mr. Madison retired to private life, bearing with him the respect and gratitude of his fellow-countrymen, and leaving behind him in the public archives at Washington a model of civil government for the imitation of his successors, and the admiration of the world. That was an invaluable legacy. It was the sublime result of all his reflection, observation, and official experience

the ensemble of all his political wisdom. It was a durable monument erected by one of the master builders of this republic, at a point but eight-and-twenty years remote from the beginning of its constitutional history, which continues to indicate the path to which estranged successors should return if they would pursue the way of public peace and safety.

"A government pursuing the public good as its sole object, and regulating its means by the great principles consecrated by its charter, and by those moral principles to which they are so nearly allied. A government which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal interdict against the encroachments and compacts between religion and state; which maintains inviolable the maxims of public faith, the security of persons and property, and encourages in every authorized mode that general diffusion of knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its permanency, and to those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of it. A government which avoids intrusion on the internal repose of other nations, and repels them from its own; which does justice to all nations with a readiness equal to the firmness with which it requires justice from them; and which, whilst it refines its domestic code from every ingredient not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age, and the sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to reason, and by its liberal examples, to infuse into the law which governs the civilized world, a spirit which may diminish the frequency, or circumscribe the calamities of war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of peace. A government, in a word, whose conduct within and without may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions, that of promoting peace on earth and good will to men."

CHAPTER IV.

NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF JAMES MONROE-CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS SYSTEM COMPLAINED OF BUT ADHERED TO SUCCEEDED AT AN AUSPICIOUS PERIOD JACKSON'S ADVICE RESPECTING APPOINTMENTS THE REPLYAPPOINTMENT OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND OTHER REPUBLICANS TO CABINET OFFICES INAUGURAL ADDRESS-LEADING MEASURES-IDEA REWAR-TREATY WITH

SPECTING INTERNAL

IMPROVEMENTS-SEMINOLE

GREAT BRITAIN-AWARD OF EMPEROR OF RUSSIA-TREATY WITH SPAINPURCHASE OF THE FLORIDAS AND RELINQUISHMENT OF TEXAS-THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE RESPECTING THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY-DOCTRINES RELATIVE TO THE FURTHER EXTENSION OF EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT IN THIS HEMISPHERE-THE TARIFF-VETO OF CUMBERLAND ROAD BILL.

JAMES MONROE of Virginia succeeded Mr. Madison as president, and Daniel D. Tompkins of New York was elected vice president, in the place of John Gaillard, who filled the interim occasioned by the demise of Elbridge Gerry, in November, 1814. They were nominated in the same manner as their predecessors, notwithstanding the defection which that practice had previously occasioned, at a congressional caucus held in the hall of the house of representatives on the 16th of March, 1816. There were at that time one hundred and thirty-eight Republican members in both houses of congress, yet only one hundred and nineteen could be persuaded to attend this meeting; the nineteen absentees absolutely refusing to participate in proceedings so obviously anti-republican, and which had theretofore produced such dissatisfaction in the ranks of the party. The practice had the authority of usage, however, from which the friends of Mr. Monroe were unwilling to depart, especially in view of the fact that most of those