A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 3

Besides the death of Warren Hastings, several other notable events preoccupied the attention of Englishmen. During this year Sir John Ross sailed north to discover a northwest pa.s.sage. Another relief expedition under Lieutenant Franklin, which had sailed after him, resulted only in failure. Mary Wollstonecraft Sh.e.l.ley published her curious novel "Frankenstein," and John Keats brought out his long poem "Endymion," for which he was violently a.s.sailed by the critics, notably by Jeffries, of "Blackwood's Magazine." Sh.e.l.ley, Moore, Hunt, and eventually Byron, warmly took his part. In the meanwhile a number of industrial reforms were introduced in England. Infant schools were first thrown open during this year, and steam was first used for heating purposes. A company in Edinburgh undertook to light the streets with gas. John Loudon Macadam's new system of road building was successfully introduced. In France similar strides were made in industrial progress. Joseph Niceph.o.r.e Niepce invented his velocipede. The kindred invention of the "draisine," or dandy-horse was patented for Baron Drais of Sauerbron. These inventions contained the germ of the modern bicycle.

[Sidenote: Congress of Aachen]

[Sidenote: Czar Alexander aroused]

The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, consisting of the sovereigns of Russia, Austria and Prussia, aided by ministers of Great Britain and France, signed a convention for the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France, and for the reception of France into the European concert. For other countries the deliberations of this Congress were not so beneficent. Since the Polish Diet in the spring, when Alexander had promised to give all Russia a const.i.tutional government, a change of spirit had come over the Czar. This change has been explained by the revelation of a military conspiracy against his person. At all events, Alexander appeared at Aix-la-Chapelle with the most reactionary proposals. Up to this time Metternich, the inveterate foe of liberalism, had found in the Czar his most formidable opponent. Now the Czar distributed among his fellow sovereigns a pamphlet written by one Stourdza, which described Germany as on the brink of revolution, and blamed the universities and public press. Metternich instantly took his cue from the Czar. Before the end of the conference he delivered to the King of Prussia and to Hardenberg two papers containing his recommendations for the management of Prussian affairs. Frederick William was warned against giving his people a national parliament. After the example of the Czar, Metternich inveighed against the universities and the press.

[Sidenote: Metternich's sentiments]

"The revolutionists," he said, "despairing of attaining their end themselves, have formed the settled plan of educating the next generation for revolution. The high school establishment is a preparatory school for university disorders. The university seizes the youth as he leaves boyhood, and gives him a revolutionary training. This mischief is common to all Germany, and must be checked by joint action of the governments. Gymnasia (high schools), on the contrary, were first invented at Berlin. For these, palliative measures are no longer sufficient; it has become a duty of State for the King of Prussia to destroy the evil. The whole inst.i.tution in every shape must be closed and uprooted."

[Sidenote: Prussian reaction]

The reactionary policy outlined in these papers became the guiding star of King Frederick William of Prussia. They outline the history of what actually was carried out in Prussia during the succeeding generation.

[Sidenote: Misgovernment in Spain]

It was not only in Germany that the new spirit of liberalism gave concern to the members of the Holy Alliance. In Spain it appeared in a more dangerous form, since it was espoused there by the military cla.s.s.

Ferdinand's misgovernment of Spain had soon resulted in an empty treasury, in consequence of which soldiers and sailors received no pay for several years. Military revolts were inst.i.tuted by General Mina, and by Porliar and Lacy at this period; but they failed through the indifference of the soldiers themselves. The government's attempt to offset the numerous desertions from the army by seizing and enrolling some 60,000 beggars in military service, proved a complete failure. Napoleon's prediction to Rear-Admiral c.o.c.kburn that Spain was doomed to lose all her colonies was reaching fulfilment in America.

[Sidenote: Defection of Spanish colonies]

Amelia Island, at the mouth of the St. Mary's River in Florida, had long been the resort of lawless men, among whom were European adventurers attracted by the South American revolution, and many fugitive slaves from Georgia and South Carolina. A plan was formed to organize a revolution on that island and to add Florida to the revolting South American republics.

The forces gathered there became too strong for the Spaniards, and President Monroe decided to interfere. Gaines was sent to Amelia Island; but before he arrived, Aury, the commander of the malcontents, had surrendered to Commodore Henley. General Jackson, who was operating in those parts against the Seminoles, declared that "the cause of the United States must be carried to any point within the limits of Florida where an enemy is permitted to be protected." All eastern Florida, he set forth to the President, should be seized when Amelia Island was taken, and should be held as an indemnity for the outrages of Spain upon American citizens. This plan, Jackson said, could be carried out without implicating the United States. "Let it be signified to me that the province of Florida would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished."

[Sidenote: Andrew Jackson in Florida]

[Sidenote: Summary military measures]

[Sidenote: Pensacola occupied]

When the order to a.s.sume command reached Jackson, he raised a volunteer force in Tennessee from among his old soldiers. With these and the troops left by Gaines he marched into Florida. On the site of the Negro fort he built Fort Gadsden. He then advanced to the Bay of St. Marks, defeating the few Seminoles whom he encountered. On April 7, he raised the American flag there in place of the standard of Spain. Two Seminole chiefs who had taken refuge on an American vessel in the bay, and who were supposed to have partic.i.p.ated in the ma.s.sacre of a party of Americans, were brought on sh.o.r.e and hanged. Leaving a strong garrison at St. Marks, Jackson marched a hundred miles to the Indian town of Suwanee, where he hoped to capture Billy Bowlegs and his band. But the Indians, warned of his approach, escaped across the river. Suwanee was destroyed. Jackson, when at St.

Marks, had taken prisoner one Arbuthnot, a Scotchman and supposed Indian sympathizer, whom he ordered to be confined until his return. At Suwanee, Captain Ambrister, a former English officer, intending to join the Indians, blundered into Jackson's camp, and was held a prisoner. On his return, Jackson ordered the two men to be tried by court-martial, on the charge of warning the Indians of the approach of the American soldiers, and both were convicted and executed. Jackson, on reaching Fort Gadsden, received from the Spanish Governor of Pensacola a protest against his invasion. He turned back, occupied Pensacola, and took the Fort of Carrios De Barrancas, to which the governor had fled.

[Sidenote: Jackson unrebuked]

[Sidenote: An amicable settlement]

When the news of Jackson's course reached Washington, Congress engaged in a heated debate over his occupation of the forts of a friendly power. In defending himself Jackson wrote that the Secretary of War had given him full power to conduct the campaign in the manner which seemed best. Spain, he claimed, had failed to fulfil that article of the treaty by which she was bound to restrain the Florida Indians from hostilities. Popular feeling proved too strong for Congress to a.s.sert its privileges as the sole war-making power. Jackson was not even rebuked for his course. During all those months, Onis, the Spanish Minister, and Adams were in negotiation over a treaty, which was not ratified until two years later. Florida was to be ceded to the United States on a payment of $5,000,000, to be applied in satisfying the claims of American citizens against Spain. The Sabine River, instead of the Rio Grande, was made the dividing line between the United States and Spanish territory. The line was to run from the mouth of the Sabine to the 32d parallel, thence north to the Red River and along it to the 100th meridian, thence north to the Arkansas and along that river to its source on the 42d parallel, and thence west to the Pacific. War with Spain was thus averted.

[Sidenote: The slavery issue]

While the Florida question was under consideration, there arose another far more momentous to America. Free labor in the North and slave labor in the South were brought squarely face to face. Slave labor was fast rising in value. The new lands of the lower Mississippi opened a vast field for the employment of slaves in the production of cotton, sugar and tobacco. It was believed the extension of slavery into that new territory would save it from gradual extinction. The interstate traffic in slaves was viewed with abhorrence by many leading men in the South. John Randolph, while upholding slavery, denounced the traffic that was carried on in the Southern plantations. On the other hand it was seen that compromise would be of little value if the North only was to be permitted to increase its power by the admission of new States. New slave States as well were demanded by the Southerners.

[Sidenote: Contention over Missouri]

In March, the citizens of Missouri had asked permission to form a State const.i.tution and to be admitted into the Union. It was tacitly understood that slavery might be carried into territory east of the Mississippi belonging originally to the existing slave States. But Louisiana, west of the Mississippi, belonged to the whole of the United States rather than to any one of the several States. The question now arose whether Congress should establish slavery anew in territory of the United States. The alternative was presented to the people of the North whether to submit to the demands of the South or to consent to a dissolution of the Union.

Though represented by a majority in Congress, the Northern States were defeated after a long struggle. John Quincy Adams doubted if Congress, under the American Const.i.tution, had the right to prohibit slavery in a territory where it already existed. "If a dissolution of the Union should result from the slave question," he wrote, "it is obvious that it must shortly afterward be followed by a universal emanc.i.p.ation of the slaves."

[Sidenote: American Pension system inaugurated]

[Sidenote: Oregon in dispute]

During this same year Congress first granted pensions to needy veterans of the Revolutionary War and soon afterward to the widows and children of dead soldiers. Thus began the system of American pension legislation for former American soldiers which was destined to grow to such gigantic proportions in later years. Up to that time the number of stripes in the American flag had been eighteen. Now a bill was approved reducing the number of stripes to thirteen, the number of original States comprising the Union. The number of stars was to be made equal to that of the States. Soon afterward, the new flag, with twenty stars in its quartering, was first raised over the halls of Congress. Shortly after this the Fifteenth Congress adjourned.

On October 20, a convention with Great Britain was signed respecting fisheries and boundaries, giving to Americans the right to fish in Newfoundland waters and renewing the agreement of 1815, making the 49th parallel the boundary between the United States and British North America.

The convention also provided for the joint occupation of Oregon for ten years longer.

The glossy finish to leather known as "patent" leather was first patented in this year. Another notable invention of the time was the process of engraving on soft steel.

[Sidenote: Illinois a State]

The second session of the American Congress was not called until late in the year. Illinois was then admitted as the twenty-first State of the Union.

1819

[Sidenote: Florida ceded by Spain]

[Sidenote: Southern Indians dispossessed]

[Sidenote: Alabama a state]

Early in the year Andrew Jackson was called to Washington. He was the hero of the day. When he visited New York he was received with public honors. On February 22, a treaty with Spain was adopted by which she surrendered all claims to Florida and ceded West Florida. The cost of the war to the United States had been forty million dollars. The year was marked by the enforced retirement of large bodies of the Cherokees from Georgia to the Mississippi. The Cherokees as well as the Creeks, the Choctaws and the Chickasaws were greatly perturbed at the prospect of their final removal from the land which the United States had guaranteed to them. Partly as a result of these changes, the Territory of Alabama was admitted to the Union as the twenty-second State.

[Sidenote: The Missouri problem]

There were now eleven free and eleven slave States; and serious opposition arose to the admission of Missouri. In February, the first bill was introduced in the House for the admission of that Territory. James Tallmadge, Jr., of New York, proposed that there should be no personal servitude in the State except by those already held as slaves, and that these should be manumitted within a certain period. This proposition he modified by moving an amendment providing that the introduction of slavery should be prohibited, but that those already slaves in Missouri should remain so, and that the children of such slaves should be liberated upon reaching the age of twenty-five. The proposition to hold in slavery a generation yet unborn was fiercely resented. The two Houses did not agree, and the question went over to another year. The South presented an unbroken and unyielding front. Caleb of Georgia said that this attempt to interfere with slavery was "destructive of the peace and harmony of the union"; that those who proposed it "were kindling a fire which all the waters of the ocean could not extinguish. It could be extinguished only in blood."

[Sidenote: Antagonism to slavery]

[Sidenote: Maine _vs._ Missouri]

The Missouri question having been left for the next session, the cognate issue concerning a government for the Arkansas country south of parallel 33 30' was taken up. In both Houses an amendment to prohibit slavery was lost. As a compromise a representative from Delaware suggested a division of the Western Territory between the free and slave States. The contest was renewed at the December session. Resolutions of Northern Legislatures condemning the placing of slavery under the national government were presented, and were treated with contempt by the Southern statesmen.

Senator Mason of North Carolina said: "They may philosophize at town meetings about it as much as they please, but they know nothing about the question." In the House the matter was brought up in the same form as in the previous session. James W. Taylor of New York presented an amendment prohibiting slavery, but holding in bondage those who were already slaves.

He kept this point clearly in view through the debate that followed.

Finally the bill was pa.s.sed by a vote of 91 to 82, the prohibitory amendment being adopted by a majority of eight. The bill for the admission of Missouri was attached to that for the admission of Maine. The suggestion of this stratagem was made on the 20th of December by Henry Clay, who declared that he did "not mean to give his consent to the admission of Maine, so long as the doctrine was upheld of annexing conditions to the admission of States beyond the mountains." The a.n.a.logy was scarcely just.

Under the Const.i.tution the right was absolute; Maine was a part of the original thirteen States of the Republic. The problem respecting Missouri was radically different, and resolved itself into the question whether Congress, under the American Const.i.tution, had the right to create a new State out of the purchased territory, and to admit it to the Union without a republican form of government. Clay's threat was improved upon. The judiciary committee reported the House bill for the admission of Maine, adding an amendment for the admission of Missouri. Roberts of Pennsylvania moved to amend the amendment by prohibiting slavery in Missouri, but his motion was rejected by a majority of eleven (including six Senators from free States). A motion to make the admission of Maine a separate question was also defeated. The two Houses now stood directly opposed to each other.

The Representatives would not retreat from their decision to prohibit slavery in Missouri; the Senate was equally determined that Missouri should be admitted as a slave State. Had the House maintained its ground, the United States for the next half century might have had another history.

[Sidenote: The Missouri compromise]

Senator Thomas of Illinois, who had voted thus far with the South, now came forward with a compromise. He proposed to prohibit slavery in that portion of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 30' excepting Missouri. This was accepted in the Senate by thirty-four votes against ten. But when the bill came up two days later for its final pa.s.sage it received only a majority of four. After much delay the compromise measure was finally pa.s.sed through the House by a majority of 134 to 42 votes. The measure was a Northern victory, having been carried by Northern votes. For the moment peace was gained; but the fire was only smothered. On the one side there was a gain of one slave State; on the other side, a mere promise to prohibit slavery in future States.

[Sidenote: Modern progress]