A School History of the United States Part 29

State of agriculture in New England.

New York and Pennsylvania.

The South.

_Improvements in Transportation_ Demand for roads and ca.n.a.ls.

The national pike.

Steamboats.

Early forms.

Fitch's.

Fulton's.

Stevens's.

Rapid introduction of.

_Financial Condition_ Federal money.

The United States mint established.

Free coinage.

Bimetallism.

Coins struck.

Federal money comes slowly into use.

State Banks.

What led to the chartering of state banks.

Their rapid increase.

Effect of the expiration of the charter of the Bank of the United States.

General suspension in 1814.

Reason for chartering the second Bank of the United States.

CHAPTER XX

SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES

%291. Monroe inaugurated.%--The administration of Madison ended on March 4, 1817, and on that day James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins were sworn into office. They had been nominated at Washington in February, 1816, by a caucus of Republican members of Congress, for no such thing as a national convention for the nomination of a President had as yet been thought of. The Federalists did not hold a caucus; but it was understood that their electors would vote for Rufus King for President.[1]

[Footnote 1: In 1816 there were nineteen states in the Union (Indiana having been admitted in that year), and of these Monroe carried sixteen and King three. The inauguration took place in the open air for the first time since 1789.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: on the right of the previous paragraph, with caption "James Monroe"]

%292. Death of the Federalist Party.%--The inauguration of Monroe opens a new era of great interest and importance in our history. From 1793 to 1815, the questions which divided the people into Federalists and Republicans were all in some way connected with foreign countries.

They were neutral rights, Orders in Council, French Decrees, impressment, embargoes, non-intercourse acts, the conduct of England, the insolence of the French Directory, the triumphs and the treachery of Napoleon. Every Federalist sympathized with England; every Republican was a warm supporter of France.

But with the close of the war in 1815, all this ended. Napoleon was sent to St. Helena. Europe was at peace, and there was no longer any foreign question to divide the people into Federalists and Republicans. This division, therefore, ceased to exist, and after 1816 the Federalist party never put up a candidate for the presidency. It ceased to exist not only as a national but even as a state party, and for twelve years there was one great party, the Republican, or, as it soon began to be called, the Democratic.

%293. The "Era of Good Feeling."%--A sure sign of the disappearance of party and party feeling was seen very soon after Monroe was inaugurated. In May, 1817, he left Washington with the intention of visiting and inspecting all the forts and navy yards along the eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes. Beginning at Baltimore, he went to New York, then to Boston, and then to Portland; where he turned westward, and crossing New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, made his way to Ogdensburg, where he took a boat to Sacketts Harbor and Niagara, whence he went to Buffalo, and Detroit, and then back to Washington.

Wherever he went, the people came by thousands to greet him; but nowhere was the reception so hearty as in New England, the stronghold of Federalism. "The visit of the President," said a Boston newspaper, "seems wholly to have allayed the storms of party. People _now meet in the same room_ who, a short while since, _would scarcely pa.s.s along the same street_". Another said that since Monroe's arrival at Boston "party feeling and animosities have been laid aside, and but one great _national feeling_ has animated every cla.s.s of our citizens." So it was everywhere, and when, therefore, the Boston Sentinel_ called the times the "era of good feeling," the whole country took up the expression and used it, and the eight years of Monroe's administration have ever since been so called.

%294. Trouble with the Seminole Indians.%--Though all was quiet and happy within our borders, events of great importance were happening along our northern, western, and southern frontier. During the war with England, the Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama had risen against the white settlers and were beaten and driven out by Jackson and forced to take refuge with the Seminoles in Florida. As they had been the allies of England, they fully expected that when peace was made, England would secure for them the territory of which Jackson had deprived them. When England did not do this, they grew sullen and savage, and in 1817 began to make raids over the border, run off cattle and murder men, women, and children. In order to stop these depredations, General Jackson was sent to the frontier, and utterly disregarding the fact that the Creeks and Seminoles were on Spanish soil, he entered West Florida, took St. Marks and Pensacola, destroyed the Indian power, and hanged two English traders as spies.[1]

[Footnote 1: Parton's _Life of Jackson_, Chaps. 34-36; McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 430-456.]

%295. The Canadian Boundary; Forty-ninth Parallel.%--This was serious, for at the time the news reached Washington that Jackson had invaded Spanish soil and hanged two English subjects, important treaties were under way with Spain and Great Britain, and it was feared his violent acts would stop them. Happily no evil consequences followed, and in 1818 an agreement was reached as to the dividing line between the United States and British America.

When Louisiana came to us, no limit was given to it on the north, and fifteen years had been allowed to pa.s.s without attempting to establish one. Now, however, the boundary was declared to be a line drawn south from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the forty-ninth parallel of north lat.i.tude and along this parallel to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.

%296. Joint Occupation of Oregon.%--The country beyond the Rocky Mountains, the Oregon country, was claimed by both England and the United States; so it was agreed in the treaty of 1818 that for ten years to come the country should be held in joint occupation.

%297. The Spanish Boundary Line.%--One year later (1819) the boundary of Louisiana was completed by a treaty with Spain, which now sold us East and West Florida for $5,000,000. Till this time we had always claimed that Louisiana extended across Texas as far as the Rio Grande.

By the treaty this claim was given up, and the boundary became the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to 32, then a north line to the Red River; westward along this river to the 100th meridian; then northward to the Arkansas River, and westward to its source in the Rocky Mountains; then a north line to 42, and then along that parallel to the Pacific Ocean.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, Vol. IV., pp. 457-480.]

%298. Russian Claims on the Pacific.%--The Oregon country was thus restricted to 42 on the south, and though it had no limit on the north the Emperor of Russia (in 1822) undertook to fix one at 51, which he declared should be the south boundary of Alaska. Oregon was thus to extend from 42 to 51, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. But Russia had also founded a colony in California, and seemed to be preparing to shut the United States from the Pacific coast. Against all this John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested, telling the Russian minister that European powers no longer had a right to plant colonies in either North or South America.

%299. The Holy Allies and the South American Republics.%--This was a new doctrine, and while the United States and Russia were discussing the boundary of Oregon, it became necessary to make another declaration regarding the rights of European powers in the two Americas.

Ever since 1793, when Washington issued his proclamation of neutrality (p. 206), the policy of the United States had been to take no part in European wars, nor meddle in European politics. This had been a.s.serted repeatedly by Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe,[1] and during all the wars from 1793 to 1815 had been carefully adhered to. It was supposed, of course, that if we did not meddle in the affairs of the Old World nations, they would not interfere in affairs over here. But about 1822 it seemed likely that they would interfere very seriously.

[Footnote 1: See Washington's _Farewell Address_; Jefferson's _Inaugural Address_, March 4, 1801; also his message to Congress, Oct. 17, 1803; Monroe's _Inaugural Address_, March 4, 1817, and messages, Dec. 2, 1817, Nov. 17, 1818, Nov. 14, 1820; see also _American History Leaflets_, No. 4.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: %NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824%]

Beginning with 1810, the Spanish colonies of Mexico and South America (Chile, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Colombia) rebelled, formed republics, and in 1822 were acknowledged as free and independent powers by the United States. Spain, after vainly attempting to subdue them, appealed for help to the powers of Europe, which in 1815 had formed a Holy Alliance for the purpose of maintaining monarchical government. For a while these powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, France) held aloof. But in 1823 they decided to help Spain to get back her old colonies, and invited Great Britain to attend a Congress before which the matter was to be discussed. But Great Britain had no desire to see the little republics destroyed, and in the summer of 1823, the British Prime Minister asked the American minister in London if the United States would join with England in a declaration warning the Holy Allies not to meddle with the South American republics. Thus, just at the time when Adams was protesting against European colonization in the Northwest, England suggested a protest against European meddling in the affairs of Spanish America. The opportunity was too good to be lost, and Adams succeeded in persuading President Monroe to make a protest in behalf of the nation against both forms of European interference in American affairs. Monroe thought it best to make the declaration independent of Great Britain, and in his annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823, he announced three great guiding principles now known as the

%300. Monroe Doctrine.%--

1. Taking up the matter in dispute with Russia, he declared that the American continents were no longer open to colonization by European nations.

Referring to the conduct of the Holy Allies, he said,

2. That the United States would not meddle in the political affairs of Europe.

3. That European governments must not extend their system to any part of North or South America, nor oppress, nor in any other manner seek to control the destiny of any of the nations of this hemisphere.[1]

[Footnote 1: McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. 1-54; Tucker's _Monroe Doctrine_.]

The protest was effectual. The Holy Allies did not meddle in South American affairs, and the next year (1824) Russia agreed to make no settlement south of 54 40'.

SUMMARY

1. At the presidential election of 1816 the Federalist party, for the last time, voted for a presidential candidate. Party politics were dead, and the "era of good feeling" opened.

2. Many important matters which were not settled by the Treaty of Ghent were disposed of:

A. The forty-ninth parallel was made the boundary from a point south of the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains.

B. Oregon was held in joint occupation.

C. The line 54 40' was established.