Formation of the Union, 1750-1829 Part 25

BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--W. E. Foster, _References to Presidential Administrations_, 15-19; Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History_, VII. 344, 345, 437-439; J.F. Jameson, _Bibliography of Monroe_ (Appendix to Oilman's _Monroe_); Channing and Hart, _Guide_, ---- 174-178.

HISTORICAL MAPS.--Nos. 1 and 5, this volume, and No. 1, Wilson, _Division and Reunion_ (_Epoch Maps_ Nos. 7, 8, and 10); Labberton, _Atlas_, lxvii.; T. MacCoun, _Historical Geography, Scribner, Statistical Atlas_, Plate 14.

GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--H. Von Holst, _Const.i.tutional History_, I. 273-408; R.

Hildreth, _United States_. VI. 575-713 (to 1821); James Schouler, _United States_, II. 444-463, III. 1-335; Bryant and Gay, _Popular History_. IV.

244-281; J. B. McMaster, _People of the United States_, IV. (to 1820); Geo. Tucker, _United States_, III. 146-408; J. T. Morse, _John Quincy Adams_, 102-164; Ormsby, _Whig Party_, 129-172.

SPECIAL HISTORIES.--Henry Adams, _History of the United States_, IX.; Carl Schurz, _Henry Clay_, I. 137-202; N. P. Gilman, _James Monroe_, 125- 174; F. W. Taussig, _Tariff History_, J. L. Bishop, _American Manufactures_, II. 146-298; G. F. Tucker, _Monroe Doctrine_, Payne, _European Colonies_, E. Stanwood, _Presidential Elections_, H. L. Carson, _Supreme Court_, I. chs. xii.-xiv.; A C. McLaughlin, _Ca.s.s_, chs. ii., iv.

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--J. Q. Adams, _Memoirs_, IV.-VI.; Josiah Quincy, _Figures of the Past_, _Niles Register_, T. H. Benton, _Thirty Years'

View_, I. 1-44; Nathan Sargent, _Public Men, and Events_, I. 17-56; R.

Rush, _Residence at the Court of London_, J. Flint, _Recollections of the last Ten Years_ (1826); R. Walsh, _Appeal from the Judgment of Great Britain_ (1819); D. Warden, _Statistical, Political, and Historical Account of the United States_ (1819); S. G. Goodrich, Recollections, II.

393-436; _The National Intelligencer_; Featon, _Sketches of America_, _Fifth Report_; works of Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Madison, Woodbury.-- Reprints in F. W. Taussig, _State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff_, _American History told by Contemporaries_, III.

119. CONDITIONS OF NATIONAL GROWTH (1815).

[Sidenote: Prosperity.]

The population of the United States at the end of the war was about eight million five hundred thousand, and it was increasing relatively faster in the South and West than near the seaboard. The return of peace seemed also a return of prosperity. Short crops abroad revived the demand for American cereals, so that the surplus acc.u.mulated during the war could be sold at fair prices, and the exports in 1816 ran up to $64,000,000. In 1815, American shipping recovered almost to the point which it had reached in 1810. The revenue derived from taxation in 1814 was but $11,000,000; in 1816 it was $47,000,000. More than twenty thousand immigrants arrived in 1817. Wealth seemed increasing both in the North and the South.

[Sidenote: National literature.]

[Sidenote: The Clergy.]

Another evidence of the quickening of national life was the beginning of a new national literature. In 1815 was founded the "North American Review,"

and in an early number appeared Bryant's "Thanatopsis." Already in 1809 had appeared the first work of an American which was comparable with that of the British essayists,--Washington Irving's "Knickerbocker" History of New York. His quaint humor was not less appreciated from his good-natured allusions to the Jeffersonian principle of government "by proclamation."

The hold of the clergy had been much weakened in New England; there had been a division of the Congregational Church, with the subsequent founding of the Unitarian branch; and the Jeffersonian principle of popular government was gaining ground. The people were keen and alert.

[Sidenote: Means of transportation.]

[Sidenote: Steamboats.]

In two respects the war had taught the Americans their own weakness: they had had poor facilities for transportation, and they had lacked manufactures of military material. There was a widespread feeling that the means of intercommunication ought to be improved. The troops on the northern frontier had been badly provisioned and slowly reinforced because they could not readily be reached over the poor roads. A system had been invented which was suitable for the rapid-running rivers of the interior and for lake navigation: in 1807 Fulton made the first voyage by steam on the Hudson River. Nine years later a system of pa.s.senger service had been developed in various directions from New York, and a steamer was running on the Mississippi.

[Sidenote: Rise of manufactures.]

[Sidenote: Foreign compet.i.tion.]

Manufactures had sprung up suddenly and unexpectedly in the United States.

The restrictive legislation from 1806 to 1812, though it had not cut off foreign imports, had checked them; and shrewd ship-owners had in some cases diverted their acc.u.mulated capital to the building of factories. In 1812 commerce with England was totally cut off, and importations from other countries were loaded down with double duties. This indirect protection was enough to cause the rise of many manufactures, particularly of cotton and woollen goods. In 1815, the capital invested in these two branches of industry was probably $50,000,000. On the conclusion of peace in England and America an acc.u.mulated stock of English goods poured forth, and the imports of the United States instantly rose from $12,000.000 in 1814, to $106,000,000 in 1815. These importations were out of proportion to the exports and to the needs of the country, and they caused the stoppage of a large number of American factories. Meanwhile, American ships had begun to feel the compet.i.tion of foreign vessels in foreign trade. Without intending it, the country had drifted into a new set of economic conditions.

120. THE SECOND UNITED STATES BANK (1816).

[Sidenote: Banks and currency.]

The first evidence of this change of feeling was a demand for the renewal of the bank which had been allowed to expire in 1811 (-- 110). The country had been thrown entirely upon banks chartered by the States; the pressure of the war had caused their suspension, and the currency and banking capital of the United States had thus been thrown into complete confusion.

For example, the Farmers Exchange Bank of Gloucester, R. I., was started, with a capital of $3,000; acc.u.mulated deposits so that one of the directors was able to steal $760,000; and then it failed, with specie a.s.sets of $86.46. In 1811 there were eighty-eight State banks; in 1816 there were two hundred and forty-six.

[Sidenote: Bank bill of 1814.]

[Sidenote: The Bank Act.]

Since the re-charter bill of 1811 had failed by only one vote, Dallas, Secretary of the Treasury in 1814, again proposed a national bank.

Congress accepted the principle, but an amendment proposed by John C.

Calhoun so altered the scheme that upon Dallas's advice Madison cast his first important veto against it on Jan. 30, 1815. What Dallas desired was a bank which would lend money to the government; what Congress planned was a bank which would furnish a currency based on specie. In the next session of Congress Madison himself urged the creation of a bank, and this time Calhoun supported him. The Federalists, headed by Daniel Webster,-- remnants of the party which had established the first national bank,-- voted against it on the general principle of factious opposition. A small minority of the Republicans joined them, but it was pa.s.sed without much difficulty, and became a law on April, 10, 1816.

[Sidenote: Bank charter.]

The bank was modelled on its predecessor (-- 78), but the capital was increased from $10,000,000 to $35,000,000, of which the United States government held $7,000,000. It was especially provided that "the deposits of the money of the United States shall be made in said bank or branches thereof." In return for its special privileges the bank agreed to pay to the government $1,500,000. The capital was larger than could safely be employed; it was probably intended to absorb bank capital from the State banks. The prosperity of the country, aided by the operations of the bank, secured the renewal of specie payments by all the sound banks in the country on Feb. 20, 1817.

[Sidenote: Loose construction accepted.]

The striking feature in the bank was not that it should be established, but that it should be accepted by old Republicans like Madison, who had found the charter of a bank in 1791 a gross perversion of the Const.i.tution. Even Henry Clay, who in 1811 had powerfully contributed to the defeat of the bank, now came forward as its champion.

121. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS (1806-1817).

[Sidenote: Local improvements.]

[Sidenote: c.u.mberland road.]

[Sidenote: Gallatin's scheme.]

Side by side with the bank bill went a proposition for an entirely new application of the government funds. Up to this time internal improvements--roads, ca.n.a.ls and river and harbor improvements--had been made by the States, so far as they were made at all. Virginia and Maryland had spent considerable sums in an attempt to make the Potomac navigable, and a few ca.n.a.ls had been constructed by private capital, sometimes aided by State credit. In 1806 the United States began the c.u.mberland Road, its first work of the kind; but it was intended to open up the public lands in Ohio and the country west, and was nominally paid for out of the proceeds of those public lands. Just as the embargo policy was taking effect, Gallatin, encouraged by the acc.u.mulation of a surplus in the Treasury, brought in a report, April 4, 1808, suggesting the construction of a great system of internal improvements: it was to include coastwise ca.n.a.ls across the isthmuses of Cape Cod, New Jersey, upper Delaware and eastern North Carolina; roads were to be constructed from Maine to Georgia, and thence to New Orleans, and from Washington westward to Detroit and St. Louis. He estimated the cost at twenty millions, to be provided in ten annual instalments. Jefferson himself was so carried away with this prospect of public improvement that he recommended a const.i.tutional amendment to authorize such expenditures. The whole scheme disappeared when the surplus vanished; but from year to year small appropriations were made for the c.u.mberland road, so that up to 1812 more than $200,000 had been expended upon it.

[Sidenote: Calhoun's Bonus Bill.]

[Sidenote: Madison's veto.]

The pa.s.sage of the bank bill in 1816 was to give the United States a million and a half of dollars (Section 120). Calhoun, therefore, came forward, Dec. 23, 1816 with a bill proposing that this sum be employed as a fund "for constructing roads and ca.n.a.ls and improving the navigation of watercourses." "We are" said he, "a rapidly--I was about to say a fearfully--growing country.... This is our pride and danger, our weakness and our strength." The const.i.tutional question he settled with a phrase: "If we are restricted in the use of our money to the enumerated powers, on what principle can the purchase of Louisiana be justified?" The bill pa.s.sed the House by eighty-six to eighty-four; it was strongly supported by New York members, because it was expected that the general government would begin the construction of a ca.n.a.l from Albany to the Lakes; it had also large support in the South, especially in South Carolina. In the last hours of his administration Madison vetoed it. His message shows that he had selected this occasion to leave to the people a political testament; he was at last alarmed by the progress of his own party, and, like Jefferson, he insisted that internal improvements were desirable, but needed a const.i.tutional amendment. The immediate effect of the veto was that New York, seeing no prospect of federal aid, at once herself began the construction of the Erie Ca.n.a.l, which was opened eight years later.

[Sidenote: State improvements.] Other States attempted like enterprises; but the pa.s.ses behind the Susquehanna and Potomac rivers were too high, and no permanent water way was ever finished over them.

122. THE FIRST PROTECTIVE TARIFF (1816).

[Sidenote: Increase of duties.]

[Sidenote: Jefferson's att.i.tude.]

The protection controversy had hardly appeared in Congress since the memorable debate of 1789 (Section 76). From time to time the duties had been slightly increased, and in 1799 a general administrative tariff act had been pa.s.sed. The wars with the Barbary powers had necessitated a slight increase of the duties, known as the Mediterranean Fund, and this had been allowed to stand. Up to the doubling of the duties in 1812 the average rate on staple imports was only from ten to fifteen per cent, and the maximum was about thirty per cent. The whole theory of the Republican administration had been that finance consisted in deciding upon the necessary expenses of government, and then in providing the taxes necessary to meet them. This theory had been disturbed by the existence of a debt which Jefferson was eager to extinguish; and he therefore permitted the duties to remain at a point where they produced much more than the ordinary expenditure of the government.

[Sidenote: The manufacturers.]

[Sidenote: The West.]

A change had now come over the country. The incidental protection afforded by the increase of duties, and then by the war, had built up manufactures, not only in New England, but in New York and Pennsylvania. In these strongholds of capital and trade there was a cry for higher duties, and it was much enforced by the att.i.tude of the Western members. There were a few staple crops, particularly hemp and flax, which could not be produced in the face of foreign compet.i.tion, and for which Western States were supposed to be adapted. Hence a double influence was at work in behalf of a protective tariff: the established industries pleaded for a continuance of the high duties which had given them an opportunity to rise; and the friends of young industries asked for new duties, in order that their enterprises might be established.

[Sidenote: Dallas's tariff bill.]

[Sidenote: Opponents.]

[Sidenote: Advocates.]