On the 4th of March, 1829, in the presence of the Senate, the members of the House of Representatives and a vast concourse of people, General Andrew Jackson took the oath of office and entered upon the administration of the government of the United States.

A long train of fortunate events had prepared his way for a happy and prosperous career in his new character as a Civil Magistrate. His military success at a peculiar crisis had given him a strong claim upon the country, and the energy, decision and self-devotion manifested in various trying emergencies had obtained for him a large share of the public confidence.

Nor was the aspect of the political atmosphere less propitious. The administration of his predecessor had been arrested by the popular will in the midst of its career, before the merits or demerits of its policy had been fully tested, and with so decided an expression of public feeling against its continuance, as to leave its members no ability and apparently little inclination to offer an early opposition to the new Executive. The community was tired of political warfare, and a general disposition was evinced to give the measures of the administration a fair trial. Some uncertainty of course existed as to the policy which the new President

might feel bound to adopt. His political experience had not been great, and the inferences which the public had drawn as to his principles from his declarations and votes when in the federal Senate, had been rendered somewhat uncertain by the contradictory assertions made by his supporters in different sections of the Union and by the decided political character of that portion of his adherents, who had been ranked in the previous contest among the friends of the late Secretary of the Treasury (Mr Crawford.) That class of public men was regarded as contending for a strict, or what was denominated a narrow, construction of the Federal Constitution, and their support was given to him upon principles of opposition to the policy that governed the administration of Mr Monroe. All the other candidates in that contest were sustained upon a contrary principle. The construction given to the Federal Constitution, by which Congress was deemed to be empowered to protect domestic manufactures, to appropriate moneys for works of internal improvement, to create a United States Bank, and generally to regulate and control all affairs strictly national, had become the settled policy of the country. Strong objections were still urged to this construction, by the Representatives from the Southern States, and by some of the leading friends of Mr Crawford in other sections of the Union. But it had been too long and too generally acquiesced in to permit the hope of a successful appeal to public opinion in behalf of can

didates offered upon principles of opposition to that construction. All the candidates consequently were understood to be in favor of that construction. Mr Calhoun was an early and ardent advocate of that principle, and had efficiently contributed when in Congress and also while in the Cabinet to the adoption of the principal measures, which had provoked the hostility of those who contended for a literal construction of the constitution. Mr Clay had long been distinguished as the eloquent and uncompromising supporter of the American System, a system whose characteristic features were the protection of domestic industry and a liberal application of the public treasure to purposes of internal improvement. Mr Adams at an early period of his political life had manifested his attachment to the cause of internal improvement, and he made no secret of his opinions concerning the powers of Congress in all matters of national concern.General Jackson had not occupied so conspicuous a station in political life; but while in the United States Senate he had been no less decided in his opinions on the long disputed question as to the constructive powers of Congress. During this short term of service the following bills providing for internal improvement came under consideration: 1st. A Bill authorizing a road from Memphis in Tennessee to Little Rock in Arkansas. 2d. A Bill for making certain roads in Florida. 3d. A Bill to procure necessary surveys for roads and canals. 4th. A Bill to improve the navigation of the Mis