While manufactures suffered, agriculture enjoyed a period of great prosperity. The number of perThe number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits in the year 1820 was 2,070,646; and the value of all American products (including cotton, tobacco, flour, and rice), exported during the year 1823, was 37,646,000 dollars. The vast provinces of the West were being colonised by families from the Eastern States, and by emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, who, arriving in large numbers every year, added materially to the population of the Republic, and widened the area of cultivated land. Within ten years of the peace-which brings us to about the close of Monroe's Administration-five new States had grown up in those wild domains which had recently been hunting-grounds of the red man. England had for more than a hundred years contributed scarcely anything to the peopling of America; and colonies which had been created by English enterprise in the seventeenth century, had become so alien to the mother country by the middle of the eighteenth, that a large proportion of the British people believed the Americans to be negroes. * The War of Independence, the struggle of 1812-15, and the progress of popular instruction, had removed all such astounding misconceptions by the time of Monroe's Presidency; and England now once more looked towards the Western World, as she had done in the reigns of the first Stuarts, as offering a relief for her own superabundant population. As America wanted what England had in excess, the former country was an immense gainer by these large immigrations, and thenceforward made progress with amazing rapidity. In December, 1817, the Mississippi Territory was divided, and the western portion admitted into the Union as the State of Mississippi, while the eastern remained for a short time longer as a dependent province, under the title of the Alabama Territory. The latter included a portion of Georgia, which was given up for a consideration. The same month saw the suppression of a piratical establishment which had been formed on Amelia Island, at the north-eastern extremity of the coast of Florida, by persons who alleged that they were acting under the authority of some of the Republics of South America, for the purpose of liberating the Floridas from the dominion of Spain. Another establishment of a similar nature, on the island of Galveston, Texas, was also suppressed. In addition to their avowed political objects, the persons engaged at those places were known to be carrying on a clandestine trade in slaves. From an early period in the century, the Spanish colonies in the South had been engaged in insurrectionary wars against the mother country, and some had succeeded in establishing their independence. It was the obvious policy of the Washington Cabinet to encourage these young Republics, though furtively, and thus destroy the influence of Spain. Monroe, in particular, very emphatically asserted the dogma that the monarchical form of government ought not to exist on the Continent of America-a political principle which, under the designation of the "Monroe Doctrine," has been widely received in the United States from that time to the present. Yet Monroe's Administration was not at all inclined to help these Spanish-American Repub lics in acquiring Florida, because Anglo-America wanted that territory for herself; and, on this account, a strict neutrality was maintained between the Government of Spain and its revolted colonies. The purchase of Florida had long been contemplated by the Americans; and, if Spain were not offended by an active exhibition of sympathy with her disobedient subjects, she might some day be persuaded to entertain offers which had previously been refused. The buccaneers, if they are to be regarded as such, were accordingly driven out from the settlements they had seized; but it is certain that these operations were dictated by no feeling of disinterested friendship towards the Government of Madrid. The prize of Florida was always glittering before the vision of American statesmen, and an opportunity now arose for grasping it. In the latter part of 1817, the Seminole Indians, joined by a few of the Creeks, and by some runaway negroes, began to commit depredations on the frontiers of Georgia and Alabama. General Gaines was despatched to suppress these risings, and to remove every Indian from the territory which the Creeks had ceded to the United States. He was overmatched in numbers, however, and got into so dangerous a position that General Jackson was sent in all haste to his aid. This vigorous officer, acting on his own responsibility, raised a large force of Tennessee horsemen, in addition to the regular army with which he was supplied, and at once marched into the Indian territory, which he speedily overran. He was ordered not to enter Florida, except in pursuit of an enemy; but this was little more than a mask to cover the real intentions of the Government, and to furnish a 1818.] JACKSON'S CONQUEST OF FLORIDA. decent reply to Spain in case the progress of events should be such as to lead to a remonstrance from that Power. In his recent message to Congress, the President had stated that "where the authority of Spain ceases to exist, there the United States have a right to pursue their enemy, on a principle of self-defence." At that time, the authority of the Spaniards did not extend, in Florida, much beyond the garrisons of Pensacola and St. Augustine; so that an invasion of the province seems to have been contemplated from the first. It was within the boundaries of Florida that the strongholds of the offending Indians were to be found; and into this country General Jackson determined to advance. He entered within its limits in March, 1818, and in April took possession of the weak Spanish post of St. Mark, at the head of Apalachee Bay. Here he arrested two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister, who were accused before a court-martial of having acted as emissaries among the Southern Indians, and incited them to hostilities. Their being found guilty was of course a foregone conclusion; they were condemned to death, and both were executed on the 30th of April. Jackson then marched on Pensacola, the capital of the province, expelled the Spanish authorities, and asserted the rule of the United States over the whole territory. For this high-handed proceeding, the alleged excuse was that the representatives of Spain had encouraged the Indians in making depredations in Alabama. The Spanish Governor protested against the invasion of his Sovereign's realm; but Jackson was not the man to heed such remonstrances, or to stand very long on niceties of international law. The Governor and his followers fled on horseback to Fort Barrancas, at the entrance to Pensacola Bay, where the American General had no great difficulty in stamping out resistance to his authority. On the 27th of May, three days after the flight of the Governor, Barrancas was captured by Jackson, and the Spanish officials and troops were sent to Havannah. The proceedings of Jackson had been of a very questionable character, and they speedily formed a topic of remonstrance in the Legislature of the United States. The whole conduct of the Seminole war was investigated by a committee appointed for the purpose, and the report of this body censured the General very severely. It declared that he had disregarded the orders of the War Department; that he had committed gross breaches of the Constitution and the laws; that he had arrogated to himself the monstrous power of raising a volunteer army of 2,500 men, with 230 officers, out of whom court-martials had been formed, to decide upon life 617 and death; that, although the victims condemned might perhaps have put themselves out of the pale of the law, General Jackson might almost as well have caused a court-martial of his volunteers to judge any American citizen who happened to be an officer of militia; and that his entering into Pensacola was contrary to his instructions, and highly blamable. That these charges were just, it would be very difficult to deny; but Jackson had the merit of success, and, having secured to his country a large accession of splendid territory, he was not wanting in supporters, and those the most influential. The Ministry ranged themselves on his side, and the President regarded him as having cleverly carried out a tortuous policy, the real nature of which it had not been convenient to avow beforehand. Congress was the scene of many exciting debates on the subject, and the number of votes upon several of the questions was nearly equal. Jackson contended that the Spaniards had persis tently incited the Indians to their deeds of blood and rapine, and that prompt and efficient measures were absolutely necessary. The majority of the people adopted this view, and in the result his friends succeeded in carrying through Congress a vote of exculpation. The addition of Florida to the United States was now an accomplished fact, though it still wanted the sanction of legal forms. The Americans were in possession, and Spain, distracted by civil war over the whole of what had once been her vast domains in the New World, was unable to expel her powerful rival, or to reverse the course of events. In February, 1819, a treaty was negotiated at Washington, by which Spain ceded to the United States both East and West Florida, together with the adjacent islands. King Ferdinand, however, refused to ratify this instrument, and despatched an Envoy to America, to make complaints on various points, but principally with respect to encroachments on the Mexican province of Texas. This led to much delay, but the treaty was at length ratified in October, 1820. Florida was erected into a Territory in February, 1821, and in the following month General Jackson was appointed the first Governor of that beautiful and fertile province. He had a difficult task to perform. The Spanish officials whom he found there threw every obstruction in his way that they could devise, and amongst other things refused to give up the provincial archives, which, according to the treaty, were to be delivered to the new possessors. Even when they were at length obtained in the main, it was found that some particular documents were kept back by Don Cavalla, this family were disputed by the Colonial Government of Massachusetts, which forcibly assumed jurisdiction about 1652, and in 1677 purchased the whole province. The people of Maine, however, though as well disposed towards the Republican cause during the War of Independence as any other part of the Federation, did not approve of their connection with the State which had its capital at Boston. They desired to follow their own ways, and from 1820 downwards they have enjoyed that wish. the late Spanish Governor. Jackson sent an armed and his descendants. The proprietary rights of force to bring Cavalla before him. The Spaniard resisted, and was carried from his bed to prison; the missing papers were then seized, and Cavalla was discharged. Nothing was more conspicuous in Jackson than a prompt and despotic resort to force. Had he been a Frenchman, he might have proved another Napoleon Bonaparte, for he certainly possessed soldier-like abilities, and had precisely that character which falls in with the military and Imperial order of society. His methods were not much in harmony with the political system of his own country; but he generally succeeded in his Missouri had of late been applying for admission designs, and was therefore popular. On the present occasion, as at former times, his proceedings were blamed in Congress; but he had the support of the majority, and could well afford to disregard the objectors. The recognition of the Spanish-American Republics by the United States followed at no distant date. In 1819, the southern portion of Missouri was formed into a Territorial Government under the name of Arkansas; and in December of the same year Alabama was admitted into the Union. Early in 1820, Maine, which had for nearly two hundred years been a portion of Massachusetts, was severed from that State, and suffered to enjoy a distinct existence. Maine had originally been settled by the French, and was long a ground of contention between that nation and the English. It was at first the property of Sir Ferdinando Gorges into the Union, and this demand was made the occasion of a violent debate in Congress one of a very long series of similar discussions on the vexed question of slavery. During the session of 1818-19, a Bill was introduced into Congress, containing a provision which forbade the existence of slavery or involuntary servitude in Missouri, when that Territory should be constituted as a State. The subject was fiercely argued during the whole session; it had not been brought to a close when the Houses adjourned; the country itself caught the contagion of excitement, and the usual cry of disruption was raised, as on many previous occasions. When Secession at last came, in 1861, it was no new idea to the American people: it had been threatened again and again-now by the North, and now by the South, according as the objects of either seemed imperilled. The division between those two great sections was indeed very strongly marked-in soil, in climate, in political institutions, in social customs, and in material interests; and the battle never raged more hotly, as far as language was concerned, than during the period at which we have now arrived. When the discussion was resumed, on the 23rd of November, 1820, much acrimony was displayed in the speeches delivered on both sides. The whole question of slavery was debated with that vehemence which it is so well calculated to call forth. The North-eastern States, which had put an end to negro bondage among themselves, were of course strongly opposed to any extension of the detestable system into States about to be admitted to the Union. The South was equally desirous of widening the area of African servitude, in order that in the Senate there might be a majority of States pledged to support the custom, together with all those interests which were bound up in its existence. The Missourians themselves were inclined to go with the South; and, having refused to adopt a clause for the prohibition of the growth of slavery, the Northern States obstructed their admission into the Federal body. Thus the battle hung: the North taking its stand upon the cruel and immoral character of slavery ; the South maintaining that, even if objectionable in itself, it was part of the existing order of things, and could not be suddenly abolished, or even curtailed, without serious danger to the whole social fabric. The slave-trade, as regarded Africa and other foreign lands, had been suppressed for several years; but slaves were bred at home, and sold by one State to another, as they were needed. The Western States in this way produced a good many slaves, and found a large source of profit in disposing of them to other parts of the country. Missouri, wishing to share in these gains, violently resisted the restriction which the Northern members of Congress desired to impose, and threatened in 1819 to constitute itself a sovereign and entirely independent State, if not admitted to the Union on its own terms. The question was settled by a compromise on the 28th of February, 1821, in accordance with which slavery was to be tolerated in Missouri, but prohibited in all other parts of the Union north and west of the northern limits of Arkansas; and upon this understanding Missouri, on the 21st of August, was admitted to the Federation as its twenty-fourth member. Such was the "Missouri Compromise," which appears again and again in American history, as a source of dispute and recrimination. This parting of the Federation into two divisions, with distinct and opposing interests, seemed to the veteran Jefferson a danger of a very menacing kind. He was hardly the politician most entitled to complain; for, by exaggerating the principle of State rights, he had encouraged the tendency to a sectional view of politics, and had strengthened the disposition of the slave-holding States to isolate themselves in support of their beloved institution. But he was not himself an admirer of slavery, though he did not clearly see his way to getting rid of it; and he was too wise and patriotic a citizen to desire a dissolution of the Union which he had done so much to create. He wrote to a friend in 1820 :-"I have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much, and see the event at no great distance, and the direct consequence of this question; not by the line which has been so confidently counted on-the laws of Nature control this-but by the Potomac, Ohio, and Missouri, or, more probably, the Mississippi upwards to our northern boundary. My only comfort and confidence is, that I shall not live to see this."* He considered the proposed action of Congress, in imposing regulations on the several States with regard to the extension of slavery, as grossly unconstitutional. But the idea of a line of geographical demarcation, involving a different system of politics and morals, he feared would gather force with time, reappear again and again, and in the end produce so deadly a feeling of mutual hate that separation would become preferable to eternal discord. His anticipations were disastrously realised forty-one years later. During the discussion of the Missouri question, the President and Vice-President were re-elected for another term of four years by an almost unanimous vote. The Federal party was now nearly extinct. Although it still counted several members capable of making considerable opposition in Congress, it was devoid of all effective organisation, and had very little influence in the country generally. The policy of Monroe had been popular; his administration had been successful; and the Democrats had no difficulty in carrying him again into power. Two measures of his Government were particularly well received by the people of the United States. One of these was an Act of Congress, passed in March, 1818, for making some degree of provision for the surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution-an Act which was subsequently extended, so as to include the widows and children of those who had already departed; the second was an arrangement, made with Great Britain in October Jefferson to William Short, April 13, 1820. |