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time, financial affairs were in a bad shape, and the Bank of the United States itself barely escaped bankruptcy.

The excitement about Missouri was not over when attention was turned to the West Indies, where piracy had grown to alarming proportions. Indeed those numerous islands seemed to have become the chosen home of hundreds and thousands of freebooters, who robbed, burned and killed without restraint. A small American squadron was sent out in 1819 under Commodore Perry to punish the sea-robbers. I have told you elsewhere that Perry shortly afterward died of yellow fever. Early in 1822 another squadron sailed thither, which destroyed more than twenty piratical vessels on the coast of Cuba. A still larger force went out the next year under Commodore Porter. This finished the work, and the buccaneers were heard of no more.

At that time (as has been the case ever since), South America was disturbed by many revolutions. The different countries had long been held as provinces of European monarchies. They now declared their independence and tried to win it by hard fighting. It was natural that we should feel strong sympathy for them. Henry Clay urged our government to recognize them. In March, 1822, Congress passed a bill recognizing the struggling republics as sovereign nations. The president supplemented this action the following year with a vigorous message, in which he asserted that for the future the American continent was not to be considered as territory for colonization by any European power. This famous declaration makes what has been known ever since as the MONROE DOCTRINE. You will see that it consecrates the whole Western hemisphere to free institutions.

One of the most pleasing incidents of Monroe's administration was the coming to this country of the Marquis de Lafayette. His memorable visit and tour, however, extended into the administration succeeding that of Monroe. No foreigner was ever held in higher esteem than the young nobleman, that, when a young man, fought without pay for the independence of America. You know how Washington loved him; that alone would have been enough to give him a warm place in the hearts of the American people, but Lafayette was in every way worthy of their affection.

He landed in New York in August, 1824, and afterward traveled through every state in the Union, a tour of more than five thousand miles. He was received with the highest honor, and it would take a large volume to give the particulars of that famous journey through our country. There are many people living who remember Lafayette's visit, and it is interesting to listen to their accounts. Only a few days ago, a gentleman who was not very old said to me that he could lay claim to having shaken hands with General Washington. When I looked at him in surprise, he explained that he had shaken hands with the bosom friend of Washington, meaning of course Lafayette.

"It was in Philadelphia," he said, "and I was a small boy who was fighting my way forward in the crowd, when Lafayette saw me, smiled, and beckoned me to approach. You may be sure I obeyed, and was proud when he gave me a warm grasp of his hand, which I remember was as soft as silk."

In Trenton, he attended service in the First Presbyterian Church. An old gentleman told me that he got a seat close to Lafayette and watched him during the serv

ices. While the minister was praying, Lafayette bowed his head and my friend kept his gaze upon him.

"The prayer was very touching," said the old gentleman, "and when the minister referred to the Revolutionary

the guest sat in a carriage watching a parade of the troops, a grizzled old soldier suddenly ran out of the ranks, and flinging his arms about his neck shouted amid his tears: "I fought

with you and Washington at Brandywine and Monmouth-you fought bravely. God bless you!" The Frenchman was greatly affected, and others shed tears.

What a scene it must have been when he visited Mount Vernon and stood with

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bowed head beside the tomb of Washington! What memories must have crowded upon him, as he recalled that time, nearly fifty years before, when in the flush of youth and a chivalrous patriotism, he crossed the Atlantic and first met Washington! How his heart must have swelled at the remembrance of those dark days when they stood beside each other in gloom and defeat, and afterward grasped hands in the glory of triumph at Yorktown, as the star of America liberty rose, never to set again!

The Father of his Country had slept in the dust for a quarter of a century, but America was now a great nation, with a trebled population, a widely extended territory, and with peace and prosperity within her borders. That brave young patriot had become an old man, weeping at the tomb of him whom he had loved and revered as he could love and revere no one else.

While in Boston on the 17th of June, 1825-that being the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, Lafayette laid the corner stone of the monument then about to be raised. In September of that year he sailed from Washington in an American frigate specially prepared for his reception. It was named the Brandywine, in honor of the first battle in which Lafayette was engaged, and where he was wounded, forty-eight years before. I should tell you also that before he went home Congress voted him the sum of two hundred thousand dollars and a township of land as a token of the national gratitude.

The presidential election took place in the fall of 1824. There was no lack of candidates. They were John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams; General Jackson; William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay. Adams was supported by New England; Jackson by the extreme South; Crawford by Virginia, and Clay by the West.

The contest was mainly between Adams and Jackson, but no one of the four had enough majority, and the choice, therefore, fell to the house of representatives. That chamber declared John Quincy Adams president, though Jackson had received more votes. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina was chosen vice-president.

IT

CHAPTER XXVI.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION— 1825-1829.

T has happened only once in the history of our country that father and son have been honored with the presidency of the United States. John Quincy Adams was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, in July, 1767. He was talented in boyhood, and attracted notice wherever he went by his vigor of mind and body. Such precocious children as a rule do not fulfill the expectations of their friends, but it was different with young Adams.

With a most excellent mother and a distinguished father, he received every educational advantage. When eleven years old, he went with his father to France and was placed at school in Paris. In the summer of 1780, at the age of thirteen, he was taken to Holland, where he entered the University of Leyden. After serving for more than a year as the private secretary to the American minister in Russia, he made the tour of Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, France and England. Returning home, he entered the junior class at Harvard College and graduated in 1788. His ability was so marked that Washington made him minister to The Hague, and later to Portugal. Previous to this he had been admitted to the Boston bar.

In 1797 his father, who was then president, transferred him to Berlin. In 1803 the federalists made him United States senator, and in 1809 he was appointed minister to Russia. He negotiated commercial treaties with Prussia, Sweden and Great Britain, and in 1814 was the leading American commissioner in the famous treaty of Ghent. He was Monroe's secretary of state throughout his eight years' administration, and filled the office with marked ability.

You remember that in the contest for election Jackson had more votes than Adams, but Henry Clay threw his influence on the side of Adams, and thus defeated Jackson. The senate showed much opposition to Clay when his nomination as Adams' secretary of state was before that body. A good many believed that Adams had made a bargain with Clay, which he thus sought to carry out. The charge was indignantly denied by those gentlemen, and when the pure character of both is remembered, it is impossible to believe that there was ground for such a charge.

In the course of 1825 a dispute arose between the federal administration and the governor of Georgia, over the removal of the Creek Indians. As a payment to Georgia for giving up her claims to a large part of the Mississippi Territory, the government had agreed to buy for the Georgians certain Indian lands within the borders of their state, whenever it could be done peaceably and on reasonable terms.

But the Creeks refused to sell their coveted lands. A council of their chiefs resolved

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that they would not part with a foot, and that they should kill any of their number who signed any agreement to do so. Nevertheless, in 1825 commissioners met a party of Creek chiefs at Indian Spring, and a treaty was made, by which the lands were ceded to the United States.

The Creeks, however, kept their word, and as soon as the chiefs who signed the treaty came back to them, every one was killed. It was too late, however, to have any effect. Meanwhile, the state of Georgia had ordered a survey of the lands occupied by the Indians. The treaty of the latter with the United States allowed the Creeks to stay in possession until September 1, 1826. It was certain, therefore, that if Georgia undertook to carry out the survey, a conflict with the Indians would follow. George M. Troup was governor of Georgia. When remonstrated with, he replied with hot words, in which the doctrine of state rights in the most advanced form was asserted. He insisted on the independence of Georgia, and declared that the survey of the Indian lands must go on. Governor Troup charged the federal government with hostility to slavery, and called on the state legislature to take steps in self-defense. The legislature promptly reported that the time had come for united action on the part of the South against the general government.

When we speak now of secession or disunion, we are apt to think that little was heard of it until 1861, but to show you that such an idea is a mistake, I will quote from the resolution passed by the Georgia house of representatives in 1825:

"The hour is come, or it is rapidly approaching, when the states from Virginia to Georgia, from Missouri to Louisiana, must confederate, and as one man say to the Union: We will no longer submit our constitutional rights to bad men in Congress, or on judicial benches. The powers necessary to the protection of the Confederated States from enemies without and enemies within, alone was confided to the united government; all others were retained to the several states, separate and sovereign. The states of the South will convey their product to the markets of the world; the world will open wide its arms to receive them. Let our northern brethren, then, if there is no peace in the Union, if the compact has become too heavy to be longer borne, in the name of all the mercies, find peace among themselves. Let them continue to rejoice in their self-righteousness; let them bask in their own meridian, while they depict the South as a hideous reverse. As Athens, as Sparta, as Rome was, we will be; they held slaves, we hold them. In the simplicity of the patriarchal government we would still remain master and servant, under our own vine and our own figtree, and confide for safety upon Him who of old-time looked down upon this state of things without wrath."

You will admit that the foregoing was bold language, and what is more, it prevailed. A long discussion followed between Governor Troup on one side, and General Gaines, who was sent to Georgia to keep the peace, and the secretary of war on the other. The president would not yield, and he forbade the survey, pending the consideration of a new treaty by Congress. The new treaty was made and Georgia still complained. Troup ordered new surveys in accordance with the terms of the former treaty. The Creeks appealed to the president, who laid the matter before Congress. Inasmuch as only a