followed. At a later period, too, there were published more than two thousand abolition journals, one of the first of these, "The Liberator," having been started in Boston on the first day of 1831, by William Lloyd Garrison. The mayor of that city having been asked by a Southern magistrate to stop the publication of Garrison's paper, replied that "it was not worth the trouble, for the office of the editor was an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, and his supporters a very few insignificant persons of all colors."

5. The agitation against slavery during Van Buren's administration, was prosecuted with great determination; and this, carried on by means of lectures, newspapers, tracts, public meetings, and petitions to Congress, aroused a violent spirit of resistance. In Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and other Northern cities, anti-slavery meetings were invaded and broken up; the offices of anti-slavery newspapers were mobbed, and, in some instances, personal violence was inflicted-in one notable case, in Illinois, death-upon the abolitionists. Still the agitation went on.

6. The first railway in America, built in 1826 and known as the Quincy Railroad, was only two miles long. It was

designed for carrying granite from the quarries of Quincy, Massachusetts, to tide water. The cars were drawn by

horses. The

second rail

way was the Mauch(mawk)

Chunk, which, with its turnouts and branches, in all thirteen miles long, was constructed for the transportation of coal from

66

Steam Navigation.

233

Railroads.

the mines of that place to the Lehigh river in Pennsylvania (1827). The Baltimore and Ohio was the first passenger railway in America, fifteen miles being opened in 1830, the cars being drawn by horses till the next year, when a locomotive was put on the track." During the same year (1830) a small locomotive, weighing not more than a ton, was built in Baltimore by Peter Cooper (afterward of New York). "It was the first locomotive for railroad purposes ever built in America. So great was the enterprise throughout the United States from 1832 to 1837 in the projection and construction of railroads, that at the end of that period the contemplated lines exceeded in number and aggregate length those of any other country."

7. We have spoken of the Clermont, Fulton's first steamboat (see p. 201). As many as six steamboats were afterward built for Fulton. The first boat of the kind on the Mississippi, was the Orleans, in 1811. She went Steam from Pittsburg to New Orleans in fourteen days. navigation. Eight years later, the Savannah, an American steamer, crossed the Atlantic from New York, N. Y. In this vessel both sails and steam were used. The arrival of the first two steamers,the Sirius and the Great Western,-at New York from Liverpool, in 1838, caused a great sensation throughout the country; and when the Great Western took her departure from New York "a fleet of steamers, decorated with flags, filled with passengers, and each having a band of music on board, accompanied her down the bay. The wharves were densely crowded with spectators, and even the house-tops were covered" with thousands of persons. Cheers went up from the excited people as a parting God-speed.

Administrations of Harrison and Tyler.

1. The depression in business affairs was attributed to the want of wisdom in Van Buren's administration, and, although he received the nomination of the Democratic party for a

The

second term, and was still pledged to tread in "the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor," he found it impos14th national sible to carry with him the popularity of "Old election. Hickory," as Jackson was affectionately called. Besides, a great many persons were disposed to try "a change of policy," thinking that it could not be for the worse. Again the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison, who,

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.

like Jackson enjoyed a military fame. He had fought the Indians; and the battle of Tippecanoe, though of small account compared with the battle of New Orleans, gave the Whigs a great amount of campaign capital. "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" became their rallying cry.

2. The Whigs also derived great advantage in the contest from the fact that some "thoughtless Democrat" had tauntingly alluded to their candidate as having dwelt in a "log cabin" and used "hard cider" as a beverage. The expressions, the "log-cabin candidate," and the "hard-cider campaign," at once came into popular use, and with such furor, that all the arts of the "little magician," as Van Buren was called by his political opponents, were unable to counteract its effects. Log cabins, with the latch-string hanging out," and decorated with coon skins, were drawn on wagons in political processions, and were also made to give effect to the mass meetings, which were often composed of "acres of men." The result was the election of Harrison, and, with it, the elevation of John Tyler, of Virginia, to the office of vice-president.

3. Before he came to Washington, Harrison had lived in a plain and simple way, taking his breakfast at seven or eight, his dinner at noon, and retiring early. In the White House,

1841

Death of Harrison.

66

235

He was

Death

he took his breakfast at nine, dined at six, retired after midnight, and rose at five. He was then sixty-nine years of age. "Can it be a cause of wonder that his system gave way, refusing to bear this heavy and unaccustomed tax ?" taken sick, and, just one month after his inauguration, he died (April 4th, 1841). His death was an astounding shock to the country. He was the first president who had died in office. All the public buildings, most of the private dwellings, and even the lowliest tenements, in Washington, were draped in black; and business was suspended."

of the President.

4. John Tyler, the vice-president, being called to Washington, took the oath of office and assumed the title of president; but the course he pursued sadly disappointed the Whigs, by

a National Bank "for the relief of the country," but he vetoed two bank bills passed by Congress, though one of them had been previously approved by him. All the members of his Cabinet-except Daniel Webster, the Secretary of State-resigned, and he was denounced by his former political friends. Webster remained at his post long enough to make what is commonly known as the Webster-Ashburton treaty, by which long-standing differences between England and the United States respecting the North-eastern boundary were settled, and provision was made for determining the entire northern boundary line to the Rocky mountains.1

1

JOHN TYLER.

In 1842 serious difficulties occurred in Rhode Island, growing out of a movement to substitute a constitution extending the right of suffrage, in place of the charter granted by Charles II., in 1663, and which had

5. A proposition for the admission of Texas into the Union caused an excited discussion throughout the country during the closing months of Tyler's administration. Texas had been Annexation a province of Mexico, but the inhabitants had reof Texas. volted, achieved their independence, and set up a republican government of their own. Hence, Texas was called, at this time, "The Lone Star State," one star only being on her flag. The annexation of Texas was favored by the South, because slavery existed there, but the measure was opposed by a large party in the North, who were greatly averse to any increase of the slave power in the United States. Many, too, foresaw that the annexation of Texas would produce a war with Mexico. The discussion in Congress was finally ended by the passage of a resolution in favor of the annexation, and to this Tyler gave his approval three days before he went out of office (1845).

6. The demand for the rapid communication of intelligence was by no means supplied by the locomotive and railroad. To Professor Morse is due high honor for the manner in which he availed

The

magnetic himself of scientific distelegraph. coveries, previously made by others in the department of electro-magnetism, for many discoveries of his own, and especially for his perseverance in bringing his system into use for the benefit of mankind. His telegraph was first so made available in 1837. "He had completed his telegraph line. from Washington to Baltimore just

MORSE.

previous to the sitting of the Democratic convention for the been the " fundamental law of the land" the greater part of two centuries. The suffrage party" attempted to effect the change without regard to existing laws, even resorting to force; but the legitimate power prevailed. A constitution, the one under which the State is now gov erned, was soon after adopted.