part of the Northwest Territory, was admitted in the early part of 1837, about a month before the expiration of Jackson's term of office. The Union then consisted of twenty-six States. Van Buren's Administration. 1. The presidential election in the fall of 1836, resulted n the success of Martin Van Buren, whom Jackson had favored. This was another triumph of the Democratic party, the party opposed to rechar The 13th national tering the Bank of election. the United States and to a high tariff. The policy of Jackson's administration was thus continued. The candidate of the other great political body, the Whig party, was General William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, the "hero of Tippecanoe and the Thames. Colonel Richard M. Johnson, was chosen vice-president. He, like Van Buren, was a Democrat.' MARTIN VAN BUREN. 2. The beginning of Van Buren's administration was noted for the bursting forth of the great financial storm, the result of the wild speculations of the few preceding years. Mer 1 In 1832 the northwest frontier suffered from Indian hostilities. The savages were subdued, and their great chief, Black Hawk, and other warriors, being made prisoners, were conducted through some of the principal cities of the Union to convince them of the folly of contending against the whites. Towards the close of 1835, the Seminoles of Florida renewed their hostilities, because an attempt was made to remove them to lands west of the Mississippi, according to a treaty which had been previously made with some of their chiefs. Their principal warrior, Osceola, and others, did not consider this treaty binding, and refused to obey it. Osceola was imprisoned, because of his threatening language, but, promising submission, was set free. In revenge, he attacked the whites, but was again made prisoner. The Indians were defeated by Colonel Taylor (afterward President), yet they continued hostile till 1842. 1840 The Slavery Agitation. 231 chants were unable to pay their debts, and numerous failures were the consequence. The banks, of which there The panic were about eight hundred in number, had three of 1837. times as much paper money in circulation as they had coin in their vaults. They were therefore compelled to suspend the payment of their notes in specie, and gold and silver disappeared, for those who had any hoarded it for safety. Even the government was embarrassed, for its money was locked up in the suspended banks. This led to a measure, recommended by the president, by which the keeping of the government money was intrusted to Assistant Treasurers, in certain designated places, called Sub-Treasuries. This is now the established policy of the country. The Slavery 3. In 1840, the number of slaves in the United States was 2,487,455. All the Northern States had either abolished slavery or had made provision for its gradual abolishment. At the date mentioned, there were sixty-four slaves still in Pennsylvania, five in Rhode Island, seventeen in Connecticut, and about five hundred in agitation. New Jersey. The South, in the early colonial times, had been opposed to slavery, and, in the first years of our existence as a nation, our prominent men-Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Jay, Hamilton, and many others—regarded slavery as a great evil. Various causes-the difference in climate, and the invention of the cotton gin, by which slave labor was made more profitable in the South than the North, being the principal ones,-in the course of time effected a change of opinion; and slavery was at length advocated in the Southern States as right in itself and worthy of being extended. 4. It is thus seen that from the very foundation of the government there were many persons opposed to slavery. As early as 1775, an "Abolition Society" was formed in Pennsylvania, with Franklin for its president, having for its object the "removal of slavery from the American people" and the "discouraging of all traffic in the persons of our fellow-men." The formation of other " Abolition Societies" 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 FIRST RAILROAD CAR FOR PASSENGERS (1830). Mauch(mawk) Chunk, which, with its turnouts and branches, in all thirteen miles long, was constructed for the transportation of coal from Steam Navigation. 233 the mines of that place to the Lehigh river in Pennsylvania (1827). "The Baltimore and Ohio was the first Railroads. 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, A 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 soine "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. ور 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, |