John Clark Ridpath

THE new President was a military hero—a man of great talents and inflexible honesty. His integrity was unassailable; his will like iron. He was one of those men for whom no toils are too arduous. His personal character was impressed upon his administration. At the beginning he removed nearly seven hundred office-holders and appointed in their stead his own political friends.

Andrew Jackson.

2. In his first message the President took ground against rechartering the Bank of the United States. He recommended that the old charter be allowed to expire by its own limitation in 1836. But the influence of the bank was very great; and in 1832 a bill to recharter was passed by Congress. The President opposed his veto; a two thirds majority in favor of the bill could not be secured, and the new charter failed.

3. In the congressional session of 1831-32, additional tariffs were levied upon goods imported from abroad. By this act the manufacturing districts were favored at the expense of the agricultural States. South Carolina was specially offended. Open resistance was threatened in case the officers should attempt to collect the revenues at Charleston. In the United States Senate the right of a State to nullify an act of Congress was boldly proclaimed. On that question had already occurred the great debate between Colonel Hayne, senator from South Carolina, and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts.

4. The President now took the matter in hand and issued a proclamation denying the right of a State to nullify the laws of Congress. But Mr. Calhoun, the Vice-president, resigned his office to accept a seat in the Senate, where he might defend the doctrines of his State. The President, having warned the South Carolinians, ordered a body of troops under General Scott to proceed to Charleston. The leaders of the nullifying party receded from their position, and bloodshed was avoided.

5. The lands of the Sacs and Foxes had been purchased by the government, but the Indians, influenced by the chief Black Hawk, refused to quit them. The government insisted that they fulfill their contract, and hostilities began in 1832. General Scott was sent with troops to Chicago to cooperate with General Atkinson. The latter waged a vigorous campaign, defeated the Indians, and made Black Hawk prisoner. The captive chief was taken to Washington and the great cities of the East. Returning to his own people, he advised them to make peace. The warriors abandoned the disputed lands and retired into Iowa.

6. Difficulties also arose with the Cherokees of Georgia—the most civilized of all the Indian nations. The President recommended the removal of the Cherokees to lands beyond the Mississippi. The Indian Territory was accordingly set apart in 1834. The Indians yielded with great reluctance. More than five million dollars was paid them for their lands. At last General Scott was ordered to remove them; and during the years 1837-38, the Cherokees were transferred to their new homes in the West.

7. More serious was the conflict with the Seminoles. The trouble arose from an attempt to remove the tribe beyond the Mississippi. Hostilities began in 1835, and continued for four years. Osceola and Micanopy, chiefs of the nation, denied the validity of a former cession of Seminole lands. General Thompson was obliged to arrest Osceola and put him in irons. The chief then gave his assent to the old treaty, and was liberated, but immediately entered into a conspiracy to slaughter the whites.

8. Major Dade, with a hundred and seventeen men, was now dispatched to reinforce General Clinch at Fort Drane, seventy-five miles from St. Augustine. Dade's forces fell into an ambuscade, and all except one man were massacred. On the same day Osceola, with a band of warriors, surrounded a storehouse where General Thompson was dining, and killed him and four of his companions.

9. In two successive engagements in December and February the Seminoles were repulsed. In October Governor Call of Florida, with two thousand men, overtook the savages in the Wahoo Swamp, near the scene of Dade's massacre. Here the Indians were again defeated and driven into the Everglades.

10. In the mean time, the President had put an end to the Bank of the United States. After vetoing the bill to recharter that institution, he conceived that the surplus funds which had accumulated in its vaults had better be distributed among the States. Accordingly, in October of 1833 he ordered the funds of the bank, amounting to ten million dollars, to be distributed among certain State banks designated for that purpose. The financial panic of 1836-37, following soon afterward, was attributed by the Whigs to the destruction of the national bank and the removal of the funds. But the adherents of the President replied that the panic was attributable to the bank itself.

11. In 1834 the strong will of the chief magistrate was brought into conflict with France. In 1831 the French king had agreed to pay five million dollars for injuries formerly done to American commerce. But the government of France neglected the payment until the President recommended to Congress to make reprisals on French merchantmen. This measure had the desired effect, and the indemnity was paid. Portugal was brought to terms in a similar manner.

12. In June of 1836, Arkansas, with a population of seventy thousand, was admitted into the Union. In the following January, Michigan Territory was organized as a State and added to the Republic. The new commonwealth brought a population of one hundred and fifty-seven thousand. In the autumn of 1836 Martin Van Buren was elected President. As to the Vice-presidency, no one secured a majority, and the choice devolved on the Senate. By that body Colonel Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky was chosen.