A Short History of the United States by Edward Channing
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Edward Channing >> A Short History of the United States
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[Illustration: AN EARLY LOCOMOTIVE.]
[Sidenote: Invention of the locomotive, 1830.]
[Sidenote: Hardships of early railroad travel.]
298. The Steam Locomotive.--Steam was used to drive boats through
the water. Why should not steam be used to haul wagons over a railroad?
This was a very easy question to ask, and a very hard one to answer.
Year after year inventors worked on the problem. Suddenly, about 1830,
it was solved in several places and by several men at nearly the same
time. It was some years, however, before the locomotive came into
general use. The early railroad trains were rude affairs. The cars were
hardly more than stagecoaches with flanged wheels. They were fastened
together with chains, and when the engine started or stopped, there was
a terrible bumping and jolting. The smoke pipe of the engine was very
tall and was hinged so that it could be let down when coming to a low
bridge or a tunnel. Then the smoke and cinders poured straight into the
passengers' faces. But these trains went faster than canal boats or
steamboats. Soon the railroad began to take the first place as a means
of transport.
[Illustration: A LOCOMOTIVE OF TO-DAY.]
[Sidenote: Use of hard coal.]
[Sidenote: Growth of the cities.]
299. Other Inventions.--The coming of the steam locomotive hastened
the changes which one saw on every side in 1830. For some time men had
known that there was plenty of hard coal or anthracite in Pennsylvania.
But it was so hard that it would not burn in the old-fashioned stoves
and fireplaces. Now a stove was invented that would burn anthracite, and
the whole matter of house warming was completely changed. Then means
were found to make iron from ore with anthracite. The whole iron
industry awoke to new life. Next the use of gas made from coal became
common in cities. The great increase in manufacturing, and the great
changes in modes of transport, led people to crowd together in cities
and towns. These inventions made it possible to feed and warm large
numbers of persons gathered into small areas. The cities began to grow
so fast that people could no longer live near their work or the shops.
Lines of stagecoaches were established, and the coaches were soon
followed by horse cars, which ran on iron tracks laid in the streets.
[Illustration: AN EARLY HORSE CAR.]
[Sidenote: Growth of the school system.]
[Sidenote: Webster's "Dictionary."]
[Sidenote: American men of letters.]
[Sidenote: American men of science.]
300. Progress in Letters.--There was also great progress in
learning. The school system was constantly improved. Especially was this
the case in the West, where the government devoted one thirty-sixth part
of the public lands to education. High schools were founded, and soon
normal schools were added to them. Even the colleges awoke from their
long sleep. More students went to them, and the methods of teaching were
improved. Some slight attention, too, was given to teaching the
sciences. In 1828 Noah Webster published the first edition of his great
dictionary. Unfortunately he tried to change the spelling of many words.
But in other ways his dictionary was a great improvement. He defined
words so that they could be understood, and he gave the American meaning
of many words, as "congress." American writers now began to make great
reputations. Cooper, Irving, and Bryant were already well known. They
were soon joined by a wonderful set of men, who speedily made America
famous. These were Emerson, Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes, Hawthorne,
Prescott, Motley, Bancroft, and Sparks. In science, also, men of mark
were beginning their labors, as Pierce, Gray, Silliman, and Dana. Louis
Agassiz before long began his wonderful lectures, which did much to make
science popular. In short, Jackson's administration marks the time when
American life began to take on its modern form.
[Illustration: NOAH WEBSTER.]
CHAPTER 29
THE REIGN OF ANDREW JACKSON, 1829-1837
[Sidenote: Jackson's early career.]
[Sidenote: His "kitchen cabinet".]
301. General Jackson.--Born in the backwoods of Carolina, Jackson
had early crossed the Alleghanies and settled in Tennessee. Whenever
trouble came to the Western people, whenever there was need of a stout
heart and an iron will, Jackson was at the front. He always did his
duty. He always did his duty well. Honest and sincere, he believed in
himself and he believed in the American people. As President he led the
people in one of the stormiest periods in our history. Able men gathered
about him. But he relied chiefly on the advice of a few friends who
smoked their pipes with him and formed his "kitchen cabinet." He seldom
called a regular cabinet meeting. When he did call one, it was often
merely to tell the members what he had decided to do.
[Sidenote: Party machines.]
[Sidenote: The Spoils System.]
302. The Spoils System.--Among the able men who had fought the
election for Jackson were Van Buren and Marcy of New York and Buchanan
of Pennsylvania. They had built up strong party machines in their
states. For they "saw nothing wrong in the principle that to the victors
belong the spoils of victory." So they rewarded their party workers with
offices--when they won. The Spoils System was now begun in the national
government. Those who had worked for Jackson rushed to Washington. The
hotels and boarding-houses could not hold them. Some of them camped out
in the parks and public squares of the capital. Removals now went
merrily on. Rotation in office was the cry. Before long Jackson removed
nearly one thousand officeholders and appointed political partisans in
their places.
[Sidenote: The North and the South. _McMaster_, 301-304.]
303. The North and the South.--The South was now a great
cotton-producing region. This cotton was grown by negro slaves. The
North was now a great manufacturing and commercial region. It was also a
great agricultural region. But the labor in the mills, fields, and ships
of the North was all free white labor. So the United States was really
split into two sections: one devoted to slavery and to a few great
staples, as cotton; the other devoted to free white labor and to
industries of many kinds.
[Sidenote: The South and the tariff, 1829.]
[Sidenote: Calhoun's "Exposition."]
304. The Political Situation, 1829.--The South was growing richer
all the time; but the North was growing richer a great deal faster than
was the South. Calhoun and other Southern men thought that this
difference in the rate of progress was due to the protective system. In
1828 Congress had passed a tariff that was so bad that it was called the
Tariff of Abominations (p. 231). The Southerners could not prevent its
passage. But Calhoun wrote an "Exposition" of the constitutional
doctrines in the case. This paper was adopted by the legislature of
South Carolina as giving its ideas. In this paper Calhoun declared that
the Constitution of the United States was a compact. Each state was a
sovereign state and could annul any law passed by Congress. The
protective system was unjust and unequal in operation. It would bring
"poverty and utter desolation to the South." The tariff act should be
annulled by South Carolina and by other Southern states.
[Illustration: DANIEL WEBSTER, 1833.]
[Sidenote: Hayne's speech, 1830.]
[Sidenote: Webster's reply to Hayne.]
305. Webster and Hayne, 1830.--Calhoun was Vice-President and
presided over the debates of the Senate. So it fell to Senator Hayne of
South Carolina to state Calhoun's ideas. This he did in a very able
speech. To him Daniel Webster of Massachusetts replied in the most
brilliant speeches ever delivered in Congress. The Constitution, Webster
declared, was "the people's constitution, the people's government; made
by the people and answerable to the people. The people have declared
that this constitution ... shall be the supreme law." The Supreme Court
of the United States alone could declare a national law to be
unconstitutional; no state could do that. He ended this great speech
with the memorable words, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable."
[Sidenote: Tariff of 1832.]
[Sidenote: "Nullified" by South Carolina, 1833.]
[Sidenote: Jackson's warning.]
[Sidenote: He prepares to enforce the law.]
[Sidenote: The Force Bill, 1833.]
306. Nullification, 1832-33.--In 1832 Congress passed a new tariff
act. The South Carolinians decided to try Calhoun's weapon of
nullification. They held a convention, declared the act null and void,
and forbade South Carolinians to obey the law. They probably thought
that Jackson would not oppose them. But they should have had no doubts
on that subject. For Jackson already had proposed his famous toast on
Jefferson's birthday, "Our federal Union, it must be preserved." He now
told the Carolinians that he would enforce the laws, and he set about
doing it with all his old-time energy. He sent ships and soldiers to
Charleston and ordered the collector of that port to collect the duties.
He then asked Congress to give him greater power. And Congress passed
the Force Bill, giving him the power he asked for. The South
Carolinians, on their part, suspended the nullification ordinance and
thus avoided an armed conflict with "Old Hickory," as his admirers
called Jackson.
[Sidenote: Tariff of 1833.]
307. The Compromise Tariff, 1833.--The nullifiers really gained a
part of the battle, for the tariff law of 1832 was repealed. In its
place Congress passed what was called the Compromise Tariff. This
compromise was the work of Henry Clay, the peacemaker. Under it the
duties were to be gradually lowered until, in 1842, they would be as low
as they were by the Tariff Act of 1816 (p. 231).
[Sidenote: Second United States Bank, 1816.]
[Sidenote: Jackson's dislike of the bank.]
308. The Second United States Bank.--Nowadays any one with enough
money can open a national bank under the protection of the government at
Washington. At this time, however, there was one great United States
Bank. Its headquarters were at Philadelphia and it had branches all over
the country. Jackson, like Jefferson (p. 163), had very grave doubts as
to the power of the national government to establish such a bank. Its
size and its prosperity alarmed him. Moreover, the stockholders and
managers, for the most part, were his political opponents. The United
States Bank also interfered seriously with the operations of the state
banks--some of which were managed by Jackson's friends. The latter urged
him on to destroy the United States Bank, and he determined to
destroy it.
[Sidenote: Jackson, Clay, and the bank charter.]
[Sidenote: Constitution, Art. I, sec. 7, par. 3.]
[Sidenote: Reelection of Jackson, 1832.]
309. Struggle over the Bank Charter.--The charter of the bank would
not come to an end until 1836, while the term for which Jackson had been
elected in 1828 would come to an end in 1833. But in his first message
to Congress Jackson gave notice that he would not give his consent to a
new charter. Clay and his friends at once took up the challenge. They
passed a bill rechartering the bank. Jackson vetoed the bill. The Clay
men could not get enough votes to pass it over his veto. The bank
question, therefore, became one of the issues of the election of 1832.
Jackson was reflected by a large majority over Clay.
The people were clearly on his side, and he at once set to work to
destroy the bank.
[Sidenote: The bank and the government.]
[Sidenote: Removal of the deposits, 1833. _McMaster_, 305-308.]
310. Removal of the Deposits.--In those days there was no United
States Treasury building at Washington, with great vaults for the
storing of gold, silver, and paper money. There were no sub-treasuries
in the important commercial cities. The United States Bank and its
branches received the government's money on deposit and paid it out on
checks signed by the proper government official. In 1833 the United
States Bank had in its vaults about nine million dollars belonging to
the government. Jackson directed that this money should be drawn out as
required, to pay the government's expenses, and that no more government
money should be deposited in the bank. In the future it should be
deposited in certain state banks. The banks selected were controlled by
Jackson's political friends and were called the "pet banks."
[Illustration: ANDREW JACKSON, 1815. "Our Federal union, it must be
preserved."--Jackson's toast at the Jefferson dinner.]
[Sidenote: Speculation in Western lands. _McMaster_, 309.]
[Sidenote: The specie circular, 1836.]
311. Jackson's Specie Circular, 1836.--The first result of the
removal of the deposits was very different from what Jackson had
expected. At this time there was active speculation in Western lands.
Men who had a little spare money bought Western lands. Those who had no
money in hand, borrowed money from the banks and with it bought Western
lands. Now it happened that many of the "pet banks" were in the West.
The government's money, deposited with them, tempted their managers to
lend money more freely. This, in turn, increased the ease with which
people could speculate. Jackson saw that unless something were done to
restrain this speculation, disaster would surely come. So he issued a
circular to the United States land officers. This circular was called
the Specie Circular, because in it the President forbade the land
officers to receive anything except gold and silver and certain
certificates in payment for the public lands.
[Illustration: A SETTLER'S CABIN.]
[Sidenote: Payment of the national debt. _McMaster_, 309-310.]
312. Payment of the Debt, 1837.--The national debt had now all been
paid. The government was collecting more money than it could use for
national purposes. And it was compelled to keep on collecting more money
than it could use, because the Compromise Tariff (p. 248) made it
impossible to reduce duties any faster than a certain amount each year.
No one dared to disturb the Compromise Tariff, because to do so would
bring on a most bitter political fight. The government had more money in
the "pet banks" than was really safe. It could not deposit more
with them.
[Sidenote: Distribution of the surplus.]
[Sidenote: Van Buren elected President, 1836.]
313. Distribution of the Surplus, 1837.--A curious plan was now hit
upon. It was to loan the surplus revenues to the states in proportion to
their electoral votes. Three payments were made to the states. Then the
Panic of 1837 came, and the government had to borrow money to pay its
own necessary expenses. Before this occurred, however, Jackson was no
longer President. In his place was Martin Van Buren, his Secretary of
State, who had been chosen President in November, 1836.
CHAPTER 30
DEMOCRATS AND WHIGS, 1837-1844
[Sidenote: Causes of the Panic.]
[Sidenote: Hard times, 1837-39.]
314. The Panic of 1837.--The Panic was due directly to Jackson's
interference with the banks, to his Specie Circular, and to the
distribution of the surplus. It happened in this way. When the Specie
Circular was issued, people who held paper money at once went to the
banks to get gold and silver in exchange for it to pay for the lands
bought of the government. The government on its part drew out money from
the banks to pay the states their share of the surplus. The banks were
obliged to sell their property and to demand payment of money due them.
People who owed money to the banks were obliged to sell their property
to pay the banks. So every one wanted to sell, and few wanted to buy.
Prices of everything went down with a rush. People felt so poor that
they would not even buy new clothes. The mills and mines were closed,
and the banks suspended payments. Thousands of working men and women
were thrown out of work. They could not even buy food for themselves or
their families. Terrible bread riots took place. After a time people
began to pluck up their courage. But it was a long time before "good
times" came again.
[Sidenote: The national finances.]
[Sidenote: The Sub-Treasury plan.]
[Sidenote: Independent Treasury Act, 1840.]
315. The Independent Treasury System.--What should be done with the
government's money? No one could think of depositing it with the state
banks. Clay and his friends thought the best thing to do would be to
establish a new United States Bank. But Van Buren was opposed to that.
His plan, in short, was to build vaults for storing money in Washington
and in the leading cities. The main storehouse or Treasury was to be in
Washington, subordinate storehouses or sub-treasuries were to be
established in the other cities. To these sub-treasuries the collectors
of customs would pay the money collected by them. In this way the
government would become independent of the general business affairs of
the country. In 1840 Congress passed an act for putting this plan into
effect. But before it was in working order, Van Buren was no longer
President.
[Sidenote: New parties.]
[Sidenote: The Democrats.]
[Sidenote: The Whigs.]
316. Democrats and Whigs.--In the Era of Good Feeling there was but
one party--the Republican party. In the confused times of 1824 the
several sections of the party took the names of their party leaders: the
Adams men, the Jackson men, the Clay men, and so on. Soon the Adams men
and the Clay men began to act together and to call themselves National
Republicans. This they did because they wished to build up the nation's
resources at the expense of the nation. The Jackson men called
themselves Democratic Republicans, because they upheld the rights of the
people. Before long they dropped the word "Republican" and called
themselves simply Democrats. The National Republicans dropped the whole
of their name and took that of the great English liberal party--the
Whigs. This they did because they favored reform.
[Illustration: Log Cabin Song Book.]
[Sidenote: "A campaign of humor." _Higginson_, 269; _McMaster_,
315-316.]
[Sidenote: Harrison and Tyler elected, 1840.]
317. Election of 1840.--General William Henry Harrison was the son
of Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence. General Harrison had moved to the West and had won
distinction at Tippecanoe, and also in the War of 1812 (pp. 202, 209).
The Whigs nominated him in 1836, but he was beaten. They now renominated
him for President, with John Tyler of Virginia as candidate for
Vice-President. Van Buren had made a good President, but his term of
office was associated with panic and hard times. He was a rich man and
gave great parties. Plainly he was not a "man of the people," as was
Harrison. A Democratic orator sneered at Harrison, and said that all he
wanted was a log cabin of his own and a jug of cider. The Whigs eagerly
seized on this description. They built log cabins at the street corners
and dragged through the streets log cabins on great wagons. They held
immense open-air meetings at which people sang songs of "Tippecanoe and
Tyler Too." Harrison and Tyler received nearly all the electoral votes
and were chosen President and Vice-President.
[Sidenote: Death of Harrison, 1841.]
318. Death of Harrison, 1841.--The people's President was
inaugurated on March 4, 1841. For the first time since the establishment
of the Spoils System a new party came into control of the government.
Thousands of office-seekers thronged to Washington. They even slept in
out-of-the-way corners of the White House. Day after day, from morning
till night, they pressed their claims on Harrison. One morning early,
before the office-seekers were astir, he went out for a walk. He caught
cold and died suddenly, just one month after his inauguration. John
Tyler at once became President.
[Sidenote: President Tyler.]
[Sidenote: His contest with the Whigs.]
319. Tyler and the Whigs.--President Tyler was not a Whig like
Harrison or Clay, nor was he a Democrat like Jackson. He was a Democrat
who did not like Jackson ideas. As President, he proved to be anything
but a Whig. He was willing to sign a bill to repeal the Independent
Treasury Act, for that was a Democratic measure he had not liked; but he
refused to sign a bill to establish a new Bank of the United States.
Without either a bank or a treasury, it was well-nigh impossible to
carry on the business of the government. But it was carried on in one
way or another. Tyler was willing to sign a new tariff act, and one was
passed in 1842. This was possible, as the Compromise Tariff (p. 248)
came to an end in that year.
[Sidenote: Northeastern boundary dispute.]
[Sidenote: The Ashburton Treaty, 1842.]
320. Treaty with Great Britain, 1842.--Perhaps the most important
event of Tyler's administration was the signing of the Treaty of 1842
with Great Britain. Ever since the Treaty of Peace of 1783, there had
been a dispute over the northeastern boundary of Maine. If the boundary
had been run according to the plain meaning of the Treaty of Peace, the
people of Upper Canada would have found it almost impossible to reach
New Brunswick or Nova Scotia in winter. At that time of the year the St.
Lawrence is frozen over, and the true northern boundary of Maine ran so
near to the St. Lawrence that it was difficult to build a road which
would be wholly in British territory. So the British had tried in every
way to avoid settling the matter. It was now arranged that the United
States should have a little piece of Canada north of Vermont and New
York and should give up the extreme northeastern corner of Maine. It was
also agreed that criminals escaping from one country to the other should
be returned. A still further agreement was made for checking the slave
trade from the coast of western Africa.
[Illustration: JOHN TYLER.]
[Illustration: THE FIRST MORSE INSTRUMENT.]
[Sidenote: The Morse code.]
[Sidenote: First telegraph line, 1844.]
[Sidenote: Usefulness of the telegraph, _McMaster_, 372.]
321. The Electric Telegraph.--Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Henry
made great discoveries in electricity. But Samuel F. B. Morse was the
first to use electricity in a practical way. Morse found out that if a
man at one end of a line of wire pressed down a key, electricity could
be made at the same moment to press down another key at the other end of
the line of wire. Moreover, the key at the farther end of the line could
be so arranged as to make an impression on a piece of paper that was
slowly drawn under it by clockwork. Now if the man at one end of the
line held his key down for only an instant, this impression would look
like a dot. If he held it down longer, it would look like a short dash.
Morse combined these dots and dashes into an alphabet. For instance, one
dash meant the letter "t," and so on. For a time people only laughed at
Morse. But at length Congress gave him enough money to build a line from
Baltimore to Washington. It was opened in 1844, and proved to be a
success from the beginning. Other lines were soon built, and the Morse
system, greatly improved, is still in use. The telegraph made it
possible to operate long lines of railroad, as all the trains could be
managed from one office so that they would not run into one another. It
also made it possible to communicate with people afar off and get an
answer in an hour or so. For both these reasons the telegraph was very
important and with the railroads did much to unite the people of the
different portions of the country.
[Illustration: THE FIRST MCCORMICK REAPER.]
[Sidenote: Problems of what growing.]
[Sidenote: The McCormick reaper, 1831. _McMaster_, 31-372.]
[Sidenote: Results of this invention.]
322. The McCormick Reaper.--Every great staple depends for its
production on some particular tool. For instance, cotton was of slight
importance until the invention of the cotton gin (p. 185) made it
possible cheaply to separate the seed from the fiber. The success of
wheat growing depended upon the ability quickly to harvest the crop.
Wheat must be allowed to stand until it is fully ripened. Then it must
be quickly reaped and stored away out of the reach of the rain and wet.
For a few weeks in each year there was a great demand for labor on the
wheat farms. And there was little labor to be had. Cyrus H. McCormick
solved this problem for the wheat growers by inventing a horse reaper.
The invention was made in 1831, but it was not until 1845 that the
reaper came into general use. By 1855 the use of the horse reaper was
adding every year fifty-five million dollars to the wealth of the
country. Each year its use moved the fringe of civilization fifty miles
farther west. Without harvesting machinery the rapid settlement of the
West would have been impossible. And had not the West been rapidly
settled by free whites, the whole history of the country between 1845
and 1865 would have been very different from what it has been. The
influence of the horse reaper on our political history, therefore, is as
important as the influence of the steam locomotive or of the cotton gin.
[Illustration: MODERN HARVESTER.]
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