A School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster

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%349. Antislavery Documents shut out of the Mails.%--Thus organized,
the society went to work at once and flooded the South with newspapers,
pamphlets, pictures, and handbills, all intended to arouse a sentiment
for instant abolition or emancipation of slaves. The South declared that
these were inflammatory, insurrectionary, and likely to incite the
slaves to revolt, and called on the North to suppress abolition
societies and stop the spread of abolition papers. To do such a thing by
legal means was impossible; so an attempt was made to do it by illegal
means. In the Northern cities such as Philadelphia, Utica, Boston,
Haverhill, mobs broke up meetings of abolitionists, and dragged the
leaders about the streets. In the South, the postmasters, as at
Charleston, seized antislavery tracts and pamphlets going through the
mails, and the people burned them. In New York city such matter was
taken from the mails and destroyed by the postmaster. When these
outrages were reported to Amos Kendall, the Postmaster-General, he
approved of them; and when Congress met, Jackson asked for a law that
would prohibit the circulation "in the Southern States, through the
mails, of incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to
insurrection." From the legislatures of five Southern states came
resolutions calling on the people of the North to suppress the
abolitionists.[1] Congress and the legislatures of New York and Rhode
Island responded; but the bills introduced did not pass.[2]

[Footnote 1: South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, and
Georgia.]

[Footnote 2: _James G. Birney and his Times_, pp. 184-194.]

This attempt having failed, the mobs again took up the work, and began
to smash and destroy the presses of antislavery newspapers. One paper,
twice treated in this manner in 1836, was the _Philanthropist_ published
at Cincinnati by James Gillespie Birney. Another was the _Observer_,
published at Alton by Elijah Lovejoy, who was murdered in defending his
property.[1] The _Pennsylvania Freeman_ was a third.

[Footnote 1: Wilson's _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, Vol.
II., Chap. 27; _James G. Birney and his Times_, pp. 204-219, 241-255.]

%350. The Gag Rule%.--Not content with attacking the liberty of the
press, the proslavery men attacked the right of petition. The
Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ...
the right of the people ... to petition the government for a redress of
grievances." Under this right the antislavery people had long been
petitioning Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and
the petitions had been received; but of course not granted. Now, in
1836, when John Quincy Adams presented one to the House of
Representatives, a member moved that it be not received. A fierce debate
followed, and out of it grew a rule which forbade any petition,
resolution, or paper relating in any way to slavery, or the abolition of
slavery, to be received. This famous "Gag Rule" was adopted by Congress
after Congress until 1844.[1]

[Footnote 1: Morse's _Life of John Quincy Adams, _pp. 249-253, 306-308.]

%351. The Liberty Party formed%.--The effect of these extreme
measures was greatly to increase the antislavery sentiment. But the men
who held these sentiments were largely members of the Whig and
Democratic parties. In the hope of drawing them from their parties, and
inducing them to act together, the antislavery conventions about 1838
began to urge the formation of an antislavery party, which was finally
accomplished at Albany, N.Y., in April, 1840, where James G. Birney was
nominated for President, and Thomas Earle for Vice President. No name
was given to the new organization till 1844, when it was christened
"Liberty party."

%352. The Log Cabin, Hard Cider Campaign%.--The candidate of the
Democrats (Martin Van Buren) was a shrewd and skillful politician. The
candidate of the Whigs (Harrison) was the ideal of a popular favorite.
To defeat him at such a time, when the people were angry with the
Democrats, would have been hard, but they made it harder still by
ridiculing his honorable poverty and his Western surroundings. At the
very outset of the campaign a Democratic newspaper declared that
Harrison would be more at home "in a log cabin, drinking hard cider and
skinning coons, than living in the White House as President." The Whigs
instantly took up the sneer and made the log cabin the emblem of their
party. All over the country log cabins (erected at some crossroads, or
on the village common, or on some vacant city lot) became the Whig
headquarters. On the door was a coon skin; a leather latch string was
always hanging out as a sign of hospitality, and beside the door stood a
barrel of hard cider. Every Whig wore a Harrison and Tyler badge, and
knew by heart all the songs in the _Log Cabin Songster_. Immense mass
meetings were held, at which 50,000, and even 80,000, people attended.
Weeks were spent in getting ready for them. In the West, where
railroads were few, the people came in covered wagons with provisions,
and camped on the ground days before the meeting. At the monster meeting
at Dayton, O., 100,000 people were present, covering ten acres of
ground.[1]

[Footnote 1: Shepard's _Van Buren_, pp. 323-335.]

[Illustration: William H. Harrison]

%353. William Henry Harrison, Ninth President; John Tyler, Tenth
President%.--Harrison was triumphantly elected, and inaugurated March
4, 1841. But his career was short, for on April 4 he died,[2] and John
Tyler took his place. Tyler had never been a Whig. He had always been a
Democrat. Nevertheless, the Whigs, confident of his aid, tried to carry
out certain reform measures.

[Footnote 2: His death was a great shock to the people. Two vice
presidents, George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry, had died in office. But
nobody seems to have thought it likely that a president would die.]

[Illustration: John Tyler]

%354. The Quarrel between Tyler and the Whigs%.--The first thing they
did was to repeal the law establishing the Independent Treasury. This
Tyler approved. They next attempted to reestablish the Bank of the
United States under the name of the "Fiscal Bank of the United States."
Tyler, who was opposed to banks, vetoed the bill, and when the Whigs
sent him another to create a "Fiscal Corporation," he vetoed that also.
Then every member of the cabinet save Webster resigned, and at a meeting
of the great Whig leaders Tyler was formally "read out of the party."

%355. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty%.--Webster was Secretary of State,
and though a Whig, retained his place in order that he might complete a
treaty which determined our boundary line from the source of the St.
Croix to the St. Lawrence, thus settling a long dispute between Maine
and the British provinces of New Brunswick and Canada. The difficulty
arose over the meaning of terms in the treaty of 1783, and though twice
submitted to a joint commission, and once to arbitration, seemed further
than ever from a peaceful settlement when Webster and Lord Ashburton
arranged it in 1842. The treaty ratified, Webster soon resigned.

[Illustration:]

The people meanwhile had recovered from the excitement of the campaign
of 1840, and at the congressional election of 1842 they made the House
of Representatives Democratic. There were thus a Whig Senate, a
Democratic House, and a President who was neither a Whig nor a Democrat.
As a consequence few measures of any importance were passed till 1845.

SUMMARY

1. During 1789-1825 a marked change had taken place in the ideas of
government, and this led to new state constitutions; to an extension of
the right to vote; to the belief that no President should have more than
two terms; to the belief that political offices should be given to
political workers; and to the introduction of the "gerrymander."

2. The disappearance of issues which divided the Federalists and
Republicans; the loss of old leaders; the appearance of a new generation
with new political issues, destroyed old party lines.

3. First to disappear were the Federalists. In 1820 there was but one
presidential candidate (Monroe), and but one political party (the
Republican).

4. During Monroe's second term the new issues began to break up the
Republican party, and in the election of 1824 the people of the four
great sections of the country presented candidates. For the second time
a President (John Quincy Adams) was elected by the House of
Representatives.

5. In 1828 the Republicans again supported Jackson, and his opponents
under Adams were defeated. In 1827 the antimasonic party arose.

6. The issues now before the people were the tariff, the recharter of
the National Bank, and the use of the surplus revenue, and these became
the leading questions of Jackson's eight years (1829-1837).

7. The general use of the steamboat, and the good roads, so reduced the
cost of transportation that it was possible to introduce a new piece of
political machinery--the national convention--to nominate candidates for
President and Vice President.

8. In Jackson's second term the antislavery movement began in earnest;
the Whig party was organized and named; the national debt was paid off,
and the surplus distributed.

9. Jackson was followed by Van Buren, in whose administration the great
panic of 1837 occurred. Because of this and hard times a second national
debt was started. A new financial measure was the establishment of the
Independent Treasury.

10. This the Whigs under Tyler destroyed. They attempted to replace it
with a third National Bank, but were prevented from doing so by
Tyler's vetoes.

* * * * *

THE INDUSTRIAL, MECHANICAL, AGRICULTURAL, AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1800 AND 1840 LEADS TO

_New political ideas_

Gerrymandering.
Extension of the franchise.
No third term for a President.
No nomination by congressional caucus.

_New political issues_.

Use of public lands.
Tariff.
Internal improvements.

* * * * *

These issues and ideas break up the Republican
party into factions led in 1824 by

Crawford and Gallatin, Caucus candidates.

Anti-caucus candidates.

Clay,
Calhoun,
Adams,
Jackson

Elected

Adams by House of Representatives.
Calhoun by electoral college.

Renominated in 1828.

Adams defeated.
Jackson and Calhoun elected.

________________________________|____________________
| | 18|32
| | ______________|_________________________________
Tariff. | | | |
Of 1824, opposed | Clay defeated. Jackson reelected. 1827, Rise of Antimasons.
by the South. Finance Van Buren Vice President 1831, Originate national
Of 1828, \ ________________ | nominating convention.
Of 1832, / Nullified | | ________________|___________________________________
by South Attack on the | | | | |
Carolina Bank of the Removal of the Surplus. Specie | Speculation
in 1832. United States. deposits. Cause of Circular |
|___________| Renewal of Censure of the amount. | +--------+
| charter vetoed. President. "Deposit" or | Payments of the
Compromise Censure distribution | national dept,
of 1833. | expunged. among the | 1835.
|_____________________| states. |
| |____________| |
Great increase of | |
state banks. | |
|______________________________|__________|_________|

Van Buren elected in 1836.
Inaugurated, March, 1837.
Panic of 1837.
_______________________________|__________________
| |
Causes of the panic. Great opposition to the Democratic party.
Suspension of the banks. Union of this opposition in 1840 with the Whigs.
New national debt. ___________________|______________________________
Suspension of distribution of | | |
the revenue. Democrats. Whigs. Antislavery
Establishment of Independent Issue their first Issue no platform. party.
Treasury. party platform. Nominate Harrison. Origin of.
Nominate Van Buren. Elect him. Nominates J.
Are defeated. G. Birney.

CHAPTER XXIV

EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA

%356. Texas secures Independence.%--The fact that Tyler now belonged
to no party enabled him to commit an act which, had he belonged to
either, he would not have ventured to commit at that time,--to make a
treaty of annexation with Texas.

[Illustration: %TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS% WHEN ADMITTED INTO THE
UNION %1845%]

In 1821 Mexico, which for years past had been fighting for independence,
was set free by Spain, and soon established herself as a republic under
the name of the United States of Mexico. The old Spanish provinces were
the states, and one of these provinces was Texas. As a country Texas had
been very attractive to Americans, and the eastern part would have been
settled early in the century if it had been definitely known who owned
it. Now that Mexico owned it, a citizen of the United States, Moses
Austin, asked for a large grant of land and for leave to bring in
settlers. A grant was made on condition that he should bring in 300
families within a given time. Moses Austin died; but his son Stephen
went on with the scheme and succeeded so well that others followed his
example till seventeen such grants had been perfected.

For some years the settlers managed their own affairs in their own way.
But about 1830 Mexico began to rule them harshly, and when they were
unable to stand it any longer they rebelled against her in 1833, and in
1836 set up the republic of Texas. At first the Texans were defeated,
and on two memorable occasions bands of them were massacred by the
Mexican soldiers after they had surrendered. Money and troops and aid of
every sort, however, were sent from the United States, and at length
Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, who commanded the Mexicans, was
defeated and captured and his army destroyed by the Texans under Samuel
Houston at the battle of San Jacinto (1836). The victory was hailed with
delight all over our country, and the independence of Texas was
acknowledged by the United States (1837), England, France, and Belgium.

%357. Texas applies for Admission to the Union.%--As soon as
independence was acknowledged, the people of Texas became very anxious
to have their republic become a state in our Union; but slavery existed
in Texas, and the men of the free states opposed her admission.

At last in 1844 Tyler secretly negotiated a treaty of annexation with
the Texan authorities, and surprised the Senate by submitting it
in April.[1]

[Footnote 1: The Senate rejected the treaty]

The politicians were very indignant, for the national nominating
conventions were to meet in May, and the President by his act had made
the annexation of Texas a political issue. The Democrats, however, took
it up and in their platform declared for "the reannexation of Texas,"
and nominated James K. Polk of Tennessee for President and George
Mifflin Dallas of Pennsylvania for Vice President.

%358. The Joint Occupation of Oregon is continued.%--But there was
another plank in the Democratic platform of 1844 which promised the
acquisition of a great piece of free soil. We left the question of the
ownership of Oregon at the time when the United States and Great Britain
(in 1818) agreed to hold the country in joint occupation for ten years;
and when Russia, the United States, and Great Britain had (in 1824 and
1825) made 54 deg. 40' the boundary line between the Oregon country and
Alaska. Before the ten-year period of joint occupation expired, Great
Britain and the United States, in 1827, agreed to continue it
indefinitely. Either party could end the agreement after a year's notice
to the other.

%359. Attempts to end Joint Occupation.%--Before this time the men
who came to the Oregon country were explorers, trappers, hunters,
servants of the great fur companies, who built forts and trading
stations, but did little for the settlement of the region. After this
time missionaries were sent to the Indians, and serious efforts were
made to persuade men to emigrate to Oregon. Some parties did go, and as
a result of their work, and of the labors of the missionaries, Oregon,
in the course of ten years, became better known to the people of the
United States.

Efforts were then begun to persuade Congress to extend the jurisdiction
of the United States over Oregon, order the occupation of the country,
and end the old agreement with Great Britain. Petitions were sent
(1838-1840), reports were made, bills were introduced; but Congress
stood firmly by the agreement, and would not take any steps toward the
occupation of Oregon. In 1842, Elijah White, a former missionary, came
to Washington and so impressed the authorities with the importance of
settling Oregon that he was appointed Indian Agent for that country, and
told to take back with him as many settlers as he could. Returning to
Missouri, he soon gathered a band of 112 persons and with these, the
largest number of settlers that had yet started for Oregon, he set off
across the plains in the spring of 1842. At the next session of Congress
(1842-1843) another effort was made to provide for the occupation of
Oregon at least as far north as 49 deg., and a bill for that purpose passed
the Senate.

Meanwhile a rage for emigration to Oregon broke out in the West, and in
the early summer of 1843, nearly a thousand persons, with a long train
of wagons, moved out of Westport, Missouri, and started northwestward
over the plains. Like the emigrants of 1842, they succeeded in reaching
Oregon, though they encountered many hardships.

%360. "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight."%--So much attention was thus
attracted to Oregon, in 1843, that the people by 1844 began to demand a
settlement of the boundary and an end of joint occupation. The Democrats
therefore gladly took up the Oregon matter. Their plan to reannex Texas,
which was slave soil, could, they thought, be offset by a declaration in
favor of acquiring all Oregon, which was free soil. The Democratic
platform for 1844, therefore, declared that "our title to the whole of
Oregon is clear; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to
England or any other power; and that the reoccupation of Oregon and the
reannexation of Texas" were great American measures, which the people
were urged to support. The people thought they were great American
measures, and with the popular cries of "The reannexation of Texas,"
"Texas or disunion," "The whole of Oregon or none," "Fifty-four forty or
fight," the Democrats entered the campaign and won it, electing James K.
Polk and George M. Dallas.

The Whigs were afraid to declare for or against the annexation, so they
said nothing about it in their platform, and nominated Henry Clay of
Kentucky and Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. The real question of
the campaign was of course the annexation of Texas, and though the
platform was silent on that subject their leader spoke out. In a public
letter which appeared in a newspaper and was copied all over the Union,
Clay said that he believed slavery was doomed to end at no far away day;
that the admission of Texas could neither hasten nor put off the arrival
of that day, and that he "should be glad to see" Texas annexed if it
could be done "without dishonor, without war, and with the common
consent of the Union and upon just and fair terms."

[Illustration: James K. Polk]

Language of this sort did not please the antislavery Whigs; and in New
York numbers of them voted for James G. Birney and Thomas Morris,
candidates of the Liberty party. The result was that the vote for Birney
in New York in 1844 was more than twice as great as he received in the
whole Union in 1840. Had half of these New Yorkers voted for Clay
instead, he would have received the electoral vote of New York and would
have been President.

[Illustration: %THE OREGON COUNTRY%]

%361. Texas annexed to the United States.%--Tyler, who saw in the
result of the election a command from the people to acquire Texas, urged
Congress in December, 1844, to annex it at once. But in what manner
should it be acquired? Some said by a treaty. This would require the
consent of two thirds of the Senate. But the Democrats did not have the
votes of two thirds of the Senate and so could not have secured the
ratification of such a treaty. It was decided, therefore, to annex by
joint resolution, which required but a majority for its passage. The
House of Representatives accordingly passed such a resolution for the
admission of Texas, and with her consent for the formation of four
additional states out of the territory, those north of 36 deg. 30' to be
free. The Senate amended this resolution and gave the President power to
negotiate another treaty of annexation, or submit the joint resolution
to Texas. The House accepted the amendment. Tyler chose to offer the
terms in the joint resolution. Texas accepted them, and in December,
1845, her senators and representatives took their seats in Congress.

%362. Oregon.%--By the admission of Texas, the Democrats made good
one of the pledges in their platform of 1844. They were now called on to
make good the other, which promised the whole of Oregon up to 54 deg. 40'.
To suppose that England would yield to this claim, and so cut herself
off entirely from the Pacific coast, was absurd. Nevertheless, because
of the force of popular opinion, the one year's notice necessary to
terminate joint occupation was served on Great Britain in 1846. The
English minister thereupon presented a treaty extending the 49th
parallel across Oregon from the Rocky Mountains to the coast, and
drawing a line down the strait of Juan de Fuca to the Pacific. Polk and
the Senate accepted this boundary, and the treaty was proclaimed on
August 5, 1846. Two years later, August 14, 1848, Oregon was made a
territory.

%363. General Taylor enters Texas; War with Mexico begins.%--When
Texas came into the Union, she claimed as her western boundary the Rio
Grande from its mouth to its source and then a line due north to 42 deg..
Now this line was disputed by Mexico, which claimed that the Nueces
River was the western boundary of Texas. The disputed strip of territory
was thus between the Nueces and the Rio Grande (p. 321).

President Polk, however, took the side of Texas, claimed the country as
far as the Rio Grande, and in January, 1846, ordered General Zachary
Taylor to march our army across the Nueces, go to the Rio Grande, and
occupy the disputed strip. This he did, and on April 25, 1846, the
Mexicans crossed the river and attacked the Americans. Taylor instantly
sent the news to Washington, and, May 12, Polk asked for a declaration
of war. "Mexico," said he, "has passed the boundary of the United
States; has invaded our territory and shed American blood on American
soil." Congress declared that war existed, and Polk called for 50,000
volunteers (May 13, 1846).

When the Mexicans crossed the Rio Grande and attacked the Americans at
Fort Brown, Taylor was at Point Isabel. Hurrying southward to the relief
of the fort, he met the enemy at Palo Alto, beat them, pushed on to
Resaca de la Palma, beat them again, and soon crossed the river and took
possession of the town of Matamoras. There he remained till August,
1846, waiting for supplies, reinforcements, and means of transportation,
when he began a march toward the city of Monterey. The Mexicans,
profiting by Taylor's long stay at Matamoras, had gathered in great
force at Monterey, and had strongly fortified every position. But Taylor
attacked with vigor, and after three days of continuous fighting, part
of the time from street to street and house to house, the Mexican
General Ampudia surrendered the city (September 24, 1846). An armistice
of six weeks' duration was then agreed on, after which Taylor moved on
leisurely to Saltillo (sahl-teel'-yo).

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