the great Declaration. Both had lived to see their country's independence. Both had served that country in its highest official station. Both had reached extreme old age: Adams was ninety; Jefferson, eightytwo. Now, while the cannon were booming for the fiftieth birthday of the nation, the gray and honored patriots passed, almost at the same hour, from among the living.

In the following September, William Morgan, a resident of Ther Western New York, having threatened to publish the secrets of Sent the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member, suddenly disappeared from his home, and was never heard of afterward. The Masons fell under the suspicion of having abducted and murdered him. A great clamor was raised against them in New York, and the excitement extended to other parts of the country. The issue between the Masons and their enemies became a political one, and many eminent men were embroiled in the controversy. For several years the anti-Masonic party exercised a considerable influence in the elections of the country. De Witt Clinton, one of the most prominent and valuable statesmen of New York, had to suffer much, in loss of reputation, from his membership in the order. His last days were clouded with the odium which for the time being attached to the Masonic

name.

In the congressional debates of 1828 the question of the tariff !! was much discussed. By a tariff is understood a duty levied on imported goods. The object of the same is twofold: first, to produce a revenue for the government; and secondly, to raise the price of the article on which the duty is laid, in order that the domestic manufacturer of the thing taxed may be able to compete with the foreign producer. When the duty is levied for the latter purpose, it is called a protective tariff. Whether it is sound policy for a nation to have protective duties is a question which has been much debated in all civilized countries. Mr. Adams and his friends decided in favor of a tariff; and in 1828 the duties on fabrics made of wool, cotton, linen and silk, and those on articles manufactured of iron, lead, etc., were much increased. The object of such legislation was to stimulate the manufacturing interests of the country. The question of the tariff has always been a sectional issue. The people of the Eastern and Middle States, where factories abound, have favored protective duties; while in the agricultural regions of the South and West such duties have been opposed.

The administration of John Quincy Adams was the beginning of a new epoch in the history of the United States. The Revolution

ary sages had gradually fallen out of the ranks of leadership; and the influences of the Revolution were not any longer distinctly felt in the decision of national questions. Even the war of 1812, with its bitter party antagonisms, its defeats and victories, and its absurd ending, was fading out of memory. New dispositions and tastes arose among the people; new issues confronted the public; new methods prevailed in the halls of legislation. Old party lines could no longer be traced; old party names were reduced to a jargon. Already the United States had surpassed in growth and development the sanguine expectations of the fathers. But the conflicting opinions and interests of the nation, reflected in the stormy debates of Congress, gave cause for constant anxiety and alarm.

With the fall of 1828 came another presidential election. The contest was specially exciting. Mr. Adams, supported by Mr. Clay, the secretary of state, was put forward for re-election. In accordance with an understanding which had existed for several years, General Jackson appeared as the candidate of the opposition. In the previous election Jackson had received more electoral votes than Adams; but disregarding the popular preference, the House of Representatives had chosen the latter. Now the people were determined to have their way; and Jackson was triumphantly elected, receiving a hundred and seventy-eight electoral votes against eighty-three for his opponent. As soon as the election was over, the excitement— as usual in such cases-abated; and the thoughts of the people were turned to other subjects.

CHAPTER LIV.

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1829–1837.

HE new President was a native of North Carolina, born on the

THE

Waxhaw, March 15th, 1767. His belligerent nature broke out in boyhood, and his mother's plan of devoting him to the ministry was hopelessly defeated. At the age of thirteen he was under arms and witnessed Sumter's defeat at Hanging Rock. He was captured by the British, maltreated, and left to die of smallpox; but his mother secured his release from prison and his life was saved. After the Revolution he began the study of law, and at the age of twenty-one went

to Nashville. In 1796 he was elected to the House of Representatives from the new State of Tennessee. Here his turbulent and willful disposition manifested itself in full force. During the next year he was promoted to the Senate, where he remained a year, without making a speech or casting a

vote. He then re-
signed his seat and
returned home. His
subsequent career is a
part of the history of
the country, more par-
ticularly of the South-
west with which sec-
tion his name was
identified. He came
to the presidential of-
fice as a military hero.
But he was more than
that:
: a man of great
native powers and in-
flexible honesty.
His talents were
strong but unpol-
ished; his integrity
unassailable; his will
like iron. He was
one of those men

ANDREW JACKSON.

REA SE

for whom no toils are too arduous, no responsibility too great. His personal character was strongly impressed upon his administration. Believing that the public affairs would be best conducted by such means, he removed nearly seven hundred office-holders, and appointed in their stead his own political friends. In defence of such a course the precedent established by Mr. Jefferson was pleaded.

In his first annual message the President took strong grounds against rechartering the Bank of the United States. Believing that institution to be both inexpedient and unconstitutional, he recommended that the old charter should be allowed to expire by its own limitation in 1836. But the influence of the bank, with its many branches, was very great; and in 1832 a bill to recharter was brought before Congress and passed. To this measure the President opposed his veto; and since a two-thirds majority in favor of the bill could not

be secured, the proposition to grant a new charter failed, and the bank ceased by the original limitation.

It was in the early part of Jackson's administration that the partisan elements of the country, which for some years had been whirling about in a chaotic condition, was resolved into the two great factions of Whig and Democratic-a form which remained as the esstablished order in politics for a quarter of a century. The old Federal party, under whose auspices the government was organized, had lost control of national affairs on the retirement of John Adams from the presidency. Still the party lingered, opposed the war of 1812, and became odious from its connection with the Hartford Convention. In 1820 only enough of the old. organization remained to be severely handled in the great debates on the Missouri Compromise. Then followed, during Monroe's second term, what is known in American political history as THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. Partisanship seemed ready to expire. On the other side, the line of political descent had begun with the anti-Federalists who after opposing the National constitution and the administrative policy of Washington and Adams, became under the name of Republicans the champions of France as against Great Britain. But this name was soon exchanged for that of Democrats; and under that title the party came into power with the administration of Jefferson. Then followed the administrations of Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams under the same political banner. But in the case of Adams the new forces were already at work. When Jackson became President his arbitrary measures alarmed the country and drove all the elements of the opposition into a compact phalanx under the leadership of Clay and Webster. To this new party organization the name of Whig was given-a name taken from the old Scotch Covenanters and English republicans of the seventeenth century, worn by the patriots of the American Revolution to distinguish them from the Tories, and now adopted as the permanent title of the opponents of Jeffersonian Democracy.

The reopening of the tariff question occasioned great excitement in Congress and throughout the country. In the session of 1831-32 additional duties were levied upon manufactured goods imported from abroad. By this act the manufacturing districts were again favored at the expense of the agricultural States. South Carolina was specially offended. A great convention of her people was held, and it was resolved that the tariff-law of Congress was unconstitutional, and therefore null and void. Open resistance was threatened in case the officers of the government should attempt to collect the revenues in