as also in the massacre of Fort Mims. One day as Jackson sat in his tent a big Indian chief walked in and said: "I am Wetherford. I have come to ask peace for my people. I am in your power; do as you please with me. I am a soldier. If I had an army, I would still fight; but my warriors hear my voice no longer. Their bones are at Talledega and the Horse Shoe. Do as you will with me. You are a brave man. I ask not for myself, but for my people." Jackson was astonished at this visit. He had intended to put Wetherford to death; but now felt that he could not do so. He gave the chief his liberty on his promise to keep peace in the future and the promise was kept. Jackson's wonderful nerve and physical courage were never shown to greater advantage than in his duel with Charles Dickinson in 1806. Dickinson was one of the richest men, and certainly the best marksman, in Tennessee. He and Jackson had long been enemies, and he frequently tried to provoke Jackson to a duel with intent to kill him. At last he succeeded by reflecting on the character of Jackson's wife, and the challenge came. The two parties rode north into Kentucky, and at daybreak, on May 30, the duel was fought. Jackson was an excellent shot; but he could not compare with Dickinson, and every one expected that he would be killed. At the word "fire," Dickinson fired instantly, and a puff of dust was seen at Jackson's breast; but he stood like a statue, with clenched teeth. Dickinson stepped back and cried, "My God, have I missed him?" General Overton, Jackson's second, drew his pistol and ordered Dickinson to stand still. Jackson deliberately fired and shot Dickinson through the body. As they went to the inn it was noticed that Jackson's boots were full of blood. "General, you are hit," cried Overton. "Oh, I believe he has pinked me a little," said Jackson; "but don't mention it over there," pointing to the house where Dickinson lay dying. It was found that Dickinson's aim had been perfect, but that his bullet had only broken a rib and raked the breastbone. Jackson, asked how he could stand motionless with such a wound, said, “I should have hit him if he had shot me through the brain." See Parton, Vol. I, p. 299. Prohibition of the Slave Trade. As we shall soon have to deal with the great question of slavery, it is well to notice here the national prohibition of the African slave trade. A part of one of the compromises of the Constitution was that Congress must not interfere with the slave trade before 1808. Long before this time, however, the Southern states put an end to the traffic, each within its own bounds. But in 1804 South Carolina reopened it (after it had been closed in that state for fifteen years), and in the remaining four years imported about forty thousand negroes. In 1807, Congress passed a law to take effect January 1, 1808, prohibiting the trade, under severe penalties. In 1820 an additional act made the traffic piracy punishable by death. But in spite of all vigilance of the government, aided by the British government, there continued a smuggling trade up to the Civil War. In all this period there was but one execution for smuggling negroes, and that after the opening of the Civil War. CHAPTER XX DAWN OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS NOTHING is more interesting to the student of American political history than the gradual change wrought in the Democratic party during the first sixteen years of the nineteenth century. The party had been founded on the principles of strict construction of the Constitution; but it did not gain control of the government until the Federalists had committed the country to a policy of broad construction. Had the early theories of Jefferson on construction been strictly carried out, the Union could not have existed a quarter of a century. Jefferson was wise in being able to see the necessity of abandoning his former theories. His party was founded on the theory of strict construction and state rights, and yet no President ever departed farther from this policy than he in the purchase of Louisiana, and in the laying of an unlimited embargo. He believed that the nations could live in harmony without war; his party waged a foreign war eleven years after it came into power. One of the party's theories was that no navy was necessary; it voted in 1813 to build a navy. Another was its opposition to direct taxes and internal revenue; it established both in 1813. At first the party opposed internal improvements at national expense; in 1806 it passed a law to build the Cumberland Road, and internal improvements have flourished from that time to the present. For years the party opposed a national bank; in 1816 it established one. What, then, can we say of a party that abandons the very foundation stones on which it was built? Simply, that it was wise enough to grapple with new problems, to adapt itself to new conditions. What, then, of Thomas Jefferson, who had been forced to discard, one by one, nearly every plank on which he had stood at his first election to the presidency? As noted on a former page, it was not state rights, nor a weak central government, to which Jefferson gave his lifework. These were but means, which he erroneously believed to be necessary means, to a sublimer end. The end was the rule of the democracy, a government by the people. And this he won,- not immediately, not fully during his lifetime; but he started the current, which gathered in force and in later years became irresistible. RECUPERATING Marvelously soon after the close of the war the people returned to their respective vocations and set about repairing their broken. fortunes. But it was the government, rather than the people, that had suffered. The great question now before Congress was that concerning the adjustment of the finances. The money of the country was in a frightful condition. The sources of issue exceeded four hundred in number. Much of the "wild-cat" money, as it was called, was counterfeit; much came from alleged banks that had no existence. Mr. Dallas of Pennsylvania had proved himself an able financier. He now sought to bring about specie payments as soon as possible, and to do this he again urged upon Congress the advantage of chartering a second United States Bank. The charter of the old bank founded by Hamilton had expired in 1811, and, as we have seen, a recharter was defeated in Congress. But now a twenty-year charter for a national bank, with $35,000,000 capital, was readily obtained. The government subscribed $7,000,000 of this and the remainder was taken by individuals and corporations. The bank paid the government a bonus of $1,500,000 for the charter. It had a wonderful effect in restoring confidence, and in a short time the national debt was steadily decreasing, while the people were busy and prosperous and happy. United States Bank chartered, 1816. To the two great industries of the country, agriculture and commerce, a third, manufactures, was now added. The temporary suspension of commerce, through Jefferson's embargo and the war,2 had forced the people to begin manufacturing on a large scale to supply their own wants. Before the embargo all the cotton and woolen cloth, tools, china, glass, and the like were brought from England; but at the close of the war hundreds of manufactories, encouraged by societies formed for the purpose, by prizes and by special acts of state legislatures, had sprung up, and most of these articles were made at home. 1 McMaster, Vol. V, p. 307. 2 During the war the duties on foreign imports had been doubled. JAMES MONROE Tariff of 453 Soon after the coming of peace the country was flooded with all manner of merchandise from England, and the people, seeing their new industries threatened, called upon Congress to protect by tariff laws what the embargo and the war had 1816. protected for them before. The response was the tariff of 1816, fathered by William Lowndes of South Carolina. By this tariff duties were raised to an average of about twenty per cent,1 and this not only greatly increased the revenue, but proved ample for protection; and the business of manufacturing increased and flourished throughout the land. There was little speculation as to who would succeed Madison to the presidency. It seemed to be generally understood that James Monroe would be chosen, the only objection being that he was a Virginian, and Virginia had furnished all the presidents thus far except Adams. Monroe, however, would have been eclipsed, and would probably have been beaten, by the more brilliant De Witt Clinton of New York, but for the fact that Clinton had Monroe bolted the regular party candidate four years before, and elected had permitted himself to be the candidate of the anti- President. war Democrats and the Federalists. He never rose again to national favor, and Monroe now had clear sailing. The Federal party was no longer formidable. The war, which the party had so diligently opposed, had ended happily, and this continued opposition, with the odium of the "Blue Lights" and of the Hartford convention, was a burden too heavy to be borne; and after casting 34 electoral votes for Rufus King against Monroe's 183, the party disappeared from national politics. Daniel D. Tompkins, the vigorous war governor of New York, was chosen Vice President. The time for retiring, after a long and useful public career, now came to James Madison. With his accomplished wife, known as "Dolly" Madison, he retired to his rural home at Montpelier, Virginia, and there he grew old gracefully amid the scenes of his young manhood. He was the last survivor of the illustrious band that had framed the Constitution, dying in 1836, after twenty years in private life. No President in his declining years ever enjoyed a deeper reverence of the whole people than did Madison. Monroe has been called the last and least of the great Virginians. He was less original than his great predecessors, it is true, nor was he brilliant nor dashing in any sense; but none was better fitted for 1 Tausig's "Tariff History," p. 19. Monroe's tour. the presidency at this moment than he, for the people were now dreaming of national greatness, and were not in the mood for heroworship. Monroe had made few enemies. He was so open-hearted, generous, amiable, and industrious that he had won the confidence of all classes. "If his soul were turned inside out," said Jefferson, "not a blot could be found upon it." Soon after the inauguration the new President made a tour of the country, ostensibly "to inspect the national defenses," but in fact to strengthen patriotism, to win over disaffected elements, and to obliterate party lines. And his tour was eminently successful. In New England the remaining. Federalists vied with the Democrats in doing honor to this "last of the revolutionary fathers." In every town he was met by the leading men, and was cheered by thousands of school children, and by young men and women of every walk in life. It was said that the farmer left his plow in the furrow, the housewife left her clothes in the tub and her cream in the churn and hastened to the towns to see this real President of the United States. While the presidential party was in New England a Boston newspaper gave rise to the well-known expression, "Era of good feeling," which is still used to characterize the administration of Monroe. From New England the President passed through northern New York, to Sacketts Harbor, Niagara, and thence to Detroit, returning through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. This tour, covering three and a half months, was followed by another to the South, and their great usefulness in cementing the Union and awakening a livelier sense of patriotism was denied by no one. Monroe had chosen a strong Cabinet. John Quincy Adams became secretary of state, William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury, Crowningshield of Massachusetts, secretary of the navy, while John C. Calhoun took the war department and William Wirt became attorney general. Of these five men, three- Adams, Crawford, and Calhoun were yet to become important figures on the political stage. One of the most notable episodes of this quiet administration was that known as the Seminole War, notable mainly because it brought prominently before the public, for the second time, a remarkable character, a future President- Andrew Jackson. The Seminole ' Indians, a wandering portion of the Creeks, together with some Spaniards and negroes escaped from their masters, kept stirring up |