JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION.

N the 4th of March, 1829, General Andrew Jackson was installed in his office, John C. Calhoun taking

the seat of Vice-President. The cabinet was composed of Martin Van Buren, as Secretary of State; Mr. Ingham, as Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. Eaton, as Secretary of War; Mr. Branch, as Secre

tary of the Navy; Mr. Berrien, as Attorney General. The inaugural speech of General Jackson was expressed with much moderation, and gave no countenance to the accusations regarding his despotic temper and exaggerated opinions, which had been busily propagated during the excitement of the election. After detailing the different duties which devolved on him, as the head of the executive, he explained the principles by which he was resolved to be guided in discharging them.

The principal topic of discussion upon the assembling of Congress was the Tariff Act, which had been from the moment of its passing, a subject of violent contention and popular irritation between the Northern and Southern States. The

374

THE TARIFF ACT.

former had not ceased to condemn it as a sacrifice of the manufacturing to the landed interests of the Union, and had expected some modification of its provisions from the new President; but General Jackson, in his message, carried the doctrines of protecting home productions till they can compete with foreign importation to their utmost length. A motion, however, to reconsider the tariff bill, was allowed to go to a committee; but the committee in their report maintained the absolute inexpediency of intermeddling in any degree with the regulations of the tariff.

Another attempt was made by a bill reported from the committce of ways and means for reducing and modifying some of the articles in the tariff; but the House of Representatives refused to allow it to be taken into consideration. Far from being discouraged, the opponents of the tariff renewed the attack, by bringing in a bill which proposed to admit the manufactures or produce of other nations into the Union, on paying the duty of thirty per cent. The bill did not pass, but these discussions and the temper of the government secured an advantage of a similar kind. An act was passed, opening the American ports for the admission of British vessels from the colonies with the same cargoes which might be brought. and at the same duties that were payable by American vessels, suspending the alien duties on British vessels and cargoes. In consequence of this act, the United States were allowed the benefit of the act of parliament of 1825, which upon cer tain terms allowed foreign nations a participation in her colonial trade. The general effect of this arrangement, however, was highly prejudicial to the commerce of the United States. In 1831, the discussion of the tariff was again resumed upon a clause of the President's message, wherein he declared himself favourable to a re-examination of its principles, or even a modification of some of its provisions. That part of the message was referred by the House of Repre sentatives to a committee. The majority reported a paper hostile to any alteration or modification of the existing tariff; whilst the minority presented a counter-report, diametrically

NULLIFICATION CONVENTION.

375

opposed to the former. A convention of deputies from fifteen states, who had been appointed to procure, if possible, an alteration, likewise put forth a long report, denouncing the tariff as being at once injurious, unjust, and unconstitutional.

In 1832 an act was passed which lowered the duties upon some articles; but it was far from meeting the wishes of Georgia and the Carolinas. They regarded it as a miserably scanty relief, and as it was the only amount of concession to be obtained from the Northern States, they had nearly resolved to throw off the sovereignty of the confederation. After the adjournment of Congress in July, these sentiments were sounded through the Southern States. South Carolina took the lead. A convention assembled at Columbia from all parts of the state, declared the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 null and void, and not binding on the citizens of the state; that if the United States should attempt to enforce them by naval or military force, the union was to be dissolved, and a convention called to form a government for South Carolina. A convention, denominated from their acts, "Nullifiers," went to still further lengths. The Georgians were more moderate in their acts; and though they were willing to elect delegates to a southern convention in common with, the other Southern States, yet they abhorred the doctrine of nullification, and they deplored the proceedings of the convention of South Carolina as being "rash and revolutionary." In November, the Legislature of South Carolina passed acts decidedly hostile, authorizing the governor to provide means of repelling force by

force.

While civil war and a dissolution of the Union seemed thus to be approaching, General Jackson, his four years having expired, had been re-elected President. On the assembling of Congress, the attitude of South Carolina and the financial legislation which had produced it necessarily formed the principal topics. His message was followed, on the 10th of Decemnber, by a proclamation, in which he both argued the question with the Nullifiers, and announced that he would not hesitate to bring them back to their duty by force.

376

JACKSON VETOES THE BANK BILL.

General Jackson also announced in his message that the public debt of the United States would be liquidated in the course of the year 1833, fifty-eight millions of dollars having been paid during the four years of his presidency. He seemed, however, to have formed an unfavourable opinion of the administration of the United States Bank. There were still about three years and a half of its charter to elapse; but nevertheless a bill was introduced to renew it. This bill passed both houses of Congress; but the President refused to sign it. In his message, after his re-election, he even attacked the solvency of the institution, and intimated that it was no longer a safe depository for the public funds.

Towards the close of December, 1832, a bill was introduced into Congress, by which it was proposed to reduce the duties. This did not meet the views of either party; and with difficulty the Nullifiers were induced to postpone the action of their resolution till the 3d of March, 1833. Meanwhile, two months were spent in vain debates, and difficulties were finally overcome by the introduction of a bill by Henry Clay, of Kentucky, which from the service it was intended to perforin was denominated the Compromise Bill. By it, all duties were to be gradually reduced till 1842, when they were to reach the minimum of twenty per cent. ad valorem, the reduction to be made at regular periods until that year. This new bill, with one for more effectually enforcing the collection of the duties, were carried through both houses of Congress, and received the sanction of the President.

The session of Congress closed on the 2d of March, and on the 4th, an inaugural address was delivered by General Jackson, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, on commencing the second period of his presidency. It was chiefly occupied in recommending union to the states, and in pointing out the dangers they would incur by separation from or disa greement with each other. The refusal of the President to sign the bill for rechartering the United States Bank, has already been noticed. In the present year, he went still further, and gave orders to withdraw the government deposits

REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS.

377

from that institution and its branches, and to place them in the local banks. He defended this measure in a long letter addressed to the Cabinet, on the 18th of September. His accusations were denied, and it was contended that his measure was unconstitutional. But, on whichever side the right and law might be, the conduct of the President led to disastrous results in the mercantile world. The deposits being withdrawn, the bank necessarily diminished its issues, and lessened its discounts; all operations of buying and selling were thus discouraged and impeded; a stagnation of trade ensued; property was depreciated; and bankruptcies and failures were multiplied on all sides.

During the year 1834, the United States continued to be agitated by the consequences of the acts of the President. The House of Representatives was inundated with petitions for the restoration of the public money to the vaults of the bank; but the majority of the members were favourable to the measures of the President; whilst the Senate was arrayed in open hostility to his measures, and refused to confirm his appointment of directors for the bank on behalf of the government shares.

In New York and other cities, the public opposition to the President's measures was violent in the extreme; whilst the interior of the country, having little or no sympathy with the great trading and moneyed interests of the commercial cities, were generally favourable to the policy of the President. The election of members to the House of Representatives of this year resulted in adding sixteen or twenty to the former majority in favour of the President. One of the results of this measure was the partial substitution of a metallic for a paper circulation throughout the Union. It has been computed that from the beginning of January, 1833, to July, 1834, an excess of over twenty-two millions of specie was imported into the country.

In his message of December, 1834, the President called attention to the rejection, by the French Chamber of Deputies, of the bill for the indemnification of the United States for

VOL. II. 48