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the United States; but the latter should consider, that when they give their vote for a candidate imposed upon them by a caucus nomination, they as effectually barter away their rights and violate their oaths, as the Englishman who receives a guinea for his suffrage. The difference is only in name; the effects on the purity and independence of elections, and the aid afforded to unprincipled and unqualified men to obtain office, are the same. Happily for the people, however, the remedy is in their own hands. Let them discard caucus nominations, and at the polls consider them as a disqualification for office; and cabals, corrupt bargains, and a host of evils will disappear.

CHAPTER III.

Pecuniary embarrassments subsequent to the war; their causes-Emigration-Different classes of emigrants-State of parties after the peaceClaims of American citizens on foreign governments-On EnglandFrance-Spain-Naples-and Holand-Their estimated amount-Negotiations for their settlement-The arguments by which they were supported and resisted.

Pecuniary embarrasments. A variety of circumstances, as is usual, rendered the period immediately succeeding the war a time of great pecuniary embarrassment; the consequence of which was a general change of property from the possession of the improvident speculator and extravagant consumer, to the hands of the wary capitalist. Previous to the arrival of the treaty of peace, in Feb. 1815, the latest intelligence from the negotiators at Ghent, indicated the continuance of the contest for an indefinite period. Relying on a protracted war, large dealers exhausted their funds and credit, in attempting to monopolize the principal foreign articles of consumption The unexpected, and to them unwelcome news of peace, bankrupted hundreds of this character. The high prices which land, labor, and most oftheir productions had borne during the war, encouraged the contracting of debts; the debtors relying on a continuance of the same prices, when they should be called upon to discharge them. A sudden and unlooked for depression of nearly a hundred per cent. in the prices of most commodities, embarrassed this class of citizens to a great extent. The readiness too, with which the banks which had sus

pended specie payments, loaned their aper, brought to their counters a constant stream of customers, some to obtain loans for hazardous speculations; others to relieve their present wants. Here they exchanged their own notes with indorsers bearing interest, and payable in specie, for the depreciated paper of the bank, bearing no interest. The period had now arrived, when these banks found it necessary to redeem their credit, by resuming specie payments; for this purpose they were obliged to curtail their discounts, and call upon the improvident borrowers for heavy instalments, when the productions of the country were low, money scarce, and the value of bank paper

rapidly rising. This was a period of general embarrassment among bank debtors.

The failure of adventurous speculators and imprudent borrowers, excited but little sympathy. No real wealth was lost to the community. The operation was a mere transfer of property into more provident hands; but in the depression of the manufacturing interest, a serious public loss was felt.

Depression of manufactures. The United States, possessing a rich vacant territory of almost unlimited extent, accessible to all, are an agricultural, rather than a manufacturing nation. The British manufacturer, aided by laborsaving machinery brought to the highest point of perfection, and always able to procure laborers at the lowest wages that will support an mal life, can supply manufactures at a cheaper rate than the American. Hence, antecedent to the period of the restrictive system, the great mass of manufactures consumed in the United States, was derived from Great Britain. During that period, and the consequent war, foreign goods were attainable only in insufficient quantities, and at high prices. The inconvenience of depending on a foreign supply, being severely felt, led to the investment of much unemployed capital in manufacturing establishments. The facility with which water power, sufficient for these purposes, was obtainable in various sections of the country, strongly invited to this object. During the war this capital was very productive; but at its close the British manufacturers having large quantities of goods on hand, adapted and originally destined to the American market, poured them into the country to an amount far beyond the wants of the people, or their ability to pay, with a double view of vending their goods, and ruining the rival establishments of the United States. Many of these goods, after being warehoused a considerable time, were sold at auction at less than their first cost, and often at little more than to pay the freight and duties. Improvident people, allured by the apparent cheapness of goods, were induced to make unnecessary purchases. The goods destined to the American auctions were handsomely finished, but of the cheapest materials and texture. The operation had in a great degree its designed effect; most of the considerable manufacturing establishments were obliged to stop, and many of the proprietors failed. This state of things commenced in 1815; its effects were more severely felt in the two succeding years, and continued until con

gress, by a judicious arrangement of the tariff, in some measure relieved the manufacturing interest, and the people learning wisdom by experience, retrieved their circumstances by substituting a prudent use of domestic articles, for an extravagant consumption of foreign.

Emigration. Another characteristic of the period immediately succeeding the war, and occasioned in a great measure by it, was an unprecedented tide of emigration to the west and southwest. Those regions had been traversed in almost every direction by American troops in pursuit of Indians, by means of which they became acquainted with their value. The destruction or complete subjugation of the Indian tribes, rendered the country more secure from their incursions than at any former period. The lands were now obtainable on moderate terms, and long credit. Congress had adopted the policy of selling them in small sections, to encourage settlement rather than speculation. Large portions of them were locating to satisfy the bounties promised to the soldiers at the close of the war.

The citizen of the east, whose circumstances had become embarrassed in consequence of the war, or from other causes, looked to this region as a place of refuge from his troubles. He had to choose between remaining at home, harassed with debts, seeing his more fortunate neighbors enjoying affluence-himself and family in want, and before him the prospect of an old age of poverty; and of abandoning his home, and the remaining comforts of improved society, in the land of his fathers, and seeking a refuge in the wilderness. The latter alternative presented the prospect of years of hard labor and hard fare, but an ultimate competency and independence. This was the choice of many, who, saving a small sum from the wreck of their property, retired to the west, and there acquired the means of a comfortable support. Many, whose circumstances were entirely hopeless, hid themselves from their creditors in the wilderness. Another class of emigrants were young, ambitious politicians, who sought fame, distinction, and political honors in the new settlements, where competitors were less able and less numerous. The tranquil state of Europe, succeeding the peace of 1815, brought numerous cargoes of emigrants to the American shores, who sought a refuge from starvation in the unsettled regions of the west. From these and various other sources, six new states grew up in the course

of ten years. The settlers at first formed a motley society, of every character and description, and of different and discordant habits and views. By a constant intercourse, frequent intermarriages, a community of wants, and associations for various purposes the inhabitants soon became acquainted with and assimilated to each other, and formed a general character, compounded of the whole mass. Many times, indeed, large companies emigrated from the same neighborhood, settled in the same town, and gave to their society the peculiar cast of the region from which they removed. Various advantages resulted from this mode. The emigrant still found himself among his neighbors and friends; a proportion of necessary mechanics and school and religious teachers usually formed the company. Associations were readily formed, which secured to the emigrants in their new settlement many of the advantages of the old. In general, the rapid improvement of their own lands, and of the country around them, and the prospect of acquiring a permanent support for themselves and families, reconciled the emigrants to their situation, and rendered them contented and happy. Sometimes, indeed, individuals were to be found, who, not being able to bring themselves to submit to the inconveniences and deprivations incident to a new settlement, would retrace their steps, and, returning disappointed and impoverished, picture in frightful terms the horrors of the western wilderness. The settlers, anxious to increase their numbers by new emigrations, would represent their country as the garden of the world. The new settlements rapidly advanced. Convenient roads, mills, mechanics of various kinds, school-houses, churches, and the other incidents of improved society, soon began to appear, and assimilate the condition of the new country to the old.

Amelioration of party spirit. The great political parties into which the United States had been divided from the commencement of their government, began soon after the close of the war to lose much of their asperity; and to unite in supporting the administration. Few or no questions arose to revive old controversies. The affairs of the nation, though almost exclusively managed by one party, it was claimed by the other, were now conducted upon principles which they had always advocated. The period seemed at length to have arrived, which was viewed by a former president as a future event devoutly to be wished, when the only

* Louisiana, Indiana, Misssssippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri.

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