One of the first duties of the new administration was to finish the Seminole War. In the beginning of 1837 the command of the army in Florida was transferred from General Scott to General Jessup. In the following fall Osceola came to the American camp with a flag of truce; but he was suspected of treachery, seized, and sent a prisoner to Fort Moultrie, where he died in 1838. The Seminoles, though disheartened by the loss of their chief, continued the war. In December Colonel Zachary Taylor, with a force of over a thousand men, marched into the Everglades of Florida, determined to fight the savages in their lairs. After unparalleled sufferings he overtook them, on Christmas day, near Lake Okeechobee. A hard battle was fought, and the Indians were defeated, but not until a hundred and thirty-nine of the whites had fallen. For more than a year Taylor continued to hunt the Red men through the swamps. In 1839 the chiefs sent in their submission and signed a treaty; but their removal to the West was made with much reluctance and delay.

In the first year of Van Buren's administration the country was afflicted with a monetary panic of the most serious character. The preceding years had been a time of great prosperity. The national debt was entirely liquidated, and a surplus of nearly forty million dollars had accumulated in the treasury of the United States. By act of Congress this vast sum had been distributed among the several States. Owing to the abundance of money, speculations of all sorts grew rife. The credit system pervaded every department of business. The banks of the country were suddenly multiplied to nearly seven hundred. Vast issues of irredeemable paper money stimulated the speculative spirit and increased the opportunities for fraud.

The bills of these unsound banks were receivable at the land-offices; and settlers and speculators made a rush to secure the public lands while money was plentiful. Seeing that in receiving such an unsound currency in exchange for the national domain the government was likely to be defrauded out of millions, President Jackson had issued an order called THE SPECIE CIRCULAR, by which the land-agents were directed henceforth to receive nothing but coin in payment for the lands. The effects of this circular came upon the nation in the first year of Van Buren's administration. The interests of the government had been secured by Jackson's vigilance; but the business of the country was prostrated by the shock. The banks suspended specie payment. Mercantile houses failed; and disaster swept through every avenue of trade. During the months of March and April, 1837, the failures in New York and New Orleans amounted to about a hundred and fifty million dollars. A committee of business men from the former city besought the President to rescind the specie circular and to call a special session of Congress. The

former request was refused and the latter complied with; but not until the executive was driven by the distresses of the country.

When Congress convened in the following September, several measures of relief were brought forward. A bill authorizing the issue of treasury notes, not to exceed ten millions of dollars, was passed as a temporary expedient. More important by far was the measure proposed by the President and brought before Congress under the name of THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY BILL. By the provisions of this remarkable project the public funds of the nation were to be kept on deposit in a treasury to be established for that special purpose. It was argued by Mr. Van Buren and his friends that the surplus money of the country would drift into the independent treasury and lodge there; and that by this means the speculative mania would be effectually checked; for extensive speculations could not be carried on without an abundant currency. It was in the nature of the President's plan to separate the business of the United States from the general business of the country.

The independent treasury bill was passed by the Senate, but defeated in the House of Representatives. But in the following regular session of Congress the bill was again brought forward and adopted. In the mean time, the business of the country had in a measure revived. During the year 1838 most of the banks resumed specie payments. Commercial affairs assumed their wonted aspect; but trade was less vigorous than before. Enterprises of all kinds languished, and the people were greatly disheartened. Discontent prevailed; and the administration was blamed with everything.

In the latter part of 1837 there was an insurrection in Canada. A portion of the people, dissatisfied with the British government, broke out in revolt and attempted to establish their independence. The insurgents found much sympathy and encouragement in the United States, especially in New York. From that State a party of seven hundred men, taking arms, seized and fortified Navy Island, in the Niagara River. The loyalists of Canada attempted to capture the place, and failed. They succeeded, however, in firing the Caroline, the supply-ship of the adventurers, cut her moorings, and sent the burning vessel over Niagara Falls. These events created considerable excitement, and the peaceful relations of the United States and Great Britain were endangered. But the President issued a proclamation of neutrality, forbidding interference with the affairs of Canada; and General Wool was sent to the Niagara frontier with a sufficient force to quell the disturbance and punish the disturbers. The New York insurgents on Navy Island were obliged to surrender, and order was soon restored.

Hardly had the excitement attendant upon the Canadian troubles subsided, before the question was raised as to Van Buren's successor in the presidency. The canvass began early and in a very bitter spirit. The measures of the administration had been of such a nature ás to call forth the fiercest political controversy. The Whigs, animated with the hope of victory, met in national convention on the 4th of December, 1839, and again nominated General Harrison as their leader in the coming contest. On the Democratic side Mr. Van Buren had no competitor; but the unanimity of his party could hardly compensate for his misfortunes and blunders. The canvass was the most exciting in the political history of the country. The President was blamed with every thing. The financial distress was laid at his door. Extravagance, bribery, corruption—every thing bad was charged upon him. Men of business advertised to pay six dollars a barrel for flour if Harrison should be elected; three dollars a barrel if Van Buren should be successful. The Whig orators tossed about the luckless administration through all the figures and forms of speech; and the President himself was shot at with every sort of dart that partisan wit and malice could invent. The enthusiasm in the ranks of the opposition rose higher and higher; and the result was the defeat of the Democrats in every State except Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, Virginia, and South Carolina. The electoral votes of these States-numbering sixty-were given to Van Buren; and the remainder, amounting to two hundred and thirty-four, were cast for General Harrison. After controlling the destinies of the government for nearly forty years, the Democratic party was temporarily routed. For Vice-President, John Tyler of Virginia was chosen.

In the last year of Van Buren's administration was completed the sixth census of the United States. The tables were, as usual, replete with the evidences of growth and progress. The national revenues for the year 1840 amounted to nearly twenty millions of dollars. During the last ten years the center of population had moved westward along the thirty-ninth parallel of latitude from the South Fork of the Potomac to Clarksburg, West Virginia-a distance of fifty-five miles. The area of the United States now actually inhabited, amounted to eight hundred and seven thousand square miles, being an increase in ten years of twenty-seven and six-tenths per cent. The frontier line, circumscribing the population, passed through Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the western borders of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana-a distance of three thousand three hundred miles. The population had reached the aggregate of seventeen million souls, being an

increase since 1830 of more than six millions. It was found from the tables that eleven-twelfths of the people lived outside of the larger cities and towns, showing the strong preponderance of the agricultural over the manufacturing and commercial interest. One of the most interesting lessons of the census was found in the fact that the wonderful growth of the United States was in extent and area, and not in accumulation-in the spread of civilization rather than in intensity. For, since 1830, the average population of the country had not increased by so much as one person to the square mile!

The administration of Van Buren has generally been reckoned as unsuccessful and inglorious. But he and his times were unfortunate rather than bad. He was the victim of all the evils which followed hard upon the relaxation of the Jacksonian methods of government. He had neither the will nor the disposition to rule as his predecessor had done; nor were the people and their representatives any longer in the humor to suffer that sort of government. The period was unheroic: it was the ebb-tide between the belligerent excitements of 1832 and the war with Mexico. The financial panic added opprobrium to the popular estimate of imbecility in the government. "The administration of Van Buren," said a bitter satirist, "is like a parenthesis: it may be read in a low tone of voice or altogether omitted without injuring the sense!" But the satire lacked one essential quality-truth.

CHAPTER LVI.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF HARRISON AND TYLER, 1841-1845.

THE

HE new President was a Virginian by birth, and the adopted son of Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution. He was a graduate of Hampden-Sidney College, and afterward a student of medicine. Attracted by the military life, he entered the army of St. Clair; was rapidly promoted; became lieutenant-governor and then governor of Indiana Territory, which office he filled with great ability. His military career in the North-west has already been narrated. He was inaugurated President on the 4th of March, 1841, and began his duties by issuing a call for a special session of Congress to consider "sundry important matters connected with the finances of the country." An able cabinet was organized, at the head of which was Dan

iel Webster as secretary of state. Everything promised well for the new Whig administration; but before Congress could convene, the venerable President, bending under the weight of sixty-eight years, fell sick, and died just one month after his inauguration. It was the first time that such a calamity had befallen the American people. Profound and universal grief was manifested at the sad event. On the 6th of April Mr. Tyler took the oath of office, and became President of the United States.

He was a statesman of considerable distinction; a native of Virginia; a graduate of William and Mary College. At an early age he left the profession of law to enter public life; was chosen a member of Congress; and in 1825 was elected governor of Virginia. From that position he was sent to the Senate of the United States; and now at the age of fifty-one was called to the presidency. He had been put upon the ticket with General Harrison through motives of expediency; for although a Whig in political principles, he was known to be hostile to the United States Bank. And this hostility was soon to be manifested in a remarkable manner.

The special session of Congress continued from May till September. One of the first measures proposed and carried was the repeal of the independent treasury bill. A general bankrupt law was then brought forward and passed, by which a great number of insolvent business men were relieved from the disabilities of debt. The next measure—a favorite scheme of the Whigs-was the rechartering of the bank of the United States. The old charter had expired in 1836; but the bank had continued in operation under the authority of the State of Pennsylvania. Now a bill to recharter was brought forward and passed. The President interposed his veto. Again the bill was presented, in a modified form, and received the assent of both Houses, only to be rejected by the executive. By this action a final rupture was produced between the President and the party which had elected him. The indignant Whigs, baffled by a want of a two-thirds majority in Congress, turned upon him with storms of invective. All the members of the cabinet except Mr. Webster resigned; and he retained his place only because of a pending difficulty with Great Britain.

The difficulty was in the nature of a dispute about the northeastern boundary of the United States. The territorial limit of the country in that direction, not having been clearly defined by the treaty of 1783, had been one of the points under discussion by the commissioners at Ghent in 1814. But like other matters presented for adjudication before that polite and easily satisfied congress, the boundary