Near the close of Polk's administration an important addition was made to the President's cabinet by the establishment of THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. To the three original departments of the government, as organized during the administration of Washington, had already been added the offices of Postmaster-General and Secretary of the Navy. The Attorney-General had also come to be recognized as a regular member of the cabinet. With the growth and development of the nation it was found that the duties belonging to the departments of state and the treasury had become so manifold as to require the establishment of a separate office. A certain part of these duties were accordingly detached, and the new "Home Department"-afterwards called Department of the Interior-was constituted by act of Congress. In the beginning of the next administration the new secretaryship was assigned to General Thomas Ewing of Ohio.

Another presidential election was at hand. Three well-known candidates were presented for the suffrages of the people. General Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated by the Democrats, and General Zachary Taylor by the Whigs. As the candidate of the new Free-Soil party, ex-President Martin Van Buren was put forward. The rise of this new party was traceable to a question concerning the territory acquired by the Mexican War. In 1846 David Wilmot of Pennsylvania brought before Congress a bill to prohibit slavery in all the territory which might be secured by treaty with Mexico. The bill was defeated; but the advocates of the measure, which was called the WILMOT PROVISO, formed themselves into a party, and in June of 1848 nominated Mr. Van Buren for the presidency. The real contest, however, lay between Generals Cass and Taylor. The position of the two leading parties on the question of slavery in the new territories was as yet not clearly defined, and the election was left to turn on the personal popularity of the candidates. The memory of his recent victories in Mexico made General Taylor the favorite with the people, and he was elected by a large majority. As Vice-President, Millard Fillmore of New York was chosen. So closed the agi tated but not inglorious administration of President Polk.

CHAPTER LVIII.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF TAYLOR AND FILLMORE, 1849-1853.

THE

HE new President was a Virginian by birth, a Kentuckian by breeding, a soldier by profession. In 1808 he left the farm to accept a commission in the army. During the war of 1812 he distinguished himself in the North-west, especially in defending Fort Harrison against the Red men. In the

Seminole War he bore

a conspicuous part, but earned his greatest renown in Mexico. His reputation, though strictly military, was enviable, and his character above reproach. His administration began with a violent agitation on the question of slavery in the territories; California, the El Dorado of the West, was the origin of the dispute.

In his first message President Taylor expressed his sympathy with the Californians, and advised them to form a State

government preparatory to admission into the Union. The advice was promptly accepted., A convention of delegates was held at Monterey in September of 1849. A constitution prohibiting slavery was framed, submitted to the people, and adopted with but little opposition. Peter H. Burnet was elected governor of the Territory; members of a general assembly were chosen ; and on the 20th of December, 1849, the new government was organized

at San Jose. At the same time a petition in the usual form was forwarded to Congress asking for the admission of California as a State.

The presentation of the petition was the signal for a bitter controversy. As in the case of the admission of Missouri, the members of Congress, and to a great extent the people, were sectionally divided. But now the position of the parties was reversed; the proposition to admit the new State was favored by the representatives of the North and opposed by those of the South. The ground of the opposition was that with the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific the right to introduce slavery into California was guaranteed by the general government, and that therefore the proposed constitution of the State ought to be rejected. The reply of the North was that the argument could apply only to a part of the new State, that the Missouri Compromise had respect only to the Louisiana purchase, and that the people of California had framed their constitution in their own way. Such was the issue; and the debates grew more and more violent, until the stability of the Union was seriously endangered.

Other exciting questions added fuel to the controversy. Texas claimed New Mexico as a part of her territory, and the claim was resisted by the people of Santa Fé, who desired a separate government. The people of the South complained bitterly that fugitive slaves, escaping from their masters, were aided and encouraged in the North. The opponents of slavery demanded the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. Along the whole line of controversy there was a spirit of suspicion, recrimination and anger.

The illustrious Henry Clay appeared as a peacemaker. In the spring of 1850 he was appointed chairman of a committee of thirteen, to whom all the questions under discussion were referred. On the 9th of May he brought forward, as a compromise covering all the points in dispute, THE OMNIBUS BILL, of which the provisions were as follows: First, the admission of California as a free State; second, the formation of new States, not exceeding four in number, out of the territory of Texas, said States to permit or exclude slavery as the people should determine; third, the organization of territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah, without conditions on the question of slavery; fourth, the establishment of the present boundary between Texas and New Mexico, and the payment to the former for surrendering the latter the sum of ten million dollars from the national treasury; fifth, the enactment of a more rigorous law for the recovery of fugitive slaves; sixth, the abolition of the slavetrade in the District of Columbia.

When the Omnibus Bill was laid before Congress, the debates began

anew, and seemed likely to be interminable. While the discussion was at its height and the issue still undecided, President Taylor fell sick, and died on the 9th of July, 1850. In accordance with the provisions of the constitution, Mr. Fillmore at once took the oath of office and entered upon the duties of the presidency. A new cabinet was formed, with Daniel Webster at the head as secretary of state. Notwithstanding the death of the chief magistrate, the government moved on without disturbance.

The compromise proposed by Mr. Clay and sustained by his eloquence was at length

approved by Congress.

On the 18th of September the last clause was adopted, and the whole received the immediate sanction of the President. The excitement in the country rapidly abated, and the distracting controversy seemed at an end. Such was the last, and perhaps the greatest, of those pacific measures originated and carried through Congress by the genius of Henry Clay. He shortly afterward bade adieu to the Senate, and sought at his beloved Ashland a brief rest from the arduous cares of public life.

The passage of the Omnibus Bill brought a political quiet; but the moral convictions of very few men were altered by its provisions. Public opinion remained as before: in the North, a general, indefinite, but growing hostility to slavery; in the South, a fixed and resolute purpose to defend and extend that institution. To the President, whose party was in the ascendency in most of the Free States, the measure was fatal; for although his cabinet had advised him to sign the bill, the Whigs were at heart opposed to the fugitive slave law,

and when he gave his assent they turned coldly from him. In the Whig National convention, two years afterwards, although the policy of the President was approved and the compromise measures ratified by a vote of two hundred and twenty-seven against sixty, not twenty Northern votes could be obtained for his renomination. Thus do political parties punish their leaders for hesitating to espouse a principle which the parties themselves are afraid to avow.

The year 1850 was marked by a lawless attempt on the part of some American adventurers to gain possession of Cuba. It was thought that the people of that island were anxious to throw off the Spanish yoke and to annex themselves to the United States. In order to encourage such a movement, General Lopez organized an expedition in the South, and on the 19th of May, 1850, effected a landing at Cardenas, a port of Cuba. But there was no uprising in his favor; neither Cubans nor Spanish soldiers joined his standard, and he was obliged to seek safety by returning to Florida. Renewing the attempt in the following year, he and his band of four hundred and eighty men were attacked, defeated and captured by an overwhelming force of Spaniards. Lopez and the ringleaders were taken to Havana, tried, condemned and executed.

The first annual message of the President was a document of great ability. Among the many important measures pressed upon the attention of Congress were the following: a system of cheap and uniform postage; the establishment, in connection with the Department of the Interior, of a Bureau of Agriculture; liberal appropriations for the improvement of rivers and harbors; the building of a national asylum for disabled and destitute seamen; a permanent tariff with specific duties on imports and discrimination in favor of American manufactures; the opening of communication between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast; a settlement of the land difficulties in California; an act for the retirement of supernumerary officers of the army and navy; and a board of commissioners to adjust the claims of private citizens against the government of the United States. Only two of these important recommendations-the asylum for sailors and the settlement of the land claims in California-were carried into effect. For the President's party were in a minority in Congress; and the majority refused or neglected to approve his measures.

In 1852 a serious trouble arose with England. By the terms of former treaties the coast-fisheries of Newfoundland belonged exclusively to Great Britain. But outside of a line drawn three miles from the shore American fisherman enjoyed equal rights and privi