maintained it, ... we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European

Interven

tion clause.

power, in any other light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States."

In every way this dignified protest was effectual: the news caused an immediate rise in the funds of the revolted States in European markets; projects Effect. of European intervention were at once abandoned; and Great Britain followed the United States in recognizing the independence of the new countries. In 1824 Russia made a treaty agreeing to claim no territory south of 54° 40', and not to disturb or restrain citizens of the United States in any part of the Pacific Ocean.

When Monroe retired from the Presidency on March 4, 1825, the internal authority of the national government had for ten years steadily increased, and the dignity and influence of the nation abroad showed that it had become one of the world's great powers.

1824.]

Politics.

245

CHAPTER XII.

ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL REORGANIZATION

Bibliographies.

(1824-1829).

130. References.

W. E. Foster's References to Presidential

Administrations, pp. 20-22; Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, vii. 346-348.

Historical Maps.

No. 5, this volume (Epoch Maps, No. 10);

Scribner's Statistical Atlas, Plates 14, 15.

General Accounts.

Von Holst's Constitutional History, i. 409-458; Schouler's History of the United States, iii. 336-450; Tucker's History of the United States, iii. 409-515.

Special Histories. - Josiah Quincy's Life of John Quincy Adams, chap. vii.; J. T. Morse's John Quincy Adams, pp. 164-225; W. H. Seward's Life of John Quincy Adams, pp. 137-201; C. Schurz's Henry Clay, i. 203-310; W. G. Sumner's Andrew Jackson, pp. 73-135; E. M. Shepard's Van Buren, pp. 84-150; H. C. Lodge's Webster, pp. 129-171; J. L. Bishop's History of American Manufactures, ii. 298-332.

Contemporary Accounts.-J. Q. Adams's Memoirs, vols. vii.viii. (chap. xiv.); T. H. Benton's Thirty Years' View, i. 44-118; Josiah Quincy's Figures of the Past; N. Sargent's Public Men and Events, i. 56-160; Ben Perley Poore's Perley's Reminiscences, pp. 1-87.

Old statesmen gone.

131. Political Methods in 1824.

THE United States was in 1825 half a century old, and the primitive political methods of the early republic were disappearing. Most of the group of Revolutionary statesmen were dead; Jefferson and John Adams still survived, and honored each other by renewing their ancient friendship; on July 4, 1826, they too passed away. The stately traditions of the colonial period were gone: since the accession of Jefferson, the

Presidents no longer rode in pomp to address Congress at the beginning of each session; and inferior and littleknown men crept into Congress.

The constitutions framed during or immediately after the Revolution had been found too narrow, and one after another, most of the States in the Union had

New constitutions.

adopted a second, or even a third. Each change was marked by a popularization of the government, especially with regard to the suffrage. Immigrants had begun to have a sensible effect upon the community. In 1825 there were ten thousand, and the number more than doubled in five years. These changes were reflected in the management of State politics; the greater the number of voters, the greater the power of organization. Hence there had sprung up in the States a system of political chiefs, of whom Aaron Burr is a type.

Three new political devices had now become general among the States. The first was the removal of adminPolitical istrative officers because they did not agree in proscription. politics with the party which had elected a governor. This system was in use in Pennsylvania as early as 1790; it was introduced into New York by 1800, and gradually spread into other States. At first it was rather a factional weapon: when the adherents of the Livingstons got into power, they removed the friends of the Clintons; when the Clintonians came in, they turned out the Livingstons. Later, it was a recognized party system. In 1820 Secretary Crawford secured the passage by Congress of an apparently innocent act, by which most of the officers of the national government who collected and disbursed public money were to have terms of four years. The ostensible object was to secure more regular statements of accounts; it was intended and used to drop from the public service subor

Four Years'
Tenure Act.

1816-1824.]

Political Methods.

247

dinates of the Treasury department who were not favorable to Crawford's Presidential aspirations.

The second device appears to have been the invention of Elbridge Gerry, when governor of Massachusetts in The Gerry1812, and from him it takes the name of Germander. rymander. The Federalists were gaining in the State; the Republican legislature, before it went out, therefore redistricted the State in such fashion that the Republicans with a minority of votes were able to choose twenty-nine senators, against eleven Federalists. No wonder that the "New England Palladium" declared this to be "contrary to republicanism and to justice."

A third and very effective political device was the caucus. The term was applied particularly to a conference of the members of each party in Congress, which had taken upon itself the nomination of the Presidents. Political The influence of the extending suffrage, and organization. of political tricks and devices, had as yet little effect in national politics. It was evident, however, that the principles of political manipulation could be applied in national elections. The Republican party of New York was in 1825 managed by a knot of politicians called the Albany Regency. Of these, the ablest was Martin Van Buren, and four years later he succeeded in building up a national political machine.

Effect of the tariff.

132. The Tariff of 1824 (1816-1824).

An evidence of political uneasiness was the Tariff Act of May 22, 1824. The tariff of 1816 had not brought about the good that was expected of it: importations of foreign goods were indeed cut down from $129,000,000 in 1816 to $50,000,000 in 1823; but the balance of trade was still rather against the United States, and in 1819 there was a financial crisis.

In 1820 an act to raise the duties passed the House, but was lost in the Senate by a single vote. Manufactures had been growing, although profits were not large, and public sentiment was beginning to change in New Eng. land. The Western vote was now larger than eight years earlier, and was in favor of protection. Exports of agricultural products had fallen off, and the agricultural States hoped to find a better market among the manufacturers.

Act of 1824.

It was a favorable time for a tariff act, inasmuch as the friends of none of the Presidential candidates were willing to commit themselves against it. Clay came forward as the champion of the protective system: "The object of this bill," said he, "is to create thus a home market, and to lay the foundation of a genuine American policy." The South now strongly and almost unanimously opposed the tariff; even Webster spoke against it, declaring "freedom of trade to be the general principle, and restriction the exception." A combination of the Middle and Western States with a part of New England furnished the necessary majority. The tariff increased the duties on metals like iron and lead, and on agricultural products like wool and hemp, but gave little additional protection to woollen and cotton goods. As the bill approached its passage, John Randolph violently protested: "There never was a constitution under the sun in which by an unwise exercise of the powers of the government the people may not be driven to the extremity of resistance by force."

133. The Election of 1824.

The ground was now cleared for the choice of a successor to Monroe. The Federalist organization had entirely disappeared, even in the New England States;