Part 27 (2/2)

[Sidenote: Effect.]

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 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.

CHAPTER XII.

ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL REORGANIZATION (1824-1829).

130. REFERENCES.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--W. E. Foster, _References to Presidential Administrations_, 20-22; Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, VII. 346-348; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, ---- 179-180.

HISTORICAL MAPS.--No. 5, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No 10); _Scribner's Statistical Atlas_, Plates 14, 15; school histories of Channing and Johnston.

GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--H. Von Hoist, _Const.i.tutional History_, I. 409-458; James Schouler, _United States_, III. 336-450; Geo. Tucker, _United States_, III. 409-515.

SPECIAL HISTORIES.--Josiah Quincy, _Life of John Quincy Adams_, chap.

vii.; J. T. Morse, _John Quincy Adams_, 164-225; W. H. Seward, _Life of John Quincy Adams_, 137-201; C. Schurz, _Henry Clay_, I. 203-310; W. G.

Sumner, _Andrew Jackson_, 73-135; E. M. Shepard, _Martin Van Buren_, 84- 150; H. C. Lodge, _Daniel Webster_, 129-171; J. L. Bishop, _History of American Manufactures_, II. 298-332.

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--J. Q. Adams, _Memoirs_, VII., VIII. (chapter xiv.); H. Niles, _Weekly Register_; T. H. Benton, _Thirty Years's View_, I. 44-118; Josiah Quincy, _Figures of the Past_; N. Sargent, _Public Men and Events_, I. 56-160; Ben Perley Poore, _Perley's Reminiscences_, 1-87; John Trumbull, _Autobiography_; J. French, _Travels_, Mrs. Trollope, _Domestic Manners of the Americans_.--Reprints in _American History told by Contemporaries_, III.

131. POLITICAL METHODS IN 1824.

[Sidenote: Old statesmen gone.]

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 friends.h.i.+p; on July 4, 1826, they too pa.s.sed 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 little-known men crept into Congress.

[Sidenote: New const.i.tutions.]

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

[Sidenote: Political proscription.]

[Sidenote: Four Years' Tenure Act.]

Three new political devices had now become general among the States. The first was the removal of administrative officers because they did not agree in 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 pa.s.sage 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 subordinates of the Treasury department who were not favorable to Crawford's Presidential aspirations.

[Sidenote: The Gerrymander.]

The second device appears to have been the invention of Elbridge Gerry, when governor of Ma.s.sachusetts in 1812, and from him it takes the name of Germander, The Federalists were gaining in the State; the Republican legislature, before it went out, therefore redistricted the State in such fas.h.i.+on 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.”

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