Part 29 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Land grants.]

[Sidenote: Distribution.]

An effort was now made to avoid the question of appropriating money by setting apart public lands. Grants of eight hundred thousand acres of land were made for the construction of ca.n.a.ls in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, and such gifts continued at irregular intervals down to 1850. Since the debt was rapidly disappearing, another suggestion was that the surplus revenue should be periodically divided among the States. It satisfied no one. As Hayne of South Carolina said: ”We are to have doled out to us as a favor the money which has first been drawn from our own pockets,...

keeping the States forever in a state of subserviency.”

[Sidenote: The system losing ground.]

Although $2,310,000 were appropriated for internal improvements during Adams's administration, on the whole the system was growing unpopular.

Calhoun, who as Secretary of War in 1819 had recommended a judicious system of roads and ca.n.a.ls, in 1822 said that on mature consideration he did not see that the requisite power was given to Congress in the Const.i.tution. On the whole, Adams's enemies opposed the appropriations.

137. THE CREEK AND CHEROKEE QUESTIONS (1824-1829).

[Sidenote: Tribal governments.]

[Sidenote: Difficulty with Georgia.]

Another difficulty inherited by Adams's administration arose out of the promise of the United States in 1802 to remove the Indians from within the limits of Georgia as soon as possible. The two princ.i.p.al tribes were the Creeks and the Cherokees, both partially civilized and settled on permanent farms, and both enjoying by treaty with the United States a tribal government owing no allegiance to Georgia. On Feb. 12, 1825, a treaty had been signed by a few Creek chiefs without the authority or consent of the nation, by which they purported to give up lands of the tribe in Georgia. In defiance of the government at Was.h.i.+ngton, the Georgia authorities proceeded to survey the lands, without waiting to have the treaty examined; and Governor Troup called upon the legislature to ”stand to your arms,” and wrote to the Secretary of War that ”President Adams makes the Union tremble on a bauble.” In a sober report to the legislature it was urged that the time was rapidly approaching when the Slave States must ”confederate.”

[Sidenote: Conflict of authority.]

The survey was suspended; but on Nov. 8, 1825, Governor Troup advised the legislature that ”between States equally independent it is not required of the weaker to yield to the stronger. Between sovereigns the weaker is equally qualified to pa.s.s upon its rights.” On Jan. 24, 1826, a new treaty was negotiated, by which a considerable part of the disputed territory was given to Georgia. Again the State attempted to survey the lands before the transfer was completed, and again Adams interposed. On Feb. 17, 1827, Governor Troup called out the State militia to resist the United States troops. Congress was rather pleased at the humiliation to the President, and declined to support him; he was obliged to yield.

[Sidenote: The Cherokees subdued.]

The Cherokees, more highly civilized and better organized than the Creeks, could not be entrapped into any treaty for surrendering their lands.

Georgia, therefore, proceeded to a.s.sert her jurisdiction over them, without reference to the solemn treaties of the United States. Each successive legislature from 1826 pa.s.sed an Act narrowing the circle of Indian authority. In December, 1826, Indian testimony was declared invalid in Georgia courts. The Cherokees, foreseeing the coming storm, and warned by the troubles of their Creek neighbors, proceeded to adopt a new tribal const.i.tution, under which all land was to be tribal property. The Georgia legislature replied, in 1827, by annexing part of the Cherokee territory to two counties; the purpose was to drive out the Cherokees by making them subject to discriminating State laws, and by taking away the land not actually occupied as farms. The issue raised was whether the United States or Georgia had governmental powers in Indian reservations. By a close vote the House intimated its sympathy with Georgia, and in December, 1828, Georgia proposed to annex the whole Cherokee country. Adams was powerless to defend the Indians; in order to humiliate the President, the national authority had successfully been defied.

138. THE TARIFF OF ABOMINATIONS (1828).

[Sidenote: Commercial treaties.]

[Sidenote: Woollen bill.]

In one respect Adams was successful; he negotiated almost as many commercial treaties as had been secured during the previous fifty years.

Trade had sprung up with the Spanish American States. England had meanwhile begun to relax her system of protection, and encouraged manufactures by importing raw materials on very low duties; woollens were therefore so cheapened that they could again be sold in the United States in compet.i.tion with American manufacturers. In October, 1826, the Boston woollen manufacturers asked ”the aid of the government.” A bill was accordingly introduced, which Adams would doubtless have signed, increasing the duties on coa.r.s.e woollens. It pa.s.sed the House in 1827, but was lost in the Senate by the casting vote of the Vice-President, Calhoun.

His change of att.i.tude is significant; it showed that the most advanced Southern statesman had abandoned the policy of protection, as he had abandoned the policy of internal improvements. The Boston pet.i.tion marked another change. New England had at last settled down to manufacturing as her chief industry, and insisted on greater protection.

[Sidenote: Tariff agitation.]

The narrow failure of the Woollens Bill in 1827 encouraged a protectionist convention at Harrisburg, which suggested very high duties; but the main force behind the movement was a combination of the growers and manufacturers of wool, including many Western men. It is probable that Clay was glad to make the tariff a political issue, hoping thus to confound the anti-Adams combination.

[Sidenote: Tariff on raw materials.]

[Sidenote: The act pa.s.sed.]

A new bill was reported, introducing the novel principle that the raw materials of manufactures should be highly protected; the purpose was evidently to frame a tariff unacceptable to New England, where Adams had his chief support, and to draw the votes of the South and West. The Western Jackson men favored it because it raised the tariff; and the Southern anti-tariff men expected to kill Adams with the bill, and then to kill the bill. They therefore voted for enormous duties: the duty on hemp was raised from $35 to $60 a ton; on wool from about thirty per cent to about seventy per cent. In vain did the Adams men attempt to reframe the bill: when it came to a vote, sixteen of the thirty-nine New England members felt compelled to accept it, with all its enormities, and it thus pa.s.sed the House. Even Webster voted for it in the Senate, and his influence secured its pa.s.sage. On May 24, 1828, Adams signed it.