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Americans." We stand by the right of the different nations on both the American continents, North and South, to manage their own affairs in their own way, without interference from Europe.

247. Visit of Lafayette.-Near the close of Monroe's administration, Congress requested the President to invite Lafayette, then a venerable man verging on seventy, to revisit the United States after forty years' absence. He came (1824), and spent more than a year travelling through the country as the guest of the nation. He visited every one of the twenty-four states, and all of the principal cities and towns. He had spent much of his fortune in our cause. Congress gratefully voted him two hundred thousand dollars, and made him a grant of twenty-four thousand acres of land. He was everywhere received with enthusiasm and affection. Some of the old soldiers of the Revolution, who had fought under him, were completely overcome by their feelings on seeing their former commander, and fainted when they grasped the hand that had so generously helped them in the dark days of the war. Lafayette took part in laying the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument (June 17, 1825), just fifty years after the battle.1 When he returned to France that autumn he was followed by the grateful prayers of the powerful nation he had done so much to establish.

248. Summary. - Three chief events marked the period of the presidency of James Monroe. They were: 1. The debate on the extension of slavery west of the Mississippi River, ending in the Missouri Compromise. 2. The pushing forward of the National Road into Ohio, which opened up a large section of the

proposed interference of European governments in America, "We should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." And again, in the same message, the President says that we should consider such interference "as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." These two passages contain wha is to-day regarded as the "Monroe Doctrine."

1 See Webster's address at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1825.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION.

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West to emigrants from the Atlantic states. 3. The statement of the Monroe Doctrine, declaring that Europe must keep her hands off of both American continents.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

249. John Quincy Adams's Administration (Sixth President, One Term, 1825-1829);1 Governor Clinton and the Erie Canal. — The year that Mr. Adams became President (1825) the Erie Canal was completed by the state of New York. It was the most important public improvement yet made in the United States. It connected the Hudson River at Troy and Albany with Lake Erie, at the point where the city of Buffalo now stands.

Governor De Witt Clinton of New York carried the great work through. When he proposed it, many denounced and ridiculed the undertaking as a sheer waste of the people's hard-earned money. They nicknamed it "Clinton's Big Ditch." They said that it never would be completed, that it would swallow up millions in taxes, and in the end yield nothing but mud.

1 John Quincy Adams, son of President John Adams, was born in Braintree. (now Quincy), Massachusetts, in 1767; died, 1848. He was independent in politics, though his sympathies were with the National Republican or early Whig party. This party, the successor of the Federalists (see Paragraph 199), desired, like them, to give a broad interpretation to the Constitution. They favored a protective tariff (that is, a heavy tax imposed on imported goods for the purpose of "protecting" our manufacturers against foreign competition—a revenue tariff is a lighter tax imposed merely to obtain money or revenue for the government). They also favored public improvements—such as the building of roads, canals, and the like—at the expense of the nation, in opposition to the Democratic party, which insisted on a strict interpretation of the Constitution, favored free trade, or a simple revenue tariff, and believed that each state should make its own improvements at its own expense.

John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were the two leading candidates for the presidency in 1824; the latter represented the Republican, or Democratic party, though party lines at that time were not very clearly defined. Neither candidate got a majority of the electoral votes; and the House of Representatives finally chose Mr. Adams President (John C. Calhoun of South Carolina Vice-President). Mr. Adams had refused to make any exertion to secure his own election; and when asked by his friend Edward Everett if he did not intend to do something to obtain it, he replied, "I shall do absolutely nothing." It was one of those rare cases in which the office sought the man, and not the man the office.

250. How the Canal was built; its Opening. - Governor Clinton had indeed put his hand to a stupendous task. Lake Erie is three hundred and sixty-three miles west of the Hudson, and it is nearly six hundred feet above the level of that river.

The country between the Hudson and the lake is in some places rough and broken. There were people in New York who knew these difficulties, and who asked the governor whether he could make water run up hill. He replied that he could do better: he

Locks at Lockport, on the Erie Canal.

could build locks which would

make the water lift the canalboats over the hills.

When all was ready, he set his army of laborers at work. They toiled eight years in the wilderness, cutting down forests, excavating the earth, blasting their way through ridges of rock, building aqueduct - bridges to carry the canal across rivers, constructing locks of solid masonry to carry it up the hillsides.

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In the autumn of 1825 the great undertaking was finished, and, when the water was let in, a row of cannon about five miles apart, extending from Buffalo to Albany, flashed the news the whole length of the state. Governor Clinton travelled from Buffalo to Albany by the canal, and thence by the Hudson to New York City. He brought with him a keg of water from Lake Erie. When he reached the city, he solemnly poured the water into the harbor, to commemorate, as he said, "the navigable communication opened between our Mediterranean seas1 and the Atlantic Ocean."

251. What the Canal has done for New York and for the Country. The canal has since done far more than Governor

1 He gave this appropriate name to the Great Lakes.

EXPERIMENTS WITH

STEAM-WAGONS."

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Clinton expected. The expense of building it was easily paid by means of a small tax levied by the state on boats and freight.' Before the canal was built, the charge for hauling a barrel of flour from Albany to Buffalo was ten dollars, and it took three weeks' hauling to get it there. After the canal was opened, a barrel of flour could be sent through in a week, at a cost of thirty cents! Since its completion to the present time, over six thousand million dollars' worth of freight has been carried on its waters.

The canal originally ran through a country in great part unsettled. It was the means of bringing in great numbers of emigrants from the East. On its banks now, there are scores of flourishing towns and rapidly growing cities. New York City gained immensely by the trade with the West which began to spring up as soon as this water-way was opened. To-day the canal is free; a constant procession of huge boats and barges laden with grain is seen moving eastward day and night; a similar procession, laden with merchandise, is seen going westward. They are a means of growth and a source of wealth to both sections of the country. One makes food cheaper all through the East, the other makes imported goods cheaper throughout the West.

252. Experiments with "Steam-Wagons."- A few years later a work was begun in Maryland which was destined to have greater results even than the Erie Canal. Fulton had shown the world that the steam-engine could be successfully used to propel boats; the next question was, why could not the steam-engine be put on wheels, and made to propel itself on land? After many experiments and many failures, George Stephenson2 invented a "steam-wagon," or locomotive, in England, which would draw a train of cars on a track, at the rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour. Meanwhile, Oliver Evans and other ingenious American mechanics had been experimenting with "steam-wagons" in this country.

1 Before the completion of the New York Central Railroad, the canal carried thousands of passengers and emigrants: it now carries freight only.

2 See the "Leading Facts of English History," in this series.

253. Breaking Ground for the First Passenger Railroad in America. - In 1828, the venerable Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, performed the ceremony of breaking ground for the construction of a railroad from Baltimore westward. The road now forms part of the Baltimore and Ohio railway system. Mr. Carroll, then over ninety years of age, was the only person living who had signed the Declaration of American Independence . (1776). As he struck the spade into the ground with a firm hand, he said, "I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to that of signing the Declaration of Independence, if second even to that."

254. The First American Locomotive; the Road opened; the Race. The first locomotive which ran over the road (1830) was built at Baltimore by Peter Cooper, since widely known for his noble gift of the Cooper Institute to New York City. His engine had little resemblance to our modern ones; but it drew a rudely constructed open wagon filled with passengers, and that in itself was no small triumph. The road at first extended only to Ellicott's Mills, about thirteen miles from Baltimore. The trip was made in somewhat less than an hour. On the return, the train had a race with a spirited gray horse belonging to one of the Baltimore stage-coach lines. The gray did his best; the puffing, wheezing little locomotive did its best likewise. Finally, steam conquered; and a great shout of victory went up from the dozen passengers in the open wagon. That shout meant that the days of stage-coaches were numbered.

255. Growth of Railroads in the United States; Results. – The same year (1830) six miles of the Charleston and Augusta Railroad were opened; a year later (1831) the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad began to carry passengers in New York. In ten years the thirteen miles of track in Maryland had multiplied to nearly three thousand miles in different states. These have since increased more than fifty-fold,-binding the nation together in all

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