cipally by the friends of a protective tariff, to again elect Mr. John W. Taylor speaker. Numerous ballottings took place without effecting a choice; but finally, most of the opposition to Mr. Taylor being concentrated on Mr. Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, he was chosen speaker by a small majority, over Mr. Taylor and a few scattering votes. The views of Mr. Barbour were known to be opposed to a protective tariff, and to a system of internal improvements by the general government, and he had voted against the proposed restrictions respecting slavery on the

admission of Missouri.

The most important acts of Congress passed at this session, were as follows: A territorial government was established in Florida, and a law was enacted for the preservation of timber on the public lands in that territory. Another act established a board of three commissioners, to ascertain the claims and titles to land in Florida. A law was also passed to relieve the people from the operation of certain ordinances, one of which was made by General Jackson, while governor of Florida, in 1821, and another passed by the city council of St. Augustine, in 1821. These ordinances were repealed, and declared null and void, and any person attempting to enforce them was to be punished by fine or imprisonment. Provision was made for receiving subscriptions to a loan of twenty-six millions of dollars, at five per cent., in exchange for stock then bearing an interest of six and seven per cent. The state of Illinois was authorized to open a canal through the public lands to connect the Illinois river with Lake Michigan, and ninety feet of land on each side of said canal was reserved from any sale to be made by the United States; every section of land through which the canal route might pass, was reserved from future sale, until specially directed by law. Three per cent. of the net proceeds of sales of the public lands in the state of Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama, was directed to be paid to the said states, to be applied to the making of roads and canals within the same. The apportionment of representatives to Congress among the several states was fixed at one member for every forty thousand of federal population. The president was authorized to declare the ports of the United States open to British vessels from the colonies, on satisfactory evidence being given that the ports in the British West Indies have been opened to the vessels of the United States.

The subject of a general bankrupt law was again debated, and occupied much of the time of this Congress. It was finally rejected, by a vote of 99 to 72. The question of a further protection to manufactures, particularly cottons and woollens, by additional duties on importations of those articles, was rejected, but the standing committee to whom the subject was referred, having been appointed by a speaker who was opposed to protection, reported that any additional legislation was inexpedient. The tariff question excited great attention and interest throughout the United States.

The friends of protection to American manufactures were zealous and active in spreading their views among the people, and in many of the northern and western states the agriculturists were convinced that their interests were promoted by protection, as well as that of the manufacturers. Members of Congress from the southern, and from some of the eastern states, at that time, were opposed to an increase of the tariff on foreign goods, from an impression that high duties operated unequally on different classes and sections of the community.

In accordance with the recommendation of the president, a resolution was offered in the house of representatives, in January, 1822, for recognizing the independence of Mexico, and five provinces in South America, formerly under the dominion of Spain. The vote in the house was nearly unanimous, and one hundred thousand dollars were appropriated to defray the expenses of envoys to those republics, who were soon afterward appointed by the president. A bill was passed by Congress at this session, making an appropriation for continuing the Cumberland road, but was returned by the president, with his objections, which were that the constitution did not authorize such appropriations.

But few acts of general interest were passed at the second session of the seventeenth Congress, which was held from the 2d of December, 1822, to the 3d of March, 1823. An additional naval force was authorized for the suppression of piracy; the state of Ohio was authorized to construct a road from the lower rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie to the western boundary of the Connecticut western reserve, and the lands for one mile on each side of the road were granted to the state to aid in the construction of the road; an act of great length was also passed, directing the manner of doing business at the customhouses of the United States in the collection of duties. Certain sections of the act of May, 1820, prohibiting British vessels from the colonies to enter the ports of the United States, were suspended; and the ports of the United States were declared open to British vessels from the ports in the British colonies and West India islands named in the acts.

A bill was introduced in the senate by Colonel R. M. Johnson, of Kentucky, for abolishing imprisonment for debts due to the United States. This measure was advocated with zeal by the mover, and it was supported by several of the senators, but it was not adopted at this session. Colonel Johnson advocated it for several successive sessions, and it became a law in 1828. The question of additional duties on imports, particularly woollen goods, was again agitated at this session, and debated with much warmth and zeal, but finally the bill to increase the duty on woollens was rejected.

The subject of internal improvements was before Congress at this session, in various forms. It was proposed to cause surveys for canals across Cape Cod-from the river Raritan to the Delaware-from the Delaware

to Chesapeake bay-from the Chesapeake to Albemarle sound-and from Lake Erie to the Ohio river. But the proposal was not sanctioned by Congress. The opposition was principally on the ground of unconstitutionality. A discussion also arose on the motion to appropriate money for the repairs of the Cumberland road. Large sums had been expended on that work, which was deemed of national importance, but it was then in such a state as to be nearly impassable in some parts. The president had intimated a willingness to favor a bill for repairing the road, though opposed to extending it. The session closed without any definite action on the question.

A convention of navigation and commerce was made and concluded between the United States and France, in 1822; which was ratified by the president and senate, and a law passed by both houses of Congress to carry its provisions into effect. This treaty was negotiated by the secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, and the Baron Hyde de Neuville, minister plenipotentiary of the king of France. Efforts had been made for a long time by the government of the United States, to form a treaty with France; but the French court had manifested great reluctance to enter into a convention for the purpose. The trade of that nation did not suffer from want of such a treaty, but the United States lost many advantages by the omission.

After the peace of 1815, the commerce and navigation of the United States did not reap all the advantages from that event which might justly have been hoped. A restrictive and monopolizing policy was adopted by both France and Great Britain; and these countries derived great benefits from the trade to the United States, while reciprocal advantages were not realized by the merchants of the latter. It was a constant object, for some years, particularly in 1820-22, with enlightened politicians in the United States, who were favorable to commerce, to devise measures for removing the embarrassments produced by the policy of European powers; or to make regulations respecting the navigation and trade of foreigners to American ports, which should prove to be countervailing, in some degree, of the restrictive system of those governments. The principal measures adopted by Congress, with this view, were proposed or advocated by Mr. Rufus King, a senator from the state of New York; than whom no one in Congress was more active in favor of commerce, or had more correct and enlarged views on the subject.*

As early as 1822, when three years of Mr. Monroe's second term as president were yet unexpired, the question relative to his successor already occupied most intensely the minds of politicians at Washington disturbed legislation, and embarrassed the action of Congress. The excitement on the subject steadily increased at the seat of government, and rapidly spread through the nation. Of the several candidates spoken of

• Bradford.

for president, none were supported or opposed on account of any particu lar measures which they respectively advocated or condemned. The question about the selection of a candidate was, in fact, personal, not political; but this circumstance, instead of rendering it less, caused it to be more exciting. The names of many gentlemen were mentioned as candidates, but the number gradually diminished, until the contest finally seemed to be confined to William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury; John Quincy Adams, secretary of state; Henry Clay, speaker of the house of representatives; John C. Calhoun, secretary of war; and General Andrew Jackson, at that time a private citizen. Each of these candidates, during the war with Great Britain, were warm and efficient supporters of Mr. Madison's administration, and zealous members of the democratic party.*

In this state of things, the elections for members of the eighteenth Congress took place. Most of the members, however, were chosen before the public mind had become fixed, in various parts of the country, on either of the candidates; consequently the individual preferences of a large portion of the members of Congress were unknown to the people by whom they were elected. It was apparent to observing politicians, that the final choice of president would probably fall on Congress, in consequence of the number of candidates preventing a choice by the electoral colleges.

It soon became evident that a large proportion of the old politicians of the democratic party had decided to support Mr. Crawford for the succession. He had been, it will be recollected, a formidable candidate against Mr. Monroe in the congressional caucus in 1816. Since the election of the latter, Mr. Crawford had been a prominent member of his cabinet, as secretary of the treasury, and it was well known that he would now be sustained by Virginia and Georgia, and it was believed that he would also be supported by most of the southern democracy. The general impression among political men was, that a majority of the leading and influential democrats in the Union concurred in the policy of supporting Mr. Crawford. Among these was Mr. Van Buren, then a senator in Congress from the state of New York, and a leading democrat in that state, with whom other prominent men of the same party acted, sufficient in power and influence, as it was thought, to give the electoral vote of the state to Mr. Crawford.

Previous to the meeting of Congress, the annual election took place in the state of New York, in November, 1823, for members of the legislature, by whom the electors of president were to be chosen. The result was unexpected and very unsatisfactory to the friends of Mr. Crawford, for although they claimed a majority of the members elect, yet the city and county of New York, and many other counties, had decided against them, and the anti-Crawford men likewise claimed a majority in the legislature. The latter, moreover, rested their hopes of success on the passage * Hammond's History of Parties.

of a law by the legislature, giving the choice of electors to the people This question, which was for many months agitated in New York, gavə rise to what was called the people's party, which comprised in its ranks most of the people opposed to Mr. Crawford for the presidency.

On the 1st day of December, 1823, the eighteenth Congress held their first session, which continued until the 26th of May, 1824. Mr. Clay, who was again elected a member from Kentucky, was chosen speaker of the house, by a large majority, over Mr. Barbour, speaker of the last Congress.

The most important acts passed at this session were those relating to the protection of American manufactures, and internal improvement. The president was authorized to cause the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates, to be made of the routes of such roads and canals as he might deem of national importance, for which purpose the sum of thirty thousand dollars was appropriated. The president, after mature deliberation, changed his former views on the subject of internal improvements by the general government, and gave this bill his approval, which proved a model. and precedent for future legislation on this subject. There was a very general opinion at that time in favor of internal improvements. The tariff act passed at this session was intended as a protection to American manufactures; it raised the duties on many articles of imports from foreign countries coming in contact with articles manufactured in the United States. It was the result of the combined efforts of the advocates of protection to domestic industry throughout the Union, added to the recommendation of the president and the support of members of Congress principally from the northern, middle, and western states. The bill was debated for weeks in both houses, and called forth the first talent in Congress. The most strenuous opposition was made by the members from the southern states. Some northern members voted against the bill, because they were dissatisfied with its details, rather than with its general principles. The majority in its favor in the senate was four, and in the house five only.

An act was passed to provide for the extinguishment of the debt due to the United States by the purchasers of public lands, by which persons who had bought these lands on credit, of the United States, could receive a discharge of the debt, or part thereof, by relinquishing to the United States the lands so purchased, or part of the lands, according to the amount due. Donations of lands were granted to certain actual settlers in Florida.

The state of Indiana was authorized to open a canal through the public lands, to connect the navigation of the waters of the Wabash river with those of Lake Erie; and every section of land through which the said canal route might pass was reserved from future sale. The naturalization laws were amended so as to allow aliens being minors to become citizens