Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/535

Rh elected president in 1840, but died 4 April, 1841, and was succeeded by Vice-President John Tyler. An extra session of congress was called in the summer of 1841, when the struggle of Mr. Clay for the restoration of his American system &mdash; including a bank, protective tariff, internal improvements, and a distribution of the proceeds of the public lands &mdash; brought on a memorable discussion, in which Mr. Calhoun was a leader, and facile princeps, of the democratic party. If the student of our history will consult the speeches of Mr. Calhoun in the senate, on the bank question generally, and on currency, from 1837 till 1842, he will find how thorough his analysis of these abstruse questions was, and how broad were his generalizations of principles. When the tariff question came up again in 1842, the compromise of 1833 was rudely overthrown, and the protective system placed in the ascendent. Mr. Calhoun discussed the question in several able speeches, but delivered one 5 Aug., 1842, of comprehensive force, in which he discriminated with analytic precision between a revenue and a protective duty, holding a tariff for revenue only to be constitutional and right. He discussed the question of wages, and closed his speech with an animation not to be forgotten by one, who heard him utter these sentences: &ldquo;The great popular party is already rallied almost en masse around the banner which is leading the party to its final triumph. The few that still lag will soon be rallied under its ample folds. On that banner is inscribed: Free trade; low duties; no debt; separation from banks; economy; retrenchment, and strict adherence to the constitution. Victory in such a cause will be great and glorious; and long will it perpetuate the liberty and prosperity of the country.&rdquo; The hostility of President Tyler to the American system made its restoration during his administration only partial; but questions of deeper import came before the country, from which results of great consequence have followed. Mr. Tyler had frequently resorted to the veto power to defeat Mr. Clay's measures. Mr. Clay proposed an amendment of the constitution for the abrogation of the veto power, and on 28 Feb., 1842, Mr. Calhoun delivered a speech against this proposition. He vindicated and sustained the veto as an essential part of &ldquo;the beautiful and profound system established by the constitution.&rdquo; The proposition never came to a vote.

In February, 1844, the unfortunate explosion of a gun on the deck of the &ldquo;Princeton,&rdquo; near Washington, robbed the country of two members of President Tyler's cabinet. The vacancy in the state department occasioned by the death of Judge Upshur was filled by Mr. Calhoun, who had ceased to be senator, in March, 1843. Two questions of great importance were considered by the new secretary. At that time the union had no Pacific population, California had not been acquired, and Oregon was not yet within our grasp. Great Britain had an adverse claim to Oregon. Our title rested on discovery and the French treaty of 1803. Access to it there was none but by sea around Cape Horn or across the isthmus. Mr. Calhoun vindicated our rights in a diplomatic correspondence upon grounds on which it was finally adjusted by treaty in 1846. In his speech on the Oregon question, 16 March, 1846, he spoke of the physical elements of civilization steam and electricity. As to the latter (when the telegraph was in its infancy) with wonderful prevision he said: &ldquo;Magic wires are stretching themselves in all directions over the earth, and, when their mystic meshes shall have been united and perfected, our globe itself

will become endowed with sensitiveness, so that whatever touches on any one point will be instantly felt on every other.&rdquo; Again: &ldquo;Peace is preëminently our policy. . . . Providence has given us an inheritance stretching across the entire continent from ocean to ocean. . . . Our great mission, as a people, is to occupy this vast domain; to replenish it with an intelligent, virtuous, and industrious population; to convert the forests into cultivated fields; to drain the swamps and morasses, and cover them with rich harvests; to build up cities, towns, and villages in every direction, and to unite the whole by the most rapid intercourse between all the parts. . . . Secure peace, and time, under the guidance of a sagacious and cautious policy, 'a wise and masterly inactivity,' will speedily accomplish the whole. . . . War can make us great; but let it never be forgotten that peace only can make us both great and free.&rdquo;

Another question, the annexation of Texas, occupied his mind, and gave full scope to his fertile genius. To our internal concerns it was as important as to our foreign relations. It can only be fully comprehended by considering the slavery question, with which it became involved in the act of annexation and in its consequences. In the federal convention of 1787 the diversity of industries growing up in states where slavery did and did not exist was clearly foreseen. This difference was marked by the terms northern and southern, slaveholding and non-slaveholding, commercial and agricultural states. The well-known antipathy of people, among whom slavery does not exist, to that form of labor gave rise to strong feelings in the northern states for its abolition. Among southern people there was much of regret that it had ever been established; but how to deal with it was to them a practical question for their most serious consideration. As has been well said, &ldquo;We had the wolf by the ears &mdash; to hold on, was a great evil; to let go, who could estimate the consequences?&rdquo; It was important as a question of property, but of far greater moment as a social and political problem. What relations, social and political, should exist between these diverse races, when both were free and equal in citizenship? One thing the south felt most strongly. The solution of this difficult problem should be left to those who were personally interested in the continuance of slavery, and involved in the consequences of its abolition. Accordingly, the federal constitution left it for the states to deal with, threw around it interstate guarantees, and put it beyond the reach of the federal government. Without these guarantees, the union could not have been formed. The two sections watched their respective growth in population, and their settlement of our territories, as bearing on their related powers in the federal government. The north had a large majority in the house of representatives, and in the electoral college. In the senate, by a species of common law, an equilibrium was maintained between the sections, one free state being admitted with one slave state for nearly fifty years of our history. In 1820-'1 the Missouri agitation arose, which was quieted for the moment by an agreement that no state should be admitted north of lat. 36&deg; 30' which allowed slavery, while south of that line they might be admitted with or without slavery, as the people of the state should decide. The constitutionality of this Missouri compromise was always denied by many constitutional lawyers, though it is said Mr. Calhoun admitted its constitutionality, when applied to the territories, but not as to a state. With a senate equally divided between the sections, the