Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 2).djvu/123



financial measures of the Jackson régime, the crisis of 1837, and the party struggle brought forth by that event, will be made more intelligible by a brief review of the situation.

The time of Jackson's presidency was a period of great material progress. The completion of the Erie Canal had made the Northern lake regions easily accessible, and accelerated their settlement. Steamboat navigation on the Western rivers increased rapidly. Between 1830 and 1834 the number of steamboats rose from 130 to 230, and their tonnage nearly doubled, opening more widely the valleys of the Mississippi and of its great tributaries. Railroad building, too, began in earnest. In 1830 only 23 miles had been in operation; in 1835 there were 1,098, and two years later, 1,497. The railroad did not yet pierce the “Great West,” but railroad schemes were abundant there, and the imagination of bold speculators easily annihilated the distance between the Atlantic sea-board and the banks of the Mississippi. Canals for the transportation of goods were projected and begun everywhere. All these things naturally stim-