THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE OF 1820

417

But by 1820 this Nationalism had to contend with a reaction toward State sovereignty and sectionalism. From that time to the Civil War, political history is a struggle between the forces of Union and Disunion. This time it was the South that felt her pocketbook in danger. She threatened to nullify protective tariffs because she thought they hindered her agricultural prosperity, and every suggestion of Federal interference with slavery impelled her into disunion movements, because her leading industry rested on slave labor.

The

of 1820

One of the first manifestations of this new sectionalism was the struggle that resulted in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Until that time a careful balance had been maintained between slave and free States in Missouri admitting new commonwealths. Vermont offset Compromise Kentucky; Ohio, Tennessee. Louisiana (1812) made the number of free and slave States just equal. But the free States grew much faster in population, and by 1820 (even under the three-fifths rule) they had the larger number of Representatives in the lower House of Congress by a fourth.

Missouri had been settled mainly through Kentucky, with many slaveholders among its people. In 1819 a bill for its admission to the Union came before Congress. The proposed State lay north of the line of the Ohio, which, with Mason and Dixon's line, divided free and slave territory east of the Mississippi. The North roused itself to insist on maintaining that same line west of the river; and mass meetings and legislative resolutions protested against admission with slavery. The South protested quite as vehemently against any restriction upon the wishes and rights of the Missouri people. The House of Representatives, by a majority of one vote, added an amendment to the bill, prohibiting slavery in the proposed State. The Senate struck out this "Tallmadge amendment," and the bill failed for that session. No one yet denied the constitutional

1 Introduced by James Tallmadge of New York.

power of Congress to forbid or regulate slavery in the Territories, but many Northerners, even, denied the right of Congress to impose restrictions upon a new State - so as to make it less "sovereign" than older States.

At the next session of Congress (1820), the Maine district of Massachusetts was also an applicant for admission as a new State. The House passed both bills, restoring the Tallmadge amendment for Missouri. The Senate put the two bills into one, and substituted for the Tallmadge prohibition of slavery the Missouri Compromise. Missouri was to be admitted, with permission to establish slavery, but no other slave State should be formed out of existing national domain north of the southern boundary of Missouri (36° 30'). The policy of the Northwest Ordinance was applied to the greater part of the Louisiana Purchase.

The "

era

For the whole period 1816-1829, true political parties were lacking. The old Federalists had been galvanized into activity in New England by the Embargo and of good the war; but in 1816 they cast only 35 elecfeeling" ! toral votes, and in 1820 none. The old party lines were wholly gone. Accordingly, the period has sometimes been miscalled "the era of good feeling." In fact, it was an era of exceeding bad feeling. The place of parties, with real principles, was taken by factions, moved only by personal or sectional ambitions.

This became plain in the campaign of 1824. Crawford of Georgia was nominated for the presidency by a CongresThe election sional caucus which, however, was attended by of 1824 less than a third of the members. Legislatures in the New England States nominated John Quincy Adams; and in like fashion, Clay was nominated by Kentucky and Missouri, and Andrew Jackson by Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Jackson's candidacy was a surprise and an offense to the other statesmen of the period. He was a "military hero," and, to their eyes at that time, nothing more. Never before had a man been a candidate for that office without long and distinguished political service behind him. The campaign

66

NEW PARTIES AFTER 1824

419

was marked by bitter personalities. Adams, whose forbidding manners kept him aloof from the multitude; was derided as an aristocrat, while Jackson was applauded as a 'man of the people." Jackson had 99 votes; Adams, 84; Crawford, 41; Clay, 37. According to the Twelfth amendment, the House of Representatives chose between the three highest; and Adams became President, through votes thrown to him by Clay. Adams afterward appointed Clay his Secretary of State; and friends of Jackson complained bitterly that the "will of the people" had been thwarted by what John Randolph called a "corrupt coalition between Puritan and blackleg." (Clay challenged Randolph, and a duel was fought without injury to any one. Honor thus appeased, pleasant social relations were restored between the two.)

The charge of a bargain was bitterly unjust; but the Jackson men at once began the campaign for the next election with Jackson's slogan "Let the people John rule." Adams was thwarted at every turn through- Quincy out his four years. In 1807 Adams had moved Adams

the resolution in Congress that called out Gallatin's Report (page 366), and now, as President, his inaugural announced internal improvements as a leading policy, in opposition to the vetoes of Madison and Monroe. His first Message urged Congress further to multiply roads, found a National University, and build an astronomical observatory — “a lighthouse of the skies." But by this time many States had begun roads and canals of their own, and had no wish to help pay for competing lines elsewhere; so Congress had become lukewarm even on this matter. The President's position, however, helped on the formation of new political parties. Supporters of Adams and Clay, standing for internal improvements and protection, took the name of National Republicans, to indicate their belief in a New parties strong Central government. To the Jackson men the campaign of 1828 was a protest against the undemocratic "usurpation" of 1824. Accordingly they took the name Democratic Republicans (to indicate their claim also to be

the true successors of Jefferson's "Republican party ") or, a little later, merely Democrats. In opposition to the Broad Construction platform of their opponents, they soon became a "Strict Construction" party; but they won the election of 1828 before this question came to the front.

PART VIII-A NEW DEMOCRACY, 1830–1850

CHAPTER XXV

THE AMERICA OF 1830-1850

I. THE THREE SECTIONS

IN 1830 the Union had three great sections, - - North, South, and West. But the Mississippi of that day was not "Southern," nor was Illinois "Northern." Both belonged to the West, while "North" and "South" applied only to the divisions of the Atlantic States.

The North Atlantic section was turning to manufacturing. New England used the water power of her rivers for cotton, woolen, and paper mills, building up a new line The North of towns (the Fall line) as at Lowell, Man- Atlantic chester, Lawrence, Holyoke, and Fall River. section Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York got like results by using "stone coal" from the Pennsylvania mines, which were now accessible cheaply by the Pennsylvania canal system. In 1830 America still had only 32 cities with more than 8000 people; but all but four of these were in this manufacturing region. The population of the new factory towns came at first from the old farming class, drawn in from the country by the lure of companionship and cash. wages. But in the thirties these workers began to be replaced by immigrants fresh from the Old World.

The South had become stationary in industry. Slave labor was unfit for manufactures; so the water power and mineral resources of that district went unused for forty The South The leading industry remained tobacco and cotton raising. Southern society, too, remained stratified along the old lines. (1) At the top were some

years more.