the Mediterranean and chastise the Barbary sea-robbers into submission. On the 17th of June, Decatur, cruising near Gibraltar, fell in with the principal frigate of the Algerine squadron, and after a severe fight of twenty minutes compelled the Moorish ship to surrender. Thirty of the piratical crew, including the admiral, were killed, and more than four hundred taken prisoners. On the 19th Decatur captured another frigate, bearing twenty guns and a hundred and eight men. A few days afterward he sailed into the Bay of Algiers, and dictated to the humbled and terrified dey the terms of a treaty. The Moorish emperor was obliged to release his American prisoners without ransom, to relinquish all claims to tribute, and to give a pledge that his ships should trouble American merchantmen no more. Decatur next sailed against Tunis and Tripoli, compelled both of these states to give pledges of good conduct, and to pay large sums for former violations of international law. From that day until the present the Barbary powers have had a wholesome dread of the American flag.

The close of Madison's troubled administration was signalized by the admission of Indiana-the smallest of the Western States-into the Union. The new commonwealth, admitted in December, 1816, came with an area of nearly thirty-four thousand square miles, and a population of ninety-eight thousand. About the same time was founded the Colonization Society of the United States. Many of the most distinguished men in America became members of the association, the object of which was to provide somewhere in the world a refuge for free persons of color. Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, was finally selected as the seat of the proposed colony. A republican form of government was established there, and immigrants arrived in sufficient numbers to found a flourishing negro State. The capital was named Monrovia, in honor of James Monroe, who, in the fall of 1816, was elected as Madison's successor in the presidency. At the same time Daniel D. Tompkins of New York was chosen Vice-President.

Ν

CHAPTER LII.

MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.

IN its political principles the new administration was Democratic. The

policy of Madison was adopted by his successor. But the stormy times of Madison gave place to many years of almost unbroken peace. The new President was a native of Virginia; a man of great talents and

accomplishments. He had been a Revolutionary soldier; a member of the House of Representatives; a senator; governor of Virginia; envoy to France; minister to England; secretary of state under Madison. The members of the new cabinet were-John Quincy Adams, secretary of state; William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury; John C. Calhoun, secretary of war; William Wirt, attorney-general. The animosities and party strifes of the previous years were in a measure forgotten. Statesmen of all parties devoted their energies to the payment of the national debt. It was a herculean task; but commerce revived; the government was economically administered; population increased; wealth flowed in; and in a few years the debt was honestly paid.

In the first summer of Monroe's administration the attention of the United States was directed to the little kingdom of Hayti in the northern part of St. Domingo. Christophe, the sovereign of the country, was anxious to secure from America a recognition of Haytian independence; for he feared that Louis XVIII., the restored Bourbon king of France, would reclaim Hayti as a part of the French empire. The President met the overtures of Christophe with favor, and an agent was sent out in the frigate Congress to conclude a treaty of commerce with the kingdom. But the Haytian authorities refused to negotiate with an agent who was not regularly accredited as a minister to an independent state; and the mission resulted in failure and disappointment.

In September of the same year an important treaty was concluded with the Indian nations of what was formerly the Northwestern Territory. The tribes mostly concerned were the Wyandots, Delawares, Senecas, and Shawnees; but the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottawattamies were also interested in the treaty. The subject discussed was the cession, by purchase and otherwise, of various tracts of land, mostly in Ohio. The Indian title to about four millions of acres, embracing the valley of the Maumee, was extinguished by the payment to the tribes concerned of fourteen thousand dollars in cash. Besides this, the Delawares were to receive an annuity of five hundred dollars; while to the Wyandots, Senecas, Shawnees and Ottawas was guaranteed the payment of ten thousand dollars annually forever. The Chippewas and Pottawattamies received an annuity of three thousand three hundred dollars for fifteen years. A reservation of certain tracts, amounting in the aggregate to about three hundred thousand acres, was made by the Red men with the approval of the government. For it was believed that the Indians, living in small districts surrounded with American farms and villages, would abandon barbarism for the

habits of civilized life. But the sequel proved that the men of the woods had no aptitude for such a change.

In December of 1817 the western portion of Mississippi Territory was organized as the State of Mississippi and admitted into the Union. The new State contained an area of forty-seven thousand square miles, and a population of sixty-five thousand souls. At the same time the attention of the government was called to a nest of buccaneers who had established themselves on Amelia Island, off the north-eastern coast of Florida. One Gregor McGregor, acting under a commission from the revolutionary authorities of New Granada and Venezuela, had put himself at the head of a band of adventurers, gathered mostly from Charleston and Savannah, and fortified the island as a rendezvous of slave-traders and South American privateers. It was thought by the audacious rascals that the well-known sympathy of the United States for the Spanish American republics south of the Isthmus of Darien would protect them from attack. They accordingly proclaimed a blockade of St. Augustine and proceeded with their business as though there was no civilized power in the world. But the Federal government took a different view of the matter. An armament was sent against the pirates, and the lawless establishment was broken up. Another rendezvous of the same sort, on the island of Galveston, off the coast of Texas, was also suppressed.

In the first year of Monroe's administration the question of internal improvements began to be much agitated. The territorial vastness of the country made it necessary to devise suitable means of communication between the distant parts. Without railroads and canals it was evident that the products of the great interior could never reach a market. Had Congress a right to vote money to make the needed improvements? Jefferson and Madison had both answered the question in the negative. Monroe held similar views; and a majority of Congress voted against the proposed appropriations. In one instance, however, a bill was passed appropriating the means necessary for the construction of a national road across the Alleghanies, from Cumberland to Wheeling. The question of internal improvements was then referred to the several States; and New York took the lead by constructing a splendid canal from Buffalo to Albany, a distance of three hundred and sixty-three miles. The cost of this important work was more than seven and a half million dollars, and the eight years of Monroe's administration were occupied in completing it.

In the latter part of 1817 the Seminole Indians on the frontiers of Georgia and Alabama became hostile. Some bad negroes and treacher

ous Creeks joined the savages in their depredations. General Gaines, commandant of a post on Flint River, was sent into the Seminole country, but after destroying a few villages his forces were found inadequate to conquer the Red men. General Jackson was then ordered to collect from the adjacent States a sufficient army and reduce the Seminoles to submission. Instead of following his directions, that stern and self-willed man mustered a thousand riflemen from West Tennessee, and in the spring of 1818 overran the hostile country with little opposition. The Indians were afraid to fight the man whom they had named the Big Knife.

While engaged in this expedition against the Seminoles, Jackson entered Florida and took possession of the Spanish post at St. Mark's. He deemed it necessary to do so in order to succeed in suppressing the savages. The Spanish troops stationed at St. Mark's were removed to Pensacola; and two Englishmen, named Arbuthnot and Ambrister, who fell into Jackson's hands, were charged with inciting the Seminoles to insurrection, tried by a court-martial, and hanged. Jackson then advanced against Pensacola, captured the town, besieged and took the fortress of Barancas, at the entrance to the bay, and sent the Spanish authorities to Havana. These summary proceedings excited much comment throughout the country. The enemies of General Jackson condemned him in unmeasured terms; but the President and Congress justified his deeds. A resolution of censure, introduced into the House of Representatives, was voted down by a large majority. The king of Spain complained much; but his complaint was unheeded. Seeing that the defence of such a province would cost more than it was worth, the Spanish monarch then proposed to cede the territory to the United States. For this purpose negotiations were opened at Washington City; and on the 22d of February, 1819, a treaty was concluded by which East and West Florida and the outlying islands were surrendered to the American government. In consideration of the cession the United States agreed to relinquish all claim to the territory of Texas and to pay to American citizens, for depredations committed by Spanish vessels, a sum not exceeding five million dollars. By the same treaty the eastern boundary of Mexico was fixed at the River Sabine.

The year 1819 was noted for a great financial crisis-the first of many that have occurred to disturb and distress the country. With the reorganization of the Bank of the United States in 1817, the improved facilities for credit gave rise to many extravagant speculations, generally conceived in dishonesty and carried on by fraud. The great

branch bank at Baltimore was especially infested by a band of unscrupulous speculators who succeeded, in connivance with the officers, in withdrawing from the institution fully two millions of dollars beyond. its securities. President Cheves, however, of the superior Board of Directors, adopted a policy which exposed the prevailing rascality, and by putting an end to the system of unlimited credits, gradually restored the business of the country to a firmer basis. But, for the time being, financial affairs were thrown into confusion; and the Bank of the United States itself was barely saved from suspension and bankruptcy.

Monroe's administration was noted for the great number of new members which were added to the Union. In 1818, Illinois, the twenty-first State, embracing an area of more than fifty-five thousand square miles, was organized and admitted. The population of the new commonwealth was forty-seven thousand. In December of the following year Alabama was added, with a population of a hundred and twenty-five thousand, and an area of nearly fifty-one thousand square miles. About the same time Arkansas Territory was organized out of the southern portion of the Territory of Missouri. Early in 1820 the province of Maine, which had been under the jurisdicdiction of Massachusetts since 1652, was separated from that government and admitted into the Union. At the time of admission the population of the new State had reached two hundred and ninetyeight thousand; and its territory embraced nearly thirty-two thousand square miles. In August of 1821 the great State of Missouri, with an area of sixty-seven thousand square miles, and a population of seventy-four thousand, was admitted as the twenty-fourth member of the Union; but the admission was attended with a political agitation so violent as to threaten the peace of the country.

The bill to organize Missouri as a territory was brought forward in February of 1819. The institution of slavery had already been planted there, and the question was raised in Congress whether the new State should be admitted with the existing system of labor, or whether by congressional action slave-holding should be prohibited. On motion of James Tallmadge of New York a clause was inserted in the territorial bill forbidding any further introduction of slaves into Missouri and granting freedom to all slave-children on reaching the age of twenty-five. The bill as thus amended became the organic law of the territory. A few days afterwards when Arkansas was presented for territorial organization, John W. Taylor of New York moved the insertion of a clause similar to that in the Missouri bill;