sippi. In October of 1836 Governor Call of Florida marched with a force of two thousand men against the Indians of the interior. A division of his army overtook the enemy in the Wahoo Swamp, a short distance from the scene of Dade's massacre. A battle ensued, and the Indians were driven into the Everglades with considerable losses. Soon afterward another engagement was fought on nearly the same ground; and again the savages were beaten, though not decisively. The remainder of the history of the Seminole War belongs to the following administration.

In the mean time the President had given a final quietus to the Bank of the United States. After vetoing the bill to recharter that institution, he conceived that the surplus funds which had accumulated in its vaults would be better distributed among the States. He had no warrant of law for such a step; but believing himself to be in the right, he did not hesitate to take the responsibility. Accordingly, in October of 1833, he ordered the accumulated funds of the great bank, amounting to about ten million dollars, to be distributed among certain State banks designated for that purpose. This action on the part of the President was denounced by the opposition as a measure of incalculable mischief-unwarranted, arbitrary, dangerous. In the Senate a powerful coalition, headed by Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, was formed against the President; and the new officers, who had been appointed to carry out his measures, were rejected. A resolution censuring his conduct was then introduced and carried; but a similar proposition failed in the House of Representatives. For a while there was a general cry of indignation, and it seemed that the administration would be overwhelmed; but the President, ever as fearless as he was self-willed and stubborn, held on his course, unmoved by the clamor. The resolution of censure stood upon the journal of the Senate for four years and was then expunged from the record through the influence of Senator Thomas H. Benton of Missouri. The financial panic of 1836-7, following soon after the removal of the funds, was attributed by the opponents of the administration to the President's arbitrary action and the prospective destruction of the national bank. To these strictures the adherents of his own party replied that the financial distress of the country was attributable to the bank itself, which was declared to be an institution too powerful and despotic to exist in a free government. The President was but little concerned with the excitement: he had just entered on his second term, with Martin Van Buren for Vice-President instead of Mr. Calhoun.

In 1834 the strong will of the chief magistrate, was brought into

conflict with France. The American government held an old claim against that country for damages done to the commerce of the United States in the wars of Napoleon. In 1831 the French king had agreed to pay five million dollars for the alleged injuries; but the dilatory government of France postponed and neglected the payment until the President, becoming wrathful, recommended to Congress to make reprisals on French commerce, and at the same time directed the American minister at Paris to demand his passports and come home. These measures had the desired effect, and the indemnity was promptly paid. The government of Portugal was brought to terms in a similar

manner.

The country, though flourishing, was not without calamities. Several eminent statesmen fell by the hand of death. On the 4th of July, 1831, ex-President Monroe passed away. Like Jefferson and Adams, he sank to rest amid the rejoicings of the national anniversary. In the following year Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, died at the age of ninety-six. A short time afterward Philip Freneau, the poet of the Revolution, departed from the land of the living. The patriot bard had reached the age of eighty. On the 24th of June, 1833, John Randolph of Roanoke died in Philadelphia. He was a man admired for his talents, dreaded for his wit and sarcasm, and respected for his integrity as a statesman. In 1835 Chief-Justice Marshall breathed his last, at the age of fourscore years; and in the next year ex-President Madison, worn with the toils of eighty-five years, passed away. To these losses of life must be added two great disasters to property. On the 16th of December, 1835, a fire broke out in the lower part of New York City and laid thirty acres of buildings in ashes. Five hundred and twenty-nine houses and property valued at eighteen million dollars were consumed. Just one year afterward the Patent Office and Post-Office at Washington were destroyed in the same manner. But upon the ruins of these valuable buildings, more noble and imposing structures were soon erected.

Jackson's administration was signalized by the addition of two new States. In June of 1836 Arkansas was admitted, with an area of fifty-two thousand square miles, and a population of seventy thousand. In January of the following year Michigan Territory was organized as a State and added to the Union. The new commonwealth brought a population of a hundred and fifty-seven thousand, and an area of fifty-six thousand square miles. The administration was already within two months of its close. The President, following the example of Washington, issued a patriotic farewell address.

The dangers of discord and sectionalism among the States were set forth with all the masculine energy of the Jacksonian dialect. The people of the United States were again solemnly warned, as they had been by the Father of his Country, against the baleful influence of demagogues. The horrors of disunion were portrayed in the strongest colors; and people of every rank and section were exhorted to maintain and defend the American Union as they would the last fortress of human liberty. This was the last of those remarkable public papers contributed by Andrew Jackson to the history of his country. Already, in the autumn of the previous year, Martin Van Buren had been elected President. The opposing candidate was General Harrison of Ohio, who received the support of the new Whig party. As to the vice-presidency, no one secured a majority in the electoral college, and the choice devolved on the Senate. By that body Colonel Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky was duly elected.

CHAPTER LV.

VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1837-1841.

ARTIN VAN BUREN, eighth President of the United States,

MART

was born at Kinderhook, New York, on the 5th of December, 1782. After receiving a limited education he became a student of law, and before reaching his majority was recognized as an influential democratic politician. In his thirtieth year he was elected to the Senate of his native State; and six years afterwards, by supplanting De Witt Clinton, became the recognized leader of the Democracy in New York. In 1821, and again in 1827, he was chosen United States Senator; but in the following year he resigned his office to accept the governorship of his native State. He also, in 1831, resigned his place as secretary of State in the first cabinet of President Jackson, and was appointed minister to England. But when, in December of the same year, his nomination was submitted to the Senate the influence of Vice-President Calhoun assisted by the Whig leaders, Clay and Webster, procured the rejection of the appointment. Mr. Van Buren returned from his unfulfilled mission; became the candidate for the vice-presidency, and was elected in the fall of 1832. Four years later he was called by the voice of the powerful party to which he belonged, to succeed General Jackson in the highest office of the nation.