ings there in favor of freedom were laid before congress. The legislatures of the slave states expressed themselves, on the other hand, very strongly in opposition to restriction. In congress the debate was long and acrimonious. The senate sent to the house the Missouri bill with the prohibition of slavery in that state struck out, but with the proviso that it should not thereafter be tolerated N. of lat. 36° 30′. The striking out of the restrictive clause was reluctantly assented to by the house by a vote of 90 to 87, a very few northern members voting for it. The compromise by which slavery was prohibited for ever N. of 36° 30′ was then agreed to by a vote of 134 to 42. The northern states acquiesced in this compromise as a political necessity, and as finally settling a controversy dangerous to the peace and stability of the Union, and the slavery agitation subsided for a time. Missouri was finally admitted as a state in 1821. The other great question of Mr. Monroe's administration was the recognition of the Spanish American republics, which had declared and maintained their independence for several years. Chiefly by the efforts and the eloquence of Henry Clay, their independence was acknowledged in 1822; and in the following year the president in his annual message put forth a declaration which has since been famous as the “Monroe doctrine.” In this it was announced that any attempt on the part of European governments to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere would be considered dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States; that the republic would not interfere with existing colonies or dependencies, but would regard as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition to the United States any attempt of a European power to oppress or control the destiny of the governments whose independence the United States had acknowledged. In 1819 Florida had been ceded by Spain.—In the presidential election of 1824 the confused state of parties led to the nomination of four candidates, none of whom had a majority of the electoral votes. Andrew Jackson received 99, John Quincy Adams 84, William H. Crawford 41, and Henry Clay 37. The election went to the house of representatives (the choice being between the three highest candidates), where Mr. Adams received the vote of 13 states, and was declared president; while Jackson received the vote of 7 and Crawford of 4 states. John C. Calhoun had been elected vice president by the electoral colleges, receiving 182 votes to 78 for all others. The total popular vote (the electors in six states being chosen by the legislature) was 352,062, viz.: 155,872 for Jackson, 105,321 for Adams, 46,587 for Clay, and 44,282 for Crawford. The political views of Mr. Adams did not differ from those of Mr. Monroe, and his foreign and domestic policy was very similar. He appointed Henry Clay secretary of state, Richard Rush of the treasury, James Barbour of war, Samuel L. Southard of the navy, and William Wirt attorney general. His administration was remarkable for order, method, and economy, though party spirit was higher than it had been for many years. Perhaps the most important event in his term was the adoption of what was called the American system of protecting home manufactures by a heavy duty upon foreign articles of the same kind, a system popular in the manufacturing north, but bitterly opposed in portions of the agricultural south. A tariff law enacted in 1828 on the principle of protection led a few years later to serious political complications. The presidential contest of the same year was carried on with great animation and virulence, chiefly by means of discussions on the personal character and history of the candidates, Gen. Jackson having been nominated in opposition to Mr. Adams. The result was the election of Jackson by 178 votes to 83 for Adams, while John C. Calhoun was reëlected vice president in opposition to Richard Rush. The popular vote was 647,231 for Jackson and 509,097 for Adams. President Jackson selected for his cabinet Martin Van Buren, secretary of state; Samuel D. Ingham, of the treasury; John H. Eaton, of war; John Branch, of the navy; John McPherson Berrien, attorney general; and William T. Barry, postmaster general. The last named officer was now for the first time made a member of the cabinet. In his first annual message, December, 1829, the president took strong ground against the renewal of the charter of the United States bank, as an institution not authorized by the constitution. A long and excited contest ensued in congress and among the people on this question. Congress in 1882 passed a bill to recharter the bank, but Jackson vetoed it; and as it failed to receive the votes of two thirds of the members of both houses, the bank charter expired by limitation in 1836. The commercial part of the community in this contest generally took the side of the bank, and the party formed in opposition to the president assumed the name of whig, while his supporters adhered to the old name of democrats. The tariff of 1828 had always been distasteful to the cotton-growing states, and on the passing of an act of congress in the spring of 1832 imposing additional duties upon foreign goods, the discontent of South Carolina broke out in almost actual rebellion. A state convention held there in November declared the tariff acts unconstitutional and therefore null and void, and proclaimed that any attempt by the general government to collect duties in the port of Charleston would be resisted by force of arms, and would produce the secession of South Carolina from the Union. The chief leaders of the nullifiers, as this South Carolina party was called, from their assertion of the right of a state to nullify an act of congress which she deemed unconstitutional, were John C. Calhoun, who had resigned the vice presidency and become a senator of the United States;
