1806-7. FIRST ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. 129 but to the United States scarcely more than its initiation. On both sides of the ocean, however, philanthropy now reposed upon its laurels; and with the abolition of the slave-trade, a policy to which the United States, with Great Britain's cooperation, ever after adhered,* favored presently by the commercial situation, and in later years by more efficacious restraints, the first anti-slavery movement in America subsided. Of that movement the headquarters were at Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania was the chief agitating State in the Union. The last State convert to emancipation had now been made, and upon no remaining issue which the slave problem presented in America could the general sentiment be strongly aroused or united. To limit slavery encroachment upon the national domain was not attempted. The drab coats and yearly meetings fix no longer the public gaze; in 1807 the abolition convention at Philadelphia resolved to hold only triennial meetings in the future, and even those were presently discontinued as the societies died out which had supplied delegates.t Virginia had now dismissed all thought of becoming soon a free State, partly because of those labor interests which were insensibly knitting together an old South and a new, and still more from the growing dread of social confusion, should such a step be taken. The Virginia leaders, however, aided the national cause to this point, dropping gradually in tone from liberator to umpire; compassionate, but with faltering convictions. From Jefferson's present effort to provide some means of restoring the African race to their native land‡ sprang, in 1817, the American Colonization Society, a private organization among border slaveholders, whose aims and efforts may be traced at a later epoch of our history. Border statesmen, at the present stage, confessed their own doubts as to the equal * President Madison, in 1810, stated that American citizens were still instrumental in carrying on the traffic. Message, December, 1810. Nevertheless, the practice which he thus rebuked was not general, and the national government steadily suppressed the traffic. In the first session of the Tenth Congress Charleston merchants petitioned for relief from penalties incurred just after the act went into effect, but a reference was refused. Annals of Congress, December, 1807. See supra, vol. i, p. 143; Penn. Hist. Soc. Records. capacity of negroes and white men. "But whatever be their degree of talent," said Jefferson of the former, "it is no meas ure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person and property of others." And it seemed as if hopeful advances were being made towards re-establishing the ebony race on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family.* The West was populating rapidly, but with slavery and freedom stimulated into dangerous competition. Presently we see Indiana Territory praying for a suspension of the Ordinance of 1787; Congress hesitates, then declines to accede.† Happy nation, could the covenants of that ordinance have extended over the whole Louisiana purchase. East of the turbid flood, from wigwam and cabin, the blue smoke curled peacefully upward, and the corn ripened upon the red man's patch and the white man's. Without spilling a drop of blood Jefferson had, by purchase, consolidated the vast region east of the Mississippi by an indisputable title, and laid it open to settlement. The receipts from the public lands rose to unprecedented figures. Beyond the Mississippi, a government expedition, under Captains Lewis and Clarke, explored the Missouri to its source; and, crossing the Rocky Mountains, penetrated distant Oregon to the Pacific Ocean, by way of the Columbia River, making interesting discoveries, and confirming the title of the United States to all that silent region. Congress recognized at this session the growing importance of the West, and the necessity of strengthening the national jurisdiction, by adding a seventh justice to the bench of the Supreme Court, and creating a seventh Federal Circuit, to be composed of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio.§ For the first * Jefferson's Works, February 25th, 1809. This occurred in the Tenth Congress, first session. See Annals, November, 1807; and see supra, p. 57. See Captain M. Lewis's Journal. The expedition occupied from the spring of 1803 to the fall of 1806. Act of February 24th, 1807. 1806-7. THE GROWING WEST. 131 high judicial incumbent from that section, Thomas Todd, of Kentucky, was selected. Brock holst Livingston, of New York, succeeded to a vacancy on the Supreme bench made by the death of William Paterson, of New Jersey. But one more congressional cycle now remained to round out a long administration, peaceful, progressive, and steadily successful beyond precedent or prophecy. Six years of Jefferson had fixed immutably the republican character of these institutions, and vindicated this American experiment as never before. The machinery of internal administration went on smoothly; not a serious flaw could be discovered. Treason had been crushed, less even by law than by common execration. Political disputes might be noisy; but there were no mobs, no insurrections; everything was settled at the polls. Philanthropy, though unable to expel the virus, extracted the ball at last, which had poisoned the colonization of this continent at its first discovery. Kings might tread down each other's boundmarks in the Old World; but for us remained the boundless heritage of the New. Never had the people shown so much confidence in their Constitution and government. The attractive example of honest economy and simplicity in the Federal head penetrated States and municipalities. Even parsimony had become more popular than a squandering munificence. The public burdens were daily diminishing, while the public revenue increased. The planter disposed of his crop, the farmer's produce found a ready market; commerce winged the ocean to and fro, far and wide; industry found its surest protection in light taxes, fair laws fairly executed, and the freest possible development to the individual. The din, the rush, the incessant agitation and activity betokened no disruption; order ruled, but the whole hive was astir. Puzzled and pressing on, buzzing and busy, our people were in the full career of prosperous enterprise, each adding to his own. hoard, and all piling up the general store. The time now rapidly approached, when, to judge by existing estimates, the Revolutionary debt would be wholly liquidated at maturity, and the national treasury full even to overflowing. While the lessening national expenditure slightly fluctuated, not a single year rising to the amounts of 1779 and 1800, and generally kept far below them, the national receipts had steadily increased. For 1806 our revenue was upwards of $15,000,000; and this was less than what might be reckoned upon during the two years next succeeding. This latter total was derived chiefly from our neutral carrying trade, which yielded to the customs about $14,667,000 in 1806; double, or even treble, the import revenue accruing to the Union for any year prior to 1800, except, perhaps, 1797. Three more years of such prosperity, and all the national debt susceptible of immediate payment would be cancelled, leaving an annual surplus revenue to be disposed of. In his opening message at the second session of this Congress Jefferson had recommended a policy appropriate to Dec., 1806. such a condition of affairs; namely, to keep up the Federal impost, and use accruing surpluses thereafter for objects of general welfare, such as providing a national establishment of education, and opening new roads, canals, and river connections. By these operations new channels of communication, he thought, would be opened between the States, the lines of separation would disappear, their interests would be identified, and their union cemented by new and indissoluble ties. The means of accomplishing this magnificent object he hoped to leave to his countrymen as the last grand bequest of a patriot. His Secretary of the Treasury, anticipating the auspicious day, began to draw up the specifications of such a plan, for whose proper execution the President thought an amendment of the Constitution would be needful; and, encouraged by the flattering state of the finances, Congress had, meantime, created the Coast Survey, and made its first appropriation for the Cumberland Road, reaching from the Potomac * Annals of Congress, December, 1806; President's Message. + See Adams's Gallatin, 351, for the plan of internal improvements which Gallatin prepared and sent into the Senate, April 12th, 1808, after a year's preparation. Canals were projected, and turnpike roads running coastwise and from east to west; the improvement of the great rivers and transportation facilities between all sections of the country. This vast scheme, which combined all the local interests, would have absorbed the surplus revenues for ten years under estimates then existing. A national university would have been founded besides. 1807. A SANGUINE PRESIDENT. 133 to the Ohio River, across the Alleghanies, which, by later extensions, became our famous national highway westward.* Elated and sanguine, triumphant over all enemies, successful hitherto, and assured of an influence sufficient to command the choice of a successor pledged to his policy and principles, the philosopher statesman stood out for a last course. The wind favored, and only one black speck appeared in the horiHis serenity was undisturbed. "Wars and contentions, indeed," recorded the pilot, "fill the pages of history with more matter. But more blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say. This is what I ambition for my own country."† zon. SECTION II. PERIOD OF TENTH CONGRESS. MARCH 4, 1807-MARCH 3, 1809. That same black speck which Jefferson descried in the horizon was premonitory of disturbance. The wind shifted, the temperature rose and then fell, bellying clouds swept over the sky, burying the sun from sight, the snarling ocean showed its white teeth. There was scarcely time to reef the sails before the European storm encompassed us. It was a long storm and a violent one. It threatened to engulf instantly that neutral commerce which was becoming the source of wealth to ourselves and jealousy to our rivals. It compelled our government to make jettison of all other cherished projects for the sole sake of maintaining that commerce and American rights on the ocean. And, as we shall find, expedient after expedient having been tried in vain to avert the danger, our people refused to turn back, but plunged forward boldly, perhaps rashly, and the tempest was weathered. All this disturbed the calculations of philosophy, and af * Annals of Congress; Adams's Gallatin; Spofford's American Almanac; Jefferson's Works; Act of March 29th, 1806. Jefferson's Works, March 29th, 1807. |