30 chapters
6 hour read
Selected Chapters
30 chapters
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
PAGE The Young West 1 Benton's Early Life and Entry into the Senate 23 Early Years in the Senate 47 The Election of Jackson, and the Spoils System 69 The Struggle with the Nullifiers 88 Jackson and Benton make War on the Bank 114 The Distribution of the Surplus 143 The Slave Question appears in Politics 157 The Children's Teeth are set on Edge 184 Last Days of the Jacksonian Democracy 209 The President without a Party 237 Boundary Troubles with England 260 The Abolitionists Dance to the Slave Ba
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
The Election of Jackson, and the Spoils System 69...
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
The Struggle with the Nullifiers 88...
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
Jackson and Benton make War on the Bank 114...
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
The Distribution of the Surplus 143...
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Slave Question appears in Politics 157...
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
The Children's Teeth are set on Edge 184...
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Last Days of the Jacksonian Democracy 209...
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
The President without a Party 237...
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
Boundary Troubles with England 260...
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Abolitionists Dance to the Slave Barons' Piping 290...
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Slavery in the New Territories 317...
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE YOUNG WEST.
THE YOUNG WEST.
Even before the end of the Revolutionary War the movement had begun which was to change in form a straggling chain of sea-board republics into a mighty continental nation, the great bulk of whose people would live to the westward of the Appalachian Mountains. The hardy and restless backwoodsmen, dwelling along the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies, were already crossing the mountain-crests and hewing their way into the vast, sombre forests of the Mississippi basin; and for the first time English
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BENTON'S EARLY LIFE AND ENTRY INTO THE SENATE.
BENTON'S EARLY LIFE AND ENTRY INTO THE SENATE.
Thomas Hart Benton was born on March 14, 1782, near Hillsborough, in Orange County, North Carolina,—the same state that fifteen years before, almost to a day, had seen the birth of the great political chief whose most prominent supporter he in after life became. Benton, however, came of good colonial stock; and his early surroundings were not characterized by the squalid poverty that marked Jackson's, though the difference in the social condition of the two families was of small consequence on t
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EARLY YEARS IN THE SENATE.
EARLY YEARS IN THE SENATE.
When Benton took his seat in the United States Senate, Monroe, the last president of the great house of Virginia, was about beginning his second term. He was a courteous, high-bred gentleman, of no especial ability, but well fitted to act as presidential figure-head during the politically quiet years of that era of good feeling which lasted from 1816 till 1824. The Federalist party, after its conduct during the war, had vanished into well-deserved obscurity, and though influences of various sort
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE ELECTION OF JACKSON, AND THE SPOILS SYSTEM.
THE ELECTION OF JACKSON, AND THE SPOILS SYSTEM.
In the presidential election of 1828 Jackson and Adams were pitted against each other as the only candidates before the people, and Jackson won an overwhelming victory. The followers of the two were fast developing respectively into Democrats and Whigs, and the parties were hardening and taking shape, while the dividing lines were being drawn more clearly and distinctly. But the contest was largely a personal one, and Jackson's success was due to his own immense popularity more than to any party
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE STRUGGLE WITH THE NULLIFIERS.
THE STRUGGLE WITH THE NULLIFIERS.
During both Jackson's presidential terms he and his adherents were engaged in two great struggles; that with the Nullifiers, and that with the Bank. Although these struggles were in part synchronous, it will be easier to discuss each by itself. The nullification movement in South Carolina, during the latter part of the third and early part of the fourth decades in the present century, had nothing to do, except in the most distant way, with slavery. Its immediate cause was the high tariff; remote
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
JACKSON AND BENTON MAKE WAR ON THE BANK.
JACKSON AND BENTON MAKE WAR ON THE BANK.
If the struggle with the Nullifiers showed Benton at his best, in the conflict with the Bank he exhibited certain qualities which hardly place him in so favorable a light. Jackson's attack upon the Bank was a move undertaken mainly on his own responsibility, and one which, at first, most of his prominent friends were alarmed to see him undertake. Benton alone supported him from the beginning. Captain and lieutenant alike intensely appreciated the joy of battle; they cared for a fight because it
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SURPLUS.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SURPLUS.
Benton was supremely self-satisfied with the part he had played in the struggle with the Bank. But very few thinking men would now admit that his actions, as a whole, on the occasion in question, were to his credit, although in the matter of the branch drafts he was perfectly right, and in that of the re-charter at least occupied defensible ground. His general views on monetary matters, however, were sound, and on some of the financial questions that shortly arose he occupied a rather lonely pre
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE SLAVE QUESTION APPEARS IN POLITICS.
THE SLAVE QUESTION APPEARS IN POLITICS.
Towards the close of Jackson's administration, slavery for the first time made its permanent appearance in national politics; although for some years yet it had little or no influence in shaping the course of political movements. In 1833 the abolition societies of the North came into prominence; they had been started a couple of years previously. Black slavery was such a grossly anachronistic and un-American form of evil, that it is difficult to discuss calmly the efforts to abolish it, and to r
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CHILDREN'S TEETH ARE SET ON EDGE.
THE CHILDREN'S TEETH ARE SET ON EDGE.
In his dealings with the Bank and his disposal of the deposits Jackson ate sour grapes to his heart's content; and now the teeth of his adopted child Van Buren were to be set on edge. Van Buren was the first product of what are now called "machine politics" that was put into the presidential chair. He owed his elevation solely to his own dexterous political manipulation, and to the fact that, for his own selfish ends, and knowing perfectly well their folly, he had yet favored or connived at all
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
LAST DAYS OF THE JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY.
LAST DAYS OF THE JACKSONIAN DEMOCRACY.
The difficulty and duration of a war with an Indian tribe depend less upon the numbers of the tribe itself than upon the nature of the ground it inhabits. The two Indian tribes that have caused the most irritating and prolonged struggle are the Apaches, who live in the vast, waterless, mountainous deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, and whom we are at this present moment engaged in subduing, and the Seminoles, who, from among the impenetrable swamps of Florida, bade the whole United States army d
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE PRESIDENT WITHOUT A PARTY.
THE PRESIDENT WITHOUT A PARTY.
The Whigs in 1840 completely overthrew the Democrats, and for the first time elected a president and held the majority in both houses of Congress. Yet, as it turned out, all that they really accomplished was to elect a president without a party, for Harrison died when he had hardly more than sat in the presidential chair, and was succeeded by the vice-president, Tyler of Virginia. Harrison was a true Whig; he was, when nominated, a prominent member of the Whig party, although of course not to be
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
BOUNDARY TROUBLES WITH ENGLAND.
BOUNDARY TROUBLES WITH ENGLAND.
Two important controversies with foreign powers became prominent during Tyler's presidency; but he had little to do with the settlement of either, beyond successively placing in his cabinet the two great statesmen who dealt with them. Webster, while secretary of state, brought certain of the negotiations with England to a close; and later on, Calhoun, while holding the same office, took up Webster's work and also grappled with—indeed partly caused—the troubles on the Mexican border, and turned t
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE ABOLITIONISTS DANCE TO THE SLAVE BARONS' PIPING.
THE ABOLITIONISTS DANCE TO THE SLAVE BARONS' PIPING.
In 1844 the Whig candidate for the Presidency, Henry Clay, was defeated by a Mr. Polk, the nominee of the Democracy. The majorities in several of the states were very small; this was the case, for example in New York, the change in whose electoral vote would have also changed the entire result. Up to 1860 there were very few political contests in which the dividing lines between right and wrong so nearly coincided with those drawn between the two opposing parties as in that of 1844. The Democrat
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TERRITORIES.
SLAVERY IN THE NEW TERRITORIES.
Hardly was Polk elected before it became evident to Benton and the other Jacksonians that the days of the old Union or Nationalist Democracy were over, and that the separatist and disunion elements within the party had obtained the upper hand. The first sign of the new order of things was the displacement of Blair, editor of the "Globe," the Democratic newspaper organ. Blair was a strong Unionist, and had been bitterly hostile to Calhoun and the Nullifiers. He had also opposed Tyler, the represe
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE LOSING FIGHT.
THE LOSING FIGHT.
Benton had now finished his fifth and last term in the United States Senate. He had been chosen senator from Missouri before she was admitted into the Union, and had remained such for thirty years. During all that time the state had been steadily Democratic, the large Whig minority never being able to get control; but on the question of the extension of slavery the dominant party itself began at this time to break into two factions. Hitherto Benton had been the undisputed leader of the Democracy
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CRITICAL NOTICES.
CRITICAL NOTICES.
FRANKLIN. He has managed to condense the whole mass of matter gleaned from all sources into his volume without losing in a single sentence the freedom or lightness of his style or giving his book in any part the crowded look of an epitome.— The Independent (New York). SAMUEL ADAMS. Thoroughly appreciative and sympathetic, yet fair and critical.... This biography is a piece of good work—a clear and simple presentation of a noble man and pure patriot; it is written in a spirit of candor and humani
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter