Death of Adams and Jefferson

The venerable father of the President, John Adams, died at Quincy, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July, 1826, just fifty years, almost to an hour, after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. On the same day and almost at the same hour, Thomas Jefferson expired, at Monticello, in Virginia. Mr. Adams was about ninety-one years of age, and Mr. Jefferson about eighty-three. They were both members of the committee appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Jefferson was its literary author, and Mr. Adams was its chief supporter in the Congress. The death, simultaneously, of these two of the chief founders of the republic, produced a profound sensation; and in many places throughout the Union, eulogies and funeral orations were pronounced.

The most important movement in the foreign policy of Adams's administration was the appointment of commissioners to attend a congress of representatives of the South American Republics, which assembled at Panama, on the Pacific coast, on the 22nd of June, 1826. The result of that congress was not very important; but the policy of sending to it representatives of the government of the United States, caused much discussion here.

The American System, as it was called (a system of protection and encouragement for American manufacturing establishments, by means of high duties imposed on fabrics made abroad and imported into the United States), was fully developed and assumed the form of a national policy late in the administration of Mr. Adams. On account of the illiberal commercial policy of Great Britain, tariff laws were enacted in 1816 as retaliative measures; and in 1824 imposts were laid on foreign fabrics imported into our country, for the avowed purpose of encouraging home manufactures. These movements were opposed by the cotton-growers, as inimical to their interests; and to a national convention assembled at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1826, to discuss the general subject of tariffs and manufactures, only four of the slave-labor States sent delegates. That convention petitioned Congress to increase the duties on foreign fabrics that were specified, and it was done in the spring of 1828. The measure pleased the manufacturing interest, and displeased the cotton-growing interest. It was denounced in some of the Southern States as oppressive and unconstitutional, and resistance to the law was suggested.

In the autumn of 1828, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were rival candidates for the Presidency of the United States. Jackson was elected, with John C. Calhoun as Vice-President, by a very large majority, after a most exciting canvass, during which, a stranger to our institutions, looking on, would have believed the nation to be on the verge of civil war. Mr. Adams's administration closed on the 4th of March, 1829. It had been marked by great tranquillity and unexampled national prosperity. Peaceful relations with foreign nations existed, and the national debt had been diminished at the rate of more than $7,000,000 a year, it being at the time of his retirement about $58,000,000. This real prosperity he bequeathed to his successor, and he left the chair of state blessed with the grateful benedictions of the survivors of two wars and their families, to whom had been distributed in pensions, during the four years, more than $5,000,000.

Jackson, when a lad, had served as a soldier in the old war for independence; and when he proceeded from his lodgings, in Washington city, to the Capitol, to be inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1829, he was escorted by surviving officers and soldiers of that war. His valorous deeds in the second war for independence (1812-'15) were remembered by the soldiers of the latter war, and they thronged the national capital on that day to witness the exaltation of the chief.

President Jackson was honest, brave, and true to his moral convictions. He began his administration with an audacity of conduct that amazed his political friends, and alarmed his enemies. He swept his political opponents out of the various offices; but in making new appointments, he aimed to have the incumbent answer the searching queries in the affirmative--"Is he capable? Is he honest?" His foreign policy was indicated in his instructions to Louis McLane, his first minister to England, in which he said: "Ask nothing but what is right, and submit to nothing that is wrong." Jackson was so decided in his opinions and actions--so positive in character--that he was thoroughly loved or thoroughly hated; and for eight years he braved the fierce tempests that arose out of partisan strifes, domestic perplexities and foreign arrogance, with a skill and courage that challenge our profound admiration.

At the beginning of Jackson's administration, the government of Georgia renewed its demand for the removal of the powerful Cherokee nation from that State. The President favored the demand, and white people proceeded to take possession of Cherokee estates which had been assigned to them. These Indians were then advanced in civilization, many of them being successful agriculturists. They had churches and schools, and a printing-press; and as they were disposed to defend their rights, civil war appeared inevitable for awhile. In 1832, the Supreme Court of the United States decided against the claim of Georgia, when that State, supported by the President, resisted the decision. An amicable settlement was finally reached; and under the mild coercion of General Winfield Scott and several thousand troops, the Cherokees left Georgia in 1838, and went to lands assigned them well toward the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, where they still remain, with Creeks, Choctaws and others as their neighbors.