Inauguration of Mr. Van Buren

IT seemed to be the opening of a new era in the history of our Republic, when, on the 4th of March, 1837, Martin Van Buren of New York, of Dutch descent, was inaugurated the eighth President of the United States. His predecessors in that office were all of British stock, and had been personally engaged in the events of the old war for independence; he was born at near the close of that war, and was in the fifty-fifth year of his age when he entered the chair of state. The day of his inauguration was bright and serene, and he rode from the Presidential mansion to the Capitol by the side of the venerable Jackson, in a phaeton made largely of wood of the frigate Constitution, which the political friends of the general had presented to him. They were escorted by the military, horse and foot, and the new President, when he had taken the oath of office and delivered his inaugural address, was warmly greeted by the shouts of a great multitude of people.

Mr. Van Buren's administration began at an inauspicious time, for the fearful commercial revulsion, already alluded to, had just begun. During March and April, 1837, there were mercantile failures in the city of New York to the amount of more than one hundred million dollars. Only fifteen months before, property to the amount of more than twenty million dollars had been consumed by a great fire, which occurred in December, 1835, when more than five hundred buildings were destroyed. The effects of these losses and failures at the commercial emporium were felt in every part of the Union, and business confidence received a paralyzing shock. A deputation of merchants and bankers of New York waited upon the President in May with a petition praying him to defer the collection of duties, rescind the "Specie Circular," and call an extraordinary session of Congress. Their prayer was rejected, and when that fact became known nearly all the banks in the country suspended specie payment. This movement embarrassed the government, for it was unable to obtain coin wherewith to discharge its own financial obligations. So situated, the public good demanded legislative relief, and the President called an extraordinary session of Congress on the 4th of September. In his message to that body, he proposed the establishment of an independent treasury for the public funds, totally disconnected with all banking institutions; but during a session of forty-three days, Congress did very little for the general relief, excepting the authorizing of an issue of treasury notes, in amount not exceeding ten million dollars. The independent treasury scheme met with violent opposition, but a bill to that effect became a law in July, 1840, and the "Sub-Treasury System" was put into operation.

Peaceful relations between the United States and Great Britain, which had then existed many years, were somewhat disturbed in 1837 and 1838 by events connected with a revolutionary movement that broke out in Canada, the avowed object being to achieve the independence of the provinces of British rule. In this effort our people sympathized, and gave the insurgents all possible aid and comfort. Individuals and organized companies went across the border and joined the insurgents; and refugees from Canada were protected here. The agitation and the outbreak occurred simultaneously in Upper and Lower Canada, but local jealousies prevented a unity of action, and the scheme failed. The active sympathy of the people of the "States," and especially along the northern frontier, irritated the British government. The President issued a proclamation, warning Americans not to violate neutrality and international laws; and he sent General Winfield Scott to the northern frontier to preserve order. It was not permanently effected until at the end of about four years.

Many stirring incidents occurred on the frontier during that outbreak in the Canadas, the most conspicuous of which was on the bosom of the Niagara River. A party of Americans, seven hundred in number, with twenty cannon, took possession of Navy Island, in that stream two miles above the Great Falls. They had a small steamboat named Caroline, that plied between the Island and Scholosser, on the New York shore. One dark night in December, 1837, a party of royalists crossed the river from Canada, set the Caroline on fire, cut her loose from her moorings, and allowed her to go blazing down the fearful rapids and over the crown of the mighty cataract into the seething gulf below. It was believed that some persons were on board the Caroline, and perished with her.

Another cause for unpleasant feeling between the governments of the United States and Great Britain was a long-standing dispute concerning the true boundary between the State of Maine and the British province of New Brunswick. The inhabitants of each frontier had become so exasperated, that at the close of 1838 they were preparing for actual war. General Scott was sent to the scene of strife as a pacificator in the winter of 1839, and the dispute was settled by a treaty negotiated by Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton, the same year. Provision was made in the same treaty for the co-operation of the two governments in the suppression of the African slave trade; also for the giving up of fugitives from justice, in certain cases. This is known in history as the Ashburton Treaty.