earnestness, which both deserved and ensured success. Local divisions were done away; personal difficulties adjusted, and private quarrels forgotten, in the general desire to promote the triumph of the party. The people at large, witnessing on one side so much party devotion, and on the other so much of the opposite quality, were led to regard the cause of the administration with more favor, than it would have obtained upon a mere view of its principles and policy.

They could not be made to believe, that men who seriously supposed the constitution would be subverted by the re-election of General Jackson, could be prevented from combining to defeat him by such considerations as kept the national republicans and anti-masons apart. They knew, that minor interests and petty feelings are laid aside in moments of great excitement, and they justly concluded, that those who acted so much unlike men, deeply and powerfully impressed with the importance of the crisis, could not fully believe themselves, in the reality of the dangers which they had described.

Nor were the adherents of the administration deficient in topics well calculated to affect the public mind. In addition to the high personal popularity of the President, his administration had been eminently successful in the management of our foreign affairs. With the exception of the adjustment of the controversy in relation to the colonial trade, (which was effected at the expense both of the dignity and interests of the

country,) the foreign relations of the United States had been managed with ability and success. The claims of American merchants for confiscations by the imperial government of France were prosecuted with great diligence, and finally adjusted for the sum of 25,000,000 of francs to be paid by the French government for distribution among the claimants. A treaty was concluded with Denmark, by which she agreed to pay the sum of $650,000 for depredations committed by her privateers; and even the claims on Naples, which were regarded almost as hopeless, were acknowledged, and the sum of $1,720,000 stipulated to be paid as an indemnity. The prompt chastisement of the Malays for a piratical attack upon an American merchant vessel was cited as an instance of the vigor and decision of the President; and the satisfactory adjustment of the terms of a treaty with Mexico was urged as equally illustrative of his ability at negotiation.

Even the treaty formed with Turkey, although the preliminary difficulties were surmounted, and the terms arranged by his predecessor, from its being first communicated to the public in the second year of the administration of General Jackson, was deemed an additional proof of his diplomatic skill and sagacity. Nor was the nation less prosperous at home than the government fortunate abroad. Abundant harvests rewarded the labor of the farmer and imparted activity to commerce; while the rapid extension of the manufacturing in

terest gave employment to thousands, whose industry would have been unprofitably devoted to agriculture, and furnished a home market for the productions of the soil. The policy pursued by the preceding administration was now beginning to produce the effects anticipated. To that administration, impartial justice would have awarded the merit due to the wisdom which adopted the policy. But in the heat and turmoil of party dissensions, her voice is seldom heard, and those who had taken their side as partizans insisting, that our domestic prosperity was owing to the policy of the administration; the mass who seldom look beyond the most obvious causes, willingly assented to a proposition, which relieved them from the labor of investigation and reflection. Although the course of the administration was sustained in this manner, by the popular voice, those who administered the government did not find their task unattended with difficulties.

The question between the Cherokees and the State of Georgia was fast approaching to a final decision before the Supreme Court of the United States: and although no doubt could be entertained as to the judgment of that tribunal; strong doubts were felt concerning the willingness of the executive to enforce its decision: and an absolute certainty prevailed, that a refusal to enforce it, would deprive the federal government of all pretence to require South Carolina to submit her claims to annul the revenue laws, to the arbitrament of the same tribunal. Notwithstanding the ad

ministration, in its desire to subserve the views of Georgia, had weakened the constitutional authority of the federal government and exposed it to the reproaches, of the civilized world for its disregard of treaty stipulations; the state authorities did not cease to complain of the delay in the execution of the compact of 1802, and prosecuted their designs to appropriate the Cherokee lands to the use of the land speculators of Georgia without regard to the rights of the aborigines, or the requirements of humanity.

The unhappy effects of this departure in the President from the established policy of his predecessors were not confined to the aborigines of the southern section of the union. In the northwestern states difficulties began to occur which, before the end of the period of which we are treating, had involved the country in an expensive frontier war.

A treaty had been made in 1830, with the Sacs and Foxes, by which they agreed to cede their lands to the United States and to remove beyond the Mississippi. As they did not promptly comply with the treaty, and one band under the command of Black Hawk evinced a determination to maintain possession of their old village, John Renyolds, governor of the State of Illinois, chose to construe their continued residence in the ceded territory, as an invasion of the state, and under his authority to protect the state from invasion, he ordered out seven hundred militia to remove the Indians beyond the Mississippi according to the treaty

This unjustifiable interference with the peculiar duties of the federal government, compelled the officer commanding the United States troops in that quarter to coöperate with him in order to prevent a collision between the state militia and the Indians.Overawed by the imposing force brought against them, they yielded to necessity and crossed the Mississippi, but gathering strength on the western bank of the river, and exasperated at the harsh treatment they had received, Black Hawk and his party resolved on commencing a predatory war on the frontier settle

ments.

This party had long evinced a hostile disposition towards the whites, and a few months before had attacked an unarmed party of the Menomonies, who were under the protection of the United States. They however had been restrained by the peaceable part of the tribe from commencing hostilities, and possibly might have been prevented altogether, had not the hasty interference of Governor Reynolds given an ascendency to the war party in their councils, and enabled Black Hawk to carry the tribe with him in his measures. In the month of March, 1832, he accordingly assembled a band of Sacs and Foxes, which, united with the Winnebagoes under the control of the Prophet, were about 1000 in number and crossed the Mississippi at the Yellow Banks in a hostile manner.

The frontier settlers alarmed at the appearance of so large a band of unfriendly savages fled

from their farms, and the governor ordered out a brigade of militia for their protection.

These troops before meeting the Indians requested to be dismissed, and in the meantime General Atkinson, the commander of the federal forces in that quarter, was instructed to call on the governor for a detachment of militia for the defence of the frontier settlers. 3000 mounted volunteers were ordered into the field upon this requisition, and with 400 regulars in addition, the campaign was opened about the 18th of June. Black Hawk finding himself unable to withstand this force retired into the swamps, whence he sent out detached parties to attack the unprotected settlements. In this manner he annoyed the people residing in the mining district of Michigan, and murdered a number of defenceless families.

The alarm was now real, and General Scott was ordered from the sea board with nine companies of artillery drawn from the coast, nine companies of infantry from the lakes and two companies from Baton Rouge to put an end to the

war.

Such was the promptness with which these orders were executed, that five out of the six companies of artillery ordered from Fort Monroe in the Chesapeake arrived in eighteen days at Chicago, eighteen hundred miles distant in the interior of the country. Unfortunately this detachment was attacked by the cholera on the route, and the whole were rendered unfit to take the field before they arrived at the scene of action.

General Scott finding the force

under his immediate command unfitted for active service, and that he could not safely join General Atkinson without hazarding the safety of the troops then in the field, directed him to act without reference to his detachment. That officer had, in the meantime, been actively employed in pursuing the Indians and driving them from their lurking places. Black Hawk finding himself pressed on all sides, broke up his camp and marched towards the Mississippi. The volunteers under Generals Dodge and Henry pursued him, and came up with him on the 21st of July, on the bank of the Ouisconsin. During the engagement the Indians conveyed their women and baggage over the river, and in the night they crossed the stream themselves leaving sixtyeight killed. The volunteers however also retired in order to obtain provisions from General Atkinson.

The pursuit was then renewed, and on the 2d of August another engagement ensued on the left bank of the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Ioway, where the Indians were dispersed with a loss of more than one hundred and fifty killed.

Black Hawk, with a small band, fled to the Winnebago country, and the residue sought to escape over the Mississippi.

Parties of friendly Indians were despatched to bring in the fugitives, and Black Hawk and the residue having surrendered themselves, the war was concluded and treaties made, by which the offending tribes agreed to compensate for the expense of

the war by a cession of a valuable part of their territory, and to immediately remove to the west bank of the Mississippi. The federal government on its part stipulated to pay annually for twentyseven years $10,000 to the Winnebagoes, and $20,000 to the Sacs and Foxes for thirty years. Other provisions were also made for their improvement in civilization.

While the northwestern frontier was thus agitated by the movements of hostile tribes of Indians, the inhabitants of the northeastern border were excited by an unpleasant collision, arising out of the award of the King of Holland concerning the boundary line between the United States and the British provinces.

During the sitting of the Legislature of the State of Maine in 1830-31, a law was passed authorizing the inhabitants of Madawaska to organize themselves as a town corporation. This was accordingly done on the 20th August, 1831; and at the annual election in the following month, the inhabitants met and elected a representative to the Legislature. Upon hearing this, the British provincial authorities sent a military force, and arrested three persons taking part in the town meeting and carried them to the province jail for trial. Here they were tried and sentenced to three months' imprisonment. This high-handed step on the part of the British authorities excited great indignation among the people of Maine, and the executive council being called together recommended the State to use all

constitutional means to procure the release of its citizens. Deeming it inexpedient to do anything, which might lead to a collision with the provincial authorities, they thought it necessary to take measures to protect their territory from invasion and their citizens from capture. They accordingly recommended the governor to issue a general order calling upon the militia to hold themselves in readiness to act whenever called upon.

A representation was made by the Secretary of State to the British minister at Washington, remonstrating against these proceedings of the provincial government, and through him the release of the prisoners was obtained.

The difficulty however was not adjusted in this manner. The award of the King of Holland had not only undertaken to give to England territory belonging to the State of Maine: but it had departed from the terms of the submission and had rather advised a compromise, than decided a controversy. It was therefore deemed invalid; and the State of Maine contended, that the federal government was not competent to make a treaty, by which a state was to be deprived of any portion of its territory. This position might not have borne a thorough examination: but it would have been embarrassing to a cabinet, that had already construed the sovereignty of a state, so far as it concerned her territory, to be paramount to the treaty making power of the national gov

ernment.

On the other hand the British government professed its readiness to carry the award into effect, and however correct the government of the United States might be in refusing to regard the advice of the arbiter as a decision under the treaty, it would neither have been right nor expedient, to question its own power to make a valid treaty for the final adjustment of the controversy. In this dilemma the administration commenced a negotiation with the State of Maine, with the view of obtaining its consent to the cession of the territory in dispute.

The State of Massachusetts was interested equally with Maine in the property of the soil, and had expressed its determination to sustain the rights of her sister state in the controversy. It was therefore necessary for the two states to act in concert, in the adjustment of a question where they were jointly interested.

This however was not deemed expedient by the governing party in Maine; and William P. Preble was appointed an agent on her part to arrange the terms, upon which that State would consent to the execution of the treaty. After some negotiation Mr Preble addressed a letter to the governor of Maine, advising the State to cede to the United States her claim to the territory, beyond the boundary line recommended by the arbiter for an ample indeinnity.

The motive to this advice was not communicated to the public, nor was any information given as to what indemnity was expected; but a confidential message was