Resource Center OLLibrary
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wished to reach more directly than the steamboat could
help them to do. Henry Clay, the "Father of the National
Road" (§ 243), urged its extension from Wheeling
across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois through to the
Mississippi. (Map, p. 215.) |
President
Monroe earnestly favored this enterprise, but he did not
think that he had lawful power under the Constitution to
spend the people's money for such purposes. Indirectly,
however, he used every effort to help it forward. The
road was extended nearly to the Mississippi, but by that
time people had begun to build railways (§§
252-255), so the National Road never got any farther. It
was the first great work of the kind undertaken by the
United States, costing, in the end, over $6,000,000. It
stretched across the country for hundreds of miles, --
broad, solid, smooth, -- a true national highway.|
1823 ] |
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246. The "Monroe Doctrine"; "America for
Americans." While the National Road (§ 244) was being
pushed westward, Mexico and several South American countries had
declared themselves republics, independent of Spain. The Czar of
Russia and most of the European kings looked with a jealous eye on
republics. The Czar then held Russian America (now Alaska) and was
endeavoring to get possession of more territory, farther south, on
the Pacific coast. He, with other European rulers, formed an
alliance to force the new American nations to bow their heads a
gain under the old despotic yoke of Spain from which they had just
freed themselves. President Monroe cried, "Hands off!" In his
message to Congress (1823) he declared:
1. That the United States would deny the right
of any European power to plant any new colonies on the American
continent.
2. That we were resolved not to meddle with the
affairs of the nations of the Old World.
3. That we were equally determined that they
should not in any way meddle with the affairs of the New
World.
That declaration is called the "Monroe
Doctrine."1 It means that we consider that "America is
for Americans." We stand by the right of the different nations on
both the American continents, North and South, to manage their own
affairs in their own way, without interference from Europe.
247. Visit of Lafayette. Near the close
of Monroe's administration Congress requested the President to
invite Lafayette
I The "Monroe
Doctrine": in his message to Congress on December 2, 1823,
President Monroe said, speaking of the project of Russia to plant
one or more Russian colonies on the coast of what was then the
Mexican state of California, "The occasion has been judged proper
for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of
the United States are involved, that the American continents, by
the free and independent position which they have assumed and
maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for
future colonization by any European powers."
Again, President Monroe said, in the same
message, in speaking of the proposed interference of European
governments in America, "We should consider any attempt on their
part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as
dangerous to our peace and safety."
Finally, the President said that we could not
consider any interference by Europe with the independent republics
which had been established on either of the American continents
"in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly
disposition toward the United Slates." See W. Macdonald's "Select
Documents of United States History, 1776-1861," p. 228.
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(§ 176), then a venerable man verging on seventy,
to revisit the United States after forty years' absence.
He came (1824), and spent more than a year traveling
through the country as the guest of the nation. He
visited every one of the twenty-four states, and all of
the principal cities and towns. |
He
had spent much of his fortune in our cause. Congress
gratefully voted him two hundred thousand dollars, and
made him a grant of twenty-four thousand acres of land in
Florida. He was everywhere received with enthusiasm and
affection. Some of the old soldiers of the Revolution,
who had fought under him, were completely overcome by
their feelings on seeing their former commander, who had
so generously helped them in the dark days of the war.
Lafayette took part in laying the corner stone of Bunker
Hill Monument (June 17, 1825), just fifty years after the
battle.1 When he returned to France that
autumn he was followed by the fervent prayers of the
powerful nation he had done so much to establish.|
1825-1829] |
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In the very center of Paris, in the grounds of the palace of the Louvre, one sees a commanding equestrian statue (1900). On the base of that statue we read this inscription:
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UNITED STATES, IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF LAFAYETTE, STATESMAN, SOLDIER, PATRIOT |
248. Summary. Four chief events marked
the period of the presidency of James Monroe. They were: (1) the
debate on the extension of slavery west of the Mississippi River,
ending in the Missouri Compromise; (2) the pushing forward of the
National Road into Ohio, which opened up a large section of the
West to emigrants from the Atlantic states; (3) our declaration of
the Monroe Doctrine, that Europe must keep her hands off both
American continents; (4) the visit of Lafayette.
249. John Quincy Adams' Administration
(Sixth President, One Term, 1825-1829);1 Governor
Clinton and the Erie Canal. The year that Mr. Adams became
President (1825) the Erie Canal was completed by the state of New
York. It was the most important public improvement yet made by any
state in the Union.
1 John Quincy Adams,
son of President John Adams, was born in Braintree (now Quincy),
Massachusetts, in 1767; died, 1848. He was originally a Federalist
(§ 203); later, he acted for a time with the
Democratic-Republican party (§ 203), though his sympathies
were largely with those who eventually organized the Whig party.
(§ 273), who, like the extinct Federalists, desired to give a
broad interpretation to the Constitution (§ 203). The Whigs,
led by Henry Clay, favored a protective tariff (that is, a heavy
tax imposed on imported goods for the purpose of "protecting" our
manufacturers against foreign competition; a revenue tariff is a
lighter tax imposed merely to obtain money or revenue for the
government). They also favored public improvements -- such as the
building of roads, canals, and the like -- at the expense of the
nation, in opposition to the Democratic party, which insisted on a
strict interpretation of the Constitution, favored free trade, or
a simple revenue tariff, and believed that each state should make
its own improvements at its own expense.
John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were the
two leading candidates for the presidency in 1824; both were
nominally Democrats, for that was the only party then existing,
but Adams, as an independent Democrat, still held certain
Federalist principles, while Jackson,
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It connected the Hudson River at Troy and Albany with Lake
Erie, at Buffalo.
Governor De Witt Clinton of New York carried the
great work through. When he proposed it, many denounced and
ridiculed the undertaking as a sheer waste of the people's
hard-earned money. They nicknamed it "Clinton's Big Ditch." They
said
HENRY CLAY
that it never would be completed, that it would swallow up
millions in taxes, and in the end yield nothing but mud.
250. How the Canal was built; its
Opening. Governor Clinton had indeed put his hand to a
stupendous task. Lake Erie is 363 miles west of the Hudson, and it
is nearly 600 feet above the level of that river. The country
between the Hudson and the lake is in some places rough and
broken. There were people in New York who knew these difficulties,
and who asked the Governor whether he could make water run uphill.
He replied that he
as a man of the people, bitterly opposed them.
Neither candidate got a majority of the electoral votes, and the
House of Representatives finally chose Mr. Adams President (John
C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Vice President). Mr. Adams had
refused to make any exertion to secure his own election; and when
asked by his friend Edward Everett if he did not intend to do
something to obtain it, he replied, "I shall do absolutely
nothing." It was one of those rare cases in which the office
sought the man, and not the man the office.
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could do better: he could build locks which would make the
water lift the canal boats over the hills.
When all was ready he set his army of laborers
at work. They toiled eight years in the wilderness, cutting down
forests, digging out the earth, blasting their way through ridges
of rock, building aqueduct bridges to carry the canal across
rivers, constructing locks of solid masonry to carry it up the
hillsides.
In the autumn of 1825 the great undertaking was
finished, and, when the water was let in, a row of cannon about
five miles apart, extending from Buffalo to New York, flashed the
news the whole length of the state. Governor Clinton traveled from
Buffalo to Albany by the canal, and thence by the Hudson to New
York City. He brought with him a keg of water from Lake Erie. When
he reached the city he solemnly poured the water into the harbor
to commemorate, as he said, "the navigable communication opened
between our Mediterranean seas (meaning our Great Lakes) and the
Atlantic Ocean."
251. What the Canal has done for New York and
for the Country. The canal has since done far more than
Governor Clinton expected. The expense of building it was easily
paid by means of a small toll or tax levied by the state on boats
and freight. Before the canal was built, the charge for hauling a
barrel of flour from Albany to Buffalo was ten dollars, and it
took three weeks to get it there. After the canal was opened, a
barrel of flour could be sent through in a week, at a cost of
thirty cents! Since its completion to the present time over
$6,000,000,000 worth of freight has been carried on its
waters.
The canal originally ran through a country in
great part unsettled. It was the means of bringing in great
numbers of emigrants from the East. On its banks arose scores of
flourishing towns and rapidly growing cities. New York City gained
immensely by the trade with the West, which began as soon as this
water way was opened. Later, the canal was made free of toll, and
from spring to the end of autumn a constant procession of boats
laden with grain used to be seen going eastward day and night;
while a similar procession, laden with merchandise, was
