The Middle Period, 1817-1858

e in the Principles of the Republican Party-The United States Bank Act of 1816-Report of the Bank Bill

the Committee on Ways and Means-The Tariff Bill Reported-The Character of the Tariff Bill-Mr. Calhoun's Speech upon the Tariff Bill-The Passage of the Tariff Bill-The Army and Navy Bills-The Bill for National

ing volume of this series. I take up the threads of the narrative at the beginning of the year 1816, and my problem in thi

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This is especially manifest in the attitude of the statesmen of the slave-holding Commonwealths, and most especially in the attitude of their great leader, Mr. Calhoun, who was the chief champion of some of the most national measures voted by that Congress. A clear appreciation of his

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his annual message of December 5th, 1815, he recommended the increase and better organization of the army and the navy, the enlargement of the existing Military Academy and the founding of such acade

sion of the Government at Washington. Then, decrease in all the elements of power in the hands of the central Government, and caref

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tional party in 1816; that is, if we are to take the two Presidential messages, to which we have r

manifest, in its legislation, the same general harmony with the views and sentiments of President Madison. In order that the latter part of this statement may be se

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lhoun, Mr. Macon, Mr. Pleasants, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Robertson, Mr. Hopkinson, and Mr. Pickering. The first five of these gentlemen were from Commonwealths south of the Pennsylvania line, and only two, therefore, from what began now to be called the "non-slave-holding States." In other words, i

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creation of an United States Bank, a mammoth national banking corporation, which should have a capital of thirty-five millions of dollars; in which the central Government should own one-fifth of the stock and be represented by one-fifth of the directors; th

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et any consideration of the constitutionality of the bill. That is, he simply assumed that Congress had the

t Congress then declined to grant such a charter is good evidence that the majority of the people of the country held the same view. There can be little question

f ordinary experience would not have produced it. It was, without doubt, the strain brought upon the finances of the country by

led that question, and said that such an inquiry was now purely metaphysical. This statement is certainly prime evidence that the practical experiences, made in conducting the Governmen

rable to the administration of the finances of the Government," since there was not e

ss; that the "States" had usurped the power of making money by chartering banks of issue in the face of the constitutional provision forbidding the "States" to emit bills of credit; that the two hundred millions of dollars of irredeemable bank-notes, paper, and credits, issued by these banks, were the cause of the financial disorders of the country; and that the remedy for this condition of thing

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bank, and expressed alarm at the proposition to place it under such strong governmental control. He thought that the bills and paper of the "State" banks would be good enough, i

the point of view of political science, the attitude of a "States'-rights" man rather than that of a nationalist

lar bill unconstitutional in his opinion, and he was now the Speaker of the House, with all the power over the procedure in the House

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the period of war under which the nation suffered between the dates of Mr. Clay's two utterances. He frankly confessed that he had changed his opinion, and explained the change by saying that the power of Congress in respect to the matter was contained in the clause of the Constitution which conferred upon Congress the authority to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying the powers of the Government into operation; that, in the interpr

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ess of the bill through the House. The Bank and its branches were made the depositories of the funds of the Government. This great advantage was, at least, a substantial offset to the other modifications of the original bill, whereb

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imply contended that the particular Bank proposed in the bill exceeded what was "necessary and proper" for carrying into effect the powers of Congress, and was therefore unconstitutional. On the other hand, Senators Barbo

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a great national measure, and its creation by Congress is strong evidence of the great growth in national opinion

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osed by the first Customs Act, that of July, 1789, the duty had been increased by about a dozen acts, passed by both Federal and Republican Congresses, until, in 1812, it had reached

asure for obtaining additional revenue for the prosecution of the War. It was not intended as a measure for the protec

December, 1815, the war duties were, therefore, still in force, but the Act establishing them would expire by i

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t that moment this committee was composed of seven members, four from Commonwealths south of Maryland, and three from those north of Maryland. Mr. Lowndes,

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re contained virtually the continuation of the war tariff as the permanent rule and policy in time of peace. It was now manifestly a protective tariff, and it was intended to be such. Mr. Ingham of the committee said, at the beginning of the debate upon it, that "its great primary object was to make such a modification of

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of the country. It is also evident that the bill was not thought by anybody to rest upon a perfect and permanent principle. Mr. Clay himself said of it, "that the object of protecting manufacturers was, that we might eventually get articles of necessity made as cheap at home as they could be imported, and thereby to produce an independe

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try at the moment, almost the only sources, and that manufactures must be added to these in order to accomplish industrial independence. In proof of this latter proposition he referred to the well known effect of war between a maritime power and the United States upon the prosperity of the latter. He simply pointed to the historic facts that such a war destroyed the commerce of the country with foreign powers, and that the destruction of commerce caused the products of agriculture, usually exported to pay for manufactured goods imported from foreign countries, to perish in the hands of the producers. Domestic manufactures, he contended, would not only relieve us from dependence upon foreign countries for manufactured goods, but would create home markets for agricultural products. Encouragement to

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em the views pronounced by the New Englanders upon the subject appear narrow and selfish. They were willing to sacrifice the industrial independence of the nation to their own interests in the carrying trade upon the sea. Even the name of Webster is not to be found among those who voted for the final passage of the bill. The majority in its favor was, however, nearly two to one. In the Senate, the vote was nearl

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ough reorganization. The Republican doctrine of 1800 was, that there was no need of a national army; that the militias of the Commonwealths were a sufficient military force; and that a standing army was dangerous to liberty. By the A

dance therewith, empowering the President to call the militias of the Commonwealths into the service of the United States, the Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut disputed the President's authority in this respect and refused compliance with his orders. Well might the President complain that, even upon this most essential point, the milit

e corps of engineers; and by the Act of April 24th, of the same year, it reorganized, or rather re-created, t

Congress appropriated eight millions of dollars for the construction of nine

nd make the military and naval officers his dukes and counts, had vanished in the smoke of the burned Capitol, and, in place of this silly terror of cr

, during the session of 1815-16, as to delay the consideration of the question of

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rter, and the net annual proceeds received by the Government upon its shares in the Bank, as a permanent fund for internal improvements. The motion was quickly carried, and the committee, consisting of two members from the North and two from t

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eelings had given way to "a liberal and an enlightened regard for the general concerns of the nation," Mr. Calhoun again pronounced his warning concerning the greatest danger to which the country was exposed, namely, disunion, and declared it to be the highest duty of American statesmen so to form the policies of the Government as to countera

press than the Constitution upon this very point." The clause to which he referred was that which confers upon Congress the power "to levy and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States." Mr. Calhoun claimed that these words were to be interpreted as vesting in Congress the power to appropriate money for the common defence and general welfare of the country

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xperienced. Two years of peace had cooled the ardor of the national spirit somewhat, and t

f the members of Congress from a per diem of six dollars during attendance to an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars, had made the

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ing the bill through its different stages were crowned with success. It finally passed both Houses, in a sl

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e, repudiated Calhoun's latitudinarian view that Congress was referred to its own discretion merely in the appropriation of money for the advancement of the general welfare. He acknowledged the desirability of attaining the object contemplated by the bill, and indicated that an amendment to the Constitution, expressly conferring upon Congress the power in question, was the proper way to deal with the subject. He had, as we have seen, recommended the consid

strict construction of the Constitution in regard to the powers of the general Government. He had been driven by the younger men into the War, and into the national policie

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fficient to overcome the veto, and thus the first earnest attempt to commit the nation to a general system of internal improvements failed, failed through the resurrection of a spirit in the retiring President, which