 Chapter 8 of the Jeffersonians, 1801 to 1829, by Richard B. Morris. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. III. James Bunn-Rose administration, 1817 to 1825. Early Days in the Mississippi Valley. A Husking Bee in Ohio, William Cooper Howells. Religion in Tennessee, Lorenzo Dow. Davey Crockett runs for office. Early Days in Illinois, Morris Birkbeck. Early Days in the Mississippi Valley. James Bunn-Rose was the last of the quartet of Virginia presidents which had begun with George Washington. He was elected after serving as Madison's Secretary of State, but before that he had fought in the Revolution, sat in the Continental Congress, been a Senator, a Governor, and a Minister to France. His term as President is known as the Era of Good Feeling because of the absence of serious problems to divide the country. It was a period of rapid growth as settlers pushed west and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution began to change the East. During the early decades of the 19th Century, the wilderness across the Allegheny Mountains began to fill up with farmers. Throughout Jefferson's administration there were occasional skirmishes with the Indians, but gradually the Indians were pushed out of their traditional hunting grounds. While Madison was President, the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, who had attempted to organize Indian resistance, was crushed by William Henry Harrison in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Meantime, Ohio had become a state in 1803, and in 1816, the year that James Bunn-Rose was elected President, Indiana was admitted to the Union. Two years later, Illinois joined the growing Union. In the selections reprinted in this part of the Jeffersonians, we have chosen four pieces that show various aspects of life in the Mississippi Valley. Here you will find examples of farm life, religion, and politics in the new states west of the mountains. A Husking Bee in Ohio William Cooper Howells, the author of the next selection, was the father of a famous magazine editor and novelist, William Dean Howells. The Elder Howells was taken to Ohio from England as a child, and grew up on a farm while Ohio was a new state. His memories come from recollections of life in Ohio from 1813 to 1840. One of the gatherings for joint work, which has totally disappeared from the agriculture of modern times, and one that was always a jolly kind of affair, was the corn husking. It was a sort of harvest home in its department, and it was the more jolly because it was a gathering with very little respect to persons, and embraced in the invitation men and big boys, with the understanding that no one would be unwelcome. There was always a good supper served at the husking, and has certainly a good appetite to eat it with. It came at a plentiful season, when the turkeys and chickens were fat, and a fat pig was at hand, to be flanked on the table with good bread in various forms, turnips and potatoes from the autumn stores, apple and pumpkin pies, good coffee and the like. And the cooking was always well done, and all in such bountiful abundance that no one feared to eat, while many a poor fellow was certain of a square meal by being present at a husking. You were sure to see the laboring men of the vicinity out, and the wives of a goodly number of farmhands would be on hand, to help in the cooking and serving at the table. The corn husking has been discontinued because the farmers found out that it was less trouble to husk it in the field, direct from the stock, than to gather in the husk and go over it again. But in that day they did not know that much, and therefore took the original method of managing their corn crop, which was this. As soon as the grain began to harden, they would cut the stocks off just above the ears, and save these tops for fodder, and if they had time, they stripped all the blades off the stocks below the ears, which made very nice, though costly, feed. Then, as barn-room was not usually over-plenty, they made a kind of frame of poles, as for a tent, and thatched it sides and top, with the corn tops placed with the tassel downward, so as to shed the rain and snow. This was called the fodder-house, and was built in the barn-yard. Inside they would store the blades and bundles, the husks, and the pumpkins that were saved for use in the winter. The fodder-house was commonly made ten feet high, and as long as was necessary, and it was used up through the winter by feeding the fodder to the cattle, beginning at the back, which would be temporarily closed by a few bundles of the tops. It would thus serve as a protection for what might be stored in it till all was used up. The fodder-house was, of all things, a favourite place for the children to hide in and play. When the season for gathering the corn came, the farmers went through the fields and pulled off the ears and husks together, throwing them upon the ground in heaps, whence they were hauled into the barn-yard, and there piled up in a neat pile of convenient length, according to the crop, and, say, four or five feet high, rising to a sharp peak from a base of about six feet. Care was taken to make this pile of equal width and height from end to end, so that it would be easily and fairly divided in the middle by a rail laid upon it. When the husking-party had assembled they were all called out into line, and two fellows, mostly ambitious boys, were chosen captains. These then chose their men, each calling out one of the crowd alternately, till all were chosen. Then the heap was divided, by two judicious chaps walking solemnly along the ridge of the heap of corn, and deciding where the dividing rail was to be laid. And, as this had to be done by starlight or moonlight at best, it took considerable deliberation, as the comparative solidity of the ends of the heap and the evenness of it had to be taken into account. This done the captains placed a good, steady man at each side of the rail, who made it a point to work through and cut the heap in two as soon as possible. And then the two parties fell to husking, all standing with the heap in front of them, and throwing the husked corn onto a clear place over the heap, and the husks behind them. From the time they began till the corn was all husked at one end there would be steady work, each man husking all the corn he could, never stopping, except to take a pull at the stone jug of inspiration that passed occasionally along the line. Weak lovers of the stuff were sometimes overcome, though it was held to be a disgraceful thing to take too much. The captains would go up and down their lines and rally their men, as if in a battle, and the whole thing was an exciting affair. As soon as one party got done they raised a shout, and, hoisting their captain on their shoulders, carried him over to the other side with general cheering. Then would come a little bantering talk, an explanation why the defeated party lost, and all would turn to and husk up the remnants of the heap. All hands would then join to carry the husks into the fodder house. The shout at hoisting the captain was the signal for bringing the supper on the table, and the huskers and the supper met soon after. These gatherings often embraced forty or fifty men. If the farmhouse was small it would be crowded, and the supper would be managed by repeated sittings at the table. At a large house there was less crowding and more fun, and if, as often was the case, some occasion had been given for an assemblage of the girls of the neighborhood, and particularly if the man that played the fiddle should attend, after the older men had gone there was very apt to be a good time. There was a tradition that the boys who accidentally husked a red ear and saved it would be entitled to a kiss from somebody, but I never knew it to be necessary to produce a red ear to secure a kiss where there was a disposition to give or take one. Religion in Tennessee Religion played an important part in the lives of frontier settlers. Instead of the stern puritanism of colonial New England, the religion of the West in the early years of the last century was highly evangelistic. By this time the Methodist movement had made a large number of converts and was particularly strong on the frontier. One tireless Methodist preacher was Lorenzo Dow, often known as Crazy Dow, who traveled throughout the United States during a long ministry. Though he lived until 1834, the selection that follows comes from his journal of 1804, when he visited Tennessee at the age of twenty-seven. He was then traveling about ten thousand miles a year by horse and on foot over trails and primitive roads. This selection is particularly interesting for its account of a backwoods religious fervor, almost of physical affliction, described by Dow as the jerks. Next day I rode forty-five miles in company with Dr. Nelson across the dismal Allegheny Mountains by the Warm Springs, and on the way a young man, a traveller, came in, where I breakfasted gratis at an inn, and said that he had but three sixteenths of a dollar left, having been robbed of seventy-one dollars on the way, and he being far from home I gave him half of what I had with me. My horse having a naval gall come on his back I sold him, with the saddle, bridle, cloak, and blanket, et cetera, on credit for about three-fourths of the value, with uncertainty whether I should ever be paid. Thus I crossed the river French Broad in a canoe and set out for my appointment, but fearing I should be behind the time I hired a man, whom I met on the road with two horses, to carry me five miles in haste, for three shillings, which left me but one sixteenth of a dollar. In our speed he observed there was a nighway by which I could clamber the rocks and cut off some miles. So we parted, he having not gone two-thirds of the way, yet insisted on the full sum. I took to my feet the nighway as fast as I could pull on, as intricate as it was, and came to a horrid ledge of rocks on the bank of the river, where there was no such thing as going round, and to clamber over would be at the risk of my life, as there was danger of slipping into the river. However, being unwilling to disappoint the people, I pulled off my shoes and with my handkerchief fastened them about my neck, and creeping upon my hands and feet, with my fingers and toes in the cracks of the rocks, with difficulty I got safe over. In about four miles I came to a house, and hired a woman to take me over the river in a canoe, for my remaining money, and a pair of scissors, the latter of which was the chief object with her. So our extremities are others' opportunities. Thus with difficulty I got to my appointment in Newport in time. I had heard about a singularity called the jerks or jerking exercise, which appeared first near Knoxville in August last, to the great alarm of the people, which reports at first I considered as vague and false. But at length, like the Queen of Sheba, I set out to go and see for myself, and sent over these appointments into this country accordingly. When I arrived in sight of this town, I saw hundreds of people collected in little bodies, and, observing no place appointed for meeting, before I spoke to any, I got on a log and gave out an hymn, which caused them to assemble round, in solemn, attentive silence. I observed several involuntary motions in the course of the meeting, which I considered as a specimen of the jerks. I rode seven miles behind a man across streams of water, and held a meeting in the evening, being ten miles on my way. In the night I grew uneasy, being twenty-five miles from my appointment for next morning at eleven o'clock. I prevailed on a young man to attempt carrying me with horses until day, which he thought was impracticable, considering the darkness of the night and the thickness of the trees. Solitary shrieks were heard in these woods, which he told me were said to be the cries of murdered persons. At day we parted, being still seventeen miles from the spot, and the ground covered with a white frost. I had not proceeded far, before I came to a stream of water from the springs of the mountain, which made it dreadful cold. In my heated state I had to wade this stream five times in the course of about an hour, which I perceived so affected my body that my strength began to fail. Fears began to arise that I must disappoint the people, till I observed some fresh tracks of horses, which caused me to exert every nerve to overtake them in hopes of aid or assistance on my journey, and soon I saw them on an eminence. I shouted for them to stop till I came up. They inquired what I wanted. I replied I had heard there was meeting at Severesville by a stranger and was going to it. They replied that they had heard that a crazy man was to hold forth there and were going also, and perceiving that I was weary they invited me to ride, and soon our company was increased to forty or fifty who fell in with us on the road from different plantations. At length I was interrogated whether I knew anything about the preacher. I replied I have heard a good deal about him and have heard him preach, but I have no great opinion of him. And thus the conversation continued for some miles before they found me out, which caused some color and smiles in the company. Thus I got on to meeting, and after taking a cup of tea, gratis, I began to speak to a vast audience, and I observed about thirty to have the jerks. Though they strove to keep still as they could, these emotions were involuntary and irresistible as any unprejudiced eye might discern. Lawyer Porter, who had come a considerable distance, got his heart touched under the word, and being informed how I came to meeting, voluntarily lent me a horse to ride near one hundred miles, and gave me a dollar, though he had never seen me before. Hence to Marysville, where I spoke to about one thousand five hundred, and many appeared to feel the word, but about fifty felt the jerks. At night I lodged with one of the Nicolites, a kind of Quakers, who do not feel free to wear colored clothes. I spoke to a number of people at his house that night. Whilst at tea I observed his daughter, who sat opposite to me at the table, to have the jerks, and drop the tea-cup from her hand in the violent agitation. I said to her, young woman, what is the matter? She replied, I have got the jerks. I asked her how long she had it. She observed a few days, and that it had been the means of the awakening and conversion of her soul by stirring her up to serious consideration about her careless state, etc. Sunday, February 19th, I spoke in Knoxville, to hundreds more than could get into the courthouse, the Governor being present. About one hundred and fifty appeared to have jerking exercise, among whom was a circuit preacher, Johnson, who had opposed them a little before, but he now had them powerfully. And I believe he would have fallen over three times, had not the auditory been so crowded that he could not, unless he fell perpendicularly. After meeting I rode eighteen miles to hold meeting at night. The people of this settlement were mostly Quakers, and they had said, as I was informed, the Methodists and Presbyterians have the jerks, because they sing and pray so much, but we are a still peaceable people, wherefore we do not have them. However, about twenty of them came to meeting, to hear one, as was said, somewhat in a Quaker line, but their usual stillness and silence was interrupted, for about a dozen of them had the jerks, as keen and as powerful as any I had seen, so as to have occasioned a kind of grunt or groan when they were jerk. It appears that many have undervalued the Great Revival, and attempted to account for it altogether on natural principles. Therefore, it seems to me, from the best judgment I can form, that God hath seen proper to take this method to convince people that He will work in a way to show His power, and send the jerks as a sign of the times, partly in judgment for the people's unbelief, and yet as a mercy, to convict people of divine realities. Davy Crockett runs for office. Davy Crockett, who describes himself as an ignorant backwoods bear-hunter, was just another poor frontier boy until he got into politics. Then he served in the state legislature and later in Congress. He became the fair-haired boy of Whig politicians when he broke with Andrew Jackson, his fellow Tennessee Democrat. Subsequently, his backwoods' humor, tall tales, and picturesque personality were exploited by Whig journalists, and Crockett became a sort of folklore hero. But Tennessee Democrats would not tolerate his desertion of their party, and turned him out of office. After that he went to Texas, and died, as everyone remembers, during the heroic defense of the Alamo. The following selection is taken from a narrative of the life of Davy Crockett, which passes for his autobiography but which undoubtedly was ghostwritten for him. This account describes, with typical frontier exaggeration, Crockett's first campaign for office. In a little time I was asked to offer for the legislature, in the counties of Lawrence and Heckman. I offered my name in the month of February, and started about the first of March with a drove of horses to the lower part of the state of North Carolina. This was in the year 1821, and I was gone upwards of three months. I returned and set out electioneering, which was a brand-fire new business to me. It now became necessary that I should tell the people something about the government, and an eternal side of other things that I know nothing more about than I did Latin, and law, and such things as that. I have said before that in those days none of us called General Jackson the government. Jackson was not yet president, and Crockett was still a Democrat. Nor did he seem in his fairer way to become so as I do now. But I know so little about it that if anyone had told me he was the government I should have believed it, for I had never read even a newspaper in my life or anything else on the subject. But over all my difficulties it seems to me I was born for luck, though it would be hard for anyone to guess what sort. I will, however, explain that hereafter. I went first into Heckman County to see what I could do among the people as a candidate. Here they told me that they wanted to move their town nearer to the center of the county, and I must come out in favor of it. There's no devil if I know what this meant, or how the town was to be moved, so I kept dark, going on the identical same plan that I now find is called noncommittal. About this time there was a great squirrel hunt on Duck River, which was among my people. They were to hunt two days, then to meet and count the scalps, and have a big barbecue, and what might be called a tip-top country frolic. The dinner and a general treat was all to be paid for by the party having taken the fewest scalps. I joined one side, taking the place of one of the hunters, and got a gun ready for the hunt. I killed a great many squirrels, and when we counted scalps my party was victorious. The company had everything to eat and drink that could be furnished in so new a country, and much fun and good humor prevailed. But before the regular frolic commenced, I mean the dancing, I was called on to make a speech as a candidate, which was a business I was as ignorant of as an outlandish negro. A public document I had never seen, nor did I know there were such things, and how to begin I couldn't tell. I made many apologies and tried to get off, for I knowed I had a man to run against who could speak Prime, and I knowed too that I wasn't able to shuffle and cut with him. He was there, and, knowing my ignorance as well as I did myself, he also urged me to make a speech. The truth is, he thought my being a candidate was a mere matter of sport, and didn't think for a moment that he was in any danger from an ignorant backwoods bear hunter. But I found I couldn't get off, and so I determined just to go ahead and leave it to chance what I should say. I got up and told the people I reckoned they knowed what I'd come for, but if not I could tell them. I'd come for their votes, and if they didn't watch mighty close I'd get them, too. But the worst of all was, that I could not tell them anything about government. I tried to speak about something, and I cared very little what, until I choked up as bad as if my mouth had been jammed and crammed chock-full of dry mush. There the people stood listening all the while, with their eyes, mouths, and ears all open to catch every word. At last I told them I was like a fellow I had heard of not long before. He was beating on the head of an empty barrel near the roadside, when a traveller who was passing along asked him, what was he doing that for? The fellow replied that there was some cider in that barrel a few days before, and he was trying to see if there was any then, but if there was he couldn't get at it. I told them there had been a little bit of speech in me a while ago, but I believed I couldn't get it out. They all roared out in a mighty laugh, and I told some other anecdotes, equally amusing to them, and believing I had them in a first rate way I quit and got down, thanking the people for their attention. But I took care to remark that I was as dry as a powder-horn, and that I thought it was time for us all to wet our whistles a little, and so I put off to the liquor stand, and was followed by the greater part of the crowd. I felt certain this was necessary, for I knowed my competitor could open government matters to them as easy as he pleased. He had, however, mighty few left to hear him, as I continued with the crowd, now and then taking a horn and telling good humoured stories till he was done speaking. I found I was good for the votes at the hunt, and when we broke up I went on to the town of Vernon, which was the same town they wanted me to move. Here they pressed me again on the subject, and I found I could get either party by agreeing with them. But I told them I didn't know whether it would be right or not, and so couldn't promise either way. Their court commenced on the next Monday, as the barbecue was on a Saturday, and the candidates for governor and for Congress, as well as my competitor and myself, all attended. The thought of having to make a speech made my knees feel mighty weak, and set my heart to fluttering almost as bad as my first love scrape with the Quaker's niece. But as good luck would have it, these big candidates spoke nearly all day, and when they quit the people were worn out with fatigue, which afforded me a good apology for not discussing the government. But I listened mighty close to them, and was learning pretty fast about political matters. When they were all done, I got up and told some laughable story and quit. I found I was safe in those parts, and so I went home, and did not go back again till after the election was over. But to cut this matter short, I was elected, doubling my competitor and nine votes over. Early Days in Illinois Morris Birkbeck was an Englishman who came to the United States and settled in Southeastern Illinois, where he founded the town of Albion. His account of the people and life in Illinois in 1817, just before it became a state, is good reporting. He had a sharp eye for detail, and because he was fresh from Europe, he sees and records the contrasts between the Midwestern Backwoods and the Old World. The following selection comes from his book, Note, Sonner Journey in America, from the coast of Virginia to the territory of Illinois. August 1 Dagleys, 20 miles north of Shawnee Town After viewing several beautiful prairies, so beautiful with their surrounding woods as to seem like the creation of fancy gardens of delight and dreary wilderness. And after losing our horses and spending two days in recovering them, we took a hunter as our guide and proceeded across the little Wabash to explore the country between that river and the skillet fork. Since we left the Fox Settlement, about 15 miles north of the Big Prairie, cultivation has been very scanty. Many miles intervening between the little clearings. This may therefore be truly called a new country. These lonely settlers are poorly off. Their bread-corn must be ground 30 miles off, requiring three days to carry to the mill and bring back the small horse-load of three bushels. Articles of family manufacture are very scanty, and what they purchase is of the meanest quality and excessively dear, yet they are friendly and willing to share their simple fare with you. It is surprising how comfortable they seem, wanting everything. To struggle with privations has now become the habit of their lives, most of them having made several successive plunges into the wilderness, and they begin already to talk of selling their improvements and getting still farther back on finding that immigrants of another description are thickening about them. Our journey across the little Wabash was a complete departure from all mark of civilization. We saw no bears, as they are now buried in the thickets, and seldom appear by day, but at every few yards we saw recent marks of their doings, wallowing in the long grass, or turning over decayed logs in quest of beetles or worms, in which work the strength of this animal is equal to that of four men. Wandering without track, where even the sagacity of our hunter-guide had nearly failed us, we at length arrived at the cabin of another hunter, where we lodged. This man and his family are remarkable instances of the effect on the complexion produced by the perpetual incarceration, imprisonment, of a thorough woodland life. Incarceration may seem to be a term less applicable to the condition of a roving back woodsman than to any other, and especially unsuitable to the habits of this individual and his family. For the cabin in which he entertained us is the third dwelling he has built within the last twelve months, and a very slender motive would place him in a fourth before the ensuing winter. In his general habits, the hunter ranges as freely as the beasts he pursues, laboring under no restraint, his activity is only bounded by his own physical powers. Still, he is incarcerated, shut from the common air. Buried in the depth of a boundless forest, the breeze of health never reaches these poor wanderers. The bright prospect of distant hills, fading away into the semblance of clouds, never cheered their sight. They are tall and pale, like vegetables that grow in a vault, pining for light. Our stock of provisions being nearly exhausted, we were anxious to provide ourselves with a supper by means of our guns, but we could meet with neither deer nor turkey. However, in our utmost need we shot three raccoons, an old one to be roasted for our dogs, and the two young ones to be stewed up daintily for ourselves. We soon lighted a fire and cooked the old raccoon for the dogs, but famished as they were they would not touch it, and their squeamishness so far abated our relish for the promised stew that we did not press our complaining landlady to prepare it, and thus our supper consisted of the residue of our cornbread and no raccoon. However, we laid our bearskins on the filthy earth, floor there was none, which they assured us was too damp for fleas, and wrapped in our blankets slept soundly enough, though the collops, slices, a venison, hanging in comely rows in the smoky fireplace, and even the shoulders put by for the dogs, and which were suspended over our heads, would have been an acceptable prelude to our night's rest had we been invited to partake of them. But our hunter and our host were too deeply engaged in conversation to think of supper. In the morning the latter kindly invited us to cook some of the collops, which we did by roasting them on a stick, and he also divided some shoulders among the dogs, so we all fared sumptuously. The cabin, which may serve as a specimen of these rudiments of houses, was formed of round logs, with apertures of three or four inches between, no chimney, but large intervals between the clabbards for the escape of the smoke. The roof was, however, a more effectual covering than we have generally experienced, as it protected us very tolerably from a drenching night. Two bedsteads of unhewn logs and cleft boards laid across, two chairs, one of them without a bottom, and a low stool, were all the furniture required by this numerous family. A string of buffalo hides stretched across the hovel was a wardrope for their rags, and their utensils, consisting of a large iron pot, some baskets, the effective rifle, and two that were superannuated, too old to use, stood about in corners, and the fiddle, which was only silent when we were asleep, hung by them. is in the public domain. Ominous slumines, the Missouri Compromise, 1820. Representative Arthur Livermore argues against extending slavery. Senator James Barber defends slavery. Representative James Stevens argues for the compromise. Ominous slumines, the Missouri Compromise, 1820. When the War of 1812 ended, the United States consisted of 18 states, nine free and nine slave. Very soon Indiana was admitted as a free state, offset by Mississippi as a slave state. It was inevitable that this precarious balance between the North and the South would someday cause trouble, and the trouble came very soon. In 1818 Illinois entered as a free state, and the enabling legislation to admit Missouri was introduced in Congress in 1819. The South assumed that Missouri would be a slave state, but a New York congressman amended the Missouri statehood bill to provide for gradual freeing of the slaves there. The South reacted vigorously to keep from losing its equal representation in the Senate, and blocked passage of the bill. Meanwhile, Alabama came in to balance Illinois, and there were eleven Northern and eleven Southern states. The following year when Maine applied for admission into the Union, Henry Clay of Kentucky engineered the famous Missouri Compromise. This agreement provided that Missouri would come in as a slave state, but that no more slave states would be admitted from territory north of Missouri's Southern boundary. This compromise is important because it foreshadows the struggle between the North and South that eventuated in the Civil War a generation later. Although most of the oratory dealt with the slavery issue, the struggle also concerned the broader matter of political control in the West. Representative Arthur Livermore argues against extending slavery. The following selections illustrate the debate in Congress over the Missouri question. The first speech is by Congressman Arthur Livermore of New Hampshire, against the extension of slavery. I propose to show what slavery is, and to mention a few of the many evils which follow in its train, and I hope to evince that we are not bound to tolerate the existence of so disgraceful a state of things beyond its present extent, and that it would be in politic and very unjust to let it spread over the whole face of our Western territory. Slavery in the United States is the condition of man subjected to the will of a master, who can make any disposition of him short of taking away his life. In those states where it is tolerated, laws are enacted making it penal to instruct slaves in the art of reading, and they are not permitted to attend public worship or to hear the Gospel preached. Thus the light of science and of religion is utterly excluded from the mind, that the body may be more easily bowed down to servitude. The bodies of slaves may with impunity be prostituted to any purpose and deformed in any manner by their owners. The sympathies of nature in slaves are disregarded. Mothers and children are sold and separated. The children wring their little hands and expire in agonies of grief, while the bereft mothers commit suicide in despair. How long will the desire of wealth render us blind to the sin of holding both the bodies and souls of our fellow men in chains? But, sir, I am admonished of the Constitution and told that we cannot emancipate slaves. I know we may not infringe that instrument, and therefore do not propose to emancipate slaves. The proposition before us goes only to prevent our citizens from making slaves of such as have a right to freedom. In the present slave-holding states, let slavery continue, for our boasted Constitution connives at it. But do not, for the sake of cotton and tobacco, let it be told to future ages that, while pretending to love liberty, we have purchased an extensive country to disgrace it with the foulest reproach of nations. Our Constitution requires no such thing of us. The ends for which that supreme law was made are succinctly stated in its preface. They are first to form a more perfect union and ensure domestic tranquility. Will slavery affect this? Can we, sir, by mingling bond with free black spirits with white, like Shakespeare's witches in Macbeth, form a more perfect union and ensure domestic tranquility? Secondly, to establish justice. Is justice to be established by subjecting half mankind to the will of the other half? Justice, sir, is blind to colors, and weighs in equal scales the rights of all men, whether white or black. Thirdly, to provide for the common defense and secure the blessings of liberty. Does slavery add anything to the common defense? Sir, the strength of a republic is in the arm of freedom. But, above all things, do the blessings of liberty consist in slavery? Senator James Barber defends slavery. In the second selection we have chosen, Senator James Barber of Virginia defends slavery. The gentleman from Pennsylvania asks, shall we suffer Missouri to come into the union with this savage mark of slavery on her countenance? I appeal to that gentleman to know whether this be language to address to an American Senate, composed equally of members from states precisely in that condition that Missouri would be in, were she to tolerate slavery? Are these sentiments calculated to cherish that harmony and affection so essential to any beneficial results from our union? But, sir, I will not imitate this course, and I will strive to repress the feeling which such remarks are calculated to awaken. They assure us that they do not mean to touch this property, slavery, in the old states. What kind of ethics is this that is bounded by latitude and longitude, which is inoperative on the left, but is omnipotent on the right bank of a river? Such a doctrine is well calculated to excite our solicitude, for although the gentlemen who now hold it are sincere in their declarations, and mean to content themselves with a triumph in this controversy, what security have we that others will not apply it to the South generally? Let it not, however, be supposed that in the abstract I am advocating slavery. Like all other human things it is mixed with good and evil, the latter no doubt preponderating. Whether slavery was ordained by God himself in a particular revelation to his chosen people, or whether it be merely permitted as a part of that moral evil which seems to be the inevitable portion of man, are questions I will not approach. I leave them to the casuists, debaters, and the divines, preachers. It is sufficient for us, as statesmen, to know that it has existed from the earliest ages of the world, and that to us has been assigned such a portion as, in reference to their number and to the various considerations resulting from a change of their condition, no remedy, even plausible, has been suggested, the wisdom and benevolence united have unceasingly brooded over the subject. However dark and inscrutable may be the ways of heaven, who is he that arrogantly presumes to arraign, challenge them? The same mighty power that planted the greater and lesser luminary in the heavens permits on earth the bondsmen and the free. To that providence, as men and Christians, let us bow. If it be consistent with his will, in the fullness of time, to break the fetter of the slave, he will raise up some Moses to be their deliverer. To him, commission will be given to lead them up out of the land of bondage. Representative James Stevens argues for the compromise. In the final selection, James Stevens, representative from Connecticut, pleads with Congress to accept the compromise. I have listened with pain to the very long, protracted debate that has been had on this unfortunate question. I call it unfortunate, sir, because it has drawn forth the worst passions of man in the course of the discussion. If the deadliest enemy this country has, or ever had, could dictate language the most likely to destroy your glory, prosperity, and happiness, would it not be precisely what has been so profusely used in this debate? Sectional vaunting? Indeed, sir, there is no view of this unhappy division of our country, but must be sickening to the patriot, an indirect violation of the dictate of wisdom, and the last, though not least, important advice of the father and friend of his country. He forbids the use of the words Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western, as descriptive of the various parts of your country. But, sir, we have now arrived at a point at which every gentleman agrees something must be done. A precipice lies before us, at which perdition, ruin, is inevitable. Gentlemen on both sides of this question, and in both houses, indoors and out of doors, have evinced a determination that augurs ill of the high destinies of this country. And who does not tremble for the consequences? I wish not to be misunderstood, sir. I don't pretend to say that in just five calendar months your union will be at an end. But, sir, I do say, and for the verity of the remark, cite the lamentable history of our own time, that the result of a failure to compromise at this time, in the way now proposed, or in some other way satisfactory to both, would be to create ruthless hatred, eradicable jealousy, and a total forgetfulness of the ardor of patriotism, to which, as it has heretofore existed, we owe, under providence, more solid national glory and social happiness than ever before was possessed by any people, nation, kindred, or tongue, under heaven. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of the Jeffersonians, 1801 to 1829 by Richard B. Morris The sleeper-vox recording is in the public domain. The Monroe Doctrine Excerpts from the Monroe Doctrine The Monroe Doctrine Although the United States was mainly concerned with internal problems during Monroe's presidency, there was one important policy established during this period in the area of foreign relations. This was the Monroe Doctrine. It was a statement of policy made by the President in a message to Congress in 1823, which defined the role of the United States in international affairs, and which, in some respects, is still vital United States policy. The Doctrine states that the United States will not tolerate further foreign colonial expansion by European powers in North or South America. This policy was necessary because Spain's colonies in Latin America had recently revolted, and it looked as though the other European powers might try to reconquer Spain's former colonies. In addition, Russia was moving southward from Alaska and claiming land down to the 51st parallel, which would have taken in much of what is now British Columbia. The Monroe Doctrine also declares that the United States will not interfere with existing European colonies in the Americas, nor with the internal affairs of European nations. In the following selection, we reprint part of the Monroe Doctrine. Excerpts from the Monroe Doctrine In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that 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. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have on great consideration and on just principles acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than is the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new governments in Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in the judgment of the competent authorities of this government, shall make a change on the part of the United States indispensable to their security. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers, to consider the government de facto, actually ruling, as the legitimate government for us, to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to those continents, circumstances are eminently and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent, North or South America, without endangering our peace and happiness. Nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition in any form with indifference. Chapter 11 of the Jeffersonians, 1801-1829 by Richard B. Morris This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. John Quincy Adams Lighthouses in the Sky Excerpts from Adams' First Message to Congress Lighthouses in the Sky John Quincy Adams, who succeeded James Monroe as president in 1825, was the son of John Adams, the second president. He, too, had served a long apprenticeship in government, having been senator, minister to Great Britain and Russia, and Secretary of State. Although he served only one term and was defeated for reelection by Andrew Jackson, he was a forward-looking president. We illustrate his interest in science and the internal development of the United States by a portion of his first message to Congress. He begins with a plea that the object of government is to improve the lot of the people. He favors roads and canals, but even more moral and intellectual improvements. Excerpts from Adams' First Message to Congress Upon this first occasion of addressing the legislature of the Union, with which I have been honored in presenting to their view of the measures sanctioned by them for promoting the internal improvement of our country, I cannot close the communication without recommending to their calm and persevering consideration the general principle in a more enlarged extent. Among the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement of the conditions of men is knowledge, and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life, public institutions and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of this was the first of my predecessors in this office, George Washington, now first in the memory, as living he was first in the hearts of our countrymen, that once and again in his addresses to the Congresses with whom he cooperated in the public service, he earnestly recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning to prepare for all of the emergencies of peace and war, a national university, and a military academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in turning his eyes to the institution at West Point, he would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earnest wishes. But in surveying the city which has been honored with his name, he would have seen the spot of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country as the site for a university still bare and barren. In assuming her station among the civilized nations of the earth, it would seem that our country had contracted the engagement to contribute her share of mind, of labor, and of expense to the improvement of those parts of knowledge which lie beyond the reach of individual acquisition, and particularly to geographical and astronomical science. Looking back to the history only of the half century since the declaration of our independence, and observing the generous emulation with which the governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia have devoted the genius, the intelligence, the treasures of their respective nations to the common improvement of the species in these branches of science, is it not incumbent upon us to inquire whether we are not bound by obligations of a high and honorable character to contribute our portion of energy and exertion to the common stock? In inviting the attention of Congress to the subject of internal improvements upon a view thus enlarged, it is not my design to recommend the equipment of an expedition for circumnavigating the globe for purposes of scientific research and inquiry. We have objects of useful investigation nearer home, and to which our cares may be more beneficially applied. The interior of our own territories has yet been very imperfectly explored. Our coasts along many degrees of latitude upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though much frequented by our spirited commercial navigators, have been barely visited by our public ships. The establishment of a uniform standard of weights and measures was one of the specific objects contemplated in the formation of our constitution, and to fix that standard was one of the powers delegated by express terms in that instrument to Congress. The governments of Great Britain and France have scarcely ceased to be occupied with inquiries and speculations on the same subject since the existence of our constitution, and with them it has expanded into profound, laborious, and expensive researches into the figure of the earth and the comparative length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in various latitudes from the equator to the pole. Connected with the establishment of a university, or separate from it, might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance of observation upon the phenomena of the heavens, and for periodical publication of his observations. It is with no feeling of pride as an American that the remark may be made that on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe there are existing upward of one hundred and thirty of these lighthouses of the skies, while throughout the whole American hemisphere there is not one. If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries which in the last four centuries have been made in the physical constitution of the universe by means of these buildings and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every nation? And while scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at second hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means of returning light for light, while we have neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe, and the earth revolves in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes?