CHAPTER XXVII.

VAN BUREN, HARRISON, TYLER, AND THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

HE next president was Martin Van Buren of New York (1837-1841). Like General Jackson before. him, he was the candidate of the Democratic party, which differed from the Whig party, as the opposition party was now called, mainly in insisting more on the rights of the separate States, and less on those of the General Government. During Mr. Van Buren's administration, there was great excitement on the Canadian frontier, because of a rebellion against the British Government in Canada. Many people in the States

MARTIN VAN BUREN.

bordering on Canada sympathized with this rebellion; but the American Government discouraged all active assistance, as being contrary to international law. The rebellion was finally subdued.

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But there was an excitement which kept on increasing in the United States during all President Van Buren's time, and was far more important than the Canadian rebellion. This was the antislavery agitation, which grew steadily greater, and was often resisted by mobs and violence, even in the free States. A slave child named Med, who had been brought by her master into Boston, was declared free by the Supreme Court of the State, as not being a fugitive; and several similar triumphs were obtained. On the other hand, a meeting of the Boston Female Antislavery Society was broken up by a mob, while the mayor declared himself unable to protect it; and Mr. Garrison, who had attempted to address the society, was dragged through the streets with a rope round his body, and was finally saved by the police, who lodged him in jail for protection. A public hall in Philadelphia, called Pennsylvania Hall, where the national convention of antislavery women had met, was burned. Schools for colored children in New Hampshire and Connecticut were broken up. At Alton, Ill., Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, who edited an antislavery newspaper, was killed by a mob. In Congress, a plan was brought forward for the annexation of Texas, then an independent Republic; and, as it was seen that this measure would have the effect of strengthening slavery, petitions were poured into Congress by the thousand, many of them signed by women, against it. Great efforts were made to exclude these petitions; and Ex-President John Quincy Adams spoke an hour a day, for twelve days, amid constant interruptions, in behalf of the petitioners. The annexation of Texas was for the time defeated; but a rule was

adopted by Congress, and for ten years remained in force, excluding all petitions on any subject pertaining to slavery.

While Mr. Van Buren was president, there was great commercial distress, and there were many failures among men of business; and this was one great reason why he was not re-elected, but was defeated after his first term. No new States were added during his administration; but when the census was. taken (in 1840) it was found that the population of the country had increased to seventeen millions (17,069,453), more than four times the population of Washington's time.

The general discontent of the nation over business troubles, during Mr. Van Buren's administration, led to a great excitement as to the choice of his successor. Gen. William Henry Harrison of Ohio, who had fought Tecumseh and his Indians bravely thirty years before, was nominated for president by the Whigs. As he came from what was then the Far West, some one gave him the name of "The Log-Cabin Candidate ;" and all over the country log-cabins were soon built for political meetings; and there were political celebrations, at which cider was the only beverage, this being a favorite drink among farmers. There were many songs composed and sung at these gatherings, songs about "the hero of Tippecanoe" and about "Tippecanoe and Tyler too;" John Tyler being the candidate for vice-presiIn short, it was the liveliest political campaign that had ever been known; and the end of it was the election, by an overwhelming vote, of General Harrison, who was inaugurated president in 1841.

General Harrison lived precisely a month after his inauguration; and Vice-President John Tyler of Virginia became president for the remainder of the four years (1841-1845). During his administration, the nation was at peace with foreign countries, though war was at one time threatened between the United States and Great Britain, because of a dispute about the boundary-line between Maine and New Brunswick. A treaty was at last made (in 1842), by Lord Ashburton in behalf of England, and by Daniel Webster for America; and this settled the question of the boundary. Then there were internal troubles in several of the States. In Rhode Island (in 1842), there was a revolt against the old colonial charter under which the State had always been governed; and, after a brief military contest known as the "Dorr War," the rebellion was defeated, though a new constitution was adopted at last, in consequence of it. In New York, along the Hudson River, where the estates of the old Dutch "patroons" lay, the tenants who occupied these estates grew unwilling to pay rent to the descendants of the early proprietors, and there was armed resistance for a time. There was also much disturbance in Illinois, where the religious sect called the "Mormons," or "Latter-Day Saints," who had built a city called Nauvoo, were assailed repeatedly by mobs. The Mormon sect had been founded fourteen years before, by a man named Joseph Smith, who claimed to have discovered a book, called "The Book of Mormon," written on gold plates that were found buried in the earth. The Mormons first established themselves in Missouri, were driven thence by mob violence to Illinois, and thence

to the Territory of Utah, where they made for themselves a settlement in the wilderness, and still remain.

One new State was admitted into the Union during Mr. Tyler's administration, Florida. As has already been told, Florida contained older European settlements than any part of the nation to which it was annexed; St. Augustine even dating back to the early Spanish colony of 1565. Florida had been alternately claimed by the Spaniards, the French, and the English, and had been finally ceded by Spain to the United States in 1819. For many years it was governed only as a Territory; but in 1845 it was admitted as a State. Its name came from the day on which it was first explored, Easter Sunday, called by the Spaniards Pascua Florida, or Flowery Easter.

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But Mr. Tyler's administration will be chiefly remembered as having brought about the annexation to the United States of a foreign State, the State of Texas. Texas had been first explored by La Salle, in 1684, when looking for the mouth of the Mississippi. From that time forth, it had been almost constantly the scene of war between hostile claimants. First the Spaniards and French contested for it, and established rival missions," or religious settlements. Then the large province of Texas revolted from Mexico, and declared itself an independent State. Many Americans took part in obtaining the independence of Texas; for several large American colonies had been established there, and these Americans had carried their slaves with them; whereas Mexico had before abolished slavery. Thus there was much sympathy for Texas in the South-western States of the American Union; and