Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. CALHOUN, JACKSON, AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. In 1811, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, a young man not of the age of thirty years, took his seat as a member of the national House of Representatives, and at once became a leader in public affairs. He was one of the Committee on Foreign Relations. On the I2th of December he said what was the road the nation should tread " to make it great and to produce in this country not the form but the real spirit of union."1 In March, 1815, he voted for a high tariff and said: " He believed the policy of the country required protection to our manufacturing establishments." a He also reported the bill to incorporate a United States Bank, and supported it in a speech on its constitutionality.' Webster, on the contrary, opposed the tariff bills, not however on the ground of their unconstitutionality. In December, 1816, Calhoun moved " that a committee be appointed to inquire into the expediency of setting apart a permanent fund for internal improvement "; on December 23d, he reported a bill setting aside the bonus paid by the United States Bank, $1,500,000 and future dividends from bank stock, "as a fund for constructing roads and canals."' In his speech supporting it he said: " that the extent of our republic exposes us to the greatest of all calamities, next to the loss of liberty, and even to that in its consequences, disunion." "Probably not more than twenty-five or thirty members, in the total number of one hundred and seventy, regarded the constitutional difficulty as fatal to the bill. " * Madison, however, consistent and persistent in his strict construction of the Constitution, vetoed it. 1 H. Adams, vol. vi, p. 143. * II. Adams, vol. ix., p. 115. Annals of Congress, 18151816, p....