1828

 

Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence “laid the first stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.” (124/345)

 

* 

Van Loon on Andrew Jackson’s election: “he assumed complete charge of affairs and for the next eight years he ruled the country by the grace of his own will…at heart he was a conservative.” (124/317) 

The emancipation of the black man, because it was accompanied by a costly and bloody war, has attracted a great deal of historical attention. The emancipation of the white man, however, is apt to be overlooked because it took place without any interference on the part of the executioner and his gallows. But in this movement to set the white man free from the last shackles of his ancient serfdom the new dictator played a prominent part – perhaps not a conscious one but a very important one all the same.

 

The people of the frontier might not care whether they had ever heard of Europe or not, but Europe was beginning to hear of them and the success of the great experiment in popular government in America encouraged them in their own efforts to shake off the yoke that had become unbearable. (124/318-319)

 

The democratic ideal, in the hands of the wrong people, can do more damage in a shorter space of time than any other form of government ever devised by the ingenuity of man. Worst of all, it had (and still has) a terrible tendency to encourage mediocrity and to make a virtue of ignorance and inefficiency. (124/320)

 

* 

Charles Francis Adams has asked Abigail Brooks to marry him. Now he has a problem. He must dump a mistress. 

In the evening I went through one of those disagreeable scenes which occurs sometimes in life. No man of sense will ever keep a Mistress. For if she is valuable, the separation when it comes is terrible, and if she is not, she is more plague than profit. Ever since my engagement, I have been preparing for a close of my licentious intrigues, and this evening I cut the last cord which bound me. What a pity that experience is always to be learned over and over by each successive generation. (45/71)

 

In a novel of this era (Smith doesn’t give a date), the heroine is against anything like women’s rights. 

The heroine is clear, that “women were secondary objects of creation. … Nor have we any right to require of superior men an example of the virtue to which he would train us. … Our state of society is a dependent one,” she says, “and it is ours to be good and amiable, whatever may be the conduct of the men to whom we are subjected.” Helen Wells, in the Step-Mother, endorsed the axiom that the man was “lord and master, from whose will there is no appeal.” The unmarried woman was an object of amusement or derision. Often, as in Constantia Neville, a “tall meagre female…a virago disappointed in the accomplishment of her favorite wish.” (45/72)  

 

* 

Cherokees helped make slave raids with settlers vs. other tribes as early as 1710. Helped fight Shawnees in 1750s; traded with English. 

Fought in 1760 after murder of 40 men, who had served the British (murderers were scalp hunters); punished by loss of land when they lost war. 

Sold land in Kentucky, 1770s. Sided with British in Revolution; lost land east of the Blue Ridge. 

About 1803 began to accept Christian teachings, live like whites, helped fight Creek “Red Sticks” in 1815, turned down Tecumseh’s offer to join broad coalition of tribes; meanwhile tried to adopt settler ways (newspaper, courts, laws patterned after U.S., George Guess, known as Sequoia, develops 86-letter alphabet; schools set up; own slaves!) 

Later: they help the Confederacy in the Civil War.

 

The governor of Georgia sent surveyors out across their lands despite federal treaties with the tribes. The Cherokee went to court and the U. S. Supreme Court ruled for them. Andrew Jackson said, “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” Politically, it made good sense to stoke fear of the natives and to ignore their treaty rights; and AJ was a politician. (Life History of the United States: 1829-1849, p. 42) 

McLaughlin, (56/317-318): 

The Cherokees especially were well advanced. They had churches, schools, and courts of law, and had well-tilled fields and comfortable homes…Georgia desired the Indians’ lands, and was not willing to wait. She demanded the immediate removal of the tribes beyond the Mississippi. A treaty was made by the National Government providing for the sale of most of the land of the Creeks. But Georgia would not wait until the time came for carrying out the treaty. State surveyors were ordered into the territory of the Creeks. The president forbade the survey. At first the State obeyed, but finally became very impatient. The Governor announced the doctrine of State sovereignty, and asserted that the State had an equal authority with the United States ‘to pass upon its rights.’ Adams was prepared to protect the Indians in their property, and ordered the United States District Attorney and marshal to arrest any one endeavoring to survey the Indian lands west of a certain line. The Governor prepared for resistance, and ordered the militia officers of the State to be in readiness with their forces to repel invasion. The majority in Congress were opposed to Adams and did not wish to support him, and he hesitated, naturally, to bring on civil war on such an issue. The Creeks were soon compelled to leave their lands. About the same time encroachments were made upon the Cherokee territory, and the final outcome was much the same as in the case of the Creeks.

Both the Creeks and Cherokee would be driven from their lands.