preceding year. Embarrassments of a pecuniary nature affected most parts of the United States, in 1818 and 1819, and the influence to some extent was felt in the revenue.*

At this period the manufacturing interests of the United States were in a state of extreme depression, owing to the importations of foreign goods at constantly reduced prices, and the general pressure in the monetary affairs of the nation. The president was known to be friendly to further protection of domestic manufactures, by a proper revision of the tariff on imports, and great efforts were made in the northern and middle states to influence public opinion and the action of Congress in favor of the national industry.

The sixteenth Congress assembled on the 6th of December, 1819, and, being the first session, was continued until the 15th of May, 1820. Mr. Clay was again elected speaker, by nearly a unanimous vote, and Mr. Gaillard was continued as president pro tempore of the senate. The former distinctions of party having almost if not quite disappeared in Congress, new questions of great national interest arose to divide the members. Additional protection to American manufactures; internal improvements by the general government; and the acknowledgment of the independence of the South American republics; were among the most prominent of the subjects agitated. To these was soon added the Missouri question, which involved the propriety and expediency of the extension of slavery in new states west of the Mississippi.

The state of Alabama was admitted into the Union by a resolution passed December 14, 1819; and an act was passed on the 3d of March, 1820, admitting the state of Maine into the Union, that state having formed a constitution by consent of Massachusetts, with which state Maine, as a province, had been connected since 1652. An act was also passed, on the 6th of March, 1820, authorizing the people of Missouri territory to form a constitution and state government, preparatory to admission into the Union. It was proposed to amend the bill on that subject by inserting a clause imposing it as a condition of admission, that the future removal or transportation of slaves into that territory should be prohibited. This question gave rise to the most exciting and animated debates in both houses of Congress. In the progress of the discussion in the senate, the Missouri bill was annexed to the bill for the admission of Maine, but the proposition was rejected by the house of representatives, after which the bills were separated. On the last day of February, 1820, the amendment proposed in the house to the Missouri bill, restricting slavery, after a very long and able debate, was carried, by a majority of eight votes, but on the next day the same amendment was rejected by a majority of four. The bill was then passed without restrictions, and on the 6th of March approved by the president, Maine having been previously admitted on the 3d of March.

• Bradford.

An attempt was made to pass a new tariff act at this session, giving ad ditional protection to American manufactures. The bill was adopted in the house of representatives by a majority of twenty, but did not receive the concurrence of the senate. Great disappointment was felt by the mar. ufacturers at this result, the pressure and pecuniary distress at the time being great. The heavy importations of foreign manufactures tended to depress prices, and to ruin those engaged in manufactures in the United States. The currency was also in a deranged state. A spirit for banking companies prevailed, and an unusual number of those corporations were authorized in many of the states of the Union. The country was flooded with paper-money issued by these banks, many of which were unable to redeem their bills when presented; and the most disastrous results soon followed. The national bank had been in operation between two and three years, but it had not yet gathered sufficient strength to regulate the currency, which indeed was impracticable, when the balance of trade was largely against the United States, from excessive importations.

An act respecting the public lands, passed at this session, authorized sales in half quarter sections, or eighty acres, fixed the price at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and abolished the credit system on sales of lands, directing that after July 1, 1820, all such sales should be made for cash only, The principle of internal improvement by the general government was sanctioned by an act to authorize a survey of a route for a continuation of the Cumberland road from the Ohio river, opposite Wheeling, Virginia, through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, to the Mississippi, between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois river, for which survey an appropriation of ten thousand dollars was made. The navigation act of April, 1818, was amended so as to extend the prohibition of British vessels from the colonies, to all places in the British provinces in America and the West Indies. This and the former act, which were proposed by Rufus King, a senator from New York, were not designed as hostile acts, but as measures called for by a regard to the interests of the navigation of the United States, and in the expectation that they might eventually lead to the adoption of liberal principles and a reciprocity in trade. The president was authorized, by an act passed at this session, to borrow three millions of dollars for the public service, the secretary of the treasury having stated that a deficiency might be expected in the revenue. Attempts were made to pass a bill for establishing a uniform system of bankruptcy; also amending the constitution so as to provide for a uniform mode of choosing electors of president and vice-president, but, after much discussion, both of these propositions were rejected. The members from the northern and eastern states were generally in favor of a bankrupt law, but those from the south and west were opposed to it.

The presidential election coming on in 1820, Messrs. Monroe and Tompkins were nominated for re-election as president and vice-president.

They were again chosen to those high offices by the electoral colleges, with great unanimity, only one vote having been given against Mr. Monroe, while he received 231; and 14 against Mr. Tompkins, who received 218 votes.

The second session of the sixteenth Congress commenced on the 13th of November, 1820, and ended on the 3d of March, 1821. Mr. Clay having sent a letter of resignation as speaker, to the clerk of the house of representatives, indispensable private business requiring his attention in the early part of the session, the house proceeded to ballot for a new speaker, but after seven trials without effecting a choice, an adjournment took place until the following day, when, after nineteen unsuccessful ballots, the election of speaker was postponed until the third day. The prominent candidates voted for were John W. Taylor, of New York, Mr. Lowndes, of South Carolina, Mr. Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Samuel Smith, of Maryland. On the third day a choice of speaker was effected, Mr. John W. Taylor being elected by a small majority over all other candidates. Mr. Taylor was of that section of republicans in the state of New York who supported De Witt Clinton, then governor of that state. He was decidedly favorable to a tariff for protection to domestic manufactures, and opposed to the extension of slavery in Missouri. The election of a speaker with these views, was of course the cause of some excitement and dissatisfaction, at a time when questions of great interest were to be determined by the action of Congress, which for a time seemed even to threaten a dissolution of the Union. The mild, impartial, and conciliatory course of the new speaker, however, tended to allay much of the feeling at first excited, at the same time that the respect of the members was elicited toward himself.

The most important question agitated in Congress at this session, was the admission of Missouri into the Union. The constitution framed by the people of that state was communicated to Congress in the early part of the session, and referred to a committee who, through Mr. Lowndes, made an able report on the subject, declaring the constitution of the state republican, and concluding with a resolution that Missouri be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever. Mr. Lowndes, in moving to refer the resolution to a committee of the whole, stated that the report was the act of a majority of the committee, and not of every individual of the committee. The debate on the subject continued a week, and the discussion was managed with great ability and good temper. It was decided by a majority of fourteen, in the house, that Missouri could not be admitted into the Union with the constitution as presented. Those who voted against the admission, did so on the ground that the constitution of the state permitted slavery, and that there were other objectionable features in that instrument, particularly in relation to free persons of color. The members from the slave states voted unani

mously for the admission of Missouri, while those from the northern and middle states, with few exceptions, voted against it.

Matters were in this situation, when the Missouri question again presented itself, on the fourteenth of February, 1821, the day appointed by law for opening and counting the votes for president and vice-president. Missouri having chosen presidential electors, and transmitted her votes for president and vice-president to Congress, a resolution passed the senate directing that in case any objection should be made to counting the votes from Missouri, the president of the senate should declare that, if the votes of Missouri were counted, the number of votes for A. B. for president would be so many, and if the votes of Missouri were not counted, the number would be so many, and that in either case A. B. is elected. The same course to be pursued in relation to vice-president. This resolution was taken up in the house on the morning of the day when the votes were to be counted. Mr. Clay having by this time taken his seat as a member, warmly supported the resolution as the only mode of avoiding the difficulty. It was also generally supported by the members in favor of restricting Missouri as to slavery, but opposed by most of those from the slave states. It was finally agreed to on the part of the house, sometime after the hour appointed for the meeting of the two houses to count the votes. Considerable delay and confusion took place while the votes were being counted, and some of the southern members, particularly John Randolph, of Virginia, made an effort to compel the house to declare that Missouri was a state of the Union. The course recommended by the joint resolution was finally adopted, and the president of the senate declared James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins duly elected president and vicepresident, for the term of four years from the 4th of March, 1821.

On the 26th of February, Mr. Clay, from a joint committee of the two houses appointed on the Missouri question, reported a resolution for the admission of the state into the Union, on condition that the said state, by their legislature, should assent to a condition that a part of the state constitution should never be construed to authorize the passage of a law by which any citizen of either of the states in the Union should be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the constitution of the United States. After debate, the final question was taken on this resolution, which was carried in the house by a vote of 87 to 81, and was concurred in by the senate on the 28th of February, and being approved by the president on the 2d of March, 1821, Missouri was admitted into the Union. Thus this exciting question was finally settled, principally through the efforts of Mr. Clay, who had also at the former session proposed and procured the adoption. of a resolution, or section of compromise, in the act authorizing Missouri to form a constitution, by which slavery was to be for ever prohibited in that part of the territory west of the Mississippi (excepting the state

of Missouri), lying north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude.

On the 22d of February the president issued his proclamation on the subject of the treaty which had been made with Spain, and announced that the same had been finally ratified by both the governments of the United States and Spain. Thus another important matter was happily brought to a conclusion.

Mr. Clay again brought before Congress the question of acknowledging the independence of the Spanish provinces of South America, and in the house of representatives resolutions to that effect were adopted.

In the senate a motion to declare the sedition act of 1798 unconstitutional, and to pay back the fines imposed by the United States courts for violations of the law, was offered by Mr. Barbour, of Virginia. After a warm debate the resolution was rejected, and the constitutionality of the law therefore sustained, by a vote of 24 to 19.

At this session of Congress the peace establishment of the army was reduced by law to seven regiments of infantry, and four regiments of ar tillery, with officers for the ordnance and engineering departments. The annual appropriation for the increase of the navy, which had been fixed in 1816 at one million of dollars, was reduced to five hundred thousand dollars.

Propositions introduced into Congress to prohibit the reception for payments to government in bills of state banks which issued those of a less denomination than five dollars; and to establish a national system of education by funds accruing from the sale of the public lands, were rejected.

An act was passed at this session for carrying into effect the treaty between the United States and Spain, authorizing the president to take possession of Florida, establishing a temporary government in the territory, and extending the laws of the United States to the same. A similar act had been passed by the fifteenth Congress, two years before, namely, March 3, 1819, to take effect when the treaty with Spain should be ratified. The provisions of the present act were somewhat extended. A board of three commissioners, to settle claims under the treaty, was directed to be appointed, and one hundred thousand dollars were appropriated for carrying the act into effect.

On Monday the 5th of March, 1821, Mr. Monroe was again inducted into office, for the term of four years. In the presence of a large concourse of his fellow-citizens, assembled in the hall of representatives at Washington, he delivered an inaugural address of more than ordinary length. The oath of office was administered to him by Chief-Justice Marshall.

The seventeenth Congress held its first session from the 3d of December, 1821, until the 8th of May, 1822. Mr. Clay not being a member of the house of representatives for this Congress, an attempt was made, prin