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In 1801, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the leader of the
Democratic party, was elected to the presidency, and it was during his
first term of office that the New England States showed such hitter
feeling- towards the South, on account of the Southern States refusing
to encourage the New England States in their traffic in the slave trade
from the African coast.
When President Jefferson proposed the Purchase of
Louisiana these same New England States violently opposed it, fearing it
would give more slave territory, but still they were willing to bring
more slaves from the coast of Africa, pay for them in rum and sell them
to the Southerners. How can these religious fanatics who have shown that
they loved the God of Mammon more than the God of humanity, reconcile
these facts ?
Thomas Jefferson was re-elected in 1805. During this war
existed between England and France, and the Berlin and Milan decrees of
Napoleon, also orders from the British Government interfered with
American commerce.
Our vessels were often captured on the high seas and
confiscated. This left Jefferson one of two things to do, Viz ; abandon
our trade, or go to war to defend it; so he recommended the Embargo Act,
which was to put a stop to our foreign trade rather than plunge the
nation into war with France or England, or probably both.
This act was passed in Dec. 1807 , and was strongly
opposed by the Northern men, because they said it would interfere with
their shipping and damage them materially, and they would not stand it.
So the Eastern States threatened to secede from the
American Union and form a Northern Confederacy. Now if the New
England States had a right to secede in 1807, to protect their shipping
or plunge the whole nation into war to save their commerce, why did not
the South have the right to secede in 1861 to protect the slave property
that New England had sold to the South for gold, and which they paid for
in rum made from molasses?
In 1809 James Madison of Virginia, was ejected
president, and the Embargo Act was repealed to satisfy the New England
people, and another law was passed in May 1809, known as the ,
Non-intercourse law. This law prohibited the American people from
trading with England or France.
But New England, true to her love for the dollar, in
violation of the law, carried on an indirect trade with Europe through
Canada. These wildcat vessels were often overtaken and the American flag
hauled down, until the people compelled Congress to declare war against
Great Britain in May 1812.
In 1813, James Madison was re-elected, the second war
with Great Britain came on, and the expenses of the war had to be met by
a direct tax upon the States; but the New England States, for the most
part, refused to contribute, after they had virtually brought on the
war.
At the close of the war in January 1815, the Federal
treasury was much depleted, and a new financial policy was adopted, viz
; A high tariff. This suited the New Englander because he had
transferred his capital in Negroes to commerce and manufactories, and be
wanted it protected. They had also sold most of their Negro slaves to
the southern people and put their money into machinery.
Although the South thought this high tariff would not
benefit her section, many of her representatives supported the measure
in order to appease their threatening secession brethren in the North.
It was at this time that John Calhoun of South Carolina
introduced the "Minimum Rate Bill," which was, not to allow
duties to fall below a certain rate.
Mr. Monroe of Virginia, was elected president in 1817,
and the country was at peace until 1820, when Missouri applied to be
admitted into the Federal union as a slave state, which New England
opposed, almost to a man, on account of extending slave territory,
having by this time sold her slaves to the South and put her money into
factories, therefore she had no further interest in the Negro as
property.
They did not want the South to carry Negro property,
that had been bought from New England into this territory, although the
South had expended as much, if not more, in its acquisition than the
North.
The Louisiana Purchase was brought about by Thomas
Jefferson and his party, while the Eastern men violently opposed it.
Missouri was finally admitted as a slave state, with a
compromise, viz ; that hereafter no slave state should be created north
of the parallel of latitude, 36.30.
After James Monroe's re-election in 1821, among the
first things demanded by New England was more protection for her
manufactories; the South opposed this action, as she thought the tariff
was high enough, and a further increase would be detrimental to her
section which was agricultural.
In 1825, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, was elected
president, and during his term the bitter tariff fight was again revived
between the two sections, and in 1828 a new tariff act was passed which
was so high it was almost prohibitory. The average on imports was 4°
per cent.
This act in the eyes of the Southern men was so
outrageous, that they called it the Black Tariff. |
