States by way of Lake Champlain. He was supported by a fleet of seventeen sail; but a small American fleet, under Commodore McDonough, engaged the British fleet and utterly defeated it at Plattsburgh, near the northern end of the lake. This killed Prevost's attempted invasion.

By far the most important events of the war were those in the south. In the course of the summer of 1814, it became known that the British were meditating an attack on the southern states, probably at the mouth of the Mississippi. The defence was entrusted to Jackson, fresh from his victory over the Creeks. He found that the British had established themselves at Pensacola, in the Spanish territory of Florida. Jackson himself took up his position at Mobile, on the coast of Alabama. The chief defence of Mobile was Fort Bowyer, on a point commanding Mobile Bay. On the 15th of September the fort was attacked by the British both by sea and land, but was gallantly and successfully defended by Major Lawrence. Jackson sent a ship to its relief, but the captain, hearing a terrific explosion, came back and told Jackson that the fort had fallen. The explosion in reality was caused by the blowing up of a British ship which had been set on fire by the guns of the fort. After this success, Jackson marched upon Pensacola and seized it, considering that the Spaniards, by harboring the British, had forfeited their rights as neutral. The British now proceeded to attack New Orleans.

Some doubts seem to have been felt on each side how far the French-born Louisianians would be true to the American Union, of which they had lately become citizens. There seems to have been no ground for these suspicions, and the Lousianians were throughout loyal to their new government. There was also fear of a rising among the slaves. Moreover, the American supply of arms was miserably insufficient; but the strong will and courage of Jackson overcame or lightened every difficulty. On November 24 the British fleet of fifty sail anchored off the mouth of the Mississippi. Two plans of attack were open to the British: to ascend the river and attack New Orleans by water, or to land the troops and march on the city. To do the former it would have been necessary to destroy the forts which guarded the river, or at least to silence their guns. This was considered too difficult, and the British commanders decided to attack by land.

Accordingly, on the 21st of December, the British troops disembarked. They were opposed by a fleet of small vessels, but the British gun-boats beat these off, and the troops made good their landing. They were under the command of General Pakenham, a brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. He had shown himself a brave soldier in the Peninsula, but had done nothing to prove his fitness for command when much skill and judgment were needed. Till his arrival the British troops, numbering about` 3,000, were commanded by General Keane. At first the Americans were ignorant of the exact position of the enemy, but on the 23d they learnt that the British army was within nine miles of the city. The news was brought by a young planter, whose house had been seized by the British troops. All the rest of the household had been captured, and but for his escape the city might have been surprised. Jackson then marched out, and an engagement followed. After a whole night's fighting, during which the British were much harassed by the fire of two vessels in the river, the Americans retired. Keane, it has been thought, ought then to have marched straight on the city.

After this, Jackson stationed himself outside the city and threw up earthworks in its defence. Every man and horse that could be pressed into the service was employed. On the 25th Pakenham arrived, and three days later an unsuccessful attack was made on the American works. Here, as before, the two American ships in the river harassed the British troops, till one was sunk and the other driven off by the enemy's guns. On the 8th of January the British made their general attack. They numbered 7,300, the Americans 12,000. Pakenham sent a detachment across the river to seize the forts on that side, which would otherwise have annoyed his main body by a cross fire. This attempt was completely successful, but the main body was defeated with terrific loss, and Pakenham himself fell. Jackson did not attempt to follow up his victory, and, after a few skirmishes between the outposts, the British embarked and sailed off. Though the war was in reality over and peace signed when this battle was fought, yet the victory was of great importance to the Americans. It saved New Orleans, a rich and populous city, from the horrors of a sack. Coming also immediately after the Indian war, and contrasted with the American defeat at Washington,

it begot an enthusiastic admiration for Jackson which laid the foundation of his great political influence.

While this carnage was going on before New Orleans, the two nations were no longer at war. Commissioners from Great Britain and the United States had met at Ghent in July to discuss the terms of peace. These were easily arranged. Great Britain at first insisted that her right of impressing sailors on the high seas should be acknowledged by the Americans; America insisted that it should be formally renounced. Each at length gave way on this point, and the matter was left as before. The British gave up their conquests on the Canadian frontier, so that the boundaries remained as they had been before the war. The Americans refused to admit the Indians who were allied with the British to a share in the treaty, but at length promised not to molest them. On the 24th of December peace was signed.

Two mechanical inventions, made in America about this time, deserve special notice from the important effects which they at once produced. One was the cotton-gin, invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney of Massachusetts. Before Whitney's invention but little cotton had been exported from the United States. In 1794, 1,500,000 pounds were exported, and in the next year 5,250,000 pounds. The immediate effect of this in America was to call into life a new form of industry-cotton-planting. Soon after this, another invention was brought in, more wonderful than the cotton-gin, and far more remarkable in its effects on the whole world. This was the steam-boat, which was introduced into America by Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania. His first steam-boat was launched on the Hudson in 1807.

About this time the differences between the North and South began to make themselves felt. But as those differences and the conflicts that rose out of them, at least so far as they concerned slavery, form one connected chain of events ending in the War of Secession, it will be better to consider them separately, and to pass them over for the present, except when they are inseparably mixed up with the events of the day. In 1817 Madison was succeeded as president by another Republican, Monroe. He was a man of no special power, who had served creditably in various public offices. He is best known by his assertion of what was called the Mon

roe doctrine of "America for the Americans." A rumor was afloat that the European powers intended to interfere to restore the authority of Spain in her revolted colonies in South America. Thereupon Monroe declared that he should consider any attempt on the part of European powers "to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety."

In 1821, Monroe was re-elected by two hundred and thirty-one electoral votes out of two hundred and thirty-two; and the term Federalist ceased to be used except in reproach. In 1825 there were four candidates, Jackson, Clay, Adams, and Crawford, all calling themselves Republicans. Of these, Adams, son of the Federal president, was chosen by the House of Representatives, there being no choice by the Electoral College. The question of import duties became a formidable one. Originally the North was for free trade, and the South for protection. The former took this line from the belief that the shipping and carrying business would gain by free trade; the latter upheld protection because they were the chief producers, and so wished to keep out foreign rivals. Accordingly, in 1816,

Lowndes and Calhoun of South Carolina carried a bill imposing protective duties. But before long the Notherners found that they were gainers by this. Their manufactures rapidly grew, and thus it became their interest to keep out foreign goods. At the same time the heavy import duties prevented the South from buying imported articles, and forced them to depend for such on the North. Thus, when the question of raising the duties was brought forward in 1828, the two parties changed sides. The South, under Calhoun, were fighting for free trade, the North, led by Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, for protection.

In 1826 the 4th of July, and fiftieth anniversary of independence, was kept with great national rejoicings. It was marked by one of the most noticeable events in history, the death on that day of Jefferson and Adams, the two men who had drawn up the Declaration of Independence. Adams's last words were "Thomas Jefferson yet survives."

In 1828 Andrew Jackson was elected president, and signalized his entry into office by a wholesale discharge of government officials. His term of office was marked by two great struggles. The most important of them was against the extreme

members of his own, the Democratic or State Rights, party. In 1832 the import duties were lowered, but not enough to satisfy the South. South Carolina had always been the most active and independent of the Southern states. There, more than elsewhere, the planters regarded themselves as a separate and superior class, and looked down upon the traders of the North. In Calhoun, South Carolina found a leader well suited to her Under his leadership, South Carolina called a Convention and refused to accept the tariff. This line of action was called Nullification, and was based on the doctrine that any state had a right in extreme cases to refuse to be bound by the enactments of the central government. This was not the first case in which a state had shown such a tendency to disobedience. During the war of 1812 a Convention of delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, opposed to the war, and to other measures of the government, had met at Hartford, in Connecticut, and had, it is said, discussed the possibility of separation. But the affairs of the Hartford Convention were conducted with great secrecy, and seem to have excited little alarm. It was not so with the hot-blooded planters of South Carolina. They were known to be making preparations for resistance, and it seemed for awhile that civil war was at hand. Jackson's courage and promptitude, and the power which he had shown of striking swiftly and effectually with hastily-collected and ill-organized forces, now stood the Union in good stead. Southerner and Democrat though he was, he was as passionately attached to the cause of the Union as Calhoun was to that of his own state. Jackson publicly announced that the Union must be preserved at all hazards, and made preparations as for war. He was supported, not only by his own party, but by the Federals. Webster made in Congress one of his greatest speeches, in which he clearly pointed out that there was no alternative for any state between obedience and rebellion, and that to allow each state to decide how far it need obey the national government was practically to destroy that government. A conflict was prevented by a compromise. This was effected in a bill brought forward by Clay of Kentucky, providing that the import duties should be gradually reduced. This was finally carried. The supporters of it thought that any measure ought to be adopted

which would remove the danger of civil war, and at the same time preserve the authority of the Constitution.

Jackson's other great struggle was against his natural opponents the Federals, and on behalf of Democratic principles. In 1832 the National Bank applied for a renewal of its charter from government. This was opposed in Congress. The Federals, headed by Webster, supported it, and it was carried; but the president refused his approval. The Bank retaliated by using its vast influence to prevent Jackson's re-election, but failed. Jackson then withdrew all the public moneys in it and transferred them to banks in the various states. The withdrawal of the public money and the refusal of a charter ultimately led to the downfall of the Bank. It was now that a new political party sprang up, calling themselves at first National Republicans, and afterwards Whigs. The leaders of this party were Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. The former was the son of a Kentucky clergyman, the latter of a New England yeoman. Neither Clay nor Webster ever attained the presidency, partly because the allegiance of the party was in a measure divided between them. In 1829 Van Buren, the secretary of state, in a paper of instructions to the American minister in England, blamed the policy of Adams's government, and instructed the minister to disavow their proceedings in his dealings with the British cabinet. Webster held that this introduction of party politics into diplomacy would be injurious to the relations of America with other countries. The Senate supported this view, and when, in 1832, Jackson nominated Van Buren as minister to England, they took the serious step of refusing to sanction the appointment. Jackson was succeeded by Van Buren, a Northern Democrat. During his term of office the government was involved in considerable trouble with the Indians. For more than ten years measures had been going on for moving them westward. Hitherto the Indians had been merely savage enemies on the outskirts of the States; but now things took a new turn. They began to form settlements, which might fairly be called civilized, in territory which the United States claimed. These settlements refused to acknowledge the authority of the United States, and so were likely to be a source of much trouble. The national government therefore adopted the policy of buying up the