Letter from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson
New York, October 24, 1787
Following are excerpts from James Madison’s letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated October 24, 1787:
“It remains then to be enquired whether a majority having any common interest, or feeling any common passion, will find sufficient motives to restrain them from oppressing the minority. (more…)
In the first year of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, the removal of Native Americans from their lands became a top priority.
Paul Cuffe, by 1816, began making voyages across the Atlantic Ocean to Africa, transporting African-Americans who wished to make a new home in Africa. Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 260.
On July 4, 1826, during America’s Golden Jubilee, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 243. The two political rivals were two of the last three surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence, leaving only Charles Carroll of Maryland alive. Id. President John Quincy Adams, learning of his father’s death and Jefferson’s death, remarked that it was a “‘visible and palpable mark of Divine favor,’ to the nation, and most of his countrymen agreed.” Id. quoting James Morton Smith, The Republic of Letters (New York, 1995), II, 1973-74.
Not long after the election of 1820, an essentially uncontested election seeing the re-election of President James Monroe, the campaigning for the election of 1824 began. President Monroe had indicated that he would not seek an unprecedented third term as president, but that did not stop others from posturing for the election. As a journalist observed in the spring of 1822, “electioneering begins to wax hot.” Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 203 quoting James F. Hopkins, “Election of 1824,” in History of American Presidential Elections, ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (New York, 1985), 363.
With the creation of the Missouri Compromise came a second controversy for Missouri. Some northerners threatened “not to consent to the Missouri constitution when it came back to Congress for final approval.” Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 156. Henry Clay, then-Speaker of the House of Representatives, led the effort to solving this second controversy.
By 1819, the area west of the Mississippi River, known as the Missouri Territory, had obtained a population qualifying it to be admitted to the Union. Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1819-1848, 147. The only requirement to be admitted was that an enabling act be presented to Congress “authorizing Missouri voters to elect a convention to draft a state constitution.” Id. That bill was proposed, but Representative James Tallmadge proposed an amendment prohibiting further “importation of slavery” and “all children of slaves born after Missouri’s admission to the Union should become free at the age of twenty-five.” Id. This provoked great “consternation in the House of Representatives.” Id. citing Annals of Congress, 15th Cong., 2nd sess., 1170.
As nationalism was growing in the years following the War of 1812, achievements became more common and innovation was running rampant. In this environment, the Erie Canal was born.
John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State from 1817 to 1825, was a principled, “tough negotiator.” Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 107.
East and West Florida, property of the Spanish Empire, had become coveted land for America in the early 1800s. It could lend a strategic stronghold for America and open up the Pearl, Perdido, and Apalachicola Rivers to commercial trade. Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 97.
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