About the payment of the public debt President Jackson was persistent and determined. By his veto he put a stop to all expenditures for internal improvements, in part that the surplus revenue might go to the discharge of the debt. But under Monroe or Adams or another President the same result would have been reached in a little longer time, with the public improvements added. Still it is not what might have been that affects popular sentiment. And it was right to point to General Jackson as the man.

During this session of Congress, on January 30th, while President Jackson was attending the funeral of Congressman Warren R. Davis, an insane wretch attempted to assassinate him in the vestibule of the rotunda at the Capitol. After snapping two pistols the would-be assassin was knocked down by Lieutenant Gedney, a naval officer. He was taken to jail, but was not punished, as it was quite clear that he was insane. General Jackson was furious over this affair, and attributed the attempt upon his life to his political enemies. When a fancy of this kind took possession of him it was no easy matter for him to be persuaded out of it, and he seldom, to all appearances, made an attempt to disabuse his own mind. A year or two before, when Randolph had ridiculously tweaked the General's nose, Mr. Adams wrote in his Diary: "A President of the United States pulled by the nose is a new incident in the history of the country, and as he himself has countenanced personal violence against members of Congress, he will not meet with much sympathy."

In his last message the President, as usual, recommended an amendment of the Constitution to provide for

the election of President and Vice-President by the direct vote of the people, and for fixing four or six years as the term of service. But, as usual, Congress took no note of this chronic recommendation. In this message, after quite fully and fairly reviewing the matter of public expenditures, the President declares that he is in favor of internal improvements. Some appropriations were made for improving certain harbors and rivers, for the Cumberland Road, and other roads and surveys; branch mints were established at New Orleans, and in Georgia and North Carolina; an act was passed to regulate the deposits, of the United States in the banks, and note was taken of the death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, John Randolph of Roanoke, and William Wirt, who had died in 1834. On the 14th of January, 1835, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution declaring it inexpedient to take any note of affairs between the United States and France, notwithstanding the President's message. In May Mr. Barry resigned his position as Postmaster-General, and was sent as Minister to Spain. Amos Kendall was appointed as his successor, but his nomination was not confirmed until 1836.

During the summer of 1835, the candidates for President and Vice-President were put in the field. Edwin Williams says:

"There was an impression at this time that General Jackson contemplated retiring from the Presidency, leaving the reins of Government in the hands of Mr. Van Buren for the remainder of his term; but if he had such an intention it was abandoned. He was, however, anxious that Mr. Van Buren should be his successor in the Presidency, and in February, 1835, he came out with a letter to a friend, in which he expresses himself in favor of a National Democratic Convention, to nominate a President

and Vice-President. The Convention was a favorite project of Mr. Van Buren, and it soon appeared that all the supporters of the Administration who were in favor of Mr. Van Buren as successor to General Jackson, advocated a nomination by a convention, while the opponents of Mr. Van Buren, in the same ranks, denounced that mode of nomination. A large section of the Jackson party gave early indications of an intention to support Hugh L. White, one of the Tennessee Senators, for President, and in January, 1835, he was nominated by the Legislature of Alabama, and, about the same time, by the people of Tennessee, and by the Tennessee delegation in the House of Representatives, all of whom signed a letter in his favor, except James K. Polk and Cave Johnson. Mr. Van Buren was already nominated for the Presidency by a State Convention in Mississippi. Three candidates had been named by the Whig opposition; namely, General William H. Harrison, of Ohio, by a meeting at Harrisburg; John McLean, of Ohio, by a Legislative caucus in that State; and Daniel Webster, by the Whigs in the Legislature of Massachusetts.

66 "The National Democratic Convention for the nomination of President and Vice-President of the United States, met at Baltimore on the 20th of May, 1835. More than six hundred delegates were in attendance, and twenty-two States were represented. Upon the first ballot, Martin Van Buren received the unanimous vote of the Convention for President. This was expected, as none but the friends of Mr. Van Buren took part in the Convention. Colonel Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, received the nomination for Vice-President, by 178 votes, to 87 for William C. Rives, of Virginia. The delegates from Virginia protested against the nomination of Colonel Johnson, declaring that he could not receive the vote of that State."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

PRESIDENT JACKSON'S SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

N the 7th of December, 1835, Congress again

ON

convened, and did not adjourn until the 4th of July, 1836. This time Mr. Polk was successful in the race for Speaker of the House, receiving 132 votes to 84 for John Bell, Speaker for the last two sessions or the "24th Congress." Bell represented the opposition and the friends of Hugh L. White. The following is President Jackson's

SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

In discharge of my official duty, the task again devolves upon me of communicating with a new Congress. The reflection that the representation of the Union has been recently renewed, and that the Constitutional term of its service will expire with my own, heightens the solicitude with which I shall attempt to lay before it the state of our national concerns, and the devout hope which I cherish that its labors to improve them may be crowned with success.

You are assembled at a period of profound interest to the American patriot. The unexampled growth and prosperity of our country having given us a rank in the scale of nations which removes all apprehension of danger to our integrity and independence from external foes, the career of freedom is before us, with an earnest of the past, that, if true to ourselves, there can be no formidable obstacle in the future to its peaceful and uninterrupted pursuit. Yet, in proportion to the disappearance of those apprehensions which attended our weakness, as once contrasted with

the power of some of the States of the Old World, should we now be solicitous as to those which belong to the conviction that it is to our own conduct we must look for the preservation of those causes on which depend the excellence and the duration of our happy system of government.

In the example of other systems founded on the will of the people, we trace to internal dissension the influences which have so often blasted the hopes of the friends of freedom. The social elements, which were strong and successful when united against external danger, failed in the more difficult task of properly adjusting their own internal organization, and thus gave way the great principle of self-government. Let us trust that this admonition will never be forgotten by the Government or the people of the United States; and that the testimony which our experience thus far holds out to the great human family, of the practicability and blessings of free government, will be confirmed in all time to come.

We have but to look at the state of our agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and the unexampled increase of our population, to feel the magnitude of the trust committed to us. Never, in any former period of our history, have we had greater reason than we now have to be thankful to Divine Providence for the blessings of health and general prosperity. Every branch of labor we see crowned with the most abundant rewards; in every element of national resources and wealth, and of individual comfort, we witness the most rapid and solid improvements. With no interruptions of this pleasing prospect at home, which will not yield to the spirit of harmony and good-will that so strikingly pervade the mass of the people in every quarter, amid all the diversity of interest and pursuits to which they are attached; and with no cause of solicitude in regard to our external affairs, which will not, it is hoped, disappear before the principles of simple justice and forbearance that mark our intercourse with foreign powers, we have every reason to feel proud of our be loved country.

The general state of our foreign relations has not materially changed since my last annual message.

In the settlement of the question of the north-eastern boundary, little progress has been made. Great Britain has declined acceding to the proposition of the United States, presented in accordance with the resolution of the Senate, unless certain