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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780965273589 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Applewood Books |
| Publication date: | 01/01/1901 |
| Series: | Lost Classics Book Company |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 433 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.25(w) x 7.50(h) x 1.36(d) |
| Lexile: | 1040L (what's this?) |
| Age Range: | 4 - 17 Years |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER XXXVIII Election of Jefferson War with Tripoli
The Federalists favored a strong government. In the excitement caused by the troubles with France, very stringent laws were passed by them. Foreigners were required to live in America fourteen years before they could be naturalized. By what was called the "Alien Law," the President was given authority to send out of the country, without trial, any "alien" or unnaturalized foreigner. By the "Sedition Law," speakers and newspaper writers were to be severely punished for "libeling" the officers of the government. Many of the people thought the alien law took away the right of trial by jury, and that the sedition law attacked free speech and a free press.
In the presidential election of 1800. John Adams was the Federalist candidate a second time, but he was defeated, and the Federalist party never was able to elect another President. The Federalists had secured the adoption of the Federal Constitution; they had made the national government strong; and they had begun the work of paying the national debt in full, and so making the credit of the government good. No party ever did a better work than the Federalists did in bringing a bankrupt and disorderly confederacy into a firm union.
But the Federalists leaned too much to the English notions of government that had prevailed before the Revolution. The Republicans held more to the equality of men; they trusted the people, and believed in progress toward a larger personal liberty. The Federalist movement made us a nation; but the movement represented by the old Republican party made us republicans and Americans.
It was the intention of those who framed the Constitution that the people should not vote for particular men for the presidency. They were to choose in each State a certain number of men called "electors." These were to select a President. But, instead of choosing eminent men, and leaving the choice of a President to them, the people vote for electors pledged beforehand to cast their votes for the candidates of their party. The people thus vote for the President. It was provided at first that each elector should vote for two candidates for President. The candidate who received the highest number was to be the President, the one having the next highest was to be Vice-President. The effect of this, in 1796, was to make John Adams President, and his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, Vice-President. The President and Vice-President thus belonged to opposite parties.
In 1800 the Republicans resolved to elect Jefferson President and Aaron Burr Vice-President. But, as the only way of electing a Vice-President was by voting for him as one of the two candidates for President, it happened that both Jefferson and Burr received the votes of all the Republican electors, and had, therefore, exactly the same number of electoral votes, although nobody had thought of Burr for President. The Constitution provided then, as it does now, that the choice between the two, in case of a tie vote, should be by the House of Representatives. The Federalists disliked Jefferson in particular, as the great chief of the Republicans; the most of them, therefore, voted for Burr. This produced a new tie in the House of Representatives, and there was danger that the 4th of March would arrive and find the country without a President; but, after a long struggle, some of the Federalists cast blank votes, and allowed Jefferson to be elected. This dangerous struggle led to a change in the Constitution by which the electors were to vote for but one candidate for President and one for Vice-President. This method of voting for electors still prevails.
During Jefferson's time, the United States was at peace with all the great powers. The wars raging in Europe had injured the commerce of England and France. Foreign merchants, whose countries were at war, preferred to send goods in American vessels, to prevent their being captured by the enemy. In this way American commerce became very prosperous.
The little Mohammedan states, along the southern coast of the Mediterranean, had long carried on a piratical warfare against the trade of Christian countries. The nations of northern Europe paid them a yearly tribute to protect their ships from robbery. The United States was obliged to redeem from slavery Americans captured by the Dey of Algiers, and also to pay tribute. But in 1801 the Pasha [pash-aw´] of Tripoli [trip´-o-ly], having been refused additional presents, broke into open war.
This war may almost be said to mark the birth of the American navy. It was a period in which Americans were fond of dangerous exploits. The officers and men of this small sea force performed acts of daring before Tripoli which have never been forgotten, and which yet serve for an example to their successors. In many actions Americans boarded the pirate ships, and fought in desperate hand-to-hand encounters, with swords, pikes, and bayonets. The frigate Philadelphia, having run on rocks, was captured by the Tripolitans, and the crew reduced to slavery. Lieutenant Decatur ran into the harbor at night in a ketch, boarded the frigate and burned her, escaping with his men by rowing his little boat under a storm of fire from the enemy's batteries. After four years of blockade and war, the obstinate ruler of Tripoli was brought to terms. He made a treaty of peace in 1805.
But in 1812, Algiers, another of the Barbary powers, declared war against this country, captured American vessels, and reduced the crews to slavery. The same Stephen Decatur, who as a lieutenant burned the Philadelphia, was sent to the Mediterranean Sea, in 1815, as commodore of a squadron. He captured the chief vessels of the Dey, and forced that prince to release his prisoners, and to come on board the commodore's ship and sign a treaty. The United States never afterward paid tribute to any of the pirate powers.
Questions for study
1. What were the names of the two parties in the United States at this time? (See Chapter XXXVI.)
2. What kind of a government did the Federalists favor?
3. What kind of laws were passed by them?
4. During what excitement did the Federalists pass these stringent laws?
5. How long did they require foreigners to remain in the country before they could be naturalized? What is an alien?
7. What power did the Alien Law give to the president?
8. What is the meaning of the word sedition? (Ans. To defame or expose to contempt by a writing or by printed matter.)
9. What offenses did the Sedition Law propose to punish?
10. What did many of the people think of the Alien Law? What of the Sedition Law?
11. Who was the candidate of the Federalist party in 1800?
12. Had John Adams been the Federalist candidate before? Had he been elected? (Chapter XXXVII)
13. What took place in this election?
14. Did the Federalist party ever again elect their candidate for President?
15. What party had secured the adoption of the Consitution?
16. What had the Federalists done about the national debt?
17. To what notions of government did the Federalists lean?
18. To what did the Republicans hold? In what kind of progress did they believe?
19. What did the Federalist movement do for us?
20. What did the movement represented by the old Republican party do for us?
21. What was the intention of those who framed the Constitution in regard to voting for a President.
22. What were the electors to do?
23. Did the people leave the choice to the electors?
24. Do the people really elect the President?
25. How were the electors to vote?
26. If each elector voted for two candidates for the presidency, how was the Vice-President chosen? What effect did this have in 1796?
27. Whom did the Republicans resolve to elect for President in 1800?
28. Who was their candidate for Vice-President? What was the result?
29. When the electors fail to make a choice, who is to elect a President?
30. Why did most of the Federalists in the House of Representatives vote for Aaron Burr?
31. Did the House of Representatives succeed in electing at first?
32. What danger was there?
33. How did the election come out at last?
34. What change was now made in the Consitution?
35. What was the character of our relations with the great powers during Jefferson's time?
36. What effect did the European wars have on our commerce?
37. Why did foreign merchants prefer to ship goods in American vessels?
38. What kind of warfare did the little Mohammedan states carry on?
39. Where were these states situated?
40. What did the nations of northern Europe do to protect their commerce?
41. To what ruler did the United States pay money to redeem captives and for tribute?
42. Which one of the rulers of these Barbary states broke into open war with the United States in 1801?
43. What relation does this war hold to the history of the navy of the United States?
44. How did the officers and men before Tripoli behave?
45. What took place when they boarded the ships of the enemy?
46. Relate the story of the burning of the frigate Philadelphia.
47. What did Decatur afterward become?
48. Which of the Barbary powers afterward declared war against this country?
49. Who commanded the expedetion against Algiers in 1815? What was the result?
Study by topics
I. The Federalist party and its defeat.
II. The Republican party.
III. Difficulties in the presidential election.
IV. Change in the Constitution.
V. Prosperity of American commerce.
VI. Wars with the Barbary pirates.
Geography (Map Illustration)
What are the names of the four Barbary states that lie on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea? Which is the most westerly? Which the most easterly? What country in Europe lies north from Tripoli? What country in Europe lies north from Morocco? What country lies next to Tripoli on the east? [Ans. Egypt.] What do you know about Egypt? Which of the Barbary states lies between Algiers and Tripoli? Through what strait would American ships have to pass to reach Algiers or Tripoli? [Ans. The Strait of Gibraltar.]
Table of Contents
1 How Columbus Discovered America2 Other Discoveries in America
3 Sir Walter Raleigh Tries to Settle a Colony in America
4 How Jamestown was Settled
5 The Starving Time and What Followed
6 The Great Charter of Virginia and the First Massacre by the Indians
7 The Coming of the Pilgrims
8 The Coming of the Puritans
9 The Coming of the Dutch
10 The Settlement of Maryland and the Carolinas
11 The Coming of the Quakers and Others to the Jerseys and Pennsylvania
12 The Settlement of Georgia and the Coming of the Germans, Irish, and French
13 How the Indians Lived
14 Early Indian Wars
15 Traits of War with the Indians
16 Life in the Colonial Time
17 Farming and Shipping in the Colonies
18 Bond-Servants and Slaves in the Colonies
19 Laws and Usages in the Colonies
20 The Spanish in Florida and the French in Canada
21 Colonial Wars with France and Spain
22 Braddock's Defeat and the Expulsion of the Acadians
23 Fall of Canada
24 Characteristics of the Colonial Wars with the French
25 How the Colonies were Governed
26 Early Struggles for Liberty in the Colonies
27 The Causes of the Revolution
28 The Outbreak of the Revolution and Declaration of Independence
29 The Battle of Trenton and the Capture of Burgoyne's Army
30 The Dark Period of the Revolution
31 The Closing Years of the Revolution
32 Traits and Incidents of the Revolutionary War
33 The Adoption of the Constitution
34 The New Republic and Its People
35 Home and Society in Washington's Time
36 Washington's Presidency, from 1789 to 1797
37 Troubles with England and France, Presidency of John Adams
38 Election of Jefferson, War with Tripoli
39 The Settlement of the Great Valley
40 Beginning of the Second War with England
41 The Navy in the War of 1812
42 The Army in the War of 1812
43 Expansion of the Union
44 From Monroe to Van Buren, Rise of Whigs and Democrats
45 The Steamboat, the Railroad, and the Telegraph
46 Annexation of Texas, Beginning of the Mexican War
47 The Close of the Mexican War and the Annexation of New Territory
48 The Question of Slavery in Politics
49 Breakup of Old Parties, Approach of the Civil War
50 How the Great Civil War Began
51 Confederate Victory at Bull Run, The First Western Campaign
52 The War at the East, From Bull Run to Gettysburg
53 Various Operations in 1862 and 1863
54 The Campaign between Nashville and Atlanta
55 From the Wilderness to Petersburg, The War in the Valley
56 Close of the Civil War
57 Traits and Results of the War, Death of Lincoln
58 Political Events since the Civil War
59 Later Developments of the Country
60 Population, Wealth, and Modes of Living
61 Literature and Art in the United States
Index