James Monroe, Part 3

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2004-3-10

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the
Voice of America.

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In the spring of eighteen-twenty,
President James Monroe faced a difficult decision. His first four
years as president were coming to an end. He wanted to be elected
again. But he had to decide something that might force the
presidential electors to choose another man. Congress, after much
bitter debate between north and south, had approved a bill giving
statehood to Missouri....A part of the Louisiana Territory. Southern
lawmakers wanted Missouri to permit slavery. The northerners wanted
no slaves in Missouri. A compromise was reached. Missouri could have
slaves. But nowhere else in the northern part of the Louisiana
territory would slavery be permitted.

VOICE TWO:

Many southerners were not satisfied. The compromise closed the
door against slavery entering large new areas of land. Southerners
-- like all other Americans -- had a right to settle in the new
territory. President Monroe was a slave-owner. He understood the
feelings of the south. His friends urged him to veto the compromise
bill, because it limited slavery in the territory. Monroe believed
the compromise was wrong -- but not because it kept slaves out of
the territory. The president did not believe the Constitution gave
Congress the right to make such conditions. Monroe even wrote a veto
message explaining why he could not approve the compromise. But he
did not use the veto. He also understood the strong feelings of
those opposed to slavery. He believed there might be civil war if he
rejected the compromise. So Monroe signed the bill. Missouri had
permission to enter the union as a slave state.

VOICE ONE:

The crisis seemed ended. But a few months later, a new problem
developed. Missouri wrote a state constitution that it sent to
Congress for approval. One part of this constitution did not permit
free black men to enter the state. The constitution was immediately
opposed by a number of congressmen. They charged that it violated
the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution said
citizens of each state had the rights of citizens of each of the
other states. And since free black men were citizens of some states,
they should have the right to be citizens of Missouri. The debate
over this lasted several months. Former House Speaker Henry Clay
finally proposed a compromise that both sides accepted. Missouri
could become a state if its legislature would make this promise: It
would never pass any law that would violate the rights of any
citizen of another state. This second compromise ended the dispute
over slavery in Missouri and the Louisiana Territory.

VOICE TWO:

The compromise of eighteen-twenty settled the crisis of slavery
for more than twenty years. But everyone knew that the settlement
was only temporary. Former President Thomas Jefferson used these
words to explain his feelings about the compromise: "This question
-- like a fire bell in the night -- awakened and filled me with
terror. I understood it at once as the threat of death to the union.
It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But," said Jefferson, "This is
a reprieve only. . . Not a final settlement." Monroe's decision to
approve the compromise did not hurt his election chances in
eighteen-twenty. There was at this time really only one party -- the
Republican -- and he was its leader. The opposition Federalist party
was dead. It was no longer an election threat. Monroe was the only
presidential candidate in the election of eighteen-twenty. He
received the vote of every elector, but one. William Plumer of New
Hampshire voted for John Quincy Adams. He explained later that
George Washington had been the only president to get all the
electoral votes. Plumer said he did not want anyone to share this
honor given to Washington.

VOICE ONE:

Monroe's first four years as president had been successful. He
had increased the size of the United States. Florida now was part of
the country. And the problem of slavery had been temporarily
settled. There had been economic problems -- some of the worst in
the nation's history. But the situation was getting better. The
nation was growing. As it grew, new problems developed between its
different sections. There were really three separate areas with very
different interests. The northeastern states had become the
industrial center of the nation. The southern states were
agricultural with large farms that produced cotton, rice, and
tobacco. Much of the work on these farms was done by slave labor.
The western states were areas of small farms where grain was
produced with free labor. It was a place where a man could make a
new start. . . Could build a new life. The land did not cost much.
And the fruits of a man's labor were his own.

VOICE TWO:

This division of the nation into different sections with opposing
interests ended the one-party system of Monroe's administration. The
industrial northeast wanted high taxes on imported products to
protect its industry from foreign competition. This part of the
country also believed the national government should pay for roads
and waterways to get their products to markets. The south did not
agree to high import taxes. These taxes raised the prices on all
goods. And import taxes on foreign goods might cause foreign nations
to raise import taxes on southern cotton and tobacco. The south also
opposed spending federal money for roads and canals. The mountains
through the southern atlantic states would make road-building
difficult and canals impossible. The western states supported
government aid in the building of roads and canals. The Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers were the only inexpensive transportation systems
for moving their products to markets. The westerners also supported
high taxes on imports, because they believed such taxes would raise
the prices of their agricultural products.

VOICE ONE:

The separate interests of these
different sections produced an exciting presidential election
campaign in eighteen-twenty-four. Each section had at least one
candidate. Several had more than one. The campaign began almost as
soon as Monroe was elected for the second time. At one time, as many
as sixteen men thought of themselves as presidential possibilities.
By eighteen-twenty-two, the number had been reduced to six men.
Three of them were members of Monroe's cabinet: Secretary of State
John Quincy Adams, Treasury Secretary William Crawford, and
Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. Adams was the only northern
candidate. He was an extremely able man. There were few jobs in
government he could not do, and do well. But he was not the kind of
man that people liked. He was cold, questioning, and had a sharp
tongue. His father was John Adams, the second president of the
United States.

VOICE TWO:

Treasury Secretary Crawford was a
southerner -- born in Virginia -- and a large land-owner in Georgia.
Crawford had received some votes when the Republicans chose Monroe
as their presidential candidate in eighteen-sixteen. He was a good
politician and was supported by most southern Republicans. War
Secretary Calhoun also was a southern candidate. But he had much
less support than Crawford. His home state -- South Carolina --
first named another man as its candidate. When that man died, they
named Calhoun. The west had two candidates in the election of
eighteen-twenty-four. One was Henry Clay of Kentucky -- "Harry of
the West" -- a great lawyer, congressman, Speaker of the House, and
senator. The other was Andrew Jackson -- "Old Hickory" -- the hero
of New Orleans [battle of New Orleans during the war of 1812].
Jackson was poorly educated, knew little about government, and had a
terrible temper. He was a fighter, a man of the people. The sixth
candidate was Dewitt Clinton of New York. He was governor of that
state and leader of the commission that built the Erie Canal. But
New York presidential electors were chosen by the legislature, which
was controlled by Clinton's enemies. So Clinton's chances were poor.

VOICE ONE:

Treasury Secretary Crawford was clearly the leading candidate two
years before the election. But he had a serious illness in the
autumn of eighteen-twenty-three. He could not meet with the cabinet
for months. He could not sign official papers. Crawford did go back
to work. But he was only a shadow of the man he had been. "He walks
slowly, like a blind man," wrote one reporter. So that took
Secretary Crawford out as a possible candidate for the coming
election.

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VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Sarah Long.
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION
can be heard on Thursdays.