country, then a large tract of very wild land reaching from these mountains to the Pacific, should be open to Americans and British alike for the next ten years.

The following year, the United States made a treaty with Spain, which, for the sum of five millions, sold us East and West Florida (1819). Then our eastern seacoast extended from the St. Croix (croy) River, in Maine, all along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico to the Sabine (sa-been') River. The same treaty decided that the boundary between Mexico and our country should be formed by parts of the Sabine, Red, and Arkansas rivers, and the 42d parallel to the Pacific Ocean.

Spain was very glad to secure five million dollars just then, because the South American colonies had revolted and ceased to supply her with funds. Some of the principal European kings were so afraid that their states would soon follow the example of South America and set up republics too, that they made an agreement to help each other, and even to force the South American republics to submit again to Spain.

When Monroe heard of this agreement, or Holy Alliance, he said that, while the United States did not mean to meddle in European quarrels, we should no longer allow any European power to meddle in American affairs. The American continent was for Americans only, and no part of it could ever be seized by any one else.

When the Holy Alliance heard of this statement, which is known in our history as the "Monroe Doctrine" (1823), it no longer dared carry out its plans; for Great Britain sided with us against it. The Emperor of Russia, who had been trying to secure more land along the Pacific coast,

felt so sure that the Monroe Doctrine would be upheld, that he consented to sign a treaty, whereby he promised never to claim anything on this continent but A-las'ka, or Russian America, as it was then called.

The United States had changed greatly during these years. Before the Revolution, negro slaves had been owned in all the states. As slaves were not needed in the North, where every one worked, and as many people thought that the colored race had as much right as the white to be free, one Northern state after another abolished or put an end to slavery within its limits.

But it was different in the South. The climate there was so warm, and often so moist, that it was thought negroes only could thrive as laborers. The planters, therefore, bought many slaves to cultivate their rice, cotton, indigo, sugar, and tobacco plantations. As white men refused to work side by side with the slaves, the latter soon came to form the whole working class in the South.

When the Constitution was signed, both slave and free states formed part of our Union, so it was settled that the western land north of the Ohio should be cut up into free states, while that south of the river should form slave states.

When Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory, both parties wanted to have their own way in the new land. But as the people at New Orleans were slaveholders, the first state formed, called Louisiana, asked and was allowed to come into the Union as a slave state, in 1812.

Later on, when our Union consisted of eleven free and eleven slave states, Missouri asked to join the Union as a

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slave state, too. To please both parties, and end quarrels in Congress which every day became more bitter, it was finally agreed that Maine should be separated from Massachusetts and come into the Union as a free state, while Missouri entered as a slave state. But, at the same time, it was also decided that in all the rest of the Louisiana territory north of the parallel 36° 30', slavery should never be allowed. This law is called the " Missouri Compromise" (1820), and was favored by Henry Clay, a great Southern orator.

While the Missouri Compromise did not exactly suit any one, it stopped serious trouble on the subject of slavery for about thirty years. Still, the Southerners thought they had been unfairly treated, and they found fault with Clay for supporting the Compromise. Indeed, some were so angry that they even refused to vote for him when he became a candidate for the presidency. Of course this was a disappointment for him, but he rightly felt that his nickname of the "Great Pa-cif'i-ca-tor" (peacemaker) was far nobler than any other, and once said: "I would rather be right than be President."

TH

XIX. JACKSON STORIES.

HE sixth President was John Quincy Adams, son of Washington's successor. He was a good and learned man, but his election had to be decided by the House of Representatives, as neither he nor any of his three rivals received a majority of the electoral votes.

STO. OF GT. REP.-7

During his term, in 1826, on the fiftieth anniversary of independence, while joyful bells proclaimed the nation's "Jubilee," two old men quietly passed away. They had been friends, then rivals and foes, but were now at peace. In spite of suffering, both were conscious of the day, of which one of them, John Adams of Massachusetts, had said, in 1776, that it "ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore."

Ever since then he had always helped to celebrate the glorious anniversary, and, thinking of his old friend, he now murmured: "Thomas Jefferson still survives." But

Adams was mistaken. A few moments before, Thomas Jefferson had passed away at Monticello, in Virginia, his last words being: "This is the fourth day of July."

It was during John Quincy Adams's rule that the Erie Canal was opened, and work was begun on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. A great crowd assembled to witness the ceremony of breaking ground for it, and when Charles Carroll of Carrollton took up the first sod, he solemnly said: "I consider this among the most important acts of my life, second only to that of signing the Declaration of Independence."

Indeed, we are

Among the bystanders were educated men, who foresaw what an advantage railroads would be to our country. But there were ignorant ones also, who doubtless shook their heads and asked foolish questions. told that a farmer in England once scornfully asked Stephenson, the inventor of the locomotive, what would happen were a cow to get in front of it? To the farmer's amazement, the engineer simply answered, "Well, it would be very bad for the cow!

Every state now wanted roads, railroads, and canals, and there was much discussion as to whether the states or the national government should pay for all these improvements. Besides questions of roads and canals, new political questions also arose, and people began to say that those who helped a man to become President ought to receive some reward for their efforts. The reward they wanted was some government position, and this forced each new President to turn out officeholders appointed by the President before him, or else displease his friends.

Although this had been done very little hitherto, General Jackson's friends worked so hard to have him elected seventh President of the United States that he put about two thousand of them in office. When some one objected