Map of the Northern Part of the State of Maine and of the adjacent 467 . Map showing the distribution, east of the 100th meridian, of the 536 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XL. TEXAS, OREGON, AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. MARCH fourth, 1821, the day whereon, according to law, Monroe should a second time have taken the oath of office, fell on a Sunday. Never in our history had such an event happened on such a day, and, considering the peculiar character which the Christian world has given to the first day of the week, Monroe was uncertain what to do. Regard for the Sabbath prompted him to put off the oath till the morrow. Regard for his duty prompted him to take it the moment his first term expired. In the end his religious feelings triumphed, and he was sworn into office at noon on March fifth, thereby establishing a precedent which has twice been followed since his death. The first important act of his second term was the appointment of Andrew Jackson to the Governorship of Florida. After two years of delay, due to the state of affairs in Spain, the Florida treaty of 1819 had at last been ratified by Ferdinand and reratified by the Senate of the United States on Washington's birthday, 1821. Time did not serve to organize the new territory; hence, beyond spreading over it the revenue laws and the law against the slave-trade, and authorizing the President to invest the powers of the existing Government in a proper person, no legislation had been attempted when the session closed. Whoever was sent as Governor would be invested, therefore, with all the immense powers of the old Captain-General of Cuba and the old Governors of Spanish Florida, save that he could neither levy taxes nor grant land. For this post a man of the utmost prudence was needed. But it pleased Monroe to select Jackson, because, in his opinion, some amends were due for the attack made upon the general in the House of Representatives two years before; because the victory at New Orleans had given him a popularity such as was not enjoyed by any other American then living; and because, by a recent act of Congress, he was about to be turned out of the military service of the United States. The law provided that after June first, 1821, there should be but one major-general, and, as Jackson was the youngest in commission, he must go. That the nation might be spared the odium of discarding the most distinguished soldier then in her service, Monroe at once appointed him Governor of Florida, and commissioner to receive the territory from the Spaniards. He promptly accepted the office, and, while James Grant Forbes was despatched in the sloop of war Hornet to carry the order of the King of Spain to the CaptainGeneral of Cuba for the delivery of the province, and bring back the necessary orders for the surrender of Florida, its forts, and its archives to the American commissioner, Jackson travelled slowly southward to Pensacola. At that city, in July, amid the tears and sobs of the people, the province was formally delivered to the Americans. Had the weeping Spaniards at Pensacola looked over the world on that memorable July day, they could have found no spot on earth so blessed as the United States, no people so prosperous and happy as those with whom their lot was cast. Abroad, near by, around them on every hand, were nations struggling desperately for a little of that kind of liberty of which henceforth it was to be their privilege to enjoy so much. With all the details of the revolutions and counterrevolutions of Mexico and Colombia, Guatemala, Chili, Buenos Ayres, Naples, Greece, Portugal, and Spain we are most happily not concerned. Yet the story of them must be told with some fulness if we are to understand two memorable events of Monroe's second administration-the announcement |