In international relations the action of the Government was strong, quiet and self-respecting. Its first weighty action took place in 1823. It had become pretty evident that the Holy Alliance meant to aid Spain in bringing her re volted South American colonies to obedience. Great Britain had been drifting steadily away from the alliance, and George Can ning, the new secretary, determined to call in the weight of the transatlantic power as a check upon it. A hint to the American minister was followed by a few pregnant passages in Monroe's annual message in December. "We could not view," he said, "any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them [the South American States] , or controlling in any other manner their des tiny by any European power, in any other light than as the mani festation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States." If both the United States and Great Britain were to take this ground the fate of a fleet sent by the Alliance across the Atlantic was not in much doubt, and the project was at once given up.
It was supposed at the time that Spain might transfer her colonial claims to some stronger power; and Monroe therefore said that "the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are hence forth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." This declaration and that quoted above constitute together the "Monroe Doctrine" as originally pro claimed. The doctrine has remained the rule of foreign inter course for all American parties.
By a treaty with Russia (1825) that power gave up all claims on the Pacific coast south of the present limits of Alaska. The northern boundary of the United States had been defined by the treaty of 1783 ; and, after the acquisition of Louisiana, a convention with Great Britain (1818) settled the boundary on the line of 49° N. lat. as far west as the Rocky Mountains. West of these mountains the so-called Oregon coun try, on whose limits the two powers could not agree, was to be held in common possession for ten years. This common possession was prolonged by another convention (1827) indefinitely, with the privilege to either power to terminate it, on giving 12 months' notice. This arrangement lasted until 1846.
Monroe's term of office came to an end in March 1825. He had originally been an extreme Democrat, who could hardly speak of Washington with patience; he had slowly modified his views, and his tendencies were now eagerly claimed by the few remaining Federalists as identical with their own. All the candidates for the Presidency in 1824—Andrew Jackson, a private citizen of Tennessee; William H. Crawford, Monroe's secretary of the treasury; John Quincy Adams, his secretary of State; and Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House of Representa tives—claimed to be Republicans alike ; but the personal nature of the struggle was shown by the tendency of their supporters to call themselves "Adams men" or "Jackson men," rather than by any real party title. Calhoun was supported by all groups for
the vice presidency, and was elected without difficulty. The choice of a president was more doubtful.
None of the four candidates had anything like a party organization behind him. Adams and Clay repre sented the nationalizing element, as Crawford and Jackson did not ; but there the likeness among them stopped. The strongest forces behind Adams were the new manufacturing and commer cial interests of the East ; behind Clay were the desires of the West for internal improvements : and the two elements were soon to be united into the National Republican or Whig Party. Craw ford was the representative of the old Democratic Party, with all its Southern influences and leanings. Jackson was the personifi cation of the new democracy—not very cultured, perhaps, but honest, and hating every shade of class control instinctively. As he became better known the whole force of the new drift of things turned in his direction. Crawford was taken out of the race, just after the electors had cast their votes, by physical fail ure, and Adams, later, by the revival of ancient quarrels with the Federalists of New England ; and the future was to be with Clay or with Jackson. But in 1824 the electors gave no one a majority; and the House of Representatives, voting by States, gave the presidency to Adams.
Adams' election in 1825 was due to the fact that Clay's friends in the House—unable to vote for him, as he was the lowest in the electoral vote, and only three names were open to choice in the House—very naturally gave their votes to Adams. As Adams appointed Clay to the leading position in his cabinet, the defeated party at once raised the cry of "bargain and intrigue," one of the most effective in a democracy, and it was kept up throughout Adams' four years of office. Jackson had received the largest number of electoral votes, though not a majority and the hazy notion that he had been injured because of his devotion to the people increased his popularity. Though demagogues made use of it for selfish purposes, this feeling was an honest one, and Adams had nothing to oppose to it. He tried vigorously to uphold the "American system," and succeeded in passing the tariff of 1828; he tried to maintain the influence of the United States on both the American continents ; but he remained as unpopular as his rival grew popular. In 1828 Adams was easily displaced by Jackson, the electoral vote being 178 to 83. Calhoun was re elected vice president.