After the peace, concluded Sept. 3, 1783, the independence of the United States was acknowledged by foreign powers, and in 1787 the present Constitu tion was ratified. George Washington and John Adams, standing at the head of the Federalist party, were elected President and Vice-President of the United States. The War of 1812 grew out of the fact that England declined to put a stop to the abuse of impress ing American citizens into the British navy, the attention of Congress having been called to 6,000 instances in 1811. In 1814 the Federalists of New England held a convention at Hartford in oppo sition to the war and the administration of President Madison, and threatened a secession of the New England States, as having to defend themselves as it was. The war was terminated by the treaty of Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814, though the English suffered a disastrous defeat at New Or leans, Jan. 8, 1815, nearly a month after peace had been concluded between Eng land and America.
At the period of the Revolution slavery existed in all the States except Massa chusetts, but it had gradually been abol ished in the Northern and Middle States, except Delaware, and excluded from the new States between the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers by the terms on which the territory had been surrendered by Virginia to the Union. The two sections had already entered on a struggle to maintain the balance of power against each other. After an exciting contest in 1820 Missouri was admitted with a reso lution (the "Missouri Compromise") that in future no slave State should exist N. of the parallel of lat. 36° 30' N. In 1826 two of the founders of the republic, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died on July 4, the anniversary of the Decla ration of Independence. In 1732 an In dian war, called the Black Hawk War, broke out in Wisconsin; but the passing of a high protective tariff act by Con gress caused a more serious trouble. The State of South Carolina declared the act unconstitutional.
A collision seemed imminent, when the affair was settled by a compromise bill, introduced by Henry Clay, providing for a gradual reduction of duties till 1843, when they should not exceed 20 per cent., ad valorem. In 1835 the Seminole War broke out in Florida, and a tribe of In dians, insignificant in numbers, under the crafty leadership of Osceola, kept up hostilities for years at a cost to the United States of several thousand men, and some $50,000,000.
In 1837 Martin Van Buren succeeded General Jackson in the presidency. His term was a stormy one, from the great financial crisis of 1837, which followed a period of currency expansion and wild speculation. All the banks suspended payment, and the great commercial cities threatened insurrection. In 1840 Gen. William H. Harrison was elected Presi dent, but died in 1841, a month after his inauguration. He was succeeded by John Tyler, during whose administration the N. E. boundary question, which nearly occasioned a war with England, was settled by Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, and Lord Ashburton. In 1845
Texas was formally annexed to the United States, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, succeeded Mr. Tyler in the presidency. M. Almonte, the Mexican minister at Washington, protested against the annexation of Texas as an act of warlike aggression, which brought about the Mexican War in 1846.
In 1847 the Mexicans were defeated by General Taylor at Buena Vista; Vera Cruz was taken by storm, and General Scott won the great battle of Cerro Gordo. In 1848 peace was signed, and by the treaty of Guadaloupe the United States obtained the cession of New Mex ico and Upper California, the United States paying Mexico $15,000,000, and assuming the payment of the claims of American citizens against Mexico. In 1849 General Taylor, the "Rough and Ready" victor of Buena Vista, became President, with Millard Fillmore as Vice President. In September of the same year California adopted a constitution which prohibited slavery. The election of Franklin Pierce in 1852 against General Scott was a triumph of the Dem ocratic States' Rights and Southern party. A brutal assault on Charles Sumner, United States Senator from Massachusetts, by Preston Brooks, in consequence of a violent speech on South ern men and institutions, increased the excitement of both sections. In 1856 the Republicans, composed of the Northern Free-soil and Abolition parties, nomi nated John C. Fremont for the presi dency, but James Buchanan, the Demo cratic candidate, received the election, with John C. Breckenridge as Vice-Presi dent. In Oct., 1859, John Brown, known in Kansas as "Ossawatomie Brown," who planned and led an expedition for free ing the negroes in Virginia, was cap tured, and executed Dec. 2, by the au thorities of Virginia.
In 1860 the Southern delegates with drew from the convention at Charles ton, and two Democratic candidates were nominated, Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckinridge. The Republicans nomi nated Abraham Lincoln, and at the elec tion of November, 1860, Mr. Lincoln re ceived every Northern vote in the elec toral college, except three of New Jersey, 180 votes. The South lost no time in acting on what her statesmen had de clared would be the signal of their with drawal from the Union. Four years of civil war ended in their being compelled to remain in it. In 1864 Mr. Lincoln was re-elected, and on March 4, 1865, commenced his second term, with Andrew Johnson as Vice-President. On April 14, 1865, while the North was rejoicing over the capture of Richmond and the sur render of the Confederate armies, the President was assassinated at a theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. The assassin was pursued and killed, and several of his accomplices were tried and executed. Andrew Johnson became Presi dent. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, fled after the surrender of Richmond; he was captured in Georgia, and released without trial in 1867.