[136] Born on border of North and South Carolina, March 15, 1767; died at the Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee, June 8, 1845. Scantily educated; became a lawyer in Tennessee, 1788; rose in his profession and in politics; elected congressman in 1796; senator, 1797–1798; judge in Supreme Court of Tennessee, 1798–1804; defeated Indians at Tohopeka, 1814; won battle of New Orleans, 1815; put down Seminoles in Florida, 1818; governor of Florida, 1821; elected United States senator, 1823; candidate for Presidency, 1824; President, 1829–1837; lived in retirement at the Hermitage, 1837–1845. [137] The bank was soon mismanaged and was with great difficulty set straight. The numerous state banks continued to be badly managed also, and the years 1817–1820 were a period of great financial stringency. [138] In the time of the Revolutionary War and for some years later, New York City was not larger than Boston or Newport. CHAPTER XVII. =THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF MONROE, 1817–1825.= CHARACTER OF THE PERIOD. =320. Monroe’s Counselors.=—Monroe[139] was fortunate not only in having to preside over a united people, but in being able to secure good advisers. For Secretary of State he chose John Quincy Adams, son of the former President and a diplomatist of tried ability, who had done good work for the country as Minister to Russia and commissioner at Ghent (§ 312). The fact that the son of the great Federalist leader should be serving in the Cabinet of a Republican President was a signal proof of the utter demoralization of the old Federalist party. In the Treasury, Monroe placed William H. Crawford of Georgia, an able though rather intriguing man whose subsequent defeat for the Presidency and withdrawal from national life caused regret to many people. Crawford was more of a politician than a statesman, and his success showed that public leaders were undergoing a change of type. The Cabinet was made preponderatingly Southern by the appointment of Calhoun as Secretary of War and of William Wirt as Attorney-General. Its strength, however, was not decreased, for both made excellent officials, although Wirt was more an advocate and literary man than a statesman. [Illustration: JAMES MONROE.]