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Thirty Years' View (Vol. 1 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850Benton, Thomas Hart

History

Thirty Years' View (Vol. 1 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850

Name: Thirty Years' View (Vol. 1 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850
Author: Benton, Thomas Hart

Benton, Thomas Hart

United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861

I do not propose a regular history, but a political work, to show
the practical working of the government, and speak of men and events
in subordination to that design, and to illustrate the character of
Institutions which are new and complex--the first of their kind,
and upon the fate of which the eyes of the world are now fixed. Our
duplicate form of government, State and Federal, is a novelty which
has no precedent, and has found no practical imitation, and is still
believed by some to be an experiment. I believe in its excellence,
and wish to contribute to its permanence, and believe I can do so by
giving a faithful account of what I have seen of its working, and of
the trials to which I have seen it subjected.


4.--THE SPIRIT OF THE WORK.

I write in the spirit of Truth, but not of unnecessary or irrelevant
truth, only giving that which is essential to the object of the
work, and the omission of which would be an imperfection, and a
subtraction from what ought to be known. I have no animosities,
and shall find far greater pleasure in bringing out the good
and the great acts of those with whom I have differed, than in
noting the points on which I deemed them wrong. My ambition is
to make a veracious work, reliable in its statements, candid in
its conclusions, just in its views, and which cotemporaries and
posterity may read without fear of being misled.




CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

[Illustration: decorative]

                                                           PAGE.

  PRELIMINARY VIEW from 1815 to 1820                           1

  CHAP.

  I. Personal Aspect of the Government                         7

  II. Admission of the State of Missouri                       8

  III. Finances--Reduction of the Army                        11

  IV. Relief of Public Land Debtors                           11

  V. Oregon Territory                                         13

  VI. Florida Treaty and Cession of Texas                     14

  VII. Death of Mr. Lowndes                                   18

  VIII. Death of William Pinkney                              19

  IX. Abolition of the Indian Factory System                  20

  X. Internal Improvement                                     21

  XI. General Removal of Indians                              27

  XII. Visit of Lafayette to the United States                29

  XIII. The Tariff, and American System                       32

  XIV. The A. B. Plot                                         34

  XV. Amendment of the Constitution, in relation
        to the Election of President and Vice-President       37

  XVI. Internal Trade with New Mexico                         41

  XVII. Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections
          in the Electoral Colleges                           44

  XVIII. Death of John Taylor, of Caroline                    45

  XIX. Presidential Election in the House of Representatives  46

  XX. The Occupation of the Columbia                          50

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Thirty Years' View (Vol. 1 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850

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