the internal commerce of the United States thus reviews the trade of New Orleans:

The receipts of New Orleans during the first year of successful steam navigation, 1816, amounted in value to $8,062,540.... This is independent of the produce raised in Louisiana, such as cotton, corn, indigo, molasses, rice, sugar, tafia or rum, and lumber. These were brought to the market in the planters' crafts, and often taken from the plantation direct in foreign-bound vessels. . . . The value of the receipts shows to what extent the produce of the West passed through New Orleans. Cotton, which in later days rose to be 60 or even 75 per cent. in value of all the receipts, was then barely 12 per cent. At least 80 per cent. of the articles came from the West, that is from the Ohio, and the Upper Mississippi, above the Ohio. They represented the surplus products of the Mississippi Valley, for but little found any other exit to market. Much of the product shipped from the West to New Orleans was lost en route. A rough estimate places the loss from disasters, snags, etc. at 20 per cent. Many boats, moreover, stopped along the river on their way down to sell supplies to the planters. Thus at Natchez flour, grain, and pork were purchased from the Kentucky boats. From these losses the sales and shipments down the river in 1816, including the products of Louisiana, may be estimated at $13,875,000. The river traffic required 6 steam-boats, 594 barges, and 1287 flat-boats, of an actual tonnage of 87,670....

During all this period [1816–1840], and despite all these difficulties, the number of arrivals at New Orleans and the amount of river business on the Lower Mississippi continued to steadily increase. The growth of the river traffic is well shown in this table:

In regard to the steam-boats, it should be remembered that the steady increase in arrivals each year does not fully express the increase in tonnage, because the boats were not only growing more numerous, but were increasing in size each year, and thus while they doubled in number between 1825 and 1833, they more than trebled in their carrying capacity. . . .

As the first two decades of the century showed the settlement of the Ohio basin, and a rapid increase in population and production, so the next two resulted in the settlement of the Lower Mississippi region from Louisiana to the mouth of the Ohio. The removal of the Indian tribes to the Indian Territory, the building of levees and the immense increase in the demand for cotton, hastened the development of West Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Northern Louisiana. . . .

It was during this period that the South first began to insist on the sovereignty of King Cotton, and New Orleans claimed, like Mahomet, to be its prophet. The rapid development of the cotton manufacturing industries in Europe incited the planters to devote more and more acres to it, and it became highly profitable to cultivate cotton even on credit. New Orleans was overflowing with money in those flush times, and lent it readily. . . . When the big collapse of 1837 came, the banks of New Orleans, with a circulation of $7,000,000 purported to have a capital of $34,000,000, a great majority of them being wrecked in the storm. Within a few years, however, New Orleans had recovered from the shock and strengthened its hold on the planters. . . .

That eminent statistical and economical authority, De Bow's Review, declared that "no city of the world has ever advanced as a mart of commerce with such gigantic and rapid strides as New Orleans." It was no idle boast. Between 1830 and 1840 no city of the United States kept pace with it. When the census was taken it was fourth in population, exceeded only by New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and fourth in point of commerce of the ports of the world, exceeded only by London, Liverpool, and New York, being indeed but a short distance. behind the latter city, and ahead of it in the export of domestic products.

THE FAVORITE SONS

The following extracts from the diary of John Quincy 64. Jockeying for the Adams show how incessant were the combinations, in- presidential trigues, and deals between the political factions to win race, 1824 the presidential election of 1824.

Jan. 30th [1824]. Colonel R. M. Johnson, Mr. R. King, and Mr. Fuller had long conversations with me concerning the movements of the parties here for the Presidential succession. Johnson says that Calhoun proposed to him an arrangement by which I should be supported as President, General Jackson as Vice-President, Clay to be Secretary of State, and he himself Secretary of the Treasury; not as a bargain or coalition, but by the common understanding of our mutual friends. I made no remark upon this, but it discloses the forlorn hope of Calhoun, which is to secure a step of advancement to himself, and the total exclusion of Crawford, even from his present office at the head of the Treasury. . . .

Feb'y 4th. I attended in the evening the drawing-room at the President's. On returning home I found J. W. Taylor at my house, and had a long conversation with him. He told me that Jesse B. Thomas, a Senator from Illinois, had strongly urged upon him the expediency of my acquiescing in the nomination as Vice-President, with Mr. Crawford for the Presidency. He said that Mr. Crawford would certainly be elected . . . that from the state of Mr. Crawford's health it was highly probable the duties of the Presidency would devolve upon the VicePresident . . . that a compliance with the views of Mr. Crawford's friends on this occasion would be rendering them a service which would recommend me to their future favor, and would doubtless secure my election hereafter to the Presidency....

Feb'y 5th. At the office, Mr. Bradley of Vermont called, and told me that he had information from an undoubted source that there was a coalition between Clay and Calhoun. How far the friends of Jackson had entered into it he did not know, but the project for the Harrisburg Convention on the 4th of March

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was to make up a ticket which would ultimately decide for Jackson, Clay, or Calhoun, according to circumstances, but excluding Crawford and me.

March 19th. Johnson says Mr. Crawford's friends, particularly Governor Barbour, are very sanguine of his election, and entirely sure of the vote of New York. They consider all prospect of my being supported as having vanished, and that all New England will abandon me and vote for Crawford. I believe Mr. Crawford's prospects and mine equally unpromising.... Whether all New England will support me is yet problematical, and the rest is yet. more uncertain. The issue must be where it ought to be, and my duty is cheerful acquiescence in the event. . . .

March 23. The mining and countermining upon this Presidential election is an admirable study of human nature. The mist into which Calhoun's bubble broke settles upon Jackson, who is now taking the fragments of Clinton's party. Those of Clay will also fall chiefly to him and his sect, and Crawford's are now working for mine. They both consider my prospects as desperate, and are scrambling for my spoils. I can do no more than satisfy them that I have no purchasable interest. My friends will go over to whomsoever they may prefer. . . .

April 17th. At the office, Albert H. Tracy came, and had a conversation with me of nearly two hours, chiefly on the prospects of the Presidential election. He said there was a great and powerful party getting up for General Jackson as President in New York; that it could not possibly succeed, but that its probable effect would be to secure the electoral vote of the State to Mr. Crawford. . .

...

May 15th. W. Plumer, a member from New Hampshire, was here this morning. . . . I told him that there was no person who could be substituted for Jackson to fill the VicePresidency. . . . He would be satisfied [!], and so would substantially his friends, to be Vice-President. . . . I said the Vice-Presidency was a station in which the General could hang no one, and in which he would need to quarrel with no one. His name and character would serve to restore the forgotten dignity of the place, and it would afford an easy and dignified retirement to his old age. . . .

When the choice of presidential electors in November failed to give a majority to any of the four principal candidates, the election of a president was thrown into the House of Representatives, and the electioneering was redoubled for capturing the votes of the states in the House.

Jan'y 9th [1825]. Mr. Clay came at six and spent the evening with me. . . . He said that the time was drawing near when the choice must be made in the House of Representatives of a President from the three candidates presented by the electoral colleges; that he had been much urged and solicited with regard to the part in that transaction that he should take. . . . He wished me, as far as I might think proper, to satisfy him with regard to some principles of great public importance, but without any personal considerations for himself. In the question to come before the House between General Jackson, Mr. Crawford, and myself, he had no hesitation in saying that his preference would be for me. . . .

...

Jan'y 29th. [Mr. Clay's] own situation is critical and difficult. He is attacked with fury in the newspapers for having come out for me, and threats of violence have been largely thrown out by the partisans of General Jackson, particularly those of the Calhoun interest. Richard M. Johnson told me at the drawing-room last Wednesday that it had been seriously proposed to him, in the event of the failure of Jackson's election, to erect his standard; and I received this morning an anonymous letter from Philadelphia threatening organized opposition and civil war if Jackson is not chosen. This blustering has an air of desperation. But we must meet it. . . .

Feb'y 9th. May the blessing of God rest upon the event of this day! -the second Wednesday in February, when the election of a President of the United States for the term of four years, from the 4th of March next, was consummated. . . . The House of Representatives immediately proceeded to the vote by ballot from the three highest candidates, when John Quincy Adams received the votes of thirteen, Andrew Jackson of seven, and William H. Crawford of four states. The election was thus