it; faithful servants of the government suffered under it; but it held undisturbed sway for half a century thereafter, each succeeding generation outdoing, if possible, its predecessor in the use of public office for political purposes.  If any one remarked that training and experience were necessary qualifications for important public positions, he met Jackson’s own profession of faith:  “The duties of any public office are so simple or admit of being made so simple that any man can in a short time become master of them.”

=The Tariff and Nullification.=—­Jackson had not been installed in power very long before he was compelled to choose between states’ rights and nationalism.  The immediate occasion of the trouble was the tariff—­a matter on which Jackson did not have any very decided views.  His mind did not run naturally to abstruse economic questions; and owing to the divided opinion of the country it was “good politics” to be vague and ambiguous in the controversy.  Especially was this true, because the tariff issue was threatening to split the country into parties again.

The Development of the Policy of “Protection."—­The war of 1812 and the commercial policies of England which followed it had accentuated the need for American economic independence.  During that conflict, the United States, cut off from English manufactures as during the Revolution, built up home industries to meet the unusual call for iron, steel, cloth, and other military and naval supplies as well as the demands from ordinary markets.  Iron foundries and textile mills sprang up as in the night; hundreds of business men invested fortunes in industrial enterprises so essential to the military needs of the government; and the people at large fell into the habit of buying American-made goods again.  As the London Times tersely observed of the Americans, “their first war with England made them independent; their second war made them formidable.”

In recognition of this state of affairs, the tariff of 1816 was designed:  first, to prevent England from ruining these “infant industries” by dumping the accumulated stores of years suddenly upon American markets; and, secondly, to enlarge in the manufacturing centers the demand for American agricultural produce.  It accomplished the purposes of its framers.  It kept in operation the mills and furnaces so recently built.  It multiplied the number of industrial workers and enhanced the demand for the produce of the soil.  It brought about another very important result.  It turned the capital and enterprise of New England from shipping to manufacturing, and converted her statesmen, once friends of low tariffs, into ardent advocates of protection.