Ingersoll

afterward, in 1810, tinder the preposterous title
of Inchiquin, the Jesuit's Letters, appeared an-
other pamphlet indicating the intellectual bold-
ness of the young Philadelphian. Both pam-
phlets were widely read in America and abroad
and were influential in stimulating a sense of
national self-sufficiency. They constituted "a
declaration of literary, social, and moral inde-
pendence" at a time when "the United States
were yet British in almost everything except
government" (United States Magazine and
Democratic Review, October 1839, p. 342). His
tendencies away from the Loyalist ideas of his
grandfather and the Federalist views of his fa-
ther were recognized in 1811 in his nomination
by the Republicans for the post of state assembly-
man. He was defeated, but in 1812 he was elect-
ed to Congress. He at once attained an influen-
tial position, becoming chairman of the judiciary
committee and a member of the foreign rela-
tions committee. Military reverses led to po-
litical reverses for the Republicans, whose posi-
tion in Philadelphia was precarious at best, and
Ingersoll was not reflected.

Upon his retirement from Congress he re-
turned to Philadelphia and acquired a varied
and lucrative practice at the bar. He was ap-
pointed to the post of United States district at-
torney, which he retained for fourteen years
(1815-29). In 1825 he was a member of a con-
vention on canals and public improvements meet-
ing at Harrisburg. With typical initiative he
advocated railroad transportation by means of
steam locomotives, but he was defeated by the
proponents of canals. Two years later, at the
so-called Harrisburg Convention, representing
proponents of protective tariff legislation, he
was chairman of the committee which prepared
a memorial to Congress. Although generally in
favor of protection, he was inclined toward mod-
erating the more extreme demands, and toward
conciliating Southern opponents. Meanwhile he
reverted to literary activities. In 1823 he had
addressed the American Philosophical Society
on "The Influence of America on the Mind," a
paper published and read extensively abroad as
well as in America. Soon afterward he wrote
a play, Mian: a Tragedy, which was published
la 1831,

In 1830-31 Ingersoll served for one term as
a state assemblyman. In the nominations for
United States senator he received a plurality
vote in each house but was unable to command
a majority in the election. In the early thir-
ties he was active politically in connection with
fee Bank of the United States. He first favored
renewal of the charter, but the bank's entry

Ingersoll

into politics occasioned his reversal of attitude
and his avowal of Jackson's cause—a course
at that time hardly popular in Philadelphia, the
home of the bank. He was one of the authors
of the sub-treasury plan. In Pennsylvania poli-
tics he participated in the revision of the con-
stitution, and in the convention of 1837 he was
chairman of a special committee on currency and
corporations. He proposed the limiting of the
powers of corporations and the rejection of the
contract doctrine of charters as enunciated in
the noted Dartmouth case. His ideas, though in
large part later incorporated into law, were at
the time so unpopular that the minority report
of his committee, written by himself, was denied
publication by the convention. The intensity of
feeling and the significance of his views can be
appreciated only in the light of the conflict over
the Bank of the United States and of the finan-
cial crisis of the year of the convention.

Upon his defeat for reelection to Congress in
1814, Ingersoll had decided "to be a mere law-
yer, jurisconsultus merits, for the next fifteen
years." But after he had attained an independent
income, apparently he desired to resume his ca-
reer in national affairs. He therefore welcomed
the nomination in 1837 by the Jacksonian Dem-
ocrats, heirs of the Jeffersonian Republicans,
for a seat in Congress. At the ensuing special
election he and his ticket were defeated. Nor
was he successful in the regular election of 1838,
but in 1840 he won the election and continued
in office until 1849. When his party acquired a
majority in Congress he was given the post of
chairman of the committee on foreign affairs.
It was during his chairmanship and partly as a
result of his influence that the joint resolution for
the annexation of Texas was adopted (Meigs,
post, pp. 259-68). He was an energetic and ef-
fective debater on most of the outstanding issues
before Congress and was particularly active in
connection with the sectional and group contro-
versies of the time. He consistently opposed the
extremists among the anti-slavery group in the
north and held that the vital function of those
who represented the central states, "the temper-
ate 2one of American republican continental
union/' was to arbitrate the differences between
"the slave-holding southwest and the slave-hat-
ing northeast/' As a result of his views he in-
curred the intense antagonism of John Quincy
Adams and others. His career in Congress was
marked also by an acrimonious controversy with
Daniel Webster concerning the latter's handling
of public funds, one result of which was the re-
fusal of the Senate, under Webster's influence,
to confirm his appointment by President Polk

466